In all the human societies ever studied there is to be found the figure of the witch. What is most interesting about this is not that the human race should have disliked and feared bad-tempered old women since the beginning of time, but that the old women themselves should have adopted the role of witches, and even confessed to being witches when the penalty was certain death. Death by bludgeon, by stoning, by drowning or by being burnt alive. The people who thought witches had occult powers were deluded; the witches who thought they had occult powers were equally deluded. Witches do not exist; so why have we found it necessary to invent them?
Why would the Aboriginal people of Numinbah Valley have told their children to stay away from the scarps of the Lamington Plateau because up there lived an old witch called Koonimbagowgunn who liked to roll huge rocks down on people below? The clue is in her name, which means widow. When seeking a supernatural agency to blame for unpredictable catastrophe, people hit upon the most troubling figure in their community, the woman who outlived her husband. In hunter-gatherer society there were probably never many such women. One version of the Hindu goddess Kali shows her as an old woman with black wrinkled skin and withered dugs, dancing on the beautiful body of her immortal husband, Shiva. The Indonesian Rangda has “tangled black hair, long fingernails, pendulous breasts”, and a “flowing tongue between terrible fangs”. The old woman gradually turns into a ravening animal preying on the young and vulnerable. In many societies she is suspected of digging up the bodies of her victims and eating them.
In most pre-industrial societies, the woman who outlived her husband was in trouble, especially if she had no surviving children. Even when she did, she often had no claim upon those children, who may have inherited everything her husband had to leave. Until relatively recently, a British widow could be turned out of her home by her husband’s heirs, and left to find a living the best way she could. One way she could survive was by setting herself up as a wise woman, working on the credulity of her neighbours who would pay her for spells and potions. She might charm away your warts, or tell you how to see in a mirror the face of the man you were to marry or show you how to make a man impotent by blowing on a knotted string. Some of her remedies were effective; she might be able to tell you how to ease the pains of teething or what herbs to decoct to drive worms out of young animals. She might even give you potions of her own making. If they worked, good; if they didn’t, and the patients died, the “witch” was in immediate danger.
The wise woman lived on a knife-edge. If the cry went up that she was responsible for miscarriages and infertility, whether in women or cattle, her neighbours were likely to lay violent hands upon her. The limits on her power were obvious, but she did have power. People did seek her out, did beg her for help and did cross her palm with silver. From being a mere wife and mother she had become a self-governing visionary, straddling the world of the flesh and the world of the spirit, interpreting fate, determining luck, making things happen. Her chief instrument was imagination, her own and other people’s. It would be imagination too that was her undoing.
Witches, being for the most part solitary, lived with companion animals, most often cats. As late as the 19th century the sight of an old woman collecting food from the hedgerows with her cat wreathing itself around her tattered skirts was enough to send children home howling. And yet there was a whole race of saints who understood the language of birds and beasts. St Bee was fed by seabirds. St Gertrude let mice dance upon her spindle. The lions sent to kill St Thecla in the amphitheatre sat down and licked her feet. St Martha tamed a dragon and led him about on a leash made of her girdle. When a hare fleeing from the hounds of the seventh-century Prince of Powys hid under the cloak of Melangell, the prince gave her the valley for a nunnery.
The muddling together of female saints with witches comes to its apogee in the ongoing tradition of St Wealdburg, the ninth-century English missionary, the eve of whose canonisation day, May 1, is still celebrated as Walpurgisnacht, the witches’ sabbath, all over northern Europe. How an elderly veiled abbess morphed into a naked woman on a broomstick is a story worth telling; an intrinsic part of it is Wealdburg’s unnatural ability to read and write Latin. Female literacy was as frightening for the church in preliterate Europe as it is for the Taliban today. One strand in the iconography of witchcraft depicts them as bare-breasted women with pens in their left hands, surrounded by every species of nocturnal animal.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Re-glazing windows is pane-less
After putting away the summer garb and pulling out the winter woolens, getting ready for colder weather usually means prepping the house against leakage. Insulation and caulking are two of the first things that come to mind, but window panes that are either cracked or missing glazing and hanging on by a thread are an easy fix that can make a difference both in the inside comfort level and the dollar figure on the energy bill.
For windows that have glass held in by points and glazing, the method is the same no matter what size the window or how thick the glass. Either way, the old glass and glazing must be removed completely to create a clean 90-degree angle of perimeter edge around each pane.
If there is broken glass that needs to be removed, it's best to wear rubberized gloves and safety glasses to protect against being cut, according to Frankie Rodriguez, window repair specialist for Howells Glass Company, 114 S. Queen St. To contain mess while you're working, remove the window sash and lay it on top of a large trash can. The glass fragments fall directly into the can and you won't have to handle glass shards any more than necessary.
To get the glass into manageable pieces, etch it into sections with a glass cutter and wiggle the glass to loosen it from the remaining glazing. Often, the hardened glazing is brittle enough to break away from the wooden pane with the glass sections, according to Rodriguez. If not, the old glazing can be heated with a torch to soften it slightly and then scraped or wiggled loose. "The heat from the torch or heat gun will soften it but will also mark the frame," says Rodriguez. "But if the window trim is going to be repainted anyway, it's OK."
Working from scratch with all of the old glazing, glass and push points removed, cutting the glass is the part that usually causes anxiety. Rodriguez says that after taking the opening measurements, reduce both dimensions by 1/8 inch so the glass will fit.
"More often than not, the frames aren't square," he says, "and it's not possible to cut a sliver off if the piece is cut a little too big."
Ideally, 1/16-inch thick glass is used for single-window panes, and a 1/8-inch thick glass is used for bigger windows or door panels. Privacy glass also is standard in residential applications such as bathrooms, and bears a pattern that distorts visibility.
To keep glass from rattling and increase weatherproofing, Rodriguez "back beds" the glass. That means he applies a bead of caulk on the lip where the glass will be placed before it's glazed into place.
To cut glass, lay it on a firm surface. With even pressure, run the glass cutter once along the edge of a straight edge. Think of the score line as the open pages of a book, and the bottom side that hasn't been scored as the spine. Hinge the two sides of the glass away from the score line to complete the cut.
Glazing points, a minimum of two per side, are pushed into the vertical lip of the sash opening to hold the glass in place before finishing the installation with the glazing.
For windows that have glass held in by points and glazing, the method is the same no matter what size the window or how thick the glass. Either way, the old glass and glazing must be removed completely to create a clean 90-degree angle of perimeter edge around each pane.
If there is broken glass that needs to be removed, it's best to wear rubberized gloves and safety glasses to protect against being cut, according to Frankie Rodriguez, window repair specialist for Howells Glass Company, 114 S. Queen St. To contain mess while you're working, remove the window sash and lay it on top of a large trash can. The glass fragments fall directly into the can and you won't have to handle glass shards any more than necessary.
To get the glass into manageable pieces, etch it into sections with a glass cutter and wiggle the glass to loosen it from the remaining glazing. Often, the hardened glazing is brittle enough to break away from the wooden pane with the glass sections, according to Rodriguez. If not, the old glazing can be heated with a torch to soften it slightly and then scraped or wiggled loose. "The heat from the torch or heat gun will soften it but will also mark the frame," says Rodriguez. "But if the window trim is going to be repainted anyway, it's OK."
Working from scratch with all of the old glazing, glass and push points removed, cutting the glass is the part that usually causes anxiety. Rodriguez says that after taking the opening measurements, reduce both dimensions by 1/8 inch so the glass will fit.
"More often than not, the frames aren't square," he says, "and it's not possible to cut a sliver off if the piece is cut a little too big."
Ideally, 1/16-inch thick glass is used for single-window panes, and a 1/8-inch thick glass is used for bigger windows or door panels. Privacy glass also is standard in residential applications such as bathrooms, and bears a pattern that distorts visibility.
To keep glass from rattling and increase weatherproofing, Rodriguez "back beds" the glass. That means he applies a bead of caulk on the lip where the glass will be placed before it's glazed into place.
To cut glass, lay it on a firm surface. With even pressure, run the glass cutter once along the edge of a straight edge. Think of the score line as the open pages of a book, and the bottom side that hasn't been scored as the spine. Hinge the two sides of the glass away from the score line to complete the cut.
Glazing points, a minimum of two per side, are pushed into the vertical lip of the sash opening to hold the glass in place before finishing the installation with the glazing.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Harry Halloween
In the lead up to Halloween it seems like the perfect time to share some of the things I learned when I threw a Harry Potter-themed party this month. As children become interested in everything magical and terrible for the impending All Hallow's Eve, the Harry Potter theme is a good one to latch on to because it's not just about eyeballs and zombies.
As this is a food blog, it wouldn't be terribly wrong of me to focus on the food for the party, which more or less revolved around the famed HoneyDukes candy store, but I was quite pleased with my decorative efforts. We had lots of spider webs, homemade Hogwarts banners, trails of spiders and candles - all of which I got cheaply at the local pound stores.
The feature of the evening was the Golden Snitch cupcakes. I got the idea to make golden snitches with Ferrero Rochers from other blogs, but it was my idea to turn them into cupcake toppers. I simply made chocolate cupcakes, chocolate buttercream frosting and topped them with a Rocher snitch. Wax paper is ideal to use as the wings, and if you have lots of time and patience, you could cut them a lot finer than I did. But my advice is to get the Ferreros out while you do it, because my first lot of wings were way too small and I had to do it all over again.
You have to take care removing the brown cases, as they're glued on quite snugly. And if you don't pull the Ferrero stickers off carefully you'll rip the gold foil. I found that I was able to stick the wings on to the remnants of glue left from the Ferrero sticker. If you don't have the same luck, then use a piece of sticky tape.
Other fun features from the night were my chocolate frogs. I got my son to make the wizard cards that went along with them. I simply melted a mixture of dark and milk chocolate in the microwave and poured into the frog moulds I bought online at Cakes Cookies and Crafts for 3.98.
They are really quite large, so you will need a surprising amount of chocolate. You can also get creative and add crushed nuts, mini mallows or popping candy if you so desire. There's no need to use a water bath to melt chocolate - the microwave works just fine. But you do have to take care, here are the golden rules of microwave melting.
Set in the venue’s beautiful (and covered!) Courtyard Garden, the tea’s new incarnation highlights a collaboration with design collective Luna & Curious who also curate Sanderson’s hotel gift shop. They have crafted bespoke crockery with a carnival theme to complement the service.
But first you must locate your menu – you’ll find it hidden inside a vintage book - and unfurl a napkin wrapped with a riddle. Now you can pour tea from pots adorned with kings and queens and dine from sandwich plates that feature zebras, birdcages, carousels and ticking clocks.
On the menu are dainty sandwiches including Smoked Cumbrian ham with wholegrain mustard on sun dried tomato bread and Cucumber and chive cream cheese on spinach bread plus classic home baked savoury and sweet scones with herb butter and fruit preserves.
As this is a food blog, it wouldn't be terribly wrong of me to focus on the food for the party, which more or less revolved around the famed HoneyDukes candy store, but I was quite pleased with my decorative efforts. We had lots of spider webs, homemade Hogwarts banners, trails of spiders and candles - all of which I got cheaply at the local pound stores.
The feature of the evening was the Golden Snitch cupcakes. I got the idea to make golden snitches with Ferrero Rochers from other blogs, but it was my idea to turn them into cupcake toppers. I simply made chocolate cupcakes, chocolate buttercream frosting and topped them with a Rocher snitch. Wax paper is ideal to use as the wings, and if you have lots of time and patience, you could cut them a lot finer than I did. But my advice is to get the Ferreros out while you do it, because my first lot of wings were way too small and I had to do it all over again.
You have to take care removing the brown cases, as they're glued on quite snugly. And if you don't pull the Ferrero stickers off carefully you'll rip the gold foil. I found that I was able to stick the wings on to the remnants of glue left from the Ferrero sticker. If you don't have the same luck, then use a piece of sticky tape.
Other fun features from the night were my chocolate frogs. I got my son to make the wizard cards that went along with them. I simply melted a mixture of dark and milk chocolate in the microwave and poured into the frog moulds I bought online at Cakes Cookies and Crafts for 3.98.
They are really quite large, so you will need a surprising amount of chocolate. You can also get creative and add crushed nuts, mini mallows or popping candy if you so desire. There's no need to use a water bath to melt chocolate - the microwave works just fine. But you do have to take care, here are the golden rules of microwave melting.
Set in the venue’s beautiful (and covered!) Courtyard Garden, the tea’s new incarnation highlights a collaboration with design collective Luna & Curious who also curate Sanderson’s hotel gift shop. They have crafted bespoke crockery with a carnival theme to complement the service.
But first you must locate your menu – you’ll find it hidden inside a vintage book - and unfurl a napkin wrapped with a riddle. Now you can pour tea from pots adorned with kings and queens and dine from sandwich plates that feature zebras, birdcages, carousels and ticking clocks.
On the menu are dainty sandwiches including Smoked Cumbrian ham with wholegrain mustard on sun dried tomato bread and Cucumber and chive cream cheese on spinach bread plus classic home baked savoury and sweet scones with herb butter and fruit preserves.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
A seat at Asia's table
The YouTube sensation - 500 million hits and counting - created by the droll rapper and dancer Psy (Park Jae-sang) went live in Sydney last week, with Psy being swamped by excited Australians including, naturally, many of Korean descent.
This shows us what the Asian Century is starting to look like.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said about Asia on a visit to Australia a few days ago: "We are entering a new phase - the economy is mature."
Smart commercialisation of a fun idea - one that parodies itself and its roots in the nouveau riche suburb of today's Seoul - is a face of this new, mature Asia.
Note the way that Samsung wraps itself around "Gangnam Style". And Samsung is, of course, just one of the Korean brands that have gone global, with Hyundai, LG and Kia also to the fore. Those companies, and today's sensational Psy, are everywhere.
Australia's engagement with Asia, on the other hand, is not so evident. While we send two-thirds of our exports to Asia, only about 7 per cent of our direct investments are there. Almost no one among our top chief executives and chairmen, public service chiefs or university heads has ever lived or worked in Asia or speaks an Asian language - although we did once have a prime minister who spoke Chinese.
However, at another level Australians have developed a deep awareness of their dependence on Asia, and especially on its economic performance.
Former prime minister Paul Keating once said wryly: "I guarantee if you walk into any pet shop in Australia, what the resident galah will be talking about is microeconomic policy."
Today, it would be talking about Asia, especially about China's appetite for our iron ore, and even - if it is a slightly more sophisticated galah - about whether China's recent downturn is merely cyclical or the start of a deeper structural transformation. Especially a transformation towards a more diverse, Korea-style economy with a stronger services sector and a bigger role for its own consumers.
Asia, with its thoroughly integrated manufacturing structures - say, machine tooling in Japan, electronics in Taiwan, financing in Hong Kong, screens in Malaysia, with assembly in China - is feeling the pain not only from the European and American slowdowns but also from slackening domestic demand.
Asia outside Japan hit 7.2 per cent economic growth last year. But this month the Asian Development Bank again revised down its forecast for the year, to 6.1 per cent, the slowest rate for three years. The bank's predictions for the year have fallen steadily - from 6.9 per cent in April and 6.6 per cent in July.
The bank has also just scaled back its forecast for next year, from 7.1 per cent to 6.7 per cent.
Commodity prices have been falling from their stratospheric levels, reflecting declines in demand from Asia more than a step up in supply from elsewhere in the world.
So, then, is the Asian Century over so soon after it began? After we in Australia finally "got" the message that this is where the centre of economic gravity has shifted? If that proves to be the case, where can we turn next for salvation?
This is to be a core theme at the forthcoming conference Securing the Future - the eighth Economic and Social Outlook Conference to be jointly presented by The Australian and the Melbourne Institute - at the University of Melbourne on November 1 and 2.
Julia Gillard, like most of Australia's political leadership, remains confident about Asia continuing to take up the global slack and driving growth, despite weaker numbers in the past few months. The Prime Minister retains the hope that maximising our economic engagement with India, which includes the sale of uranium once safeguards are in place, as well as China, will broaden our prospects of navigating troughs, such as the one we are now experiencing.
She said during her three-day visit to India last week that the countries had "set a goal of $40 billion trade in 2015 - in other words, our trade could double". She added that trade between the two nations was growing at 13 per cent a year. Indian investment approvals in Australia grew last year alone to more than $11bn.
But India's recent decline in growth has been sharper than China's, and as Saul Eslake, chief economist Australia at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said last week, India will find it hard to match even the slower rate of Chinese growth.
At the Securing the Future conference, economist Ross Garnaut will expand on his theme that the Asian story is radically different in different countries - but that the overall outlook is benign, despite the current slowdown and structural shifts.
"Japan is the first post-developed country: incomparably comfortable for its citizens, natural calamity aside," he says.
Japan has the world's greatest longevity and excellent health, education, arts at all levels, household financial security, employment, personal and public security, information technology, and substantial and improving environmental efforts, both domestically and contributing to the international scene.
Japan is experiencing "rapid ageing and slow growth, but low unemployment and with output per work-age person growing only slightly more slowly than the US". This is where South Korea and China are headed too, says Garnaut. "If Japan is the destination of modern economic growth, then modern economic growth is a good thing." He points to the high income of more recently developed economies and societies of Asia - Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea. Economic growth in these countries is still on a stronger trend than in high-income countries elsewhere.
China, says the former ambassador to Beijing, "is making a start on a historic transition, to greater domestic orientation on growth, higher wages and consumption, less inequity in income distribution, greater focus on the impact on the global and domestic environment - all rather more smoothly and rapidly than widely anticipated".
Moderately slower growth is emerging there, as anticipated by analysts who have stayed close to Chinese developments, he says - including by Garnaut's own projections, as in his Climate Change Review. The structural change, he says, is more significant than the accompanying fall in China's growth trajectory.
China is still, he says, "headed to be the world's largest economy by all measures within a decade, and towards sustained strong growth for another decade after that".
But the nature of China's change is now different, "with less opportunity for coal and iron ore, the staples of the post-2004 Australian resources boom, and more for other things".
The Zeitgeist of those "other things" is typified by Psy's Gangnam Style "soft-power" bandwagon.
This shows us what the Asian Century is starting to look like.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said about Asia on a visit to Australia a few days ago: "We are entering a new phase - the economy is mature."
Smart commercialisation of a fun idea - one that parodies itself and its roots in the nouveau riche suburb of today's Seoul - is a face of this new, mature Asia.
Note the way that Samsung wraps itself around "Gangnam Style". And Samsung is, of course, just one of the Korean brands that have gone global, with Hyundai, LG and Kia also to the fore. Those companies, and today's sensational Psy, are everywhere.
Australia's engagement with Asia, on the other hand, is not so evident. While we send two-thirds of our exports to Asia, only about 7 per cent of our direct investments are there. Almost no one among our top chief executives and chairmen, public service chiefs or university heads has ever lived or worked in Asia or speaks an Asian language - although we did once have a prime minister who spoke Chinese.
However, at another level Australians have developed a deep awareness of their dependence on Asia, and especially on its economic performance.
Former prime minister Paul Keating once said wryly: "I guarantee if you walk into any pet shop in Australia, what the resident galah will be talking about is microeconomic policy."
Today, it would be talking about Asia, especially about China's appetite for our iron ore, and even - if it is a slightly more sophisticated galah - about whether China's recent downturn is merely cyclical or the start of a deeper structural transformation. Especially a transformation towards a more diverse, Korea-style economy with a stronger services sector and a bigger role for its own consumers.
Asia, with its thoroughly integrated manufacturing structures - say, machine tooling in Japan, electronics in Taiwan, financing in Hong Kong, screens in Malaysia, with assembly in China - is feeling the pain not only from the European and American slowdowns but also from slackening domestic demand.
Asia outside Japan hit 7.2 per cent economic growth last year. But this month the Asian Development Bank again revised down its forecast for the year, to 6.1 per cent, the slowest rate for three years. The bank's predictions for the year have fallen steadily - from 6.9 per cent in April and 6.6 per cent in July.
The bank has also just scaled back its forecast for next year, from 7.1 per cent to 6.7 per cent.
Commodity prices have been falling from their stratospheric levels, reflecting declines in demand from Asia more than a step up in supply from elsewhere in the world.
So, then, is the Asian Century over so soon after it began? After we in Australia finally "got" the message that this is where the centre of economic gravity has shifted? If that proves to be the case, where can we turn next for salvation?
This is to be a core theme at the forthcoming conference Securing the Future - the eighth Economic and Social Outlook Conference to be jointly presented by The Australian and the Melbourne Institute - at the University of Melbourne on November 1 and 2.
Julia Gillard, like most of Australia's political leadership, remains confident about Asia continuing to take up the global slack and driving growth, despite weaker numbers in the past few months. The Prime Minister retains the hope that maximising our economic engagement with India, which includes the sale of uranium once safeguards are in place, as well as China, will broaden our prospects of navigating troughs, such as the one we are now experiencing.
She said during her three-day visit to India last week that the countries had "set a goal of $40 billion trade in 2015 - in other words, our trade could double". She added that trade between the two nations was growing at 13 per cent a year. Indian investment approvals in Australia grew last year alone to more than $11bn.
But India's recent decline in growth has been sharper than China's, and as Saul Eslake, chief economist Australia at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said last week, India will find it hard to match even the slower rate of Chinese growth.
At the Securing the Future conference, economist Ross Garnaut will expand on his theme that the Asian story is radically different in different countries - but that the overall outlook is benign, despite the current slowdown and structural shifts.
"Japan is the first post-developed country: incomparably comfortable for its citizens, natural calamity aside," he says.
Japan has the world's greatest longevity and excellent health, education, arts at all levels, household financial security, employment, personal and public security, information technology, and substantial and improving environmental efforts, both domestically and contributing to the international scene.
Japan is experiencing "rapid ageing and slow growth, but low unemployment and with output per work-age person growing only slightly more slowly than the US". This is where South Korea and China are headed too, says Garnaut. "If Japan is the destination of modern economic growth, then modern economic growth is a good thing." He points to the high income of more recently developed economies and societies of Asia - Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea. Economic growth in these countries is still on a stronger trend than in high-income countries elsewhere.
China, says the former ambassador to Beijing, "is making a start on a historic transition, to greater domestic orientation on growth, higher wages and consumption, less inequity in income distribution, greater focus on the impact on the global and domestic environment - all rather more smoothly and rapidly than widely anticipated".
Moderately slower growth is emerging there, as anticipated by analysts who have stayed close to Chinese developments, he says - including by Garnaut's own projections, as in his Climate Change Review. The structural change, he says, is more significant than the accompanying fall in China's growth trajectory.
China is still, he says, "headed to be the world's largest economy by all measures within a decade, and towards sustained strong growth for another decade after that".
But the nature of China's change is now different, "with less opportunity for coal and iron ore, the staples of the post-2004 Australian resources boom, and more for other things".
The Zeitgeist of those "other things" is typified by Psy's Gangnam Style "soft-power" bandwagon.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Where to find pumpkins in
Before the ghouls, ghosts, costumes and candy-filled pillowcases, people of all ages scour their favorite pumpkin patch in search of that great pumpkin they can take home in preparation for Halloween. Some spend hours designing fancy faces, others paint pretty pictures and many more do it the good old-fashioned way — using a kitchen knife and their hands to get at their jack-o'-lantern. No matter your fashion, there's more to picking pumpkins than one might think.
Plenty of local farmers and other destinations in the area appeal to pumpkin picking and crafting, offering more than just the funny-shaped squash.
Gordon Tripp, owner of Owen Orchards, likes to appeal to families and especially schoolchildren, he said. Every year, Tripp holds educational tours of his pumpkin patches, explaining how they grow. Each student walks away with a pumpkin of their own to commemorate the experience.
On weekends, he loads the wagon full of visitors and they ride along to the pumpkin patch to pick their own pumpkin of choice. Warm apple cider and homemade apple cider doughnuts are popular favorites that complement the day's events, he said.
“It's a great chance for families to enjoy the fall weather and the beautiful colors of this season,” Tripp said. “And a day out on the farm is always fun.”
Snake Oil Glassworks is preparing for its annual Pumpkin Fest, which features pumpkins of a different kind. While farms relish in their genuine orange jack-o'-lanterns, Snake Oil Glassworks molds its creations in the shape and style of pumpkins using glass — with the option of different colors and sizes made to order, if desired. Owners Peg and Phil Austin started the annual event because of local interest in the area.
“We welcome people into our studio and we show them how we blow glass to make our pumpkins,” Peg said. “We offer our usual 'pick your own pumpkin' opportunity and for a special price, you may select the colors and size of your own custom-designed pumpkin and then see it created by our skilled gaffer and assistants.”
“I like to tell people that our prices are inexpensive because it's all about the experience,” Leubner said. ”My husband and I both grew up on farms and we want people to experience farm life and to have the chance to see it for themselves.”
Tim's offers a variety of events, including pumpkin picking, a hay maze, seeing the farm animals and wagon rides on weekends. There's something for everyone, Leubner said. Pumpkin funnel cakes and other baked goods, as well as the items in Tim's gift shop, are some of the special treats available.
Plenty of local farmers and other destinations in the area appeal to pumpkin picking and crafting, offering more than just the funny-shaped squash.
Gordon Tripp, owner of Owen Orchards, likes to appeal to families and especially schoolchildren, he said. Every year, Tripp holds educational tours of his pumpkin patches, explaining how they grow. Each student walks away with a pumpkin of their own to commemorate the experience.
On weekends, he loads the wagon full of visitors and they ride along to the pumpkin patch to pick their own pumpkin of choice. Warm apple cider and homemade apple cider doughnuts are popular favorites that complement the day's events, he said.
“It's a great chance for families to enjoy the fall weather and the beautiful colors of this season,” Tripp said. “And a day out on the farm is always fun.”
Snake Oil Glassworks is preparing for its annual Pumpkin Fest, which features pumpkins of a different kind. While farms relish in their genuine orange jack-o'-lanterns, Snake Oil Glassworks molds its creations in the shape and style of pumpkins using glass — with the option of different colors and sizes made to order, if desired. Owners Peg and Phil Austin started the annual event because of local interest in the area.
“We welcome people into our studio and we show them how we blow glass to make our pumpkins,” Peg said. “We offer our usual 'pick your own pumpkin' opportunity and for a special price, you may select the colors and size of your own custom-designed pumpkin and then see it created by our skilled gaffer and assistants.”
“I like to tell people that our prices are inexpensive because it's all about the experience,” Leubner said. ”My husband and I both grew up on farms and we want people to experience farm life and to have the chance to see it for themselves.”
Tim's offers a variety of events, including pumpkin picking, a hay maze, seeing the farm animals and wagon rides on weekends. There's something for everyone, Leubner said. Pumpkin funnel cakes and other baked goods, as well as the items in Tim's gift shop, are some of the special treats available.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Moreno molds legacy
California forward Grace Leer was on a breakaway, but her final obstacle awaited—Nevada’s senior goalkeeper Dana Moreno. Leer faked and Moreno countered by not taking the bait, dropping to her knees. Leer fired away and Moreno made a diving save. Moreno’s fundamentals have caught the interest of the Mexican National Team.
Against Texas Christian University in a 1-0 Nevada victory, a Mexican scout observed Moreno fight for loose balls, while communicating expressively with her teammates. After the game, he introduced himself to Moreno and the coaching staff and invited Moreno for a tryout in November to be part of “El Tri.”
“I am so excited because this has literally been my dream to play for Mexico,” Moreno said. “All of my hard work is paying off and maybe I will be playing in the World Cup in two years.”
Moreno and many other women face a dilemma playing professional soccer. The Women’s Professional Soccer league suspended its 2012 season, then shut down entirely in May. It left many USA National Team players, including Abby Wambach and captain Christine Rampone, without a club, according to Yahoo Sports.
Now, most of the league’s former players face a tough choice: move to Europe to play elite soccer for as little as $20,000 a season or settle for an even lower-paying gig on a minor or semi-pro team closer to home. Having a spot on the U.S. National Team can earn them a salary of up to $60,000, according to ESPN The Magazine.
But for Moreno, the uncertainty doesn’t matter because her passion for soccer is enormous.
“For me it’s the lifestyle and passion of the game that I developed as a child and I used it to escape family and social life issues and focused on it solely,”
Moreno said. “From then on, you just stick with it because it’s one of those things you can’t let go and it’s the most beautiful sport in the world, but it can take you places in life like job offers and stuff because it’s challenging.”
Since as long as Moreno can remember, she has had a passion to compete. With a 30-minute break for recess on its way, the children smiled and eagerly looked at the clock awaiting their most exciting part of the day. The bell finally rang and the kids ran outside the classroom looking to have fun with their friends. Girls often played with barbies and boys played some kind of competitive game. Young Moreno wearing pants instead of skirts as the other girls did, went straight to the kickball field to choose her team and compete.
That was what she was looking forward to the entire day.
“This is where my competitive spirit really started and I always got to pick teams at recess and I was the best at kickball,” Moreno said.
“This was before I started playing soccer but this is what also sparked my interest in soccer.” She was born on August 6, 1991 in Chatsworth, Calif. Dana is the daughter of Edward and Carly Moreno and has a younger sister named Danielle Marie Moreno.
Moreno’s parents were divorced when she was a year old and her dad took custody, raising both daughters as a single parent. While he worked, Elsie Moreno, her grandmother, took care of her granddaughters, creating a mother-like presence for these two young girls. Young Moreno and her sister chased each other when they smelled something delicious in the kitchen. As soon as they saw their nana smile and hold two cups of hot chocolate, they knew it was time to go to bed but eagerly jumped up and down waiting to relish the chocolate.
While Moreno enjoyed her chocolate, she cherished her time alongside her grandma even more. They would cuddle and laugh, making many priceless moments.
“Everything I do in life—it is solely because of my nana,” Moreno said. “That is where my drive comes from.”
During this past summer, Moreno tattooed Elise’s name on her arm to represent that she is always by her side. It enraged her father because he thought women looked trashy with visible tattoos. He did not talk to her for an entire month but has come to terms with what it symbolizes. Moreno said it felt awful not communicating with her father for that extensive amount of time. It has taught her to appreciate all he has done for her.
Moreno began playing soccer at 7-years-old. Moreno began as a forward, but when she turned 9, she made the switch to goalkeeper, which was the correct choice according to her father because of her great ability to use her hands and fast reactions to block shots.
While growing up she always got praise from her coaches. Moreno said her father always gave her tough love because of the “machismo” attitude that comes along with being Mexican and soccer being a huge deal in Mexican culture.
One memory that stands out is when she messed up bad in a game and her father yelled at her during the game as a spectator. The disruption got him ejected from the stands. Now she understands why he was so hard on her. Soccer was her ticket to success and her dad saw it long before it happened.
“I was always tough on her because I wanted her to be the best and in order to be the best you have to play the best,” Edward said. According to her father, his daughter has always had a competitive spirit and a gift for being a leader by example, which has translated into the success she has had in her career.
“She is one of the most athletic kids I have seen in her age. When she puts her mind to something she gets it done, which is why I am very proud of her and her number one fan,” Edward said.
Her nonexistent relationship with her mother has inspired her to strive for greatness. She sees failure as her biggest fear. Choosing Nevada Six other universities recruited Moreno— Santa Clara University, Long Beach State, Washington State, Washington, San Diego State and Notre Dame.
Her successful high school career made these programs want her. She started at goalkeeper on the 2006 Gothia Junior World Cup championship team in Sweden and the 2009 Cal South National Championship team with Chatsworth Senior High School in Chatsworth, Calif. Furthermore, she was a member of the Olympic Development Program state team from 2004-2007.
“ODP is really big in club soccer and usually that is what gets you to college and gets a lot of scouts to watch you play and get your name out there,” Moreno said.
Against Texas Christian University in a 1-0 Nevada victory, a Mexican scout observed Moreno fight for loose balls, while communicating expressively with her teammates. After the game, he introduced himself to Moreno and the coaching staff and invited Moreno for a tryout in November to be part of “El Tri.”
“I am so excited because this has literally been my dream to play for Mexico,” Moreno said. “All of my hard work is paying off and maybe I will be playing in the World Cup in two years.”
Moreno and many other women face a dilemma playing professional soccer. The Women’s Professional Soccer league suspended its 2012 season, then shut down entirely in May. It left many USA National Team players, including Abby Wambach and captain Christine Rampone, without a club, according to Yahoo Sports.
Now, most of the league’s former players face a tough choice: move to Europe to play elite soccer for as little as $20,000 a season or settle for an even lower-paying gig on a minor or semi-pro team closer to home. Having a spot on the U.S. National Team can earn them a salary of up to $60,000, according to ESPN The Magazine.
But for Moreno, the uncertainty doesn’t matter because her passion for soccer is enormous.
“For me it’s the lifestyle and passion of the game that I developed as a child and I used it to escape family and social life issues and focused on it solely,”
Moreno said. “From then on, you just stick with it because it’s one of those things you can’t let go and it’s the most beautiful sport in the world, but it can take you places in life like job offers and stuff because it’s challenging.”
Since as long as Moreno can remember, she has had a passion to compete. With a 30-minute break for recess on its way, the children smiled and eagerly looked at the clock awaiting their most exciting part of the day. The bell finally rang and the kids ran outside the classroom looking to have fun with their friends. Girls often played with barbies and boys played some kind of competitive game. Young Moreno wearing pants instead of skirts as the other girls did, went straight to the kickball field to choose her team and compete.
That was what she was looking forward to the entire day.
“This is where my competitive spirit really started and I always got to pick teams at recess and I was the best at kickball,” Moreno said.
“This was before I started playing soccer but this is what also sparked my interest in soccer.” She was born on August 6, 1991 in Chatsworth, Calif. Dana is the daughter of Edward and Carly Moreno and has a younger sister named Danielle Marie Moreno.
Moreno’s parents were divorced when she was a year old and her dad took custody, raising both daughters as a single parent. While he worked, Elsie Moreno, her grandmother, took care of her granddaughters, creating a mother-like presence for these two young girls. Young Moreno and her sister chased each other when they smelled something delicious in the kitchen. As soon as they saw their nana smile and hold two cups of hot chocolate, they knew it was time to go to bed but eagerly jumped up and down waiting to relish the chocolate.
While Moreno enjoyed her chocolate, she cherished her time alongside her grandma even more. They would cuddle and laugh, making many priceless moments.
“Everything I do in life—it is solely because of my nana,” Moreno said. “That is where my drive comes from.”
During this past summer, Moreno tattooed Elise’s name on her arm to represent that she is always by her side. It enraged her father because he thought women looked trashy with visible tattoos. He did not talk to her for an entire month but has come to terms with what it symbolizes. Moreno said it felt awful not communicating with her father for that extensive amount of time. It has taught her to appreciate all he has done for her.
Moreno began playing soccer at 7-years-old. Moreno began as a forward, but when she turned 9, she made the switch to goalkeeper, which was the correct choice according to her father because of her great ability to use her hands and fast reactions to block shots.
While growing up she always got praise from her coaches. Moreno said her father always gave her tough love because of the “machismo” attitude that comes along with being Mexican and soccer being a huge deal in Mexican culture.
One memory that stands out is when she messed up bad in a game and her father yelled at her during the game as a spectator. The disruption got him ejected from the stands. Now she understands why he was so hard on her. Soccer was her ticket to success and her dad saw it long before it happened.
“I was always tough on her because I wanted her to be the best and in order to be the best you have to play the best,” Edward said. According to her father, his daughter has always had a competitive spirit and a gift for being a leader by example, which has translated into the success she has had in her career.
“She is one of the most athletic kids I have seen in her age. When she puts her mind to something she gets it done, which is why I am very proud of her and her number one fan,” Edward said.
Her nonexistent relationship with her mother has inspired her to strive for greatness. She sees failure as her biggest fear. Choosing Nevada Six other universities recruited Moreno— Santa Clara University, Long Beach State, Washington State, Washington, San Diego State and Notre Dame.
Her successful high school career made these programs want her. She started at goalkeeper on the 2006 Gothia Junior World Cup championship team in Sweden and the 2009 Cal South National Championship team with Chatsworth Senior High School in Chatsworth, Calif. Furthermore, she was a member of the Olympic Development Program state team from 2004-2007.
“ODP is really big in club soccer and usually that is what gets you to college and gets a lot of scouts to watch you play and get your name out there,” Moreno said.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Tainted meds reveal regulation gaps
On its own, aspergillus is a common fungus, the product of damp and moldy conditions, that normally doesn't threaten the healthy immune systems of humans. The same can be said of exserohilum, a fungus normally associated with grasses, plants or corn blight and rarely seen in human infections
That is until the recent national outbreak of fungal meningitis that has led to 14 deaths and more than 185 cases in 12 states as of Friday. Federal investigators suspect that an untold number of vials of a commonly injected pain relief steroid were tainted by exserohilum and aspergillus during the pharmaceutical compounding process at a now-closed firm in Framingham, Mass.
Unlike typical forms of serious bacterial or viral meningitis that can be contagious and affects the brain and nervous system, this outbreak is not contagious but is dangerous because fungi could have been directly injected into the lining near the spinal cord.
"Aspergillus is a ubiquitous environmental germ and it can cause infections," said Dr. David Itkin, a specialist in infectious diseases and the staff epidemiologist at Portsmouth Regional Hospital. "But these (fungi) are generally benign to healthy immune systems."
He said this is a rare form of meningitis and especially dangerous because the contaminating fungus was injected directly into the patients' bodies.
"In terms something on this scale," he said, "I do believe this is unprecedented."
The outbreak has also left health officials scrambling to keep up with developments. On Thursday, the CDC said the incubation period for symptoms could range from one to three months. Because the fungi are difficult to grow in lab analyses, the CDC has advised doctors that if a patient who got the injection starts to develop meningitis symptoms, he or she should be treated, even if testing is negative for the fungus.
Symptoms of meningitis, which is an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, include severe headache, nausea, dizziness, fever and stroke-like sensations. The CDC said many of the cases have been mild, some patients have experienced no harm and some people had strokes. Itkin said those with non-epidural injections are at risk of a potential serious infection in the injected area but not of fungal meningitis itself.
The CDC estimates that as many as 14,000 people in 23 states received epidural (near the spine) and non-epidural (joint) injections. There have been three contaminated batches identified by the CDC and they are concerned most about patients who received epidural injections between May 21 and Sept. 26 when a recall was ordered. PainCare LLC, which gave injections of the steroid at locations in Newington, Somersworth and Merrimack, has contacted, informed and offered follow up tests to 215 patients believed to be most at risk. A handful of patients who are exhibiting meningitis symptoms are being treated and watched carefully.
Federal health officials warned that patients will need to keep watch for symptoms of the deadly infection for months.
"We know that we are not out of the woods yet," said Dr. J. Todd Weber of the CDC as the death toll reached 14 on Thursday.
Though investigators do not know exactly how the batches of the steroid Methylprednisolone Acetate became contaminated with the two fungus germs, Itkin said the contamination at New England Compounding Center in Framingham showed a serious breakdown of quality control. The company has halted operations, surrendered its license and recalled all of its products.
"We don't know how this fungus was introduced during the preparation stages for making the product," he said. "Generally, these processes are tightly regulated in controlled environments."
Investigators do not know if all or just some of the vials were contaminated, or how many doses were administered for back pain or for other reasons. The CDC said its fungal disease laboratory has confirmed the presence of exserohilum in 10 people with meningitis and aspergillus in one person with meningitis among the reported cases. Tennessee has reported the most cases with 49 and the most deaths at six through Thursday.
Itkin said contamination of this type can include more than one fungus. In a television report last week, CNN showed that a recycling and waste dump was located directly behind the NECC building.
"If things aren't sterile, there are a lot of steps along the way where things can be contaminated," he said.
As an example, he said whenever a hospital has a construction project, health workers are very careful about the dust and environmental molds that are stirred up during the process, which can impact delicate procedures such as transplants.
In addition to safe sanitary concerns, the growing NECC case reflects a possible regulatory black hole. As a pharmaceutical compounding company it did not fall under federal oversight and was supposedly overseen by a state pharmacy licensing agency. Regulators are not called in until a problem arises. In 2006, the Federal Drug Administration sent the company a warning letter about potential unsafe sterile conditions but the FDA had no enforcement capability.
Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said it appears the company violated state law governing those pharmacies and went beyond its license to produce medication for patient-specific prescriptions.
That is until the recent national outbreak of fungal meningitis that has led to 14 deaths and more than 185 cases in 12 states as of Friday. Federal investigators suspect that an untold number of vials of a commonly injected pain relief steroid were tainted by exserohilum and aspergillus during the pharmaceutical compounding process at a now-closed firm in Framingham, Mass.
Unlike typical forms of serious bacterial or viral meningitis that can be contagious and affects the brain and nervous system, this outbreak is not contagious but is dangerous because fungi could have been directly injected into the lining near the spinal cord.
"Aspergillus is a ubiquitous environmental germ and it can cause infections," said Dr. David Itkin, a specialist in infectious diseases and the staff epidemiologist at Portsmouth Regional Hospital. "But these (fungi) are generally benign to healthy immune systems."
He said this is a rare form of meningitis and especially dangerous because the contaminating fungus was injected directly into the patients' bodies.
"In terms something on this scale," he said, "I do believe this is unprecedented."
The outbreak has also left health officials scrambling to keep up with developments. On Thursday, the CDC said the incubation period for symptoms could range from one to three months. Because the fungi are difficult to grow in lab analyses, the CDC has advised doctors that if a patient who got the injection starts to develop meningitis symptoms, he or she should be treated, even if testing is negative for the fungus.
Symptoms of meningitis, which is an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, include severe headache, nausea, dizziness, fever and stroke-like sensations. The CDC said many of the cases have been mild, some patients have experienced no harm and some people had strokes. Itkin said those with non-epidural injections are at risk of a potential serious infection in the injected area but not of fungal meningitis itself.
The CDC estimates that as many as 14,000 people in 23 states received epidural (near the spine) and non-epidural (joint) injections. There have been three contaminated batches identified by the CDC and they are concerned most about patients who received epidural injections between May 21 and Sept. 26 when a recall was ordered. PainCare LLC, which gave injections of the steroid at locations in Newington, Somersworth and Merrimack, has contacted, informed and offered follow up tests to 215 patients believed to be most at risk. A handful of patients who are exhibiting meningitis symptoms are being treated and watched carefully.
Federal health officials warned that patients will need to keep watch for symptoms of the deadly infection for months.
"We know that we are not out of the woods yet," said Dr. J. Todd Weber of the CDC as the death toll reached 14 on Thursday.
Though investigators do not know exactly how the batches of the steroid Methylprednisolone Acetate became contaminated with the two fungus germs, Itkin said the contamination at New England Compounding Center in Framingham showed a serious breakdown of quality control. The company has halted operations, surrendered its license and recalled all of its products.
"We don't know how this fungus was introduced during the preparation stages for making the product," he said. "Generally, these processes are tightly regulated in controlled environments."
Investigators do not know if all or just some of the vials were contaminated, or how many doses were administered for back pain or for other reasons. The CDC said its fungal disease laboratory has confirmed the presence of exserohilum in 10 people with meningitis and aspergillus in one person with meningitis among the reported cases. Tennessee has reported the most cases with 49 and the most deaths at six through Thursday.
Itkin said contamination of this type can include more than one fungus. In a television report last week, CNN showed that a recycling and waste dump was located directly behind the NECC building.
"If things aren't sterile, there are a lot of steps along the way where things can be contaminated," he said.
As an example, he said whenever a hospital has a construction project, health workers are very careful about the dust and environmental molds that are stirred up during the process, which can impact delicate procedures such as transplants.
In addition to safe sanitary concerns, the growing NECC case reflects a possible regulatory black hole. As a pharmaceutical compounding company it did not fall under federal oversight and was supposedly overseen by a state pharmacy licensing agency. Regulators are not called in until a problem arises. In 2006, the Federal Drug Administration sent the company a warning letter about potential unsafe sterile conditions but the FDA had no enforcement capability.
Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said it appears the company violated state law governing those pharmacies and went beyond its license to produce medication for patient-specific prescriptions.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Students told to vacate Miller Hall after mold found
On Wednesday, the University of Louisville announced that 270 students had to leave one of the school's residence halls after elevated levels of mold were detected in the hall.
According to a posting on the University's Web site, elevated levels of mold spores were found in Miller Hall.
"While these molds typically do not pose a health risk to most people, they can cause problems at elevated levels -- especially for those with respiratory problems such as asthma, allergies, and those with high sensitivity to mold," the site states.
"To ensure the well being of our students and staff, the University has decided to close Miller Hall for extensive cleaning, remediation and source identification," the sites states. "At this time, we do not know when the building will reopen and are preparing for the possibility that it may remain closed for the remainder of the fall 2012 semester."
"You gotta expect stuff like this to happen to live in such a cheap, old, crappy dorm," said Taylor Gackenbach, a freshman in the dorm.
In fact, campus officials say 80% of the rooms in Miller Hall have high levels of aspergillus and penicillium molds--which can cause problems for people with allergies, asthma, or compromised immune systems. "We have no indications that there's any illnesses directly related to this at this time," said Dr. Phillip Bressoud, Director of Student Health at UL.
The search for mold started when students made complaints late last month in various dorms. "We found some evidence of small amounts at that point but because we started finding some from time to time in the last few weeks we decided to check the buildings and see what was going on," said Shannon State, Director of Housing at UL.
Levels inside Miller Hall were so high, officials decided to take immediate action. All 270 co-ed freshmen in Miller will have to move everything out by Sunday. The school will put some students up in hotels with a shuttle service to campus, others will be placed in vacant rooms at other dorms. Local students are asked to live at home, and will be reimbursed. A contractor will eradicate the mold--and find out where it's coming from. The problem was not there during routine inspections last month. "Finding mold on hard surfaces a month later, something dramatically changed, we're not sure what that is yet," said Bressoud.
All other dorms are still being assessed while more air quality tests are run. "We won't have all of that probably for another few days. We focused on the building that we felt was the worst at the time," said Staten.
According to a posting on the University's Web site, elevated levels of mold spores were found in Miller Hall.
"While these molds typically do not pose a health risk to most people, they can cause problems at elevated levels -- especially for those with respiratory problems such as asthma, allergies, and those with high sensitivity to mold," the site states.
"To ensure the well being of our students and staff, the University has decided to close Miller Hall for extensive cleaning, remediation and source identification," the sites states. "At this time, we do not know when the building will reopen and are preparing for the possibility that it may remain closed for the remainder of the fall 2012 semester."
"You gotta expect stuff like this to happen to live in such a cheap, old, crappy dorm," said Taylor Gackenbach, a freshman in the dorm.
In fact, campus officials say 80% of the rooms in Miller Hall have high levels of aspergillus and penicillium molds--which can cause problems for people with allergies, asthma, or compromised immune systems. "We have no indications that there's any illnesses directly related to this at this time," said Dr. Phillip Bressoud, Director of Student Health at UL.
The search for mold started when students made complaints late last month in various dorms. "We found some evidence of small amounts at that point but because we started finding some from time to time in the last few weeks we decided to check the buildings and see what was going on," said Shannon State, Director of Housing at UL.
Levels inside Miller Hall were so high, officials decided to take immediate action. All 270 co-ed freshmen in Miller will have to move everything out by Sunday. The school will put some students up in hotels with a shuttle service to campus, others will be placed in vacant rooms at other dorms. Local students are asked to live at home, and will be reimbursed. A contractor will eradicate the mold--and find out where it's coming from. The problem was not there during routine inspections last month. "Finding mold on hard surfaces a month later, something dramatically changed, we're not sure what that is yet," said Bressoud.
All other dorms are still being assessed while more air quality tests are run. "We won't have all of that probably for another few days. We focused on the building that we felt was the worst at the time," said Staten.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Casting a spotlight on opportunities for SA toolmakers
A trade fair for tooling, mouldmaking, design and development has been initiated in a bid to stimulate the drive to train more toolmaker artisans in South Africa, AfriMold MD Ron MacLarty tells Engineering News.
The AfriMold trade fair took place at the Gallagher Convention Centre, in Midrand, from October 10 to 12.
The toolmaking industry has not shown significant progress in the last decade and has been reserved to small, niche customers, owing to skills shortages. Not enough young people are being trained as tool-makers: therefore, the South African industry is losing out on job creation, skills training and the tool-making market.
“The market potential in toolmaking is phenomenal. In the automotive industry alone, we are spending $1.5-billion overseas on toolmaking work that could have been done in South Africa, had the industry been up to scratch,” explains MacLarty.
Increasing the number of toolmaking artisans has an exponential effect on job creation – one toolmaker creates another 28 jobs.
The challenges toolmaking companies in South Africa face are weak business practices in contract management, planning, production and project management.
Seeking expertise abroad means that companies must airfreight products back to the supplier to alter moulds and designs, as South Africa is ill-equipped, with regard to the skills and up-to-date equipment of tool-making, he states.
“The obvious route to take in the improvement of the industry is for South African tool-making companies to partner in joint ventures with international companies,” he says.
The automotive industry will provide a platform to improve the toolmaking business and skills in the country, as the industry will soon be forced to have 72% local content in the production of cars, which emphasises the tool-making industry’s has great potential for growth.
The AfriMold trade fair provides the platform to interact with international players. It focused on industrial design, computer-aided engineering, manufacture and design, mould and tool design, rapid prototyping, additive manufacture, as well as the whole spectrum of moulds, press tools and ancillary tooling.
"The specialised nature of AfriMold attracts a highly specific audience, who are mainly of buyers. The expo's visitors have made a conscious decision to purchase and have set aside valuable time to attend the expo and do just that," says MacLarty.
According to him, the transfer of knowledge and opportunities between Germany and South Africa, in respect of tooling technologies in the renewable-energy industries, took place at the fair and he adds that while South Africa has renewable-energy resources like wind and solar, with a government that promotes the development of a green economy, it has much to gain from Germany, a country that has a proven track record in this arena.
The AfriMold trade fair took place at the Gallagher Convention Centre, in Midrand, from October 10 to 12.
The toolmaking industry has not shown significant progress in the last decade and has been reserved to small, niche customers, owing to skills shortages. Not enough young people are being trained as tool-makers: therefore, the South African industry is losing out on job creation, skills training and the tool-making market.
“The market potential in toolmaking is phenomenal. In the automotive industry alone, we are spending $1.5-billion overseas on toolmaking work that could have been done in South Africa, had the industry been up to scratch,” explains MacLarty.
Increasing the number of toolmaking artisans has an exponential effect on job creation – one toolmaker creates another 28 jobs.
The challenges toolmaking companies in South Africa face are weak business practices in contract management, planning, production and project management.
Seeking expertise abroad means that companies must airfreight products back to the supplier to alter moulds and designs, as South Africa is ill-equipped, with regard to the skills and up-to-date equipment of tool-making, he states.
“The obvious route to take in the improvement of the industry is for South African tool-making companies to partner in joint ventures with international companies,” he says.
The automotive industry will provide a platform to improve the toolmaking business and skills in the country, as the industry will soon be forced to have 72% local content in the production of cars, which emphasises the tool-making industry’s has great potential for growth.
The AfriMold trade fair provides the platform to interact with international players. It focused on industrial design, computer-aided engineering, manufacture and design, mould and tool design, rapid prototyping, additive manufacture, as well as the whole spectrum of moulds, press tools and ancillary tooling.
"The specialised nature of AfriMold attracts a highly specific audience, who are mainly of buyers. The expo's visitors have made a conscious decision to purchase and have set aside valuable time to attend the expo and do just that," says MacLarty.
According to him, the transfer of knowledge and opportunities between Germany and South Africa, in respect of tooling technologies in the renewable-energy industries, took place at the fair and he adds that while South Africa has renewable-energy resources like wind and solar, with a government that promotes the development of a green economy, it has much to gain from Germany, a country that has a proven track record in this arena.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Wilson Tool on National Manufacturing Day
Amy Klobuchar on Friday, Oct. 5 stopped at Wyoming Machine in Stacy and Wilson Tool in White Bear Lake as part of National Manufacturing Day, designed to expand knowledge about manufacturing careers and highlight manufacturing’s value to the U.S. economy.
The stops were part of Klobuchar’s ongoing “Made in America” economic tour to highlight successful local businesses. During the stops Klobuchar met with company officials, employees, and students and discussed her efforts to improve workforce training and boost exports.
“All across Minnesota, successful businesses like Wyoming Machine and Wilson Tool are creating good jobs and lifting up our communities,” Klobuchar said. “From preparing our students for the jobs of tomorrow to helping open new markets for companies to sell their products overseas, I will continue to work to ensure that our local businesses have the tools they need to be successful making their products right here in America.”
At Wyoming Machine, a family-owned metal fabricator, Klobuchar highlighted a $13 million grant she helped secure for four Minnesota colleges to train workers for high-wage, high-skilled manufacturing jobs in Minnesota. Pine Technical College in Pine City, one of the colleges that received the grant, will partner with Wyoming Machine to help train students for the high-tech jobs the company needs.
At Wilson Tool, the world’s largest independent manufacturer of tooling solutions for sheet metal fabricating machinery, Klobuchar discussed her efforts to boost exports for local businesses. Klobuchar serves as chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation and Export Promotion and passed legislation – the “Export Promotion Act” – that helps small- and medium-sized businesses sell their products in international markets. She has also introduced the “Innovate America Act” to promote innovation and boost America’s ability to compete in the global economy.
Earlier this week on her Made in America tour, Klobuchar visited 12 counties and made stops in Crookston, Thief River Falls, Red Lake Falls, Oslo, Hallock, Greenbush, Baudette, International Falls, Duluth, McGregor, Onamia, Mora and North Branch. Last week Klobuchar made stops at businesses in Faribault, Austin, Rochester, and Red Wing.
The stops were part of Klobuchar’s ongoing “Made in America” economic tour to highlight successful local businesses. During the stops Klobuchar met with company officials, employees, and students and discussed her efforts to improve workforce training and boost exports.
“All across Minnesota, successful businesses like Wyoming Machine and Wilson Tool are creating good jobs and lifting up our communities,” Klobuchar said. “From preparing our students for the jobs of tomorrow to helping open new markets for companies to sell their products overseas, I will continue to work to ensure that our local businesses have the tools they need to be successful making their products right here in America.”
At Wyoming Machine, a family-owned metal fabricator, Klobuchar highlighted a $13 million grant she helped secure for four Minnesota colleges to train workers for high-wage, high-skilled manufacturing jobs in Minnesota. Pine Technical College in Pine City, one of the colleges that received the grant, will partner with Wyoming Machine to help train students for the high-tech jobs the company needs.
At Wilson Tool, the world’s largest independent manufacturer of tooling solutions for sheet metal fabricating machinery, Klobuchar discussed her efforts to boost exports for local businesses. Klobuchar serves as chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation and Export Promotion and passed legislation – the “Export Promotion Act” – that helps small- and medium-sized businesses sell their products in international markets. She has also introduced the “Innovate America Act” to promote innovation and boost America’s ability to compete in the global economy.
Earlier this week on her Made in America tour, Klobuchar visited 12 counties and made stops in Crookston, Thief River Falls, Red Lake Falls, Oslo, Hallock, Greenbush, Baudette, International Falls, Duluth, McGregor, Onamia, Mora and North Branch. Last week Klobuchar made stops at businesses in Faribault, Austin, Rochester, and Red Wing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)