Author Michael Hoover explores culture clash in Kanook Kibbutznick, a zany new autobiographical novel about a Canadian youth who grows up to be recruited by Mossad, Israel's intelligence organization.

Part autobiography and part adventure novel, Kanook Kibbutznick by Michael Hoover is highly original. Written as a first person narrative, the novel tells the story of a young man influenced by opera and Shakespeare, who ships off to join the American military. But things are not what he expects, and he soon becomes swept up by a television newscast and travels to Israel. There, he finds himself on an Israeli Kibbutz, or commune, where he is recruited by Israeli Intelligence.

VistaPrint Limited (Nasdaq:VPRT), the leading online supplier of high-quality graphic design services and customized printed products to small businesses and consumers, today announced the availability of printed T-Shirts on all 18 of its websites. Available in five sizes, VistaPrint T-Shirts are affordable and easy to design and order.

"Spending a lot of money ordering two dozen T-Shirts, isn't an option for so many small businesses," said Tiffany Price, product marketing specialist at VistaPrint. "We're happy to offer our customers yet another way for them to market their business in a cost efficient manner. With VistaPrint's new manufacturing capabilities, small business customers can purchase high-quality, low-cost T-Shirts in quantities as low as one."

MySQL AB, developer of the world's most popular open source database, will be exhibiting at next week's Oracle OpenWorld event, November 12-15 in San Francisco; Moscone South Hall, kiosk booth PSP32.

In the past year, the Independent Oracle Users Group has produced surveys of its membership that show that MySQL is an increasingly popular complementary database within Oracle customers' IT departments. Between one-quarter and one-third of IOUG members report using MySQL in their organizations today -- and a majority plan to grow their adoption of open source database technology in the next year.

Access Business Technologies, the mortgage technology experts, and Ellie Mae, an award-winning provider of innovative software and services for the mortgage industry, announced today that they have formed a strategic partnership to provide hosting and managed services solutions to Ellie Mae customers, enabling them to outsource all software applications and IT functions.

By hosting Ellie Mae's Encompass products with ABT, mortgage professionals 5b4 will benefit from ABT's best-in-class hosting and managed services including state-of-the-art physical and data security, access control, disaster recovery and business continuity. ABT is a SAS70 Level II organization providing premium-level managed services to the mortgage industry.

BuzzBack Market Research, the pioneering North American leader in web-based consumer research, announced the opening of its European operations. Highly-regarded Market Research innovator, Martin Oxley, formerly of Ipsos and TNS has been appointed Managing Director, BuzzBack Market Research Europe.

BuzzBack logo

"I’ve joined BuzzBack because their advanced work in the area of Web-enabled research is changing how business gets at profound, more colourful consumer insight," explained Mr. Oxley, "Whilst firmly rooted in a solid research heritage, BuzzBack is pushing the boundaries of tradition. Their innovative tools are capitalizing on the Web’s promise like no other firm’s have to date, helping clients engage deeply with consumers and dig into more personal and emotional ‘why’s’ behind their behaviour."

Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd., a leading homeschool curriculum provider, has just awarded eight students $60,000 in college scholarships. The winners will each receive a four-year college scholarship, ranging from $4,000 to $20,000 total, to fund their attendance at the colleges of their choice. 15F

The scholarship winners' academic achievements include: an average SAT score of 1460; one perfect math score (800) and a near-perfect verbal score (790) on the SATs; a near-perfect ACT score of 35 (out of 36), with perfect scores in the Reading and Science Reasoning sections; and a perfect score of 5 on the Advanced Placement Physics exam. 227

Admail.net, which has been developing e-mail marketing and database management systems since 1995, has announced the release of Advantage 2.0.

The new software helps companies deliver and manage e-mail newsletters, announcements or campaigns with easy to use personalization, advanced targeting and other features.

New and upgraded features of Advantage 2.0 include:

On the fly personalization

Free Image Hosting

New Sign-up Form Link Generator for easy seamless data capture setup

Opt-in IP and date stamp registration

Advanced Target Filter system, which provides complete list segmentation

New more flexible templates for a wider range of layout options

Advanced Database Integration

The extensive personalization tools provide personalization for First Name, Last Name, Street Address, City, State, Zip Code, E-mail and more.

A new book by dog trainer and mother of three, Colleen Pelar, addresses the issues that parents face managing the day-to-day interactions of their kids and family dogs. Living with Kids and Dogs . . . Without Losing Your Mind (C&R Publishing, 2005) has been nominated for the Humane Society of the United States Compassionate Caring Award.

Pelar says she was inspired to write the book because few dog training books address the special challenges of integrating a dog into a family with children. “Children and dogs can be wonderful friends, but the potential for problems is huge.”

Eco-Planet Organic, from Heaven Scent Natural Foods, celebrates Earth Day 2007 with a new a line of organic crackers and Oatmeal cookies - both in a new 6-ounce package.

"Now in five great-tasting varieties, our organic cookies and crackers come in great eco-shapes and were created to teach children how to take better care of our planet," said Tom Mosk, co-founder of Heaven Scent Natural Foods. "Eco-Planet Organics are the perfect complement to any Earth Day celebration. We hope that by trying and enjoying our products, children and their parents are inspired to take action, and make every day Earth Day."

In recognition of its innovative approach to business intelligence (BI), LogiXML, Inc. has been chosen for the SD Times 100 for 2007. The company is a winner in the "Tools and Environments" category, further validating its ability to provide a comprehensive reporting and analysis environment.

LogiXML's business intelligence (BI) platform, Logi 8, is Web-based, so the company is able to deliver new features to developers very aggressively. By leveraging the power of the Web, LogiXML updates are pushed out to the entire user community, allowing developers to rapidly implement new features so they can meet the reporting and analysis needs of their business users more effectively.

Top Global, a world leader in mobile wireless router products and technologies, today announced a GPS-enabled mobile router solution for asset tracking, remote network management and other location based services on Google Earth.

By installing the Top Global mobile router (MB6800) with any GPS-enabled PC Card or USB modem in a vehicle, assets and locations can be tracked using Google Earth or the commercial GPS tracking solution from Xora, Inc. Using a hosted remote central management tool developed by Top Global, administrators are now able to map the location and status of each deployed mobile router in real-time. Top Global's third generation (3G) Mobile Router (MB6800) can support all 3G cellular technologies including UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, EVDO Rev.0, and EVDO Rev.A.

Radiient Technologies, a Silicon Valley based startup company, has launched its new line of home entertainment loudspeakers. The product line incorporates advanced technologies and manufacturing, and also demonstrates the company’s philosophy of bringing unique architectural design elements and ease-of-use to the living room.

“Our starting point for all of our designs is very simple: what home entertainment products would my family like to look at and use, every day?” stated Jano Banks, Radiient cofounder and President of the company. “So we start by observing what products customers buy and use today, and then listen to their thoughts and experiences using those products. Next, I actually interview my family, relatives, and friends, and gather their ideas and feedback. We use all of this information to drive our design team and manufacturing partners.” Mr. Banks is the co-inventor of HDMI, the new High Definition Multimedia Interface technology, seen in many new products now being brought to market by all major consumer electronics companies.

In response to inquiries from hotel and motel owners and managers for a product that will reduce noise transmission between adjoining guest rooms, American Micro Industries recently introduced QuietDoor, its newest soundproofing product.

QuietDoor is a door size composite sheet of three materials designed for maximum reduction of noise transmission and ease of installation to the back side of connecting doors between two adjoining rooms. These sheets are 36" wide X 80" high x 5/8" thick and are supplied with pressure sensitive adhesive ( PSA ) on the exposed side of the foam for easy installation to the back side of doors to adjoining rooms. No tools, fasteners or adhesives are required to install QuietDoor. Just peel the protective paper from the PSA and stick the foam-mass loaded vinyl barrier composite to the back side of both doors. The benefit from this investment can be immediately realized by guests.

ArcaMax Publishing (www.arcamax.com), a leading online source for family-friendly feature news, has added parenting expert John Rosemond to its list of featured columnists in the free parenting newsletter.

Rosemond's columns are featured every Saturday in the Parents ezine. Along with being syndicated in approximately 200 newspapers, Rosemond has written nine best-selling parenting books. He is known for his humor, thought-provoking material, and engaging style. John has appeared on national television programs including 20/20, Good Morning America, The View, Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect, Public Eye, The Today Show, CNN, and CBS Later Today.

"Dialing for hours." Hospital staffing managers know this term all to well. It describes the scramble that ensues when they have to fill open shifts in nursing schedules. The staffing office makes one phone call after another until they reach nurses willing to take shifts. This process is tedious, time-consuming and inefficient. RES-Q Healthcare Systems solves the problem with automated communications functionality available in RES-Q Labor Resource Management 10.0, the new release of its staffing and scheduling system for hospitals. Staffing offices can now broadcast open shift notifications via internal messages to employees' RES-Q system mailboxes, e-mails to personal e-mail accounts, text messages to cell phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs), and/or voice messages to designated phone numbers.

i4i Inc., a world leader in the design and development of collaborative content solutions and technologies for life sciences announced the release of A4L Version 4.2 today. This release incorporates updates to the FDA controlled vocabularies and additional validation lists, and moves the application beyond the desktop as it incorporates more automatic functionality.

This automatic functionality allows Life Science enterprises to author, submit, validate and manage their labeling process using the more current ingredient and other controlled vocabulary lists. Depending on the users' preference, manual or automatic updating functionality enables, within minutes, the update to the latest FDA amendments.

Version 4.2 continues to support Human Prescription Drug Labels (HPDL), Human Prescription Drug Labels with Highlights (HPDLH), Veterinary Drug Product Labels, OTC, and Medical Devices along with NDC Labeler Code Requests, Establishment Registration and Listing SPLs as defined in the SPL Guidance Documents.

By combining an inline flashing module with and extensive line of LED lights, Larson Electronics Magnalight now offers vehicle and equipment operators a new type of LED beacon that also provides task oriented illumination.

“We originally came up with this LED flasher module concept together to provide area illumination with a safety measure for forklifts in large warehouse and manufacturing environments,” said Rob Bresnahan with Larson Electronics. “Normal LED beacons, like our LEDB-2 are designed to flash and be seen easily at distance. In other words, I can look across a building or a highway and see an amber LED beacon like our Class 1 CL1B LED beacon series. However, the operator that has the LED beacon mounted on their equipment has very little illumination available for task lighting. This new flasher module combines high lumen output LED lights with a flashing module. Now the operator has the illumination they need to navigate forklifts, vehicles or equipment in and out dark areas, while still offering the safety aspect up close and at distance. Since most manufacturing and warehouse facilities have a plenty of flashing lights on production lines, routing areas, etc. we offer our LEDs, like the 180 lumens LED3W-1S LED light in a variety of colors including red, blue, green, amber and white so that operators can distinguish unique operations with a different color. We even offer infrared LED models in 850nm and 940nm for covert style LED beaconing as trailing lights or other signaling communication between military vehicles. Our entire line of LEDLB series LED lights are Buy American Compliant and the flasher module is equipped with a switch that enables operators to toggle between normal illumination and LED beacon mode. Our LED lights operate on 9-32 volts, including 12 and 24 volts and we offer inline IP rated inline transformers so they can be operated from 120 volts as well.”

Berkey's Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc., is continuing its affiliation with professional motorcycle racing as a sponsor of Round 3 of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross National motorcycle races to be held at Freestone County Raceway, Wortham, Tex., June 5-7, 2009.

Berkey's President Bill Stevens said, "As an avid amateur motocross rider, I am proud to have my company associated with the nation's top professional race series. These riders are the best in the business, the same as Berkey's."

Google Jennifer Aniston and 18,900,000 results pop up in less than 19 seconds, among them teasing headlines like "Aniston and John Mayer caught kissing again" to a report by Fox News in 2007 that Aniston has had a second nose job by Indian plastic surgeon Raj Kanodia, the second surbery to correct a first for a deviated septum done a dozen years ago. The surgeon is also reportedly the plastic surgery solution to Jessica Simpson and Cameron Diaz, the article by Catherine Donaldson-Evans on the FX website, owned by News Corp. the parent company to FOX News.

Road surfaces that have been dry for any prolonged length of time suddenly become very greasy and that means they're extremely slippery. Anyone unlucky enough to drive into a real downpour might also find that drainage systems, particularly on country lanes, just can't cope with a deluge from the skies, and the road floods.

summer driving

Obviously, if conditions are extremely bad, then the most sensible option is to pull over and stop. Motorists on a flooded road who are able to continue driving ought to do so at a reduced speed - making it less likely that engines will be flooded with water from the wash the car creates. No one wants to breakdown in a foot of rainwater.