Spare the Air Day on Friday - second this week

Friday has been declared a Spare the Air Day in the Bay Area, the second time this week that stagnant conditions have led to a prohibition on indoor and outdoor burning.

The 24-hour ban, which takes effect at midnight, covers all open fires that burn wood, manufactured fire logs or other solid fuel. It applies to fireplaces, woodstoves, pellet stoves and outdoor fire pits.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District also declared a Spare the Air Day on Tuesday.

Weather forecasters are predicting a relatively calm day Friday, good conditions for trapping the fine particulates in wood smoke that can cause health problems for people with asthma and lung and heart disease.

There is a small chance of rain over the North Bay late Friday, but any precipitation is expected to be light and will not be accompanied by winds that can clear away air pollution.

The burning ban is in effect for Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, along with southern Sonoma and southwestern Solano counties.

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The Power Outside - External Laptop Battery Charger - Emergency Charger

Anyone who has ever owned a laptop computer knows that it can sometimes take quite a long time for a laptop to charge the battery. One of the ways around this problem is to get your hands on an external laptop battery charger, which can really help to speed up the process, and can be used to charge a second to battery, always a good idea when you are a heavy user of the computer. This article will look at a few considerations that need to be borne in mind when buying this extremely useful laptop accessory.

The first thing to remember is that choosing a charger needs to be done with great care, since at the very least you may end up with a charger which does not charge your battery properly, or could even cause damage to the battery itself, and you could be left with no power at all for your laptop. In the least worst case you could end up with a battery that is only partially charged, which means your notebook might run out of power after just an hour or so of operation, which could cause you a lot of trouble if it happens in an opportune moment.

133Watt Li-ion Universal External Laptop Battery

Descriptions:

This 133 Watt External Laptop Battery - Emergency Charger, is compatible with most notebook computers including IBM, SONY, ACER,TOSHIBA, HP, HITACHI, FUJITSU, ASUS, SHARP and others. Also works with devices which requires a 16V-19V Power supply equipment. Comes with tips that will replicate the tip you have on your AC Adapter. The battery is a Li-Ion and has a capacity of 133 Watt/Hours that will run a laptop for 4-10 hours based on your model and power settings.

How long can this external battery run ?

This battery's capacity is 133Wh(Watt-hour):
you can compare this battery's capacity with your internal battery capacity to figure out how long this battery can run your notebook. For example, if your notebook internal battery output is: 10.8V & 4000 mAh, then, your notebook internal battery capacity is:

10.8V x 4000 mAh = 43200 mVAh= 43.2 Wh (Watt-hour).

This external battery capacity is about 133/43.2=3 times of your internal battery capacity.

If your internal notebook battery can run 2 hours, then the external battery pack can theoretically run about : 2 hours x 3 = 6 hours.

See more informations.

In the worst case scenario you could end up with a battery charger causing a lot of damage to the battery itself, which means you have to then go out and buy a completely new battery pack, which of course can be very expensive.

One of the most common mistakes is to buy a charger which is not a suitable for the type of battery itself, usually a charger that is too small to take the battery. There are some types which can charge different sizes, but these are usually only supplied by manufacturers to charge the various sizes of battery for their complete laptop range. They are not usually available for different models. It is usually better to find a universal type of charger, possibly with a docking system.

An external battery charger can be a real boon, but, as you can see, you really do need to take a lot of care when you're choosing one because the wrong choice could leave you with practically no battery at all.

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Children practice reading skills with help of dogs

Children from throughout the South Bay recently stood in line at San Jose's Willow Glen Library waiting their turn to read to some very special guests — three Labrador retriever-mix dogs.

The three canines proved to be good listeners.

"It was almost too good to be true," says Tracey Gatheral, as her 8-year-old daughter, Emma Rodensky, loudly read to Raella, a 13-month yellow Lab, who sat and quietly listened.

The dogs were part of Canine Companions for Independence, the organization that held the Reading to Dogs event at the library to give children a chance to practice their reading skills in front of an audience that doesn't laugh or criticize.

CCI trains special assistance dogs for people with disabilities. The dogs are allowed public access to wherever their partners go.

"I've been looking for something like this," Gatheral said. "[Emma] is a home-schooler, and this helps her out socially and in other ways, too. Dogs are so magical, so it was wonderful.

"Emma knows how to read, but this helps her be comfortable reading in public," Gatheral added.

The event was the first at Willow Glen Library for the organization. Similar events have taken place in Milpitas, Palo Alto and at the Pearl and West Valley libraries.

"It's a great idea," says Joanne Romberg. "It takes the pressure off the kids, and the parents are more comfortable because the dogs are trained."

Her 5-year-old daughter, Kira, was a

little nervous about being around the dogs because she doesn't like it when they lick her or jump up, her mother said.

"But these dogs are so calm, I explained to her," Romberg said.

Kira reached out to Raella and smiled at her mother when the dog stood still.

"I'm glad that they're making the parents sit back," Romberg said. "We have an instinct to correct. This way, she can just relax and read."

Linda Cortez, CCI South Bay Chapter president, said the dogs are well suited for the reading events.

"For the kids, they enjoy reading out loud to the dogs, and for the dogs, they need to learn how to sit still for long periods of time and be quiet."

CCI breeds, raises and trains four types of dogs. There are service dogs that assist adults with physical disabilities by performing daily tasks. There are hearing dogs, which alert the deaf and hard of hearing to important sounds. There are facility dogs, which work with a professional in a visitation, education or health-care setting. And there are skilled companions, which are trained to enhance independence for children and adults with physical, cognitive and developmental disabilities.

According to its South Bay Chapter founder Pat Wilcox of Saratoga, the organization has breeders and caretakers throughout the South Bay, including Sunnyvale and Cupertino.

"We have a breeder/caretaker/puppy raiser in Sunnyvale as well as three facility dog teams that live in Sunnyvale but work in Los Gatos and San Jose," Cortez said.

The facility dogs are partnered with professionals who work with the disabled. One of the Sunnyvale dogs works with stroke patients, one with medically fragile children in a sub-acute facility, and the other with mentally ill adults.

"Facility dogs are more than pet therapy dogs," Cortez said. "Their interactions with clients have specific therapeutic goals and they are highly involved in the rehabilitation/treatment plan."

CCI has a total of seven hearing dogs, 10 facility dogs, 12 breeders and about 20 puppies, all at different stages.

"Reading to dogs started from our standpoint as a method to engage the reluctant reader," Wilcox said. "The program has a long history, but didn't start with us."

The two other dogs at the reading event were Jaba, a 4.5-year-old black Lab, and his owner, San Jose resident Noelle Anderson, and Tildy, a 1-year-old Golden Retriever puppy-in-training, who was there with breeder Shari Rodenberger.

Students Cameron and Kyle Dunn were all smiles and read aloud to Jaba and Tildy.

"They don't have a dog at home so it's exciting to them," said nanny Kati Vo of the 6-year-olds. "They get to practice their reading skills and it's cute."

For 5-year-olds Namya Asrani and Arshul Wadhwani, the chance to read to some wet-nosed friends was a treat.

"He loves reading and loves dogs," said Rita Wadhwani, who drove from Campbell to bring her son to the event.

Her friend made the longest trip out. Hiya Asrani found out about the event via Internet from her New Jersey home. She was planning a trip out and wanted to have something fun for the children to do while there.

"Namya was telling all her friends that we were going to California to read to dogs," she said. "It was so cute."

7 ways to make your laptop battery last longer

With the latest portable PCs, working on the move has never been easier, but laptops are still slaves to the National Grid.

You can do practically anything on a modern laptop, but their advanced features drain battery life to the extent that you can only get a couple of hours out of your laptop before it turns up its toes.

While battery life is a chief cause of mobile moans, it's possible to get significant improvements by simple good practice and a few software tweaks. To help you get the most from your laptop battery, here are seven easy ways to make it last longer.

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1. Dim your screen

The screen is one of the most power-hungry parts of the laptop. It takes serious amounts of battery power to keep your display looking clear and bright. Saving this power is simply a question of turning the brightness down. The screen brightness button is usually located as a second function of one of the F keys, and is represented by a little sun symbol with up and down icons. To use it, just hold down the correct function key and then choose up or down.

2. Change power settings

Windows Vista comes with some great power features, which enable you to eke out the best performance when you're plugged into the mains, and optimise battery life when on the move. Type power options into the Start Search box and choose Power saver from the list. The Windows Mobility Center has more methods for saving battery life. These include settings for powering off the monitor and kicking into sleep mode more quickly.

3. Switch off Wi-Fi

One of the biggest battery sappers is the wireless networking capabilities built into most laptops. Wi-Fi drains the battery by constantly drawing power from the battery and, when not connected, looking for networks. When you're using your laptop away from the grid, the likelihood is you're away from wireless networks, so you can turn this device off. Many laptops have a function button that enables you to turn off the wireless adaptor manually to save yourself the unnecessary waste, but older laptops often don't have this. If this is the case, just go to the Control Panel, access the Network Connections menu and disable your wireless connection manually.

4. Turn off peripherals

Using USB peripherals can put a big drain on your system, because your motherboard has to power them, so unplugging everything saves juice. USB sticks, mice and webcams are common offenders, so copy all your information across and eject your devices as soon as possible, and put up with laptop track pads over your USB mouse. Many laptops have function buttons to turn off the built-in webcam, which drains the battery if given the chance.

5. Eject your disc drives

Having a disc spinning in the drive is a huge drain on resources, and many programs constantly do this. Simply eject your discs before you switch to battery power to gain vital extra minutes from your working day.

6. Invest in some hardware

Good practice can go some way to extending your battery life, but if you need to use your laptop throughout your working day, you're going to need some help. Most laptops come with a six-cell battery, but many manufacturers offer eight- or even 12-cell optional upgrades, which can double your power. The alternative to expensive laptop batteries are products such as the Philips Portable Power Pack, which gives you valuable extra hours for all your devices. The Philips is a compact battery unit that has adaptors for most laptops and mobile phones, which is portable enough to be placed in a bag and has enough capacity to double the length of your charge.

7. Disable features

Windows Vista has some handy built-in features, but many put demands on your system that are unnecessary when working on the move. Take the simple measure of turning off Windows Aero and the Windows Sidebar when you're on the move to make your laptop more efficient.

5 Reasons To Own A Portable Car Battery Charger

It's easy to understand why a car battery charger is a great tool to have around. Cars, lawn equipment and motorized toys have batteries and may need occasional charging. Outdoor toys and lawn equipment especially need it due to infrequent use. Since some equipment does not have an on board generator it is up to the user to recharge to continue use.

Not everyone knows how easy it is to have their own portable car battery charger. They are actually rather simple to operate and have. You can get one that is basically an on or off operation or a complicated as monitoring and self adjusting charging voltages.

Here are five reasons why it is easy for anyone with a car, truck, or outdoor vehicle to own one:

1. You can take it anywhere

The great thing about these devices is that you really don't need a set space for them. Years ago you set the charger on a shelf or parked its cart in a corner and that's pretty much where it set. The newer units can pretty much be used anywhere you can find an electrical outlet.

2. They can be small and compact

You can find them light and small enough to fit in toolboxes and glove boxes.

Thanks to newer technologies electrical components can be smaller and lighter. Some chargers are as light as a couple of pounds. As long as you have a power source available, usually an ac outlet, you can be charging in minutes.

3. Cheap enough to own

With the same technologies that made these marvels lighter and smaller also means they are cheaper to produce. This has meant manufacturers producing more therefore lower prices. Add in to the mix resources such as Ebay and Amazon and bargains can be found. Chargers can be had for less than $100 and many times less than $50.

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5. Keep your recreational toys on the ready

Ever had a spur of the moment idea to take the motorcycles out on the first nice spring day? If your battery did nothing but sit during the winter you might not get out as quick as you'd like. Having a charger can keep the battery up and ready to go when you are.

Although you would need a charger more if you own motorcycles, RVs, or other outdoor toys that are used infrequently, even car owners should own one as a precaution. With small size, light weight and low cost there isn't a reason why you shouldn't have one in your garage, closet, toolbox, or glove box. Add the fact that you could even possibly extend the life of your battery adds that much more value to your small investment.

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White House economists see jobs growth by spring

Senior White House economists on Sunday predicted the U.S. economy will start creating jobs by spring and said that boosting employment will be at the top of President Barack Obama's agenda next year.

Growing public frustration with the still-sluggish economy and double-digit unemployment has weighed on Obama's popularity and may put his fellow Democrats at risk in the 2010 congressional elections.

But Obama's aides and many private economists were encouraged by a better-than-expected employment report for November that showed that the jobless rate inched down to 10 percent from October's 10.2 percent.

"I believe that, as do most professional forecasters, that by spring, employment growth will start to be turning positive," Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council, said on ABC's "This Week."

In November, the pace of job losses slowed to 11,000 in November after a decline of 111,000 in October, marking a major improvement from the beginning of the year when the country was seeing jobs disappear at a rate of 700,000 a month.

Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that there could be job increases in the first quarter of next year.

But Romer also said that even if payrolls begin to grow, the unemployment rate could go up again before it goes down as better prospects for employment attract more job seekers to the market.

Romer said the numbers "certainly do bounce around. I would anticipate some bumps in the road as we go ahead."

DILEMMA OVER DEFICITS

Exploding U.S. budget deficits have created a dilemma for Obama, who is facing pressure from Democrats in Congress to back aggressive job-creation measures such as a big ramp-up in infrastructure spending and more aid to cash-strapped cities and states while at the same time trying to put some restraint on federal spending.

"For next year or two, priority number one -- certainly this year -- priority number one has be to job creation," Summers told CNN.

Obama on Monday will meet with top executives from 12 major U.S. banks, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to talk to them about financial regulatory reform proposals and ways to increase lending to small businesses.

"He's going to have a serious talk with the bankers," Summers said on ABC. He added that the bankers "have obligations to the country" to restart lending after benefiting from the government's $700 billion bailout of the financial industry.

While agreeing that job growth was lagging the recovery in the broader economy, Summers and Romer offered differing perspectives on whether the recession was over.

"Everybody agrees that the recession is over, and the question is what the pace of the expansion is going to be," Summers said.

But Romer said that for many Americans, it feels as if the downturn is lingering.

She acknowledged that the United States may have turned the corner under the official definition of recession, because growth in gross domestic product has returned.

"But what the president has always said, and I firmly believe: you're not recovered until all those people that want to work are back to work," Romer said.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell seemed to lean toward Romer's view, telling CBS's "Face the Nation," that the 10 percent of Americans without jobs don't think the recession is over.