Australian Content Blog

May 26, 2011

Laser Hair Removal

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — The Editor @ 2:04 am

Men and women can choose to remove unsightly facial and body hair for many reasons, including social acceptance, comfort, hygienic and religious reasons. Numerous hair removal methods have gone in and out of fashion over time, but the most effective so far is laser hair removal, which has gained huge popularity recently.

Traditional hair removal methods include shaving, waxing, depilatory creams and plucking or tweezing. These methods temporarily remove the hair, leaving the skin smooth but can result in unwanted side-effects such as razor rash, irritation, ingrown hairs, and even scarring. In addition to such reactions these techniques can be time consuming and need to be repeated regularly to maintain the results.

But time and technology have resulted in advances in hair removal techniques, and none is as effective as laser hair removal. It focuses on the melanin pigment in the hair which allows the laser energy to destroy the cells at the base of the hair follicle. This process progressively reduces the number of hairs in the treatment area, and after several of treatments results in a permanent hair reduction. Laser hair removal has little or no side-effects and is actually a very effective treatment for ingrown hairs commonly caused by waxing or plucking.

Laser treatments are able to cover a large area in a small amount of time, with people having treatments in their lunchtime or on the way home from work. A treatment takes from 5–60 minutes to complete and are usually spaced at 6 weekly intervals.

Laser Hair Removal will save you the ongoing cost in both time and price of hair removal products such as wax, creams or razors, and will free you from worrying about daily, weekly or monthly upkeep, as it leaves the skin smooth and free from hair long-term.

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May 23, 2011

Rui Goncalves Confirms His Return to the Honda World Motocross Team

Filed under: Uncategorized — The Editor @ 12:43 pm

Again, Honda World Motocross face their last competitive match before the MX1 World Championship starts in Sevlievo, Bulgaria on April 9 to 10. After racing in the final round of the Italian Championship, Evgeny Bobryshev and Rui Goncalves will now build a momentum that will surely take them successfully to the beginning of their campaign for the 2011 World Championship.

Evgeny Borbryshev is familiar with the new Honda 450R due to his experience in 2010 when he raced for the CAS Honda team. He used his effective form from pre-season to last season preparations and scored a great win in Faenza. As Rui Goncalves joined the Honda World Motocross team, it represented his return to the manufacturer he used to race for during the early years of his career. This season will be his first time riding 450cc machines for the MX1 championship campaign.

“It feels good to be back with Honda, and it actually seems like I am on my way home. After competing for several championship races and succeeding as a member of Honda Portugal, I developed a good relationship with them so it almost feels like I never even left the team,” Rui says. He also mentioned that Evgeny is fun to work with and he believes that they can help each other ride better on the dirt bike tracks.

After changing from the 350R to the 450R, Rui shared a few insights on how he has adapted to the big change. Although he has already raced with a 450R bike before, he never used it for a full championship and he admits that the last Honda trail bike he rode was not even a 4-stroke engine. However, its increased torque, improved power delivery, and linear power curve makes it easier to ride smoothly and punch out of corners so he believes it will positively affect his performance.

Now that Rui Goncalves has confirmed his return to the Honda team, spectators will expect to see plenty of action and excitement in the upcoming Motocross World Championship.

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May 20, 2011

The Evolution of Digital Art

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — The Editor @ 2:57 am

Until the late 20th century, the graphic-design discipline had been based on hand-craft processes: layouts that were made by hand to visualise a design; type was specified and ordered from a typesetter; and type proofs and photostats of images were placed into position on heavy paper or card for photographic reproduction and platemaking. During the 1980s and early ’90s, however, rapid changes in digital computer hardware and software completely altered graphic design.

Software for Apple’s 1984 Macintosh computer, such as the MacPaint programme created by computer programmer Bill Atkinson and graphic designer Susan Kare, had a revolutionary human interface. Tool icons controlled by a mouse or graphics tablet enabled designers and artists to use computer graphics in an intuitive way. The Postscript™ page-description language from Adobe Systems, Inc., enabled pages of type and graphics to be assembled into graphic designs on-screen. By the mid-1990s, the transition of design from a drafting-table action to an on-screen computer activity was virtually complete.

Digital computers placed typesetting tools into the homes of designers, and therefore a time of experimentation occurred in the design of new and unusual type and page layouts. Type and images were layered, fragmented, and disfigured; type columns were overlapped and run at very long or short line lengths, and the sizes, weights, and typefaces were sometimes changed within single headlines, columns, and words. Much of this type of research took place in design training at art schools and universities. American designer David Carson, art director of Beach Culture magazine in 1989-91, Surfer in 1991-92, and Ray Gun magazine in 1992-96, captured the imagination of a youthful audience by taking such an experimental approach into publication design.

Fast changes in onscreen software also enabled designers to make elements transparent; to stretch, scale, and bend elements; to layer type and graphics in mid-space; and to connect imagery into complex montages. For example, in a United States postage stamp from 1998, designers Ethel Kessler and Greg Berger digitally montaged John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Frederick Law Olmsted with an image of New York’s Central Park, a site plan, and botanical art to commemorate the landscape architect. Interwoven, these images create a rich expression of Olmsted’s life and work.

The electronic change in graphic design was followed quickly by public access to the internet. A whole new area of graphic-design activity developed in the mid-1990s when internet business became a fast growing sector of the world-wide economy, causing companies and businesses to quickly establish web-sites. Designing a website involves the layout of screens of information rather than of pages, but approaches to the use of type, images, and colour are similar to those used for print. Web design, however, requires a myriad of new things to consider, including designing for navigation through the site and for using hypertext links to see additional information. An example of strong Web design is the Herman Miller for the Home Web site, designed by BBK Studio in 1998. These designers created a purposeful visual identity, effective navigation, and informational clarity. Attributes that added to the effectiveness of this Web site included a consistent colour palette, an informative use of pictures of products, and a scrolling montage of products.

Because of the world-wide effectiveness and reach of the Internet, the graphic-design domain is becoming increasingly global in scope. Additionally, the blending of motion graphics, animation, video feeds, and music into Web-site design has brought about the merging of traditional print and broadcast media. As kinetic media expand from motion pictures and basic television to scores of cable-television channels, video games, and animated Web sites, motion graphics are becoming an increasingly important area of graphic design.

In the 21st century, graphic design is ubiquitous; it is a major component of our complex print and electronic information systems. It permeates modern society, bringing information, product identification, entertainment, and persuasive messages. The unstoppable advancing of technology has changed dramatically the way graphic designs are created and distributed to a mass audience. However, the basic role of the graphic designer, giving creative form and clarity of content to communicative messages, remains the same.

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May 18, 2011

Marketing of Law Firms

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — The Editor @ 4:49 pm

Law firm marketing is primarily based on promoting the solicitor as the product, so a biography is a critical component to selling services. This article offers 5 quick tips to make sure you get your bio just right!

Writing a bio, which markets a lawyer on websites or in printed material is often given very little thought and usually completed in little time. Worse still is the bio that a lawyer hasn’t been involved in creating and some poor soul has had to scrape together from a CV.

If this is true of your firm or your bio then you have a serious flaw in your marketing strategy. You need to be aware that marketing for lawyers, particularly those in repeat business areas of law, is based on the principle that the lawyer is the product. That is why the employees page of a law firm website is generally the most popular page after the home or landing page. If you charge an hourly rate for your time, you are the ‘product’, and your prospective clients want to thoroughly know what they are buying!

It’s true that some companies base their marketing on a general sales pitch, or branding in one area of law, but for most law firms the success of your marketing strategy will be due to the client believing they will get good value when they buy the time of the individual that is doing the work. So, hopefully having impressed on you the importance of a strong bio, here are five ideas for putting one together:

Essential Tips for designing a compelling Lawyer Bio

Provide all the important information
It’s surprising how many law firm web-sites have bios of their team that neglect to include relevant information. And this doesn’t mean which law school you went to. Be sure to begin the bio with a full name, your position within the firm, the type of work you excel in, and any other firm responsibilities. It’s important to remember that you’re not writing this for other lawyers to read.

As a lawyer I was very happy the day I was admitted to the Supreme Court in my state. But frankly, most clients won’t have a clue what this means. So remember to include info that could be relevant to your client, not just facts that will impress other lawyers. By all means mention qualifications, positions on legal committees and the like, but unless it’s something you believe your clients will understand and consider important, then leave it to the end of the bio. It may be of some help to involve a third party. Have someone outside the legal industry read your bio and provide some feedback.

Your client is looking for a solution
Difficult as it may be for your ego to accept, the client is not fascinated in you as individual. They are looking for someone they believe can best solve their problem or most successfully undertake their project. So you need to give information that will convince them you’re the perfect person for the job. In printed documents you should aim to include actual examples of how you’ve helped people, but online bios are often concise. So try to cover this one with phrases such as: “More than 10 years experience in”, “Recognised within the X business community for assisting with”, “A certified specialist in the area of”, or “Successfully negotiated more than 200 rural property contracts”.

Connect with the real world, not just the legal world
If your company or practice provides services that are based in a particular city or region you can advance your marketing efforts by demonstrating a connection to that community. Being considered a “local” by potential clients by demonstrating a connection with the region’s major industry eg. ” from a family with a long involvement in the coal mining industry”, encourages a connection with the client.

Add a little personality
Don’t be afraid to inject a little personal to your bio. And this doesn’t have to be the standard “Married with 2.5 children”. By all means include personal information if it helps with point number 4 above, but more than that, you should think about your ‘flavour’ and the type of “client experience” you provide. Are you a ” fiercely determined approach”, a “collaborative practitioner focussed on keeping costs down” or a “down to earth, with a knack for easing clients concerns”. Finding a genuine point of difference in how you practice communicates that you are a real person with a real personality” and not the same as the numerous other lawyers out there busily marketing themselves.

John Gray is a practising lawyer and the Senior Marketer at John Gray Marketing, an Australian specialist law firm and legal marketing consultancy. If you are interested in law firm marketing, legal marketing and marketing for lawyers, contact John Gray today.

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Painting Properties and Techniques

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — The Editor @ 11:15 am

Whether a painting reaches completion by careful application or was implemented directly by a hit-or-miss alla prima method (in which medium are applied in a single application) was previously determined by the ideals and established systems of its cultural tradition. For example, the medieval European illuminator’s painstaking procedure, by which a detailed linear pattern was slowly enriched with gold leaf and precious materials, was contemporary with the Sung Chinese Zen practice of quick, calligraphic brush painting, after a contemplative time of disciplined self-preparation. Later has decided the technique and working mode most suited to his desired outcome and temperament. In France in the 1880s, for instance, Seurat might be working in his studio on sketches, tone studies, and colour schemes in preparation for a large composition at the same time that, outdoors, Monet was working to capture the effects of afternoon light and atmosphere, while Cézanne analyzed the structure of the mountain Sainte-Victoire with deliberated brush strokes, laid as irrevocably as mosaic tesserae (small pieces, such as marble or tile).

This type of relationship established between artist and patron, the site and subject matter of a painting commission, and the physical properties of the medium used could also dictate working procedure. Peter Paul Rubens, for example, followed the business-like 17th-century tradition of creating a small oil sketch, or modella, for his patron’s approval before painting a large-scale commission. Fundamental problems specific to mural painting, such as spectator eye level and the size, style, and type of a building interior, had first to be solved in preliminary drawings and occasionally with the use of wax dolls or scale models of the interior. Scale working drawings are crucial to the speed and precision of execution needed by quick-drying mediums, such as buon’ fresco (see below Fresco) on wet plaster, and acrylic resin on canvas. The drawings traditionally are divided with a frame of squares, or “squared-up,” for enlarging on the surface of the support. Some modern painters prefer to outline the enlargement of a sketch projected directly onto the support by epidiascope (a projector for images of both opaque and transparent objects). In Renaissance painters’ workshops, their assistants not only ground and mixed the pigments and prepared the supports and painting surfaces but often laid in the outlines and broad masses of the painting from the master’s design and studies.

The inherent properties of a medium or the atmospheric conditions of a site may themselves preserve a painting. The wax solvent binder of encaustic paintings (in which after application, the paint is fixed by heat [see below Mediums], for example) both keeps the intensity and tonality of the original colours and protects the surface from damp. And, while prehistoric rock paintings and buon’ frescoes are preserved by natural chemical action, the tempera pigments thought to be bound only with water on numerous ancient Egyptian murals are protected by the very dry climate and unvarying temperature of the tombs. It has, however, been customary to varnish oil paintings, both to protect the surface against damage by dirt and handling and to restore the tonality lost when some darker pigments dry out into a higher key. Unfortunately, varnish may darken and yellow over time into the sometimes disastrously imitated “Old Masters’ mellow patina.” Once admired, this amber-gravy film is now generally removed to reveal the colours in their original intensity. Glass began to replace varnish towards the end of the 19th century, when artists wished to retain the fresh, luminous finish of pigments applied directly to a pure white ground. The air-conditioning and temperature-control systems of modern museums make varnishing and glazing unnecessary, except for older and more fragile exhibits.

The frames supporting early altarpieces, icons, and cassone panels (painted panels on the chest used for a bride’s household linen) were often structural parts of the support. With the introduction of portable easel pictures, heavy frames not only provided some protection against theives and damage but were considered an aesthetic addition to a painting, and frame making became a specialized craft. Gilded gesso moldings (made of plaster of paris and sizing that forms the surface for low relief) in exuberant collections of fruit and flowers certainly appear almost an extension of the restless, exuberant design of a Baroque or Rococo painting. A hefty frame also provided a proscenium (in a theatre, the area between the orchestra and the curtain) in which the picture was isolated from its immediate surroundings, thus adding to the window view an illusion intended by the artist. Deep, ornate frames are unsuitable for many modern paintings, where the artist’s intention is for his forms to appear to advance toward the spectator rather than be viewed by him as if through a wall aperture. In contemporary Minimalist paintings, no effects of spatial illusionism are intended; and, in order to emphasize the physical shape of the support itself and to emphasise its flatness, these abstract, geometrical designs are often displayed without frames or are only edged with thin protective strips of wood or metal.

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May 16, 2011

Travel Insurance is not Compulsory, but it is Essential

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — The Editor @ 4:07 pm

For most people travelling abroad is a magical experience, a rite of passage or a well-deserved reward for working hard. Unfortunately there are instances where holidays have not gone to plan and travellers are involved in accidents that result in injury, hospitalisation or even death. Each year, Australian Consular Offices handle over 25,000 cases involving Australians in difficulty overseas including 1,200 hospitalisations, 900 deaths and 50 evacuations for medical purposes.

In these examples, where individuals have not protected themselves with travel insurance, such personal misfortunes are exacerbated by long-term financial burdens. Hospitalisation, medical evacuations and the return of a deceased’s remains to their home country can become quite expensive. Where travellers are not covered by insurance they are themselves responsible for covering any incurred medical and associated expenses. In some cases, individuals and families have been forced to sell off assets including their homes, in order to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their loved ones.

Types of travel insurance include coverage for trip cancellation/interruption, medical insurance, baggage loss/delay, flight delay/cancellation and travel document protection. Whether you travel overseas all the time, sporadically or are planning a once-in-a-lifetime journey, travel insurance is imperative. The cost of travel insurance is dependent on the type of coverageneeded, the age of the policy holder, travel destination, how long you intend to stay and any pre-existing medical conditions. It is very important to obtain the best form of travel insurance to suit your individual needs and it is essential that you fully divulge any factors that may influence your insurance otherwise you may be denied coverage in the event of illness or injury.

Like other insurance policies there are the standard general exclusions on most types of travel insurance and these can include acts of civil unrest, self-inflicted injury, loss/theft of unattended baggage, loss/theft of cash and pre-existing medical conditions. Some insurance policies may be invalidated in which injuries are sustained as a result of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol or during “dangerous or extreme activity” such as skiing, snowboarding, rock climbing, parachuting and underwater activities involving the use of artificial breathing apparatus so travellers should read the fine print of their policy to ensure that their insurance is beneficial for them.

The consequences of not purchasing travel insurance far outweigh the costs associated in purchasing a policy. The public consensus is that is you can’t afford travel insurance then you can’t afford to travel. It is also essential that you are protected for the entire period you will be travelling and not allow your coverage to expire before you return home.

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May 12, 2011

Design Relationships between Painting and other Visual Arts

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — The Editor @ 10:17 am

The philosophy and pathos of a particular period in painting have usually been reflected in many of its other visual arts. The ideals and aspirations of the ancient cultures, of the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassical periods of Western art and, more recently, of the 19th-century Art Nouveau and Secessionist movements were expressed in much of the architecture, interior design, furniture, textiles, ceramics, costume, and handicrafts, as well as in the fine arts, of their times. Following the Industrial Revolution, with the reduced requirement of hand-craftmanship and the absence of direct communication between the fine artist and larger society, general society, idealistic efforts to unite the arts and crafts in service to the community were made by William Morris in Victorian England and by the Bauhaus in 20th-century Germany. Although their aims were not fully successful, their successors, like those of the short-lived de Stijl and Constructivist movements, have been far-reaching, particularly in architectural, furniture, and typographic design.

Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were inventive painters, sculptors, and architects. Although no artists since have excelled in such a wide range of creativity, leading 20th-century painters expressed their art in many other mediums. In graphic design, for example, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, and Raoul Dufy printed posters and illustrated books; André Derain, Fernand Léger, Marc Chagall, Mikhail Larionov, Robert Rauschenberg, and David Hockney designed for the theatre; Joan Miró, Georges Braque, and Chagall worked in ceramics; Braque and Salvador Dalí designed jewelry; and Dalí, Hans Richter, and Andy Warhol made movies. Many of these, with other modern painters, have also been sculptors and printmakers and have designed for fabrics, tapestries, mosaics, and stained glass, while there are few mediums of the visual arts that Pablo Picasso did not work in and revitalize.

In turn, painters have been taught by the imagery, techniques, and design of other visual arts. One of these earliest influences was very probably from theatre, where ancient Greeks are regarded as the first to apply the illusions of optical perspective. The discovery or reappraisal of design techniques and imagery from the art-forms and techniques of other cultures has been a crucial stimulus to the development of more contemporary schools of Western painting, whether or not their traditional significance have been appreciated. The influence of Japanese woodcut prints on Synthetism and the Nabis, for example, and of African sculpture on Cubism, and the German Expressionists helping to create visual vocabularies and syntax with which to express new inspirations and ideas. The creation of photography and film exposed the creative to new aspects of nature, while eventually inspiring others to abandon representational painting altogether. Painters of everyday life, such as Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Édouard Vuillard, and Bonnard, exploited the design innovations of camera cutoffs, close-ups, and unconventional viewpoints so as to give the spectator the feeling of sharing an intimate picture space with the figures and objects in the painting.

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May 9, 2011

What is Water Colour?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — The Editor @ 2:07 pm

Water colour is a kind of colour pigment ground in gum, usually gum arabic, and applied with brush and water to a painting surface, usually paper; the term also denotes a work of art executed in this medium. The pigment is normally transparent but can be made opaque by mixing with a whiting and in this form is known as body colour, or gouache. It can also be mixed with casein, a phosphoprotein of milk.

Watercolour compares in range and variety with any other painting method. Transparent watercolour allows for a vibrance and luminosity in its washes and for a deft calligraphic brushwork that makes it a most alluring medium. If there is one basic difference between transparent watercolour and all other heavy painting mediums, its transparency. The oil painter can apply one opaque colour over another until he has achieved his preferred result. The whites are created with an opaque white. The watercolourist’s approach is the opposite. In essence, instead of adding in he leaves out. The white paper creates the whites. The darkest accents may be applied on the paper with the pigment as it comes out of the tube or with very little water mixed with it. Otherwise the colours are thinned with water. The greater amount of water in the wash, the more the paper affects the colours; for example, vermilion, a warm red, will gradually turn into a cool pink as it is diluted with more water.

The dry-brush technique, the application of the brush containing pigment but little water, dragged over the coarse surface of the paper—creates various granular effects similar to those of a crayon sketch. Entire compositions can be produced in this way. This technique may also be used over darker washes to enliven them.

Three hundred years before the golden age of late 18th-century English watercolourists, Albrecht Dürer had anticipated their method of transparent colour washes in a remarkable series of plant studies and panoramic landscapes. Until the emergence of the English school, however, watercolour became a medium merely for colour tinting outlined drawings or, combined with opaque body colour to produce effects similar to gouache (see below Gouache) or tempera, was used in preparatory sketches for oil paintings.

The primary exponents of the English method were Thomas Girtin, John Sell Cotman, John Robert Cozens, Richard Parkes Bonington, David Cox, and Constable. Their contemporary J.M.W. Turner, however, true to his unorthodox genius, added white to his watercolour and used rags, sponges, and knives to realize stunning effects of light and texture. Victorian artists, such as Birket Foster, used a laborious method of colour washing a monochrome underpainting, similar in principle to the tempera-oil technique. Following the direct, vigorous watercolours of the French Impressionists and Postimpressionists, however, the medium was established in Europe and America as an expressive artistic medium in its own right. Notable 20th-century watercolourists have been Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Dufy, and Georges Rouault; the U.S. artists Thomas Eakins, Maurice Prendergast, Charles Burchfield, John Marin, Lyonel Feininger, and Jim Dine; and the English painters John and Paul Nash, Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, Edward Burra, and Patrick Procktor.

In the “pure” watercolour technique, often referred to as the English method, no white or other opaque colour is applied, colour intensity and tonal depth being built up by successive, transparent washes on damp paper. Parts of white paper are left untouched to represent white objects and to create effects of reflected light. These flecks of untouched paper create the sparkle characteristic of pure watercolour. Tonal gradations and soft, atmospheric qualities are rendered by staining the paper when it is very wet with differing proportions of pigment. Sharp accents, lines, and coarse textures are introduced after the paper has dried. The paper should be of the type sold as “handmade from rags”; this is generally thick and grained. Cockling is avoided when the surface dries out if the dampened paper has been first stretched across a special frame or held in position during painting by an edging of adhesive tape.

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May 5, 2011

Honda Announces the Launching of 2011 Honda Motorcycles and Dirt Bikes

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — The Editor @ 12:34 am

After launching a stellar range of motocross bikes, a number of of the major Honda motorcycles were subjected to a major overhaul. The long wait is now over with the release of 2011 Honda CRF250R and 2011 Honda CRF450R dirt bikes. Evolving from primary models of motocross bikes, both the 250R and 450R continue to receive positive input from motocross enthusiasts and bike riders alike.

Honda CRF450R comes with a four-valve Unicam motor that can give you low and mid-range power. A 46mm body is also incorporated into its improved engine tuning in order to improve its throttle response. Along with unique suspension settings, this dirt bike also got revisions on its linkage. With light cartridge cylinders inside its fork as well as updated valves, Honda believes that these changes resulted in better rear-wheel traction and added luxury to their traditional Honda motorcycles. Honda dealers are expected to offer the new and improved CRF450 by October 2011.

Honda also re-invented the 2011 CRF250R motorcycle in a unique way. With its new fuel-injected engine, it is expected to deliver superior performance and exceptional throttle response. Although its specifications are not yet available, the 250R seems to hold many similarities with the big bike. Its improved midrange and low power, new suspension valves, and larger Honda Progressive Steering Damper (HPSD) piston make it appear like a very worthwhile investment. Both 250R and 450R also operate on a 94-decibel limit through their improved exhaust mufflers.

CRF50F and CRF70F, two of Hondas smallest dirt bikes, also received a major readjustment. Honda upgraded their art work with bolder designs and changed the colour of their upper fork tubes to create a new look and feel to their small yet powerful motocross bikes. CRF230F, CRF80F, and CRF100F are still available in dealerships but bike riders can still wait for the launching of new and improved Honda motorcycles by October.

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May 3, 2011

The History of Paper

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — The Editor @ 3:20 pm

Paper has been traced to China in about AD 105. It reached Central Asia by 751 and Baghdad by 793, and then by the 14th century there were paper mills in several parts of Europe. The invention of the printing press in about 1450 greatly increased the need for paper, and at the beginning of the 19th century wood and other vegetable pulps began to replace rags as the principal source of fibre for papermaking.

Earlier than 1798, Nicholas-Louis Robert created the earliest paper-making machine. With a moving screen belt, paper was made one sheet at a time by the dipping of or mould which has a screen bottom into a vat of pulp. Some years later the brothers Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier improved Robert’s machine, and in 1809 John Dickinson invented the first cylinder machine.

Although nearly all of the steps in papermaking have become highly mechanized, the basic process has remained essentially unchanged. Firstly, the fibres are separated and wetted to create the paper pulp, or stock. The pulp is then filtered on a woven screen to form a sheet of fibre, which is then pressed and compacted to squeeze out most of the water. The remaining water is removed by evaporation, and the dry sheet is further compressed and, depending upon the intended use, coated or impregnated with other substances.

Differences regarding grades and types of paper are decided by several factors: the type of fibre being used; the preparation of the pulp, which can be either by mechanical (groundwood) or chemical (primarily sulfite, soda, or sulfate) methods, or by a combination of the two; by the adding of more substances to the pulp, the most commonly used being bleach or colouring and sizing, the latter to impede penetration by ink; by conditions under which the sheet is formed, including its weight; and by the physical or chemical treatments applied to the finished sheet.

Although wood is the chief source of fibre for papermaking, rag fibres are still used for paper of the greatest strength, durability, and permanence. Recycled wastepaper (including newsprint) and cardboard are also important sources. Still other fibres used include straw, bagasse (residue from crushed sugarcane), esparto, bamboo, flax, hemp, jute, and kenaf. Some paper, in particular specialty items, is created using synthetic fibres.

Weight or substance per unit area, called basis weight, is measured in reams (now commonly 500 sheets). Paper is also measured by caliper (thickness) and density. The strength and durability of paper is determined by factors such as the strength and length of the fibres, as well as their bonding ability, and the formation and structure of the sheet. The optical properties of paper include its brightness, colour, opacity, and gloss. Among the most important paper grades are bond, book, bristol, groundwood and newsprint, kraft, paperboard, and sanitary.

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