Bakelite is a sort of plastic material which was invented by the Belgian Leo Beakeland (1863 – 1944).

IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE that one can combine two unlikely substances like carbolic acid and formaldehyde to produce a beautiful and versatile substance such as phenolic resin or “Bakelite,” a revolutionary, non-flammable, early plastic. “The material of a thousand uses,” as it was called, made a splash in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s.

The Rice-Kellogg paper of 1925 was important in disseminating research on loudspeaker design. It resulted in the production of a loudspeaker design that drove most others out of the market within a few years. It published an amplifier design that was important in boosting the power transmitted to loudspeakers. In 1926, the commercial version was sold as the Radiola Model 104 loudspeaker with a 1-watt power amp. The power of this amp, and the extra terminals on the back of the Model 104 allowed attachment of a radio receiver, the Radiola 28.

“This combination of the Radiola 28 and the Radiola Loudspeaker 104 thus made available for the first time a complete batteryless radio receiver that could be operated like any other electrical appliance, merely by ‘plugging it in.’

The radio became a very important part of the daily life in the US during the 1930s. The radio was already very popular during the 1920s, but it became more popular during the 1930s. The radio became a real part of the US national culture. In 1930 about 12 million US households owned a radio, that number increased to 28 million radios in 1939.
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In the case of the radio, bakelite and catalin were seen as a good substitution for wood. Wood was often used by the wealthy part of American society. But the imitation of wood by bakelite was almost perfect. The best thing of all was that a bakelite and catalin radio was much cheaper than a radio with a wooden cabinet. Mostly during the depression of the 1930s, bakelite and catalin material made it possible for everyone to buy a radio for just $10,– instead of $ 90,– or so for a radio with a wooden cabinet. On the other hand bakelite and catilin were and are very strong, durable, gloomy and attractive material for designers. But what made bakelite and catilin, as kinds of plastic material, very attractive?

The attractive side to these materials, bakelite (in powder form) and catalin (in fluid form), was the fact that it could be moulded.

A broken wrist is amongst the most common of injuries treated by orthopaedic surgeons. The majority of these fractures occur at the distal end of the radius. This is the portion of the bone where it widens and is usually softer and more fragile than the shaft of the bone.

01/11/06 Update: Marlene’s Wrist
02/06/06 Update: Marlene’s Cast

Assume for a moment that wood had never existed… plenty of stone, metal, glass… everything… but no wood. Suddenly out of the research laboratories comes an amazing new product. It is available in unimaginable quantities. The supply renews itself… if not abused, a never-ending supply. ~

Wouldn’t that be the most remarkable discovery?

Our most fabulous natural resource is often taken for granted. Without trees (wood), life as we know it would not be possible.

It is as difficult to adequately describe the natural beauty and character of wood as it is to describe an original painting or other work of art. In fact, this is more than a passing comparison. A tree and a painting are both originals, and each is the only one of its kind.

1898 – The R.S. Bacon Veneer Co. was founded By Robert S. Bacon in 1898 in Chicago Illinois.
1918 – In 1918 the plant and offices were moved to 4702 Augusta Boulevard ~.
1921 – Robert Bacon sold the company in 1921 to Robert Scott who held it until his death in 1928.
1928 – Joseph F. Mertes, bought Bacon Veneer.
1930 – The 1930’s saw Bacon Veneer grow considerably.
1937 – In 1937 George Wilhelm joined Bacon Veneer ~.
1957 – By 1957 Bacon produced 15,000 square feet of paneling per day and employed 125 people.
1963 – George Wilhelm and four partners bought Bacon Veneer from Joseph F. Mertes.
1965 – In 1965 operations for Bacon Veneer were moved to Dubuque Iowa.
1969 – In 1969 Jim McCracken joined the sales team of Bacon Veneer ~.
1981 – In 1981 a warehouse was bought in Grundy Center, Iowa
1984 – In 1984 all production was moved to that location.
1985 – In 1985 George Wilhelm made his nephew Jim McCracken the President of Bacon Veneer.
1986 – Offices and a showroom were opened in New York in 1986 and the facility in Grundy Center continues to grow ~.

Bacon Veneer Company is committed to the sustainability of the World’s Forests.

Grundy Center also makes quality food products, like Richelieu’s Western Dressing – and I think possibly this stuff from Norwesco.

The Java Tutorial – Third Edition

Are you new to the Java programming language? This book is for you!
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We’ve added questions and exercises to help you practice what you learn. To help beginners avoid many common mistakes, an entire chapter is devoted to programming problems and their solutions. Convenient summaries at the end of each section are also new to this edition.

I like this book a lot. The “Getting Started” trail steps you through the basics in a very complete, yet easy to understand fashion.

The Java Language Specification, Third Edition

Written by the inventors of the technology, The Java Language Specification, Third Edition is the definitive technical reference for the Java programming language. If you want to know the precise meaning of the language’s constructs, this is the source for you.

Introduction to Programming Using Java – Version 4.1

“INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING USING JAVA” is a free, on-line textbook. It is suitable for use in an introductory programming course and for people who are trying to learn programming on their own. There is probably enough material for a full year College programming course. There are no prerequisites beyond a general familiarity with the ideas of computers and programs.

The previous versions of this book used Java 1.1. For a long time, I was reluctant to move to Java 2 because it has been much less widely supported and because most of the new features don’t represent new programming concepts.

Java 1.1 Unleashed

Our goal in this edition of Java 1.1 Unleashed is to explore the Java technology from a variety of angles so that you can see the bigger picture of what Java has to offer as a Web technology.

Ok, version 1.1 hasn’t been around for a while, but Java 1.1 Unleashed does a good job of covering the fundamentals.

More

Don’t forget your Fortune Cookie.

An Internet Service Provider in Clinton, Iowa wins an $11,000,000,000 suit against a spammer.

Free Medical Books – Over the next few years, many important medical textbooks will be available online, free and in full-text. The unrestricted access to scientific knowledge will have a major impact on medical practice. FreeBooks4Doctors! is dedicated to the promotion of free access to medical books over the Internet.

MOTIVATION. Psychology tells us that motivation – true, lasting motivation – can only come from within. Common sense tells us it can’t be manufactured or productized. So how is it that a multi-billion dollar industry thrives through the sale of motivational commodities and services? Because, in our world of instant gratification, people desperately want to believe that there are simple solutions to complex problems. And when desperation has disposable income, market opportunities abound.

AT DESPAIR, INC., we believe motivational products create unrealistic expectations, raising hopes only to dash them. That’s why we created our soul-crushingly depressing Demotivators designs, so you can skip the delusions that motivational products induce and head straight for the disappointments that follow!

Armed with a digital camera and that non-stop wit of yours, you now have the power to turn a simple photograph into an inspirational message that will burn forever in the hearts and minds of dozens. Print it, frame it! Make two — we know you’ve got hundreds of digital images and photos to spare!

One formula (of many) for a successful blog is to create a “learning blog”. A blog that shares what you know, to help others. Even–or especially–if that means giving away your “secrets”. Teaching people to do what you do is one of the best ways we know to grow an audience–an audience of users you want to help.

It’s what I try to do here because–let’s face it–you’re just not that into me ; )

Even if a learner is personally motivated to learn a topic, if the learning content itself isn’t motivating, the learner’s brain will do everything possible to look for something more interesting. This applies to both getting and keeping attention, as well as memory.

Never underestimate the power of FUN to keep people engaged.

I couldn’t agree more!

I have programmed using both IDEs and command-line environments, and I have taught programming using both types of environments. Based on my experience, I recommend a command line environment for beginning programmers. IDEs can simplify the management of large numbers of files in a complex project, but they are themselves complex programs that add another level of complications to the already difficult task of learning the fundamentals of programming.

Notepad is a basic text editor that you can use to create simple documents.
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Because Notepad supports only very basic formatting, you cannot accidentally save special formatting in documents that need to remain pure text.

jEdit is a mature and well-designed programmer’s text editor.
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Plugins can turn jEdit into a full-fledged IDE, with compiler, code completion, context-sensitive help, debugging, visual diff, and much more.

The aim of BlueJ is to provide an easy-to-use teaching environment for the Java language that facilitates the teaching of Java to first year students. Special emphasis has been placed on visualisation and interaction techniques to create a highly interactive environment that encourages experimentation and exploration.

The JDT project contributes a set of plug-ins that add the capabilities of a full-featured Java IDE to the Eclipse platform. The JDT plugins provide APIs so that they can themselves be further extended by other tool builders.

Some of you might know that I am more an Eclipse guy than a Netbeans one. In particular, I do enjoy developping for the Eclipse platform, i.e., Eclipse-based tools. I had never been a particular fan of Netbeans, which I always found to be heavy, unfriendly and slightly behind what Eclipse can offer.

However one would be blind not to recognize the tremendous amount of efforts of Sun toward making Netbeans a better IDE.
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Part of my job is to teach, and I have decided that my students will do their J2EE duties with Netbeans.

Software development has become more complex than ever ~ Borland JBuilder 2006, the market-leading Java IDE, helps development teams manage this complexity and deliver standards-compliant enterprise-class applications faster.
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Foundation Edition provides you with the basics for speed coding and debugging with an integrated, powerful source code editor, graphical debugger, compiler, tutorials, and sample applications. ~ Best of all, it’s free – even for commercial use.