NAHBS 2012 – Vendetta Cycles & Metrofiets
Track bike has biovalized tubes for top-, seat- and downtubes.Seat clamps were widened by adding material to the lugs. The seatstays were then compound mitered to give it more surface contact area at the clamps. Combined, the extra width and contact area makes it stiffer, important for a track bike.Track frame and fork would be around $4k, as shown here complete would be around $5,200. Vendetta won a 2012 NAHBS award for Best Finish.Commuter would be close to $12,000 thanks to features like a brushed stainless steel logo, custom rack and chain guard, fillet brazed and hand carved lugs (took two months to carve them) and internal cable routing. METROFIETSMetrofiets has been building bikes since 2007 in Portland, OR. Their steel cargo bikes start at $3,800 and go up to $6,200 for what you see here with XTR hydro brakes, Alfine 8-speed hub and Billy Kirk leather tool bag.Fenders and cranks were painted to match.The stays flare out before attaching to the dropout lugs. The driveside chainstay unbolts from the lug to let the belt drive into the rear triangle.The bent lug design is mimicked on the fork. Generator hub powers the lights. New pallet crate has bamboo sides with aluminum construction. They offer a wooden box with tall sides, too, for the same price.Frame capacity is generally 400lbs including rider, but they’ve custom built to accommodate up to 700lbs. Front wheel is 24″ to help make it a bit more maneuverable. They’re electric assist compatible, too, and they rent beer bikes for parties! Totally want.
Vendetta Cycles’ builder/owner Conor Buescher loves some elaborate lug work, and this year’s bikes were no exception.Above was a very dark road bike with a few shiny bits to catch the eye, but the red commuter bike and his green track bike were the real highlights. And if the increasing use of bicycles for commuting in the U.S. continue (as we hope they will, particularly with gas prices likely to average more than $4 per gallon this summer!), you might be seeing more bicycles like Metrofiet’s bakfiets-style cargo bike, all pictured after the break…
The Orca brand is ‘inspired by the open sea and its natural spirit of freedom.’ Founded in New Zealand but with a global outlook, Orca was created in 1992 because former triathlon champion and brand founder Scott Unsworth was passionate about creating better, faster wetsuits than those on the market at the time.That relentless desire to use cutting edge innovation to fuel the best performance remains with Orca today. The Orca name evokes the instinct and prowess of the powerful ruler of the oceans. Like the Orca whale, ‘our designs have always been organic, streamlined and in tune with nature.’www.orca.comwww.ironmanlanzarote.com Related Orca has confirmed that it will be the official swim sponsor for the next two years at the iconic IRONMAN Lanzarote event, said to be one of the hardest IRONMAN courses on the global M-Dot circuit.The sponsorship also coincides with the 25th anniversary of Club La Santa IRONMAN Lanzarote this year. The 2016 event takes place on 21 May; and is located on the northern edge of the Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa.The swim course takes place at Playa Grande, Puerto del Carmen, the main tourist resort of the island. It is a two-lap course with a short run between the two laps. The bike course, well known for challenging athletes with strong winds, traverses the island with over 2551m of climbing. Finally, consisting of 3 laps, the run course leads athletes along the flat sea front of Puerto del Carmen, towards the airport and back. Participants enjoy views of the ocean under the intense Lanzarote sun, while feeling the impressive support of thousands of spectators lining the streets. The event awards 40 qualifying slots for the IRONMAN World Championships.As the sponsor of the swim area, Orca wetsuits will be available for demo in the week leading up to the race.
ShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr by. Sean McDonaldThe most effective leaders in history have a lot of things in common. To name a few: a great work ethic, high moral and ethical standards, an understanding of the principle of accountability, the ability to assemble a team of close advisors, etc.There is another that is sometimes overlooked. Nevertheless, it is always present. The most effective leaders aren’t afraid to make decisions.Here are 3 of the lamest excuses that ineffective leaders use to avoid any semblance of making a decision.The timing isn’t quite right – Human beings are imperfect. Therefore, we are unable to do anything perfectly. That includes making important decisions. If leaders continue to use this ridiculous excuse to “kick the can down the road,” what they’ll find is that the opportunity that they did have is now gone because they put it off while waiting for the “time to be right.” continue reading »
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Women experience more emotional pain following a breakup, but they also more fully recover, according to new research from Binghamton University.Researchers from Binghamton University and University College London asked 5,705 participants in 96 countries to rate the emotional and physical pain of a breakup on a scale of one (none) to 10 (unbearable). They found that women tend to be more negatively affected by breakups, reporting higher levels of both physical and emotional pain. Women averaged 6.84 in terms of emotional anguish versus 6.58 in men. In terms of physical pain, women averaged 4.21 versus men’s 3.75. While breakups hit women the hardest emotionally and physically, women tend to recover more fully and come out emotionally stronger. Men, on the other hand, never full recover — they simply move on.According to Craig Morris, research associate at Binghamton University and lead author on the study, the differences boil down to biology. Women have more to lose by dating the wrong person. Email LinkedIn
Pinterest “Put simply, women are evolved to invest far more in a relationship than a man,” Morris said. “A brief romantic encounter could lead to nine months of pregnancy followed by many years of lactation for an ancestral woman, while the man may have ‘left the scene’ literally minutes after the encounter, with no further biological investment. It is this ‘risk’ of higher biological investment that, over evolutionary time, has made women choosier about selecting a high-quality mate. Hence, the loss of a relationship with a high-quality mate ‘hurts’ more for a woman.”Conversely, as men have evolved to compete for the romantic attention of women, the loss of a high-quality mate for a man may not “hurt” as much at first, Morris said.“The man will likely feel the loss deeply and for a very long period of time as it ‘sinks in’ that he must ‘start competing’ all over again to replace what he has lost — or worse still, come to the realization that the loss is irreplaceable,” he said.Morris said that breakups are important because most of us will experience an average of three by age 30, with at least one affecting us strongly enough that it substantially decreases our quality of life for weeks or months.“People lose jobs, students withdraw from classes, and individuals can initiate extremely self-destructive behavior patterns following a breakup,” he said. “With better understanding of this emotional and physical response to a breakup — Post Relationship Grief — we can perhaps develop a way to mitigate its effects in already high-risk individuals.”The study, “Quantitative Sex Differences in Response to the Dissolution of a Romantic Relationship,” was published in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences on July 31. Share
Share on Twitter LinkedIn Co-author, Dr Nayantara Santhi from the University of Surrey, said, “We show for the first time that challenging the circadian clock affects the performance of men and women differently. Our research findings are significant in view of shiftwork-related cognitive deficits and changes in mood. Extrapolation of these results would suggest that women may be more affected by night-shift work than men.”Senior author, Professor Derk-Jan Dijk, continued, “These results show that in both men and women circadian rhythmicity affects brain function and that these effects differ between the sexes in a quantitative manner for some measures of brain function.”“Overall the findings illustrate how important it is to include both men and women in research studies and to use a wide range of subjective and objective indicators of brain function,” added Professor Dijk. Share Pinterest
Share on Facebook A new study from the Surrey Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey, published today in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) has found that shifted sleep-wake cycles affect men and women’s brain function differently.Researchers placed 16 male and 18 female participants on 28-hour days in a controlled environment without natural light-dark cycles, at the Surrey Clinical Research Centre. This effectively desynchronised the sleep-wake cycle from the brain’s 24-hour (circadian) clock, similar to jet lag or a shiftwork scenario.Every three hours during the awake period, participants performed a wide range of tests, including self-reported assessments of sleepiness, mood and effort, and objective tests of cognitive performance which included measures of attention, motor control and working memory. Brain electric activity (EEG) was monitored continuously during sleep. The results revealed that in both men and women self-reported assessments were more sensitive to the effects of time awake and circadian clock than the many objective measures of performance. However, crucially, the circadian effect on performance was significantly stronger in women than in men such that women were more cognitively impaired during the early morning hours, which in the real world typically coincides with the end of a night shift. Email
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Six months before the city of Belgrade hosts the European Demolition Association’s annual convention, the Serbian Demolition Association has held its third annual conference.#*#*Show Fullscreen*#*# Serbian Demolition Association president Dejan Bojovic addresses delegates at the recent conference in BelgradeTaking place under the theme “Today for Tomorrow” the conference took place as Serbia’s designated “Year of Occupational Safety and Health” draws to a close.Speakers from government ministries and universities took to the platform alongside demolition contractors and equipment suppliers as the conference addressed issues such as the circular economy, closing landfills and recycling concrete waste.Speakers included Marina Furtula from the country’s Labour and Employment Ministry, while the Academy of Engineering Sciences of Serbia, the Institute of Standardization, the Serbian Green Building Council and the University of Civil Engineering were all represented.Miroslav Mažàr from the Slovakian office of French company Arden and Mikko Heikkilä of Dynaset in Finland gave the view from manufacturers, while Miroslav Jovanović and Rade Kajganić presented on the Serbian company Teikom’s experiences of urban demolition in the capital city.A European context was provided by Patrick Frye of French contractor Cardem and Artem Kondratiev from the Russian Demolition Forum.Serbian Demolition Association president Dejan Bojovic chaired the event and said: “As Serbia enters the fourth industrial revolution, we lag behind the west by some 30 to 40 years.“In terms of the circular economy, we hope to achieve this level very soon, but we can’t achieve it without co-operation.“This conference also shows how important the Year of Occupational Safety and Health has been.”
The family owned crane hire and heavy haulage specialist now runs five Terex cranes in its fleet.The new three-axle Challenger 3160 has a lift capacity of 55 tonnes and features a 50 m main boom. The model was chosen for its compact dimensions, manoeuverability, and best in class boom length. “When other cranes need triple or quadruple reeving, the Challenger does the job with just one or two lines,” explained Paul Coussens, co-owner of the company.”Another important plus point is the crane’s minus 5 degree boom incline. It means the operator doesn’t have to work at height to reeve the crane, which represents a significant safety advantage. So too is the Challenger’s radio remote control system,” Coussens added. www.terex.comwww.coussencranes.co.uk
Reforms of the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) will lead to US-style class action cases in all but name, a Law Society conference heard last week.The Consumer Rights Act, which received royal assent in March, gives the CAT the power to hear opt-out collective action, building on its previous power to hear opt-in collective actions.Anthony Maton, managing partner at class action specialist Hausfeld, told the annual conference of the Society’s Competition Section that the reforms give collective action at the CAT ‘all the features of the US system’.‘These actions are possible and they are fundable and we have to prepare for a number of class actions being run at the CAT come October [when the rules come into force],’ he said.The rules will also allow defendants to anticipate and settle class actions.While a previous attempt to reform the CAT failed to have much impact on competition litigation, the new reform gives the tribunal full jurisdiction.The CAT will be able to hear fast-track cases and issue injunctions without ordering any undertaking for damages, meaning that the court can allow parties to obtain an injunction without the need to compensate for any loss if the injunction is later found to have been issued wrongly.This combination will open the door for new claims in the right market, Maton said, as the removal of the risk involved in undertaking for damages will allow small business to bring claims against dominant players.‘These reforms are a real game changer in the context of competition litigation. There will be more activity in the CAT and more activity for everyone involved in competition litigation,’ he said.
EUROPE: Leasing company VTG and cryogenic liquid storage and transport specialist Chart Ferox are jointly developing two prototype wagons suitable for carrying liquefied natural gas by rail. It is envisaged that two wagons could replace four lorries or five tank containers on the roads, with insulation to permit storage times of up to six weeks.‘We are very excited by the fact that we are creating an entirely new transport option for LNG, and one that reinforces Chart’s small scale LNG product portfolio’, said Miroslav Cerny, Director of Business Development at Chart Ferox. The wagons are to be assembled in Germany by VTG’s Waggonbau Graaff business, using cryogenic parts, vessels and cabinets supplied from Chart Ferox’s facility at Decin in the Czech Republic. A custom-developed suspension system will link the frames and the cryogenic vessel, and there will be GPS monitoring of the pressurised container. The wagons will be designed for changing gauge at the border between France and Spain.