“Bouncing back: Businesses report brisk holiday sales - Fosters Daily Democrat” plus 4 more |
- Bouncing back: Businesses report brisk holiday sales - Fosters Daily Democrat
- Norsat International Inc. Introduces New Spectrum Analyzer - PR Inside
- Obama’s global warming policies have few US followers – and fewer ... - Canada Free Press
- The Almanac - Sept. 8 - Post Chronicle
- A sweater tree grows in Hampden - Baltimore Sun
| Bouncing back: Businesses report brisk holiday sales - Fosters Daily Democrat Posted: 08 Sep 2009 07:31 AM PDT PORTSMOUTH — Despite predictions a late Labor Day holiday weekend would mean fewer tourists, area businesses reported better-than-expected sales as they recovered from one of the worst summers ever in terms of weather and the economy. Hotels were booked, popular restaurants had hour-long wait times, and beaches were packed like it was the middle of summer again. Even on Monday, as the 70-degree temperatures from the previous two days dipped to a more seasonal 60 degrees, beaches in Hampton and York, Maine, were crammed and free tables at restaurants were hard to come by. Visitors seemed to be making the most of the three-day holiday, after countless weekends in June and July were washed out by rain and storms. "People are making it last today," said Brent Merritt, general manager of the Union Bluff Hotel overlooking Short Sands Beach in York. He said the hotel was booked Saturday and Sunday, and there were only a handful of vacancies Friday. "We've been very busy for all three days," Merritt said. At 2 p.m. Monday, there was a 45-minute wait at the hotel's recently renovated Union Grill, he said. Lobster ravioli, pan-seared diver scallops, and braised pork shoulders flew out of the kitchen as cooks tried to keep up. In Hampton, The Sands Resort at Hampton Beach was booked Saturday and Sunday. "It was a good Labor Day weekend," said Assistant General Manager Chris Landers. A hotel employee for six years, he added this year was one of the best he's seen. Indeed, the scene in the Seacoast stood in contrast to AAA's estimate that a late Labor Day would lead to fewer tourists. The association estimated 2.2 million New Englanders would travel Labor Day weekend, down 13 percent from last year. Nationally, the association estimated a 13 percent drop in the number of people traveling at least 50 miles from home. The New Hampshire Travel and Tourism office predicted about half a million visitors would come to the Granite State during the weekend — mirroring last year's numbers. The weekend's sunny weather gave a reprieve to ice cream parlors and bicycle rental shops whose sales have drowned in wet weather. Peg Marcelonis, owner of Stillwell's Surfside Scoop on Ocean Boulevard in Hampton, reported strong sales all weekend. A line half-a-dozen customers long formed there Monday afternoon, even though the weather turned crisp and autumn-like. In Portsmouth, Storm Addison, manager of Wanderlust Bike Rentals on Marcy Street, said the bike fleet nearly sold out on Sunday. "It was our best day in a while," Addison said. "Especially in the beginning of summer, we were having a hard time starting up." He said he rented out bikes to a good number of tourists from out of state — and even out of the country. On Sunday, he said two people from India and one from Africa rented bikes. Around the corner on State Street, the newly opened Common Man restaurant had its best sales weekend so far. General Manager Erika McAllister said the holiday weekend brought in more families than usual. The most popular items were lobster corn chowder, rock crab cakes, and pan-seared jumbo scallops with orange butter, she said. The most popular dessert was key lime pie. "A great end to the summer," McAllister said. With the Old Farmer's Almanac predicting a mild fall season as the leaves start to change color, area business are hoping to build on their Labor Day weekend success. "We're looking forward to the fall," said Merritt, of the Union Bluff Hotel.
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| Norsat International Inc. Introduces New Spectrum Analyzer - PR Inside Posted: 08 Sep 2009 05:50 AM PDT 2009-09-08 14:50:03 -
Norsat International Inc. ("Norsat") (TSX: NII and OTC BB: NSATF) a leading provider of intelligent satellite solutions, announced today the introduction of the first from a new line of satellite terminal operator friendly tools - the Norsat SA-RSSI-I LNB Spectrum Analyzer- as used in Norsat's Portable Satellite Terminals. The SA-RSSI-I is a standalone compact unit that comes with its own universal power supply, which can also power a Norsat LNB. The RSSI Spectrum Analyzer has a narrow L-band (950-1700 MHz) basic 10 MHz bandwidth, to aid the operator in locating and identifying the satellite. There is also a satellite almanac tool incorporated into the SA-RSSI-I for ease of satellite identification.Dr. Amiee Chan, President and CEO of Norsat, stated, "This new offering is another first in Norsat's long- standing tradition of product leadership and innovation. The SA-RSSI Spectrum Analyzer offers a rugged and compact unit that can now be used by all satellite terminal users and operators. While Norsat terminal customers have long enjoyed the benefits of this feature on their units, we have developed this product to aid other satellite terminal users. In doing so, we seek to introduce the Norsat functionality and durability to a range of users that currently do not use Norsat satellite terminals." This product will be on show at Defence Systems & Equipment International 2009 from September 8 – 11, 2009 at ExCeL in London, UK. Norsat will be in the CADSI (Canadian Association of Defense and Security Industries) Pavilion in Booth #739A. Additional product information is available at www.norsat.com :
About Norsat International Inc. Norsat International Inc. designs, engineers and markets intelligent satellite solutions for high-speed data transmission. The company's portfolio of capabilities include: microwave components; fixed, transportable, ultra-portable, vehicle-mounted and maritime satellite systems; turnkey maritime navigation and communications systems; and end-to-end network services. Norsat is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with offices in Annapolis, Maryland; Lincoln, United Kingdom; Stockholm, Sweden; Rome, Italy; and Daejeon, South Korea. Additional information is available at www.norsat.com : Forward Looking Statements This information should be read in conjunction with Norsat's audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included therein for the three and six months ended June 30, 2009, and the Management Discussion and Analysis for the three and six months ended June 30, 2009. All of the company's financial statements are prepared in accordance with Canadian generally accepted accounting principles (Canadian GAAP). Additional information may be found at www.norsat.com : Norsat International Inc.Dr. Amiee Chan, 604-821-2808President Syho, 604-821-2838Chief Financial Officer esyho@norsat.com : mailto:esyho@norsat.com orIn the U.S.:Wolfe Axelrod Weinberger Assoc. LLCAdam P. Lowensteiner, 212-370-4500; 212-370-4505 (Fax) adam@wolfeaxelrod.com : mailto:adam@wolfeaxelrod.com |
| Obama’s global warming policies have few US followers – and fewer ... - Canada Free Press Posted: 08 Sep 2009 07:38 AM PDT Leader of noneObama's global warming policies have few US followers – and fewer on the global stageBy Paul Driessen Tuesday, September 8, 2009
The President and Al Gore are certainly ready to lead. But how many will follow? Even in America, and certainly on the world stage, the two increasingly look like Don Quixote and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza. As they tilt for windmills, and against a "monstrous giant of infamous repute" – climate disasters conjured up by computer models and Hollywood special effects masters – their erstwhile followers are making politically correct noises, but running for the hills. Unread bill creates a trillion-dollar cap-trade-and-tax industryThe House of Representatives passed a 1400-page energy and climate bill – by a razor-thin margin, and only after Nancy Pelosi and Henry Waxman packed it with enough last-minute deals to protect favored congressional districts, buy votes, and curry favor with assorted special interests. Not one legislator actually read the bill – which would create a trillion-dollar cap-trade-and-tax industry, ensure that energy and food costs "necessarily skyrocket," kill jobs, and impose an all-intrusive Green Nanny State. Republicans want to control what people do in their bedrooms, insists the old canard. Democrats, it appears, want to dictate what we do everywhere outside of our bedrooms. And Sancho Gore wants to become the world's first global warming billionaire, by selling climate indulgences, aka carbon offsets. Citizens are livid over yet another attempt to use a purported crisis to justify further expanding the government and spending billions more tax dollars for alarmist research, activism and propaganda, just ahead of the Copenhagen climate conference. Global warming continues to rank dead-last in Pew Research and other polls that actually list it as an issue. Rasmussen puts the President's approval ratings at 46% and falling. Zogby reports that 57% of Americans oppose cap-and-trade bills. Manufacturing states, which get 60-98% of their electricity from coal, worry that the only thing they'll export in ten years will be jobs. Democrat senators from those states worry that the energy and climate issue will be "toxic for them during midterm elections," says Politico magazine. Even companies that had eagerly sought seats at the negotiating table are now gagging. ConocoPhillips, Caterpillar and others finally realize that cap-and-tax will severely penalize them and their customers. Not even the climate is cooperating. Outside of Dallas, 2009 has brought some of coldest summer days on record across the US. Near freezing temperatures nipped at crops, and gas heaters were sine qua non at an August 29 outdoor wedding in Wisconsin. The Farmers Almanac predicts a brutal 2009-2010 winter. Germany plans to build 27 coal-fired electrical generating plants by 2020. Italy plans to double its reliance on coal in just five years. Europe as a whole will have 40 new coal-fired power plants by 2015, columnist Alan Caruba reports. The Polish Academy of Sciences has publicly challenged manmade global warming disaster hypotheses. And only 11% of Czech citizens believe rising carbon dioxide emissions caused global temperatures to climb 1975-1998 – and also caused them to rise 1915-1940, fall 1940-1975, then stabilize and decline again 1998-2009. Australia just voted down punitive global warming legislation. New Zealand has put its emissions-bashing program in a deep freeze. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's top economic aid bluntly dismissed any talk of following President Obama's quixotic lead. "We won't sacrifice economic growth for the sake of emission reduction," he told reporters at the July 2009 G8 meeting. Chinese and Indian leaders are equally adamant. China is playing a smart hand in this high-stakes climate poker game, drawing up plans to combat global warming sometime in the future, and gradually improve its energy efficiency and pollution control. However, it is building a new coal-fired power plant every week and putting millions of new cars on its growing network of highways. So is India, which will double its coal-based electricity generation and produce millions of Tata and other affordable cars by 2020. "India will not accept any binding emission-reduction target, period," Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has stated. "This is a non-negotiable stand." India and China have a "complete convergence" of views on these matters, Ramesh added. No wonder: 400 million Indians still do not have electricity; 500 million Chinese still do not. No electricity means no refrigeration, to keep food and medicines from spoiling. It means no water purification, to reduce baby-killing intestinal diseases. No modern heating and air conditioning, to reduce hypothermia in winter, heat stroke in summer, and lung disease year-round. It means no lights or computers, no modern offices, factories, schools, shops, clinics or hospitals. Fossil fuels are "gradually eliminating poverty in the Third world"Fossil fuels are "gradually eliminating poverty in the Third world," observes UCLA economist Deepak Lal. Any call to curb carbon emissions would "condemn billions to continued poverty. While numerous Western do-gooders shed crocodile tears about the Third World's poor, they are willing to prevent them from taking the only feasible current route out from this abject state" – oil, gas, coal, nuclear and hydroelectric energy development. The situation is intolerable, unsustainable, lethal and immoral. The only way India and China would agree to cut their emissions is if the United States cut its emissions 40% by 2020, says Ramesh – back to 1959 levels and pre-JFK living standards, when the US population was 179 million (versus 306 million today). No way will that happen. So Asian energy and economic development will continue apace. And rightly so, to foster human rights and environmental justice. All is not bleak, however, for Canute Obama's impossible dream of controlling global temperatures. British politicians remain committed to slashing CO2 emissions and replacing hydrocarbons with wind power. Unfortunately, the biggest UK wind projects have been abandoned or put on indefinite hold – and a growing demand/supply imbalance portends still higher energy prices, widespread power cuts, rolling blackouts and energy rationing, the Daily Telegraph reported on August 31. Brits may soon trade their stiff upper lips for contentious town hall meetings and ballot-box revolution. The Democratic Party of Japan's landslide victory in the August 30 election will likely create a new coalition government tilted strongly to the left. The DJP has pledged to cut carbon dioxide gas emissions 25% below 1990 levels by 2020 – though this will likely strangle economic growth and job creation, especially if one coalition partner's opposition to nuclear power becomes DJP policy. Then there is Africa, where leaders appear ready to support curbs on energy use – in exchange for up to $300 billion per year in additional foreign aid, "to cushion the impact of global warming." That will be nice for their private bank accounts, but less so for Africa's 750 million people who still don't have electricity. Those people will simply be sacrificed, to prevent natural or fictitious climate disasters. Real goal was never to control the climate. It was always to control energy use, lives, jobs, economies, transportation and housingOf course, the real goal was never to control the climate. It was always to control energy use, lives, jobs, economies, transportation and housing – and usher in a new era of high tax global governance. The American people are increasingly saying they're not ready to grant that power to Obama Gore & Company.
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Paul Driessen is a senior fellow with the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, nonprofit public policy institutes that focus on energy, the environment, economic development and international affairs. Paul Driessen is author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power, Black death Paul Can be reached at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| The Almanac - Sept. 8 - Post Chronicle Posted: 08 Sep 2009 04:32 AM PDT Today is Tuesday, Sept. 8, the 251st day of 2009 with 114 to follow. The moon is waning. The morning stars are Uranus, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn. Those born on this date are under the sign of Virgo. They include England's King Richard I, "Richard the Lion Hearted," in 1157; composer Antonin Dvorak in 1841; country music pioneer Jimmie Rodgers, "The Singing Brakeman," in 1897; U.S. Sen. Claude Pepper, D-Fla., in 1900; comedian Sid Caesar in 1922 (age 87); actor Peter Sellers in 1925; country music singer Patsy Cline in 1932; former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., in 1938 (age 71); singer Jose Feliciano in 1945 (age 64); and actors Henry Thomas ("E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial") in 1971 (age 38) and Jonathan Taylor Thomas ("Home Improvement") in 1981 (age 28). On this date in history: In 1565, the first permanent European settlement in what is now the continental United States was founded on the site of the present St. Augustine, Fla. In 1900, more than 6,000 people were killed when a hurricane and tidal wave struck Galveston, Texas. In 1935, an assassin shot U.S. Sen. Huey P. Long, D-La., at the Capitol building in Baton Rouge, La. Long died two days later. Also in 1935, 19-year-old Frank Sinatra launched his singing career when he appeared with a group called The Hoboken Four on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour radio talent show. In 1966, "Star Trek" premiered on NBC-TV. In 1974, U.S. President Gerald Ford granted former U.S. President Richard Nixon full pardon for any and all offenses he may have committed during his years in office. In 1993, the Senate approved U.S. President Bill Clinton's national-service bill, which would give participants grants for taking part in community service work. In 1994, a U.S. Airways jetliner crashed near Pittsburgh, killing 132 people. In 1998, the U.S. Justice Department opened a preliminary inquiry into U.S. President Bill Clinton's participation in Democratic fundraising for the 1996 re-election campaign. In 2005, U.S. President George Bush visited the hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast and signed a $51.8 billion bill for additional Katrina relief funds. Also in 2005, the probe into Iraq's oil-for-food program found that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's son Kojo used his father's position to profit from the project. Investigators say there was no evidence Annan knew of his son's involvement. And, more than 1,000 mourners attended the Washington funeral of the late U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who died of thyroid cancer just shy of his 81st birthday. In 2006, a U.S. Senate committee investigative report said no basis was found to link the regime of Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaida terrorist network. In 2007, the owners of a Louisiana nursing home were found innocent in the deaths of 35 residents who drowned during Hurricane Katrina. Also in 2007, U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, top U.S. troop commander in Iraq, said he supports a drawdown of 30,000 in U.S. troop levels by mid-2008. In 2008, a London jury convicted three British Muslims of conspiracy to commit murder in an alleged plot to carry out suicide bombings aboard airliners bound for the United States and Canada. Also in 2008, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he would remove troops from Georgia by mid-October and permit 200 observers from the European Union to keep watch over the conflict in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. A thought for the day: in "Middlemarch," English novelist Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) wrote, "... men know best about everything, except what women know better." (c) UPI |
| A sweater tree grows in Hampden - Baltimore Sun Posted: 08 Sep 2009 04:24 AM PDT If the Old Farmer's Almanac's prediction of a cold winter ahead is correct, at least one tree in Hampden will be snug against the blasts of wintry winds, plummeting temperatures and snow. Monday, while most folks celebrated the unofficial end of summer with a last dip at the beach, a walk in the woods or a backyard picnic, a group of Hampden knitters - young and old - were busy wrapping a flowering cherry tree on 36th Street in a knitted sweater. It replaced a sweater that had been put on last year and removed in June so the tree could "breathe" over the summer, said Sue Caldwell, owner of Lovelyarns, a Hampden yarn and knitting supply shop. "We actually made a little bikini for it for the summer, but it fell apart," said Caldwell of the tree that stands in front of her funky-colored brick rowhouse shop with a sign inviting knitters to "Come Stitch 'n Bitch, Hon!" A band of devoted knitters made the six segments of the sweater that were appropriately labeled "A" through "F" for easy assembly. "A dozen knitters altogether contributed to it, including a young girl, India Olcheforte, from Washington, who heard about and sent a piece she had made," said Caldwell. "People were free to do anything they wanted. The only thing was they had to use green, white and purple yarn." Caldwell's mother, Bea Schwartz, 84, a veteran Pikesville knitter who wasn't present for the installation, contributed the piece that girdled the lower tree trunk, and invited passers-by with the words "HUG ME" that she had worked into her design. The Hampden sweater tree is an example of an urban outdoor art movement that is called graffiti knitting, yarn bombing or yarnstorming. "It has been popularized in the U.S. by Knitta Please and is very popular in England," explained Caldwell, who was dressed in dark pants and a pink top emblazoned with the words: "Knit Happens In Hampden." Before the actual application could be made, a small branch or two had to be snipped off, so that the knitters with yarn and needles in hand could fit and sew the pieces together. Eventually, participants used a ladder to stretch the sweater into the upper areas of the tree. Caldwell was amazed at how fast the work was completed. "Many hands make light work," she said. "It took forever last year." Angel Gilmartin, 29, from Dundalk, made a quick stop to help before heading off to a Labor Day crab feast. "I'm a knitter and just had to stop by. I just love this. Isn't it so fun?" she said. Lucas Antoine, 28, a Baltimore public school Spanish teacher and knitter who described himself as a "master sewer," was high in the tree sewing the final piece into place. "This is the part I really enjoy," he said. "I think it really looks great." The knitters completed the job in under an hour, with a little encouragement from sidewalk superintendents, dog walkers and those out for a midday stroll. They also had just finished knitting 600 sweater caps that will be distributed to students at Arlington Elementary School in Pimlico, Caldwell said. Caldwell was pleased that the tree was dressed in time for next weekend's Hampdenfest. "I just hope no one decides to pour a beer on it," she said. |
"Few challenges facing America – and the world – are more urgent than combating climate change," President Obama has asserted. "We will make it clear that America is ready to lead." | You are subscribed to email updates from Almanacs - Bing News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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