We all have that friend who is notorious for constantly misplacing everything theyownwallet, phone, keys, camera. Or maybethat friend is you. While losing something important in everyday life is a hassle, doing so while traveling is especially complicated. A lost or stolen passport can leave you stranded, or a missing suitcase can ruin an entire trip. Luckily, there are a growing number of tracking products to protect your important possessions from thieves, careless airlines, and your own absentmindedness.

Most tracking technology relies on Bluetooth, and Tile is the biggest name in the business. The company launched in 2012, with a series of small devices that attach to items, like keys or a wallet, and connectto your phone via Bluetooth.Tile claims to find six million things every day across 195 countries. Simply push a button in the app and, if your item is nearby, the Tile device attached to the missing object will ring to help you locate it.The most useful aspect of Tile for travel, though, is its large network of users. If youre out of its Bluetooth range, activating lost mode taps into any other phone running the app to crowdsource the location of your item by notifying you of its location when another Tile user passes close by.

Tiles latest suite of products includes the updated Mate($25), a small square intended to fit on a key chain that now has a range of 200 feet (up from 150 feet); the Pro($35), which is similar in size to the Mate but has an extended range of 400 feet and a louder ring; and the brand-new Slim($30) and Sticker($40 for two), which are particularly suited to adventure travel. The Slim, a credit-card-sizetracker with a range of 200 feet, is meant to lay flat in a wallet, passport holder, luggage tag, or laptop. The Sticker is the smallest of the series and has the shortest range, at 150 feet, but the fact that its the size of a coinallows you to attach it to virtually anything you might misplace, like headphones or an electronics charger. Both the Slim and the Sticker are waterproof.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Slim and Sticker come with built-in batteries that arent rechargeable. Theyre supposed to last for three years, but if you plan to use them frequently, you might be better off with a Mate or Pro, which have replaceable battery units.

If you want better accuracy and range than Bluetooth, consider a GPS tracker. PingGPS makes a waterproof device ($80) thats around the size of a Tile Mate, but it has built-in GPS and comes with an AT&T cellular data plan. If you misplace something beyond its 90-foot Bluetooth range, the GPS technologywill transmit your items location via AT&Ts global network. You get 30 days of free use when you buy the unit, after which a data plan costs$6 a month.

LikePingGPS,LugLoc($50) and Gego($100) alsorequire a $6 monthly plan, but instead of GPS, they use GSM/GPRS, the global network that cell phones rely on. GSM/GPRSclaims to be more reliable than GPS, since items like luggage are often indoors, and GPS needs a direct line of sight to a satellite to work well. Gegois the newer of the two and has a faster 3G connection, but you do need decent cell reception for it to work. To meet FAA and TSA approval, both are designed to shut off while on an airplane. Once your itemis off the plane andhas been stationary for 12 minutes, you can see its location on a map anywhere in the world. Gegoand LugLoc have virtually limitless range and are better for long-distance tracking.

Consider a multi-use product with built-in tracking capabilities. Woolet has a smart wallet with a sewn-in Blueooth locator. Some models will send you a notification if your wallet moves too far away from your phone, say, in the case of someone swiping it from your pocket. Some suitcase manufacturers apply the same technology to bags. Samsonites Geotrakr line comes with a built-in LugLoc. And if youre traveling with your pup, you can even get him his own Fi-Lite tracking collar ($150).

For something more affordable than Bluetooth and GPS trackers, Okoban($10) offers a simple solution. Its basically a label that attachesto luggage, passports, phones, or anything else you might lose, with a unique ID code that you register with the company. The ID code connects to a system that all major airlines use for lost luggage, called WorldTracer. If your item is found, the code is entered into Okobans website, which sends you a notification with the location. Some suitcase manufacturers, like CabinZero, nowsell bagswith Okoban tags built in (from $60).

Read the rest here:
Get These Trackers and Never Lose Your Stuff Again - Outside

Global Ceramic Tiles Market Analysis

The recent report published by TMRR on the global Ceramic Tiles market is an in-depth analysis of the overall prospects of the Ceramic Tiles market in the upcoming years. The data collected from credible primary and secondary sources is accurately represented in the report backed up by relevant figures, graphs, and tables. The report includes a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the various aspects of the market by collecting data from the key participants in the Ceramic Tiles market value chain.

The report reveals that the global Ceramic Tiles market is set to grow at a CAGR of ~XX% over the forecast period (2019-2029) and surpass the value of ~US$XX by the end of 2029. The presented study also includes a thorough analysis of the micro and macroeconomic factors, regulatory framework, and current trends that are expected to influence the growth of the Ceramic Tiles market during the assessment period.

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Ceramic Tiles Market Segmentation

The market study put forward by TMRR segments the global Ceramic Tiles market to offer a microscopic understanding of the various aspects of the Ceramic Tiles market. The Ceramic Tiles market is segmented on the basis of region, product type, end-user, and more.

The study offers a Y-o-Y growth projection of each market segment and sub-segment over the stipulated timeframe of the study.

Key Trends

The thriving construction industry, especially across emerging economies in regions such as Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa is the foremost factor driving the steady demand for ceramic tiles in the global market. Robust economic development of developing economies, rising disposable incomes, and the increased power of spending that comes with it are also driving the increased uptake of ceramic tiles as renovation projects take an upswing. Rising consciousness regarding the aesthetic appeal of residential as well as commercial buildings is driving the demand for ceramic tiles for beautification purposes as well.

Global Ceramic Tiles Market: Market Potential

The large amount of energy required to produce ceramic materials via the conventional kiln firing method has for a long time stirred research activities focused at the development of an effective way to produce ceramic materials under low energy conditions. Recently, a new room-temperature method has been introduced, which has demonstrated much more energy efficiency as compared to the kiln firing method. The method, which is being called cold sintering, can also enable the production of composite materials.

The carbonate nanoparticles used to run the procedure can be captured from waste gases from the industrial sector or from the atmosphere. In this method, the captured CO2 reacts with a suitable raw material to produce carbonate, which could be used to produce ceramics at room temperature. Through this method, the environment-damaging CO2 gas would get stored in ceramic products for a long time. This potential CO2 sink is expected to help end-use applications such as across thermal power stations to work on a carbon-neutral basis.

Global Ceramic Tiles Market: Regional Analysis

Of the key regional markets for ceramic tiles, the market in Asia Pacific takes the top spot in terms of consumption and contribution of revenue to the global market. High pace of urbanization and the consequent rise in new construction projects, especially across emerging economies in the region, is the key factor leading to the massive demand for ceramic tiles in the past few years in the region. The construction industry in the region continues to embark upon a steady growth path and is expected to continue to lead to the excellent demand for ceramic tiles in the next few years as well.

Global Ceramic Tiles Market: Competitive Overview

The global market for ceramic tiles features an extremely fragmented and competitive vendor landscape, with no vendor accounting for a significant majority share. Rising volatility of raw material costs is also contributing in intensifying the competition in the market and trends are expected to remain strong over the next few years owing to several restrictions on mining practices. Nevertheless, with innovative and economical products in their arsenal and the help of proper supply networks could help companies tap lucrative growth opportunities in the market.

Some of the leading companies operating in the global ceramic tiles market are Grupo Lamosa SAB de CV, Ras Al Khaimah Ceramics, Siam Cement Group, Kajaria Ceramics, Mohawk Industries Inc., China Ceramics Co., Ltd., and Ceramiche Atlas Concorde S.P.A, Crossville Inc., Florida Tile Inc., Porcelanosa Grupo, Saloni Ceramica, and Gruppo Ceramiche Ricchetti S.p.A.

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Ceramic Tiles Market Assessment and Forecast Report by 2017 - 2025 - The Market Expedition

The flagship implementation, dubbed IMG AXT-64-2048, is rated at 2Tflop/s for computation, 64Gpixel/s for graphics processing and 8Tops for artificial intelligence processing.

IMG A-Series delivers improvement at the same clock speed and process compared with current PowerVR devices shipping, claims the firm, offering 2.5x the performance, 8x faster machine learning processing and 60% lower power.Itis the fastest GPU intellectual property ever released, said Imagination, listing: automotive, IoT artificial intelligence, digital TV, set-top box, over-the-top, phones and servers amongst potential applications.

Geometry processing in maximum configuration A-Series GPU (left)

The 2.5x performance increase is in computational speed/mm2 compared with a recent Series 9 core, running the computation-heavy Manhatten benchmark, PowerVR product director Kristof Beets told Electronics Weekly.

In the language used to compare CPU cores, according to Beets, Imaginations earlier GPU cores were like CISC (complex instruction set) CPUs, whereasthe new A-Series GPU are RISC-like in nature with a reduced instruction set and therefore simpler hardware.

GPUs traditionally had complex ALUs [arithmetic logic units] like CISC compared with RISC. If you simplify theinstruction set, you get higher hardware utilisation, he explained.

WithCISC, the onus is on the compiler to keep hardware filled with work. With a RISC-ish architecture in the A-Series, and having gone ultra-wide as well A-Series has 128 ALUs operating in parallel A-Series is much easier for compilation, said Beets.

With all those busses in parallel, wont any silicon need an awful lot of metal layers?

No, said Beet: Actually, congestion is much better in this [A-Series] design as everything much more regular. The older GPUs have fewer ALUs, but a lot of multiplexers.

A-Series ALU

For comparison, the earlier (Rogue) ALU

As well as 128 ALUs, there are 32 of what Beets calls more-than-ALUs (diagram right), which are far more capable than the simple versions, and are intended forsine, cos, log calculations and atomic operations, amongst other functions. Both pipelines can be used at the same time.

Looking at the maximum configuration (AXT-64-2048, diagram left), there are four identical blocks dubbed scaleable processing units (SPUs).

Within each of these SPUs is a square representing 128 32bit ALUs, each of which can perform multiply and add simultaneously, giving 256flop.

Looking closely, there is another square behind that per SPU a second set of ALUs, pushing capacity to 512flop in parallel.

Configurations are available with one, two, three or four of these dual ALU SPUs. In the pictured maximum configuration, there are four, taking its capacity to 2,048 simultaneous 32bit floating point operations to which can be added the capacity of the associated more-than-ALUs.

Pixel process flow in A-Series rendering the gold surface (top right) over the geometry tile-by-tile (right)

Imagination is claiming, although not yet quantifying, power savings from the A-Series architecture (It has lower power compared to competitors at the same clock and process) and foresees this giving it an advantage in phones used for gaming.

Most mobile GPUs struggle to deliver consistent gaming experiences due to thermal constraints. They are fast for a while, then slow, and then never recover, said Imagination. IMG A-Series delivers sustained performance for extended game play at consistent frame rates avoiding thermal panic clock throttling, glitches or over-heating.

The firms tile-based deferred rendering, where only what is needs to be visible on the screen is drawn, is part of power saving, as is active dynamic voltage and frequency scaling, controlled by low-latency deadline scheduling algorithms. If parts of the GPU arent fully utilised or needed, they are immediately slowed down or even put to sleep to ensure power efficiency, said Imagination.

For development, there is a tool-set and SDK (software design kit) as well as some on-GPU hardware for example, counters have been included to report per-tile processing (in the form of a visual heat map in the tools) to allow application developers to focus additional hardware at bottle-neck-causing tricky parts of an image.API standards including OpenGL ES, Vulkan, OpenCL are supported.

Computational flow in A-Series (right)

Suffixes from earlier Series-n nomenclature is retained.

A-Series series will be split into:

IMG A-Series cores are:

Concurrent tasks in A-Series

Within each group of 128 parallel ALUs, all ALUs perform the same operation simultaneously, so any multi-tasking within a 128 ALU block is time-sliced on to it.

To save power and time during task-switching,ALUs have register bank to keep the data from a large number of threads local, said Beets.

To map and prioritise tasks on to the various time-slices available across up to four SPUs, imagination has created an operating system calledHyperLane, which can treat all available GPU resources as up to eight virtual GPUs dubbed HyperLanes each of which can run more than one task.

As well as 32bit floating point data, for artificial intelligence processing each ALU can work with 8bit weighted data. HyperLane has a feature called AI Synergy which enables sufficient GPU graphics performance to be delivered, while allocating spare resources to implement programmable AI. AI Synergy delivers programmable AI in the lowest silicon area, while a unified software stack enables flexibility and performance, said he firm. The resource split between graphics and AI processing can be dynamic.HyperLane technology can also isolate protected content for rights management. All IMG A-Series GPUs support up to eight HyperLanes.

HyperLane also interacts with virtualisation hardware which is controlled by a separate on-board microcontroller running hypervisor code. Separated by hardware virtualisation, up to eight programmes can be run independently.

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Imagination boosts parallelism in GPUs to speed mobile graphics and AI - Electronics Weekly

Many craftspeople operate their businesses from home either through choice or necessity. What are the advantage and disadvantages of plying a trade where you sleep and eat?

Deirdre McQuillan spoke to three women, a jeweller, a tile designer and a soap maker about how they combine living and working in the family home.

Valerie Reid, soap maker I have lived in Dalkey for 32 years in an old 1860s terrace house and have a little studio at the back where I make the soap. It was a lean-to, so we had to put in sliding doors and a better, watertight roof to make it cosy.

I started in September 2013 with a really good friend Angela Reilly, having learnt the craft in France from a friend of my sister who lives there.

It is hard for a small craft operation to make money with two people, so Angela moved back to work in her husbands business while I stayed on and continued from 2016.

After my eldest son left home I took over his room because as the soap is made by cold process, once it is cut, it has to sit on a shelf for a month or six weeks which we call curing, so I put shelving in that room and used it for storage once the soap is ready, packed and labelled.

My husband is a graphic designer and does all the design work for the soap so there is a nice uniformity to it all. My studio is off the kitchen, so I can walk through and have all my ingredients there the pure scented oils, the powders, the charcoal and the natural colourings. I usually spend at least three days there more coming up to Christmas.

I have four grown-up kids and a boy with special needs so from the get-go I always worked from home. He is 25 now and very able-bodied and out every day. I like working from home and the freedom it gives me. If the kids are sick, I am around.

I did toy with the idea of getting an independent place outside but then thinking about rates and all the extras and having to go out in the morning... it put me off. This way I can make soap anytime I want. I am a craft person and love working with my hands and couldnt sit in an office.

I need a hot plate but my moulds are wooden wine boxes and I dont waste anything I give scraps to a felt worker and I have made bags of samples with scraps as I have always wanted to be as eco as possible so no fancy packaging everything is packed in Kraft paper and the liquid soap in glass bottles, so everything can be recycled.

Alanna Plekkenpol , creator of art on tilesI live in our Georgian family house on a road off the seafront in Bray and have been there for the past three years since arriving from Amsterdam where I am from I am half Irish, half Dutch.

I have a room which doubles as a living space when I am not working it has a modern, contemporary interior with a lot of navy and mustard, big enough for a desk, a sofa and a wall cabinet.

What I do is create my illustrations [for the tiles] digitally and then rework them with original Dutch Delft antique patterns and collages, so my pieces combine that with graphics. I work with a small specialist ceramic company in Porto who have specific techniques of applying and hand printing my illustrations onto tiles. I work closely with them.

I have always worked from home because I also have a full-time job in Bestseller, the Danish clothing company (whose brands include Vero Moda and Jack &Jones) whose Irish base is in Ballymount I am in charge of its marketing and PR.

But the best part of working from home is being able to set your own timeline and what I love is the fact that you have complete silence around you. Some things I would work on for one or two weeks and then come back to a week later inviting comments from friends.

It is the balance between what my creative identity is in my illustrations and balancing that with commercial appeal. I am hoping to move to Ashford soon to a lovely new estate in a very scenic area, five minutes from Mount Usher where I will continue to work [at my craft] at home.

Maureen Lynch, jeweller I live in Dun Laoghaire close to the sea in a 1920s house and work in a converted garage, so I have my own entrance. I love working from home because I love the fact that there is no commuting and I can switch myself off. And also, it means that I am still engaging with the children, now 13, 15 and 17. As a working mum, I think it is great.

I have spent all my working life working from home and it is very healthy for the children because it means that they see what I do. My studio is quite dirty, but I have an ultrasonic machine and a drill that sounds like a dentists drill and I just put them on when I dont want them there.

Its lovely for them because they bring their friends in to see what is going on and the different stages. My son likes to bring his girlfriends in to show them the sparkly jewellery. The boys love files and hammers and the polishing machine. They love the tools whereas the girls tend to look at the finished jewellery.

I really enjoy it and get lost in my work still. It is therapeutic filing and hammering is like therapy, meditation. I love working for myself and I swim every day either at Seapoint or the Forty Foot, depending on the tide and love the feeling of saltwater on my skin.

My new jewellery collection in silver with some gold is called Wave and based on the sea. Its me going back to my roots because it is solid, weighty and smooth and more sculptural and I think the Scandinavian influence is stronger than ever. Its my style and I cant stop doing something that is me.

Visit Maureen Lunch, Valeri Reid and Alanna Plekkenpol at Gifted, the crafts and gift fair at the RDS December 4th to 8th.

Read more:
Home-made success: meet the crafters whove turned their homes into workspaces - The Irish Times

When web designer ShayStarrenburg decided to upcyclea Kmartplayhouse fro her son, she wanted to get creative.

Instead of another cafe, shop or miniature villa, she and builder husband John decided tocreateatattoo parlour complete with coffee machine, monogrammed cups and temporary tattoos for son Hudson, 1, to give his customers.

"Neither of ushave tattoos! It was just something that was a bit cool, a bit different.

SHAY STARRENBURG

The Starrenburgs upcycled their son Hudson's Kmart playhouse into a miniature tattoo parlour.

"We painted it and assembled it and we added on all the signs. John cut the plywood for the signage and I made all thevinylto on on those. We tried to cram it all into a weekend."

READ MORE:*The best $6 you'll spend at Kmart: The citrus hand press* The $3 Kmart tea towel hack you've got to try * Christmas gift guide: Seven luxe homewares for around $30 or less

It's the shortest renovation job the couple have done since they moved into their 1950s house in 2013.

Barring a few smaller jobs left to do, it's taken them five years of weekends and holidaysto turn their 1950s home into a bright,airy, modern abode.

The work included removing walls and reconfiguringseparate kitchenand dining rooms into a bright, airy, modern living area.

"We had two winters after we moved in withouta ceiling at all because we were too excited to rip all the walls out. So that was a bit cold.

"We just did it as we had the budget to do it, but we don't really have any regrets because we've had so much time to think everything through and do it all ourselves."

The main project they completed first was removing three walls from the living room and dining area to open out the kitchen and living space.

"Then we added on a deck to wrap right around two sides of the house and swapped out two windows for doors. That was the main focus, getting that done.

SHAY STARRENBURG

There's enve a miniature coffee machine for custoimer waiting for new ink.

"Then we got pregnantand we thought we'd better hurry up and get the rest of the house finished. That's when John took a couple of weeks off work, stripped everything out, insulated everything, and relinedit allbefore Hudson came along."

After that it was decorating, when Shay's creative talents could really shine.

One of the most unique features of the home is a black and white mosaic tile designin the entrance way thatwelcomes visitors with a cheery "good day"as theywalk in. It was"a bit of work" cutting up the tile sheets to makethem fit.

SHAY STARRENBURG

Shay and John Starrenburg wanted to do something a little different for their son, Hudson, who's 1.

"John was talking to a tiler about what I had planned and he was like 'it's good that you're doing it yourself,if someoneasked me to do it I wouldn't'.

"I planned it all up in photoshop, laid it all out and glued it down. Then whenHudson was a couple of months old I got super motivated and decided togrout it while Johnwas at work. That was super hard - the grout was setting and I had a screaming baby and John got a flurry of phone calls, but we got it all done"

Sharrenburg, who runsweb design and photography business Idyllic from home, wouldn't change a thing about the time it took to complete the renovation.

"It was very dated the house, but overall in a good condition which suited us as we wanted to put our stamp on everything.

"When we first started the work I sillilythought 'oh yeah, this will be done in a year'.I think if somebody had told meright then it'd be five years,and we've still got a few things to tick off out list yet, I might have changed my mind. But I guess the best thing was having all that time to think. Our plans changed three or four times and it meant we ended up with plans that really, really suited us.

"Looking back that,there's nothing we would have changed,even if we had more money. So it was good to have time to think and make those really conscious decisions, rather than choosing what was really on trend."

SHAY STARRENBURG

Shay and John Starrenburg with Hudson when he was a little baby, at their renovated 1950s home in new Plymouth.

SHAY STARRENBURG

Web designer and photographer Shay Starrenburg works from home on her business Idyllic.

SHAY STARRENBURG

The kitchen is built from Mitre 10 shells, but John Starrenburg cut the doors himself, so they could easily be painted over if they decided to change the kitchen decor.

SHAY STARRENBURG

The home has great views of Mt Taranaki from theliving room.

SHAY STARRENBURG

The couple removed several walls to create a open plan living/dining area that opens onto a wrap around veranda.

SHAY STARRENBURG

The renovation took the couple about five years to complete.

Read more:
Kmart playhouse hack: Mum creates a kiddie tattoo parlour in the back yard - Stuff.co.nz

Unexpected roadworks can cause absolute chaos to anyone's journey.

Whether they're emergency repairs or ones you just didn't know about because you drove past the sign and it was too late to see it.

Well, fear not. We've put together a list of some of the main roadworks that are taking place over the next week.

There are a few locations which have some long term ongoing works such as the ongoing Station Masterplan , but others are just for the odd day or two.

Our list brings most of the major works in one place so you can plan your trips this week.

Some of the major works have been going on since last year. Warwick Road has been undergoing works due to the Station Masterplan since 2018, with work still ongoing now around the station and Central Six.

There are two roads in the city which have major works going on over the next week.

Warwick Road - Static bus lay-by closure and footway closures, in place from 7.30am until 4pm all week and ongoing until April 2020.

London Road - Lane closure outbound from 9.30am-3.30pm between December 9 and February 7 2020.

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Other than major works, across the city some roads will be closed , or have lane closures because of other works.

These works can include gully cleaning and pothole repairs, and bridge maintenance.

Below are the roads which will have either a lane closure or full closure.

Pickford Green Lane - Taking place for the next two days until December 4, a road closure will be in place for drainage repairs between 7.30am and 4pm.

A45 Dunchurch Highway - In both directions between Broad Lane and Birmingham Road, gully cleaning and pothole repair works will be taking place this week between December 3-5 during the day from 9.30am until 3.30pm.

Ring road - Several parts of the ring road will have lane closures and full closures in place while bridge maintenance takes place.

A lane closure is in place today (Tuesday December 3) between 9.30am and 3.30pm on Ringway St Patrick in both directions. Ringway Rudge will have a full road closure between 9.30am and 3.30pm on December 6.This is just underneath the bridge at junction eight - however traffic can still use the exit and entry slips for ring road access.

West Hill Road - Bollard installations will take place on December 3 between 9.30am and 3.30pm.

Station Avenue - Towards the end of the working week, Station Avenue in Tile Hill will be having work done on December 4 and 5. This will happen between the hours of 7.30am and 4pm.

Allard Way - On December 9 between the hours of 9.30am and 3.30pm, lane closures will be in place for bollard installation at the junction with Langbank Avenue and Jasmine Grove.

Sky Blue Way - Lanes one and two just after the pedestrian crossing will be closed on December 5 for patching works. Closures will be in place between 9.30am and 3.30pm.

Wainbody Avenue South - A road closure in place at the junction with the A45 also on December 5 for patching works.

Gulson Road - Lane closure has been in place here since November 18. It is due to remain until January 20 and it's on the approach to London Road.

Warwick Road - Footway and layby closure and two-way pedestrian signals near the rail bridge by Central Six.

Allesley Old Road - On Sunday December 8 between 9.30am and 3.30pm, a lane closure is in work for manhole cover replacement with work carried out by Severn Trent. The lane closure will be at the junction of Rushoor Drive.

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The roadworks that may cause traffic in Coventry this week - Coventry Telegraph

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has told club chief Ed Woodward to improve on last summers recruitment drive and has given the clubs executive vice-chairman a three-man shortlist of players he wants.

United have had an unimpressive start to the season but after their 2-1 win over Tottenham on Wednesday night they currently sit sixth in table after 15 games.

However, they are still eight points off the top-four and 22 points off league leaders and bitter rivals Liverpool.

Solskjaer has identified where he wants the board to strengthen his side over the next two transfer windows and according to the Evening Standard, he has Borussia Dortmund winger Jadon Sancho, Red Bull Salzburg striker Erling Haaland and at least one other midfielder on his wanted list.

The report also claims that while any major business is likely to be conducted in the summer, if any of his targets become available in January the club will look to sign the players on his wish-list.

JUST IN: Why Arsenal may be stopped from appointing Brendan Rodgers or Nuno as next manager [TEAM NEWS]

United have been monitoring Jadon Sancho for quite some time but will likely face competition from several clubs across Europe for the England international.

The 19-year-old, who left Manchester City to join Dortmund in 2017, has been unsettled recently by several incidents at the Bundesliga club this season and is thought to be open to a move away from Germany.

He had a breakout year last season as he scored 13 goals and provided 19 assists in 43 appearances for the club, however, he has yet to produce that same form this season.

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After making an impressive start to the league campaign he then went two months without a goal before managing to find the back of the net again at the end of November.

If United do convince Sancho to make the switch to Old Trafford it will likely cost them a lot as the youngster is under contract until 2022.

One of Uniteds main priorities is to sign another striker.

The club sold Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan in the summer and decided against signing a replacement in that window.

Haaland could be the answer to Uniteds troubles in front of goal and the youngster has been in sensational form this season.

The 19-year-old has scored 27 goals in 20 appearances in all competitions, including eight goals in just five Champions League matches.

Although Haaland, who is the son of former Manchester City and Leeds United player Alf-Inge Haaland, will not be cheap.

And while RB Salzburg only signed the youngster themselves at the beginning of the year, the Austrian club are reportedly looking for at least 100million (85m) for the striker.

As for the other midfielder, several players have been linked with United including Leicester Citys James Maddison. However, given the large transfer fees that would be required to bring in Sancho and Haaland, Tottenhams Christen Eriksen could be a more attractive option.

Spurs are looking to offload the Dane, who is in the final year of his contract, in the January window and according to reports the club have slashed their asking price from 80m and are willing to consider bids of under 40m for the playmaker.

However, lot of teams are monitoring his situation at the north London club and they are all aware he will be able to leave on a free in the summer.

View post:
Man Utd boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has three-man transfer wish list ahead of January window - Express

Two years after Hurricane Harvey left more than five feet of water sloshing through Kingwood High School, FEMA has approved $25 million in funding to construct flood gates and waterproof the buildings brick exterior to fend off future storms.

The flood gates will protect the schools doors and windows, offering what Humble ISD Superintendent Elizabeth Fagen hopes will be peace of mind for Kingwood High students who were displaced from the campus for months after Harvey.

Now, every time that the students experience a water event, they are wondering and worrying Will this mean well be displaced, well have to share facilities, all these things, Fagen said Wednesday. We believe in letting them know that we put measures in place so their school will not be inoperable.

The $25 million from FEMA will cover about 90 percent of the cost to build the flood control system. The school district will pay the remaining $3 million. The flood mitigation systems will not be ready until 2022, Fagen said.

While the 2,700-student Kingwood High may be the first K-12 school in Greater Houston to use flood gates, it is not the first to make itself more flood and storm resistant.

After Hurricane Ike crashed onto Galvestons shore and flattened schools across that district in 2008, architecture firm PBK worked with Galveston ISD to rebuild and reinforce its campuses from future storms.

Dan Boggio, CEO of PBK, said the process to rebuild the schools into more resilient facilities took years. Construction workers built a series of levies, or berms, around many. Others were raised off the ground. One, the Crenshaw School of Environmental Studies, now sits atop stilts on the Bolivar Peninsula.

Flood gates have proven a popular flood control technique at other Houston-area institutions. The Texas Medical Center and the University of Houstons main campus installed gates in and around their buildings after Tropical Storm Allison caused hundreds of millions of dollars damage at both in 2001.

At the University of Houston, 90 of the campus then 105 buildings were damaged by Allison, costing more than $100 million to repair. Flood waters gushed into the universitys tunnel system, drowning critical utilities, and water levels reached 10 to 12 feet high in six buildings, including the Law Center, the Fine Arts Building and the Student Center Satellite.

David Oliver, now UHs associate vice president for facility and construction management, said the damage from Allison led the university to invest in flooding infrastructure, especially for its lower lying buildings.

That proved fortuitous during Hurricane Harvey, when only a handful of buildings suffered damage mainly from seepage of flood water during the record-breaking storm that dumped as much as 60 inches of rain on parts of the Houston area. One building got six inches of water inside, but that mostly was due to a pump failure.

The schools tunnels, now sealed with submarine doors during floods, stayed dry. Overall, the university sustained about $20 million in damage from Harvey, most of it from a broken steam system at one of its buildings in the Texas Medical Center, which officials were unable to address due to the high water surrounding the area.

Harvey was a very similar event to Allison not a lot of wind but tons and tons of rain, Oliver said. The difference in how the buildings performed was huge. The damage was minimal compared to Allison.

The UH flood gates are almost unnoticeable, buried so they are flush with sidewalks and roads. When water begins to soak the ground around the gates, it flows into a gap that surround the metal barriers. The water causes the flood gates to float upward gradually, eventually topping out if the water gets that high.

Kingwood has been a repeat victim of flooding in recent years. After Harvey, Fagen and her administrative team at Humble ISD began thinking of ways to prevent flood damage to the high school from future storms.

They thought about demolishing the whole building and rebuilding it on raised land retrofitted with an underground water retention system, a proposal that could have cost more than $260 million. They also considered building walls or levies around the school to keep it dry

The district ended up working with FEMA to devise the series of flood gates and waterproofing plan for the building exterior.

Preliminary designs for the Kingwood High project include the same type of flood gates used at UH, although district CFO Mike Seale said that could change. The goal is to make the gates largely invisible during dry times, but rise as high as eight feet when needed.

When it comes to waterproofing the buildings exterior, Boggio at PBK said there are two options: remove the outside brick so waterproofing can be added between the exterior walls and interior insulation; or build another wall inches away from the existing brick exterior and inserting waterproofing material in the newly created gap.

Were basically going to design the building like an inverted bathtub, Boggio said. We want to keep the water out.

It cost $63 million to restore Kingwood High after Harvey. In the six months it took to fix the building, Humble ISD sent Kingwood students to Summer Creek High School, cutting class days in half to accommodate both schools: Summer Creek students took their classes in the mornings, and Kingwood students arrived on campus in the afternoon.

Successful implementation of the flood control measures could help eliminate anxiety for parents, students and staff at the high school.

Tracey Wright, a Kingwood alumna whose 16-year-old son now attends the school, said they were uneasy before his freshman year because of the amount of damage at the school from Harvey, but now is hopeful the gates and waterproofing will keep the building dry.

If it saves them from repeatedly having to replace flooring, replace things, displace the kids, they should do it, Wright said.

shelby.webb@chron.com

Link:
FEMA to pay $25M to help build flood gates and waterproof Kingwood High School - Houston Chronicle

Pep Guardiola insists he will not be adding to his Manchester City squad in January.

The champions' faltering start in the Premier League this season has led to speculation they may seek to address their defensive problems in next month's transfer window.

The departure of Vincent Kompany at the end of last term and a serious injury to Aymeric Laporte has left City boss Guardiola short of specialist centre-backs.

Midfielder Fernandinho has been operating in the back four as a result but, with City having fallen 11 points behind leaders Liverpool, may need to strengthen to meet their ambitions.

Yet while Guardiola acknowledges a need to regenerate his squad, he is not intending to do it mid-season.

"I don't want any players in January," the former Barcelona boss said.

"If we cannot do it in summer, we cannot do it in January."

The chief reason for this is because Guardiola wants long-term solutions rather than short-term fixes, and January options are likely to be limited.

He said: "When they come in January for the next four, five, six years maybe we could think about it, but that is not possible.

"Normally the players we could think would be interesting and add something to our squad - they are not going to be sold."

A refresh is likely in the summer, however, with one departure confirmed already as veteran David Silva moves on. There is also uncertainty about the future of 34-year-old Fernandinho, who is out of contract at the end of the campaign.

Guardiola said: "Yes, David's confirmed he's leaving. Fernandinho doesn't know but it's normal for players that arrive at his age and this stage of their lives.

"Of course we have to replace them but we don't have to rebuild too much.

"Three players is not rebuilding the team. Rebuilding the team is seven or eight, as we did in the second season.

"I think at the end of the season we are going to decide on the situation - the players who finished their contracts, the players with full contracts, what we have to do, what we believe is the best for the club and organisation for next season."

Read more:
Guardiola rules out City spending in January window - RTE.ie

In a summarized historical explanation, the Tattoo Renaissance, began in the late 1950s with tattooers like Lyle Tuttle, Don Nolan, Zeke Owens, Ed Hardy, and others pioneering the way.

Between the hippie movement of the late 60s and the feminist campaigns and rights movements, the tattoo industry saw itself in the midst of a rebirth of sorts; resulting in an increase of customer base, visibility through tattooed celebrities (like Janis Joplin) and pop culture. During the 2000s, tattooing had yet another peak with the appearance of television shows such as Inked (2005) and Miami Ink (2008, starring Chris Garver, Ami James and friends), which gave us a look into the lives of tattooists and their studiosand improving social stigma.

With more legendary artists contributing to 21st-century history, Chris Garver is among them and one we are highlighting here, today. He became a professional tattooer in the late 1980s and has worked in New York City since the 1990s. Below, you can read our interview with Garver taking us back to that period of time when tattooing was banned by the Health Department.

Yeah, working at Adorned exposed me to more tattooers that were really pushing it artistically, and more people like that were my age. Before that, I was working with older guys and biker shops So, when I got to Adorned, it was great for me. I think my growth was pretty big there.

Definitely. Yeah, everybody that I worked with were people I felt were way more advanced than I was, so I had to play some catch up. But it was great. The artists that were always thereMike Ledger and Scott Harrisonthey were awesome to work with. And wed constantly have great guest artists.

Adorned owner Lori Leven was focused on the business side, which facilitated that you and colleagues concentrated on the creative side.

Yeah, she was really good at that. I think thats one of the greatest things she did, making tattooing really comfortable for the artist. She catered to the artist and she knew how to do business too. Normally, the guys I worked with [pauses] was like a working on a pirate ship, and then all of a sudden it was civilized, almost.

Before she did Adorned, I dont think that any shops had helpers, like assistants, people that cleaned after you and bused your table. Before, it was like you did everything yourself.

Now the tattooers are all spoiled. We all have people do things for us.

I think one of the things that kept New York back a little bit was that it was illegal. I think that a lot of people probably are scared to tattoo in an environment where youre doing something criminal. So guys that were more artsy, maybe they didnt want to deal with getting arrested for tattooing, or tattooing unsavory people.

Probably! Yeah, I think doing something illegal stops many people from doing it. [Laughs] I almost preferred it, it was more dangerous.

It kept timid people away.

No, I never got arrested. But once my boss Jonathan Shaw was like, You know what? Lets just do it openly. Put a tattoo sign in the window. And we were like, All right, lets see what happens. And then I remember one day a cop came in with his uniform on. I was like, Oh, here we go. I was like, Hey, how are you doing? Hes like, Yeah, I was wondering how much a Jesus head is? And I was like [Laughs]

You were lucky!

Yeah, he didnt care. It would have been the health department that we probably had to watch out for.

I think it was 95 or 96, then tattoo shops just started popping up everywhere. (It was kind of awful!)

I did. I actually like Ed Hardy, Eddie Deutsch, Dan Higgs, and Freddy Corbin. But I think a lot of people do, and the chrome toaster thing and everything was sacred (with a crown of thorns around it). I never got into it that much. I did a few chrome-y [effect] looking things, but I didnt really get into the weirdo stuff.

It has a universal acceptance and the quality of the art has definitely elevated quite a lot. I think its still underground art in a way. Theres a lot of tattoo exhibits and museums. Theres tattoo artists that have exhibited in all sorts of high-art places.

Like Ed Hardys recent art show at the de Young museum.

Yeah. Ed Hardy, Dr Lakra We had a show here at the Somerset Housea pretty prestigious place. So, [basically] tattooing went from the gutter to the top.

See the original post here:
Chris Garver Interview: Tattooing from the Gutter to the Top - Scene 360