Berlin company helps customers build bamboo bikes

Bamboo is known for its durability and high strength-to-weight ratio in construction, housing and furniture. A Berlin-based company is now using the natural material to help people build their own bikes.

As he saws through a long length of bamboo, Dan Vogel-Essex grins and explains why bamboo is perfect for making bicycle frames.

"Bamboo is an amazing material," he says. "In just about all aspects, it's like a steel frame - it's durable, it's fairly light. It's quite stiff, but really the property that just shines above all the rest is the comfort - the vibration absorbing qualities of it."

Vogel-Essex is a designer and one of the partners of Berlin-based Ozon Cyclery, which runs workshops for anyone interested in making their own bike from bamboo.

Over the past three years, he and partner Stefan Brüning have been refining their bamboo bike construction techniques.

In their small workspace, located in an old railway yard, long strands of bamboo lie on overhead racks. A dozen or so handmade bamboo bike frames are in various stages of construction. Saws, sandpaper and epoxy resins line the workbenches along with bolts of natural fiber cloth - the tools and materials for working with bamboo.

 

Cutting bamboo tubes to the correct length is easy

Brüning says their first bamboo bike barely made it out of their workshop before breaking.

"There was no way of how to do it available on the Internet or any place where you could learn how to build a bamboo bike. So we had to figure it out on our own," he says.

Today, the pair can build virtually any type of bicycle frame from bamboo - from mountain and touring bikes to racing bikes. Brüning says a typical bamboo frame weighs about 1.75 kilograms (3.7 pounds).

The wider, the better

Brüning and Vogel-Essex found that tiger bamboo is a good species for producing bike tubes. An adjustable jig is used to precisely set the geometry of the bamboo frame and can be similar to any other type of bike. However, Vogel-Essex and Brüning worked out that bamboo bike tubes need to have a diameter of 40 to 70 millimeters (1.5 to 2.7 inches) for the best performance.

Vogel-Essex says the diameter of bamboo tubes for bicycles has to be wider than standard steel tubes. "Of all the tests we've done and things that we've tried, the biggest problem with bamboo is that it tends to be flexible - which is also a benefit - and the super simple answer to making it stiff is diameter - it's got to be wide."

Designer Dan Vogel-Essex (left) shows workshop participants how to shape their bamboo frame

Joining the tubes together is perhaps the biggest challenge for a building a bamboo bike frame and manufacturers differ in their approach. Some wrap tubes together with strips of hemp soaked in epoxy resin, while others use steel joints. Bamboo draws its strength from the density of its outer and inner layers of fibers. So Vogel-Essex and Brüning looked to other industries such as aeronautics to develop a way of joining bamboo together using flax fiber composite materials.

"It's almost like we are learning from nature," Vogel-Essex says. "Nature makes tubing which is pretty much perfect already. We make the joint as good as the tubing itself."

It takes about 30 to 40 hours of work to produce a bicycle from bamboo. But what happens if you crash it? Will the bamboo break? Brüning says a bamboo tube might crack lengthways, but fixing it should be as simple as repairing a puncture.

"You can always ride a bike when the tube is broken." he explains. "You can repair cracks because you can just add some epoxy in between and can glue it together quite easily."

Preparing bamboo tubes before wrapping joins in natural fiber cloth

Build your own bamboo bike

Bicycle courier Marc Brockmann has been visiting the workshop on weekends to build his own bamboo bicycle. As someone who has to ride a bicycle the whole day there were many things that made bamboo attractive, he says.

"I'm not getting any younger and I think the comfort of the ride is better than an aluminum bike. I think there's more flexibility and absorption," Brockmann explains, noting that a lot of his bicycle courier colleagues are curious about his bamboo bike and want to ride it when it's finished.

There's a growing demand for bamboo bicycles around the world with small enterprises building frames in the US, Ghana, Zambia and Singapore. Vogel-Essex says he can see bamboo bicycles becoming more popular, but adds that bamboo is best suited to custom made bicycles rather than mass production. Both he and Brüning hope that their bamboo frame building techniques will be adopted by others.

"There's a saying, 'steel is real,'" says Vogel-Essex. "Everybody says steel is the material for the best ride quality. I actually want to make a bumper sticker that says, 'bamboo is realer!'"

Read more at: http://www.dw.de/berlin-company-helps-customers-build-bamboo-bikes/a-16780694

Tech-savvy Vietnam coffee farmers brew global takeover

By Cat Barton (AFP) 


Coffee farmer Ama Diem is pictured at his coffee farm in the suburbs of Buon Ma Thuot city, Vietnam on March 10, 2013 (AFP/File, Hoang Dinh Nam)

UON MA THUOT, Vietnam — Most Vietnamese coffee farmers have never heard of a double tall skinny latte, but they could tell you the price of the beans that go into one in their sleep.

From high-tech Israeli irrigation systems to text message updates of global prices for the commodity, coffee farming in Vietnam's Central Highlands has come a long way since the French first introduced the bean over a century ago.

"I used to carry my coffee to market by bicycle," said 44-year-old farmer Ama Diem. "Now I check the bean price on my mobile phones" before making the trip.

By texting "CA" to the number 8288 from any Vietnamese mobile phone, farmers almost instantly receive a message with the London prices of Robusta coffee beans and the New York price of Arabica beans from a data supply firm.

Farmers are only too aware that the price of coffee -- the second most traded commodity in the world after oil -- can move quickly.

"We only take the coffee to market when we can be sure of getting a high price," Diem told AFP at his plantation outside Vietnam's coffee capital Buon Ma Thuot. "We check the price a lot."

Vietnamese coffee farmers have changed the global market: if you had a cup this morning, there is a high chance you consumed at least some Vietnamese beans with companies such as Nestle and Britain's Costa Coffee among major buyers.

In 20 years, Vietnam went from contributing less than 0.1 percent of world production in 1980 to some 13 percent in 2000 -- staggering growth that has been partially blamed for the collapse of global coffee prices in the 1990s.

The rise of cash crops such as coffee in the Central Highlands has come at a price, however. Some indigenous minorities have lost their land to large-scale plantations, often run by majority Kinh who have migrated to the region. Demonstrations have been repressed.

The communist country is now the world's second-largest coffee producer, but is seen as high volume rather than high quality -- its bitter-tasting Robusta wins few accolades internationally and is mostly exported as raw beans.

"Vietnam is an amazing phenomenon," said Jonathan Clark, general director of coffee exporter Dakman.

He said exports "shot up" last year to nearly rival Brazil, the world's top exporter and producer.

Last year, Vietnam exported 1.73 million tons of coffee, worth some $3.67 billion and accounting for more than 50 percent of the world's Robusta, which is used in instant coffee or other blends.

Coffee consumption in Asia is on the rise and roasters are eyeing the low-cost country -- where there is no tax on coffee exports -- to set up operations to boost their regional presence, Clark said.

As consumption volumes have stagnated in the west, Vietnam, with its growing middle class and long standing love of coffee, is full of "tremendous opportunities", Jinlong Wang, president of Starbucks Asia Pacific, told AFP.

Starbucks -- which opened its first store in southern Ho Chi Minh City in February -- says it could open hundreds more in the near future in Vietnam, which it describes as a "dynamic, exciting" market.

The country's volcanic soil is perfect for growing coffee, and while global coffee drinkers are more used to Arabica -- which has 1.5 percent caffeine -- they should wake up and smell the joys of 2.5 percent strength Robusta, according to Vietnam's "coffee king" Dang Le Nguyen Vu.

The founder of home-grown coffee giant Trung Nguyen -- which has 55 stores in Vietnam and five in Singapore -- is passionate about putting Vietnam's Robusta coffee on the map.

"Robusta is not lower quality. It's just that globally, people have learned to drink Arabica coffee," Vu told AFP in an interview at the Trung Nguyen Village in Buon Ma Thuot.

A big part of the company's work is to improve the quality of local beans, working with farmers to introduce high-tech irrigation, reduce pesticide use and boost their income.

Trung Nguyen already exports to 60 countries and Vu said Starbucks' recent arrival in his homeland had increased his determination to open cafes in the United States offering Vietnam's traditional style of thick, strong coffee brewed in individual drip filters.

"We must be able to surpass Starbucks. We must offer something more attractive for US consumers," Vu said.

"I want the world to understand that Vietnamese coffee is the best, the cleanest, most special coffee."

Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved.

PLEASE READ

SON: "Daddy, may I ask you a question?"
DAD: "Yeah sure, what is it?"
SON: "Daddy, how much do you make an hour?"
DAD: "That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?"
SON: "I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?"
DAD: "If you must know, I make $100 an hour."
SON: "Oh! (With his head down).
SON: "Daddy, may I please borrow $50?"
The father was furious.
DAD: "If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for such this childish behavior."

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.
The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?
After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think:
Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $ 50 and he really didn't ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.

DAD: "Are you asleep, son?"

SON: "No daddy, I'm awake".
DAD: "I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier. It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the $50 you asked for."

The little boy sat straight up, smiling.
SON: "Oh, thank you daddy!"
Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. The man saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father.

DAD: "Why do you want more money if you already have some?"

SON: "Because I didn't have enough, but now I do.

"Daddy, I have $100 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you."
The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son, and he begged for his forgiveness. It's just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts. Do remember to share that $100 worth of your time with someone you love? If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family and friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family.

Some things are more important.

TAKEN FROM BLOG: http://kumbangjingga.blogspot.com/2013/02/sedikit-renungan-untuk-mereka-yg.html

Philips TLED lamp prototype combines efficiency, brightness and warmth

Philips creates the world's most energy-efficient warm white LED lamp
First LED lamp prototype delivering 200 lumen per watt high quality light, halving the energy use compared to current LED lamps

Eindhoven, the Netherlands – 11/04/13 Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) announces a new innovation in LED lighting, creating the world's most energy-efficient LED lamp suitable for general lighting applications. Philips researchers developed a tube lighting (TL) replacement TLED prototype that produces a record 200 lumens per watt of high-quality white light (compared with 100lm/W for fluorescent lighting and just 15lm/W for traditional light bulbs). This prototype TLED lamp is twice as efficient as predecessor lamps, basically halving the energy used.

With lighting accounting for more than 19% of the world's total electricity consumption, this innovation promises to drive massive energy and cost savings across the globe. The 200lm/W TLED lamp is expected to hit the market in 2015 for office and industry applications before ultimately being used in the home.

The new TLED prototype lamp from Philips marks the first time that lighting engineers have been able to reach 200lm/W efficiency without compromising on light quality[1], with all parameters required to meet the stringent requirements for office lighting. "This again is a major breakthrough in LED lighting and will further drive the transformation of the lighting industry," explains Rene van Schooten, CEO Light Sources & Electronics for Philips Lighting. "After being recognized for our quality of LED light (mimicking traditional light bulbs) to creating new experience with Philips Hue (the connected light system for the home), we now present the next innovative step in doubling lighting efficiency. It's exciting to imagine the massive energy and cost savings it will bring to our planet and customers."

Significant energy and cost savings
The TLED lamps are intended to replace fluorescent tube lighting used in office and industry, which currently account for more than half of the world's total lighting. Conversion to the twice-as-efficient 200lm/W TLED lamps will generate significant energy and cost savings.

In the US alone, for example, fluorescent lights consume around 200 terawatts of electricity annually. If these lights were all replaced with 200lm/W TLEDs, the US would use around 100 terawatts less energy (equivalent to 50 medium sized power plants) saving more than US$12 billion and preventing around 60 million metric tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere.[2]

This new LED innovation from Philips underlines the value and power of its lighting business, bringing together its expertise in LED technology, lamps, applications and systems. Market leading innovations from Philips Lumileds, as in phosphor technology and blue LEDs, together contribute to the high quality of light and advances in efficiency.

[1] Comfortable, workable light requires a color temperature of 3000–4000 kelvins, a color rendering index of at least 80, and an R9 saturated red level of no less than 20.

2 U.S. Department of Energy report January 2012: Energy savings potential of solid-state lighting in general illumination applications

Microsoft Said to Adopt AMD Chips for Next Xbox Console

By Cliff Edwards, Dina Bass & Ian King - Apr 9, 2013

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) will use an Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) processor in its next Xbox game console as it seeks to cut the cost of building machines and get developers to create more titles, people with knowledge of the matter said. AMD surged the most in almost two years.

The Xbox will use an AMD system-on-a-chip that combines powerful “Jaguar” central processing units with graphics chips, said one of the people, who sought anonymity because the plans aren’t public. The shift to the so-called x86 format ubiquitous in modern personal computers means Microsoft will drop the Power PC technology designed by International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), and game discs made for the current Xbox 360 won’t be compatible.

The switch is a boon for AMD, which is also providing chips forSony Corp. (6758)’s coming PlayStation 4, as it seeks a larger slice of the $67 billion global video-game market to help lessen its reliance on the shrinking PC industry. Microsoft also stands to benefit because game developers, who have moved toward making games for PCs and mobile devices, will find it easier to deliver those titles for the next Xbox.

“We’ll probably see many more titles because the console makers are saying the publishers are back in the driver’s seat,” said Richard Doherty, president of technology consulting firm Envisioneering Group. Developers won’t have to reinvent various features, such as “smoke, shading and reflections for each machine and can essentially create once and port once, and be done.”

Game publishers have complained that current consoles, each with a different architecture, come with a steep learning curve that drives up development costs, according to Doherty. Those companies will save money with the new chips, he said.

Xbox Event

AMD, based in Sunnyvale, California, rose 13 percent to $2.59 at the close in New York, the most since July 2011. That left the shares up 7.9 percent this year, reversing what had been a year-to-date decline. Microsoft slipped 0.4 percent to $28.59 and has climbed 7 percent in 2013.

Microsoft, which had considered unveiling the Xbox 360’s successor this month, will do it later, three people said. The company is considering revealing plans for the new Xbox at the industry’s E3 expo in June or at a separate event in May or June, they said. Microsoft plans a May 21 event, The Verge reported today.

The company hasn’t released the next Xbox’s specifications, including whether it will have an optical drive or details of online-game features and entertainment services.

John Taylor, an AMD spokesman, declined to comment, as did David Dennis, a Microsoft spokesman.

Targeting Consoles

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, decided against an April event because it saw little competitive pressure from Sony, which plans to release the PlayStation 4 in time for the Christmas holidays, said two people.

At Sony’s February unveiling of the PlayStation 4, the Tokyo-based company demonstrated the controller and game play running on prototype hardware, without showing the machine. Critics including Amir Anvarzadeh, a Singapore-based manager for Asia equity sales at BGC Partners Inc., panned the lack of any “revolutionary” advances and the PS4’s emphasis on social- gaming features.

Nintendo Co. (7974)’s Wii U, another competitor, has been selling below the company’s initial forecasts since November. In January, the company said it expected to sell 4 million units in the year ending March 31, down from a previous outlook for 5.5 million.

For AMD, providing chips for game consoles is part of Chief Executive Officer Rory Read’s plan to lessen the company’s dependence on the declining personal computer market. Read is aiming to get more than 20 percent of the AMD’s revenue from areas other than PCs by the fourth quarter.

Sales Drop

Traditional console makers face competition from cheaper machines like Ouya Inc.’s, and changes in game play that favor inexpensive titles for mobile devices such as Apple Inc. (AAPL)iPads and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab

U.S. retail sales of packaged video games fell 21 percent last year to $8.9 billion, according to researcher NPD Group, while revenue from games downloaded to computers and mobile devices rose 16 percent to $5.9 billion. Globally, the market including hardware and accessories was $67 billion.

The decision to switch to mainstream PC processors also will make games developed on previous generation consoles incompatible with the new systems, Envisioneering’s Doherty said. Sony has said it hopes to deliver some older games over the Web, using its Gaikai cloud gaming service.

In addition to the main Power PC processor, the current Xbox 360 contains a graphics chip made by a unit of AMD. The PlayStation 3 uses a custom Cell processor and graphics chips from Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)

Cost Savings

The x86 technology licensed by Intel Corp. (INTC) -- the so-called instruction set fundamental to all modern personal computers -- gives the new Xbox access to existing design elements, making the machine’s chip system cheaper to develop. The new also chips offer more computing power than parts Microsoft is currently using. Apple Inc. dropped the Power PC design from its Mac computers in 2005.

In the PlayStation 4, Sony is adopting an AMD custom system-on-a-chip processor that includes eight 64-bit Jaguar cores with a Radeon graphics processor from AMD’s ATI unit. The PS4 will come with a secondary custom chip responsible for downloading and processing games in the background.

At February’s unveiling, Sony lead system architect Mark Cerny said the PlayStation 4 will be a “supercharged PC architecture” with advanced memory and other features that will reduce development times by making some decisions within the hardware.

According to Envisioneering’s Doherty, the switch will help Sony bring down the initial cost to make its machines. For big developers such as Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) and Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), the savings will allow them to reduce their reliance on $60 titles as they compete with smaller publishers making games selling for $20 and less.

To contact the reporters on this story: Cliff Edwards in San Francisco atcedwards28@bloomberg.net; Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.net; Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net; Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net

Click and pay

THE past few years have brought little relief for pinched state finances. But on March 22nd 75 senators, including majorities of both parties, approved an amendment to a proposed federal budget which, if enacted, would allow states to collect taxes on sales by internet retailers based in other states.

It makes no economic sense to tax sales in shops and over the internet differently. The prohibition is constitutional. In 1992 the Supreme Court ruled that states could not force out-of-state retailers to collect tax on sales to residents unless Congress, which oversees interstate commerce, said so. Only retailers with a physical presence—a “nexus”, in the legal jargon—in the state could be taxed.

The economic consequences were relatively minor before Amazon and eBay appeared. Not any more. Since 1994, mail-order and internet sellers have grown from 2% of total retail sales to 7%. In the past five years, while retail sales have risen by 10% and total state and local taxes by 9%, sales-tax revenue is up just 2%. The National Conference of State Legislatures reckons that the court’s prohibition cost states $23 billion in lost taxes last year.

In theory, online customers are required to pay sales tax themselves. Unsurprisingly—since there are no means of enforcement, and no customs stations on state lines—few do. This galls traditional retailers like Best Buy and Target, who must charge tax not only in shops but also online in states where they have stores.

States have tried to find ways round the court’s ruling. Illinois redefined “nexus” to include local third-party affiliates who sell through larger web outfits, such as Amazon. Colorado ordered retailers to send customers a tax bill and report them to the tax collector. New York has defined “nexus’ to include any shop that can be reached by clicking through on a New York-based website. All have faced legal challenges: Illinois and Colorado have lost in court, although New York’s tactic has recently been upheld.

Retailers and state and local governments have long recognised that the ideal solution would be for Congress to allow states to tax the internet. But previous legislative efforts have stirred furious opposition from anti-tax activists and discomfort among many Republicans, who think this sounds like a new tax. Although the activists remain opposed, Republicans are increasingly sympathising with retailers and with local governments that are trying to build public works, such as sewers, while their tax base migrates into cyberspace. “You can’t flush your toilet over the internet,” says Mike Enzi, a Republican senator from Wyoming who spearheaded the amendment with Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois.

The Marketplace Fairness Act, as the proposal is called, allows states that simplify their sales-tax laws to compel online retailers to collect taxes. In preparation for passage, 24 states have joined a coalition that harmonises and simplifies sales-tax collection, for example by using common definitions of goods that are subject to tax. That would soothe e-tailers’ worries about collecting different taxes in thousands of state and local jurisdictions. Amazon, one of the fiercest opponents of state-level efforts to collect internet taxes, backs the federal law, while warning against too high a threshold for exempting small sellers, now set at $1m. EBay, on the other hand, opposes any bill without a “robust” exemption. The law would not overturn the federal prohibition on taxing purely digital goods, such as internet access and e-mail.

Although a similar bill has bipartisan support in the House of Representatives, House leaders have yet to get behind it. Even the Senate must find another way to pass the legislation, since the March budget resolution is non-binding. Advocates believe that the best hope may lie in comprehensive tax reform. Buried in a slew of more sweeping changes, a heavier touch on e-commerce might go unnoticed.

(Photo credit: AFP)

Article from www.economist.com