Editor's note: Around the holidays, many nonprofits are short of the supplies and donations that allow them to service those in need. Each year, the Rapid City Journal publishes a "wish list" submitted by dozens of local charitable groups with the hope that readers who desire to help others can find the perfect nonprofit and donation to help those less fortunate. Contact information is included with each listing.

Access to Justice, Inc.

About the organization: Provides free civil legal help to the indigent.

Needs: Laptop.

Where to bring donations: 816 Sixth St., Rapid City, SD 57701

Contact: Cheryl Hanna, director, access.to.justice@sdbar.net, 791-4147

Spearfish Community Coalition

About the organization:Provides youth leadership and drug prevention.

Needs: Cash donations, resource donations and volunteers.

Where to bring donations:P.O. Box 708, Spearfish 57783. Please contact with resource donations, or if you would like to volunteer.

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2014 nonprofit wish list

'Any IoT initiative will require a tailored data centre strategy that balances current needs with future growth and potential applications'

How many connected devices do you have with you right now? For most of us, the answer is probably three or more.

There are the obvious ones like laptops, tablets and smartphones, as well as gadgets like connected TVs, satnavs, cameras and ebook readers. Then there are the growing range of new connected devices such as smart home products (heating controls, automation and surveillance), wearables (fitness bands and smartwatches) and connected appliances (washing machines, kettles, cookers, fridges and the like).

According to aCisco Internet of Things infographic, there will be upwards of 50 billion connected devices worldwide by 2020. Every one of these connected devices generates data, and all of this information will, in one way or another, end up in or passing through data centres.

>See also:Making the Internet of Things a business reality

IoT data wont purely be the concern of companies that provide IoT products and services (like Googles Nest) or their ecosystem of partners and suppliers it will affect every organisation that adopts machine-to-machine or wearable technologies to improve operations.

IDCexpects a more modest 30 billion connected devices by 2020, but predicts the worldwide IoT market will grow from $1.3 trillion in 2013 to $3.04 trillion in 2020.

According to the author of its report, Vernon Turner: "We're still in the early stages of maturation and IoT represents unparalleled opportunity in government, consumer, and enterprise environments."

A significant percentage of this revenue will come from analysing all the data these devices produce. This will drive the need for powerful computers and big data analytics to crunch the data the devices spew out.

Link:
The Internet of Things will affect how businesses choose data centres

Population Services International (PSI) is a leading global health organization with social marketing and social franchising interventions in Vietnam to address HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, Safe Water/Hygiene, Tuberculosis and Hypertension. PSI uses private sector approaches to improve the health of Vietnams low-income and vulnerable communities in more than 20 provinces. Working in partnership with the Government, private sector and civil society partners, PSI harnesses the power of markets to empower underserved populations to lead healthier lives. For more information: http://www.psi.org

PSI currently seeks 3 talented and motivated individuals for the temporary Consultants (up to 23 working days) as below:

Job Title: Senior Data Collector

Report to: Research Manager

Job purposes: Population Services International, Vietnam (PSI/V) with support from UNICEF is conducting formative research on neo-natal care practices, care seeking and treatment of pneumonia and diarrhoea, hand washing, and water treatment and storage practices in Dien Bien, Kon-Tum, Ninh Thuan and Dong Thap. The proposed research will play a critical role to ensure that health interventions take into consideration cultural practices in addition to physical realities including but not limited to education, socio-economic status, and geographic location.

Major duties:

Selection criteria

A competitive remuneration package will be offered to the successful candidate.

Interested candidates are requested to submit detailed curriculum vitae (CV) with a letter of interest indicating the position you are applying for as well as copies of relevant certificates/degrees no later than 5:00 pm on 9 December, 2014 to HR Department, PSI Vietnam; Address: 11th Floor, VINAFOR Building, 127 Lo Duc, Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi; Email:hr@psi.org.vn or fax: (04)3944 6323; Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for interviews. Please do not contact via telephone. Dossier will not be returned.

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Senior Data Collector

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The Ayrshire Entrepreneur's West Coast Capital business has bought shares in ONZO in a move that provided a big vote of confidence in the prospects for the firm.

Details of the investment were not disclosed. However, it is understood that West Coast made a multi-million pound investment in the funding round.

The investment will fund a major expansion at ONZO, which West Coast believes can play an important part in efforts to reduce energy consumption and associated emissions.

ONZO supplies products that let power firms and their customers draw on the huge amounts of information gathered by smart meters and the like to help find ways of reducing energy usage.

The technology can tell how much power individual items such as washing machines use. Power firms can use the information to help change demand patterns and to boost customer loyalty.

The company includes Scottish Hydroelectric owner SSE among its clients.

The investment reflects Sir Tom's belief that there will be massive demand for technologies like those developed by London-based ONZO to harness the power of analytical software and the internet.

A spokesman for the serial entrepreneur said: "Big data and analytics is a space we like as it drives efficiency; if you like if information is the oil, analytics is the engine. With ONZO we see a transformative software that benefits the power companies on the one hand and consumer on the other; it's a win win."

He said ONZO operates in a global market worth billions.

West Coast Capital recently made what is believed to have been another multi-million pound investment in a Silicon Valley based retail software business Order Dynamics, which also operates in the data analytics space.

Continue reading here:
Sir Tom Hunter invests in Onzo

HOUSTON -

The Astrodome is getting an expensive bath in hopes of restoring the iconic stadium.

Green Team Services, a Houston window cleaning service, is testing the Eighth Wonder of the World to determine the best way to wash the Dome.

Brett Robinson, president of Green Team Services, said they use environmentally friendly cleaning solutions that will be delicate enough to preserve the icon, but should also be able to restore the exterior to look like new.

The project is expected to cost $63,800 and was scheduled to begin Monday. Robinson said while they are still determining the best way to move forward with the cleaning and the contract, the actual cleaning phase might not take place for another week.

Harris County leaders said the cleaning should help prevent further decay.

Since 2009 when the Astrodome was decommissioned it seems like countless suggestions have been thrown around for what to do with the Dome. Most of which have come with a lot of debate and last November voters decided against making it a massive convention space.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett told Local 2 in November that he supports the cleanup while they determine whether to give the Astrodome landmark status.

One of Emmett's suggestion is to make the Dome an indoor multi-use park where they could host anything from archery to concerts.

Leaders are supposed to meet this week to start the process of trying to find a permanent use for the Dome.

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Astrodome bath delayed by weather

Clean Break Limited is proficient in all areas of high and ultra high pressure cleaning.

Our team uses the world renowned Falch range of equipment, along with Harben and Neolith drain jetting trailer units which enables us to offer a vast array of services with the versatility to suit any environment:

We cover all pressure washing tasks from general cleaning of car parks, driveways and patios to large scale building cleaning. This also includes the washing down of external cladding on commercial industrial units to deep steam cleaning, degreasing, sanitising and disinfecting of agricultural sheds, chicken houses and horse stables, tank cleaning, wet blasting, paint stripping, boat cleaning, sand blasting, oil, grease and diesel stain cleaning and cleaning after fire, smoke and flood damage.

We can also remove chewing gum from all public spaces and we offer a nationwide/national service. We can cover anything from select one off jobs to a large contract covering the whole town or city. Night and weekend working is no problem. Pavements, footpaths, block paving, car parks, driveways or walls - whenever and wherever chewing gum is a problem we can clean it off.

We are experts when it comes to drain jetting and drain cleaning for both domestic and commercial properties, sewers and road gullies. Whether it is a one off call out to unblock a 4 inch house drain or a regular cleaning contract for a large industrial estate, Clean Break are kitted out for the job. We offer a 24 Hour local emergency service and NO CALL OUT CHARGES.

As well as being able to offer a complete contracting and hire service, Clean Break is also able to offer a comprehensive range of parts, components and accessories. Our vast range of products means we can meet the needs of both the commercial and domestic customer.

We also offer a complete diagnosis and repair service, repairs can be carried out onsite at our customers premises or at our workshop.

For advice or further information on any of Clean Breaks services please contact our Contracts Manager Jason French on 01677 470293 or 07515 327962.

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high pressure washing cleaning chewing gum graffiti drain ...

The Washington Naval Conference, also called the Washington Arms Conference or the Washington Disarmament Conference, was a military conference called by President Warren G. Harding and held in Washington from 12 November 1921 to 6 February 1922. Conducted outside the auspice of the League of Nations, it was attended by nine nationsthe United States, Japan, China, France, Britain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Portugal[1]regarding interests in the Pacific Ocean and East Asia. Soviet Russia was not invited to the conference. It was the first international conference held in the United States and the first arms control conference in history, and as Kaufman, 1990 shows, it is studied by political scientists as a model for a successful disarmament movement.

Held at Memorial Continental Hall in downtown Washington,[2] it resulted in three major treaties: Four-Power Treaty, Five-Power Treaty (more commonly known as the Washington Naval Treaty), the Nine-Power Treaty, and a number of smaller agreements. These treaties preserved peace during the 1920s but are also credited with enabling the rise of the Japanese Empire as a naval power leading up to World War II.

The world's popular mood was peace and disarmament throughout the 1920s. Women had just won the right to vote in many countries, and they helped convince politicians that money could be saved, votes won, and future wars avoided by stopping the arms race.[3] At the end of the Great War, Britain still had the largest navy afloat but its big ships were becoming obsolescent, and the Americans and Japanese were rapidly building expensive new warships. Britain and Japan were allies in a treaty that was due to expire in 1922. Although there were no immediate dangers, observers increasingly pointed to the American-Japanese rivalry for control of the Pacific Ocean as a long-term threat to world peace. By this time, the British realized it had best cast its lot with Washington rather than Tokyo. To stop a needless, expensive and possibly dangerous arms race, the major countries signed a series of naval disarmament agreements.[4]

The American delegation, led by Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, included Elihu Root, Henry Cabot Lodge and Oscar Underwood,[5] the Democratic minority leader in the Senate. The primary objective of the conference was to restrain Japanese naval expansion in the waters of the west Pacific, especially with regard to fortifications on strategically valuable islands. Their secondary objectives were intended to ultimately limit Japanese expansion, but also to alleviate concerns over possible antagonism with the British. They were: first, to eliminate Anglo-American tension by abrogating the Anglo-Japanese alliance; second, to agree upon a favorable naval ratio vis--vis Japan; and, third, to have the Japanese officially accept a continuation of the Open Door Policy in China.

The British, however, took a more cautious and tempered approach. Indeed, British officials brought certain general desires to the conferenceto achieve peace and stability in the western Pacific, avoid a naval arms race with the United States, thwart Japanese encroachment into areas under their influence, and preserve the security of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dominion countriesbut they did not enter the conference with a specific laundry list of demands; rather, they brought with them a vague vision of what the western Pacific should look like after an agreement.

Japanese officials were more focused on specifics than the British, and approached the conference with two primary goals: first, to sign a naval treaty with Britain and the United States, and, secondly, to obtain official recognition of Japans special interests in Manchuria and Mongolia. Japanese officials also brought other issues to the conferencea strong demand that they remain in control of Yap, Siberia, and Tsingtao, as well as more general concerns about the growing presence of American fleets in the Pacific.

The American hand was strengthened by the interception and decryption of secret instructions from the Japanese government to its delegation. The message revealed the lowest naval ratio that would be acceptable to Tokyo; U.S. negotiators used this knowledge to push the Japanese to it. This success, one of the first in the U.S. government's budding eavesdropping and cryptology efforts, led eventually to the growth of such agencies.[2]

The Washington Conference was called by President Warren Harding and run by Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes. Harding demanded action in order to gain domestic political credit. Hugheshelped by the cryptographers who were reading the Japanese diplomatic secretsbrilliantly engineered a deal that everyone thought best for themselves.[6] To resolve technical disputes about the quality of warships, the conferees adopted a quantitative standard, based on tonnage displacement (a simple measure of the size of a ship.) A ten-year agreement fixed the ratio of battleships at 5:5:3that is 525,000 tons for the USA, 525,000 tons for Britain, and 315,000 tons for Japan. Smaller limits with a ratio of 1.7 applied to France and Italy.[7] The dominant weapons systems of the erabattleshipscould be no larger than 35,000 tons. The major powers allowed themselves 135,000:135,000:81,000 tons for the newfangled aircraft carriers. The Washington Conference exactly captured the worldwide popular demand for peace and disarmament; without it, the US, Britain and Japan would have engaged in an expensive buildup, with each worried the other two might be getting too powerful. The agreements forced the US to scrap 15 old battleships and 2 new ones, along with 13 ships under construction.

The naval treaty was concluded on February 6, 1922. Ratifications of that treaty were exchanged in Washington on August 17, 1923, and it was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on April 16, 1924.[8] Japan agreed to revert Shandong to Chinese control by an agreement concluded on February 4, 1922. Ratifications of that agreement were exchanged in Beijing on June 2, 1922, and it was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on July 7, 1922.[9][10]

The Washington Naval Treaty led to an effective end to building new battleship fleets and those few ships that were built were limited in size and armament. Numbers of existing capital ships were scrapped. Some ships under construction were turned into aircraft carriers instead.

More here:
Washington Naval Conference - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MEDIA RELEASE

24 November 2014

Wellington regions Local Heroes honoured for services to the community

Everyday people doing exceptional things were the toast of the town tonight (Monday) as the Wellington region honoured its very own Local Heroes.

As part of the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards 2015, the 20 winners of the Local Heroes category were presented with their awards at a special medal presentation ceremony at Kiwibank Head Office in Wellington.

Mayor Celia Wade-Brown was on hand to present the medals. She congratulated the recipients on their award and said that it was vital that communities continued to acknowledge the contributions they made.

Many of these medal winners are unsung heroes whose selflessness has had a profound effect on the lives of so many. Those acts of optimism and commitment are what hold a community together, she said.

Tonights ceremony starts at 5.30pm at Kiwibank Head Office in Wellington.

The recipients of the Kiwibank Local Heroes Awards for the Wellington region are:

Belinda Jane Robertson

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Wellington regions Local Heroes honoured

Dont Panic!

Most of us have immune systems that are fully capable of resisting the effects of fungi described below. As a result it would be highly unlikely for any of us to suffer any of the ill effects described. But if fungal colonies are allowed to persist and multiply then the high concentrations of the molds and their volatile organic chemical metabolites might be sufficient to increase the risks from our exposure to them.

Stachybotrys chartarum (atra) molds can thrive on water damaged, cellulose-rich material in buildings such as sheet rock, paper, ceiling tiles, insulation backing, wallpaper, etc. In the majority of cases where Stachybotrys is found indoors, water damage has gone unnoticed or ignored since it requires extended periods of time with increased levels of moisture for growth to occur. Stachybotrys is usually black and slimy in appearance. Events of water intrusion that are not addressed quickly tends to support the growth of more xerophilic fungi such as Pencillium and Aspergillus.

Stachybotrys is another fungi that has the ability to produce mycotoxins, ones that are toxic and can be immunosuppressive. Exposure to these mycotoxins can result through inhalation, ingestion, and dermal exposure. Symptoms of exposure include dermatitis, cough, rhinitis, nose bleeds, cold and flu-like symptoms, headache, general malaise, and fever.

The Cladosporium genera of mold are pigmented dark green to black in the front, and black on the reverse with a velvety to powdery texture. One of the most commonly isolated from indoor and outdoor air, Cladosporium spp. are found on decaying plants, woody plants, food, straw, soil, paint, textiles, and the surface of fiberglass duct liner in the interior of supply ducts.

There are over 30 species in the Cladosporium genus. The most common are C. elatum, C. herbarum, C. sphaerospermum, and C. cladosporioides. These fungi are the causative agents of skin lesions, keratitis, nail fungus, sinusitis, asthma, and pulmonary infections. Acute symptoms of exposure to Cladosporium are edema and bronchiospasm, and chronic exposure may lead to pulmonary emphysema.

Aspergillus is the most common genus of fungi in our environment (it especially likes to grow on corn plants) with more than 160 different species of mold. Sixteen of these species have been documented as causing human disease. Aspergillosis is now the 2nd most common fungal infection requiring hospitalization in the United States.

Aspergillus fumigatus. The most encountered species causing infection. It is seen abundantly in decomposing organic material, such as self-heating compost piles, since it readily grows at temperatures up to 55 C. People who handle contaminated material often develop hypersensitivity to the spores of Aspergillus and may suffer severe allergic reactions upon exposure.

Aspergillus flavus. The 2nd most encountered fungi in cases of Aspergillus infection. It is also known to produce the mycotoxin aflatoxin, one of the most potent carcinogens known to man. In the 1960s, 100,000 turkey poults in Great Britain died from ingesting contaminated feed. Most countries have established levels for aflatoxin in food. However, the risks associated with airborne exposure are not adequately studied and no exposure standards exist.

Aspergillus niger. The 3rd most common Aspergillus fungi associated with disease and the most common of any Aspergillus species in nature due to its ability to grow on a wide variety of substrates. This species may cause a fungal ball, which is a condition where the fungus actively proliferates in the human lung, forming a ball. It does so without invading the lung tissue.

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Pennsylvania Delaware Maryland Certified Roof Cleaner