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Safety law costly to small toy makers | PressDemocrat.com | The Press Democrat | Santa Rosa, CA.
Sarah’s Silks makes toys and costumes exclusively from silk and wood, yet the Forestville company must test for dangerous levels of lead and plastic under a new federal law.
That’s because consumer product regulators aim to restore confidence in toy safety following a wave of recalls a year ago and scrutiny over banned materials linked to toys made in China.
Small toy manufacturers and national trade federations support the intent, but oppose measures they contend endanger the industry’s small businesses. Concerns center on costly certification of product safety for companies, particularly those with handmade toys featuring natural materials that have never faced a recall.
“It’s so expensive. It’s going to really hurt, but we have to do it to keep in business,” said Sarah Lee, owner of Sarah’s Silks.
Faced with lab costs of $145,000 for testing and certifying half its catalog of 50 toys and costumes, the company will cut back on what it sells to U.S. stores. Those costs alone will eliminate more than 30 percent of Sarah’s Silks annual profits, Lee said.
The problem with regulations, is it takes time, and money to implement them. It is cheaper to be a large manufacture than a small one, you can buy in bulk, you can dedicate staff to regulations, and only have to pay once for millions of toys. Face it, we want small businesses to survive, but only make it easier for large ones to do so.
via Microsoft specs out ‘pay as you go’ PC scheme.
Basically high powered PC, for less money, but only pay for the software, hard drive space, and horsepower you use. Like a credit cards, you end up paying more overtime.
Several problems with this, one the more eye candy M$ and other bloat they put in to their OS, the more horsepower is needed just to run it at a decient price. What happens when a virus, etc hits and uses up all the horsepower?
The Napa County Sheriff’s Department immediately put out a countywide broadcast for all police agencies to be on the lookout for the truck, and searched the Rutherford area. A patrol caught up to the truck at Tower Road and Highway 29, near the American Canyon city limit. Officers found solar panels underneath the tarp.
In a prepared statement, the sheriff’s department identified the two men as Thomas Lee Rivamonte, 50, of Oakley, and Jason Lee Allen, 34, of Antioch. Both were placed under arrest on suspicion of grand theft and possession of stolen property and later booked at Napa County Jail.
Deputies later determined the solar panels were taken from the city of Napa Water Facility on Sage Canyon Road — the second theft at that site in the last two weeks.
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The 2008 year-end music charts were compiled by computer from Billboard’s weekly and biweekly charts from Dec. 1, 2007, through Nov. 29, 2008.
2008 Year-End Top Classical Albums:
- “Spirit of the Season,” Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square With Sissel. Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
It is rather disappointing figure. It is the miles we got on our original tires that came with our 2007 Prius bought new in May or June of that same year. That is something they don’t tell you about, the short lifetime of the tires.
With being frugal, and Christmas money, we were able to not use credit to replace them yesterday, at Les Schwab on broadway. About $544 for 70k rated tires including siping, cheaper than the almost $700 at Mid City, which we feared the same amount of miles. How green is it to have such short range tires with every vehicle?
Something else they don’t tell you about, is replacing those same tires, will often decrease your MPG. This is due to rolling resistance is different. In order to get these high MPG tires you have to a bit of research.
The is a difference in MPG we got with the old tires between Summer and Winter. Winter is less, due to the cold, we got 35 to 36 MPG. Summer got 40 to 41 MPG. We did get 51 MPG once going to Ruth Lake and back.
We can go two weeks without filling up, but it nice to get the better deal, plus better with unknown emergencies that may arise. We have budgeted $40 a week in gas, but only need it when we do trips, to say Wal-mart/Home Depot. So that gives us a budget cushion, most of the time.
The thing I don’t like is we bought the cheapest package, with maintenance. That gave us a monthly loan cost of $524, I wish it were lower. I have to wonder with closing costs, and today’s interest rates, if it would be worth it to refinance. It also made it impossible to hook up a mp3 player, except by the FM method, which doesn’t work well in cities.
It is possible to haul a small trailer, and we have carried 10ft 2×4 and 10ft PVC pipe in ours. Not the greatest, but it does work. You can modify the Prius to run in all electric mode. I haven’t done any modifications yet.
Nuts and Volts article on hacking the Pruis
Various mods you can by for your hybrid
Filed under: Marin, Mendocino, Railroad, SMART, bicycle, trails, transit
NA: Fed funds eyed by SMART, county
The Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit Authority (SMART) is also pursuing stimulus funding for its project. Both organizations are working to get the federal dollars through Caltrans.
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SMART general manager Lillian Hames said her organization wasn’t affected by the state’s freeze in spending, but was pursuing stimulus funding in the hopes of accelerating the restoration of rail lines between Larkspur and Cloverdale.
“The only state project that really affects us is the gap-closure project,” said Hames. “We signed a contract with Caltrans to replace the track (along a portion Caltrans will widen the freeway), so we feel that contract is still valid. There are some funding issues with that project, but it’s not on the state list.”
SMART is funded by local sales tax revenue, so it’s not impacted by freezes in bond money. But the federal stimulus package could speed up the completion of the project, Hames said.
“Just like everybody else, we’ve submitted our list to Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Caltrans,” she said. “What we’re trying to do is deliver the project faster with stimulus funds.
“We’re limited by how much we can borrow any one year through sales tax receipts. So if we could get any economic stimulus money, it would allow us to work faster. One project, the CalPark Hill and Tunnel rehabilitation project, they’re actually reconstructing the tunnel now. If we could get money for track work, ventilation that could all be done now under one contract.
“If we were to get any of those funds, the result, depending on how much we got, would be that we’d be able to deliver the project earlier than 2014.”
ATTENTION: Effective December 23, 2008 Colorado Railcar Manufacturing ceased it’s business operations. Colorado Railcar Manufacturing has a major liquidity problem, and it’s lenders have a secured position in the assets of the company. The company is in the process of liquidation. The company has no employees effective December 31st, 2008.
Larry E. Salci
President & CEO
The din emanating from the north end of the Cal Park Hill Tunnel is deafening these days as crews work to reopen the 1,100-foot tube that will funnel train riders, bicyclists and pedestrians between San Rafael and Larkspur.
“Right now they are excavating,” yells engineer Erin Hohenshelt of Jacobs Associates as backhoes, heavy tools, generators and workers moving rubble fill the tunnel with a roar so loud earplugs are required.
The tunnel – last operational in 1978 – has been closed since the 1980s, when the south end collapsed. Before that it was wet and dank, and used as shelter by the homeless. A fire in 1990 did further damage.
Transit advocates say the $25 million project is a critical part of plans to create a rail link as well as a bike and pedestrian path that connects the transit hub in downtown San Rafael and the Larkspur Ferry Terminal. Rail will be re-established in the tunnel after voter approval last month of a sales tax to finance the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit passenger train.
The tunnel will be divided, part dedicated to the rail right-of-way, the other to bicycle and pedestrian use. A 2002 county study predicted that 800 to 1,000 bike riders and pedestrians would use the path daily.
The county’s contractor, Drill Tech Drilling & Shoring Inc. of Antioch, began its work at the north portal in early October and is replacing all the redwood timber supports with steel supports in a horseshoe shape. The tunnel, which is 30 feet wide and 25 feet tall
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at its peak height, is expected to open to the public a year from now.So far, about 110 feet of the tunnel has been restored.
“Most of the timbers still exist,” said Mike Cox, project engineer for Drill Tech Drilling & Shoring.
The large, thick timbers have been yanked out of the tunnel as work proceeds and laid out on the side of the road leading to the project. Several have 1-foot spikes protruding.
“Those spikes were all hand-driven by the miners who built the tunnel in the late 1800s,” said David Bernardi, senior civil engineer for the county who is overseeing the project.
The tunnel was built by the old Northwest Pacific Railroad to keep an even grade for the trains that used the tracks.
“In the very old days the trains would go through the tunnel here and make their way down to Tiburon, then take a train ferry to Pier 41 in San Francisco,” Bernardi said. “The tunnel was needed because the grade could not be more than 1 percent.”
While there are three areas in the tunnel that have collapsed, most of it is in decent shape.
“All of the new steel support is bent to the curvature of the tunnel,” Bernardi said. “The structure is assembled outside the tunnel and guided in, then bolted down.”
New timbers are being installed in the roof of the tunnel in between the steel and rock.
The tunnel’s portal, concrete 4 feet thick poured in 1924, will remain on the outside. The plan is to have the lighted tunnel open to the public except between the hours of 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Train service could start by 2014. In addition to the tunnel, another mile of pathway to Andersen Drive in San Rafael will be improved for bicyclists and pedestrians.
“It’s a good project,” Bernardi said. “We are excited.”
MIJ Letter: Say ‘No thanks’ to Arnold
How insulting to Marin’s voters to even consider appointing Supervisor Judy Arnold to the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit board. She strongly opposed the SMART tax and could only bring herself to lamely agree to “do my best to make it work.”
Marin County voters deserve a representative with backbone to represent their interest (and tax money), not some wet noodle who before the election would have welcomed a SMART train wreck.
Marin County voters are in favor of SMART by a substantial majority – 63 percent. Appoint someone who reflects the county voters’ wishes, not a potential saboteur or obstructionist.
Judy Arnold will be quickly marginalized and effectively useless representing the interests of a majority of Marin’s voters which she doesn’t.
The appointment of adversary to the board is not good government.
John H. Turner, NOVATOWORLD AFFAIRS
Sometimes, when you keep regulating, it will come back to bite you in the rear. Case in point, Eureka High School’s pool, by law they have to upgrade the drain, to prevent entrapment, which is good, but I have to wonder, spending $100,000 on something that no one has been injured with, that has operated for over 30 years, is just plain silly.
The Eureka High swimming pool is closed again but this is not anything the school board wanted to do.
The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission ordered all public pools and spas in the US to close on Dec. 19th if they did not comply with the “Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act.”Virginia Baker, a granddaughter of a former US Secretary of State, died in 2002 at a private spa when she became entrapped on a drain.
In order to comply with the act, it is estimated that Eureka City Schools would have to spend at least $100,000 to change the drain. This amount is just impossible for us to spend with the current fiscal problems facing us and the state.
An average of one child a year dies in an entrapment accident. But there is no evidence that an entrapment has ever occurred because of the type of drain that has now been outlawed.
In 2004, 761 children aged 14 and under died in drowning accidents. With all these public pool closures around the country kids won’t be able to take swimming lessons and those drowning deaths are sure to increase.
This new act also affects all public pools and spas including those in parks, hotels, schools, colleges and apartments.
John Fullerton
Eureka
The other one? Converting human fat in to bio diesel. Except it is illegal to do so. Personally it shouldn’t be illegal, it should be used to power vehicle, once properly pasteurized, etc to prevent infections. Otherwise it is incinerated, then land filled.
Unfortunately the practice was illegal, according to California state health officials.
An investigation by the California public health department revealed that Craig Alan Bittner created “lipodiesel” from his patients’ fat and used it to power his Ford SUV and his girlfriend’s Lincoln Navigator, Forbes.com reported this week.
“The vast majority of my patients request that I use their fat for fuel — and I have more fat than I can use,” Bittner wrote on his now defunct Web site. “Not only do they get to lose their love handles or chubby belly but they get to take part in saving the Earth.”
California law forbids the use of human medical waste to power vehicles.
The bad thing about this doctor is that actual practice, which seemed to disfigure their own patients.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Well it is nearly over, it seems you have to love pain to enjoy what it has become. The shopping you have to do, with tons of people to wade through, just so you don’t look like a schmuck, by not giving something. Never mind, you don’t have much money to begin with.
I think I rather enjoyed my Christmas of 2001, deployed to Uzbekistan. Presents were open around Thanksgiving, and I didn’t have to suffer the instant buy, buy, of advertising, nor the crowds. There was even a Christmas lights on top of the old Soviet plane bunkers, sleigh and all.
I married in to a family that likes to stuff presents inside multiple layers of boxes, each one wrapped, or separate parts of presents in different boxes, IE batteries in one, cable in another, etc.
Though, I’m just as guilty, I once did the same, except I also used layers of packing tape with the fibers in it, plus I soldered together a cage of copper wire. Last year I sprayed insulation foam inside the boxes. Neither was appreciated. Last year or maybe the year before I got her a music keyboard, and had to suffer with her learning it. I also gave her a USB to MIDI adapter, which we got Garage Band to receive MIDI, but won’t send back out.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Thanks to gCaptain
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: homeless, recycle, Renewable Energy, thefts
Forty solar panels were stolen from the city of Napa’s water treatment plant at Lake Hennessey, the Napa County Sheriff’s Department reported Friday.
A city representative estimated the loss at $30,000.
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The stolen Sanyo 3-by-4.5 foot solar panels, each of which weighs 33 pounds, are part of a $2.7 million solar collector system the city installed in July 2006 at the foot of Conn Dam to generate power. The system was paid in part with PG&E rebates.
The two solar arrays are connected to a pump that lifts water from Lake Hennessey to the water treatment plant. By generating power for the PG&E grid, the solar array system has cut the city’s power bill by $100,000 a year, said Pat Costello, a city water department representative.
The 40 stolen panels represent 2 percent of the entire system, which continued to produce power Friday, Costello said.…
Robertson said this was the third theft of a large number of solar panels in less than three weeks.
The Imperial County company taps steam heat from deep within the Earth’s crust to generate clean electricity, enough to light 238,000 homes.
There’s more where that came from. But whether further development of renewable energy ever happens at this Calipatria operation and dozens of proposed projects in California’s hinterlands may depend on what goes on in San Francisco, maybe as soon as Thursday.
The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on a controversial transmission project known as the Sunrise Powerlink.
The $1.9 billion high-voltage line would stretch more than 100 miles from Imperial County to San Diego, linking power plants in the desert to coastal cities hungry for energy.
Billed by its developer, San Diego Gas & Electric Co., as a superhighway for green electricity, the project has drawn fierce opposition from environmental and community groups that don’t want Godzilla-sized power towers marring the region’s scenic wilderness areas.
The bruising four-year battle has exposed one of the dirty little secrets of clean energy: A lot of this new-age power requires old-school infrastructure to get it to people’s homes.
“You can’t love renewables and hate transmission. They go together,” said Jonathan Weisgall, a vice president of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., which owns CalEnergy.
SDG&E, a unit of San Diego-based Sempra Energy, says it needs the line to meet tough state mandates to boost its use of green energy.
Existing transmission, company executives contend, can’t possibly accommodate all the wind, solar and geothermal projects needed in coming decades.
Opponents say clean power is a cover for SDG&E to use Sunrise to transport low-cost, polluting electricity from Mexico, where Sempra has invested big in natural gas and power-plant assets.
New Technologies Show Promise for High-Efficiency Solar Cells
Various new materials, work on many ways, anti reflective coatings on the top, to trap more light, reflective coatings on the bottom, to reflect more light back in to the cell, converting invisible light in to visible light, and converting the entire visible light in to electricity.
Even better solar cell materials probably remain undiscovered as yet, but you — yes, you — could help discover them. Under a new effort led by IBM and Harvard University, people can allow their idle computers to help study the potential for organic molecules to convert sunlight into electricity.
The “Clean Energy Project” is part of the World Community Grid, which draws on unused computer resources to generate solutions that can benefit humanity. It will combine quantum chemistry calculations with molecular dynamics to determine the electronic properties of thousands of compounds, and it is expected to be completed in only two years.
To help the project along, IBM will pilot the World Community Grid on its internal computer network. Learn more about the Clean Energy Project from the World Community Grid and Harvard.
Treehugger:”Home Dome” Wins Trash to Treasure Challenge
Twelve-year-old Max Wallack of Massachusetts won the Design Squad’s Trash to Treasure Competition, a contest that inspired kids to repurpose trash into practical inventions. Wallack’s creation is the “Home Dome,” a Mongolian yurt-shaped structure made of plastic bags filled with Styrofoam packing peanuts. The dome comes with a built-in bed that weighs the structure down. Wallack created the “Home Dome” as a temporary shelter for homeless people and disaster victims. It also serves to relieve landfill growth.
I keep hearing a few locals advocating for private land for the homeless, saying it will not cost the public a dime, and be better because it will not be so restrictive. Yet I don’t see any ideas how this will work. Why should the private enterprise finance it, when these same people degrade businesses? They degrade the rules of the shelters we do have, but these same rules make these shelters work.
