News Junky Journal

Lookouts scan the horizon, searching for any boat or vessel that looks out of place, careful eyes watch the radar screen. The entire crew is on edge; radio chatter between ships is nearly constant. Fishing vessels, normally a routine part of ocean travel, get extra scrutiny and wide passage. Any small boat approaching the ship sets off alarm bells.

Anyone who makes their living on the sea knows these waters, one of the corridors of global commerce for as long man has been writing things down, are a dangerous place to travel. Ships transiting these waters to the Red Sea are exposed to virtually the entire coast of Somalia, home to fleets of modern day pirates.

2010 was a bumper year for the pirates with 53 ships seized, 1,181 crew members taken hostage along with their ships and cargo. Eight people lost their lives.

Shipping supply companies are getting more requests for gear to keep their customer crews safe and to combat ocean-going piracy. One of those steps is supplying crews that travel these dangerous waters with EnGarde Marine Tactical Kits.

The kits, which can be tailored to the company’s budget, include tactical helmets, and body armor that runs from models capable of stopping small arms fire to full cover tactical bullet proof vests with hard armor panels capable of stopping rounds from AK-47s and grenade fragments.

Companies like Seaway Marine Trading BV, Wave.Co Supply, and EuroSupply Bergen AS are now stocking products to supply protection from the small arms and rocket propelled grenades that are the weapons of choice for roving bands of Somali pirates.

EnGarde has seen a surge in interest in their marine tactical kits as shipping companies look to provide more safety options for crews working in potentially hostile waters.

Offering protective body armor like the EnGarde Patrol, EnGarde Leopard, and EnGarde Panther protective vests that provide the capability of accepting either EnGarde DYNEEMA Level III inserts capable of stopping small arms fire or EnGarde Aramid/Ceramic Level IV hard armor plates capable of surviving fire from larger caliber light armor piercing bullets and grenade fragments. Body armor, coupled with an EnGarde PASGT or MICH helmets, crews are better protected from small arms and RPGs.

EnGarde tactical marine kits and ballistic blankets are available at price points to fit most budgets and provide various levels of protection to fit whatever situations ship captains may encounter in dangerous waters.

EnGarde body armor is a Dutch manufacturer and distributor of high quality body armor for law enforcement, military and civilians worldwide.

Website: http://www.engardebodyarmor.com

It is one thing to want breast augmentation with breast implants to improve your figure, but it’s another to actually see what you look like with them. All women who want breast implants may see pictures of women with breasts like they want, and try to visualize what they will look like. Using bags filled with rice, breast implants fitted inside bras, and more might help a little, but are ultimately a poor substitute for many women.

Many plastic surgeons request their breast augmentation patients bring pictures of women with the shape and size of breasts they want to their consultation. The plastic surgeon will also have a gallery of the work he or she has done on past patients. Matching physique and breasts will help the current patient visualize even further what her breasts may look like after breast surgery.
However, going even further, some plastic surgeons offer 3-D breast imaging. This allows the patient to see what they will look like through a digital 3-D imaging program.

Vectra Breast Imaging

The Vectra 3-D Breast Imaging program allows breast implant patients to actually see what breast implants can do for their figure with the touch of a button. Using 3-D scans of your body from multiple angles, the Vectra program will calculate your breast dimensions, analyze the different size of breasts for your physique, and then determine which breast implant size is compatible. You may view several different sizes to see what they will look like.

During and after the 3-D breast imaging, you will discuss breast implant shape and size with your plastic surgeon. They will help you decide on the best possible result. The program will also help you communicate better with your doctor, as they can actually show you on the image what they mean. Knowing how you will look after your breast implant surgery goes a long way in educating you and setting you at east before your surgery date.

If you would like to learn more about 3-D breast imaging, please visit the website of experienced Houston, Texas plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Ciaravino today at www.thebodydoc.com.

SexToy.com’s branded vibrating bullet moved at speed of 1,800 feet per minute and reached an estimated maximum altitude of 120,000 feet. Powered by Energizer Lithium Ultimate AA batteries, the vibrating bullet was fully operational and vibrating for the entire 9-hour space voyage.

Though some media outlets have thought the project to be a pure publicity stunt, CEO Sextoy Dave commented, “This is really just a stepping stone to do more interesting experiments with sex toys. The success of this launch has our team planning the next space endeavor – we may be launching a sex doll into space to serve as an extraterrestrial representative baring the slogan, ‘We Come in Peace’.”

The vibrating bullet had a dramatic launch and rocky descent back into earth’s atmosphere. The ascent took over one hour and halfway through the ascent the bullet withstood the coldest temperatures of its journey at -75F.

The turbulent descent took approximately 30 minutes. The partially solar-powered, partially helium-filled balloon equipped with an HD video and still camera was tangled up in balloon debris and popped at around 19:24 into the descent. It hit the ground at upwards of 60 miles per hour rather than the gentle 5-10 mph expected. However, the payload was engineered to be impact-resistant, so nothing was damaged. The balloon and sex toy landed safely in an open field away from houses and people, and were retrieved by the Sextoy.com team. Miraculously, the vibrator was still vibrating!

Pictures and video of the sex toy’s space voyage are posted on www.sextoy.com/blog.The space-traveled vibrating bullet will be auctioned off on ebay.com with proceeds benefiting Breast Cancer Awareness, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. For more information about this space voyage you can contact the company at press@cnv.com or call the company directly at 310-358-0932.

On Saturday morning, October 22, 2011, The Tandem airship was launched from Nevada’s Black Rock desert. The airship flew to 95,085 feet, higher than any airship in history.

After fighting through extreme turbulence from 40,000 to 60,000 feet, Tandem soared to 95,085 feet. Tandem flew nearly four miles higher than any airship before. The pilot on the ground then remotely turned on the motors and flew the airship through a series of maneuvers. At the end of its mission one balloon burst and the command was sent to release the other balloon. Tandem was then carried to a soft landing by a row of five parachutes.

Tandem is an unmanned twin balloon airship. The two balloons are separated by a thirty foot long carbon fiber truss. Two electric motors each spin a six foot long propeller. The propellers are specifically designed to work in the thin atmosphere twenty miles up.

The airship was built and flown by the all-volunteer, independent space program: JP Aerospace.

“The big aerospace firms have been trying to do this for decades, spending hundreds of millions of dollars,” says John Powell, President of JP Aerospace. “We’ve spent about $30,000 and the past five years developing Tandem.”

Tandem is a general workhorse vehicle. A high-altitude backhoe, it will be used as a launch platform for small research rockets, a mother ship for hypersonic test airships and all around tool for the Airship to Orbit program. Airship to Orbit is a project to build large V-shaped airships that will fly to space.

Tandem is also a construction vehicle for high altitude research stations and eventually cities at the edge of space.

Contact: John Powell, President
JP Aerospace, America’s OTHER Space Program
916-858-0185
jpowell@jpaerospace.com
www.jpaerospace.com

After over one year of development and having been designed and developed by one person only, Miius finally announces its beta version. Miius is the world’s first social microblogging website which allows individuals or businesses to share what they feel every day (their moods) with the whole world.

Words are always said not to be enough to express what people feel so Miius allows users to color-tag their micro-messages called blurbs (green for normal, yellow for happy, red for angry and blue for sad) so that they can imply their moods in a more meaningful and direct way.

The service allows friends and family to get to know each other better by sharing their moods and finding out what makes them happy, angry or sad every day. Merely looking at the color used by the person that has posted anything will let everybody realize how uplifting or disheartening their blurbs are each day.

Miius also allows people to include videos and photos on their blurbs to enhance that feeling about a certain subject. The service is also used as a feedback or review tool simply by searching and filtering these blurbs by moods about any topic, product, or perhaps a hotel, to find out what people feel about it. Were they happy or angry? How many feel that way?

Miius also goes one step further than simply allowing users to share their moods but also allows them to upload their own videos and create albums on the website too. All their followers will be notified about new videos and photos being posted. Mostly important Miius allows its users to choose a predefined theme or customize the website with their own colors and backgrounds and that is not limited to their profiles but also other pages of the website which are not normally customizable including the login page.

About Miius
http://www.miius.com
Launched in 2011 a service which allows people to explicitly post their moods on the web and find out what other people feel in a more meaningful and direct way.

A visual guide to email signature technology has been released by industry experts Exclaimer, the group announced today.

‘We’ve lost all the carefully refined detail that effused brand values on physical mail’, explains Chris Nicholson, web branding strategist.

‘Signatures regain the essential impact that was so effective on traditional mail – they’re short, sharp, powerful reminders of your brand and its unique values’

‘Forgotten products don’t sell – and that’s why this is vital’

The email signature software guide explores the two methods of adding signatures: on a mail client, like Outlook, or on a mail server – and why good businesses need both.

The server-based Mail Disclaimers can add branding to every email sent – from Outlook, smartphones, OWA and any device or client – then auto-adjust it to suit various recipients.

Paris contacts can get branding in French while LA clients see it in English, or potential buyers can see sign-up deals and long-time clients are shown loyalty rewards.

Signature Manager lets Outlook users see the signature below their message as they write and lets departments centrally control all the fonts and formats used.

Combining them provides full power – signatures on every email, visible before they’re sent, yet automatically tailored for maximum impact.

They both auto-fill each user’s contact details – so everyone’s signature is instantly and automatically filled with the correct data, the second it’s sent.

Exclaimer C E O, Andrew Millington clarified, ‘It has to be automated: one click must make update everything – perfectly.

‘Without dedicated software, email branding is a trade-off between looking amateur and wasting an IT admin’s time.

‘We wanted to explain this in the same way it works: quickly, easily and stylishly.
‘Making business look good is only half the job – the rest is making it easy’

National fitness electronics firm the Heart Rate Watch Company has named the Garmin Edge 500 as its number one bike computer pick for 2011.

“When you look at the number of professional and amateur competitive riders that use the Edge 500 it is abundantly clear that it performs”, say Rusty Squire, President of the Heart Rate Watch Company. He continues, “If it was just members of the Garmin Pro Team it would be one thing but there are pros on many other teams using the unit.”

Indeed the Garmin Edge 500 has received many accolades and impressive reviews over the two short years since its introduction. Garmin recently added a new Edge 500 red bike computer with a glossy black case with red accents to the lineup. Also due out during the Spring of 2012 will be the Garmin Vector based power pedals that can easily switch from bike to bike and do both left and right power balance.

Collecting heart rate based data, power based data and using these numbers appropriately can help give cyclists an enormous advantage in their training. Building a base in the early season maintaining the proper intensity through heart rate based zones is important to get the right kind of base. All of these aspects and many more are available thanks to measurement technology systems like Garmin has created.

The software interface platform called Garmin Connect also gets big kudos, not so much for its analysis but for its ability to precisely map all metrics with pinpoint precision in a player function. The single button conversion of all map data to Google Earth is convenient as well and the ride sharing program is without peers.

The rubber O-ring mounting system is more secure and makes it much easier to both attach and detach the bike computer without leaving scratches on the surface of a carbon stem, as was the case with the zip tie solution used by most manufacturers. The attention to these small details is truly what helps set the Edge 500 apart, things like auto scroll so you can see more data completely hands-free.

Other features like percentage gradient, altitude, total feet ascended and descended and the ability to see heart rate as a percentage of maximum are all features that make the Garmin Edge 500 so adaptable to each individuals needs.

“We gave our sponsored bike team members these and several other Garmin units at the start of the season and asked them to compare them with all other bike computers they had ever used” says Squire. He added “The Garmin Edge 500 was the hands down favorite for size and capabilities”.

Timex has a new bike computer due to come out in February of 2012 called the Road Trainer RT3 that is expected to create some new competition for the Garmin Edge 500. So for 2012 it might be possible that someone else could grab the prize but for 2011 the Garmin Edge 500 is the top bike computer pick – hands down.

Apple customers have been looking forward to the just released iPhone 4S and the future iPad 3 to be released in early 2012. Apple users who require their units to remain operational under a wide variety of remote conditions will also need a solar charger like the sCharger-5. Dean Sala, Suntactics CTO, purchased the iPhone 4S and has done extensive testing of its new features using the sCharger-5. “The Apple iPhone charger engineers have made some improvements in the charging system and eliminated some nuisance messages to make it more compatible with solar chargers. Our existing and future customers will be pleased to know that the results have been outstanding.”

Suntactics has a broad base of Apple users and they have been very enthusiastic in their Apple product reviews. They want other Apple product owners to know that the sCharger-5 is the dependable hassle free solution to their solar charging needs.

“Took this on a backpacking trip in July with my 3g iPhone and I was the envy of my camp mates. It is quite durable and held up to some rough handling”

“It is the only way I charge my iPod now. I bought a CD case and take this solar charger with me wherever I go. It is high powered and charges at the same rate as plugging into a wall socket.”

“The Suntactics worked great with my iPhone 3, 4 and my iPad. My son and I went river rafting for three days this last summer. During the day we ran the rapids while we charged the iPad. Each night we had full batteries while we watched movies in our tent!”

“Charges an iPod in full sunlight no problem using the iPod’s USB adapter. It’s compact, solid, made in USA.”

Here’s what makes sCharger-5 different from the rest:

•     Talk & Surf while charging from solar energy, Hassle free
•     No internal battery to wait on or wear out and cause toxic waste
•     Easy to use with unique circuitry that optimizes charging
•     Reliable and Durable, Water and Weather resistant, Dependable
•     Meets Today’s and Future needs for more powerful devices, Long-term value
•     Sleek Compact Folding design, Light Weight, Fits in CD Wallets

Apple customers require a powerful solar charger to provide both instant usage and charging. They want what Suntactics provides: “a highly reliable powerful solar charger that is simple to use and hassle free”. And they want it done it in a truly environmentally responsible way with a product that is designed for long-term value and not obsolesce.

Shoreline Animation’s language translation iPhone apps help users switch easily between various languages such as English, German, French, Chinese, Hindi, Italian and Spanish within seconds.

The Spanish Translator Lite is no exception. The travel category app, translates any phrase in English, French, Japanese, German, Dutch and other source languages into Spanish. Besides displaying the translated phrase as text, it also converts the text to speech, delivered as an mp3 file. This new feature was available only in the paid version earlier. Listening to the mp3 file ensures accurate pronunciation along with translation. The app comes with many additional useful features, giving users the ability to bookmark and edit favorite phrases, copy and paste phrases from the app, email phrases and view recent translation history. These features save users time by eliminating the need to retype phrases that have already been translated. This is particularly useful for common phrases and everyday conversation when users are traveling in a foreign country.

“Our users range from travelers traveling to Latin America and Spain to employers who need to communicate with their employees at the workplace. Language translation apps are among the more popular mobile apps due to their practical application in any situation,” says a spokesperson from Shoreline Animation.

Besides language translation apps, Shoreline Animation has developed other utility based apps like Flight Tracker to check flight status, Disney World Maps, Guides and Wait Times, Airport Monitor and Daily News Reader. Several of these have been ranking high among mobile apps consistently for months.

Shoreline Animation’s web offerings include a website dedicated to free ecards, personalized photo cards and printable cards. Gotfreecards.com has a large selection of free cards and ecards for various occasions and features a number of designs in its free Christmas Ecards library. For more information on Shoreline Animation’s apps, please visit http://shorelineanimation.com/

A long-time leader in sustainable travel practices, Kimpton’s Hotel Monaco Portland adds another notch to its proverbial green belt with two electric car charging stations. The hotel is among the first in the city to provide this service, and offers the charging complimentary to all hotel guests who drive and park electric cars.

“The Hotel Monaco and Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants have always led the way in environmental initiatives and technologies,” said Craig Thompson, general manager of the Hotel Monaco Portland. “This new service we are offering to our guests is one more example of our commitment and dedication to providing as sustainable a travel experience as possible.”

The Hotel Monaco Portland has been a pioneer in environmental responsibility, becoming one of the first hotels in Portland to achieve Green Key Certification in 2011. This means the Monaco meets stringent environmental standards designed to reduce impact on the environment and human health. The Hotel Monaco’s long-time commitment to environmental responsibility was recognized by Oregon Business Magazine as the Best Green Company to work for in 2010. The hotel also offers a 50% discount on parking for hybrid cars.

Embodying Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants EarthCare initiatives, Hotel Monaco Portland
incorporates more than 100 eco-friendly practices into daily operations, including in-room recycling bins, low-flow faucets, toilets and showers, and the donation of unused amenity bottles to local charities. New initiatives recently added to Kimpton’s daily environmental practices include converting certain paper products to Fiberstone, a tree-free, water-free, natural paper alternative and converting to printer ink with a 70/80 ratio of bio-renewable content (higher BRC than soy ink).

Guests can make reservations at 1-800 KIMPTON or http://www.monaco-portland.com.
For more information, please contact Brandyn Hull at (206) 340-6678 or Melanie Blair at (206) 516-5049. Photos available upon request.