Window Cleaners Get Eaten

Mosquito - from the Spanish or Portuguese word for little fly. Prior to and during blood feeding, they inject saliva into the bodies of their source(s) of blood. This saliva serves as an anticoagulant: without it, the female mosquito's proboscis would quickly become clogged with blood clots.

Mosquitoes are back, and they're breeding like crazy: Officials say population is up fivefold - While most people haven't even had their first swim or touch of sunburn yet, another one of the rites of summer - that first mosquito bite - may be happening sooner and be followed by more like it more than ever this year. "We have very, very high numbers in our traps," Theodore Andreadis, chief medical entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, said this week.

This week marks the start of the experiment station's annual mosquito testing program. More than 5,000 mosquitoes were collected in 29 traps set around the state, including at sites in Stonington and Voluntown, Andreadis said. That compares to last year's first-day total of 1,100 mosquitoes. "We collected almost as many in a day as we normally get in a week," he said. "These were all human biters in our traps." In about a week, he said, the lab will have the results of tests for whether any of the trapped mosquitoes are carrying West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis. Mosquitoes can also carry Jamestown Canyon virus, which produces flu-like symptoms. The state has no official testing program for this virus, Andreadis said, but testing in previous years has found it was widely distributed in the state's mosquito population.

What accounts for the population explosion? Andreadis said rainy weather and warm temperatures at just the right time this spring created the perfect conditions for a prolific breeding season. With so many mosquitoes out there looking for a free lunch on the next available limb, advice about preventing bites may be more important than ever. So, too, is knowing who's most susceptible. According to the Mayo Clinic, mosquitoes choose their victims according to scent, exhaled carbon dioxide and the chemicals in a person's sweat. Though no one understands why, mosquitoes are more likely to bite men, people with "O" blood type and those who are overweight.

Don't be dismissive, Andreadis said, next time someone claims "mosquitoes love me." There is something to the notion that some people are more likely to get bitten than others, he said. "It may be the people who are perspiring more, or emitting more CO2, or emitting more of the chemicals that attract them," he said. He advises choosing light-colored, loose-fitting clothing over dark colors that absorb heat and can attract mosquitoes. Better still, wear long sleeves, long pants and socks outdoors whenever possible. Use of insect repellent containing DEET is also recommended, as is taking extra precautions or staying indoors when mosquitoes are most active - in the evening and early morning.

Cleaning gutters and draining any standing water around your home will also deprive mosquitoes of places to breed, and repairing holes in window screens will keep them from getting indoors. "Clearly, the results from our traps is an indication that there are a lot of mosquitoes out there, and we expect this will continue," Andreadis said.

Itching: 

There are several commercially available anti-itch medications, including those taken orally, such as Benadryl, or topically applied antihistamines and, for more severe cases, corticosteroids such as hydrocortisone and triamcinolone. Many effective home remedies exist, including calamine lotion and vinegar. A paste of meat tenderizer containing papain and water breaks down the proteins in the mosquito saliva. By using a brush to scratch the area surrounding the bite and running hot water (around 49 °C) over it can alleviate itching for several hours by reducing histamine-induced skin blood flow. Plain household sudsy ammonia is also a good treatment, ammonia being the main ingredient in Tender's AfterBite remedy, especially as a first wash option if applied immediate after multibite exposure. An even simpler, yet effective remedy can be achieved by applying a piece of adhesive tape over the affected area, or by sucking it with a drinking straw; creating enough counter tension on the surface of the skin to alleviate the itch. 

Avoid: 

Avoid dark, bright coloured clothing. Dark bright colours seem to attract insects, so it is best to dress your baby in light coloured clothing that does not leave too much exposed skin. Choose long sleeved tops, fitted garments like pants and jumpers instead of shorts and sleeveless tops. Avoid strong fragrances. Do not use lotions, soap, oils or floral scented perfumes or room fresheners as these may attract insects. Never leave uncovered food anywhere in your home, especially in your baby's room.

Recommended:

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Ultrathon contains 33% DEET in a controlled-release polymer. Ultrathon's Time Release Protection gives the user a balanced mix between concentration of DEET and long lasting protection. Our unique technology provides longer lasting protection with less DEET. It is moisture resistant & lasts through splashes, perspiration, and rain. Ultrathon™ Insect Repellent was initially developed by 3M for the US Military to provide up to 12 hours of protection for their troops. It is still used today.

Window Washing Magician Makes Jewelry Disappear

Mark Tonelli, of the Magic Window Washing Co., a suspect in more thefts: A Washington Township man charged in a theft spree across three towns, including Haddonfield, is a suspect in two more heists here.

A woman who believes she may have been a victim of Mark Tonelli, of the Magic Window Washing Co., filed a complaint this month after reading a report about him on Haddonfield Patch, police said.

The woman, a resident in the 600 block of Edge Park Drive, said $2,100 in jewelry was missing from her home after Tonelli washed windows there on Nov. 19.  She filed a police report on March 7. The woman said the day after Tonelli was at her home, she noticed a pair of diamond earrings, a pendant and a gold chain were missing.  She said she didn’t immediately report Tonelli because she didn’t want to falsely accuse him.  She said she left Tonelli alone for a short time in her home that day.

The next day, on March 8, a resident in the 200 block of Summit Avenue reported a pair of gold earrings, with pearl and ruby inset, a pearl bracelet and an emerald and gold necklace and a ruby and gold necklace were missing from her home after Tonelli cleaned her windows on Oct. 19.  The report did not say why she decided to come forward now.

Tonelli, 48, of 109 Fomalhaut Ave. in the Sewell section of Washington Township, was arrested and charged last month with the theft of nearly $4,500 in jewelry from a Haddonfield residence in the unit block of Wedgewood Lane in November. He was linked to the stolen goods from a pawn shop receipt that included his driver’s license and photo ID.

Tonelli was listed in police reports as the owner of  Magic Window Cleaning Co.  The charges allege he stole jewelry from the Wedgewood Lane home on Nov. 25 while working there. The resident reported a gold bracelet, a diamond tennis bracelet and a diamond, heart-shaped pendant on a gold chain missing after Tonelli and two assistants cleaned the windows at her home.

Borough police said Tonelli’s arrest was the result of a joint investigation between Haddonfield, Harrison and Medford. He was charged with similar burglaries in all three towns.  Tonelli was remanded to Haddonfield municipal court, where a $7,500 full, cash bail was set and then sent to Camden County jail. It was not immediately reported if he was still there or when new charges might be filed.

Window washer steals from two more in borough: Two more theft victims of a window washing company out of Sewell filed reports with the Haddonfield Police Department, claiming that the owner of the company stole jewelry from their homes while washing windows. The owner of the company was charged with theft in late February after a Wedgewood Lane resident reported that after the suspect’s window washing service cleaned her windows, she noticed that she was missed $4,500 worth of jewelry.
Officers had a pawnshop receipt that matched the victim’s jewelry and the suspect’s photo identification. Harrison Township police officers arrested the suspect at his home, several warrants had been placed for his arrest out of Haddonfield and Harrison Township. On March 7, a S. Edge Park Drive resident reported to police at 4 p.m. that the suspect’s company was washing her windows on Nov. 19. After the work was finished she noticed that one pair of diamond earring, a diamond pendant, and a gold omega chain had been stolen from her home. She reported that the last time she saw the items was in August. The items were valued at a total of $2,100.
On March 8, a W. Summit resident reported to police and said the window washing company was at her home on Oct. 19. S She said that after the work was completed she noticed that two pairs of gold earrings, a pearl bracelet, an emerald and gold necklace, and a ruby and gold necklace were stolen. The value of the items was not reported.

Guess who after all these years? December 03, 1993 - A window washer who was trusted to roam unsupervised through two houses has been accused by police of cleaning out his customers, too. Mark L. Tonelli, 31, of the first block of Sunset Drive, Gloucester Township, has been charged with two counts of theft. Authorities said yesterday that Tonelli was accused of stealing a total of $18,800 in jewelry last month from two homes near the Ramblewood Country Club. They also said he worked for the Magic Window Cleaning Co.

"When you think about it, it's a perfect cover," said Saunder Weinstein, the director of public safety in Mount Laurel. Township police said authorities in another county had discovered that some of the jewelry had been sold to a local store. That, in turn, led to the suspect, they said. Tonelli was arrested while cleaning windows at a house in Cherry Hill on Wednesday and released after having posted 10 percent of $5,000 bail. Records show that Mark Tonelli and Albert Tonelli registered Magic Window Cleaning in 1990. The Tonellis are brothers, said a woman who identified herself as their mother in a telephone interview yesterday.

She and a man whom she identified as Albert both denied that Mark was a co- owner of the business and called him only an employee. Mark Tonelli was not available for comment. The police investigation started Nov. 4 after jewelry valued at $4,800 was reported stolen from a home in the 300 block of Saint Clair Court. A block away, in the 300 block of Saint David Drive, another home reported the loss of $14,000 worth of jewelry Nov. 20. The residents of both homes had used Magic Window Cleaning.

Weinstein said Mark Tonelli was arrested after someone at a jewelry store outside Burlington County identified him as the man who sold the store part of the missing jewelry, including a $3,000 diamond ring missing from the Saint David Drive home. Weinstein would not reveal where the store was, but he said police there came upon the jewelry while investigating other jewelry thefts. At the same jewelry store, they also found the entire booty of rings and other jewelry missing from the Saint Clair Court home. Some of the remaining jewelry "was disposed of in Philadelphia, probably on the street," Weinstein said.

He said the thief had in some cases removed precious stones from their settings so that he could sell them more easily. Weinstein said that catching the suspect resulted from "the luck that Tonelli took it to a store instead of passing it off on the streets of Philadelphia, which frequently happens." Weinstein told residents to "at minimum . . . seek references" when hiring help.

Four Window Cleaning Stories For Saturday

Ghost Bikes: The story begins two years ago with a Melbourne cycle fanatic called John Gould. He had heard about the new phenomenon of ghost bikes - old bicycles stripped and sprayed white then put at the site of a cyclist's death as a roadside memorial. They were spreading through American and European cities and mapped, like all good viral movements, online. He found most were installed by cycle activists as a political statement without asking permission of the grieving family or the local road authorities. It was Sunday the 13th. Gould was riding with his best mate Russell Myers in a group of 20. They were coming fast down a popular bike route on Two Bays Road in Mount Eliza. Myers, 44, hit gravel and slid into an oncoming truck. "It was plain right away he was dead,'' says Gould. ''But it was a pure accident."
Russell Myers' ashes had already been spread on Black Rock beach by his partner Jo, who asked that her surname not be used. They were due to be married. He had a window-cleaning business but had just finished a carpentry apprenticeship, as a 44-year-old, when he died. As part of her mourning, she began to visit the ghost bike on the 13th of every month. She has other ways of remembering him - and other places she goes - but sees the bike as ''symbolic''. ''He would not have wanted people to go to a cemetery,'' she says. ''This has become his burial site.'' But, she says, it is also a warning to bike riders and drivers about road safety with ''the added reality factor that, yes, there was a life lost''. She hopes it will be a ''central place where all who knew Russ can go to pay their respects''. Pictured - Jo and her son Ryan at the ghost bike site on Mount Eliza Road for Russell Myers.

Steven flags up World Cup fever: Flags of St George are fluttering proudly from hundreds of homes as World Cup fever grips the town. But football mad Steven Morrow has taken things one step further...by turning his home into an England supporter’s shrine. The 39-year-old, who featured in the Star five years ago when he underwent a kidney transplant, took more than two hours to decorate his semi-detached house on Green Leach Lane, Haresfinch. He even got the window cleaner to give him a lift assembling the red and white tribute. The father-of-one, a former St Helens Town footballer, admitted he has been pushing his luck with wife Lynne, 37, because of the sheer size of the decorations. Lynne, who hails from Newcastle, wasn’t pleased when she came home to find she couldn’t even see out of the windows due to the enormous flag.



By day, Greg Trine is an unassuming, hardworking window cleaner, patrolling buildings in and around Ventura in beat-up jeans and work boots, using a Squeegee and soapy water to stamp out crime errr grime. But when a call comes in from a local elementary school looking for a guest speaker, Trine pulls on a clean shirt, hops into his silver Toyota Tacoma and races to the rescue. No, kids don’t care that he’s a window washer. They care that he’s the creator and author of “Melvin Beederman, Superhero,” a popular children’s book series about a young, pretzel-munching, root beer-quaffing crime fighter with a cape and a cool sidekick named Candace. The eighth book in the series, “Invasion from Planet Dork,” comes out Tuesday via New York’s Henry Holt and Co. Greg Trine, a Ventura window washer who moonlights as a children's book author, has written five "Melvin Beederman: Superhero" books. The fifth and final one, second from left, is due out Tuesday.
“Greg is like a superhero with a secret identity to me,” said artist Rhode Montijo, who has illustrated the series since its debut in May 2006. “He’s mild-mannered in person, very soft-spoken and humble, but when he gets in front of the kids at school visits, it’s almost like his alter ego comes out and he’s busting the students up laughing. He’s got everything from evil-laugh contests he does with the kids to live student re-enactments from a chapter in the book.” Trine, who started Buff Brothers Window Cleaning in 1984 with a college buddy who left the business after a year, said he strives to keep his books simple, fast-paced and fun. “In general, stories that have a moral behind them or as the motive for telling them make for bad writing,” Trine said. “There’s plenty to learn from a struggling superhero who is at his best when thinking of others, but that isn’t something I try to force.”



BOK Center gets glass wall cleaned: Arena's iconic glass wall is getting a much-needed cleaning - It turns out that you can polish a jewel with a dab of dishwashing soap. At least that's what crews from Budget Glass Service are using, along with water and ammonia, to clean the iconic glass wall at the BOK Center. It's the first cleaning of the wall since just before the downtown arena opened in September 2008. "When you go upstairs and you look into the glass and you see dirt, it's time," said Willie Williams, senior operations manager for the BOK Center.

The six-member cleaning crew began work Tuesday and is expected to take a month to finish the job. Williams said window cleaners started at the grand lobby along Denver Avenue and are working their way west around the outside of the building. When that's done, they'll do the inside of the windows. "We just wanted them to start here first so that way it gives the community a good appearance and lets people know we are maintaining the facility for them," Williams said.
Maintaining the BOK Center has been a challenge because it is so big, he said. "This is a beast," he said. It's also a beauty, of course, in great part because of the iconic wall.

The signature feature of the arena — designed by famed architect Cesar Pelli — includes 1,600 panels that, when combined, stretch 600 feet in length and reach 103 feet from the ground. Trent Ray (pictured) is one of the window cleaners using a pulley system to methodically work his way from the top of the wall to the bottom, one window at a time. On Thursday, Ray sat down in his "chair" — a wooden plank covered with carpet — attached to a pulley and dipped a handleless, soft-bristled broom into an orange bucket full of water, Dawn dishwashing soap and ammonia. "It gets it pretty clean," he said. There is no going up the glass wall — once on the ground, crew members take the elevator back up to the top of the building. "We usually try to do five drops a day per man," Ray said.

The 36-year-old Tulsan has been cleaning windows for only eight months. The BOK Center is the tallest structure he's ever worked on. Yet he seemed unfazed. "You're tied back to the building one or two times," he said, "so if your first rope goes, you have your safety line." Budget Glass Service is being paid $35,000 to clean the glass wall, Williams said. Last year, the company was hired to remove markings that had developed on the arena's stainless steel panels. The markings — located primarily on the west, east and north sides of the building — formed when dust and other pollutants settled on silicone caulking that was bleeding from the windows. John Bolton, the BOK Center's general manager, said testing on a new sealant that would be placed over the existing sealant is under way. "We think it's made a huge difference," he said, but he cautioned that the testing process isn't finished.

America's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

Why Amish businesses don't fail: By Geoff Williams. Want to find America's most successful entrepreneurs? Skip Silicon Valley and Manhattan; head to the rural Amish enclaves.

Amish businesses have an eye-popping 95% success rate at staying open at least five years, according to author Erik Wesner's new book, Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive. It's a statistic he backs up with a variety of academic surveys, drawing particularly on a 2009 report by Elizabethtown College sociology professor Donald Kraybill. Studying several Amish settlements, Kraybill found failure rates ranging from 2.6% and 4.2%; interviews with loan officers, accountants and industry professions in other Amish regions yielded additional anecdotal evidence of closure rates significantly south of 10%. Compare that to the average five-year survival rate for new businesses across the United States, which hovers just under 50%. So what's the secret?

Wesner, who worked in business management and sales before immersing himself in all things Amish, thinks it lies in the culture, which emphasizes "qualities like hard work and cooperation." Networking through Facebook doesn't exactly have the same community-building pull as teaming up with neighbors to build a barn, and few Americans these days can point to a childhood where they awoke regularly at dawn to milk the cows. Another key advantage is that Amish business owners tend to stick with what they know. "Everything about the Amish says things like 'rustic,' 'traditional,' 'handmade,' so they tend to play to those strengths," Wesner says. "Would consumers trust an Amish cell-phone dealer or an Amish computer repair guy to know what he's doing? It'd be a pretty big mental and marketing hurdle to get over." If you ask an Amish entrepreneur why they're successful, don't expect a lot of soul-searching or reflection on what they do right. A group known for being unfailingly polite and modest, the Amish will likely pin the praise on anyone else but themselves.

Certainly, Myron Miller, an Amish businessman in Millersburg, Ohio, near Akron, would be a good role model for other entrepreneurs, although he would never tell you that. "I run my business according to God's way and plan," Miller says. The Almighty has been a good business coach for Miller, a 40-year-old father of six. He started his company 15 years ago and now has two separate entities: Four Corners Furniture, a retail furniture-making operation open to the public, and Miller Bedroom Wholesale, which sells directly to distributors. Miller employs 12 full-time workers and two part-timers. Not bad for someone with an eighth grade education, which is where the Amish routinely end their formal schooling. Miller thought about starting a farm when he was just beginning his career, but farmland was scarce and expensive. "They were all being used," he says. "So my thing is, I saw all the tourism coming in - we're blessed to be the number one-tourism attraction in Ohio - and so I thought I'd try to go into that, selling furniture to the tourists. Then I realized that was just the tip of the iceberg. I thought I'd spread my wings and market the furniture elsewhere."

Miller now works with 75 dealers, who sell his wares across the country. He banded together with other Amish owners to create a hardwood furniture guild, which helps market their products -- an important publicity channel since Miller's businesses have no website. He uses terms like "out of the box," routinely reads business books (especially those with a religious business bent), and has attended seminars by motivational and performance training guru Zig Ziglar. Even if most people's idea of an Amish businessman is someone selling homemade cheese transported by horse and buggy, Miller isn't an anomaly, according to Kraybill, who has become one of the nation's leading academic experts on the Amish. He estimates that there are at least 9,000 Amish business owners across the U.S, which he divides into two groups: "caretakers" and "entrepreneurs."

"Caretakers generally have smaller, at-home or near-home businesses with five or fewer employees, and they don't want to grow, but simply sustain income for themselves and a small number of employees," Kraybill says. "The entrepreneurs are a different breed. They have larger businesses and somewhat want to grow, and they are more aggressive in marketing, trying new ideas, and are willing to take risks." Risks like buying a failing business and trying to turn it around. Two years ago, in Glen Rock, Penn., Ben Riehl purchased a flagging food stand at Markets at Shrewsbury, a gathering spot for Amish vendors. He turned to entrepreneurship as a way out of what he calls "somewhat of a dead-end job," working in the metalworking and machine shop at a plastics company.

Riehl renamed the shop the Country Style Deli and enlisted his wife, Mary, and their two sons to help him work the stand, which sells local and imported cheeses, homemade breads, and subs and sandwiches. They also employ four other people part-time. But Riehl launched just as the Great Recession went into full swing. Customers that once spent $25 on a visit to the stand cut their purchases in half. Country Style Deli is managing to turn a small profit, Riehl says, but it's not enough yet to allow him to leave his full-time job. But he sounds like any other entrepreneur with a plan and dream when he talks about his startup. "We work hard to give customers quality product at a reasonable price, and we strive to give courteous and competent service," says Riehl. "We want the customers to have an experience that is different than pulling things out of a self-serve case and using the self checkout. We try to make it interactive and personal."

Clinging to values: Amish business owners face more restrictions than your typical entrepreneur.
Wesner says that while the Amish have made allowances and will, for instance, make products that they don't use themselves -- like designer-label leather clothing or high-priced toys -- they won't touch any business "that may be seen as morally questionable." Don't hold your breath waiting for an Amish-owned casino, liquor store or debt collection service. But modern touches are creeping into the business scene. Some Amish retailers use electricity in their shops, more as a nod to customers who expect air-conditioning and credit-card machines. They're often fueled with alternative energy sources, like solar and wind power.

In his field research, Wesner found some Amish entrepreneurs conducting business using cell phones, fax machines and even e-mail. It's still a sensitive topic - not because the Amish believe it's unethical to use these devices, but because they can have a subtle, adverse impact on the entrepreneur. Miller struggles with it himself, in ways that will sound familiar to any CrackBerry addict battling for a word-life balance. "The smarter you get, and the more technology you use for your business, the more impact it has on families," he says. "For instance, there was a time the farmer would be in the parlor milking cows, and everyone was there, singing songs, and it was work, but it was also family time. Now, an Amish farmer is likely to be milking forty cows, and the children are at school. That's practical living, and you've got to keep up. But at the same time, it takes away from that balance, and you have to ask yourself, 'How far do you let technology affect your business?'"

Miller answers his own question in the next breath: "I guess you just have to stay true to your convictions and draw your own lines and not overdo it where you lose the values and your way of life."

A Hundred Thousand Views - Window Cleaners Worldwide - Thanks

Thanks to everyone who has visited the blog. On Sunday it surpassed the hundred thousand view mark, which has taken two years to achieve even though the period from Feb 2008 - Jan 2009 had only reached 25, 000 views. Thanks for all the encouragement from window cleaners worldwide & sponsors past & present. Anyway, not to bore you, this is just a big thank you to the 1500 window cleaners a week that visit the blog & I promise to get that newsletter out soon! Thanks again, Cheers, Karl.

Are You A Green-Wash Window Cleaner?

What does green' mean? By Julie DearDorff/Chicago Tribune

These days, going green seemingly is a breeze: Pesticides, SUVs, laptops, bottled water, coal, airlines, cruise ships and dry cleaners all promise that they're "friendly," "gentle" and "kind to the planet." Unfortunately, there probably is no such thing as an "eco-friendly" product since all use resources to create some amount of waste. Environmentalists argue ad infinitum about what "green" really means. And though the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, is supposed to crack down on fraudulent advertising, critics say the agency hasn't kept pace with the burgeoning number of misleading environmental claims.

The result is that consumers are often flooded by greenwash, the practice of disingenuously spinning a product, service or policy as greener than it actually is. Think whitewashing with an eco-brush. One environmental marketing firm, TerraChoice, found some form of greenwashing in 98 percent of the more than 2,219 products with environmental claims that it surveyed. But since no one really knows what "green" means - and marketers have relatively outdated FTC guidelines - consumers are left to sort out which green companies are the real deal.

"The good news is that consumers are taking environmental performance into account when making buying decisions," said Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center, which is starting to look at which wireless service providers might be truly green. "But if people pay good green dollars to get green performance, the environmental results should justify the investment." Even if you haven't heard the term "greenwashing" which originally referred to hotels making inconsequential environmental changes, you've likely seen it.

A well-known example is the bottled water company that uses a picture of Mother Nature to advertise its product. Greenwashing could be a "biodegradable" label on a product that ends up in a landfill, where it won't decompose. At its worst, greenwashing is outright fraud: Last February the FTC warned 78 retailers, including Wal-mart, Target and Kmart, to stop labeling and advertising rayon textile products as "bamboo" which is considered an environmentally friendly fiber. Fearing that "green" will end up as meaningless as "natural," marketers, environmentalists and business alliances are sponsoring anti-greenwashing conferences across the nation. At the University of Oregon, journalism professors have helped create a tool called "The Greenwashing Index," an initiative designed to draw attention to issues with environmental messages.

The FTC, meanwhile, is expected to release revised environmental marketing guidelines, called The Green Guides, later this year, which some say hope will signal the start of a greenwashing crackdown. When the guides were last updated in 1998, words such as "sustainable" and "carbon neutral" were rarely used. "Greenwashing is confusing to consumers; it takes away business from reputable companies and, most of all, it delays change," said Marilyn Jones, the owner of Consolidated Printing Co. in Chicago, a printing company that uses natural alternatives to conventional printing chemicals. "Why would a dry cleaner or printer become green if they can lie about doing it?"

Though greenwashing is prevalent in all industries, from energy to travel, it's especially controversial in the dry cleaning world, where companies are scrambling to find alternatives to the hazardous chemical percholoroethylene, or perc, which is classified as a "likely" human carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency. A Chicago-area discount dry cleaning chain, Dry Clean Direct, which uses the hydrocarbon technology, proclaims "We're the Green Cleaners!" The company recycles hangers, uses biodegradable plastic bags and calls its petroleum-based solvent - "environmentally friendly." "Save Money, Save the Planet," the company urges.

But Frankel worries that companies like Dry Clean Direct are clouding the issue and making it hard for consumers to figure out what green cleaning really is. "If a chemical company is recycling paper, are they green?" Frankel asked. "The core process of what you do needs to be sustainable, not the peripheral things you do to market yourself as green." Dry Clean Direct CEO Yale Gordon has a different perspective. "It's different views on green," he said. "Some folks say you're only green if you're wet cleaning. But you need to look at the entire business rather than an isolated component."

These differing philosophies show that "green is a continuum" said Scot Case, vice president of TerraChoice. "Consumers need to understand there is no finish line. Recycling coat hangers is a nice step, but when you focus the consumer's attention on or two minor improvements you hide a bunch of the environmental hazards."Case calls this the "sin of the hidden tradeoff' because it often works to distract consumers from the larger environmental issues.

"Greenwashing is often committed by well-intentioned people asking the wrong questions," said Case, taking a break from meetings during the Green Products Round Table in Boca Raton, Fla. a conference held to address greenwashing. "They're exaggerating the environmental benefits or perhaps not asking themselves the right questions about how to improve the environmental service." Consumers, who generally find energy and car companies as the worst greenwashers, can protect themselves by asking their own questions, said Kim Sheehan, a journalism professor at the University of Oregon and co-creator of the Greenwashing Index. "If a company uses green colors, trees, leaves, any type of nature symbol, dig a little deeper to see if they can back up their 'eco-friendliness,'" Sheehan said.

HOW TO AVOID GREENWASHING:

Watch for the sneaky six. The following six words: eco, earth, green, friendly, gentle or kind. They can be mixed and matched to create a phrase that sounds green but means nothing, said Kim Sheehan, co-creator of the EnviroMedia Greenwashing Index. Look for third-party certifying seals. Since there are more than 350 different eco-seals, you have to look carefully. EcoLogo, Green Seal, Energy Star and Watersense are all considered trustworthy. Also look for the Forest Stewardship Council, the FTC, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

Use Google. Though far from scientific, try googling the company name plus the word "environment" and see what pops up. "If consumers or environmental advocates have a beef with the company's track record, something's bound to pop up," according to the Greenwashing Index Web site. Know TerraChoice's "Seven Sins of Greenwashing." These include the "sin of no proof" (tissues that claim various percentages of post-consumer recycled content without providing evidence), "the sin of vagueness" (all-natural isn't necessarily green since poisonous substances such as arsenic and mercury are also "natural"), the "sin of irrelevance" (a product labeled CFC-free doesn't mean much since CFCs are banned by law) and the "sin of lesser of two evils (the fuel efficient sport-utility vehicle).

Window Cleaner Goes McFurious For Earth Day

As Earth Day finishes, a window cleaner takes matters into his own hands...

Dave Elgram dumps rubbish in restaurant in protest at McDonald's litter in Swaythling: It was a mountain of rubbish that had left him McFurious. The growing mound of burger wrappers along Dave Elgram’s street had not been cleared for so long that he decided to take matters into his own hands. Armed with a litter-picker the dad of three collected a bin liner full of McDonalds rubbish and tipped it on over the restaurant floor in front of shocked staff.

Now the 44-year-old is vowing to return to the store in Burgess Road every Monday with a fresh bag of rubbish until staff clean up his street. Dave, 44, a self-employed window cleaner, of Burgess Road, said: “The rubbish situation here is absolutely awful. “McDonalds are liable to keep it clean and tidy and unfortunately I took real umbrage to see staff clear one side of the street and not the other. “They said he forgot to do our side and had no obligation to keep the area clean. But I have lived here all my life and I’m sure it was part of their planning permission to do so when they opened.

“They had a shop full of people and I emptied the rubbish all over their floor. I wasn’t going to dump it until the staff became flippant. They said their manager was on a break and they wouldn’t go and get her. I told him exactly what I thought of their rubbish and that the local residents were fed up.” A spokesman for McDonalds said: “We share this customer’s frustration with the thoughtless minority who drop litter. It’s not acceptable and we do make every effort to clean up, going out three times a day, every day to collect litter from the area surrounding our restaurant. “Although we do understand the frustration caused by litter, we hope that in the future we can discuss this in a positive and constructive way, working together with the local community to stamp out the problem.”

Ye Olde Art of Window Cleaning Canvassing

"Igetwork4U" is the nick-name used on the Window Tools website by an ex window cleaning canvasser in the UK who doesn't sell canvassing services anymore & his canvassing website has now disappeared. His evenings are now spent building rounds for his nephews who are window cleaners if he does any canvassing at all. His advise is below: -

As my handle suggests, I have dabbled in selling canvassing services, I no longer do this.

• It's really not that difficult to get the work, I've averaged between one in ten and one in twelve of those who actually answer the door. So it's important that you speak to 90% of householders in any one street to build a nice compact round. Return to the same street until you've reached this target. When I say compact work, I mean a worthwhile amount (£100 - £200) that you park up and walk around, instead of all that loading up and driving between jobs.
• I take a booklet and list every house number, if I get no answer I leave that line blank until I do. If the people say they already have a wc then I mark that number W/C and he's name/company if they gave that info (this is very important for later use. As when you've finished you'll not only have a record of your own work, but also a record of the other window cleaners work, useful for when he packs it in). Find out what happened to their old window cleaner and ascertain the extent of the round he may have left, I've even been given the old window cleaners contact details, called him and it turned out that he was now in the computer industry after attending college, he sent me the old list via email and I sent him a drink via paypal.
• If they just say no, then I put an X. Or s/c = self clean, if the house is for sale or to let, then note it down for later canvassing. Look for those "no canvassers" signs and respect them. If they just take a card then I put "c" for carded and Q (figure) for any quote you may have given.
• Dress like a window cleaner, don't overdo it with suits and ties, as you'll look like some religous canvasser and put them off straight away. Smile and did you ever notice how people raise their eyebrows when they acknowledge each other? You'll see this and make sure you do it too.
• Timing, any time of day can work, obviously you'll catch more at home in the evening. You'll sell your service more to the ladies than the men, so don't knock when they are watching the popular soaps. Get the TV schedule to check. Try to keep it quick, they may have the dinner on the stove or better things to do.
• The spiel; Get something that you are comfortable with such as " Good evening I'm expanding my window cleaning round into this street, I visit every six weeks, would you be interested in this service?" or (my favourite as it shows what a nice guy I am) " Hello I'm canvassing for my friends window cleaning round, he calls every six weeks in this area, would you be interested in this service?" Hopefully you'll get a "How much do you charge?" they'll invite you to see the back and give a price. If they are wavering about cost, suggest that you could fit them in on a 12 weekly (or whatever) rota. Hand them a card or your calling ticket and ask them when would be convenient for THEM. I usually suggest a Saturday for the first clean. I never ask for names or phone numbers.....younger ladies can become uncomfortable with this. Besides if you get them to expect a call from you every evening before you call, it gives them the chance to say, "Oh can you leave it this time?"
• One big complaint I get when canvassing is; "Someone called last year and never bothered turning up" or " I had one knock, but he only came twice" Counter this by pointing out that you are serious, have an established round already, are mature with a family to keep, are not in it for some beer money.
• The first clean; Be on time! Now's the time to go through what other services you offer and discus access arrangements as you'll likely be asked " How do you get to the back if I'm out?" " Where shall I leave the money?" You reach over and unbolt the gate of course you do it all the time. You collect on a Tuesday mostly.
• The Old 'uns: These are the best, do take the time to chat as they likely get few visitors ........likely they have lived in the area for many years and know everybody ..........leads to more customers. I have one old boy who got me three new jobs and collects the money for me! That's worth hearing his old wartime stories for.
• You'll get some who will cancel after two or three cleans, don't get despondent with this as it shows what an ace salesman you are, after all you sold them on a service they didn't really want.
• Don't get put off when the first few householders say they already have a window cleaner, it's likely he hadn't put as much effort into canvassing as I suggest you do. The only time I got put off was when the first 17 households in a street all had the same guy, my hat off to him and I moved on to another street.
• Those big £20 - £30 houses. Yeah, I know they look inviting, but many of those people may just have an ordinary income, or the more wealth they have the more suspicious they get of you. I don't even bother knocking. I've many £20 - £30 houses that have came my way and I'll keep them as they are all reliable good payers. What I have found is that they are not so productive when it comes to the actual canvassing of them. I've always gotten better results canvassing from people who live in the more modest type of house.
• New Build estates; Don't bother with these as I've always heard "your the third this week" put them on the back burning for a couple of years, wait for the other guys to drop them.
• Always good to canvass the area around a new job, as it makes it more worthwhile to make the trip. I always make sure to "ask the questions" whenever we get a new job in a new area.
• Another reason why I like to book the first clean for a Saturday is (especially in the summertime), others in the street are more likely to see you and ask. Always worth trying a Saturday even for the established work now and again.
• If you plan on using professional canvassers, make sure your man works alone and knows about window cleaning. Stay clear of any firms that employ kids on percentages as that is when they'll promise the customers the earth and under price to get the job to get the commission.
• You'll get family/friends/mates say " Why you paying all that money? I can do that, give me £10 ph/ pocket money". Another mistake.
• After such a manky winter, many window cleaners will have packed it in and gone back to whatever they done before. Those houseproud ladies will be spring cleaning. This is the best time of year to canvass.
• Dropping leaflets:
• I never use them on virgin territory (but they do have a place), it's a lot of leg work that can be better spent knocking on doors. Nothing beats that face to face approach when getting the work in. I've come across many leaflets, mainly from guys who've used them before coming to me for help in building rounds, and if they've come to me, that means that other approaches haven't worked for them.
• You may want to re-consider what you propose to be known as before getting any stationary printed, and the sort of image you want to portray. "M & H Window Cleaning" is just as forgettable a name as "ASV Cleaners". Try to use something that will wear well and not date with time. If you can think of nothing else, what's wrong with your proper name?
• A leaflet can get you a call weeks even months after dropping, so any change in contact details will cost you work. Those "free" 0845 "Office" numbers we see everywhere on the back of vans, and you're been thinking of getting a posh bird to do the answerphone for you. Now if you don't have a posh secretary or even an office, then what's all this about? Time to admit this is just an exercise in vanity, and has no place in the serious business of getting your work together and making money. Besides many people don't like to speak to an answerphone, which could cost you work and it's not cheap paying to recieve all those messages. Use your mobile number (because that's the one you ALWAYS answer (and they can text on) and email/website on stationary/van (my apologies to M & H and ASV and sorry to all those with 0845 "Office" numbers, as you've delivered 10,000 leaflets already, I guess you're stuck with them now).
• I've never used special offers or promotions, never seen the need to, as you say you are getting a decent hit rate from canvassing as it is. Also never be tempted to lower your price to get the job as you'll never be able to get that price up to where it should be.
• I've never dropped leaflets when canvassing, if the householder is out when I call, then I call again and again until I've contacted that 90% that I spoke of. Though I do carry leaflets, I only give them out if the householder has to think about it or asks for one, or if children answer the door and mums in the bath, or if the house is being looked after by someone else. But don't hold your breath with these ones.
• Now there's always that last 10% of households that are difficult to find in at any time of day when canvassing. Give up on those as you cannot contact them to canvass, how will you ever collect? Some people are just never at home.
• A good use of leaflets is when I'm planning to canvass a new area. I pay to display them in any corner shops in that area a few weeks before. Not that I expect to get any calls from them..............but when I do canvass I'll get asked "Oh is that your leaflet in the shop window?" and the householder will assume that you already have an established round in their area, which will add to your credibility.
• Which brings me to your "House-style" and the subject of graphic design and logo for all stationary, leaflets, cards, calling cards and van. You want this to be instantly recognisable as yours. So it all must tie in together. Never use more than two fonts (except if the third is the logo). Google or you-tube for graphic design tips and which colours go together well.
• Copy; Be careful of the actual wording on any printed matter. One chap I worked with, already had leafleted before he came to me, which promised a "six to eight week return visit" He still does half a road on 6 weekly and the others on 8 weekly, besides losing the extra money it's not a good use of time. The other problem with his leaflet was waffling on about himself. Vanity belongs elsewhere. We dumped the remaining 5000 and got some more done.
• What happens to most of your leaflets is they get scooped up with all those offers of two for one pizza's and readers digest junk mail and promptly binned without ever being read. More expensive per unit but can be very effective is the "Mail-Shot", great for getting in that commercial work which can be difficult to canvass because you can never reach the correct person to talk to.
• I begin by getting hold of the yellow pages for my target area, select a type of business that may require your services, like one that may get a lot of visitors (of course they will then want clean windows). Unless you can find out the relevant persons name and job description, you will have to take a guess at the head honcho's title and use that. (Building Manager, Director, Manager etc)
• Take for instance (one of my favourites) Nursing Homes, there may be fifty or so in your target area and you should aim for all of them. Your letterhead, quality paper, quality envelope, first class stamp. Addressed to the main Honcho, in the case of nursing homes would usually be a family run limited company so address it to the Director.
• Unlike the leaflet that likely got chucked out with the other junk mail. Now you've landed right on the head mans desk! The hard part is you've got to keep he's attention past that first paragraph before it gets binned. There's no one size fits all, you may want to keep it brief not wanting to bore the poor chap. Keep paragraphs short and sweet, use bullet points to outline your services and get to the point. Above all write what is so special about your service.
• Fill the bullet points by outlining that you provide a free Risk Assessment, Method Statement, Carry £5 million public liabilty insurance. Fully trained uniformed staff etc.
• Stay away from buzzwords, ever played b-u-l-l-s-h-i-t bingo? (I've read whole leaflets which didn't actually say anything)
• Don't offer promotional prices, nor discounts, this will identify you as a hungry for work start-up, and thus inexperienced.
• Hopefully you'll get a call, take your mate along if you work with one, decide independently what the quote should be and meet in the middle will be about right. If the customer is agreeable all's well. Only offer discount for increased frequency of cleans after all he has called you because you've impressed him.
• Provide your new customer with the Risk Assessment, Method Statement and details of your insurance before commencing work. Many businesses will want to see that Risk Assessment etc, you can go online and get them done for a price, but as you've offered a free one you'd better learn how it's done for yourself. When you've exhausted your chosen target businesses, it's time to select another type.
• Mailshots are much more expensive per unit than leaflets, but aimed at the right type of business bring in a higher value of work. As a start up with limited funds you don't have to send out 10,000 at once. Even if you only budget £20-£50 per month is enough to start with. Just like canvassing it's a numbers game, the more you put out the more you'll get in.
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Window Cleaning News

Man tries to change window, falls to death: A 58-year-old Saylorsburg-area man has died after falling from a second-floor window he was replacing in a South Side Bethlehem row home, according to authorities. Dominick Ficzko of Ross Township was working for Brian's Professional Cleaning and Restoration of Nazareth when he fell out the window opening around 1:15 p.m. Tuesday at 623 William St., according to the Lehigh County coroner's office. He died at 7 p.m. in St. Luke's Hospital-Fountain Hill, said the coroner's office. The death was ruled an accident today following an autopsy that showed multiple blunt force trauma, the coroner said. Brian Schmidt, owner of Brian's Professional Cleaning and Restoration, said in a prepared statement that his family and staff are "deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Nick…. His talents, integrity, and work ethic will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends." The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigates all work-related fatalities, and employers are required to report them within eight hours of the accident. OSHA spokeman Mike D'Aquino said the agency is investigating the death, but no information will be released until the final report is completed. OSHA has six months to issue its findings.
Andujar, of Bethlehem, said she was in her attic bedroom Tuesday talking to a workman repairing the window inside when a burned sill that he leaned on gave way, sending him plummeting to the pavement below. The worker, 58-year-old Dominick "Nick" Ficzko of Saylorsburg, Pa., died later that day at St. Luke’s Hospital in Fountain Hill. “I feel so horrible,” said Andujar, 24, who lives with her grandparents at 625 William St. “He just went to work. It was a regular day and he couldn’t make it home to his family. “We just started talking, and all of a sudden it happened. I thought I was going to die, too.”
Andujar said a crew from Brian’s Professional Cleaning & Restoration, of Nazareth, had arrived to fix the window and frame that had burned about two weeks ago from a cigarette butt.
Ficzko was inside and another worker was outside, ascending a ladder propped against the house. Two other workers were on the ground, she said. “He was standing on the floor,” she said. “In front of the window, there’s an old coil heater. When he was leaning forward (on the sill), it broke. He flipped out of the window, hit the ladder and hit the curb.”

Dieter defends window cleaning: Dieter Brummer has defended becoming a window cleaner after leaving Home And Away, revealing he wanted real life experience after becoming an actor so young. The actor was just 15 when he was cast as Shane Parrish in the soap for four years, and though some critics belittled his decision to become a window cleaner when he left in 1996, he insists it is an art in itself. Dieter told TV Tonight: "People say that I'm just a window cleaner, in reality it's substantially more involved than that - working at heights, it's a relatively specialist trade." He added: "I just wanted to get a bit of real life experience under my belt, but I'd always intended on coming back to the acting game at some point. "It was a pretty intense time coming out of high school to receive all this fame and adulation. As great as it was I wanted to prove to myself I could get my hands dirty and sweat for a buck as easily as standing around on set, being primped and preened." The 33-year-old is now returning to acting as Detective Trevor Haken in the second series of Underbelly, after seeing some of his former Home And Away co-stars make acting comebacks.

Michael Jackson baby Lilly-May's a Thriller: Sporting the iconic single white glove, Lilly-May Hickman was a worldwide superstar before she was even born, after the face of Michael Jackson appeared on her scan photo. The ultrasound image was seen by millions around the globe – and now the little Thriller has arrived, leaving proud parents Dawn Kelley and William Hickman singing The Girl is Mine. However, the couple admit Lilly-May looks less like the King of Pop –- and more like her doting dad. Dawn, 34, and William, 29, could not believe their eyes when a 20-week scan of their unborn baby revealed the face of the late pop legend. The family were worried people would think they were mad, but everyone agreed that they could see Jackson in the photo. After being published in the Echo, the story went global and Lilly-May's pictures were posted on websites in China, India, Australia and the U.S.. Window cleaner William said: "We couldn't believe the interest from so many different countries. We were on ABC news in America and if you Google 'Michael Jackson baby scan' you can see how many stories come up."
Michael Jackson Alive! Found By Window Cleaner.

Steve Jamieson may have been one of the finest athletes Stoneham High has ever produced, and despite a series of nagging injuries was able to become an iconic name in SHS sports annals. As a sophomore, Jamieson started as a receiver and filled in at quarterback when senior quarterback John Censullo got injured. In hockey, he was named a Middlesex League All-Star and was an Honorable Mention by the Boston Globe as an All-Scholastic.
In his junior year, he dominated the gridiron running and passing for touchdowns as well as kicking extra points, resulting in him being the highest-scoring quarterback in eastern Massachusetts. Jamieson was the co-winner, along with fellow Hall of Famer, Paul White, of The Marty Jordan Award for his performance against Reading on Thanksgiving Day; but as a junior was not eligible to be selected as a Middlesex League All-Star as only seniors were selected.
In hockey, he was second on the team in scoring which was good enough to once again be selected a Middlesex League All-Star. A shoulder operation delayed his baseball season debut, but he was still able to achieve a varsity letter and finished with a .545 batting average.
A separated shoulder forced Jamieson to miss the first two games of football his senior year, which mandated a switch from quarterback to halfback. After losing two games without Jamieson, the team turned their fortunes around with his return reeling off a series of victories. Game after game Jamieson provided the team with key touchdown runs. Scoring both touchdowns in a 12-8 win over Reading, Jamieson was once again co-winner of the Marty Jordan Award. Finishing sixth in Division I in scoring with 66 points, he was named a Middlesex League All-Star and team MVP.
In hockey, he led the Spartans in scoring with 16 goals and 14 assists for 30 points to be named team MVP and a Middlesex League All-Star, but was unable to participate in the All-Star game due to a separated shoulder. His shoulder injury prevented him from playing baseball his senior year.
Jamieson currently resides in Gloucester with his wife, Chrissy, where he runs a successful window cleaning company. They have five children.

Glazed buildings including the Gherkin could become “pariahs” by 2050 because of their inability to cope with climate change and dwindling resources such as power and water, it was claimed this week. As BD celebrates its 40th anniversary, the former head of architecture at Cambridge University said the next 40 years would see many of today’s architectural landmarks increasingly dismissed as energy-guzzling relics of a bygone age. Alan Short (pictured) said global warming and other factors including the ageing population would result in a huge programme of retrofitting as well as radically different forms of architectural expression. Many of Short’s predictions were echoed by Oxford University professor Steve Rayner, who this week announced details of a major research project into how cities can be adapted over the coming decades. Short said: “There is a huge challenge for the construction industry and designers… the idea of making buildings out of glass is going to become a historical phenomenon. “Buildings that use huge amounts of energy, and big glass office buildings, will be pariah buildings. People won’t want to rent them. Will the Gherkin (pictured right) still be standing? Well, no names, but I do think that is going to be a big issue.”

Friendly wave was trademark of city's ambassador: And Mr. Jones driving past in the trolley, his big smile, always a wave — and if I was lucky, he'd ring the trolley bell for me. Such were the fixtures of downtown Staunton. On Friday, Jerome Jones deftly steered the trolley around the Green Line his last few times. The father of 13, grandfather of two, part-time window washer and full-time minister of the Church of God on West Beverley Street was retiring from his 40-hour job. I managed to catch him late in the day on Friday. I slipped into the seat directly behind him and asked him a few questions. He answered them politely, and then glancing back to me said, "What are you doing, taking notes?" Not much gets by Mr. Jones, I answered. "No, nothing goes over my head but birds and airplanes," he said, then laughed. Mr. Jones began driving the trolley in April 2002. The trolleys offer free rides around the city, and their riders come from all walks of life. Tourists and people without transportation share the wooden seats. No matter where they come from, and no matter where they're going, they received the same big grin when they boarded and the same respect when they departed.

HENRY 'THE BUG MAN' People are always unloading various animals on Henry Michaloski, from turtles to rabbits to spiders--and his most recent acquisition: two snakes. "They just know I'll take care of them," said Michal-oski. Indeed, his profession, and passion, is teaching kids about animals by traveling all over the country in his RV, and toting about a dozen animals along for the ride. For the past 20 years Michaloski has studied nature and thought of new and interesting ways to present that information to kids, in an educational yet fun way. "Kids are curious and kids enjoy my sense of humor," Michaloski. "When we sing 'Itsy Bitsy Spider,' I do my tarantula dance and they laugh with me." Michaloski does indeed have a tarantula that he regularly brings out during lectures, as well as snakes, a rabbit and a duck, which is the personal favorite among children. With these live props he teaches everything from habitats to food chains to ecosystems. Michaloski travels to Fredericksburg to do shows about twice a year. Before he became a roving nature teacher, though, he owned a window washing business in Fredericksburg. He decided to sell the business and start a new one after an unexpected family interruption.

Does the Cook County Sheriff’s Department actually employ 15 elevator operators? If you were to look at the department’s 2010 budget, you’d see that more than $527,000 went to pay elevator operators at various county locations. You’d also see that more than $119,000 is reserved for two marble polishers. And more than $800,000 goes to pay 17 window washers. Some might call it typical county waste. Not exactly.
While the sheriff’s department does indeed employ people whose jobs are described as “elevator operator,” “elevator starter” and “marble washer,” the titles are leftover from a bygone era, says Steve Patterson, spokesman for Sheriff Tom Dart. “Those are all unionized custodial employees. They’re job titles historically were elevator operator, marble polisher, window washer. The job responsibilities are far greater than they were,” Patterson says. “The unionized position still says 'elevator operator.' That is part of the title, but not completely.”
As for the 17 window washers that cost the county more than $800,000 a year, they indeed are charged with cleaning every window at county buildings. The sheriff’s department is in charge of county custodial services, which is why these non-law enforcement positions fall under Dart’s budget. Patterson says Dart’s office is hoping to eliminate the misleading job titles, converting all the titles to custodial positions.

Confessions from Gozo: Robin Askwith is selling his flat on Malta's peaceful, rural neighbour. If Gozo, Malta's smaller sibling, is stuck in the Seventies, as visitors say, that suits at least one local resident right down to the ground. This was the decade that Robin Askwith, 59, became a star in the cheap and cheerful British film industry, turning out a string of sex comedies such as Confessions Of A Window Cleaner. None was exactly Bafta material, with Robin playing a young, guileless, cheeky chappy seduced by a succession of suburban vamps. 'I was a familiar face - and a familiar backside - but the money was awful,' recalls Robin, who had a good run on ITV's Benidorm last year and is still a regular in Christmas pantos. The first Confessions film paid me £2,000 and the fourth and last £8,000. But I still get the occasional performance fee.' For Robin, Malta has long been his favourite place abroad. It was the first warm destination he visited. Aged 19, he arrived in 1969 to make a package tour TV advert under the direction of Ridley and Tony Scott, now Hollywood A-listers.

City election is Tomorrow: The election for the next mayor of Gainesville and the newest District 4 city of Gainesville commissioner will end Tuesday in a runoff election. Polls will open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m., and at the end of the night, either veteran two-term District 4 city Commissioner Craig Lowe, who abandoned the seat to run for mayor, or political newcomer window cleaner Don Marsh will become the next mayor of Gainesville, and either local political veteran Penny Wheat or newcomer Randy Wells will become the new District 4 commissioner.

Attendees of a tea party rally at Centre Church in Windham on Saturday listen to Billy Martin, a U.S. Navy veteran and former New York City firefighter. “When I joined the Navy, I took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against enemies, both foreign and domestic,” said Billy Martin, owner of Wee Willie’s Window Washing in Maplecrest. “I got the foreign out of the way in the first Gulf War. Now I’m here to fight the domestic enemies in our government.” “For the first time in my adult life, I’m concerned about the future of my country,” said Tom Hitchcock, a vice president on the Ulster-Greene ARC Board of Directors, and former Windham town justice, town board member, and Windham-Ashland-Jewett school board member. “I’m here today because I am angry and fearful that my children and grandchildren are not going to be able to enjoy the freedom and opportunities that former generations and mine have enjoyed.”

CATERHAM racer Jay Gardner is moving up a league this season. Gardner, who won the Academy title last year in his first season of racing, is making the move into the Roadsport B class. And the Barrowford 28-year-old has one aim at this weekend’s Silverstone opener – to stay out of trouble. “Of course, I’d like to win but realistically, I’d be very happy just to get to the finish in one piece,” said Gardner, who runs his own window cleaning business. “Each race is 20 minutes long, and a lot can happen in that space of time. It would be fantastic to win, but I’d be happy to a top five to start with – and the car in one piece!” Gardner is looking for sponsorship for this season. Anyone interested can contact him via email at jay.gardner@hotmail.co.uk. Most of the races will be shown on the satellite Motors TV channel.

£5,500 fine after window cleaner falls from roof: The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted a Lincoln firm after one of its workers fell from a roof, breaking eight ribs and sustaining a back injury. The employee, also from Lincoln was employed to clean windows at a local college when the incident happened on 4 November 2008. The employee had climbed up on a flat roof at the college to clean the windows of a neighbouring building, he fell when he over reached. His employer recently pleaded guilty to breaching regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 for failing to ensure cleaning work was properly planned and supervised. The company was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £2,948.20p in costs by Lincoln Magistrates' Court. A HSE Inspector said: "More than 3,200 employees suffer from major injuries as a result of falls from height in the workplace each year. "These injuries can shatter lives. It is crucial to remember that even when a risk assessment has taken place, it is only effective if the information is passed onto staff and supervision ensures that they undertake the work safely."

Double-pane glass variants and thicker aluminum profiles are being adopted to improve acoustic insulation ratings. China suppliers of windows and skylights are gearing product development toward sound reduction, now one of the line’s key selling points. Effective acoustic insulation has emerged as a key buyer concern following studies linking loud noise to stress, nervousness, insomnia, poor concentration and even cardiovascular ailments. More architects, in fact, are being required to incorporate sound control elements in building design.
To meet demand, manufacturers are combining different forms of acoustic treatments. Double-pane solutions are the priority since the degree of noise attenuation depends mainly on the type of glass used. Most companies are tapping laminated variants made of polyvinyl butyral or PVB film sandwiched between two glass sheets. Owing to its viscoelastic property, the interlayer is able to absorb sound waves that penetrate through the first ply of glass. Only minimum noise, as a result, is transmitted to the second pane.
Commonly used in midrange models, PVB glass provides 28 to 34dB of acoustic insulation. For the high-end segment, enterprises turn to resin-laminated counterparts with a sound protection level of more than 35dB. Another alternative gaining popularity is insulating glass. Rated at 35 to 60dB, this is preferred in designs meant to reduce high-frequency noise such as those from conversations and amplified music. Insulating glass similarly adopts two sheets, except the gap is filled with air or gas. The structure prevents sound vibrations from resonating through both panes. Low-frequency noise, however, is not filtered.

Van driver sacked after CCTV shows him swerve into cyclist: A van driver who deliberately swerved into a cyclist was sacked after his boss found evidence of his bad driving on the vehicle's CCTV camera system. Cyclist James Hoggarth, 35, complained to the window-cleaning firm, NCPM247.com, after almost being knocked off his bike and subjected to a torrent of abuse by the driver in Pall Mall. The firm, which portrays itself as “London's finest window cleaning company”, checked video and audio footage from the van and found it substantiated Mr Hoggarth's allegations. It suspended the contractor immediately and said he would no longer work for the firm. The confrontation happened last month as Mr Hoggarth, a civil servant, cycled from Trafalgar Square towards Pall Mall. He was in the right-hand lane because a bus was in the left-hand lane but the van repeatedly sounded its horn in an attempt to force him out of the way. When he passed the bus, the van undertook Mr Hoggarth and came within a fraction of hitting him. When the cyclist pulled up to the van at traffic lights, the driver swerved into him and screamed obscenities. Mr Hoggarth, a member of the London Cycling Campaign, noted the registration number and name of the firm. He reported the abuse to the company and to the Met police's Roadsafe London website, which gathers evidence of bad driving. The firm, based in Isleworth, had fitted internal recording equipment to six vans it uses in central London, primarily for insurance purposes.

Rain barrel use increasing in Knox Co. - Either as a way of saving green or going green, more Knox County residents are relying on the weather to get water, according to the Knox County Stormwater Management group. Parci Gibson from the organization said nearly 2,000 people in the last two years have bought rain barrels. These containers collect water from the home's gutters. This water is used mostly outside, for lawns or window cleaning, said Gibson.

Nuclear waste has nowhere to go but into glass: SEATTLE — The tanks are still there, 177 in all, packed with 53 million gallons of radioactive waste. One million gallons have leached into the desert soil. A decade from now, this byproduct of the atomic age at Hanford nuclear reservation was to be turned into 14-foot-long glass rods, loaded in steel canisters and shipped to Nevada, where it could sit forever beneath a mountain. An additional 2,300 tons of spent nuclear fuel would go with it. But now the worst waste from the country’s most polluted place has nowhere to go. Construction of a treatment plant to turn Hanford’s poisons into glass is designed to meet standards appropriate for Yucca. The point of turning waste into glass is to neutralize the radioactive materials so they can’t ever leach into the ground again. After that, he’s less concerned about where it goes, even if it winds up being stored on Hanford’s plateau.

Tecate, cerveza con caracter, announced today the launch of its "Anthem 3" campaign. The integrated advertising program depicts the journey of Mexican men trying to establish a new life in the U.S., and toasts to their character, which is imperative to their success. This campaign is a natural evolution from previous creative and elevates the "Con Caracter" or "With Character" positioning launched two years ago.
Created by Adrenalina, Tecate's New York City-based advertising agency, "Anthem 3" is comprised of three 30-second spots featuring everyday characters such as Ezequiel Pena, a construction worker; Tomas Ortega, a window washer; and Jose Dominguez, a truck driver. Each storyline is carefully crafted to showcase the individual boldness, masculinity, and character each man needs to face everyday challenges. Additionally, the ads are set in U.S. cities like New York and Los Angeles, making it easier for consumers to relate to these situations. At the end of each Spanish-language commercial, the characters toast to their accomplishments with a Tecate, thereby ensuring the brand's presence in their celebration.