Did you know that many scientists would like to discover light-catching materials in order to transform more of the sun’s power into carbon-free electrical power?

A new study described in the magazine Applied Physics Letters in August this year (released by the American Institute of Physics), explains how solar energy could potentially be collected by using oxide elements that include the element selenium. A team at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, inserted selenium in zinc oxide, a relatively affordable substance that could make more effective use of the sun’s power.

The team discovered that even a relatively small quantity of selenium, just 9% of the mostly zinc-oxide base, significantly increased the material’s effectiveness in absorbing light.

The primary author of this study, Marie Mayer (a 4th-year College of California, Berkeley doctoral student) states that photo-electrochemical water splitting, that signifies employing power from the sun to cleave water into hydrogen and oxygen gases, could possibly be the most fascinating future application for her efforts. Utilizing this reaction is key to the eventual creation of zero-emission hydrogen powered automobiles, which hypothetically will run only on water and sunlight.

Journal Research: Marie A. Mayer et all. Applied Physics Letters, 2010

The conversion effectiveness of a PV cell is the percentage of sunlight energy that the photo voltaic cell converts to electricity. This is very important when discussing Photo voltaic products, because enhancing this efficiency is vital to making Photo voltaic power competitive with more conventional sources of energy (e.g., non-renewable fuels).

For comparison, the very first Photo voltaic products converted Read the rest of this entry

This year the California Family Winemakers  20th Anniversary Tasting event was held at the Fort Mason Festival Pavilion in San Francisco on August 22nd and 23rd.   The day was surprisingly a very hot sunny day, which is not typical for San Francisco.

As you may know, California wines are known worldwide for their outstanding taste and quality.  If you are planning to have a wine tasting party, you can’t go wrong choosing a California wine.

This is a two day wine tasting event with 342 wineries pouring some of the best  available anywhere.  On Sunday the public is welcome, but on Monday it is restricted to the “trades“  which includes restaurants, bars, and retail stores looking for new inventory to bring to their establishments.  Also included in the Monday event is the media.

My husband and I have volunteered to work this event for 5 years and we have never been disappointed in what the wine tasting event has to offer.  This year we were assigned to winery check in.  We got the opportunity to meet and talk with many of the winery personnel.  These  hard-working people are a really great group of individuals to get to know.

After our volunteer shift we were able to taste some of these great wines, which is one of the advantages of volunteering to work at this wine event.  We had to be very choosy with 342 wineries from which to taste.

The northern California wine tasting event this year was a success that was enjoyed by many.  Keep this event in mind if you live in the San Francisco area or are planning a trip there next year in August.  You will not be disappointed if you attend it.

In today’s competitive marketplace to be successful businesses must put some effort into business branding. Establishing brand recognition is one of the main components that can make your business name stand out from the rest. It doesn’t matter whether you are a large corporation or only one person with a home based business, either way business branding is essential for success.

Why Have a Unique Slogan?

Creating a unique slogan that reinforces the identity of your business is one of the key factors in branding your business. The ultimate goal of your slogan is depict the objectives of your business thus letting your customers know just exactly what they will get when dealing with you.

Your slogan should be specific to your brand and convey your message in a few concise words.  When people see or hear your slogan it should cause them to picture in their mind your company and what it can provide for them.  Your slogan must drive your customer to take immediate action.

When creating your slogan you can use your company logo or some specific phrase that depicts what your core business is. In time your business may be recognized by your business brand alone if you choose the exact slogan that describes what your company stands for.

Why Have a Slogan?

Slogans are so effective when it comes to marketing and branding your business because Read the rest of this entry

On doing research into genealogy I discovered familiar terms that I glanced over with the idea that I understood the term.  Funny thing was that I really had no idea what they meant.  I mean, I thought I did.  But when I had to come up with a definition for my son I really had not a clue what some things meant.

So, I thought it might be interesting to tell of what I discovered.

First off I will assume that everyone is comfortable with their knowledge of what a father, mother, sister, brother is.  But I discovered some did not know the meaning of Aunt, Uncle, grandfather, great grandfather, second cousin and the oddest one of “once removed.”

So the following are definitions that will help when working with family trees.

Aunt- This is the person that is your mother or your fathers sister.

Uncle- This is the person that is your mother or fathers brother.

Cousin- This can also be known as first cousin and are the people in your family that are the children of your aunts and uncles.  They will have two of the same grandparents as you.  Cousins share a blood relationship.

Second Cousin-These people will have the same great grandparents as you but not the same grandparents.

Third, fourth and fifth cousins will respectively have the same great great, great great great and great great great great grandparents as you.

Grandfather- This person is the father of your mom and dad

Grandmother- This person is the mother of your mom and dad

Great Grandfather- This person is the father of your grandmother or grandfather

Great Grandmother-This person is the mother of your grandmother or grandfather.

Once removed or twice removed- This is a bit more difficult to understand.  But it simply means Read the rest of this entry

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is considered as the heart of Internet marketing, that’s why all the websites should put it into practice. However, before you can boost your website, you must have it indexed by search engines. If your website doesn’t get indexed, there’s a slim chance that it will emerge on Google search result page.

It’s really not impossible to get your site indexed right from the very beginning; you just have to learn about the numerous ways for Google to notice it. Below are some tips:

1. Forward your websites to well-known social bookmarking sites. You should know that Google prefers well-liked social book marking sites such as Stumble Upon, Reddit, and Digg. Each day, Google dropped by these websites and gather fresh contents to index. Therefore, if you will put forward your website, then there’s a big chance that Google will pick it within the day.

2. Generate an XML sitemap file and then present it to Google. This sitemap file contains all the links to all the pages of your website.

3. Create as many articles as you can and forward them to article directories for publishing. You should insert a resource box where they will see your website’s URL.

4. Put HTML text links on your site. Google Read the rest of this entry

At the World Internet Summit in New Zealand, Sean Roach conducted an “internet challenge”. In just 4 days before a live audience of 320 people Kylie Anderson won $30,033.

Read the original story at http://www.worldinternetblog.com.

My husband and I love to travel; we consider traveling “the good life”. Last year we were lucky enough to be able to spend three weeks in Kauai and we had the time of our lives. When it comes to the important things in life it doesn’t get much better than that.

What makes this particular travel even more special is that we were able to share quality time with our daughter, son-in-law, and our two fantastic grandchildren who were 7 years and 5 years old at the time.

Some of the adventures we had included a tour of the island and a boat trip to the Fern Grotto.  We visited beautiful beaches, had picnics, swam, and boogey boarded.  We went kayaking and hiked to some of our favorite beaches including the Queen’s Bath and the Secret Beach.

In the evening we had tasty dinners, watched sunsets, were entertained with “shows” put on by our grandchildren, and played lots of Mexican Train dominos.  This is the good life and it doesn’t get much better than this.

Kauai, known as the “Garden Island”, in our opinion is the most beautiful of the Hawaiian Islands.  We like the Princeville area the best and that is where we stay when we visit.  Lucky for us we get enjoy the good life and are able to visit there every other year.

We drive to the south end of the island and visit Poipu Beach at least once during our visit, but we are always happy to return to the north end because you just can’t beat the Napali Coast. You can almost hear Bali Hai calling you.

This is just a reminder to all of you to take some time and “smell the roses” in your life and spend quality time with your loved ones.  Enjoy the good life.

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