China Touch

Archive for November, 2011

Here we have some skateboard information on yer actual skateboard, including all you need to know on them. Here are a few facts guys and gals, dudes and dudesses:

The skateboard deck, that is the flat surface of the skateboard, is normally made out of laminated maple. How thick the skateboard is depends on the number of layers that the deck is made out of. The less experienced skateboarder should be more inclined to pick a thick skateboard for ease of balance.

For your skateboard information, the wheels are more often than not made out of polyurethane, and can be sized between 39 to 66 millimetres in diameter.

The front of the skateboard is called the nose, which comprises of the front truck bolts to the end of the board.
The back of the skateboard is called the tail, which comprises of the back truck bolts back to the end of the board.

The wheelbase is basically the distance between the front and the back wheels.

Most skateboards come with grip tape on them, or skateboarders put tape on them when they buy their board. The grip tape is stuck to the deck, and has an abrasive surface to give the skateboarder plenty grip to the board, so that they will not slip off so readily.

So theres some skateboard information for your delectation. It is not that important that you know this information, the main thing is being able to skate on the thing! But it gives you a feel for your board and what you are dealing with, and ya know what they say, knowledge is power.

By 1900, only 124 years after declaring independence, the United States had grown and expanded into one of the most prosperous and influential countries in the world. The economy was strong, driven by the power of steel locomotives, steam engines, electricity, and the beginning of automated manufacturing. But the burgeoning economic productivity, along with the complexity of 20th century machinery, created problems when different manufacturers had to work together. Disagreements arose over the units of measurement and how to apply them. For example, one company’s “gallon” might not be the same as another company’s. Without standards, the parts or containers made by one company did not fit another company’s items, resulting in chaos.

On March 3, 1901, the U.S. government chartered the National Bureau of Standards to remedy this problem. Beginning with a staff of 1 2, the new bureau quickly went to work, improving the standards of length and mass measurements, and establishing new standards of temperature, time, and light. Time was especially important, as it synchronizes the activities of so many people. How do railroads, radio and television networks, and other time-conscious organizations know what time it is – and keep the same time? The bureau has provided time signals from a radio station, WWV, since 1 923. Governing this timekeeping is an atomic clock so precise that it will not gain or lose a second in 60 million years!

The National Bureau of Standards changed its name to the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 1988. Today, the NIST has facilities in Gaitherburg, Maryland, and Boulder, Colorado, and employs about 2,800 scientists, engineers, and staff. The NIST continues to improve measurement technology and standards, helping promote economic and technological progress. Laboratories at the NIST include the Building and Fire Research Laboratory, the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, the Information Technology Laboratory, the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory, the Physics Laboratory, and others.

There was a time when the JKUAT University was associated only as an engineering University but whether that maxim still holds true is a debate for another day. The JKUAT University started operating in 1984 mainly as a middle level College offering courses in engineering and technical disciplines. It got a boost in its profile when the Japanese government decided to fund it. It hence became a University with a strong emphasis on engineering and technical education. It even surpassed the University of Nairobi as the University of Choice in engineering related courses.

However, the Japanese withdrew funding for the University in 2001 and handed it over to the Kenyan government. From then on the University has embarked on a rapid diversification mode. It now offers courses in a wide range of disciplines; from humanities, through the liberal arts to the sciences. But for a University that wanted to model itself as the MIT of Kenya; did it loss its cause? Now, you must understand that this must be very desperate times for Kenyan Universities. With the funding from the exchequer dwindling by the day, the University, like its counterparts in the country, had to resort to other means of generating income in order to make it self sustainable. It therefore had to start courses in humanities and other disciplines in order to generate income. Let’s face it, there is no way they could have attracted enough self sponsored students for a technical course such as mechanical or electrical engineering.

However, the University must also strive to maintain its identity as a technical University even as it tries to become a financially viable institution.