| Light a lamp for peace
As tensions remain high between the United States and Iran, participants in a MCC-led delegation to Iran in February are urging congregations to light oil lamps as a reminder to pray for peace and for the people of Iran. The delegation, co-sponsored by MCC and American Friends Service Committee, met with the Iranian president, a former president and other political and religious leaders in Iran in February. At the end of each meeting, the U.S. group presented Iranian leaders with ceramic oil lamps, made by Indiana potter Dick Lehman, as well as quilted wall hangings. Ron Flaming, MCC's director of international programs, said delegation members told leaders that the Bible calls on Christians to remember the leaders of the world with prayer and that the lamps signified a promise to remember Iran and its leaders.
Pay hike'skey sponsor redecorates House office
MONTGOMERY - The lawmaker who sponsored the Alabama Legislature's 62 percent pay raise and a colleague have since March 2 spent more than $19,500 in taxpayer money to redecorate their state House offices with items such as a $455 French urn lamp and a $463 pencil pedestal table. Rep. Demetrius Newton, D-Birmingham, House speaker pro tem, purchased 82 items for his office, according to records in the House Accounting Office. The invoices were dated March 3, March 21 and April 2. A third invoice, not yet recorded, was for a wall-mounted 20-inch plasma LCD television set purchased for $278. The payments were made to B. Barganier Interior Accents in Montgomery. Some of the more expensive items for Newton's office included six chairs, four of them leather, totaling $2,782; artwork totaling $2,165; three mirrors for $759; a settee for $495; a Manhattan table for $480; and a nickel-plated table for $373.
MAYOR BLOOMBERG UNVEILS NEW REPTILE WING AT STATEN ISLAND ZOO
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today unveiled the newly refurbished, state-of-the-art reptile wing at the Staten Island Zoo, home to one of the largest collection of venomous snakes in the nation. The City invested $18.8 million in capital funds in the 16,600-square foot project through the Department of Cultural Affairs. The new wing will house 120 species of reptiles, and features a new main entrance, a two-level alligator pool, interactive exhibition space, classrooms, an auditorium, and the Fear Zone a special exhibition designed to educate and dispel common myths about snakes and other reptiles. .
Seoul Semiconductor Introduces Warm White Ariche
April 19, 2007... Seoul Semiconductor, makers of the AC powered Ariche light source, report that the company has now produced warm white Ariche luminaires. The company says that the light source has an efficiency of 42 lm/W, and the overall system efficiency is 39.9 lm/W (Actual System Efficiency = Luminous Efficiency Ballast Efficiency Luminaire Efficiency). The company indicated that the Ariche system has more than 5-times the efficiency of incandescent lamps (operating at 7.5 lm/W), and it is about 30 percent more efficient than compact fluorescents which operate at 30.6 lm/W. Seoul said that the light source operating without the system at 42 lm/W is 20 percent more efficient than that of a conventional warm white DC LED which averages almost 35 lm/W. One of the benefits of the Ariche system is that it does not require an AC/DC converter or a ballast.
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