15 Sep

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Gradual Revolution of Automobile Industry

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Cars are being upgraded daily

Ever since the first motor vehicle was produced, inventors, engineers, designers and scientists have striven to improve them using the latest technology and materials. As time has passed, we have seen and experienced many changes in design and development to give us today’s motor vehicles. Learning from those early designs, and with today’s manufacturing skills, vehicle manufacturers can now produce motor vehicles that use very strong but lightweight materials in their structure and drive train. Many innovative materials are also now used in vehicle manufacture, some of which are recyclable, which helps reduce costs and reduces the environmental impact of the industry.

As we now live in a world of electronic technology, the motor vehicle has become a designer’s dream in providing systems that continue to improve the protection of its occupants, provide stability and economy and also take interior comfort to new levels of refinement. Packaged with this, we now have engines and transmissions that are high performance, environmentally friendly and economical to run, giving today’s drivers an exciting all-round driving experience with a very high level of safety. Whatever the level of comfort or performance whether it be tires to Formula 1 high performance traction tires we are in the midst of a motor car renaissance. The following sections outline the fundamentals in vehicle construction and design on which the reader can build their understanding of the latest developments.

Vehicle evolution

Early days

At a very early stage in human history people must have realised that the human body was severely limited in terms of the loads it could carry and the distance it could carry them. Furthermore, it is safe to assume that the physical exertion involved was no more to people’s liking then than it is today.

Much progress was achieved through the domestication of suitable animals to enable heavier loads to be carried greater distances, often at greater speeds than people were capable of attaining. There was the added advantage that, as most of the effort was provided by the animal, the people could travel at their ease and in relative comfort.

At first, heavy loads were dragged upon sledges until an early and unknown engineer Invented the wheel. This made it possible to construct crude carts upon which even heavier loads could be carried more easily. The one drawback to the use of wheeled vehicles was – and still is – the necessity of providing a reasonably smooth and hard surface upon which the wheels could run. The development of wheeled vehicles, therefore, Is closely related to the development of roads.

As new materials and manufacturing methods were developed, it became possible to make improvements in vehicles, but as long as animals were the only form of motive power it was not possible to significantly increase loads and speeds. The development of the steam engine during the 18th and 19th centuries led to Its application to the driving of vehicles, and though some of the early attempts were crude and not very successful, several extremely promising carriages were produced. These might have been developed into very practical vehicles had not restrictive legislation forced them off the roads. In any case, the steam engine proved less suited to road vehicles than it did to the railway. It was the successful development of the light, high-speed internal-combustion engine towards the end of the 19th century that really opened up the way to the power-driven road vehicle, and that made possible the development of the modern motor car, truck, bus and coach.

Development of layout

Figure 1.1 Wheel arrangements for simple vehicle layout

Motor vehicles were developed from horse-drawn carriages – they were, In fact, originally called ‘horseless carriages’ – and naturally owed something of their general form to those carriages. For instance, the system of four wheels arranged one at each end of two transverse axles so that their points of contact with the ground are at the corners of a rectangle (see Figure 1.la) has been used on carts and wagons since time immemorial and is still by far the commonest arrangement. While three wheels are sufficient to give stability, they do not provide so much ‘useful space’ for a given amount of road space taken up (compare Figure l.la with Figure Lib).

Figure 1.2 One incovenience of rear-wheel wheel steering

The horse was invariably put in front of the cart, to put) it rather than push it, to allow the animal to see where it was going and the driver to keep an eye on the horse. The driver steered the vehicle through shafts attached to a front axle, which could pivot about its centre, and when it came to replacing the horse by an engine, it was natural that front-wheel steering should be retained, at least for a while. It was not long, however, before vehicles with rear-wheel steering were tried, but it was soon found that rear-wheel steering had disadvantages that ruled it out for general use. For example, a vehicle steered by its rear wheels would steer to the right by deflecting its rear end to the left, making it impossible to drive away forwards from a position close to a wall or kerb (see Figure 1.2). A rear-wheel-steered car moving at any speed and coming alongside a wall, kerb, ditch or another vehicle could very easily find itself in a situation in which a collision could not be avoided.

The swivelling axle arrangement is not very satisfactory for powered vehicles, partly because a good deal of space must be left for the axle and wheels to swivel. Also, if one wheel strikes an obstruction, such as a large stone, it is extremely difficult, without the leverage of the long shafts, to prevent the axle swivelling about its pivot, causing the vehicle to swerve off the road. An alternative arrangement, whereby the wheels were carried on stub axles free to pivot at the ends of a fixed axle, had already been used on some horse carriages, and this was soon adopted for motor vehicles.

Cars are being upgraded daily

When it came to using mechanical power to drive vehicles, it was natural that the power should be applied to the non-steerable wheels, since the problem of driving these is simpler than powering the driving wheels which have also to be swivelled for steering purposes. This explains why in the past, rear-wheel drive was universally adopted. The increased load on the rear wheels when climbing hills or accelerating gives a better grip, making rear-wheel drive attractive. Front-wheel drive vehicles lose this advantage, so under these conditions the wheels spin more easily.

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13 Sep

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Wines in Spain – Rioja Region

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The best land to produce wine

WHY RIOJA?

Is it the gorgeous raspberry freshness of the Tempranillo grape, turned into joven wine in the mountains of Alava for drinking after Christmas, and made in a manner the Romans would still recognize? Perhaps it’s the peppery spiciness of new American oak matched to the ripe fruit of a distant, long, golden autumn. Or is it the cigar-box subtlety and restrained but irresistible power of a gran reserve from one of the great years as it approaches its maturity?

Rioja wine regions

For all of these reasons and many more, the world in general – northern Europe and America in particular – has grown to love the wines of Rioja. An unlikely miscegenation of centuries-old rural winemaking tradition and early “new technology” from Bordeaux; sufficient altitude to cool the vineyards; the right mix of clay, chalk, and iron in the soil; and a natural disaster at a conveniently situated border took Rioja wine from the relative obscurity of being merely the best red wine produced in Spain to being one of the world’s greatest wines. This was achieved in the space of a century and a half – relatively quickly in wine terms in the days before the real “new technology” discovered that it could create vineyards from desert and have wine on the shelves in little over three years.

Rioja Wine

In many ways, it is the gentle evolution of Rioja that has underpinned its success. The style has been fashionable and unfashionable, and then fashionable again; indeed, it probably changed as much in the last quarter of the twentieth century as it did in the second half of the nineteenth, but we do the wine an injustice to think of it as a Victorian conjuring trick. Wine from anywhere in the “Old World” is a product of what nature provides combined with the ingenuity of the local people and, perhaps most importantly of all, the available sources and nature of food available to those people. If we look at the history of this turbulent area (and we shall be doing that in a great deal more detail later on), we can pick out three major factors that govern the way a wine evolves.

Climatic effect

The first is climatic. The reason that Bordeaux and Burgundy, at their finest, make wines which are unrivalled in the world is that they are on the northern limit of quality red wine viticulture. The vine’s natural struggles, the microclimatic interstices of the Cote d’Or, and the well-drained, gravelly soils of the Gironde estuary are the foundations of the wine in those few great years when nature really does deliver perfect flowering, sufficient summer rains, a long, hot autumn, and ideal weather for the harvest. Add to this combination tried-and-tested grapes which have grown in the soils of their respective regions perhaps for centuries, plus up to a thousand vintages or more of trial and error in the vineyard and the winery, and you have a formula which can (and occasionally does) produce wines that positively sing with health, vitality, and the sheer joy of quality.

Rioja wine lands

The Rioja wine lands are much further south, and might therefore be expected to form a more reliable source of red wine, year in and year out. Sheltered as they are to the north by the Cantabrian Mountains, the climate is more Continental, with hotter, drier summers and shorter, colder winters. Further south and east in Spain, indeed, the vineyards used to bake in the summer heat as the grapes dried and shrivelled on the vine, but Rioja has the benefit of altitude. Alfaro in the Rioja Baja is 301 metres (988 feet) above sea level: hot, with sandy soils and an ideal climate for the hardy Garnacha grape. Logrono, at the southern boundary of the Rioja Alta, is at 384 metres (1,260 feet); heading northwards from here the land climbs, the soil becomes more complex, and Tempranillo and Graciano start to take over the land from Garnacha and Mazuelo.

Rioja farmland

Haro is only forty-four kilometres (twenty miles) from Logrono, but its altitude is 479 metres (1,572 feet). Across the river Ebro in the Rioja Alavesa, Laguardia is at 635 metres (2,083 feet); at this height, microclimates became all-important. A good example is the Granja Nuestra Sefiora de Remelluri at Labastida. Tucked right under the mountain range, its vineyards are on three levels just a few metres apart in terms of altitude, but the difference is such that the grapes on each level ripen almost exactly a week apart, so the harvest can be gathered at optimum ripeness with each section collected in turn. A typical Rioja house blend is able to source its grapes from these cool, highland vineyards, the hot, sandy south, and anywhere in between. This has also helped to give the wine consistency – a real benefit in export terms.

Perfect land

The best land to produce wine

The vine’s natural struggles, the microclimatic interstices of the Cote d’Or, and the well-drained, gravelly soils of the Gironde estuary are the foundations of the wine in those few great years when nature really does deliver perfect flowering, sufficient summer rains, a long, hot autumn, and ideal weather for the harvest. Add to this combination tried-and-tested grapes which have grown in the soils of their respective regions perhaps for centuries, plus up to a thousand vintages or more of trial and error in the vineyard and the winery, and you have a formula which can (and occasionally does) produce wines that positively sing with health, vitality, and the sheer joy of quality.

Considering all of these, the regions are just perfect to produce wines of the top-notch qualities. No scope for a doubt obviously. So why being late? Pack up and rush! Rioja is waiting for you!!

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25 Aug

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Zambian Government Policy Cuts

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Screenshot_2

International News on Africa by News Service IPS, Chicago Standard Newspapers
Originally posted 6/28/2003


Zambian President, Cabinet Take Pay Cut

LUSAKA, Zambia (IPS/GIN)-Zambia’s President Levy Mwanawasa and his cabinet members have accepted an immediate 30 percent pay cut to help reduce government spending, announced Vice President Nevers Mumba.

The cut-which will reduce the president’s salary from $715 (3,360,000 kwachas) to $500 (2,352,000 kwachas)-comes just months after parliament voted through a pay increase for those now affected.

Now the government’s 2003 budget is facing a $128 million deficit, caused in part by underestimating the impact of pay raises and housing benefits made to public service workers, Vice President Mumba says. He also said that to pay off this deficit, the treasury would either have to print more money-and risk hyper inflation-or borrow from the private sector or IMF. Neither move appeals to the government. And, Mumba says, the deficit could not be sustained by Zambia’s small economy.

The budget deficit constitutes 3 percent of the GDP of Zambia, a country where the average annual wage is $320 and more than three quarters of the population lives on less than $1 per day. Mumba added, ”We will soon announce other measures aimed at reducing government expenditure.”
Rwanda Genocide Suspects Face New Accusations

Rwandan government rearrest 5,770 genocide suspects KIGALI, Rwanda (IRIN)

The Rwandan government has rearrested 5,770 genocide suspects who had been provisionallyreleased in early 2003, an official in the Ministry of Justice told IRIN.

They were rearrested after fresh allegations were made against them, Hannington Tayebwa, head of judicial services in the ministry, said. The allegations were made in two reports by IBUKA, an umbrella organization that groups associations of the 1994 genocide survivors, he said. ”We had to arrest them as we embark on investigations into these new accusations,” he said.

Tayebwa said some who had confessed to killing one person were now being accused of killing more than three. ”We need time to verify these facts,” he added.

The rearrests began in May with 787 being held soon after they left camps where they had undergone three months of reintegration and rehabilitation. The suspects were taken from their homes back to prison, Tayebwa said. They were among 22,567 suspects who completed the training in camps across the country. Most had spent between seven and eight years in prison awaiting trial for genocide-related crimes.

In January, President Paul Kagame issued a decree provisionally releasing up to 25,000 suspects, mainly the elderly and the sick as well as those who were minors during the genocide. Genocide survivor groups had criticized the provisional release of the suspects, saying that those pardoned could intimidate survivors into silence, jeopardizing the planned Gacaca communal courts, due to begin operating shortly.

Program Helps African Girls Fight Sexual Harassment in Schools

NAIROBI (IPS/GIN)-Girls in African schools often face sexual harassment, such as having their grades lowered if they refuse the sexual advances of a male teacher, says Prof. Penina Mlama, executive director of the Nairobi-based Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE).

But even though schemes such as FAWE’s ”Tuseme” (”Speak Out”) scheme is helping to protect girls in six African countries, Mlama says that sexual harassment is still ”a very, very serious problem indeed.” ”And to tell you the truth,” she adds, ”it’s getting worse.” The consequences for the girls can include suffering gradeS, an inability to concentrate at school, and, for some, pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/Aids. FAWE continues to expand its ”Speak Out” program, which currently operates in a number of schools in Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and Tanzania, and it has recently been started in Gambia and Namibia.

”Speak Out,” says Mlama, aims to empower girls and encourages them to confront and then report teachers who sexually harass them. Although few male teachers are ever prosecuted, she says, ”The cases of sexual harassment have diminished very, very rapidly in the schools where we have these programs.”

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25 Aug

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A Fable Technology or Truth?

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chess-strategy

Once upon a time there was a businessman named Bob who had a thriving company and many happy employees. Bob was a good boss who treated his staff well and always tried to give them whatever they needed to do their jobs right. Bob’s employees worked hard to serve their customers well, and the customers liked and respected Bob and his employees and bought their products often. The customers were happy because the employees did such good work for them and were always on time delivering their products. The employees were happy because Bob treated them well and paid them well and did everything he could to make their jobs easier and more enjoyable. Bob was happy because his customers and his employees were happy, and everyone in the company made plenty of money.

Bob was visited by the Computer Man one day. The Computer Man was a tall handsome man with flashing eyes and a high forehead. He wore a wizard’s cloak and hat and spoke in a strange language that Bob couldn’t understand.

“Optimum productivity throughput can only be achieved with digital technologies” the Computer Man said. “You’ll need thirty-two bit processing at every workstation with high speed magnetic and optical storage, high-res video and a ten mega-bit-per-second full duplex LAN, bridged to the Internet on a T-1 pipe and protected by a firewall to achieve even rudimentary enhancements to overall productivity.”

“What does that mean?” asked Bob.

“It means you’re not as happy as you could be” said the Computer Man, “and if you buy my Magic Computers, you and your employees will be much happier.”

Bob wanted his employees to be as happy as they could be, so the next Monday morning the employees came to work and found computers on all their desks. Bob had bought Magic Computers for everyone in the company, just as the Computer Man had advised him, and they had all the things the Computer Man had talked about. The computers were beautiful, and they worked exactly as the Computer Man had said they would. When you turned them on, they made sweet music and had beautiful colorful pictures on their screens.

“These computers will make us more productive” Bob told his employees. “They will make our work easier, we will make more money, and we’ll all be happier than we ever were before.”

Everyone thanked Bob and went back to their work. At lunch time everyone talked about what a thoughtful boss Bob was and how nice he was to spend so much money on the Magic Computers just to help them.

But soon nobody was happier or more productive and the work was harder than before. The computers worked fine and were very fast and could do all kinds of fancy things, but no one knew how to use them. Work took longer to finish. Customers were unhappy because Bob’s once-respected company wasn’t providing the good, quick service they once did. The employees were frustrated and worked extra-long hours, and for the first time ever, they were unhappy with their jobs at Bob’s company.

Bob was the most unhappy of all. He had spent a great deal of money on the Magic Computers and needed to make even more money to pay the cost. He hoped the new computers would make the work easier so that people could do more work and make more money, but now the work seemed to be harder. Bob’s company was making less money – not more. Bob started coming to work every day more angry and frustrated than the day before. The employees were also angry and frustrated, so no one was any happier than they were before the Magic Computers.

One day Bob got very angry and began shouting at his employees “If we don’t make more money soon, we’ll go broke! I bought you all Magic Computers! I don’t know why you can’t be more productive!” he complained loudly.

“I know why” said Sally the Stock Girl.

“What?” said Bob. “You know what’s wrong? What is it Sally? Tell me before we all go broke!”

“We need the help of my three friends, Prospero, Titian and Santiago” said Sally.

“Who are they?” asked Bob.

“They’re Elves.”

“Elves? You mean little ugly guys with pointy ears and funny clothes?” Bob shouted. “Don’t make me laugh! We don’t need help from the likes of them. I’ll go see the Computer Man again – he’ll know what to do.”

“If you say so” said Sally sadly.

So Bob went to see the Computer Man again. Back at the Computer Man’s Magic Castle, Bob told his sad tale of lost productivity and general unhappiness.

“Ah, I see your trouble” the Computer Man said, “I forgot to sell you the Magic Keyboards!”

Filed Under: Featured, Technology

25 Aug

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Technology and Today

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Digital-Age

Our Lives are Changing Forver

Technology is becoming more pervasive in our lives. Businesses and other organizations are implementing more technology every day in an attempt to get ahead or simply keep up with competition. Take inventions like radar detectors and more specifically the escort passport9500ix.

A quick look around on forums and other blogs will tell you this product will save you a fortune on speeding fines if your the type of driver to speed every now and again.If you need more info on this product head on over to http://www.my5starproductreviews.com/escortpassport9500ix/ and read the review yourself it will save you money.

New Age Techno

Even individuals and families are using technology to handle common tasks like banking and communication. We are purchasing computers, networks, Internet services, cell phones, pagers and other tools at an increasing rate.

As we continue to “digitize” our lives, I have noticed that some important factors often get overlooked. We buy machines, and software and services, but we often forget to define our purpose, train ourselves and our employees and support them in the daily use of technology. Studies by the Stanford Computer Industry Project and other research organizations have shown that the lack of productivity attributed to technology is often a result of improper use – not due to problems with the technology itself.

That’s where New State Technology can help. Our focus is with the “other half” of the technology equation – people. Our services are designed to help people gains the skills and understanding needed to use technology effectively and reap the rewards that the new tools promise us.

Please look through our site to see how we can help you. The pages in the “About Us” section give the best overview of how we can help you get the most out of your technology investment. To see how we have already served other clients, please review our Announcements section.

If you have about ten minutes to spare, please read “Technology Truth or Fable” – its a fun way to get the point we are trying to make. Then, feel free to contact us and ask any questions you may have. We’re sure we can help – after all, as our motto says, “Our Know-How is Our Product”.

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