How to Decode Resin Recycling - Environmental Leader

In the?American Society for Testing Materials plastics committee?s work to revise the resin identification code (RIC) standard ? ASTM D7611 ? it has changed the graphic marking symbol used to identify resin type from the ?chasing arrows? symbol surrounding a numeral from 1 to 7 that defines the resin used in the product?s packaging to a solid equilateral triangle around the number.

The RIC system was originally developed and continues to be dedicated to identifying resin content, rather than product recyclability. ASTM says that by replacing the chasing arrows graphic ? commonly associated with recycling ? with an equilateral triangle, ASTM D7611 helps bring focus back to the system?s core mission: resin identification and quality control prior to recycling.

ASTM says the revisions are intended to modernize the RIC system, making them easier to use while also addressing recent innovations in polymer applications and multi-layer materials.

The Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) developed the RIC in 1988 to meet the needs of recyclers and manufacturers for a consistent, uniform coding system that can be applied worldwide. SPI began work with ASTM in 2008 to involve technical and industry stakeholders in updating and maintaining the RIC system to better address advancements in plastics materials.

Originally intended to assist waste recovery facilities in the quality sorting of plastics products prior to recycling, the RIC system has today become a vital foundational tool used by municipalities, scrap brokers, recyclers, manufacturers, consumers and others for managing the end-of-life of plastics materials.

Bridget Anderson, director, Recycling Unit, Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse and Recycling, NYC Department of Sanitation, participated in the development of the revised D7611 standard as a member of the task group. She says changing the marking symbol in D7611 decouples the RIC system from the recycling message, which has caused public confusion.

ASTM D7611 provides codes for the six most commonly found resin types, with a seventh category created for all other types. These categories include: 1) polyethylene terephthalate (PETE); 2) high density polyethylene (HDPE); polyvinyl chloride (V); 4);low density polyethylene (LDPE); 5) polypropylene (PP); 6) polystyrene (PS); and 7) other, including materials made with more than one resin from categories 1-6.

As part of its ongoing efforts, the task group is assessing how to: differentiate between different melt flows within each resin; identify certain additives that might significantly change the properties of a resin; and better label individual resins (PLA, PC, ABS, Nylon, and others) that are currently designated as ?other? in the current RIC system. The task group is also discussing whether a new code is needed for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) to enable products made from this technology to be accurately identified and distinguished from products marked as HDPE or LDPE.

Eastman Chemical technology fellow Thomas Pecorini, also a member of the task group, says identifying new resins through the ASTM D7611 code system will ultimately help facilitate the recycling of these products.

ASTM is also currently updating the industry?s Standard Practice for?Phase I Environmental Site Assessments?as it tries to make such tests reflect recent changes in the due diligence world. The standards are undergoing final changes, and will be subject to approval by the EPA.

Stay Up-to-Date On Environmental Management, Energy & Sustainability News with EL's Free Daily Newsletter

Source: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2013/06/20/how-to-decode-resin-recycling/

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Apple TV gets HBO Go and sports with WatchESPN

Some good news for premium cable and sports fans today: Apple on Wednesday said it has signed deals to bring HBO Go and WatchESPN to its Apple TV set-top box.

HBO Go is only available to HBO subscribers, so this isn?t a solution for cord-cutters. However, it?s good for those who want to access to the cable channel?s backlog of content: customers can watch any of HBO?s shows at any time?via the HBO Go channel on Apple TV. HBO Go has already been available for Apple?s mobile devices and on competing platforms Roku and Xbox 360.

WatchESPN is also a subscriber-only channel. Those who are signed up via their local cable provider can watch programming on Apple TV from across the company?s channels: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, curated clips from ESPN.com and others.

Three other channels are also coming. The U.K.?s SkyNews will be viewable on demand or live in the U.S., U.K. and Ireland. Programming from Japan?s Crunchyroll, an anime and news channel, will be available worldwide one hour after airing. Music channel Qello has free and paid subscriptions available.

None of this makes Apple TV a viable cable replacement for fans of premium content and live sports, because Apple TV still requires that pesky cable subscription. However, Apple is slowly but surely broadening its living room play to compete with Xbox, Roku and others. Apple?s longterm TV strategy is still very much TBD, but this is a good move toward getting Apple customers used to the idea of watching their favorite content via the Apple TV and not live via a cable TV subscription.

With the announcement of new content, Apple also gave the latest stats on iTunes downloads: 1 billion TV episodes and 380 million movies have been purchased in total. Meanwhile, 800,000 TV episodes and over 350,000 movies are bought each day.

This post was updated with more information at 7:30 a.m. PT.

Source: http://gigaom.com/2013/06/19/hbo-go-watchespn-channels-coming-to-apple-tv/

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Getting a Mortgage After a Divorce: Difficult, Not ... - AOL Real Estate

Getting a mortgage is challenging enough -- with strict underwriting requiring detailed explanations, sourcing of monies and debt ratios -- but adding a divorce to the picture makes it even more difficult for a borrower. The good news is that despite most divorce situations, many can still successfully get a mortgage.

What to plan for: By providing your mortgage company with the most accurate and true picture of your circumstances -- starting with the loan application -- you're helping them to find the best way to structure your loan for a favorable credit decision. The lender will also look at your divorce decree for any other undisclosed/non-credit report financial obligations such as child support, alimony/spousal support paid or received.

If you receive income in the form of child support or alimony: This income can be used for qualifying for the mortgage, so long as there is a six-month history and the income is poised to continue for the next three years, determined by child support or an alimony agreement detailing the terms of the obligation for the party paying the debt.

If you pay alimony or child support: This reduce your borrowing ability as debts reduce income, and income is needed to offset a mortgage payment.

If you are divorced even as long as 20 years ago: There is no statute of limitations on mortgage loan underwriting, so the full divorce decree will be required no matter how many years you have been divorced.

If you own a house and are on a mortgage with an ex-spouse: As long as the divorce decree awards the other party with the home, and the other party is willing to provide supporting evidence that they make the mortgage payments on that home -- by providing 12 months of bank statements and/or canceled checks -- the total mortgage payment on that home can be omitted from the decision-making process on your new mortgage, which can improve your ability to qualify.

If you and your ex make the mortgage payment from the same joint bank account and the divorce decree awarded the other party with the property: You are both 50-50 responsible because the money is "co-mingled" funds from the same place to pay the obligation. There is no way to support your position that one person is responsible for making the payment because it's coming from a joint account.

If the ex-spouse is responsible for making the mortgage that you are also on: Explore the possibility of having the ex-spouse refinance you off the mortgage obligation.

If your ex-spouse is refinancing you off a mortgage loan: A final closing statement called an HUD could be required by the lender you're working with for procuring your loan to omit the payment from the other house.

If you have a joint consumer credit such as credit cards, installment loans, auto loans or even student loans: Unless you can prove the other party is for responsible for the credit obligation (with 12 months of canceled checks or bank statements), those liabilities will be factored into your ability to qualify.

Tips If You're Not Yet Divorced

It's so important to create a marital settlement agreement prior to being divorced. This is a precursor to getting a divorce that could be a great asset in helping you qualify for home financing. Navigating the financial questions that inevitably come up during the separation or divorce can easily be taken care of by having a clear delineation in writing on whose property is whose.

Consumers planning a divorce in the future would also benefit by separating their finances. This means having separate bank accounts, and paying any obligations from these separate accounts. If you are trying to get a mortgage, or will be trying to get a mortgage, consider having a conversation with mortgage professional upfront, who can guide you through the complexities in the underwriting process during a divorce.

More on Credit.com:
The Biggest Mortgage Mistake You Can Make
The Ultimate Guide to Credit Scores
Getting a Divorce? Here's How to Protect Your Credit

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
Find homes for rent in your area.

Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook.

Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/06/18/getting-mortgage-after-divorce/

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The turbulent, high-energy sky is keeping NuSTAR busy

June 18, 2013 ? NuSTAR has been busy studying the most energetic phenomena in the universe. Recently, a few high-energy events have sprung up, akin to "things that go bump in the night." When one telescope catches a sudden outpouring of high-energy light in the sky, NuSTAR and a host of other telescopes stop what they were doing and take a better look.

For example, in early April, the blazar Markarian 421 had an episode of extreme activity, brightening by more than 50 times its typical level. Blazars are a special class of galaxies with accreting, or "feeding," supermassive black holes at their centers. As the black holes feed, they light up, often ejecting jets of material. When the jets are pointing toward Earth, they are called blazars. By using telescopes sensitive to a range of energies to study how blazars vary, astrophysicists gain insight into black hole feeding processes and the physical conditions near the black hole.

NuSTAR got lucky in the case of Markarian 421, because it was already observing the blazar at the time of its eruption, simultaneously with other telescopes, including NASA's Fermi and Swift satellites. The flare-up was the brightest ever observed for this object. In fact, it was so bright that NuSTAR and other telescopes changed their observing cadence to spend more time studying this galaxy. More on these findings will be available after the scientists have analyzed the data and published papers.

Just a few weeks after this event, towards the end of April, NASA's Swift satellite noticed the region around the center of our own Milky Way galaxy had suddenly lit up. Flares lasting from a few minutes to three hours are not uncommon for the black hole in the center of the Milky Way, known as Sagittarius A*. In fact, NuSTAR observed such a flare last July (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/nustar/news/nustar20121023.html). However, this new event had lasted tens of hours and got the whole high-energy community excited. NuSTAR was one of the first "on the scene," observing the galactic center less than 50 hours after the initial Swift discovery. The NuSTAR findings revealed that the brightening was due to a type of neutron star called a magnetar, and not Sagittarius A* itself. The results were written up and accepted in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Yet another event popped up in the sky just a few days later, surprising astronomers. Swift found an extremely bright gamma-ray burst, brighter than any event it had previously identified during its nearly 10 years in orbit. A gamma-ray burst is a huge release of energy from a distant galaxy, thought to be triggered by the collapse of a massive star.

The astronomical community, including NuSTAR, quickly reacted to the blast. NuSTAR provided the first focused, high-quality observations of a gamma-ray burst in high-energy X-rays.

Beginning in April, the NuSTAR spacecraft gained use of the Kongsberg Satellite Services' Singapore tracking station for extra command uplinks and data downlinks. The spacecraft's primary tracking coverage is provided by the Italian Space Agency and uses antennas located in Malindi, Kenya, while data uplinks are provided by NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) antennas. The back-up Singapore tracking station is helpful for periods when additional coverage is needed either due to high data-rate targets, such as bright objects, or when the Malindi antennas are unavailable. Additional coverage has also been provided by the Universal Space Network's Hawaii antenna.

NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va. Its instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech; JPL; the University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University, New York; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; the Danish Technical University in Denmark; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif.; ATK Aerospace Systems, Goleta, Calif.; and with support from the Italian Space Agency Science Data Center.

NuSTAR's mission operations center is at UC Berkeley. The outreach program is based at Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, Calif. NASA's Explorer Program is managed by Goddard. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.

For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/nustar and http://www.nustar.caltech.edu/ .

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/shkI1VyP3WA/130618074422.htm

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In China, a Controversial Law Is Seen to Excuse Sex With Minors ...

BEIJING ? When Yan Yinhong, having removed a pair of pants from under her long dress, did a handstand and exposed her leotard-covered crotch onto which she had painted the face of a Chinese policeman, she intended to shock.

Ms. Yan?s act was part of a bigger feminist art show on a recent Saturday afternoon: ?Bald Girls: A Door.? Sexual violence was a key theme of the four performances, as this week?s Female Factor Letter explores. Another artist, Li Xinmo, put a razor blade in her mouth as she painfully told the story of a father raping his daughter in the shower. Blood seeped from her mouth.

Recent news reports about the sexual abuse or rape of school students by teachers has drawn attention to a normally hidden issue here.

For feminists, a law in force since 1997 is particularly galling: A person who has sex with a minor ? the age of consent here is 14 ? may not be automatically charged with rape if he can prove the sex was consensual and commercial. Known, literally, as ?spending the night in a brothel with a girl child? ? ?piaosu youn?? ? article 360 of the Criminal Law is a target of children?s rights activists and feminists, who say men use it as a loophole to have sex with minors.

Feminists say the law damages children?s rights by voiding the notion of statutory rape. Rape of minors still exists as a crime, but men are using this legal loophole to get off lightly, they say, paying off or intimidating a victim?s parents to agree the sex was consensual or commercial. The crime carries a minimum of 5 years jail time, according to multiple Chinese media reports, but in practice, men have gotten off with fines and a couple weeks? detention, according to legal experts. Rape carries the maximum penalty of death though it can also entail as little as three years jail, the Southern Weekly newspaper reported.

The law?s very name ?disgusts? people, Southern Weekly wrote last year. ?On Children?s Day in 2012, the author Han Han, raised the question: a girl child is girl child, rape is rape. What is ?spending the night in a brothel with a girl child?? He said, this evil law must be repealed.?

Southern Weekly cited Zhou Guangquan, a member of the National People?s Congress legal committee, as saying that a reason for creating the separate crime was related to the desire to lessen the use of the death penalty in China, bowing to ?international pressure.? Its defenders pointed out that with a minimum of 5 years in jail, it was not a lightly punished crime, the newspaper wrote.

Yet Southern Weekly painted an arbitrary picture of how the law was created in the first place.

Revisions to the criminal law published by the Congress on March 1, 1997, held that commercial sex with minors ?was still rape,? the newspaper cited Lin Wei, an expert on youth law, as saying.

?Twelve days later it had changed. On March 13, 1997, the meeting passed the draft law and it was a separate crime,? the newspaper wrote. The very next day it became law. How it all happened is ?very hard to tell from publicly available information,? the newspaper wrote.

Source: http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/in-china-a-controversial-law-is-seen-to-excuse-sex-with-minors/

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Incorporation beats the misclassification conundrum ? Business ...

The Department of Labor will shortly survey ?workers on their understanding of their status and whether they know that independent contractors aren?t eligible for overtime, benefits, etc. A crackdown on employers that misclassify workers is probably not very far behind.

Nevertheless, there is a way to beat the misclassification dilemma if employees want to moonlight at the same company?have them form businesses and bid on the work. A federal court of appeals recently gave this tactic the thumbs up. (Barlow v. C.R. England, Inc., No. 111465, 10th Cir., 2012)

Form company, get extra work

A part-time security guard asked his employer for more work. His supervisor wasn?t happy with the janitorial services that were being provided to the company, so he asked HR about having the security guard take over the janitorial work. Because the employee would have been eligible for overtime, it was decided that he would form a separate company that would contract for the work.

The guard supplied his own cleaning supplies and occasionally hired an assistant. But he provided no services to other companies. His company was paid $400 a month. The janitorial contract was later terminated, and the guard eventually fired. He sued for unpaid overtime related to this janitorial work. A federal trial court ruled for the employer, finding that the guard provided the janitorial services as an independent contractor. The employee appealed.

Independent contractor status wins out

A federal appeals court upheld the lower court?s decision. Appeals court: The economic realities favor independent contractor status. The guard created a separate company to provide the janitorial services; he kept records for the company; opened a separate bank account; and filed a corporate tax return.

RISKY BUSINESS: This case could have easily gone the other way, since the employee?s company didn?t offer janitorial services to any other customer. Whether an employee should incorporate is a legal decision that you should steer clear of. Instead, encourage the employee to seek legal advice.

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Video: Indictment for Soccer Mom/Pot Dealer

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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/52244981/

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