Window Cleaners Escape Death in Freak Accident

One of the workers being treated following the fall.

Window cleaners escape death in freak accident: (KUALA LUMPUR): Two Bangladeshi workers were injured after the suspended platform they were on plunged to the ground near a bank on Jalan Ampang. City Fire and Rescue Department chief operations officer Samsol Maarif Saibani said the incident occurred at approximately 12.30pm Wednesday, but that a distress call was only received an hour later from a passer-by.

"We dispatched firemen from the Keramat fire and rescue department to the scene. "By the time we arrived, the two Bangladeshi workers had already been sent to the hospital by an ambulance," he added. Samsol said that the platform was typically used for window washing purposes. The height from which it fell was not revealed. City Fire and Rescue Department director Khiruddin Drahman said the impact of the fall was minimal and it was being investigated by the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH).

Firefighters help stranded window washer in Mt. Lebanon: Mt. Lebanon police and firefighters helped rescue a window washer who found himself stuck outside a 10-story office building on Washington Road Wednesday afternoon.

A maintenance worker at 650 Washington Road — informally known as the Cyclops Building for its former tenant, Cyclops Steel — called police just before 4 p.m. to report that a window washer was stuck on the outside of the building about three floors up, said Deputy Chief Chris Buttlar of the Mt. Lebanon Fire Department. The window washer apparently had a miscommunication with an assistant, who was supposed to let him back into the building but left.

The window washer managed to lower himself into the light well of the adjacent building — an open space within 654 Washington Road designed to let light and air into its upper floors — where firefighters could lower a ladder for him to climb out, Buttlar said.

Window Cleaning News

Cleaners wiping the window of a building in Kuala Lumpur. Despite an increase in the tax for foreign workers was good for the country, employers are still cautious over Putrajaya’s move to review the tax. 

The Malaysian Employers Federation today reacted cautiously to Putrajaya's move to review the levy on foreign workers as they waited further details to the sketchy announcement. MEF executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan said higher levies on foreign workers would mean an increase in government revenue. "If Putrajaya increases the levy on foreign workers, it would mean more revenue and less money being remitted by foreign workers." But, Shamsuddin said if the levy for foreign workers had to be paid by their employers, then it would lead to higher overheads.

Foreign workers were responsible for paying the levy, not their employers, he added. "Remittances by foreign workers back to their source country is currently about RM50 billion annually," he said.

Bank Negara previously estimated that foreign workers remitted about RM30 billion annually. But, Shamsuddin said foreign workers also had other methods of sending money back home without resorting to banks and financial institutions.

Terry Dugdale, who is concerned over the matter of exploding double-glazed windows in his housing block

Exploding window problem: A Poole pensioner has prompted an investigation after discovering six windows in his warden assisted block shattered spontaneously. Terry Dugdale, 65, of Simmonds Close in Oakdale, was shocked to find the inner pane of glass of his bathroom window smashed – while the outer one was intact. He was advised by Poole Housing Partnership, which manages the block, to claim on his insurance. But baffled as to how it had happened, he investigated further.

The retired sales rep, who has lived in the flats for three years, discovered that five of his neighbours had also had the exact same “exploding window” problem – including one elderly resident who was in the bathroom at the time it happened.

After researching on the internet he discovered that it was a known phenomenon, which can occur in colder weather as a result of changes in pressure – most frequently in late December and January. After presenting his evidence to PHP they have now agreed to pay for repairs – and are looking into the issue. Mr Dugdale told the Echo: “You’ve got six windows here – do they think six people are suddenly going around and smashing their windows? “The thing I can’t understand is why they didn’t investigate what was happening in the first place. “I think they should seriously think about replacing all the double glazing in these units which are over 20 years old.

“One of my neighbours was actually in the bathroom when it happened and it scared her to death. “She could have been caught by the glass.” Matt Wilkin, communications officer at PHP Ltd said: “We were alerted to several cases of cracked windows at Simmonds Close over the Christmas period.

“As these windows were at the end of their life, we’ve arranged for new argon-filled units to be fitted which should last for a further 25 years. “Investigations are now underway to identify the cause of the cracked windows and we are working with residents to minimise the inconvenience while the repairs are ongoing.”

Mark's Cleaning Service Inc. celebrates 30 years in business.

Mark's Cleaning Service Inc. - It's Your Business: Mark & Bonnie Skoda. Number of employees: 110

Years in business: 30

Tell us what your business does: Carpet cleaning, oriental area rug cleaning, ceramic tile and grout cleaning, upholstery, air duct cleaning, window cleaning, maid service and pet urine and feces removal and odor control.

Where did you get the idea for your business? I was working for a local carpet and janitorial company when the owner offered to sell me a van and carpet cleaning machine.

What makes your business unique? Mark's Cleaning is a leader in the cleaning industry. We work hard to keep up with the newest cleaning equipment and solutions. By using the best products and newest equipment, we do the job right the first time. We promise to treat our customers as we would want to be treated.

How do you see current economic conditions affecting your business? Business is great! I believe so much in "a positive state of mind brings positive results." We work hard as a team to take care of our clients and our staff. Everyday brings challenges. Being in business is problem solving -- that's what we do.

What is the biggest obstacle you have had to overcome thus far? Over the last 30 years we've seen many obstacles. I suppose two of the biggest would have to be 9/11 and the 2008 economic crises. For both we kept a positive mindset. Actually one of our best years turned out to be 2008! We have great clients and great staff!

What are your plans for near-future growth (hiring, building expansion, etc.)?  Our plans are to continue growing and expanding in Summit and Cuyahoga counties. We've purchase a 5,000 square foot facility and adjoining property, and are currently putting finishing touches on our in-house oriental rug cleaning plant. We also plan to continue growing in water damage restoration, window cleaning, maid service, carpet cleaning, duct cleaning, janitorial and hard surface floor care.

Window Cleaner who borrowed €1.4m given three months to save home: A Dublin couple have been given three months by a judge to save their family home. Anthony and Miriam Freeman, of Villa Park Gardens, Navan Road, Dublin, are fighting in the Circuit Civil Court to prevent Ulster Bank Ireland repossessing their family home on a disputed arrears debt of €169,000. Last May, the High Court dismissed claims by the couple, who who borrowed some €1.4m to refinance property investments, that their lender did not validly appoint a receiver over their assets when they went into arrears. They are appealing the case to the Supreme Court.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane told the Freemans on Friday that the family home situation will be decided on April 23rd next and she directed that all necessary papers be exchanged between the parties by mid-March. Ms Freeman, who represented herself and her husband in court, said her health had deteriorated and she had been unable to complete an application for legal aid. She said they disputed the claimed debt of €169,000 on the December 2003 mortgage of €460,000 on their home. She claimed the bank had mismanaged the couple’s mortgage account and had overcharged them on interest. Counsel for the bank said she was repeating issues made in a High Court commercial investment case and all of which had been rejected by Mr Justice Brian McGovern last May.

On Friday, Ms Freeman said she accepted there was a debt to be paid to Ulster Bank Ireland but did not accept the amount claimed. There was a lot more detail to be gone into and the Supreme Court appeal against Judge McGovern’s decision was being strenuously pursued in relation to their six investment properties.

Mr Justice McGovern stated in his judgment that the couple between 1996 and 2006 had bought six houses in Dublin at Huntstown Drive, Huntsdown Wood and Willowood, Blanchardstown, and at Ventry Drive and Drumcliffe Drive, Cabra West and Dunsink Green, Finglas. He said this had been financed by First Active Building Society and later re-mortgaged with Bank of Scotland for €1,406,000. When the First Active debt had been paid the couple had been left with a surplus in excess of €546,000 which they had spent on themselves over a period of 16 months.

Mr Justice McGovern said the evidence clearly showed that the plaintiffs went on a spending spree with the surplus, both buying expensive motor vehicles and had gone on at least one holiday to the United States, drawing down just under $60,000 while there. He said Miriam Freeman had been unable to explain why so many substantial cash withdrawals were made and why they were not applied towards the investment property business. The judge said both Freemans had furnished misleading information to Bank of Scotland at the time they applied for the loans, grossly inflating the net profit of Mr Freeman’s window cleaning business which gave them only a modest income.

Mr Justice McGovern, who threw out all of the issues raised by the Freemans in their High Court action against the bank and its receiver, said the couple had sought to invalidate the appointment of the receiver over the sale of their properties. He said that at a time when they owed Bank of Scotland over €1.4 million they had taken no steps to reduce the principal sum due and owing to the bank from the excess of €546,000 but had spent it on themselves.

Popular window cleaner John 'Sneck' Duncan.

Big turnout for funeral of popular window cleaner: There was a big turnout at Kirkcaldy crematorium for the funeral of popular Cupar window clearer John (Sneck) Duncan. Born, raised and educated in Cupar, where he spent his entire 81 years, Sneck worked in a butcher’s shop in the town after leaving Bell Baxter High School.

Before starting out on his own as a window cleaner 35 years ago, he was a steel erector and crane driver with local engineers Houston’s, as well as a labourer with building companies. He was still working until last year, keeping all his clients in the Cupar area up to date with the latest local news and gossip. An all-round handyman, Sneck would readily offer his services to anyone in need.

During his time at Adamson Hospice – where he passed away – he kept fellow patients and staff entertained with his wise-cracking and constant stream of jokes. A keen walker in the glens with his wife, Annie, Sneck is survived by his family, grandchildren and great-grandson.

A 72-year-old man from Brinsley has successfully completed an epic 98-mile walk which took him from Glasgow to Fort William in just six days. Bill Pykett of Kings Drive, Brinsley, has completed many cycling and walking expeditions for charity in his time and embarked on this trek known as The West Highland Way in aid of The Dogs Trst.

The retired carpet and window cleaner was joined by his partner Heather Collinge who drove their motorhome as a support vehicle, and his four-year-old rescue German Shepherd, Abi, who walked with him all the way. Bill explained that he had previously completed Lands End to John O’Groats and Coast to Coast by bike, but as the West Highland Way is the biggest official walk in Scotland, it was another challenge he was keen to do.

He said: “I like walking for start and I had seen something on the TV about the expedition which made me want to do it. “There was some stunning scenery along the way - Rannoch Moor was really special because of how bleak and wild it was. “After Glasgow which was busy with local walkers I hardly saw a sole, which I liked.”

The grandfather-of-three told the Advertiser that the highlight of the whole expedition was the night before Rannoch Moor as the stags were roaring around their motorhome all night. However, it was his dog Abi that got him through the hardest part of the journey - Devils Staircase - as she pulled him up the hill. Bill added: “She loved the whole walk - I think she would happily do it over and over and she never tired.” This year Bill will be taking on The Great Glenway from Fort William to Inverness, and he and Heather are also determined to travel to the Artic Circle in the summer. Donations go to The Dogs Trust.

The middle class that President Obama identified in his State of the Union speech last week as the foundation of the American economy has been shrinking for almost half a century. In the late 1960s, more than half of the households in the United States were squarely in the middle, earning, in today’s dollars, $35,000 to $100,000 a year. Few people noticed or cared as the size of that group began to fall, because the shift was primarily caused by more Americans climbing the economic ladder into upper-income brackets.

But since 2000, the middle-class share of households has continued to narrow, the main reason being that more people have fallen to the bottom. At the same time, fewer of those in this group fit the traditional image of a married couple with children at home, a gap increasingly filled by the elderly.

“In the Great Recession, we lost a lot of middle-income jobs and we gained a lot of low-paying jobs,” said Michael R. Strain, resident scholar at the right-of-center American Enterprise Institute. “That’s a slower-burning thing, but it increased in ferocity during the recession, and people are feeling it.”

For more than two decades, John D’Amanda, 54, earned about $30,000 a year running a window-washing service in Oakland, Calif. He had a car and an apartment. Then, in 2009, the calls stopped coming in. His customers no longer had the luxury of paying for someone to wash their windows.

Mr. D’Amanda got a job at a McDonald’s, where he has worked ever since, now earning 25 cents above the state’s new minimum wage of $9. He pays $350 a month in rent to share a small bedroom with a roommate. “I’m barely able to afford that,” he said.

'Robust' parking enforcement in Barnstaple is a concern for councillors: Speaking at a meeting of North Devon Council’s overview and scrutiny committee last week, Mr Tucker said: “It concerns me the robust way in which Devon County Council is going about its business. “It is very sad when we have operated the system for a number of years and got on with traders and now they are giving tickets because they are unloading for five minutes. “When you see good businesses getting four or five tickets something is wrong somewhere.”

The Journal has also been contacted by a man who claims the situation has been getting worse recently and that he has received four parking fines while stopped in Barnstaple High Street. Will James, of H2O Cleaning Services, said there was a group of around 50 workers who were gearing up to sign a petition on the issue. Will said the 10-minute window given by traffic wardens for commercial vehicles stopping in the High Street was not enough. “I am self-employed and have been working in the High Street for 14 years,” he said. “Only now is it beginning to become a problem. Any time before 10am you can park there. But you have only got 10 minutes.” Will said a common problem was people stopping off in the High Street just to go and get a coffee. “You never see them getting tickets,” he said. “We are here trying to earn an honest living, but the people coming in doing their coffee rounds aren’t penalised at all.”

LOHS grad to appear on 'Shark Tank'

A summer business called “Happy Windows” was the first adventure into entrepreneurship for Morgan Hill native Wesley LaPorte, who employed his cousin as they went door-to-door to solicit their window washing services to local homeowners. “Growing up, I worked for myself washing windows, so I have been entrepreneurial since I was young,” said the 2004 Live Oak High School alumnus who went on to earn a Pre-Med degree in Exercise Science from Brigham Young University. But upon graduation in 2012, LaPorte put his medical school plans on hold because of a business venture he conjured up with that same cousin, Dan Barnes, who used to wash windows back in the day.

The business partners are no longer window-washing though, and the two BYU graduates will appear on the Jan. 30 episode of the ABC show Shark Tank, where they will pitch their PhoneSoap product to the panel of the millionaire investors, including Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Fubu founder Daymond John. “I decided that this was an opportunity now,” said LaPorte, the 29-year-old Chief Executive Officer and founder of his Provo, Utah-based company that manufactures a cell phone cleaning device. “If I want to go to medical school in the future, I still can. But for now, this is what I’m doing full time.”

The idea for PhoneSoap came in 2012 when the two cousins were bouncing ideas off one another for an annual business plan competition held at BYU. LaPorte said he was doing cancer research at the university and was using large ultraviolet (UV) lights to sanitize surfaces where they would perform experiments. “I knew it was effective in killing bacteria,” said Barnes, who didn’t realize a different and marketable use for the same UV light until Barnes read an article that the average person’s cell phone is dirtier than the handle on a public toilet. The light bulb went off and they immediately began doing more research on the bacteria that builds up on cell phones.

Window Cleaners shut those gates! A Burton family are appealing for help in finding their missing border terrier puppy. The 15-month-old female, called Ginny, went missing at approximately 4.30pm on Friday. Her owner Hannah Denton says that she believes she was taken by somebody after she managed to escape from the garden of the family home. She said: "At about 4.15pm I let Ginny out the back door into our enclosed garden to do her business. "I then went upstairs and came back down 10 minutes later to let her back in but she wasn’t there. The window cleaner had been and left the gate open without us knowing.

"We live on Bridgewater Road and I ran to the park where she goes for her walks to see if she was there but we couldn’t find her anywhere. "One of the people that live near us contacted us through Facebook, he was in his car at 4.30pm and saw Ginny run across the road and turned round in the car to get her but an old red Ford Fiesta had got to her first, at the flats next to Shobnall Street, and somebody put her in the car. "We are desperate to get her home safe and are offering a reward." Ginny has been spayed and has a red grizzle with a dark face. Anyone with information is asked to call Hannah on 07581 624934 or 07916 338521.

An animal rescue worker in south Norfolk caring for a “suffering” cat thrown from a car in Diss earlier this month is calling for help to track down those responsible. The one-year-old cat was reportedly seen being tossed out of a car somewhere in Diss on the morning of Thursday, January 8 and was later found with a broken front leg.

The feline, a fluffy ginger female which has been named Loreli, was taken to Cherry Tree Vets in Roydon Road. An appeal was then launched on social media to ask for help for the ongoing care of the injured cat. Bungay-based centre Blossoms Rescue responded by taking Loreli into its care and meeting the £999 veterinary bill for the operation to repair the cat’s leg with the insertion of metal pins, which was carried out last week at Chapelfield Vets in Long Stratton.

She urged any witnesses of the incident or anybody who could identify the cat to come forward and share whatever information they may have. In particular, she was keen to hear from the woman who initially reported what had happened - only referred to as the wife of a local window cleaner - to obtain a more detailed account of the time and place and a description of the car.

An Arbroath window cleaner who racially abused an unhappy customer has been fined £200. John Connor, 48, of Campbell Crescent, appeared before Sheriff Pino Di Emidio at Forfar. He admitted that on December 20 at Arbroath High Street he acted in a racially aggravated manner towards a man and shouted racist remarks. Depute fiscal Jill Drummond said Connor was a window cleaner and an arrangement was made to take on a contract at a shop in the High Street. An agreement was reached that Connor would be paid £25 every time the windows were cleaned. After they were cleaned for the first time, the owner said he was not happy with the standard of work and only paid £15.

Several discussions took place between both men over the following days. At 10am on the day of the incident, Connor was cleaning windows nearby when the shop owner parked his vehicle on the High Street. Connor said: “No wonder you drive a nice car.” The owner was annoyed at the remark. He told Connor if he had done his job properly he would have been paid in full. Connor told him to go back to his country and uttered a racist remark. The man replied: “You’ll not get away with being racist,” and called police.

Beware of conman window-cleaner warn Plymstock police: Beware of conman window-cleaner warn Plymstock police (Plymouth): PCSO Elaine Wilson of Plymstock police neighbourhood team said the suspect had been knocking on doors, requesting payment for windows cleaned. She said: “People have handed over money, only to be contacted by their real window-cleaners asking for their dues. “He appears to just be chancing houses, so we are requesting residents please be mindful of this and only hand over money to the person they know to be doing work for them.” The man is described as white, unshaven, possibly wearing a quilted jacket and blue knitted hat. He does not appear to have a vehicle. Anyone with information about the man, or anyone who has spotted him in their area, contact police on 101 quoting crime reference number CR/003199/15.

A window cleaner committed benefit fraud because he didn’t want to dip into his savings: Stephen Crabtree committed benefit fraud even though he had than £100,000 savingsStephen Crabtree, of Fairview Avenue in Batley, admitted dishonestly failing to disclose to the Department for Work and Pensions full details of his capital. Prosecutor Andy Wills said that the 50-year-old’s application was fraudulent from the outset. He told Kirklees magistrates: “He made an application to receive income- based Jobseeker’s Allowance and received this for 16 months. “The application said that he was unemployed and had no capital or savings.” The court heard that the department then became aware that Crabtree had savings of over £118,000.

Mr Wills added: “This was well over the limit of savings than can be held by any party when trying to make a claim for benefit. “Had this been known by the department his application would have been refused.” Crabtree, a window cleaner for 29 years before falling off his ladder and breaking his collarbone, said that his savings were meant for his retirement. Mr Wills said: “He said he wanted the benefit to live with so that he didn’t have to dip into his savings.” Crabtree was overpaid almost £5,000 which he said has now been repaid. He said that friends had urged him to sign on and other people do what he did. Magistrates sentenced him to a six-week curfew between 7pm and 7am. Crabtree must also pay £85 costs and £60 victim surcharge.

State time for man who accidentally shot and wounded 8-year-old boy (WEST CHESTER): The North Coventry man who fired a gunshot that wounded an 8-year-old boy who was riding his bicycle in the man’s neighborhood was sentenced to a state prison term Thursday for his behavior, which the judge in the case said amounted to unwarranted recklessness. Wayne Snowden, who fired the shot from the porch of his home on West Main Street, just south of Pottstown, during an angry tirade against another man, was given back-to-back terms of nine to 18 months in prison on charges of recklessly endangering another person and simple assault.

Snowden, 56, the owner of a window washing business who had no history of violent crime, shook his head in disbelief as sheriff deputies put handcuffs on him and led him from the courtroom. Family members who attended the 90-minute sentencing hearing cursed as they left Wheatcraft’s courtroom.

The defendant had apologized for the shooting, telling Wheatcraft he had no thought of ever harming he young boy and that he sympathized with the family over all they had gone through in the wake of the shooting. “I thank God it was not a worse situation,” he said. “I pray one day A.J. will be able to enjoy himself again.”

A window cleaner was almost five times over the drink drive limit when he was stopped by police. Stephen Tordoff, 41, was driving along Dickson Road, Blackpool, at 1.30pm when an officer halted his van. Blackpool Magistrates heard that Tordoff had left home at about 10.30am that day. He had drunk the contents of a bottle of vodka the night before. Tordoff, of Waterhead Crescent, Norbreck, pleaded guilty to drink driving.

Police had been tipped off that he was at the wheel of his van while over the limit and when he was breathalysed he had 160 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – 35 is the limit. Alison Quanbrough, prosecuting, said: “The police had received intelligence that Tordoff was a drink driver.

“This is a very high reading indeed.” Martin Hillson, defending, said: “There were no aggravating factors involved such as speeding or an accident and my client co-operated fully with the police when stopped. “Mr Tordoff has worked all his life and has set up a window cleaning business with 350 clients.” Magistrates gave Tordoff a 17 week jail sentence, suspended for two years. He was also banned from the road for three years and ordered to undergo two years supervision. He was also ordered to pay £85 costs.

And finally...

“The problem was that they tried to fix it in half an hour and it should have taken them days.”

Tutankhamun's beard glued back on, say Egyptian museum conservators: Beard on burial mask of pharaoh was stuck on with epoxy after it was knocked during cleaning, say staff at Cairo museum: Was he murdered? Was he the product of incest? Ever since his tomb was discovered in 1922, Tutankhamun has always been a man of mystery. But now the pharaoh is the subject of yet another whodunnit – and this time the mystery is a very modern one. Did bungling curators snap off Tut’s beard last year, and if so, was it stuck back on with the wrong kind of glue?

These are the allegations levelled this week at the Egyptian Museum, the gloomy, underfunded palace in central Cairo where Tutankhamun’s bling is housed, along with thousands of other ancient treasures. Employees claim the beard was dislodged in late 2014, during routine maintenance of the showcase in which Tut’s mask is kept. “What happened is that one night they wanted to fix the lighting in the showcase, and when they did that they held the mask in the wrong way and broke the beard,” alleges one museum official, who asked not to be named for fear of being fired. “But they tried to fix it overnight with the wrong material, but it wasn’t fixed in the right way so the next day, very early, they tried to fix it again. “The problem was that they tried to fix it in half an hour and it should have taken them days.”

A man who allegedly made a habit of stealing women’s underwear from washing lines has been on the receiving end of some ironic mob justice.

Underwear thief forced to walk around the block wearing the bras he stole: A man who allegedly made a habit of stealing women’s underwear from washing lines has been on the receiving end of some ironic mob justice. After Chan Chun Chee was caught red handed by the women whose underwear had gone missing, they forced him to wear one of the pilfered bras and made him walk around the block in a classic example of public shaming.

Residents of the block of flats in Singapore first became aware of the kinky thief when items of clothing being left out to dry started going missing, sometimes even from inside their apartments. Local man Teo Goh, 56, said: ‘We realised he was targeting windows where he knew women lived and knew were open, so we decided to teach him a lesson and publicly humiliate him.’

They sprung a trap by getting one of the women in the block to leave some underwear in plain sight near an open window. The group then waited for the thief to make his move, before pouncing on him.

After ‘frog marching’ the culprit around the block in his new outfit and forcing him to promise never to steal from them again, the vigilante group called the police to have him arrested. A police spokesman said: ‘We don’t condone vigilante activity but in this case it seems to have turned out OK.’ Chee now faces three years jail for breaking and entry and theft (plus these embarrassing photos will probably haunt him forever).

Window Cleaner Finds Miracle In Malaysia

The Virgin Mary which first appeared to a window cleaner.

Virgin Mary Image In Window: It will be a long wait before the Malaysian Catholic community gets “official approval” from the local bishop or the Vatican to raise a Hail Mary or light a candle to Our Lady of Subang Jaya although hundreds of them are already singing Ave Maria at a “holy” site in front of a private hospital. For now, to the corporate Catholic Church of Malaysia, Our Lady of Subang Jaya — a purported apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary on a window pane at the Sime Darby Medical Centre — which first appeared to a window cleaner and is being witnessed by hundreds of people daily — is just a pixel of an abstract image on a window pane. This sighting of the Mother of Jesus may be deemed as authentic or not at all by Kuala Lumpur Archbishop Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam, who will most likely discern according to the “Norms of the Congregation for Proceeding in Judging Alleged Apparitions and Revelations” — a document issued in 1978 by the Vatican’s Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (SCDF).

GATHERING IN FAITH: Roman Catholics offer prayers in front of an image said to be the Virgin Mary that appeared on the window of Sime Darby Medical Centre on Nov 11.

Like previous apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary such as the one in Lourdes (France), or Fatima (Portugal) or Guadalupe (Mexico), it is going to be a long haul for Our Lady of Subang Jaya. She has to earn her pedestal through rigorous theological and scientific verification by local theologians and other experts. This could take years or even centuries to gain acceptance as an authentic phenomenon — as was the case of Our Lady of Laus (France) which received diocesan approval for Catholic devotion in 1665 but formal recognition as a supernatural event only in 2008. According to the 1978 SCDF prescription, the diocesan bishop can initiate a process of investigation on his own initiative or at the request of the faithful when such a phenomenon occurs. Read more..

Handling with care: Workers removing the window panels at the Sime Darby Medical Centre (SDMC) in Subang Jaya.

‘Virgin Mary’ glass panes moved to Klang: (Petaling Jaya): The glass panel at the Sime Darby Medical Centre (SDMC), which has an image said to resemble the Virgin Mary, has been moved to a Catholic church in Klang. In a statement, Sime Darby Bhd said two panels from the North Tower of the hospital complex had been taken down in a 95-minute operation which began at 10am yesterday. “One of the panels has marks that some claim resemble artistic depictions of Mary, the Mother of Jesus,” the company said. Some eyewitnesses also claimed to have seen another image forming on one of the windows below, which allegedly resembled the face of Jesus.

The company stressed that the removal of the glass panels was carried out by professionals and due care was taken. “Church leaders and members of the Subang Jaya parish were present to witness the removal of the window panels,” it said. The panels were moved to the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Klang. Hundreds of people witnessed the removal process with many whipping out their handphones to record the event.

Faith and perception: The window panels at the Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Klang.

In Klang, Catholics turned up in droves at the church as word spread that the glass panels had been brought there. Both panels are being displayed in the chapel, located behind the church. Parish priest Rev Fr Michael Chua said the panels can be viewed by the public from 7am to 10pm daily. Catholics were seen clutching the rosary and silently praying. Many also took photographs of the panels. Retiree Michael Ghana said this was his fifth time viewing the image. He had gone to SDMC four times previously. “Today, the image is clearer than usual. It’s a miracle,” he said. Patimary Anthony Raju, 58, said she was very happy that the panels were moved to her parish church. “I can feel Mother Mary’s presence when praying,” she said.

Also see:

Newtons Rings

Window Cleaners "Virgin Mary" Rock.

Miracle At Mercy - Springfield, Massachusetts.

Or if that doesn't grab you...

Masterpiece of Halo Fan Art: This impeccably detailed Master Chief stained glass window was made by Evan Daniels of Martian Glass Works. It’s just about perfect. The only thing it’s missing is a little glowing blue Cortana floating around and guiding Chief’s way as he takes on the Covenant and countless other nasties. Measuring in at 50″(H) x 40″(W) and made up out of about 200 pieces of glass, it’s an impressive feat for sure. It took Evan about 70 hours to construct. Of course, all of that work is bound to be worth something, and the big glass Chief is selling for a whopping $3000 (USD). Iron man goes for a little more, click picture to enlarge.

Glass, Technology, Coatings & Solar News For Window Cleaners

Aston Martin glass phone concept oozes class, just like the cars: Aston Martin makes some of the most drool-worthy cars on the planet, so any phone that's going to carry the Aston Martin logo had better look pretty sleek. This transparent phone concept from Mobiado should do the trick, with a wow factor that will get tongues wagging even if you aren't standing next to the car itself. Far from being just a cool phone with a fancy logo slapped onto it, the CPT002 can control many of the car's functions. Just having it in your pocket operates the keyless entry system, and once you're moving the phone can do things like automatically upload pictures from onboard cameras in the car to your social networks, so your friends can see where you're traveling, It will even use its accelerometer to measure your movement in an accident, then adjust the airbag deployment speed and seat belt tensioner to fit the situation. While it is a concept, this isn't just some pie-in-the-sky phone that will never exist in the real world. Aston Martin is working with Mobiado to create something real for their customers.

At ground zero, the future finally appears: The noise at ground zero is a steady roar. Engines hum. Cement mixers churn. Air horns blast. Cranes, including one that looks like a giant crab leg, soar and crawl over every corner of the 16-acre site. For years, the future has been slow to appear at the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But with six months remaining until the national 9/11 memorial opens, the work to turn a mountain of rubble into some of the inspiring moments envisioned nearly a decade ago is thundering forward. One World Trade Center, otherwise known as the Freedom Tower, has joined the Manhattan skyline. Its steel frame, already clad in glass on lower floors, now stands 58 stories tall and is starting to inch above many of the skyscrapers that ring the site. A new floor is being added every week. On the 29th floor, men preparing to install window glass last week were tethered to the building by safety cables as they worked near the ledge. Even their hard hats were attached by a safety line, in case they were knocked over the side. A yellow line, painted on the concrete deck, marked how close workers are allowed to stand without wearing a safety harness.

Canada's first cathedral in 50 years will use solar cells: The first Roman Catholic Cathedral to be built in Canada in 50 years will become the first in the world to integrate solar energy collection and stained glass. In May, windows laced with solar cells will be installed into the $28.5 million Cathedral of the Holy Family in Saskatoon, Sask. The windows are the creation of Toronto artist Sarah Hall. Divided into 18 painted glass panels each, the three finished windows will contain a total of 1,113 solar cells and will produce as much energy as five Canadian households use in a year. The largest of the three will measure 37 feet high by 12 feet wide. To create a solar stained glass window, the glass is painted and fired with metallic oxides, which fuse onto the base glass. The painted glass is then tempered and silver polycrystalline solar cells are soldered and embedded into the painted surface. A layer of ultra-white tempered glass is then laminated on top and the window is made into a thermopane.

Canada adopts lower window-to-wall ratio proposal: Like the attempt at ASHRAE to reduce window-to-wall ratio in the prescriptive commercial building codes, similar moves to reduce glass have been proposed and passed in Canada, reported Margaret Webb, executive director, Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance, Ottawa, Ontario, at the association's Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. Canada's Standing Committee of Energy Efficiency in Buildings fast -tracked a proposal to reduce the ratio, called the fenestration/door to wall area ratio, for prescriptive requirements. In the ASHRAE 90.1 proposal, the WWR would have been reduced to a blanket 30 percent. Under the SCEEB proposal, the FDWR would be set to a declining value based on heating degree days, using the quadratic equation.

"Instead of just setting a value, they used a creation based on heating degree days," Webb said. "While it wasn't going to have as significant of an impact as that of the ASHRAE proposal, it was serious enough to warrant attention." IGMA submitted a negative, as did the Canadian Home Builders' Association, proposing a compromise solution that would provide a lesser reduction in the FDWR. "The amount of the ratio improved by about 5 percent across [most parts] of Canada," Webb said. The proposal, with the compromise ratio, was passed and the code is published.

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia: A local glass manufacturing company is banking on the growing awareness among people in Sabah for safer products in promoting its safety glass products. This is apart from the emergence of new and less costly technology to produce tempered glass, one of the two kinds of safety glass regularly used in applications where standard glass could pose a potential danger, by China which makes it more affordable for people now, unlike before when it was costly. We just recently expanded our business to making tempered glass because most people need safety glass, that is tempered glass," said its Managing Director, Victor Su. Tempered glass is four times stronger than the standard glass and a person can stand on it without breaking it, he said after the official launching of his companies' Tempered Glassline. Su said the demand for tempered glass in Sabah is picking up because nowadays "we are going more into tourism, where safety aspects are of paramount importance people think about safety more now." Manufactured through a process of extreme heating and rapid cooling that make it harder than normal glass, tempered glass is four to five times stronger than standard glass and does not break into sharp shards when it fails. The thermal process that curves tempered glass also makes it heat resistant.

Cracks develop in glass wall at Ahmedabad airport’s international terminal (India): The swanky international terminal of the city airport is facing an unexpected problem for the last couple of months. Many of the glass tiles used in the construction of the glass wall at the terminal have developed cracks on their own, for no apparent reason. Some officials of the Airport Authority of India, however, blame the labourers working at the airport for the cracked tiles, while some others say the tiles had cracked because of the increasing summer heat. Sources at the airport said that at least a dozen glass tiles had cracked in the last couple of months. Fortunately, none of the affected tiles had splintered completely. They looked like frosted glass with cracks but had held together. This had prevented mishaps that might have been caused by shards of glass detached from completely broken tiles. Another senior official, however, said that the glass tiles had developed cracks because of the growing summer heat. There was no other explanation for the rapidity with which the tiles were cracking, he said. A third group of officials believes that the quality of the glass used in the construction of the glass wall was not upto the mark.

Crisis in Japan Sparks Conversations About Security Film: While natural disasters are, for the most part, unavoidable there are some things that can help better protect those in nature’s way. The recent earthquakes and tsunami in Japan have led to discussions about the role window film can play in mitigating such disasters. A product like security film can assist in protecting victims during a hurricane or earthquake from shards of glass or the danger of objects entering through broken windows. In the case of Japan, film may not have made any difference during the tsunami’s push, but it may have provided extra protection during the earthquake. “With Japan’s tsunami, film wouldn’t have been able to do a whole lot because of the force of the water. However, seismic activity is something film has been used for to help mitigate damage,” says Lewis Pitzer, special projects coordinator for American Standard Window Film in Las Vegas, Nev. “We can put the film on and in the event of racking or seismic activity it can help make the glass break safely.” Breaking safely means that the film will hold the glass shards in place as opposed to becoming possibly lethal projectiles. With the addition of attachment systems film can keep these shards or tempered pieces intact in the window frame and allow for a more secure building envelope.

“There is a benefit to adding film to tempered glass because you might not want to lose that opening. When thinking of contingency planning, if it‘s an area where you need to stay open like an emergency response center or a business corporate headquarters on the trading floor, you still might not want to have a situation where the tempered glass breaks and exits the frame and you are sitting there with open windows,” says Pitzer. “With film and the proper use of an attachment system on two vertical sides it will hold the whole broken piece in place. You will have a membrane that keeps the building envelope contained. That can be very important for a building like a hospital.” In Japan’s case a variety of buildings could have benefited from the use of film. Film used on school windows can protect children inside. Hospitals and clinics need the ability to remain open and manageable and film can assist with that goal. “What we found in the Bay Area after the 1989 earthquake was a lot of glass breakage. As widespread as the glass breakage was, there was no way to get everything boarded up,” says Scott Haddock, president and CEO of Glasslock Inc. in Easton, Md. “There was lousy weather for a week after the earthquake and it was really difficult to close up the envelope of all of these buildings. The good thing about film is that, as long as you can keep it in the frames, you can protect the envelope of your facilities.”

“In one case, there was a school system in California where there was a seismic event and they have annealed glass on the building and the glass broke and pieces broke off and went into the desk of the children. The kids weren’t there thankfully, but they realized the hazard and put film up,” says Pitzer. It’s important for dealers to remember that window film is not a hurricane-proof product. The product can help protect, but there is no guarantee of protection. “It’s like a bomb blast scenario—typically the target building doesn’t have a lot you can do for it, but the collateral affects. Buildings in the outer-lying areas that weren’t so close to the epicenter. It can minimize the collateral affects of things like broken glass,” says Haddock. “As long as it’s not over-sold it’s an excellent way to mitigate glass fragments in an event whether natural or man-made.”

Workers Use 'Liquid Glass' In Bid To Stop Toxic Leak At Japanese Plant - -Efforts to end the release of highly radioactive water into the ocean at Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant finally met with some success Tuesday with the injection of "liquid glass" gel around a damaged pipe managing to reduce the toxic flow in half, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. Workers have tried a variety of methods to reduce the flow, put at several tons of water an hour. More info' here.

Metallic glass is stronger and tougher than steel: Ritchie has created metallic glass, a material he believes is the strongest and toughest to date. During our visit, Ritchie brought us to the bottom basement of the old engineering building to show us how he and his students try to break the new material to see if it’s resistant to fracture. In the future, Ritchie hopes metallic glass could one day be used for airplane engines and large structures such as bridges. Ritchie said “trying to get high strength and high toughness is very difficult. One of the holy grails is to get both high strength and high toughness [in materials]. We call that damage tolerance.” To make this metallic glass, the researchers used five elements to confuse the material. That way, the material couldn’t flex into automatic memory and form its normal, crystal structure. This is unusual, considering all metals have crystalline structures. Window panes are amorphous and aren’t crystalline in structure.

Like glass, the fabricated material was not crystalline. “We learned to make metals in this amorphous state,” Ritchie said. “There are stronger materials and there may be tougher materials, we know of no other material with the combination [we've made]. Strength and toughness are mutually exclusive, and we’ve achieved it in a material that you wouldn’t expect - in glass. Glass is usually brittle,” Ritchie said. The group from Cal Tech made the material from five or more elements. They melted it and it cooled quickly. The material wasn’t able to crystallize, so it formed an amorphous material. The Cal Tech team cut the material into little rods and sent them to Ritchie’s team at Berkeley to basically destroy the metallic glass. The experiments didn’t involve throwing the metallic glass against the floor though. Instead, Ritchie ran the metallic glass through mechanical testing machines. The machines could barely make the material crack. In the future, the new material could be used in nuclear pressure vessels because it has the same toughness as the material used today. A better material could help nuclear reactors avoid a catastrophic failure.

Next Princess Cruises ship to have glass-bottomed 'SeaWalk' -  Princess Cruises today announced its next ship will be called the Royal Princess -- a name the line has used twice before -- and revealed several new-to-the-industry features that will be aboard the vessel. Located on the starboard side of the 3,600-passenger vessel, the "SeaWalk," as Princess is calling the new feature, will offer dramatic views of the ocean 128 feet below. The Royal Princess also will have another cantilevered feature on the port side of the ship, the SeaView bar, which will have space for 20 people, Buckelew says.

Serious Materials Launches Window Retrofit System: Serious Materials announced the commercial launch of its glazing retrofit system that was used to update the windows of the Empire State Building for energy efficiency. iWindow is a retrofit glass system that doesn't replace the existing glass or alter the exterior appearance of the building. Serious Materials says the iWindow panel can be installed on the inside of the existing glass in as little as 20 minutes. At approximately $20 per square foot total installed cost, iWindow is 50% to 75% less costly to install compared to a typical aluminum replacement system which can dramatically impact the viability of such retrofit scenarios. Energy efficiency improvements can also return higher rents, secure greater occupancy, and generate higher resale value.

Each iWindow incorporates the SeriousGlass system. SeriousGlass units include spectrally-selective suspended film systems that create multiple air chambers, accomplishing high thermal performance of triple pane glass without the additional weight and structural concerns. Beyond super-insulating performance, SeriousGlass enables high light transmission, 99.5+% UV blockage, and reduced fading and damage to interior furnishings. iWindow is designed for any curtain wall or window wall commercial retrofit application and is ideally suited for historic and landmark projects as it allows preservation of the existing façade.

Spray-On Solar Glass Gets A Bit Bigger: We’ve seen New Energy Technologies announce a series of advances in its attempt to turn windows into solar panels, and now the company says it has a working, 1-square-foot see-through glass prototype that can generate electricity. An earlier version of this solar window was just 4 inches by 4 inches, and New Energy says the boost in size takes it a big step closer to bringing a product to market. “We continue to pursue an aggressive product development program, working to improve, among other things, solar cell efficiency, power output, durability, manufacturability and further scale-up,” says company president and CEO John Conklin.

New Energy’s process involves “spraying” electricity-generating, nano-sized solar cells directly onto glass, “eliminating expensive and often cumbersome or high-vacuum production methods typically used by current solar manufacturers,” it says. The coatings are less than 1/10th the thickness of thin films, New Energy says, taking advantage of what it calls “the world’s smallest functional solar cells.” The company claims that by generating electricity from both natural and artificial light sources, its cells “outperform today’s commercial solar and thin-film technologies by as much as tenfold.”

A manufacturer of bulletproof glass and solar panels has been sold after it went into administration in the wake of cashflow and accounting woes. Romag Holdings, which is based in County Durham and supplies security glass to banks, embassies and police stations, was sold to Ask The Genie, a subsidiary of property group Gentoo. The company identified cashflow problems and suspended its shares after an investigation into a £4 million payment ex-chairman John Kennair made to one of its divisions without informing the board. When Mr Kennair stepped down as chairman in February, Romag said it was experiencing significant demand for its products, particularly solar panels, and had a strong forward order book. But it was unable to secure further funding from its bank - Lloyds - and its trade and assets, including 160 staff, have been transferred to Ask The Genie. Romag supplies transparent material - glass and plastic - to security, renewable energy, architectural and specialist transport markets. It is one of only two solar panel manufacturers in the UK.

The John Hancock Tower is winner of the prestigious Twenty-Five Year Award. That honor is given to just one American work of architecture each year, a building that’s been around for at least a quarter century and proved its merit over time. And the Cambridge Public Library is winner of the Harleston Parker Medal. The Parker has been awarded annually since 1921 to “the most beautiful piece of architecture, building, monument or structure’’ in Greater Boston. The Twenty-Five Year is bestowed by the national American Institute of Architects. The Parker winner is chosen by the local Boston Society of Architects. The Hancock stands in Copley Square, and the library is at 449 Broadway in Mid-Cambridge. Some of the Hancock’s 10,344 glass window panels began cracking or falling out, especially in windstorms. All were removed, to be replaced for some months by sheets of black-painted plywood.

“The Cambridge Public Library is a magnificent twenty-first century building that seamlessly incorporates the original 1888 landmark. The historic stone building and the new glass building stand side by side as a study in contrast, although they are united by materials and colors.’’ The library is at its best in the evening. The new building glows like an enormous lantern. You can see the indoor activity through the transparent façade. There are two skins of glass, with a wide air space between. It’s a green technology, imported from Germany, that maintains thermal comfort, saves energy, and doesn’t interrupt the view.

What Is Gorilla Glass? The allure of Gorilla Glass is no mystery to anyone with a Droid, an iPhone 4, a Galaxy tab or a Dell Adamo. But for everyone else wondering about all the new Gorilla Glass gear at CES, here’s the rundown. Gorilla Glass is, well, glass…You’ll find it in screens, mostly. This includes smartphone screens, tablet screens, laptop screens, and as of this week, touch-table screens and TV screens.…that’s pretty tough to break or scratch… Drop it, smack it, or shoot it with an air rifle, and chances are you won’t break, or even scratch, a piece of Gorilla Glass. Our own Brian Barrett went hands-on with a panel some time ago and came away impressed:

Gorilla Glass is an unscratchable, unshatterable material used as a protective window for your mobile phone, PMP or laptop display. It’s in 65 products already, and I can assure you that the very nice man from Corning is not faking it. Your intrepid reporter also gave this several tries with all his blogger strength and couldn’t make a dent. I was, however, able to scratch the heck out of some polycarbonate. OK, so it’s not literally indestructible, and it’s still quite possible to shatter your iPhone’s screen. But it’s harder than it used to be.

…because it’s treated differently than most other gadget glass.

Speaking to SmartPlanet, Gorilla Glass engineer Dr Donnell Walton explains: When you chemically temper a glass, you immerse it in a salt bath and you stuff larger ions in all the surfaces and put them all under compression. What’s unique about Gorilla Glass is that because of its inherent composition, it can allow those larger ions to penetrate the surface more deeply to increase the compression tolerance and tolerate deeper scratches. The compression pushes a flaw back. It’s harder to break from a deeper scratch. It’s also a bit more expensive than the glass normally used for gadget screens, though given its rapid adoption – it’s used in some 300+ devices at this point – its value as a selling point and feature clearly outweighs its monetary cost.

Leybold Optics will install what it says is the world's largest thin-film coating system for glass production at SAGE Electrochromic's new high-volume manufacturing facility in Faribault, MN. The record-breaking coating line will be more than 150 meters long, contain more than 200 turbomolecular pumps, and feature a new twin sputter deposition system that operates at high substrate temperatures, among other technological breakthroughs.

SAGE will use the system for high-volume production of SageGlass, the world's most energy-efficient window glass. SageGlass is an electronically tintable "dynamic" glass for use in building windows and skylights. The glass can be switched from clear to darkly tinted at the touch of a button, or programmed to respond to changing sunlight and heat conditions. This revolutionary technology significantly reduces energy consumption and associated costs. The production start is planned for late 2012.

Leybold Optics says is proud to be selected for this pioneering project and says the company proves to be the first mover when it comes to the conversion of new technology into industrial production equipment. Leybold Optics says its unique combination of know-how in the fields of display, photovoltaic, and architectural glass coating systems provides Leybold Optics with the ideal skill for this reference installation.

Peter Kuitenbrouwer - Ryerson’s glass atrocity: Ryerson University held a news conference at 10:30 to display details of its new Student Learning Centre, corner of Gould and Yonge streets, but since they have already leaked the details to another newspaper, I feel free to express my view: the “thing” they are proposing to build, for a cool $112-million, looks shockingly suburban and derivative. Rather than try to work with the historic character of Yonge Street and fit into the province’s most storied shopping thoroughfare, Snohetta of Norway and Zeidler of Toronto propose to slam an irregular, iceberg-esque monolith of glass and concrete where Sam the Record Man once stood. Back a few years ago when Ryerson bought Sam’s, Sheldon Levy, the president of Ryerson, promised in a news release that, “we are working closely with the City of Toronto to ensure that the legacy of Sam the Record Man is honoured.” They have not done so.

Researchers develop golden window electrodes for organic solar cells: Researchers at the University of Warwick have developed a gold plated window as the transparent electrode for organic solar cells ("Ultrathin Transparent Au Electrodes for Organic Photovoltaics Fabricated Using a Mixed Mono-Molecular Nucleation Layer"). Contrary to what one might expect, these electrodes have the potential to be relatively cheap since the thickness of gold used is only 8 billionths of a metre. This ultra-low thickness means that even at the current high gold price the cost of the gold needed to fabricate one square metre of this electrode is only around £4.5. It can also be readily recouped from the organic solar cell at the end of its life and since gold is already widely used to form reliable interconnects it is no stranger to the electronics industry.

Organic solar cells have long relied on Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) coated glass as the transparent electrode, although this is largely due to the absence of a suitable alternative. ITO is a complex, unstable material with a high surface roughness and tendency to crack upon bending if supported on a plastic substrate. If that wasn't bad enough one of its key components, indium, is in short supply making it relatively expensive to use.

An ultra-thin film of air-stable metal like gold would offer a viable alternative to ITO, but until now it has not proved possible to deposit a film thin enough to be transparent without being too fragile and electrically resistive to be useful. Now research led by Dr Ross Hatton and Professor Tim Jones in the University of Warwick 's department of Chemistry has developed a rapid method for the preparation of robust, ultra-thin gold films on glass. Importantly this method can be scaled up for large area applications like solar cells and the resulting electrodes are chemically very well-defined.

Dr Hatton says "This new method of creating gold based transparent electrodes is potentially widely applicable for a variety of large area applications, particularly where stable, chemically well-defined, ultra-smooth platform electrodes are required, such as in organic optoelectronics and the emerging fields of nanoelectronics and nanophotonics" The paper documents the team's success in creating this simple, practical and effective method of depositing the films onto glass, and also reports how the optical properties can be fine tuned by perforating the film with tiny circular holes using something as simple as polystyrene balls. The University of Warwick research team has also had some early success in depositing ultra-thin gold films directly on plastic substrates, an important step towards realising the holy grail of truly flexible solar cells. This innovation is set to be exploited by Molecular Solar Ltd, a Warwick spinout company dedicated to commercialising the discoveries of its academic founders in the area of organic solar cells.

Investment in US clean technology highest since 2008: Rising oil prices and increasing investor confidence have encouraged US clean technology market, says report by Cleantech Group. Global investment in US clean technology has reached its highest level since 2008, while investment in UK companies has dropped sharply, quarterly figures show. Increasing investor confidence and rising oil prices have helped investment in North American companies more than double compared with the previous quarter, according to a report by Cleantech Group, an international firm that works to accelerate the development and market adoption of clean technologies.

Sheera Haji, CEO of Cleantech Group, said: "I absolutely think rising oil prices have had some important impacts. We've seen decent uptake in transportation." He added: "We're seeing a good rebound as public markets are doing well, companies are doing well, and investors are raising funds and investing them. We're also seeing a real skew towards bigger deals." While North America flourishes, investment in companies in Europe and Israel dropped by 60% compared with the previous quarter. Investment in British companies has plummeted to its lowest level since 2003, with only nine deals secured all year.

Haji described the period as a "very weak" quarter for the UK. He said: "I have not been following the UK closely, but there's been some uncertainty around what's happening in the UK – around the economic recovery and growth – and that has impacted on the vibrancy of the start-up economy." The news comes a week after a report from the US Pew Environment Group showed that Britain's private investments in green energy projects fell by 70% last year, causing it to fall from third to 13th place in the league of countries developing clean technology.

Haji said Japan's nuclear crisis could have a "pretty significant impact" on the next set of quarterly figures, and that it may boost investment in clean technology and coal. He added: "We think it's a setback for the building of new reactors."