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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (56297)	10/12/2009 10:49:59 AM
From: gg cox	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 218479

<<So, 2 buckets of stones + 2 buckets of sand + 1 bucket of cement + 1 bucket of water does not give 6 buckets of concrete. Depending on the size and shape of the stones and distribution of sand sizes, there might be as little as [at a guess] 3 buckets of concrete [your mileage may vary].>> Try that mix in a wheel barrow, you would have short of 6 buckets of slop.Step away from your educated engineer background and try mixing concrete in a wheel barrow.Throw proper proportions, listed on the bag, of rock sand and cement,as i said,<< 4 shovels of quality clean rock, 3 shovels of coarse gritty sand, 2 shovels or a bit more of cement, add water slowly and in small amounts, too much no good,..>>You mix the dry ingredients together first and the perception is an almost full wheel barrow...after adding the small amount of water , for a good mix...the perception is an almost full wheel barrow...now take that grand son and give him a practical education. Your point about size and shape of aggregate brings to mind a SI member's post, Walt from the 90's, giving a lecture to grade school students on ""is it full yet"...Large glass jar, put in large rocks..is it full yet, smaller rocks, sand, powder then water..they got the idea...i guess. Some of the practical answers to the everyday are not always found in higher education, bingdegoogle but by doing...elmatador eh will tell ya.<g>

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (56297)	10/12/2009 1:20:18 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 218479

Brazil's Lula Befriends Iran's Ahmadinejad Mac Margolis As any world leader knows, breaking bread with unsavory regimes is an occupational hazard. But palling around with pariahs is another matter. So when Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva slapped Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the back at the U.N. General Assembly, stoutly defended Iran's nuclear program, and invited Ahmadinejad to visit Brazil, the world took note. What is Lula's game? In part, it's about his ambition to position Brazil as a "first-class nation." Lula has visited 45 countries in the last three years alone and opened 35 embassies since 2003, most of them in Africa and the Caribbean. This all fits his "South to South" strategy, a diplomatic blitzkrieg designed to gather political capital across the developing world. As a result, Brazil is well regarded in places many other nations ignore, and its trade relations are well balanced, spread in roughly equal measure between Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, Europe, and the U.S. This helped Brazil keep its footing during the global economic crash to become one of the first to shake off recession. It also turned its president into a global star. But Lula's diplomacy has created some compromising alliances. While Brazil prides itself on being one of the world's most vibrant democracies, its foreign policy has remained remarkably junior league. Recently, Brazil abstained on U.N. resolutions condemning human-rights abuses in Congo, Sri Lanka, and North Korea. It also balked on Sudan, first passing on a vote to give rights inspectors a wider brief, only to reverse course in June after prominent civic groups lashed out. Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez has no better friend than Lula, even as the former has muzzled the media, bullied rivals, and smothered trade unions. "Each country establishes the democratic regime that suits its people," Lula recently told newsweek. "It's a sovereign decision of every nation."