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The day before the official start of the Intersolar North American Conference in San Francisco, I joined a small group of journalists and bloggers for a hands-on demonstration of how to install a solar panel system at the SunPower training facility in Richmond. We were met by Senior Technical Trainer Chris Sommerfeld who gave us greenhorn solar installers a brief explanation of the equipment and task at hand.

The facility is designed as a real-world simulation of a typical rooftop installation, Sommerfeld explained. In our case, most of the harder stuff was already done: installing the mounting hardware, wiring the panels, running conduit, installing the inverter, etc. In other words, we were left with the easiest and most gratifying part: installing the actual solar panels, connecting the cables (literally a snap), and throwing the switch making our own power!

Okay, so I admit I didn’t really install a solar panel system in less than an hour. But my colleagues and I saw firsthand the components of a solar power system, even got our hands a little dirty. It was a fun and informative morning. Emmie Lam, Community Development Manager for Sierra Green Home, got to throw the switch.

She began by simply trailing the pickpockets and shouting out warnings while handing out the flyers that she prints herself, but found that not enough people could hear her – which is why she bought a whistle.

"The whistle is what really gets them," she says. "That, and a sign I hold up that tells people, in four different languages, there are pickpockets at work."
About 150 bag-snatchers operate on Barcelona's metro, trains and buses, committing 90 robberies a day, according to police. The thieves form well-organised gangs that often co-ordinate the shifts they work.

Guerrero blames Spanish law for the impunity enjoyed by Barcelona's pickpockets.
"If they take less than 400 [￡350], then they only get a small fine – and then only if the victim turns up to give evidence, which is why they target tourists," she said. "And the police don't have a database that enables them to tell if the thief has been arrested before.

"In Barcelona you get fined more for double-parking or wandering around with your shirt off than for stealing three purses in one day."

Families with small children, pushchairs and lots of suitcases were favourite targets, she said. "Who is going to chase a pickpocket if they have to worry about their child?"

The thieves not only threaten her, but have sometimes tried to buy her off. "I am very careful about my own security and don't tell anyone where I live," says Guerrero, who moved to Barcelona from her native Colombia 12 years ago.

She has become something of a celebrity in Barcelona, and has challenged the city mayor, Xavier Trias, to ride the metro with her.

RedPrairie Corporation, a global supply chain and retail technology provider, announced today that Grupo Comercial Control, parent company to Woolworth Mexico and other well-known retail brands, won Mexico’s annual National Award for Logistics for its successful implementation of a WMS integral strategy based on the RedPrairie Warehouse Management solution. Grupo Comercial Control won the “Company” category and its Chief Operating Officer was recognized with the “Executive” category for his lifetime professional accomplishments. Grupo Comercial Control was the first company to be recognized for this award in more than one category.

Grupo Comercial Control’s Chief Operating Officer Rodolfo Lopez Cerdán received the award during a ceremony at Expologística, the largest annual logistic tradeshow in Mexico, which was held at the Centro Banamex in Mexico City.

“We’d like to thank our logistics colleagues, Expologística, ASELDYT and CSCMP for recognizing our visionary spirit and groundbreaking implementation of the RedPrairie Warehouse Management solution,” says Lopez Cerdán. “This project is a strategic initiative that has positioned us for continued growth and enabled us to better serve our customers across Mexico.”

Owned by Grupo Comercial Control, Woolworth Mexico and Tiendas del Sol operate more than 70 retail stores in Mexico. The company leveraged Latin America IT consultancy Netlogistik to deploy RedPrairie Warehouse Management at its Mexico City and Monterrey distribution centers. The solution provides a unified platform that manages all of Woolworth Mexico’s supply chain operations and reduces logistics costs, while increasing efficiencies across receiving, warehousing and impressive 80 percent crossdock processes.

“We worked closely with Woolworth Mexico and our implementation partner NetlogistiK to successfully deploy our solution,” says Ivan Fernandez, vice president of Business Development for Latin America at RedPrairie. “We are proud of this project and feel honored to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Rodolfo Lopez Cerdán and the Woolworth Mexico and Netlogistik project teams.”

NetlogistiK Chief Executive Officer Francisco Giral has similar views about Grupo Comercial Control’s receipt of the National Award for Logistics.

“The partnership between NetlogistiK, RedPrairie and Grupo Comercial Control was an award-winning success because we all had one goal in mind: provide our customers with unparalleled service, value and operational efficiency,” says Giral. “We look forward to continuing and building upon this partnership for years to come.”

Employees of Maharatna Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) have once again proved their mettle. Of the 33 Prime Minister’s Shram Awards announced for calendar year 2010 by the Ministry of Labour, Government of India yesterday, 17 of which went to PSUs, SAIL employees have bagged 11 awards. Of the total number of 76 awardees for the year, 45 belong to SAIL – a remarkable distinction for any organisation. Adding to SAIL’s jubilation, all the 7 Shram Vir/ Veerangana awards announced in the PSU category have been bagged by its employees. “It is a matter of great pride for all of us that over 59% of the PM’s Shram awardees belong to SAIL. These awards acknowledge the employees’ innovative efforts, especially at the shop-floor level,” stated SAIL Chairman Mr C.S. Verma after the announcement of awards. The Shram awards are given in recognition of distinguished performance, innovative abilities, outstanding contribution in the field of productivity and exhibition of exceptional courage and presence of mind. SAIL employees have registered continuous growth in the share of these awards. Since 1990 onwards, 13 SAIL employees have won the Shram Ratna, 37 employees have won the Shram Bhushan, 111 employees have won the Shram Vir/Veerangana and 77 employees have won the Shram Shree / Devi awards. SAIL has recently won the prestigious Golden Peacock Environment Management Award in recognition of its initiatives and achievements in the field of environment management for the year 2011. Last week, the company also received the prestigious Randstad Award for 2011 under the ‘Manufacturing Industries’ category.

He was born to deadbeat parents on the stinking hot plains of Nakhon Sawan, a central province a couple of hours' drive north of Bangkok.

At the age of 10 his parents fled to Bangkok looking for work on building sites, placing him in the care of his maternal grandmother. The parents promised to be back in six months to pick him up; they never did.

Poverty and a lack of anybody to guide the grandmother's buffalo meant that once he'd finished Grade 6 he was out of school and into those fields.

He was in trouble as a teenager and wound up in a juvenile detention centre, but by the time he came out he had decided to pull himself together.

He tried to get an education. He enrolled in night school to get his high school degree, which is where I met him nearly 15 years ago.

He never finished that degree. He had to go into the army for two years and he also found himself a girlfriend who fell pregnant in no time.
''She is such a nag,'' says Lek of his wife, screwing up his face. ''Always going on about having girlfriends behind her back! Nag nag nag!''

It soon transpires that Lek really has no business down here in the Big Mango. He just wants to escape his wife, visit one or two of his girlfriends here and see some friends such as me and his big brother from juvenile detention days who is now a well-known figure in the Bang Phli underworld while fronting as a motorcycle taxi driver.

''If you want to go anywhere within Soi 54 of Kingkaew Road, you just come and see me,'' says Lek with genuine affection and pride. ''My big brother will take you there _ free!''

But the real reason he is here? Well, because he can. Like I said, he's been unusually rich ever since last Saturday.
''There were two parties handing out money this time,'' he said. It was now edging towards midnight and Lek's face was turning beetroot red thanks to two glasses of whiskey.

Scientists from the Universities of Sheffield and Cambridge have shown that very simple and inexpensive manufacturing methods in which flexible layers of material are deposited over large areas like cling-film can be used to make efficient solar cell structures.

They have developed a new technique for making polymer solar panels, which could drive down costs.

The study paves the way for new solar cell manufacturing techniques and the promise of developments in renewable solar energy.

Polymer solar cells are cheaper to produce than conventional silicon solar cells and could potentially be made in large quantities. The researchers showed that when complex mixtures of molecules in solution are spread onto a surface the different molecules separate to the top and bottom of the layer in a way that maximizes the efficiency of the resulting solar cell.

They used the ISIS Neutron Source and Diamond Light Source at STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire to carry out the research.

"Our results give important insights into how ultra-cheap solar energy panels for domestic and industrial use can be manufactured on a large scale. Rather than using complex and expensive fabrication methods to create a specific semiconductor nanostructure, high volume printing could be used to produce nano-scale (60 nano-meters) films of solar cells that are over a thousand times thinner than the width of a human hair. These films could then be used to make cost-effective, light and easily transportable plastic solar cell devices such as solar panels," Dr Andrew Parnell of the University of Sheffield said,