AZoNetwork's Blog (77)

Masteel Starts Social Network

Our 'web-savvy' friend over at Masteel UK, JohnWinterton, has started a social network for the company. We love to see engineering/manufacturing companies fully embracing Web.2.0, Good luck guys, it looks like you'll have a great place to field questions and generally interact with potential clients and end-useers. Here's the link to Masteel's social network. Masteel are global suppliers of high qu… Continue

Added by AZoNetwork on July 9, 2009 at 2:25pm — No Comments

AZoM Twitter - Follow for Real Time Updates

Stay informed of the latest AZoM happenings by following the AZoM Twitter. Just search for "AZoM" and follow for the latest updates of interesting stuff that we have added to the site.

As soon as we know, yo

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Added by AZoNetwork on June 17, 2009 at 2:30pm — No Comments

You'd be crazy to build that out of iron…….

I've recently had the great joy of being on AZoM duties in the wonderful city of Bristol in the South West of England.

A famous old port city with a less than salubrious past in relation to slave trading, the locals do their best to remove this from their conscience by the consumption of bizarre blends of cider such as "Old Bristolian

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Added by AZoNetwork on June 5, 2009 at 2:30pm — No Comments

A Sticky Situation

Glue "Why do we have to use nails and screws, why can't we just use glue?"

As with many utterances from an inquisitive ten year old there are usually, two responses, the first one is the "nerdy Dad" angle which involves a sit down across a desk a powerpoint presentation and a Q&A session.

Response option two, which is usually preferred by the "Dad already on th

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Added by AZoNetwork on May 5, 2009 at 2:30pm — No Comments

The Irony of Economics

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness".

Charles Dickens' tome, "A Tale of Two Cities", se

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Added by AZoNetwork on April 5, 2009 at 2:30pm — No Comments

Lapland Reindeer Contract Mad Cow Disease - Santa Sidelined

OK so I made that bit up, it's not true (yet), but it's perhaps less depressing than a few other headlines making their debut in the current "festive season".

"World Economy Weakest since 1930's" - UN's World Economic Situation and Prospects 2009 Report, 1st December 2008

"U.S. auto industry will probably dis

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Added by AZoNetwork on December 19, 2008 at 2:18pm — 1 Comment

Letter to the President

Dear Mr. President,

Joe the materials man here - just to give you a bit of background I was a plumber but then worked on Wall Street for a few years as it was intellectually less demanding setting fire to $20 bills, then what with the crash an all I'm now back on Main Street in the materials business.

Anyhow, let's get to it, first of all well done on the election result. For such a young man you've done real good and on behalf of all us materials folk, 95% of the population of

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Added by AZoNetwork on November 7, 2008 at 12:34pm — 1 Comment

Dig out the long power cable else it's the end of the Great American Car Company

Interesting para in the New York Times last week that is likely to have a big impact on all of us in Materials land, "With car sales running at their lowest level in 15 years GM and Chrysler face the possibility of bankruptcy".

To say the least, this is a bit of a serious issue for the US economy and their suppliers. When you examine the figures, it's fair to say that GM didn't have a great t

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Added by AZoNetwork on October 17, 2008 at 1:35pm — No Comments

Come on Algernon, press the big red button and see what happens...

I'm writing this piece of highly illuminating scientific drivel peppered with the odd sponsor placating materials reference in the sound and secure knowledge that it may never be read - sure, I have thought that for every one of the past 76 issues, but this time it really is different.

By the time you've fished this out of your spam bin we may all be on our way to hell in a hand basket.

The ultimate boys toy, the L

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Added by AZoNetwork on August 1, 2008 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Bring Back Eric!

The quadrennial signature event in the global one-upmanship calendar has come around again, the billion dollar school dance, otherwise known to those thousands of grandmas around the globe who are glued to their TV's as the opening ceremony of the Olympic games.

Personally, I've as much interest in watching the opening ceremony as I have in spending my weekend on worked examples in phase equilibria, but it does grab a lot of global attention, particularly this year as it's being held b

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Added by AZoNetwork on July 1, 2008 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Technological progress

My dear old Mum will be 84 in a couple of weeks. Unlike most of the readers of this column, she has managed to survive 84 years largely unaffected by technological progress.

Sure she's had a T.V., telephone and a few other labour saving devices, but she's never mentioned that she feels deprived by missing out on the ownership of a cell phone, DVD player, PC or a Facebook Profile.

Perhaps it's a result of growing up in a working class area of Northern England where priorities wer

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Added by AZoNetwork on June 1, 2008 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Clothes Maketh the Man

In the 1880's Mark Twain coined the famous phrase, "Clothes make the man". When some time later, the lesser known, but wittier follow up, "Naked people have little or no influence on society", the sight of ragged trousered ragamuffins like Huckleberry Finn were not a rare occurrence.

Were he around today I'm certain Twain would be heartened by the universal availability of cheap clothing within North America but would he update his views to "designer label threads make the Man Bro", "W

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Added by AZoNetwork on May 1, 2008 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Horse's Backside to Space Shuttles

There's an old gag about when does someone decide to become an accountant? - after they realise they don't have the charisma to succeed as an undertaker.

Now it could be said that the authors of "standards" have similar levels of flair and panache, but that would be unfair to the accountants.

Constructing standards may be a painstakingly boring activity, but it's a necessary facet of human societal organisation - we need standards to allow us to organise what we build a

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Added by AZoNetwork on April 1, 2008 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Use the K.I.S.S. Approach - Just Keep it Simple Stupid!

As a veteran of more management years than I care to remember, I reckon I've been subjected to most of the Management BS (Business Sense) that's been uttered around boardroom tables and dropped into annual reports.

Some of my personal favourites and their real life translations are:

"We employ Lean Manufacturing techniques" - We got rid of all the union labour from the paint shop.
"Our people are our greatest asset" - We're abou

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Added by AZoNetwork on March 1, 2008 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Here Comes the Sun - and I say, it's alright!

I was recently at a Nanotechnology conference where Eric Isaacs from Argonne National Labs Centre for Nanomaterials showed a slide which indicated the land area that would be required for the 12 TeraWatt solar power generators that would pump out enough juice to power the planet.

What's striking from Eric's slide is that even with the naked eye it's pretty obvious that a solar power station (farm) big enough

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Added by AZoNetwork on February 1, 2008 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Scary Materials?

It's a condition of Technologists that we like to be on the bandwagon of the next big thing.

Materials Techies are no different - a quick run through the lexicon of related prepositions reveals a potted history of the next big Materials thing - Advanced, Smart, Functionally Gradient, Nano……etc etc.

Let's claim another first and toss in 'Scary' Materials.

The European Commission's Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection collates a rogue's gallery of dodgy an

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Added by AZoNetwork on January 1, 2008 at 2:00pm — No Comments

There's nothing worse than the sound of a dentists drill!

Unfortunately, my post dental operation mantra has now been proven to be factually incorrect.

Research conducted at the University of Salford in the UK came up with the top ten worst noises and the dentists drill didn't even make the top ten, knocked out by …….

Vomiting
Microphone feedback
Wailing babies
Train

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Added by AZoNetwork on October 1, 2007 at 1:30pm — No Comments

More cables, wires and leads – don’t talk to me about wireless!

We may be in the age of wifi, unwired and Bluetooth, but that copper spaghetti monster at the back of my multi channel home entertainment centre just keeps on growing.

Every time we move house I promise my better half that this time I'll make sure all those speaker wires, cables and leads are neat, tidy and hidden away in a professional manner.

Of course the best laid plans of mice and men last about 30 mins when it becomes apparent that the left-hand-rear-surround-sound-speaker

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Added by AZoNetwork on September 1, 2007 at 1:30pm — No Comments

How Good is Nanotechnology?

"It's the only bomb you can legally take on a plane".

As most of the delegates attending the "Commercialisation of Micro and Nanotechnology 2007" conference in Melbourne had flown over 5000 miles to attend, there was some uneasy shuffling on seats when this statement came over the lectern, especially when Dr. Robert Mehalso of Nano

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Added by AZoNetwork on August 1, 2007 at 1:30pm — No Comments

"The Nose" and Combinatorial Materials Science

Despite the fact it was uttered by one of Americas greatest commentators on all matters cultural, calling the French "Cheese eating surrender monkeys" was going a bit far even for Bart Simpson.

The AZoM take is that France and the French are officially pretty cool. A fact that has been confirmed by several members of "Team AZoM" who have recently "Passed les Vacances" there and have taken advan

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Added by AZoNetwork on July 1, 2007 at 1:30pm — No Comments