If you are here to find the CreteFoamer blog, you need to go to http://blog.cretefoamer.com

It is a much more active blog and you can learn about the world of cellular concrete. Try the main site too! www.cretefoamer.com

Amazingly enough, the same company that brought us the Segway is now doing what looks to be the most technological advances in prosthetics.

It has been a while since I have seen anything I thought was neat enough to repeat here on the blog but then I came accros this concrete infused with glass fiber. As you can see from the picture a certain amount of light is transfered throught the material. I also read that it is just as strong as regular concrete which makes it completely amazing.

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If you have never heard of aerogel then know this. It is the worlds lightest solid in at only 3 times the weight of air. It is listed in the guinness book of world records for that fact as well as being the best insulator man is aware of and 13 other records. This stuff is apprently difficult to manufacture and is for that reason pretty expensive. I saw a piece measuring 6"x6"x0.5" going for over $4,000 on ebay recently.

Click on this link to learn more.


World Helium Shortage in November

For a week or better now the wonderful employees of Richway have been puzzled by strange pictures by the time clock. These pictures wolud change daily but have one thing in common, they showed a silo with a red line drawn through it -- Yes, the type of silo we see so often standing lonley along the horizon.
We finally learned the meaning behind the silo pictures in our general meeting today.
Here we see Rich setting up "silos" in the sand. The silos are made out of ice.

This is a picture of Dana heating up the silos to show that alone they are vulnerable.

Here we see Dana and Rich with the silos. Notice how the big chunck of ice has not melted much.
Rich's point was this -- If we all work together towards a common goal we will be more sucessful and have an easier time working than if we all go at it alone.

We were pleased to have Patrick Briones of Specialty Sales in Chicago in our factory on Thursday October 12. They are an important supplier for us and Patrick and Carol, our Purchasing Manager (shown with Patrick) have worked closely together for several years, but had never met.

A few weeks ago, I ran into Patrick at a trade show and issued a special invitation to come visit, even though he does not normally travel to see customers. He had intended to bring his wife too, so they could enjoy our beautiful fall leafdisplay, but scheduling was a problem. It is just as well, our fall colors are nearly gone and it was a snowy, cold and windy day.

Over a year ago I remember adding an entry describing an LCD monitor from Sharp that could show 2 different images on one screen when looked at from different angles. Well here I am again with a screen from Sharp that does 3 in 1.

File


Just now I received email form Tony with the following note:

I did actually come across this link when reading something related to
work............................
The link is to a "world shark attack file"...........


So I opened the link:

Shark Attack Spreadsheet Data

Homepage for Shark Attack File






You can purchase this image of a great white shark at allposters.com


http://www.sharkattackfile.net/spreadsheets/GSAF5.xls


and found a most interesting spreadsheet documenting shark attacks since the early 1900's.

What I found perhaps the most interesting was that a large percentage of these shark attacks seem to have occured during BROAD DAYLIGHT!!!! (Scroll to the bottom)

Whoa!!! ------------ In the last 20 years I have probably spent at least 100 to 150 days "on the beach" (mostly at Cocoa Beach, Florida--- adjoins Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center). Conventional wisdom, at least my conventional wisdom, says that most shark attacks occur in the early morning or a dusk, so stay out of deeper water then.

Not so, apparently. Swimming in the middle of the day is seemingly not much guarantee of safety. Even one to two foot water is not entirely safe.

Next year when I am at the beach, I'll either be more paranoid or have forgotten about the information.

Thanks to Josh for sending these to me!

Just a few minutes ago, I found this link n.k. pix on
bookofjoe.com which is one of my "must read" blogs.



This photo is one of several showing highway entrapments ---- big concrete blocks that can be pushed onto the highway to "trap enemy tanks."

Sales & Marketing Director, Dana Benning, has began his new racing hobby with Airpinch valves listed on the car.





The panel that Airpinch is on was also the first one to receive damage.



www.airpinch.com

A few weeks back I was curiously browsing the web in search of stats on world populations of people over the age of 100. In my travels I came across an interesting article that gives some helpful ideas to get all of us to live to 100+.

Want to Live to Be 100?

Pay extra for an aisle seat? You think not? Oh Yes!!! Fly Northwestand pay extra. Read all about it TIME magazine storyhere

Back in the day....... You got a real meal while flying. Nowyou hardly get a small snack. What's next? Paying to have a seatbelt??

Iraq War 3rd Anniversary: A Factual Report from the Front

March 14, 2006


By Ralph Peters

During a recent visit to Baghdad, I saw an enormous failure. On the part of our media. The reality in the streets, day after day, bore little resemblance to the sensational claims of civil war and disaster in the headlines.

No one with first-hand experience of Iraq would claim the country's in rosy condition, but the situation on the ground is considerably more promising than the American public has been led to believe. Lurid exaggerations and instant myths obscure real, if difficult, progress.


Full article here

Comment by Rich---

I recall Dan Rather making a similar radio commentary a couple of years ago, before he was desposed. Coming from Dan Rather, you just knew it had to be true, because it was just not his style to report good news of that sort.

To me there is no doubt that "the press" blows things way out of proportion often. After reading the full story above, I likened the Iraq reporting to the "snowstorm of the century" type reporting we so often see here in Iowa and probably every other place it snows. Just this morning the local tv station I was watching had reporters outside, telling us how bad it is going to be, as well as a lot of "weatherman coverage" and tips for survival. All of this for what is expected to be from one to five inches of snow..... inches not feet!!! Hardly the storm of the century, but then news organizations need to validate their existance somehow, whether it is the storm of the century or their view of Iraq.


Thanks to area advertising executive Bob McCusker for this link. See his blog here

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/03/myths_of_iraq