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OK I broke down and rented a Rug Doctor. My carpet is a little under two years old and not in bad shape except I have a pellet stove and no matter what you do, it puts out a fine gray ash that dulls everything. So far, the results seem good, it will never look like new again, but looks a whole lot better than before. Problem being is that it uses a TON of water and I can hardly get by doing 75 sq ft or so without refill. Opinions? Hints? Anybody know the great Rug Doctor secrets held...

CALHOUN, Ga. — A full economic recovery could be years away since consumer confidence slipped following the country’s debt debate, the head of the nation’s biggest floorcovering company said Friday. Jeff Lorberbaum, chairman and CEO of Mohawk Industries, called on political leaders to create confidence and “get out of the way” of job creation. “We need government to create confidence through consistency,” he said at the Gordon County Chamber of Commerce’s first State of Industry event. “When you get uncomfortable, what do you do? You spend less.” That decline in spending has hit manufacturers like Mohawk especially hard, as consumers...

Need help finding a wool carpet cleaning product. Having trouble finding a brand. My research shows it needs to be pH neutral [or close to it], should NOT leave a sticky residue, and NOT contain any bleach or dye. I have found one product [Orbit ph Neutral Wool Carpet Cleaner] - but it is from the UK and can only be ordered from there. Would like to find domestic manufacturer of a like product or domestic distributer for Orbit. Any help appreciated !!!

<p>While President Obama vacationed in Martha's Vineyard, the Oval Office got a makeover, but one quote on the new carpet is wrongly attributed.</p>

One of the longest--and greenest--red carpets ever created in the United States will stretch across 18 blocks of Manhattan as a lead-up to the 2008 Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Game with its All-Star Game Red Carpet Parade presented by Chevy on July 15th at 1:00 PM ET. Covering 95,000 square feet along Sixth Avenue, the eco-friendly carpet will be graced by baseball legends like Hank Aaron, Yogi Berra, and Willie Mays as they parade through New York City along with the American League and National League All-Stars.

A carpet that was commissioned in India 150 years ago to decorate the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina is due to be auctioned in Qatar. The rug, known as the Pearl Carpet of Baroda, was created using an estimated two million natural seed pearls. It is decorated with hundreds of precious stones, including diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds. Bidding is expected to start at about $5m but experts say its eventual selling price could be far higher. Tradition has it that the Pearl Carpet of Baroda was commissioned by India's wealthy Maharaja of Baroda as a gift to...

December 16, 2008: The B-52 is upgrading its nuclear window shades. The original ones, which depended on ropes and pulleys to put sunshades over the inside of cockpit windows after a nuclear weapon was dropped (to prevent too much heat and light from the detonation from getting in), never worked well, and have long since fallen into disuse. Instead, crews bought the same kind of thermal shades used automobile windshields, and used those just to keep the aircraft cool while parked in sunny climes. But now the U.S. Air Force is getting serious about B-52 use in nuclear warfare, and...

Workers this morning began installing the first of 600 banners sporting messages welcoming those attending the Republican National Convention to Minneapolis and St. Paul. The first of the banners went up at 9 a.m. today on Hennepin Avenue between 6th and 7th streets and in St. Paul on streets near the Xcel Energy Center where the conventions runs Sept. 1-4. Banners will be hung along Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis today. Banners along with floor decals will be placed throughout the baggage claim area at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport starting Monday.

A Canadian stand-up comedian will face a human rights tribunal hearing after a woman complained she and her friends faced a "tirade of homophobic and sexist comments" while attending one of his shows. In a decision released this week, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ruled there is enough evidence to hear the case of Vancouver woman Lorna Pardy against Toronto comedian Guy Earle. Zesty's Restaurant in Vancouver, where the May 22, 2007, show took place, was also named in the complaint. The restaurant has since closed.

Two furniture deliverymen fled a home after a customer produced a gun because they wouldn't take their shoes off, according to police reports. Two employees of Howell's Furniture Gallery were making a delivery to a house in the 5300 of Downs Road last Friday afternoon, the report stated. The homeowner, who was not identified, asked the deliverymen to take off their shoes. They replied removing their shoes was against company policy and pointed out they were wearing protective covers so as not to damage her carpet, the report stated. An argument ensued, which expanded to cover other problems the woman...

SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio police have opened an internal affairs investigation into the behavior of a veteran officer accused of using a racial slur and beating a lesbian woman who asked him to put out his cigar at a community pool. Tamara Vaughan, 18, said her jaw was pushed in and she still cannot open it far after an attack by Detective Keith Alfaro, 35, who was off-duty. Vaughan was hospitalized. She has bruises on her arm that she says are from Alfaro and estimates he hit her 25 times, including putting his forearm on her throat and choking...

Senator Hillary Clinton has denounced Vice President Dick Cheney for saying terrorists would be emboldened by the results of Connecticut's Democratic Primary. REPORTER: That's where an anti-war candidate defeated Senator Joe Lieberman. CLINTON: I don't take anything he says seriously anymore. I think that he has been a very counterproductive even destructive force in our country and I am very disheartened by the failure of leadership from the president and vice president. REPORTER: During a campaign stop in the Bronx yesterday, Clinton accused the administration of shortchanging New York of its homeland security money. A spokeswoman for the vice president...

GHARMAH, Iraq (June 9, 2006) -- Marines with A Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment – along with soldiers from the Iraqi Army – brought a breath of fresh air to a local mosque. Operation Cool Carpet delivered two new air conditioning units and a box of prayer rugs to the Iraqi people near Gharmah, Iraq. “This is basically a mission of good will,” said Sgt. Juan J. Mendez, a 24-year-old squad leader from Gardena, Calif. “This, hopefully, will help the Iraqi soldiers become more trusted in the community.” Marines from A Company have operated in the area since the...

/13/2006 - SATHER AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Day and night they arrive -- four-star generals, ambassadors. congressional leaders and even Vice President Dick Cheney. Whether they stop for a formal visit or are here en route to another location, a two-person protocol team is there to greet them with a salute and a smile. “We are the first people (distinguished visitors) see when they get off of the plane here,” said Capt. Edgar Lopez, 447th Air Expeditionary Group protocol chief. “We have to present a crisp military image, because that is often what they base their impression of their...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran is seeking to revive its carpet industry by weaving the world's biggest rug, weighing in at 35 tonnes. The mammoth rug from the spiritual homeland of Persian carpets will cover almost 6,000 square metres and will fetch some $8.2 million, its makers told Reuters on Saturday. "We will have two working shifts of 1,000 weavers working for 14 months non-stop to deliver the carpet on time," said Karam Reza Haseli, a deputy manager at the state-supported Iranian carpet company. Work is due to start in three months. The carpet has been ordered by the Sheikh Zayed...

Many gay activists compare their current “civil rights” struggles with those faced by blacks in the segregated South in the 1950s. The comparison is deemed offensive by many blacks, given that the average black income is still much lower than the average white income in America. Blacks’ educational attainment still falls well below that of white Americans, even fifty years after the landmark Brown decision. By contrast, gay Americans are wealthier and more educated than their straight counterparts. Nonetheless, lesbian millionaire (and North Carolina Senator) Julia Boseman thinks they need a helping hand. That’s why her family started a special...

LONG before the broomstick became popular with witches in medieval Europe, the flying carpet was being used by thieves and madmen in the Orient. Factual evidence for what was a long-standing myth has now been found by a French explorer, Henri Baq, in Iran. Baq has discovered scrolls of well-preserved manuscripts in underground cellars of an old Assassin castle at Alamut, near the Caspian Sea. Written in the early thirteenth century by a Jewish scholar named Isaac Ben Sherira,' these manuscripts shed new light on the real story behind the flying carpet of the Arabian Nights. The discovery of these...

<p>SANTA MONICA -- In the Robert Redford Building, toilets flush themselves with rainwater -- except for the urinals, which use no water at all -- the floors are made of bamboo and the carpets from hemp.</p> <p>All of which help make it, the actor said during a dedication ceremony in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica on Thursday, one of the "greenest" buildings in America and a glimpse into the environmentally friendly future.</p>