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Finding health care coverage for every Iowan an elusive dream

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

Northwest Iowa's uninsured usually have jobs but a safety net isn't always available; maneuvering through health care delivery system is no easy task

Cynthia Houston didn't panic when she lost her school district job in 2008. She looked for another job and paid the extra money to keep insurance through COBRA. She found work but couldn't afford insurance there. That was when she had a breakdown.

"I guess you're in that nowhere land of: you don't really qualify for help with this, you're not old enough to get offered (insurance) for senior citizens," Houston, 60, said. "You're kind of out there on your own."

She eventually found help. But state efforts to help Iowans without health insurance pay for doctor visits and other medical care fail to reach all who could use the assistance, a review by five Iowa news organizations of the state's health care delivery systems for uninsured Iowans reveals.

Geographic limits, alone, ensure that one program Houston was referred to -- IowaCare -- does not reach all Iowans who need it, even though it is considered to be a last resort for Iowans ineligible for other programs that fund accessible, affordable health care.

One in 10 Iowans lives without health insurance. Estimates range from 312,600 by the Kaiser Family Foundation to 342,000 by the U.S. Census Bureau. They live in a state where some health care professionals -- although not all -- predict there won't be enough available primary care providers to handle growing demand for health care in Iowa from aging baby boomers, working people with inadequate insurance coverage and others entering the health care market.

"It seems to me, from my perspective, to be a perfect storm," Wendy Gray, executive director of Free Clinics of Iowa, said about that anticipated convergence of trends.

The health care workforce, which includes specialists, physician assistants, nurses and others, is a concern, said Dr. Stephen Eckstat, board president of Free Clinics of Iowa and CEO at Mercy Clinics Inc. of Des Moines. But, he said, he expects Iowa to have enough primary care doctors, with Des Moines University and University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics graduating them and the doctors staying here.

The most serious concern, Eckstat said, is that people increasingly cannot afford insurance. "The crisis is financial," he said.

Free Clinics of Iowa's network of 33 free medical clinics dealt with more than 13,600 patient visits in each of the past two years, up from 13 clinics handling 5,018 clinic visits in 2005. It did not count the number of patients making the visits but about 11,000 visits each of the past two years were by people lacking health insurance, the organization's records show.

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Finding health care coverage for every Iowan an elusive dream

A Welcome Predictability

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

Berkeley Lab Researchers Develop New Tool for Making Genetic Engineering of Microbial Circuits Reliably Predictable

Synthetic biology is the latest and most advanced phase of genetic engineering, holding great promise for helping to solve some of the world's most intractable problems, including the sustainable production of energy fuels and critical medical drugs, and the safe removal of toxic and radioactive waste from the environment. However, for synthetic biology to reach its promise, the design and construction of biological systems must be as predictable as the assembly of computer hardware.

An important step towards attaining a higher degree of predictability in synthetic biology has been taken by a group of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) under the leadership of computational biologist Adam Arkin. Arkin and his team have developed an "adaptor" that makes the genetic engineering of microbial components substantially easier and more predictable by converting regulators of translation into regulators of transcription in Escherichia coli. Transcription and translation make up the two-step process by which the coded instructions of genes are used to synthesize proteins.

"Application of our adaptor should produce large collections of transcriptional regulators whose inherent composability can facilitate the predictable engineering of complex biological circuits in microorganisms," Arkin says. "This in turn should allow for safer and more efficient constructions of increasingly complex functions in microorganisms."

Arkin is the director of Berkeley Lab's Physical Biosciences Division and the corresponding author of a paper describing this work in Nature Methods. The paper is titled "An adaptor from translational to transcriptional control enables predictable assembly of complex regulation. Co-authoring this paper were Chang Liu, Lei Qi, Julius Lucks, Thomas Segall-Shapiro, Denise Wang and Vivek Mutalik.

Synthetic biology combines modern principles of science and engineering to develop novel biological functions and systems that can tackle problems natural systems cannot. The focus is on bacteria and other microbes that can metabolize a wide variety of valuable chemicals and molecules, and play a critical role in the global cycles of carbon and other important elements. One of the keys to success in synthetic biology is the design and construction of customized genetic switches in microbes that can control the expression of both coding and non-coding RNA, act on operons (small groups of genes with related functions that are co-transcribed in a single strand of messenger RNA), and be tethered to higher-order regulatory functions (a property called composability).

"Much of the regulatory potential of a bacterium is contained in the five-prime untranslated regions (UTRs), which control the expression of physically adjacent downstream genes and have become attractive platforms for a parts-based approach to synthetic biology," Arkin says. "This approach, in which integrated engineered regulatory parts respond to custom inputs by changing the expression of desired genes, must satisfy two criteria if it is to have long-term success. First, the regulatory parts must be easily engineered in a way that yields large homogenous sets of variants that respond to different custom inputs, and second, the parts must be composable such that they can be easily and predictably assembled into useful higher-order functions."

In the five prime UTRs of bacteria, two primary types of regulators can serve as starting points for designing new parts - those that regulate transcriptional elongation, in which cellular inputs are linked to the process by which a sequence of DNA nucleotides is transcribed into a complementary sequence of RNA; and those that regulate translation, in which a ribosome translates the RNA message into a protein. Transcriptional elongation regulators meet the second criterion by featuring versatility and composability that makes them ideal for building custom regulatory functions. Translational regulators meet the first criterion by being easier to engineer and relatively common to all bacteria.

"Our solution for meeting both criteria was to develop an adaptor based on tryptophanase, the catabolic operon for tryptophan that converts regulators of translational initiation into regulators of transcriptional elongation," Arkin says. "Because our adaptor strategy bypasses the otherwise restrictive tradeoff between criterion one and criterion two, we believe it will have a crucial role in the long-term development of five prime UTRs as platforms for the design and integration of custom regulatory parts."

When an E.coli translational regulator was fused to the adaptor created by Arkin and his colleagues, it was also able to control transcriptional elongation. The team applied their adaptor to the construction of several transcriptional elongation regulators that respond to RNA and small-molecule inputs. Included were five mutually orthogonal RNA-triggered attenuators (meaning they can terminate transcription), which the team assembled into logic gates driven by two, three or four RNA inputs that linked to ribosome binding sites. Because their adaptor is so easily linked to ribosome binding sites, a common mechanism in bacteria, the team believes the adaptor will be widely applicable.

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A Welcome Predictability

Exhibition at the Grand Palais seeks to shed light on Edward Hopper's works of art

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

PARIS.- Paintings by Edward Hopper (1882-1967) have the deceptive simplicity of myths, a sort of picture-book obviousness. Each one is a concentrate of the hypothetical knowledge and dreams conjured up by the fabulous name of America. Whether they express deep poignancy or explore figments of the imagination, these paintings have been interpreted in the most contradictory ways. A romantic, realist, symbolist and even formalist, Hopper has been enrolled under every possible banner. The exhibition at the Grand Palais seeks to shed light on this complexity, which is an indication of the richness of Hoppers oeuvre.

It is divided chronologically into two main parts: the first section covers Hoppers formative years (1900-1924), comparing his work with that of his contemporaries and art he saw in Paris, which may have influenced him. The second section looks at the art of his mature years, from the first paintings emblematic of his personal style - House by the Railroad - (1924), to his last works (Two Comedians -1966).

Hopper entered Robert Henris studio at the New York School of Art in the early years of the twentieth century. Henri was a colourful figure; in 1908, he founded the Ashcan School, whose very name was a statement of the uncompromising realism of its most radical members.

Hoppers time in Paris (nearly a year in 1906, followed by shorter stays in 1909 and 1910) offers an opportunity to compare his paintings with those he saw in the citys galleries and salons. Degas inspired him to take original angles and apply the poetic principle of dramatisation. The massive structure of his views of the quays of the Seine was borrowed from Albert Marquet. He shared with Flix Vallotton a taste for light inspired by Vermeer. Walter Sickert was his model for the iconography of theatres and paintings of damned flesh. In Paris, Hopper adopted the style of Impressionism, a technique which he felt had been invented to express harmony and sensual pleasure; Back in the United States he absorbed the gritty realism of Bellows or Sloan, that of the Ashcan School, whose dystopic vision he shared. He earned his living doing commercial illustrations, which will be presented in the Paris exhibition. But it was his etchings (from 1915) that brought about a metamorphosis in his work and crystallized his painting, as he put it. One room in the exhibition is devoted to his etchings.

1924 was a turning point in Hoppers life and career. The exhibition of his watercolours of neo-Victorian houses in Gloucester, in the Brooklyn Museum and then in Franck Rehns gallery, brought him recognition and commercial success which enabled him to work full time on his art (he had previously sold only one painting, at the Armory Show in 1913). Hoppers watercolours open the second major section of the exhibition, which shows the American artists emblematic paintings and iconography. The chronological presentation permits visitors to appreciate the continuity of his inspiration, the way he explored his favourite subjects: houses infused with a near psychological identity (House by the Railroad, 1924, MoMA), solitary figures sunk in thought (Morning Sun, 1952, Columbus Museum of Art), the world of the theatre (Two on the Aisle, 1927, Toledo Museum of Art), images of the modern city (Nighthawks, 1942, Art Institute Chicago).

The apparent realism of Hoppers paintings, the abstract mental process that prevails in their construction, destined these works to the most contradictory claims. The bastion of the American realist tradition, the Whitney Museum of Art, regularly showed his work. And yet it was the MoMA of New York, the temple of Formalism, which gave him his first retrospective, in 1933. The MoMAs director, Alfred Barr, hailed an artist whose compositions were often interesting from a strictly formal point of view.

The complexity of Hoppers oeuvre puts it at the intersection of the two historical definitions of American modernity: one derived from the Ashcan School which claimed the Baudelairian principle of modernity linked to the subject, and the other taken from the lessons of the Armory Show which, in 1913, revealed the formalism of European avant-gardes (cubism and cubist futurism) to the American public. In the fifties, the surreal strangeness, and metaphysical dimension of Hoppers painting led to comparisons with De Chirico. At the same time, in the columns of the magazine Reality, the painter joined American realist artists in denouncing abstract art, which, in their view, was submerging collections and museums.

Only a few months after the artists death, the curator of the American section of the Sao Paulo Biennale, Peter Seltz, reconciled realism and avant-garde art by organising an exhibition of Hoppers works in conjunction with paintings by the Pop Art generation.

Exhibition at the Grand Palais seeks to shed light on Edward Hopper's works of art

North Freedom schoolhouse had long history

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

NORTH FREEDOM — This village lost more than a century of history Monday when flames claimed a former schoolhouse.

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North Freedom schoolhouse had long history

Nine states launch religious freedom caucuses to promote tolerance

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

Holly Bruce holds up a sign during the Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally in front of the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 23, 2012.

Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

Enlarge photo

WASHINGTON Legislative leaders from nine states Tuesday, citing a growing polarization on the issue of religious freedom, announced the formation of state religious freedom caucuses. There are plans to have similar legislative caucuses in all 50 states by the end of 2013.

The first wave of caucuses are headed by legislative leaders in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Tennessee. A caucus in Utah is anticipated to be announced in January, although its local leaders haven't been publicly identified.

The Ethics and Public Policy Center's American Religious Freedom Program is heading up the caucus effort to provide resources and expertise to state lawmakers who want to set state-specific religious freedom policy.

The program is targeting states with a strategy to combat threats to religious liberty on the ground level and help create a thoughtful, less polarized approach to resolving differences that will inform federal officials.

"A high percentage of laws are made in state houses, not by Congress, and a high percentage of religious freedom threats materialize in states," said Tim Schultz, state legislative policy director for ARFP. "But states have not been as quick to recognize that this is something they will have to confront."

The exceptions are representatives from the nine states on-hand for a teleconference announcing the caucuses.

"Legislative caucuses focused on religious freedom will help ensure that each statehouse is a bulwark against overreaching government officials and policies that would corrupt or curtail those freedoms," said Kansas Republican Rep. Lance Kinzer, who is chairman of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee.

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Nine states launch religious freedom caucuses to promote tolerance

Jill Stein Lining Up With Freedom From Religion Foundation On Parsonage Exclusion ?

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

Video English: "Beware of Dogma" billboard of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (Photo credit: Wikipedia) In my interview with Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein, I only asked her one tax question that was not covered in the Green Party Platform. The question concerned the parsonage exclusion, Code Section 107. Code Section

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Jill Stein Lining Up With Freedom From Religion Foundation On Parsonage Exclusion ?

Nine states launch religious freedom caucuses

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

The exceptions are representatives from the nine states on-hand for a teleconference announcing the caucuses.

Schultz said Kansas is where a Jehovah's Witness and Medicaid recipient was denied state help for an alternative treatment because her faith prevented her from having a blood transfusion. It took two years for the courts to finally rule in her favor.

Schultz said those types of cases typically are what religious liberty advocates find on the state level and hope to address through the state caucuses through legislation. He said lawmakers and the public often place religious liberty disputes in the realm of Congress or the courts, or identify with the issue in cases of prayer or Christmas displays in public places.

"Those are actually establishment clauses cases. But the new threat is in the (free) exercise clause of the First Amendment and threaten people's ability to practice their faith outside the walls of the church, synagoge or mosque. States have been a little bit slower to see these threats materialize," he said.

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Nine states launch religious freedom caucuses

Exploding Barrels Blog – Freedom Fighters, My Favourite Game

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

Do you remember 2003? Of course you don't, nothing happened then. And besides it was ages ago. At least fifteen years ago. There were no iPhones; Harry Styles hadn't been invented; if you said 'Facebook' people probably thought you meant something like this:

Whatever this is

No, 2003 was a really bloody boring year as far as most things were concerned. Except for games, of course, because it was when Freedom Fighters came out.

Launching on 26 September, 2003, Freedom Fighters was a kind of afterbirth to the Hitman series; it used the same engine, was made by the same people, but for some reason never managed to become even half as popular. The plot centred on a ragtag bunch of American rebels, fighting off an invasion from the Soviet Union, which, in this re-imagined history, had become the world's leading superpower after beating the US to inventing the atomic bomb. Combat was squad based, guns were many, and the story was ludicrous. On paper, Freedom Fighters was a turd.

I bought it anyway (or at least my mum did because she was nice like that) and played it beginning to end in one night. First impressions were...meh. Of course, I was thirteen years old at the time and therefore an idiot, but nevertheless, Freedom Fighters was not initially remarkable. Friends who I've lent it to since have said the same; despite lengthy conversations about Freedom Fighters in the pub, and my drunken assurances that its "the bes' *hiccup* game ever" my pals remain unconvinced, often returning it to me after a couple of days and some pretty good excuses.

"It's aged, it's a bit clumsy" they say, and I can't argue. Freedom Fighters is more than nine years old; in computer game terms, it's the equivalent of a silent film. But even sober, I still think it's the best game ever made. Why? I don't hear you ask, because you're reading this days later, in your head and I'm not there: Here's why.

An ideal world

We talk a lot today about "gameplay", and how "gameplay" will, in an ideal world, somehow represent a game's themes and story. Look at pixelated masterpiece Passage: You play as a virile young man, steadily aging as he side scrolls a la Mario from one end of the game to the other. Along the way, obstacles get harder to navigate (ostensibly illustrating how life gets tougher as you get older) and you meet a wife, who doubles the amount of points you get. It's a short but powerful demonstration of how playing a game can tell a game's story; Freedom Fighters pulls a similar trick, but on a much larger scale.

Guns felt awkward and unwieldy; on the PS2, aiming down the sight was mapped to the L3 button, meaning that moving and firing at the same time was difficult to master. Like your character, a plumber from Brooklyn, you weren't very good with guns: The controls prevented you from ever feeling too comfortable with shooting people.

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Exploding Barrels Blog - Freedom Fighters, My Favourite Game

Slate's Explainer: If Maria Shriver takes Arnold back

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

Arnold Schwarzenegger still hopes to win back Maria Shriver, who filed for divorce from him last year after learning that Schwarzenegger had fathered a son with the family's housekeeper. When divorced couples remarry each other, how often does it work out?

Probably less than one-half the time. Anecdotes about divorced couples who remarry each other abound, especially among politicians and celebrities, but there's little in the way of systematic research. A 2004 survey of 1,147 divorcees by the AARP suggested that around 6 percent give their marriage another try, while 4 percent continue to have sex with each other after they divorce.

The most detailed study of the success of second-chance marriages comes from 1938, when pioneering marriage counselor Paul Popenoe compiled 200 stories of couples who married each other two or more times. (His sample, drawn from his patients, acquaintances of his students, and newspapers clippings, wasn't exactly random.) Popenoe reported that 48 percent of the remarried couples were happy together at the time of the study. It's not clear whether that estimate remains accurate today, when the overall divorce rate is nearly double that of the 1930s. The second-chance divorce rate may have risen with the overall divorce rate. On the other hand, some modern couples may divorce too hastily, then find themselves compatible on the second try.

Popenoe's 1938 study suggests that, even if Shriver decides to give Schwarzenegger another chance, the ex-governor might have to wait a while. Couples that have long first marriages Schwarzenegger and Shriver were together for 25 years before separating in 2011 tend to wait longer to get back together, for unknown reasons. Second-timers are, however, quick to pull the plug on the do-over. Popenoe found that, among repeat divorcees, the second marriage typically lasts less than a year.

Popenoe's qualitative analysis is no longer useful, largely because he was a man of his time (a condition also made evident by his fervent support of the eugenics movement). He blamed many second marriages on wives who longed for " 'freedom,' self-expression, or an independent career," only to learn that "the world did not yearn for her talents in art or business." Popenoe would describe the Schwarzenegger-Shriver separation as the result of a "righteously indignant" wife upset that her husband had a "middle age infatuation" with an "adventuress."

Certain societies have, at times, taken a dim view of second-chance marriages. Romanian divorcees were forbidden to remarry their exes during the 19th century, for example. In India, the law that applies to Muslim marriages prohibits remarriage to the same person, unless the wife has first married and divorced another man, in a practice known as "Halala."

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Slate's Explainer: If Maria Shriver takes Arnold back

Government strategy 'misses opportunity'

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

Government plans to better support children at risk of abuse have a range of good ideas but miss some important opportunities to reduce reliance on agencies according to a group using volunteers to improve child safety.

"The white paper plan is almost exclusively focused on professionals and agencies - both government and non-government. We think they have missed a critical piece of the puzzle, which is utilising the healthy, caring adults in communities and neighbourhoods that children are being raised in. It takes a village to raise a child and healthy villages raise healthy children" said Manu Caddie the project manager for Tiakina o Tatou Tamariki, a neighbourhood project focused on keeping children safe in two suburbs of Gisborne and Whanganui.

"We have seen how adults within neighbourhoods can develop their skills and grow their commitment to supporting vulnerable families, including parents and children. Everyone can agree that kids should be safe, and providing opportunities for neighbours to get to know and trust each other reduces isolation and risk."

Mr Caddie said some of the measures in the Government white paper released today sound big brother and intrusive but there are a group of adults who should not have children in their care.

"Its disappointing that most of the measures seem to give more power to the state and professionals, I guess we would have liked to see more focus on Government supporting neighbourhoods and communities to become healthy, trusting and well connected" said Mr Caddie.

"The Vulnerable Kids Information System to identify risks prior to birth may be useful, because it's quite possible to see the train crash coming, but combined with the recently announced Government sterilisation of beneficiaries, there is a risk you are heading down a pathway to eugenics".

A database of at-risk children could be a very powerful tool in child abuse prevention, but Mr Caddie points to existing national databases of at-risk children and wonders how successful these have been.

"We know for all the good work Child, Youth & Family do, their extensive national database that tracks children and families still contains many, many children who are being mistreated."

Mr Caddie said he hoped parents would be supported to access the information agencies held about the families as professionals can misuse their power, even when they think they are helping.

Mr Caddie said Te Ora Hou Aotearoa, the organisation he works for supports the white paper proposal for a national education campaign to identify signs of abuse, but would also like to see a campaign focused on keeping kids safe and cared for.

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Government strategy 'misses opportunity'

Visiting finance officials inspect Panasonic eco tech

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012

Nine delegates from three countries at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank checked out cutting-edge developments by one of Japan's electronics giants Wednesday, including energy-saving and environmentally friendly technologies.

Four delegates each from the Solomon Islands and Nicaragua as well as one delegate from Bolivia visited Panasonic Corp.'s global communications and technology hub in Koto Ward, Tokyo, where the firm shows off its latest technology and products.

With Panasonic putting much of its focus on environmentally friendly products and energy-saving and management solutions due to tough competition with Asian rivals in TVs and similar products, much of the 90-minute tour was related to the environment.

At the "eco ideas HOUSE," where the firm has a model living room, kitchen and garage equipped with a full range of environmentally friendly products, Panasonic demonstrated its HEMS home energy management system.

Home appliances are connected to each other as well as energy storage devices and the system provides a graphical representation of energy consumption levels. The owner can manage the use of electricity depending on the situation, such as switching the power source from a utility to the home's energy storage system.

The tour participants listened intently to explanations of the energy management system and observed products like a fuel cell, a lithium-ion storage battery and a home recharging stand for electric vehicles.

After the tour, they had a brief chat with Panasonic officials. They said energy and environment-related issues are priorities in their countries and are curious to know how much it costs to build a HEMS-ready house.

Alberto Guevara, governor of the Nicaraguan Central Bank, said he was impressed with the technology, but he isn't sure when they will be introduced and become standard in his country.

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Visiting finance officials inspect Panasonic eco tech

ATL launches Eco-Smart Seal

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

KINGSTON, Jamaica Appliance Traders Limited (ATL) announced this week the launch of its Eco-Smart certification.

The programme is designed to earmark energy-efficient electronics in the companys product line-up.

Much like the international trademark standard Energy-Star, ATLs Eco-Smart seal will be affixed to electronics and appliances that are proven to meet international standards in energy efficiency.

With energy costs on the rise many home-owners and businesses are going green and are looking for eco-conscious appliances to reduce their energy bills as well as their environmental impact, said Paul Grey head of ATLs engineering and energy department.

With our new Eco-Smart seal our customers are assured that the product can save them as much as 60 per cent of their energy costs without sacrificing performance, features and comfort, he added.

ATL has had a long history in delivering engineered solutions working with leading international technology companies. Last year ATL leveraged its 32-year partnership with Panasonic to design and install an eco-village at Sandals Montego Bay. This project, which is the first of its kind in Jamaica, boasts an entirely self-sufficient solar power system to operate all the hotels cooling, heating, lighting and entertainment systems. The project was established as a pilot to demonstrate the savings to be accrued from the implementation of alternative energy sources.

The Eco-Smart Certification is the first of many initiatives that ATL plans to spearhead through its energy portfolio. Eco-electronics has become a big part of our business and we are dedicated to delivering to our clients solutions that will impact their bottom line, said Grey.

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ATL launches Eco-Smart Seal

KONE to deliver eco-efficient escalators to New York City subway station

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

KONE Corporation, press release, October 10, 2012

KONE has been awarded a contract by EE Cruz and Tully Construction to supply nine heavy-duty transit escalators as part of the New York City Transit Authority`s (NYCTA) Second Avenue subway project. The new subway station at 96th Street and Second Avenue is part of a plan to reduce overcrowding and delays on the Lexington Avenue line and provide better access for residents of the far East Side of Manhattan.

A total of nine heavy-duty transit escalators will be installed to ensure safe and smooth People Flow at the station where an estimated 200,000 passengers will pass through daily. The escalators are specifically designed to meet the heavy use and demanding conditions of public transportation. In addition, each escalator will feature an energy-efficient sleep mode which reduces the escalator`s speed when no passengers are travelling, allowing the NYCTA to minimize total energy consumption during inactive periods.

"We are pleased to continue providing our expertise in the mass transit market and eco-efficient escalator solutions to New York City`s subway system," said Larry Wash, EVP and Area Director of KONE Americas. "We know our products will continue to provide NYCTA passengers with a reliable, safe and energy-efficient travel experience."

The company`s last NYCTA project was awarded in 2011. For this job, KONE provided nine heavy-duty transit escalators and two inclined elevators for the new subway station at 34th Street and Eleventh Avenue, part of the 7 Subway Extension. Passenger train service to the new station is scheduled for June 2014.

KONE will install the escalators during the second phase of the station`s construction. The project is expected to be complete by January 2017. The order was booked in the second quarter of 2012.

For further information, please contact:

Anne Korkiakoski, EVP, Marketing & Communications, KONE Corporation, tel. +358 204 75 4775

Kellie Lindquist, Marketing Manager, KONE Inc., tel. +1 630 955 4202

Previous press releases on KONE`s orders in the mass transit market in the U.S. are available at http://www.kone.com including: - March 5, 2012, KONE awarded escalator project at Washington, D.C.`s Historic Union Station - October 12, 2011, KONE awarded project at New York City Subway Station

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KONE to deliver eco-efficient escalators to New York City subway station

Is it man, machine or … cake?

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

I am a cyborg. Please eat me.

Ganesh Khedekar's futuristic cake may not look that appetising but the chocolate creation with skin-like icing won its creator gold in this year's New Zealand Culinary Fare.

Mr Khedekar worked away "bit by bit" on the 45kg cake for 40 hours over three weeks.

The 26-year-old, who works at Browns Bay's Chocolate Earth specialty cake store, won silver last year but topped his result this year by using LED lights and going for the quirky factor.

The cyborg cake was a year in the making in collaboration with his boss Kevin Martin.

It is a "family show", Ganesh says, so the cake could not be "too scary".

The torso is a chocolate shell which can be removed so the cake inside can be eaten and put back together.

Co-worker Felicity Craft, 21, got a bronze for her pure black four-tiered cake with origami birds and a solid egg on top.

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Is it man, machine or ... cake?

Dogs on Beach Debate Moves to Town Meeting

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

WESTBROOK - Dogs and public beaches are like oil and water: They don't mix well. That's the message of a provision in a proposed town ordinance governing the use of town properties. The section if adopted would ban dogs, whether leashed or unleashed, from town beaches. Last week, after hearing comments from the public, the Board of Selectmen voted to send the proposed ordinance on to a Town Meeting vote in October.

The vote to send the ordinance on to town meeting was unanimous.

It was not a sudden decision. The selectmen have been weighing the ordinance-and making revisions-over the past several months. An early September selectmen's meeting at which a final draft was discussed attracted a big crowd.

Most of those who came to that meeting spoke in support of the ordinance, citing both public health and nuisance concerns that allowing dogs on the beach present. One speaker said that even though the Seaside Beach Association has bought 8,000 doggie bags this summer, some dog owners still fail to pick up after their dogs, leaving a surprise in the sand for others to discover.

Another commenter said that two dog attacks had occurred in the previous month on town beaches. Incidents like these, the speaker suggested, could present a legal liability to the town government.

Those who spoke in favor of beach walks with their dogs countered that most dog owners are responsible and do pick up after their pets. If restrictions are made, these dog owners suggested that selectmen consider just a seasonal ban of dog-walking on the beach. That step would at least reduce the potential of mixing children digging in the sand with the few irresponsible owners whose dogs leave "presents."

After hearing from people on both sides of the dog-ban issue, the selectmen decided to send the ordinance on to town meeting as is, banning dogs at all times from town beaches.

Other provisions in the Use of Public Properties ordinance garnered little public comment. Among the other activities the new ordinance would ban on public properties is the "possession and/consumption of alcoholic beverages on any beach park, athletic field, or playground" except as provided for in a permit for a special event.

The ordinance also prohibits horses and other livestock or pet animals from being ridden or walked on any designated beach, park, athletic field, or playground and also prohibits motorized vehicles, ATVs, motor bikes, and snow mobiles from the same venues.

The ordinance, however, allows leashed dogs on public properties other than beaches, such as athletic fields, parks, and playgrounds.

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Dogs on Beach Debate Moves to Town Meeting

Shark alarm closes City, Floreat beaches

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Danzig

The tagged shark that caused beaches to be closed today. Picture: Twitter/SLSWA

UPDATE 5.40pm: Scarborough and Brighton beaches have been reopened after they were closed for the third time today due to a tagged great white shark being detected in the area.

The shark was detected at 3.54pm resulting in the beaches being closed. The shark has since been detected at 4.09pm, 4.14pm and 4.17pm.

The beaches were also closed at 12.30pm after detections from a receiver at Scarborough at 12.28pm, 12.30pm, 12.33pm and 12.40pm.

The beaches were reopened about an hour later after the shark was undetected following the closure and a helicopter fly-over also failed to spot the shark.

Scarborough Beach was first closed this morning after the shark was spotted there at 6.30am. The shark was tracked south towards Floreat and City Beach.

Floreat and City beaches were closed today after a tagged great white detection.

Surf Life Saving WA detected the shark back in the area about 10.30am and closed the beach again.

City Beach was opened again just after midday but Floreat remains closed.

A 2.5m shark has also been spotted about 50m from shore at North Beach this morning.

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Shark alarm closes City, Floreat beaches

Beaches closed after great white's visit