LOWER UTILITY BILLS

Also many homebuilders are heavily marketing more technological design features-like extra insulation, programmable thermostats,Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,We specialize in providing third party merchant account. heat deflecting windows and rooftop solar panels -- all aimed at lowering a homebuyer's monthly utility bills.Full color plastic card printing and manufacturing services.

The environmental advantages of conservation are clear. But builders say in this economy buyers are more interested in how energy and water efficient construction will make home ownership more affordable.

KB Home is efficiency testing all of its model homes and putting a sticker on each to inform prospective buyers how much the average utility bill for that home will be, said Steve Ruffner, president of KB's Southern California division.

Other builders also are taking pains to spell out the savings buyers can expect from the energy saving features they are employing.

"I think it is what separates new homes from used homes. All of our homes are at a minimum Energy Star (rated) and that is 15 percent better than code and significantly better than a used home,This page list rubber hose products with details & specifications." said Greg McGuff, president of Lennar Homes' Inland Empire division.

Matt Brost, sales director for the new homes division of SunPower Corp., a solar system manufacturer in San Jose, said this year he has seen a significant increase in the number of Southern California builders offering solar power as standard in new communities.

Meritage Homes last month opened a single-family community in Winchester called Kona where every home has a solar system that uses the sun's power to run air conditioners and electric appliances and to provide hot water and heat in the winter.

The solar system is placed on top of houses that Meritage completely redesigned over two years to use energy and water most efficiently, said C.R. Herro,Largest Collection of billabong boardshorts, the company's vice president of environmental affairs.

Brisbane's big ahoy to a solar seafarer

It's the biggest solar-powered boat in the world and yesterday the Turanor PlanetSolar cruised into Brisbane under partly cloudy skies.

Scores of people watched from near the Riverside Centre as the impressive vessel, boasting some 8000 solar panel modules spanning an area of 540 square metres, docked just after noon.

The German-made boat has stopped over in Brisbane during its quest to be the first such vessel to circumnavigate the globe.

The $16 million Turanor PlanetSolar aims to prove solar energy is reliable and effective.

The brainchild of Swiss businessman and electrical engineer Raphael Domjan, Turanor stores energy in batteries which can power its electric motors without sunlight for three days at 7.5 knots.

Everything on the boat runs off solar power, except for the gas-fired stove.
The Turanor PlanetSolar boasts 500 square metres of solar panels.

The Turanor PlanetSolar boasts 500 square metres of solar panels. Photo: Daniel Hurst

Although lack of sunlight can be overcome, the ship can strike difficulty in high winds.

Crew members said the ship ran into tough conditions off the coast as it made its way towards Brisbane,Has anyone done any research on making Plastic molding parts from scratch? with 40-knot winds proving a challenge.

Brisbane couple Rolf and Christel Schafer,What are the top Hemroids treatments? who saw the ship when on holiday in Hamburg a year ago, watched the arrival from the side of the Brisbane River.
The 31-metre Turanor PlanetSolar approaches her berth at Brisbane'se Riverside Centre.

The 31-metre Turanor PlanetSolar approaches her berth at Brisbane'se Riverside Centre. Photo: Daniel Hurst

Mr Schafer, a ship builder by trade, said the design was fantastic.

Mrs Schafer said the couple had just installed solar panels on their own roof so they too would be harnessing the power of the sun.

The word Turanor,Largest Collection of billabong boardshorts, meaning "power of the sun",Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, is derived from J.R.R.We processes for both low-risk and high risk merchant account. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

Since leaving Monaco on September 27, Turanor has already broken two records: fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by solar boat and longest distance ever covered by a solar electric vehicle.

It has covered more 15,000 nautical miles, more than half of its journey, and arrived in Brisbane after crossing the Pacific via the Panama Canal.

The 31-metre-long catamaran last stopped 10 days ago in Noumea. It is bound for Cairns next.

Queensland Energy Minister Stephen Robertson, welcoming the vessel to Brisbane, said the state government was working to develop solar power technology.

"The ultimate aim with solar power is for the cost to come down to make it a viable economically rational alternative to coal power," he said.

Choose bream bait based on production / 'yuck!' ratio

Live bait is a necessary evil of bream fishing, especially in the spring when bluegill are on the beds.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, there's a legion of fly fishermen who say casting a fly is the way to go.

But for most fishermen, it's either crickets or a live wiggler - redworm, nightcrawler,Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, catalpa or meal worm.

The cricket vs.What are the top Hemroids treatments? worm argument is an old one, and not one that will be argued here today ... well maybe a little. They both have their advantages, and their disadvantages.

Crickets are cheaper than worms, and they have less of the "yuck" factor.

But, worms can't jump, and if they escape their container, they are slow to make their getaway. If one or two get away,Largest Collection of billabong boardshorts, they simply die, dry up and that's that, as yucky as it is.

Crickets live in the boat in the garage and chirp all night until they ..We processes for both low-risk and high risk merchant account.. heck, they never shut up.

And there's this: There are two kinds of cricket fishermen, those who have had a cricket jump in their mouths or down their shirts, and those who will have one jump in their mouths or down their shirts.

It's even worse if the wife is involved, and in a soon-to-be-turned-over boat.

That said, a cricket in the mouth still beats worm guts on the hands, shirts, pants, the boat, the ice chest, sandwiches ...

It's true that when the bream aren't bedding and are scattered across the bottom in deeper areas of the lake, worms are indeed the best bet. They just work better when bream are feeding by sense of smell.Replacement Projector Lamp and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide.

When either will do, crickets are my choice.

But what if a third option, say an artificial scent-impregnated cricket, is available?
Real vs. fake test ...

Last summer, among the product samples to cross my desk was a jar of soft-plastic crickets. Came from Berkley as one of the latest in their successful line of Gulp baits, an array of lures that have natural scent and - I am guessing here - taste.

The literature suggested that the combination of the natural attractants and soft plastic (therefore, longer lasting) made them as good as or a better choice than the real thing.

Wedge happy with Mariners' resiliency

BALTIMORE -- Mariners manager Eric Wedge did not expect any fallout from Tuesday's near bench-clearing brawl in the 10th inning against Baltimore.

Orioles outfielder Felix Pie bumped Mariners first baseman Justin Smoak after being tagged out on a slow roller. The two exchanged words and both benches cleared, but no punches were thrown, and there were no ejections.

Even though the incident was downplayed, Wedge liked the way his team responded in the tight ballgame. The Orioles eventually scored two runs in the 13th inning for a 7-6 victory.

"You gotta take care of your teammates," Wedge said. "You got to be there for each other. It pretty much was what it was -- nothing more, nothing less, really."

Wedge was especially impressed the way his team overcame a couple of deficits and took the lead in the 13th.

"You don't go right to sleep right after a game like that," Wedge said. "It was an exciting game. The kind of one you love to win and hate to lose. There were some good things that happened, and some things that were not so good. I think we continue to see more from our guys, and find out a little more about our guys in different types of situations."
Ray settling down after rough start

BALTIMORE -- Mariners reliever Chris Ray impressed manager Eric Wedge by shutting down the Orioles after inheriting a tough jam in the 12th inning of Tuesday night's game.

Ray replaced Aaron Laffey with runners on first and second and no outs. Ray responded by retiring Matt Wieters on a fly ball and striking out Mark Reynolds. After J.J. Hardy loaded the bases with an infield single, Ray struck out Brian Roberts to end the threat.

Ray, who was once the closer for the Orioles, is 1-1 with a 11.88 ERA this season, but he has given up just one earned run in his past three games. Wedge is hoping the right-hander has turned the corner.

"Obviously, that's the best we've seen him throw this year -- in a very tight situation too," Wedge said. "Working through that the way he did and making them swing and miss against some pretty good hitters was good to see."

Wedge also expressed confidence in Brandon League, who blew his first save in 10 chances Tuesday night. League is 0-2 with a 22.50 ERA in his last two games.

However, League led all American League relievers in wins last season with nine, and he did not allow an earned run in 55 of 70 games.

"The ball bounces funny sometimes," Wedge said. "[League] has been fantastic. He's a valuable guy. He has a bulldog mentality out there, and that's why I like him."

Overall, Wedge said the bullpen is a work in progress.

"You're always working to get better in the bullpen," Wedge said. "You got guys who are at the top of their game, and you got guys who are working to get there. The bullpen is going to fluctuate over the course of the year, and continue to evolve. You got to have guys who you know what you're getting."

Millburn forum weighs charter schools impact

Mariners rookie outfielder Mike Wilson woke up to almost 100 text messages after getting his first Major League hit Tuesday in the series opener against Baltimore.

At his locker before Wednesday's game, the messages were still pouring in. Wilson was a second-round Draft pick by the Mariners in 2001, and he finally made his debut Tuesday with the big league club.

The 27-year-old rookie then had a go-ahead RBI with a broken-bat single in the 13th inning. He also threw a potential game-winning run out at the plate in the same frame before the Orioles scored twice for a 7-6 victory.


"It was a real big first hit," Wilson said. "It put us in the lead. It was a well-fought game. Fortunately, I got that first hit and it was a big RBI."

Wilson's hit was replayed far and wide throughout the night. He was also able to retrieve the ball and the broken bat to keep as mementos. He plans to send those keepsakes home to his family in Oklahoma.

Wilson batted .381 with four home runs and 14 RBIs in 16 games with Triple-A Tacoma before being called up. He said he is trying not to put too much pressure on himself at the Major League level.

While he was not in the starting lineup Wednesday, he was still in the batting cage taking extra swings, in case his number was called.

"You just try to keep doing what you're doing, and not put too much pressure on yourself," Wilson said. "To me, it's almost the same game. I just can't put too much pressure on myself. The talent will take care of itself."

RBNY Fan Take: Montreal Impact Beat New York Red Bulls 1-0 in Friendly

Red Bulls fans waiting for Wednesday night's game to begin commented that an Internet stream was better than no video feed at all. By game's end, those same fans were no longer sure such a statement was true.

The Montreal Impact defeated the Red Bulls 1-0 in a friendly that took place north of the border on Wednesday. A full game recap can be found here.

The stream: The Internet-only video was not as bad as I feared on Tuesday. The quality also wasn't very good. The pregame show had zero audio, presumably because it aired in French. Even still, it would have been nice if such a fact was acknowledged by the two commentators. Those gentlemen actually stole the show for Red Bulls fans discussing the game on Twitter and the in-game chat. The two men, both of whom remained nameless throughout the 90+ minutes of action, both mocked the Montreal club and discussed what they would eat as the national anthems played at the arena, not realizing that they were on the air at the time. The play-by-play announcer did his best Jon Miller impersonation all evening long, throwing out his best Spanish and French accents whenever he pronounced names such as Juan Agudelo and Thierry Henry. "Dear commentator, pick an accent. Don't be American the whole time and then bust out with Teeeeahree Aaaaaanreeee," one fan commented on Twitter.

The video quality was subpar and the Full Screen view covered less than half of the actual computer screen. The audio, while unintentionally hilarious at times, was three to five seconds behind the action throughout the entire match. By the time the final whistle blew around 9:40 pm ET, less than 1,300 viewers had survived from start to finish. I certainly don't blame anybody for choosing the Celtics vs. Heat game over the last 20 minutes of this particular soccer match.

The game: Those that missed out on Wednesday's friendly involving the Red Bulls missed nothing at all. The New York players on the pitch were clearly in second gear from the start, trying to conserve energy while not embarrassing themselves or the Montreal Impact. The Red Bulls actually slowed down further after Thierry Henry's goal in the 35 th minute was waved off due to the striker being ruled offside. Those watching the game were never treated to a replay but the commentators and fans online all seemed to agree that the goal should have been allowed. Montreal struck just two minutes later when Ali Gerba buried an impressive header past keeper Greg Sutton, who was very unsure of himself in Wednesday's friendly.

The evening has to be considered a success for the 2012 MLS expansion club. The Impact players looked understandably nervous during the first 20 minutes of the match, but they eventually settled into a groove en route to scoring the only goal of the contest. Over 12,500 fans made their way to Saputo Stadium for what was essentially a meaningless exhibition contest. That's not bad considering the attendance at some Major League Soccer arenas during regular season matches. I won't name any such arenas here.

Overall: For Montreal soccer fans, this was a chance for their club to play against and impress one of the best teams in all of MLS. New York fans, however, were thoroughly bored, so much so that many simply logged off the stream once the halftime whistle blew. If nothing else, Wednesday's match was a reminder that having a club play a friendly in between two regular season matches in a span of eight days probably isn't a good idea;

for the team or the fans.

Wilson batted

Mariners rookie outfielder Mike Wilson woke up to almost 100 text messages after getting his first Major League hit Tuesday in the series opener against Baltimore.

At his locker before Wednesday's game, the messages were still pouring in. Wilson was a second-round Draft pick by the Mariners in 2001, and he finally made his debut Tuesday with the big league club.

The 27-year-old rookie then had a go-ahead RBI with a broken-bat single in the 13th inning. He also threw a potential game-winning run out at the plate in the same frame before the Orioles scored twice for a 7-6 victory.


"It was a real big first hit," Wilson said. "It put us in the lead. It was a well-fought game. Fortunately, I got that first hit and it was a big RBI."

Wilson's hit was replayed far and wide throughout the night. He was also able to retrieve the ball and the broken bat to keep as mementos. He plans to send those keepsakes home to his family in Oklahoma.

Wilson batted .381 with four home runs and 14 RBIs in 16 games with Triple-A Tacoma before being called up. He said he is trying not to put too much pressure on himself at the Major League level.

While he was not in the starting lineup Wednesday, he was still in the batting cage taking extra swings, in case his number was called.

"You just try to keep doing what you're doing, and not put too much pressure on yourself," Wilson said. "To me, it's almost the same game. I just can't put too much pressure on myself. The talent will take care of itself."

COURAGE Had Little Impact on Drug Tx in PCI

Publication of the results of the COURAGE trial appears to have had little effect on real-world use of optimal medical therapy before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and at discharge in patients with stable coronary artery disease, researchers found.

COURAGE, presented at the American College of Cardiology meeting in March 2007, showed that adding PCI to optimal medical therapy did not reduce the rate of death or MI compared with optimal medical therapy alone in patients with stable coronary artery disease.

In this current study of more than 460,000 patients, the percentage who received optimal medical therapy with an antiplatelet agent, a beta-blocker, and a statin before PCI actually increased slightly -- from 43.5% to 44.7% -- after COURAGE was reported (P<0.001), according to William Borden, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, and colleagues.

The proportion who received optimal medical therapy at discharge after PCI also rose slightly, from 63.5% to 66% (P<0.001), the researchers reported in the May 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Although the changes were statistically significant, both had marginal clinical significance, the authors noted.

"Collectively, these findings suggest a significant opportunity for improvement and a limited effect of an expensive, highly publicized clinical trial on routine clinical practice," they wrote.

In addition, they wrote, the findings "support a call for innovations in how optimal medical therapy is incorporated into interventional strategies and for improving the translation of clinical evidence into practice."

Borden and his colleagues looked at data from the CathPCI Registry, which is part of the National Cardiovascular Data Registry. They included information on 467,211 patients from 1,012 hospitals who presented without an acute coronary syndrome for elective PCI from Sept. 1, 2005, to June 30, 2009.

Optimal medical therapy before PCI was defined as having a prescription for or a documented contraindication to aspirin, a beta-blocker, and a statin. The definition was similar at discharge, although the antiplatelet drug could be either aspirin or a thienopyridine.

Overall, optimal medical therapy was used in 44.2% of patients before PCI and in 65% at discharge; both rates were higher in patients with known cardiovascular disease and increased slightly from before to after the COURAGE results were reported in March 2007.

"Our study demonstrated that less than half of patients undergoing PCI are taking optimal medical therapy before their procedure, despite the guideline-based recommendations to maximize [such therapy] and the clinical logic of doing so before PCI so that the need for additional symptom relief from revascularization can be appreciated," the authors wrote.

Although a recent study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes found that publication of the COURAGE results was associated with a decline in the use of PCI for patients with stable coronary artery disease in New England, Borden and his colleagues wrote that "our findings demonstrate a continued opportunity to improve care among those patients who do receive PCI."

That responsibility, they added, should fall to both the interventional cardiologist and the patient's primary care physician.

"The findings ... demonstrate the need for continuous research in the medical field, specifically for the improvement of medical therapy before and after PCI," commented David Holmes, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in a statement.

"The study also shows us there is a need to improve how the results of comparative effectiveness research are distributed and become features of care, and how research is translated to practice," said Holmes, who is president of the American College of Cardiology.

The authors acknowledged some limitations of the study, including the use of data from centers that chose to participate in the registry, the possibility that medication contraindications were underdocumented, and the inability of the registry to capture cases in which clinicians recommended optimal medical therapy to referring physicians but did not implement the guidance themselves.

Design, Keyboard, and Call Quality

The Samsung Replenish, Sprint's first eco-friendly Android cell phone, is a relatively rare beast: a BlackBerry-like, slab-style Android phone with a physical keyboard. The world needs more of those, and the Replenish's green cred helps add to its attraction. But it's too sluggish, with short battery life and an awful low-res screen, and we just can't recommend it to anyone for those reasons.

The Replenish measures 4.8 by 2.4 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.1 ounces. It's made entirely of plastic; I tested a black version, although you can also get one that has the lower keyboard portion in bright blue. Sprint is promising a pink version for June. While the phone itself doesn't feel cheap, the plastic 2.8-inch touch screen is awful. It's too small, it's unresponsive, and it's too dim, with flat colors. Worse, its 240-by-320-pixel (QVGA) resolution is cramped and tough to read. Small text always looks fuzzy. Four thin, plastic buttons sit in between the screen and the keyboard. These are tough to press and wobbled a bit in their perches when I tried.


OS, Apps, and Multimedia

The Replenish sports a sluggish 600 MHz Qualcomm MSM7627 CPU and runs Android 2.2 (Froyo); Samsung has not announced a date for an upgrade to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). There's one MSM7627-based Android phone that feels speedy, the LG Optimus One, aka the LG Optimus S (Free, 4 stars) on Sprint. But otherwise it can be hard to work up a head of steam with this processor, and the Replenish fails to do so. Sprint ID lets you download custom app packs from Sprint, including a green themed one. But these tend to fill the phone menu and home screens with bloatware. Aside from that, you get all the usual Android 2.2 features, including a powerful browser, push e-mail, good Facebook and Twitter apps, and free GPS navigation.

But using this handset simply isn't satisfying. It's not just the fuzzy fonts; you can't fit much of a Web page on the screen at once, for example. Some apps are missing from Android Market, including most of our usual benchmarks, as they aren't compatible with the super-low-res screen. One loaded, but then crashed immediately. Portions of the menu system, such as Settings and Bluetooth, are difficult to use because you can only see a couple of options at a time on screen; get ready to scroll up and down often. Android just doesn't work on a 320-by-240 screen.

There's a standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack on top, and a microSD memory card slot underneath the battery cover. Samsung includes a 2GB card, and my 32GB SanDisk card worked fine. There's also 135MB of free internal storage. Music tracks sounded a little muffled through Samsung Modus HM6450 Bluetooth headphones ($99, 4 stars). The stock Android player displayed small album art thumbnails. Standalone videos only played back properly if they matched the Replenish's native screen resolution; otherwise, they either didn't show up in the gallery, or generated an error message if one did and I tapped on it.

10 ways to avoid creeping credit card debt

Over the past decades, U.S. revolving household debt – debt from sources such as credit cards – has gone up and up. Through the 1960s, revolving debt was so unusual that the government did not track it. In 1968, the first year it was tracked, revolving household debt for all U.S. households was $1.3 billion. Today, it's almost $800 billion, and the average household that carries revolving debt owes about $15,000.

The good news? The total U.S. revolving household debt is actually down 17 percent from the all-time high of $973 trillion in fall 2008, just before the Great Recession started.

Yet a new danger arises as people get out of debt. Some people find they have worked hard to get out of debt – or dramatically lower it – only to find themselves back in debt a few years later. How does debt sneak back up on people, and what can you do to keep it at bay? Here are some suggestions to stay out of debt once you get there:

1 Budget, budget, budget. Calculate what comes in and what goes out of your budget. Then find a way to live within your means, without plastic. Some people succeed by breaking their monthly income into weekly increments. That way, if you overspend one week, you have the next week to recover. Others switch to cash only. Removing credit cards from your wallet (and from near your computer) can help make it impossible to overspend on credit.

2 Don't use rewards as an excuse to go into debt. A study last year by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago found that when people sign up for a credit card that offers rewards, their spending and their debt increase. In fact, their debt usually goes up faster than their spending. The reason? Their payments don't go up, even when they spend more. The solution: Do not let rewards motivate you to charge more credit card debt. If you do not pay off the debt each month, the interest you pay will likely cost more than what you earn in rewards – potentially a lot more.

3 Borrowing money isn't getting out of debt. What is debt? Borrowed money, of course. But some people think a good way to get out of debt is to borrow more. For instance, they might take out a personal loan or a home equity loan to pay off credit card bills. The problem? All too often, they start charging to their credit cards again, while also having to pay off the old debt.