That seemed like a really gloomy outcome so i spend a little time to setup my IPV6 records in my dns records of Cloudflare.

Now they are both still playing enthusiastically their first Nintendo I am still amazed by the durability of the game console. I made an update to the games they are playing.

An important factor for them is that their is not much text and reading to do in the Nintendo game since the youngest is not able to read.

My Top 10 Nintendo DSi games for the early childhood players

1.Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Snow Princess
2. Build a Bear Hugsville
3. Hello Kitty Birthday Adventures
4. Nintendogs Labrador Retriever & Friends
5. Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop
6. Let’s Draw!
7. Smart Girls: Playhouse
8. Disney Fairies: Tinkerbell
9. Disney’s The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Underseas Adventure
10. Dora the Explorer: Dora Puppy

Have another one which you like to recommend let me know!

Interview with Mr. Erik van Berkum, General Manager of Hoogendoorn America Inc.
Hoogendoorn is known as the most innovative supplier of process automation systems in the horticultural industry. For 40 years, the company has been striving towards the optimal greenhouse climate, increasing crop yields, and managing costs and risks in glasshouse horticulture.

Peppers Today talked to Mr. Erik van Berkum, General Manager of Hoogendoorn America Inc., a subsidiary of the Hoogendoorn Group in Holland, about the evolution of the company and the development of Combined Heat and Power (CHP). This is a method that enables growers—and pepper and tomato growers in particular—to cut costs by creating heat, electricity and CO2 for utilisation in an optimal environment for plants, helping these to photosynthesis.

Q. How has Hoogendoorn evolved since its beginnings?
A. Over the course of 40 years, we have learned to look at every project in a unique and individual way, regardless of its size. With innovation as our prime focus, and by integrating the latest techniques and insights into professional management, suddenly the most complex of processes appear to be surprisingly simple. We call this Growth Management. And it lies at the heart of all our services, people and products.

Q. What are the origins of Hoogendoorn America and what is your position in the company?
A. Hoogendoorn America is a subsidiary of the Hoogendoorn Group in Holland and it services the American and Asian markets. I am responsible for general management activities at Hoogendoorn America Inc. My professional career in the international horticulture industry spans more than 10 years. Within the international industry I have marketing and sales experience in more than 35 countries, enabling Hoogendoorn America Inc. to develop international market focus. Currently, I am vertically focused on market development and sales opportunities in Mexico and other parts of South America, with support activities in all business units of North America.

Q. Combined Heat and Power has been developed for many years in order to increase production profitability. How has CHP evolved recently?
A. The principles of Combined Heat and Power have not changed in recent years. Electricity is produced by burning natural gas, and the CO2 and heat can be put back into the greenhouse. The electricity can be used for lighting or it can be returned to the national grid. Using CHP will save 20-30% on energy bills.

Over the last few years CHP installations have become more efficient, and in the future we will probably see more CHP in combination with biofuels, thereby reducing dependence on fossil fuels.

Q. What other projects or concepts focused on increasing sustainability in greenhouses already exist in the market at the moment?
A. Besides CHP, there are other concepts of more sustainable greenhouses including Semi-Closed Greenhouses, LED Lighting, Thermal Heating and Energy-Producing Greenhouses, such as ELKAS, the Greenhouse without Gas, ZoWa Greenhouse and Desert Greenhouse. The good thing about there being so many initiatives is that we will progress, and one of the concepts or a combination of concepts will probably be the new mainstream system in the future.

Q. What do you think are the main reasons for the success of CHP in the Netherlands?
A. The main reason for CHP’s success in the Netherlands is the fact that growers have been able to supply electricity to the grid and produce electricity much more efficiently than the big power plants. This has given them a significant additional income or a reduction in production costs, however you may wish to define it.

“CHP is used for growers’ own energy consumption in America”

Q. And how has CHP evolved in other parts of the globe?
A. In the rest of the world, governments and electricity companies are not opening up their power grids, so growers are unable to return electricity to the grid to create additional income.
Therefore, CHP is used for growers’ own energy consumption in America. The trend in North America is more towards burning other types of fuel, such as wood chips or waste pallets. These cheaper natural resources help growers to reduce their energy bill, and their production is also more environmentally friendly, if the total CO2 balance is considered.

Q. What are the advantages for growers and other players in the sector of introducing CHP into greenhouses and glasshouses?
A. Obviously, an advantage for growers is the reduction of their energy bill. Moreover, they acquire greater social responsibility as growers by using a production method that is more environmentally friendly.
They also become more progressive growers by looking for innovative ways to improve the sector as a whole. Consumers benefit from the fact that the cost price is lower thanks to the energy saving.

Q. What is the attitude of growers in America and Mexico towards this form of production?
A. Not all American growers have embraced CHP, due to the lack of a financial incentive; I see a bigger trend in America towards biofuels, waste fuels and thermal energy.
In the case of Mexican growers, their energy bill is relatively low due to the fact they have better climate conditions, so it is not such a high priority for them. It makes more sense for them to capture the heat during the day and release it during the night.

Q. How do you foresee the future market for your products?
A. As companies get bigger, processes become more complex and people have to be more productive. We at Hoogendoorn are convinced that the future of horticulture involves more automation. Internet will become an important factor in the future, since it takes away the responsibility of having onsite software, which is always more difficult to control than our own web servers. Using the internet also eliminates a lot of hardware problems, because the grower will have less hardware, while we will have more. The hardware that the growers have should become easier, and easier hardware means that we require fewer specialists travelling about to keep the systems running. At Hoogendoorn we always say that an electrician or a general IT technician should be able to plug and play and keep the systems in the greenhouse running.

Products and services supplied by Hoogendoorn America Inc.

Hoogendoorn America is a total solutions provider; together with its partners, the company supplies the entire infrastructure for a greenhouse. Hoogendoorn’s own product line is centred on the iSii climate computers, which automate energy management.

Energy management

The Hoogendoorn iSii climate computer makes it possible to control and monitor the energy services of a glasshouse operation, as well as to register and administer electricity purchases and sales. The Energy Management program ensures optimum coordination of heat and CO2 demand in the greenhouse and the supplies available from the boiler house or CHP installation.

Water management

Irrigation control is essential to crops. Sprinkler irrigation, ebb and flow installations and dripper systems can all be regulated using the Hoogendoorn iSii water management program. Hoogendoorn also has the solution for irrigating plants on movable systems in the greenhouse.

Plant monitoring with Letsgrow i4All

While the climate computer efficiently organises the climate, we still don’t know how the plants actually feel in the greenhouse. This is why Hoogendoorn has developed the i4All. The Letsgrow i4All is a mobile measuring frame, which comes with the following sensors installed: temperature meter, electronic RH and CO2 meter, PAR sensor and Plant Temperature Camera. The sensor measures how the plant is actually feeling in the greenhouse, and with this knowledge the climate in the greenhouse can be fine-tuned. For example, if the plant is stressed due to high temperatures or to high light intensity, the stomata close. When the stomata are closed, it does not make sense to give plants a lot of CO2, because there is no photosynthesis.

The same applies to fertiliser: if plants are stressed, they do not absorb fertiliser, so why make this investment? The Letsgrow i4All enables growers to make these decisions, because they know how the plants feel. A further advantage of the i4All is that it is mobile and therefore it can be sited anywhere in the greenhouse without cable problems. The i4All works wirelessly with Hoogendoorn’s web server via a GPRS connection, better known as mobile internet via a SIM card. A big plus of the Letsgrow website is that clients do not have to install software on their computer; it all runs from Hoogendoorn’s website, where the company can take care of maintenance, so this is a powerful and a very convenient solution.

Nomad human resources in the Greenhouse

Besides taking care of the plants, Hoogendoorn also takes care of people via Nomad, a unique recording system for wireless and paperless inputting, processing and presentation of all nursery data. With this recording system, growers can analyse yields, picking performance per employee, pests and diseases, fertiliser stocks, and gas and electricity consumption. This solution saves the grower a lot of time, and by analysing the Nomad data, it is possible to find areas where improvements can be made. If the Nomad systems are connected to Letsgrow, data can also be analysed with reference to the data of other production facilities, thereby enhancing the possibilities for making greater improvements and more extensive comparisons in the day-to-day management of a greenhouse.

Syngenta Seeds Vegetables Peppers Today – October 2009

Reading the book from Don Tapscott I learned: Digital immersion has a tangible, positive impact on brain development. Video game players, notice more, they have more highly developed spatial skills that are useful for architects, engineers and surgeons. The gamer is quicker in switching tasks than the one who isn’t.

By the time children reach their twenties they have 20,000 hours experience on the internet, and over 10,000 hours playing video games. TV is no longer the number one as it is estimated around 18,000 hours.

I am a strong believer that children should adapt technology at an early age. Although I know there is a lot of criticism about online time, amount of hours kids are watching television and playing video games.

I have 3 daughters and we had 1 Nintendo for the middle one 7 years, the at that time two years and 4 months old daughter all the time wanted to play with the Nintendo DS, until the moment I thought enough I have to buy another one. I was amazed how many hours she spend on the Nintendo and the patience she had to succeed, the first games she played were the mini games from the Super Mario-Bros game

Because the EC rating (Early Childhood) of the ESRB rating symbols is not widely used anymore at least I can’t find a lot of EC Nintendo games in the shops. I decided to put a list together with DS games for Babies and Toddlers.

Top 10 Nintendo DS games for the early childhood players

1. New Super Mario Bros. (included mini games)
2. Nintendo DS Nintendogs Dachshund & Friends
3. MySims
4. Super Princess Peach
5. Animal Crossing: Wild World
6. Bratz Forever Diamondz
7. Crayola Treasure Adventures
8. Petz Dogz Pack
9. Build-A-Bear Workshop
10. Cooking Mama
11. The Wonder Pets!: Save the Animals
12. Imagine: Babyz
13. Let’s Draw!

Update 1-1-2011

Have another one which you like to recommend let me know!

Want to know more about this topic or as the writer says you want to better understand your children read the book: Grown up digital (buy) from Don Tapscott

Partnerships
Village Farms scientists are engaged in partnerships with numerous academic and applied research institutes throughout the world to test and implement new technology in their greenhouse production facilities.  Their state of the art greenhouse system is, in continued development, employing an integrated approach of theoretical and applied research methods. The end result is an efficient system from seed to fork built on proprietary intellectual property with capabilities like no other in the world.

GATES
Village Farms’ “crown glory” in applied research is their Greenhouse Advanced Technology Expert System (GATES). GATES system was created to perfect vegetable and fruit greenhouse production in high-sun and low-humidity areas. Adjacent to the facilities in Marfa, Texas this revolutionary greenhouse is a combination of unique and valuable intellectual property. The entire project is a multi-million dollar investment developed using new concepts in greenhouse design technology, climate control, and crop management. Utilizing new combinations of hardware, software, sensors, and control systems, GATES technology has defined industry standards in advanced food safety principles, production levels, and environmental stewardship values for greenhouse production.

GATES CAPABILITIES :

CHP Cogeration

If you look at today’s power plants which burns natural gas still 45% is turned into heat and not into electricity this is a waste of energy because most of the time the heat is unused and therefore dumped. A greenhouse grower is burning natural gas to make electricity, one part of the electricity he is using for his grow light another part he is using to heat his greenhouse with. The CO2 which the grower is producing he feeds to his plants so they are more productive. A greenhouse has an efficiency of 90% compared to a gas powered electricity plant of around 45%

In Holland the co-generation became very popular of the current 10,000 hectare of greenhouses 6,000 hectare is using the thermal and electricity power of an CHP. Those greenhouses are producing now around 2000 Mwe and in 2011 this will be around 3000 Mwe. Currently around 20% of the total electricity demand in the Netherlands is produced by greenhouse growers and this will further grow in the coming years.

The dutch government and some NGOs like LTO Glaskracht and the  Association Nature and Environment have the ambition for 2020, to have a climate neutral Dutch Greenhouse sector which is independent on high energy prices.

Down site to the success of the CHP in the Dutch horticultural sector is that it slows down  innovation which is so badly further needed. The CHP is still using environmental unfriendly fossil fuel and it’s giving the greenhouses grower an income for producing electricity which inflates the price of the horticultural product they are growing such as tomato, chrysanthemum, bell peppers or cucumbers (decrease cost price). So CHP is an economical solution to keep on competing with countries which have a better climate to grow vegetables or flowers.

At this moment of the 10.000 hectares of greenhouses, 6.000 is heated with a CHP installation, so what to do with the other 4.000 hectares. Geothermal heating? At this moment it’s very popular but according to calculations of the Product Board of Horticulture Geothermal heating will only be able to heat 1.000 hectares in Holland. Another option is to burn bio fuels in stead of natural gas. Or maybe we have shouldn’t think of conventional greenhouses but look at new greenhouse concepts? We still have some time before it’s 2020.

Please comment any Greenhouse concepts or Energy solutions you think are worth investigating.

International Radio Operators Alphabet

• Alpha
• Bravo
• Charlie
• Delta
• Echo
• Foxtrot
• Golf
• Hotel
• India
• Juliet
• Kilo
• Lima
• Mike
• November
• Oscar
• Papa
• Quebec
• Romeo
• Sierra
• Tango
• Uniform
• Victor
• Whiskey
• X-ray
• Yankee
• Zulu

U.S. Phonetic Alphabet

• Able
• Baker
• Charlie
• Dog
• Easy
• Fox
• George
• How
• Item
• Jig
• King
• Love
• Mike
• Nan
• Oboe
• Peter
• Queen
• Roger
• Sugar
• Tare
• Uncle
• Victor
• William
• X-ray
• Yoke
• Zebra

First name alphabet

• Adam
• Bob
• Carol
• David
• Eddy
• Frank
• George
• Harry
• Ike
• Jim
• Kenny
• Larry
• Marry
• Nancy
• Oliver
• Peter
• Quincy
• Roger
• Sam
• Thomas
• Uncle
• Vincent
• William
• Savier
• Yogi
• Zachary