BFI's new £12m film storage facility to preserve Britain's reel history

visit : http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/aug/29/bfi-new-film-storage-facility

It could make a good movie. A mysterious building on the site of a former nuclear bunker for which there are no signs or even opportunities to see it from the road. Inside will be state-owned artefacts as precious as they are dangerous.But this is no pitch. This is the nation's new £12m Master Film Store and is considered one of the most important buildings for the preservation of British film ever built.The store has been built on a nuclear bunker site deep in the Warwickshire countryside and will be capable of holding more than 450,000 cans of the nation's film – everything from Hitchcock to Ealing to Carry On.Robin Baker, head curator of the BFI national archive, said it was an important moment for Britain's film heritage. "I can think of nothing – in fact there is nothing – as transformative for the safety of the national collection as this."He said it felt as though he would be able to do his job as well as he should for the first time. "However much you might be an advocate for the films, love them and try to make them accessible, you knew you couldn't do the best for them in terms of their long-term survival."The problem with so much early film is that it is on nitrate, which is fragile and unstable, and in the wrong conditions will deteriorate. Nitrate is also highly flammable and when it does go up there is no chance of extinguishing it.That has led to a facility for which refrigeration engineers have been as important as architects, with the film cans kept at a stable temperature of -5C (23F) at 35% relative humidity.For years it was thought that copying the film was the only way to deal with the problems of nitrate and the acetate that replaced it, but there is just too much of it to do that. Digitisation is also extremely expensive.

Air Cleaners

visit http://www.epa.gov/iaq/is-imprv.html#Air%20Cleaners

There are many types and sizes of air cleaners on the market, ranging from relatively inexpensive table-top models to sophisticated and expensive whole-house systems. Some air cleaners are highly effective at particle removal, while others, including most table-top models, are much less so. Air cleaners are generally not designed to remove gaseous pollutants.

The effectiveness of an air cleaner depends on how well it collects pollutants from indoor air (expressed as a percentage efficiency rate) and how much air it draws through the cleaning or filtering element (expressed in cubic feet per minute). A very efficient collector with a low air-circulation rate will not be effective, nor will a cleaner with a high air-circulation rate but a less efficient collector. The long-term performance of any air cleaner depends on maintaining it according to the manufacturer's directions.

Another important factor in determining the effectiveness of an air cleaner is the strength of the pollutant source. Table-top air cleaners, in particular, may not remove satisfactory amounts of pollutants from strong nearby sources. People with a sensitivity to particular sources may find that air cleaners are helpful only in conjunction with concerted efforts to remove the source.

want to smoke?

Smoking is one of the worst things teenagers can do to their bodies. Yet every day,almost 5000 teenagers under age of 18 try smoking for the first time.Thenicotine in cigarettes is a poisonous drug. It even be used to kill insects. Nicotine and dozens of other poisonous chemicals in tobacco can cause illness like heart problems and certain kinds of cancer. Some of these illness take years to develop but others can show up right away. Generally, smoking makes a teenager's body less fit and more susceptible to infections. For example, teenagers who smoke are much more likely to get a cold on pneumonia. Each time they like up, it hurts their heart, lungs and brain. And the longer the smoke, the worse the damage becomes. Thus why you still smoke? when you know it dangerous?