Highlights of the article on the science of exhaust rockets in two-stroke motorcycle engines:

• Modern two-stroke engines have high horsepower per liter figures, thanks in part to rocket scientist Walter Kaaden
• Although Kaaden did not invent a specific feature, he developed the modern form of the two-stroke exhaust manifold that effectively uses gas flow to increase horsepower.
• The latest two-stroke dirt bikes still rely on Kaaden’s refined techniques, although that didn’t help them become street legal.

Cars have more parts than motorcycles, but both have an intense amount of thought, sweat, and math poured into every detail. And seemingly small – and often overlooked – tweaks to these details can often have surprisingly big results. Just look at how things like vortex generators and splitters affect race car behavior. But making such changes sometimes requires outside help. And in the case of the development of the modern two-stroke engine, a real rocket scientist was needed.

I think winter may be over. Here it is, half-too early again, and it even thawed once. Or is it twice now? Do I have a triple? In any case: phew. Can’t say I didn’t expect it, given the last 30 years, but I was hoping to at least be wrong one of those times. Don’t get me wrong, interludes are nice, but seasonal consistency would be at least consistent with what I remember.

Now I’m only 31 and the last good winter, the real winter, winter as winter should be, I remember is still lodged in that ever-growing haze of childhood that I once thought it only existed with the mists. Once you have that haze behind you, it seems like you’re always nostalgic, at least now when it comes to winter, if you’re worried about winter.

But this last “normal” winter I remember, I can’t even give you a year, or my age to be fair. I just feel like it was over there, very far away. The kind of winter that made glaciers sprout and grow was more than a few storms. If I remember correctly, I remember remembering. Now that I think about it, maybe it’s actually a story my parents or grandparents told me about how winters were. Cold and snowy from bow to stern, a fluffy white Nivian firmament blanketing every ski resort and growing quiet each night, until the very dawn of spring, when a great melt rose and cast down the world in the mud. To be honest, I would even expect my last memory of a good winter to be a tale I was told to soothe me when we even had bad winters back then that made my parents nostalgic. But even those winters that rubbed my parents into memory seem to take hold of me too. Even my poor childhood winters are perhaps more real than those I see today. It certainly boosts morale. Weft. It makes me miss even more what I never even had.

But then the best of me comes in, and I look out the window and see that it’s not gone yet, as rickety as it is. I remember it’s dishonest to pray for something imagined to be gone and not thank it when it’s actually there. At least that’s how I was raised. Gratitude is not rocket science. But it is work.

By this I mean that work is the greatest gratitude we can show. Working towards winter and water and snow means more than words and nostalgia and certainly despair. And I’m not afraid of work. I was not brought up to be. The work isn’t hard, it’s just difficult. I was taught that just because we don’t inherit blame doesn’t mean we don’t inherit responsibility. But if we don’t resume that effort, then the blame will be more ours than even those before. Do we want to be the ones who could have done something, or the ones who did?

Now I know that at this point the next generation will also probably only experience a world with what we call that being considered a “good childhood winter” in their big life arc, but I refuse to let see what could’ve been getting what can be again. All it will take is many years of continuous intergenerational graceful work from all of us. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

I’m tired of praying for snow because I remember how it used to be. Although I’d rather see than believe, I’ll be grateful for what’s here. From grief there is a path to gratitude, and from gratitude there is a path to action. You may not be able to see the path, but that doesn’t deny it’s there. So, even in the final days of another rocky winter, let’s fashion our boldness to be grateful for what we have, and turn our gratitude into the work necessary to say our prayers more and more often in thanks rather than despair.

My name is Patrick Kelly and I’m crazy from Utah.

Sound credit: Kevin Colver.

The General Assembly chose to play another game of “kicking in the box” by rejecting Rep. Sam Rasou’s plan, D-Roanoke, for Catawba Hospital and surrounding communities. By suggesting a study of the entire mental health system, the project is relegated not to a committee but to a commission of individuals who will reinvent the wheel, grow tired of the slow process that will erase all memory of its existence and will leave home.

A study was done for Senator Creigh Deeds. D-Bath One Million Studies have been completed by various mental health providers, advocates, and bureaucrats in Virginia and across the country. They all say the same thing. The reports consistently call for substantial increases in funding to provide best practices to improve treatment and support for all people with mental illness or addiction issues.

It’s not rocket science to recognize the problems that arise from untreated mental illness. It is a lack of will and a lack of responsibility towards a large group of children and adults living in the Commonwealth. It is important to note that this is not a partisan battle in the General Assembly. Democratic control did no better than the 2022 GA.

You probably shouldn’t try to buy or sell Elden Ring runes on Ebay, but in case you’re wondering, that’s a thing now. A quick search of Ebay reveals dozens of listings offering millions of runes for prices ranging from $10 to $25, with some listings advertising hundreds of millions of runes for several hundred dollars. So far it looks like a few hundred listings have sold.

Since there is no way to directly send runes (the currency players use to level up) from one account to another in Elden Ring, these gray market offers operate as an exchange of classic MMO items. The seller sets a time and place, summons the buyer to their world as a cooperative partner, lays the agreed number of runes on the ground for the buyer to pick up, and the two part.

At least, that’s how it should be. While some of these sales appear to be going according to plan (Ed Nightingale of Eurogamer bought runes himself so we don’t have to), the whole thing is probably a bad idea.

On the one hand, you could be wasting your time with a scam, but it’s also worth noting that (per IGN) buying or selling items with real money violates the Elden Ring Terms of Service. . Players who participate in these illicit exchanges expose themselves to FromSoftware wiping their rune wallet remotely, suspending their account or even getting banned.

At least interested buyers know they don’t have to come up with £1.5billion just to pay off the debt owed to Roman Abramovich.

But getting everything to work is tricky.

2

2

As Abramovich ends a 19-year reign that brought 19 major trophies at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea fans fear what will happen next.

A whole generation of Blues fans have known only the Red Roma era – trophy after trophy, great players, goals and glory.

Yet it’s all too easy to forget that the whole playing field has changed since 2003.

The Russian had only to break a duopoly, a Premier League dominated by Manchester United and Arsenal, led by Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.

He did that and more, first making them a Big Three and then supplanting those two giants. But now it’s not just three.

There is a Big Six – even though Spurs often look like trespassers – with Manchester City and Liverpool now Chelsea’s biggest domestic and European rivals.

FREE BETS: GET OVER £2,000 NEW CUSTOMER OFFERS

Money at Leicester and Aston Villa too. And, of course, the new emerging force that is Newcastle under their Saudi overlords.

All of this helps explain why even some of the potential bidders might think deeply before even putting their money on the table.

One possible buyer is British chemicals giant Ineos. They belong to Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the UK’s richest person who is worth an estimated £16billion – and who also happens to be a Chelsea fan.

Indeed, Sir Jim and his brother Bob, at the head of Ineos Football, which leads the French team in Nice and the Swiss team in Lausanne, have already been mentioned as potential owners.

When pressed on the subject two years ago, Bob suggested the ‘£2billion sticker price’ for any club in the top six was just the start.

He said: “Why do you expect to be prepared to pay £2billion when the net income for the whole of the Premier League is £5billion and all 20 clubs combined have a net profit of just £500m?

NEW FACE AT THE TOP

“It’s very difficult for a company like Ineos to justify getting into the top six and then writing checks to compete for those top honours.

“We don’t like the stadium economy – numbers don’t work for us.

“Revenues all look pretty flat. The retail side doesn’t work – it’s not rocket science to come to that conclusion.

Even if these problems can be overcome, there are other elements in the equation, some unique to the Prem, others to Chelsea.

Chief among them is the fact that any new owner would own all the assets except Chelsea’s NOM and Stamford Bridge’s PITCH.

They are owned by Chelsea Pitch Owners, an organization created by Rom’s predecessor, Ken Bates, following his bitter battle with property developers Marler Estates.

STADIUM ARCADIUM

Bates sold full ownership of the land and the rights to the ‘Chelsea’ name to the CPO, loaning the group the £10m to make the purchase. In return, the club was granted a 100-year lease, until 2097, for pepper rent.

And the new owner would also be faced with the question of the stadium itself.

Abramovich, 55, has spent millions planning a massive rebuild, which would have required the club to relocate for five seasons.

When Rom, angered that his UK Tier 1 ‘golden visa’ would not be renewed, pulled the plug in 2018, the development was expected to cost up to £1.7billion.

Now that would be well north of £2billion. It’s not that easy to hand over control of a Prem club either.

Chelsea, ironically, were one of the clubs demanding tougher new rules and a tougher test for owners and directors after the Toon takeover.

Read our Football News Live Blog for the latest news, transfer gossip and must-read stories

Any new owner would have to take the Prem test – which could take a few weeks at best – before getting the green light.

Simple, it is not. And then there would be the contracts, the transfers and the demands of the players and the manager.

Perhaps Abramovich’s last message will be short: “Goodbye. And good luck.”

NEW JERSEY DEVILS

19–29–5 (43 points; 0.399%) LIST / CALENDAR

7:00 p.m. – TUESDAY MARCH 1 NATIONAL ARENA COLUMBUS, OH

ESPN+ Hockey Night (ESPN+/Hulu) *Not available on Bally Sports*

For the fourth and final time this season, the Columbus Blue Jackets and New Jersey Devils will square off when the two teams meet Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena.

The Devils scored three goals in each of the first three games, but the Blue Jackets scored four in two of them, winning two of three games.

Three, of course, is also the number of goals Columbus allowed Pittsburgh in Sunday’s controversial 3-2 loss. It was the Blue Jackets’ second straight loss after a four-game winning streak that put the club (barely) back in the conversation for a potential Stanley Cup Playoff berth. At 27-25-1 and on 85-point pace, the Blue Jackets would need to finish the season roughly 20-7-2 to make up enough ground to catch the current 98-point pace of the team that last wildcard spot. , the capitals of Washington.

Impossible? No.

Unlikely? Yes.

A win on Tuesday would bring March like a lion for the Blue Jackets, who will also need it to emerge as one if they have a playoff spot in mind.

---

JCB	SEASON STATS	NJD
3.25	OBJECTIVES FOR	3.08
3.62	GOALS AGAINST	3.57
16.8%	POWER PLAY	18.2%
81.1%	PENALTY KILL	81.7%
29.7	BLOWS FOR	31.7
35.8	SHOT AGAINST	31.1
47.7%	HR% (EVEN)	51.0%
49.0%	FACEOFF WINS	47.8%
GAIT & PROJECTIONS
47.9%	MONEYPUCK’S ODDS OF WINNING	52.1%
62.0%	THE 538 ODDS OF WINNING	38.0%
85.1	82 GAME POINT PACE	66.5

RE:JERSEY

Which version of the Devils will show up on Tuesday night: the ones that crushed Vancouver 7-2 Monday night at Newark, or the one that allowed eight goals in an 8-5 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks? Those who mauled the Penguins 6-1 in Pittsburgh last week, or those who needed that victory to stop a 2-9-1 slide that began in late January?

Statistically, the Devils are led on offense by Jesper Bratt. He’s the team leader in points with 50 (19 goals, 31 assists), and that includes his third straight multi-point night in their win over the Canucks.

But in reality, the Devils may be led by Jack Hughes, who isn’t old enough to drink yet. Hughes had his *fourth* consecutive multi-point effort on Monday, and despite appearing in just 33 games, Hughes is another multi-point night away from the 40-point mark for the season. In his third season in the league, Hughes continues to make great strides as a player and could be a true superstar in the very near future.

As with Columbus, the experience was one of a few critical downfalls for New Jersey. Both teams bounce back being the youngest in the league, depending on who’s in the lineup each night. Hopefully the Devils are a little tired too: New Jersey is 2-6-2 this season on the second night of straight games.

---

STORY LINES

• RE-ALAINE
  After an 11-game point streak, Patrik Laine was knocked off the scoresheet in losses to Carolina and Pittsburgh over the weekend — and like Laine does, so are the Blue Jackets. They are 10-1-0 in Laine’s multi-point games (and 8-4-0 when he has just one point), but 1-10-0 when he is in the lineup and ‘ he didn’t score (and 8-10-1 while out of the lineup with an oblique injury.) Expect Laine to record some big minutes on Tuesday in a bid to break the mini- schneid.
  
• FROM CORSI
  You can’t score if you don’t have the puck, and the Blue Jackets have struggled with puck possession in recent games. Their 47.7% Corsi average for the season is 22nd in the league, but over the last five games they’ve only controlled the puck 41.4% of the time. That would last nearly 2% if he were to hold out over the course of a season. You must have the puck to score the puck – it’s not rocket science.

PROJECTED LINES*

L.W.		VS		RW
29	Patrick Laine	38	Boone Jenner	93	Jakub Voracek
16	Max Domi	34	cole sillinger	59	Yegor Chinakhov
14	Gus Nyquist	7	Sean Kurali	28	Olivier Bjorkstrand
23	Brendan Gaunce	96	Jack Roslovic	17	Justin Danforth

LD		DR
44	Vladislav Gavrikov	2	Andrew Peek
46	Dean Kukan	27	Adam Boqvist
5	Gavin Bayreuther	53	Gabriel Carlson

Starting goalie		Backup
90	Elvis Merzlikins	30	JF Berube

*SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Lift restrictions

With many European countries easing restrictions, now is the time for Malta to end quarantine restrictions on unvaccinated Europeans, resulting in an unfortunate situation of two-class citizens.

A rapid antigen test or PCR test provided free of charge to returning citizens should suffice. Quarantine should no longer be necessary or only until the test result, which should be a day or two at most.

Chris Martin – St Julian’s

Make hay while the sun shines

It is very evident that the call to “make hay while the sun shines” has not only been followed by construction tycoons, but also by some politicians. But the sun will not shine forever as dark clouds may intervene.

Carmel Sciberras – Naxxar

Bank queues

Paul Xuereb (21 February) is correct that in Malta the majority of ATM queues are made up of elderly people. This also applies to simple transactions at the counter, when the queues actually extend to the sidewalk in front of the bank (Ħamrun). Unfortunately, it’s always difficult to teach an old dog new tricks.

I am 75 years old and can easily handle online banking. My wife keeps nagging me every time she wants to transfer money or buy anything online. I explain, but she forgets!

One solution is to have a member of staff (instructions on TV won’t work) remove customers from queues and show them how to do it. Even with a 40/60 success rate, the queues will eventually get shorter. It just takes patience and good will.

Increasing the number of ATMs will also help solve the problem. I live a mile from downtown and there are four ATMs within 50 yards of my house (two at corner grocery stores, one at a gas station, and one outside the substation ). It’s not rocket science.

Paul Brincau – Uxbridge, UK

From the online feedback forum

US sanctions Russia for starting Ukraine invasion

What the United States should do is defuse the situation. But he cannot because he is incapable. Is it all worth it just because Ukraine wants to join NATO? Moreover, wasn’t NATO founded to counter Communism after Churchill ceded Eastern Europe to the Soviet Union? People tend to forget.

And when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War was supposedly over with the demise of the Warsaw Pact, why was NATO expanded? What is it, another British Empire? I would understand if Ukraine was already part of NATO. But this is not the case.

Do you honestly believe that the United States goes after Russia out of love for Ukraine or Ukrainians? Do you think Kinesha and Dewayne really care about Dimitry and Olga as they shop for discounts at the local Walmart in downtown Roanoke, VA? Until yesterday, most Americans didn’t even know where Ukraine was except in the context of hunter Joe Biden’s dealings with a highly corrupt regime. Seriously? – Michael Bencini

I hope Malta will not see this as an opportunity to sell more passports. – MCamilleri

As always, the American propaganda machine tries to paint Russia as the bad guy. The problem is that people are like sheep, they believe and follow. – Victor Bonello

Sanctions have never worked and never will. – John Zammit

Letters to the editor should be sent to [email protected]. Please include your full name, address and ID card number. The publisher may disclose personal information to any person or entity seeking legal action based on a published letter.

Skincare has always been an essential part of our daily routine and as we tend to make our skincare regime more authentic, we often find ourselves stuck between an array of products to treat our many issues.

Surely we’ve heard of powerful ingredients to treat several skin conditions, but it’s time we gave our skin the benefits of natural oils. With the arrival of new trends and ingredients, floral oils have become a popular way to address skin concerns, and a popular choice among these is rosehip oil for healthy, supple skin.

Rosehip oil is a versatile oil that tends to not only hydrate the skin but also fight acne while controlling the signs of aging. This flattering oil is a blend of enriching ingredients that will surely give you flawless and clear skin. If you’re still thinking about that, here’s your guide to the benefits of rosehip oil for skin and how to use it.

What is Rosehip Oil?

Rosehip oil – also known as rosehip seed oil – is harvested from the seeds of rose bushes, which are commonly grown in Chile. It is known to be full of vitamins, antioxidants and essential fatty acids which are believed to do wonderful things for your face.

But does it really live up to the hype? Experts say that while it doesn’t work equally well for everyone (as with any skincare product), its purported benefits aren’t too good to be true.

Beauty Benefits of Rosehip Oil for Skin

Get that supple, plumped skin with the benefits of rosehip oil.

1. Fight Acne

Acne is a very common problem among people of different ages and rosehip oil is your one stop solution to fight acne. Rosehip oil is rich in vitamin A, which means it contains enough retinoids that help exfoliate the skin and provide clearer skin afterwards. It also has anti-inflammatory properties that help reduce irritation and redness.

2. Brightens the skin

The vitamin C content of the oil is perfect for targeting hyperpigmentation and uneven skin, which ultimately helps to brighten the skin and gives your skin a radiant glow. It also reduces dullness and boosts the inside, making your skin look brighter and more radiant.

3. Moisturizes the skin

Regardless of your skin type, hydration is the skin’s need and the fatty acid and vitamin E content in the oil helps to give a nourishing and moisturizing effect to the skin. It eliminates dryness and dullness with just a few drops of oil, leaving your skin looking plump and supple.

4. Moisturizes the skin

When it comes to making your skin glow and nourished from within, hydration is what your skin needs most. The linoleic acid in the oil helps maintain the skin’s natural water content and hydrates it from within, resulting in plump skin.

5. Reduces fine lines and wrinkles

There is no rocket science as we all know that oils are an essential skincare product that we need and it is now abundantly clear that rosehip oil is packed full of benefits that give our skin a radiant glow. It can also improve skin aging as it contains vitamin C and A which are excellent anti-aging ingredients and also promotes exfoliation thereby firming the skin making it ideal for anti-aging purposes as well.

These six tips will make your sales forecasts more accurate.

By John Matthew | February 18, 2022

Some time ago, a gentleman who wanted help selling his business approached me. I asked him: “So, what purchase price do you expect? He looked at me and said, “5 million dollars. I then asked, “How did you find that number?” He looked at me and said with a straight face, “That’s a nice round number.” I paused and said, “So $100 million.”

The point of the story is that he had no idea how much his business was worth and the $5 million figure was a guess. I compare this story to several sales forecasts I regularly encounter that are daisy-chains, round numbers, or guesses. Anyone can come up with a number – the question is whether it’s legit or vaporware. Here are some tips to consider that will make your sales forecast much more accurate than a “good round number.”

It’s basic math: In order to come up with a number – say, $50,000 in sales for the month – a sales rep needs to have several predicted customers that total $50,000. It’s not rocket science, but I am amazed at how often this simple premise is not followed. This simple exercise separates the liability of the seller from the claimants.

Develop a sales model: Most likely, at the start of the sales year, an annualized target sales number was developed to track sales by customer by salesperson (and maybe even by month). A second element of the sales model should be a month-by-month forecast section designed to be updated throughout the year as new information is learned.

Daily Sale Flash: The Daily Sales Flash is a communication tool that provides a daily reminder of the overall monthly objectives for each salesperson. This Daily Flash keeps your sales targets front and center with the entire team, and projected shortfalls can be addressed throughout the month instead of being known at the end of the month.

Forward forecast: Likewise, the sales model can help the team identify gaps in the overall annual plan well in advance. Tell me I have a projected annualized overall deficit in May, so I have seven months to create a plan to close the deficit instead of not recognizing it until the fourth quarter.

Develop routines: Holding each salesperson accountable for their forecast requires milestone discussions throughout the year. I like to schedule one-on-one meetings with each salesperson at the end of the month so we can discuss the current month to see how we’re doing compared to forecast. In the middle of the month, I meet collectively with the sales team to discuss our group sales activities.

Peer pressure: Finally, good old-fashioned peer pressure can motivate each salesperson to achieve their individual goals in addition to contributing positively to the overall team goal. Communicating business accomplishments throughout the month helps create an inspirational message to the whole team that positive efforts are appreciated.

Sales forecasting is not difficult. In fact, what I’ve described above is very, very basic, and yet I’m surprised how often these practices are simply not followed. While there always seems to be a rush of technology to solve all of our problems, sometimes you need to have the basics in place to reap the benefits of these tools.

John Matthews is responsible for managing all consulting activities for Gray Cat Enterprises Inc., which include retail consulting for multi-unit operations; interim executive management; and project management. Prior to founding his own company in 2004, Matthews held leadership positions as President of Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches and as Vice President of Marketing, Merchandising, Facilities, Corporate Communications and real estate at Clark Retail Enterprises, Inc. In addition, Matthews worked for nine years in marketing management as National Director of Marketing for Little Caesars Pizza Corporation.