The trial of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning challenged the traditional definition of what defines a traitor.The classic case of a mole leaking sensitive documents to a foreign country has been replaced by a junior analyst who can release troves of information to the public with a few key strokes.
Analysts say the government had to clear a higher hurdle in proving that Manning intentionally aided the enemy. They would have to prove that he could reasonably conclude that release of the information would find its way into enemy hands after he turned it over to WikiLeaks.
"They did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he had a specific intent to aid or assist the enemy," said Phil Cave, a former military lawyer now in private practice.That's generally easier to prove in a more traditional case where a suspected traitor is passing information directly to a foreign agent. Manning had argued he was driven by altruistic reasons.The government had argued that as an intelligence analyst Manning would have known that the information would have been of benefit to al-Qaeda.
"In this case where you got information passed along to WikiLeaks it's a little different, but it's a matter of what happened with that information once it's been passed on," said Gary Barthel, a former Marine Corps staff judge advocate.
Prosecutors had argued that Manning assisted al-Qaeda by releasing thousands of pages of documents to the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks. Some of the documents were found on a computer belonging to Osama bin Laden."He was not a whistle-blower, he was a traitor," the prosecutor, Maj. Ashden Fein, told the court in closing arguments.Some legal experts have suggested that Congress may want to examine the aiding the enemy law in light of changes in technology and the changing nature of the threats to the Indoor Positioning System.
"Aiding the enemy has an antique, quaint dimension that sounds like cavalry units," said Eugene Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School.Still, charging Manning under the law shows that the Obama administration is inclined to view Manning and Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor who also leaked secret information to the public, as serious threats to the nation.
"The administration is deadly serious about this," Fidell said. "Manning was a wake-up call and so is Mr. Snowden."Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, said the verdict was an attempt to muzzle anyone inclined to go public with important information.
Analysts, however, said the administration is trying to get its hands around a growing threat to the country's security.Today, the country faces threats from thousands of people with access to information and the ability to publish it instantly."It's even more important to prosecute those crimes," Barthel said. "With technology it's so much easier to disseminate that information. The military, the government has to take a very strong stand on it."
"He put an enormous number of people in great danger," said Daniel Benjamin, , a former counterterrorism coordinator at the State Department and now director of Dartmouth's Dickey Center for International Understanding. "It's absurd to say that this is serving the public good."
The new patent adds 20 new claimed inventions, with a priority date of August 8, 2003, and further expands AudioEye's coverage in the field of automated Internet multi-format multimedia publishing. The technology allows users to continue publishing their Internet content and applications through their systems and via automated means, as AudioEye's cloud-based software platform enables the creation of a mirror image of published content in a completely audio format. Complete with audio navigation, the functionality of any AudioEye-enabled website or mobile site can be accessed without the use of traditional point-and-click technologies. End users are able to access all content, functionality and transactional components of AudioEye-enabled sites without having to use a monitor or mouse. Brands and publishers are able to engage in a dialogue with consumers and other relevant audiences, while website users benefit from mobile, accessible and usable experiences in an audio format.
"As the scope and depth of our platform continues to expand with innovative new technologies designed to allow websites to become more accessible, mobile and compliant with the 21st Century Communications Act, we will continue to patent our innovations," commented Nathaniel Bradley, Chief Executive Officer of AudioEye, Inc. "We are pleased to receive this latest Notice of Allowance, which provides further evidence of AudioEye's early Internet initiatives and pioneering tenure in this rapidly emerging market."
Nathaniel Bradley is the named inventor on all six of AudioEye's issued patents that are foundational to the Company's software as a service (SaaS) product line called the Audio Internet. The Audio Internet is a software service that allows any publisher to provide Internet users with a fully audio, narrated, hands-free and vision-free version of its website. By making Internet content available to users that are challenged by language barriers or disabilities such as dyslexia, autism, and low vision, in a searchable captioned multi-media format, the Audio Internet provides solutions to key issues that companies and government agencies face on a global scale.
Sean Bradley, AudioEye's Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, stated, "Our proprietary set of audio publishing technologies continues to add to the pedigree of AudioEye's technology platform and sets us apart from anything available in today's marketplace. Our intellectual property portfolio continues to expand, protected by an increasing number of patents, thus strengthening AudioEye's position as the sole source of new and exciting Internet mobility, accessibility, and usability solutions. It is our objective to maximize the value of these U.S. patent rights through the execution of our business plan within identified target markets. Our programing interface will accelerate website publishers' ability to afford, benefit from, and fully comply with federal, state and local requirements pertaining to the accessibility mandate of the 21st Century Communications Act."
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Nvidia Shield is a game geek’s dream device
Nvidia’s Shield gaming device debuts today as the geek’s ultimate gadget. At $299, it’s a steep price, considering you can get a home game console for that much. But this portable gaming device can do a lot, and it goes a long way toward bringing better quality and wider variety games to both handhelds and living room TVs.
Ever since Shield was announced in January, the question at hand has been whether Nvidia is really serious about making Shield into a successful alternative to both traditional gaming handhelds and consoles. For sure, this is a way to get Nvidia’s Tegra mobile processor chips back into gaming, after it was shut out of the game consoles and mobile game players. That’s a ploy that rings of desperation. But Shield is also part of a crafty plan to bring Android into a powerful game handheld, take Steam games into living room TVs, and find a way to extend Nvidia’s cloud gaming technology.
Shield has the backing and credibility of a multibillion company, as Nvidia is the world’s largest maker of stand-alone graphics chips. But when it comes to console alternatives, Shield has a lot of rivals: Ouya, GameStick, Moga, Wikipad, Razer Edge, Green Throttle, GamePop, and others. All of them are aimed at dragging the game industry kicking and screaming into a more open and flexible cross-platform world. The case for Shield is that it offers a high-end gaming experience and full entertainment on the go. At the same time, it gives you a way to widen your gaming options on your television.
Shield plays Android games from the Google Play store, but it also plays TegraZone games that have been optimized to run on Nvidia’s Tegra 4 mobile processor, which just came out and runs at a fast 1.9 gigahertz. You can also use Shield to watch movies, real time Location system, read e-books, read your email, and surf the web. Tegra 4 games can take advantage of features including real-time lighting effects, depth of field, soft shadows, high res textures, real-time smoke and particle simulation, and higher polygon counts. Basically, they look good.
I really loved the sound of Shield’s high-fidelity speakers. It has a good bass sound and a high dynamic range for clear and pounding audio. It also has a 3.5 millimeter stereo headphone/mic jack, and it supports 8-channel PCM audio over an HDMI cable. That came through especially good with a title with lots of explosions like Expendable: Rearmed.
My kids, however, really went crazy over the Shield’s ability to control an AR Drone. It took us just a few minutes to assemble the drone and set it on the grass. We downloaded the free AR Drone control app and fired it up. The system immediately detected the AR Drone. I tapped the screen and it lifted off. We took turns flying it around. The camera on the drone streams video directly back to the Shield’s screen, so you can see what the drone sees. You can do this with an iPad or iPhone too, but it was easier to control with the thumbsticks of the Shield.
Since this is the ultimate nerd machine, we had better include some of the nerd details. It has support for Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS. It has 16 gigabytes of built-in flash memory and a slot to expand it with another 64 gigabytes. You can’t use the memory card to add new apps or games to your Shield, but Nvidia says that it will add that functionality in a later update.
It has a three-axis gyro and a 3-axis accelerometer for motion sensing. The dual analog joysticks are shorter than a normal game controller and they’re sunk lower in the unit so that you’ll be able to close the lid. The Bluetooth connection allows you to play multiplayer games such as Virtua Tennis with other Shield users.
Nvidia says the battery lasts for about four to five hours of gameplay for Tegra 4-optimized games and up to 10 hours of gameplay for typical Android games. You can watch high-definition movies for 15 hours and listen to music for 40 hours on a battery charge.
When you’re hunting for rtls, you can get into the TegraZone store with a single touch. You can also drill down into the Shield Store, PC Games, and games that are already installed on the system. Once you download some games, you can find them in the Shield Games section of the user interface. To play a game, you just tap on an icon. It’s all based on familiar Android user interface design.
Not every Android game is going to look great or work well on the Shield. But Nvidia lists more than 130 games that are optimized to work with a controller. If you’re in doubt, check it on the TegraZone web site. Nvidia is promoting games including Arma Tactics, Burn Zombie Burn!, Dead Trigger 2, Hamilton’s Great Adventure, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Real Boxing, Riptide GP 2 HD, Tainted Keep, The Conduit HD, and Zombie Driver HD.
Nvidia has been fairly low key about the launch of the Shield. You haven’t seen it advertised all over the world, and it isn’t yet gearing up for a big worldwide launch beyond its first two territories. That has all of the markings of a cautious game system launch. In an age where being loud matters, Nvidia is launching the Shield in a very quiet way.
Because of that, I was worried about it. But everything I’ve seen of the Shield and its games so far tells me this is a great device for geeks. If those geeks get the word, then Nvidia could have a hit on its hands.
Ever since Shield was announced in January, the question at hand has been whether Nvidia is really serious about making Shield into a successful alternative to both traditional gaming handhelds and consoles. For sure, this is a way to get Nvidia’s Tegra mobile processor chips back into gaming, after it was shut out of the game consoles and mobile game players. That’s a ploy that rings of desperation. But Shield is also part of a crafty plan to bring Android into a powerful game handheld, take Steam games into living room TVs, and find a way to extend Nvidia’s cloud gaming technology.
Shield has the backing and credibility of a multibillion company, as Nvidia is the world’s largest maker of stand-alone graphics chips. But when it comes to console alternatives, Shield has a lot of rivals: Ouya, GameStick, Moga, Wikipad, Razer Edge, Green Throttle, GamePop, and others. All of them are aimed at dragging the game industry kicking and screaming into a more open and flexible cross-platform world. The case for Shield is that it offers a high-end gaming experience and full entertainment on the go. At the same time, it gives you a way to widen your gaming options on your television.
Shield plays Android games from the Google Play store, but it also plays TegraZone games that have been optimized to run on Nvidia’s Tegra 4 mobile processor, which just came out and runs at a fast 1.9 gigahertz. You can also use Shield to watch movies, real time Location system, read e-books, read your email, and surf the web. Tegra 4 games can take advantage of features including real-time lighting effects, depth of field, soft shadows, high res textures, real-time smoke and particle simulation, and higher polygon counts. Basically, they look good.
I really loved the sound of Shield’s high-fidelity speakers. It has a good bass sound and a high dynamic range for clear and pounding audio. It also has a 3.5 millimeter stereo headphone/mic jack, and it supports 8-channel PCM audio over an HDMI cable. That came through especially good with a title with lots of explosions like Expendable: Rearmed.
My kids, however, really went crazy over the Shield’s ability to control an AR Drone. It took us just a few minutes to assemble the drone and set it on the grass. We downloaded the free AR Drone control app and fired it up. The system immediately detected the AR Drone. I tapped the screen and it lifted off. We took turns flying it around. The camera on the drone streams video directly back to the Shield’s screen, so you can see what the drone sees. You can do this with an iPad or iPhone too, but it was easier to control with the thumbsticks of the Shield.
Since this is the ultimate nerd machine, we had better include some of the nerd details. It has support for Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS. It has 16 gigabytes of built-in flash memory and a slot to expand it with another 64 gigabytes. You can’t use the memory card to add new apps or games to your Shield, but Nvidia says that it will add that functionality in a later update.
It has a three-axis gyro and a 3-axis accelerometer for motion sensing. The dual analog joysticks are shorter than a normal game controller and they’re sunk lower in the unit so that you’ll be able to close the lid. The Bluetooth connection allows you to play multiplayer games such as Virtua Tennis with other Shield users.
Nvidia says the battery lasts for about four to five hours of gameplay for Tegra 4-optimized games and up to 10 hours of gameplay for typical Android games. You can watch high-definition movies for 15 hours and listen to music for 40 hours on a battery charge.
When you’re hunting for rtls, you can get into the TegraZone store with a single touch. You can also drill down into the Shield Store, PC Games, and games that are already installed on the system. Once you download some games, you can find them in the Shield Games section of the user interface. To play a game, you just tap on an icon. It’s all based on familiar Android user interface design.
Not every Android game is going to look great or work well on the Shield. But Nvidia lists more than 130 games that are optimized to work with a controller. If you’re in doubt, check it on the TegraZone web site. Nvidia is promoting games including Arma Tactics, Burn Zombie Burn!, Dead Trigger 2, Hamilton’s Great Adventure, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Real Boxing, Riptide GP 2 HD, Tainted Keep, The Conduit HD, and Zombie Driver HD.
Nvidia has been fairly low key about the launch of the Shield. You haven’t seen it advertised all over the world, and it isn’t yet gearing up for a big worldwide launch beyond its first two territories. That has all of the markings of a cautious game system launch. In an age where being loud matters, Nvidia is launching the Shield in a very quiet way.
Because of that, I was worried about it. But everything I’ve seen of the Shield and its games so far tells me this is a great device for geeks. If those geeks get the word, then Nvidia could have a hit on its hands.
Monday, July 29, 2013
What today's introduction of Employment
The Government's legal aid cuts may have attracted their fair share of criticism, but another reform with potentially huge implications for access to justice quietly kicks in today.As of this morning, Employment Tribunals - set up to provide a proper, impartial forum for the resolution of disputes between employees and employers - are no longer free to access. If you're unfairly sacked, discriminated against or don't receive wages owed from now on, you'll need to pay an upfront cost or bite your lip.
The Ministry of Justice claims that the ￡84m (or ￡74m, depending on which particular Government document you happen to be looking at) cost of running the Employment Tribunals Service is too high. They say it's unfair for taxpayers to foot the bill for workers who choose to "escalate workplace disputes to a tribunal" and argue that "drawn out disputes" can "emotionally damage workers and financially damage businesses".
What this translates to is a fees system compelling claimants (almost always employees or ex-employees) to pay ￡160 just to begin the process of challenging employers over relatively simple matters like non-payment of wages or statutory redundancy pay.
Should they then want to take the case to a full hearing, they'll need a further ￡230. If that seems onerous, spare a thought for those challenging unfair dismissal, sexual or racial discrimination in the workplace, or sackings arising from whistle-blowing, who will now have to cough up ￡250 upfront, with a further ￡950 due for a day at tribunal.
There's no guarantee either that a claimant will get their fees back, even if they win their case. While the new rules allow tribunals to impose a costs order against a losing party, this is entirely at a judge's discretion, so even if an employee proves that they were, Indoor Positioning System, the victim of sexual harassment at work, a good chunk of their compensation awarded could well be swallowed up by fees.
Although the Government's own impact assesment freely concedes that it "cannot rule out... fees may have the effect of deterring some claimants from bringing a claim", it insists that the policy is not designed to reduce claims, only to transfer some of the cost from taxpayers. Responding to criticism that fees might put poor people off seeking redress, the MoJ points to the Civil Fee Remission scheme, whereby low-earners and those in receipt of state benefits such as Jobseekers Allowance can obtain a full or partial waiver of fees for tribunal proceedings.
Yet the MoJ is already planning major reforms to Civil Fee Remission and, while it has yet to respond to the four-week consultation it issued in the spring, proposals already floated include a tougher means test, a reduction in the number of benefits accepted as proof of entitlement to fee remission in line with the Universal Credit reforms and a 66 per cent reduction in the time limit for retrospective remission claims, from six to two months.
While it won't be clear for some months what the what the final reformed remissions system will look like, someone who qualifies for free access to an Employment Tribunal today might not necessarily make the grade come the autumn.
It's easy to raise the spectre of feckless employees cashing in on an overly-generous system. Indeed, the controversial Beecroft report commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and its rabidly "socialist" Secretary of State Vince Cable, warned of sacked workers with "time on their hands", who view a free employment tribunal "as a no cost option".
Beecroft's report didn't trouble itself with figures - he famously put the cost of red tape to business at a distinctly unscientific "Who knows?" - but here are a few to consider. Since hitting a peak of 236,100 in the wake of financial crash - when presumably there was a sudden spike in chancers with "time on their hands" - the number of claims accepted for consideration by employment tribunals has fallen by a fifth.
Only eight per cent of unfair dismissal claims are successful at hearing, while there was a whopping, er, zero per cent success rate for equal pay claims in 2011-12. Nobody wants British companies to be bogged down with unnecessary costs at a time of economic stagnation, but if this is a system stacked against employers, it's doing a pretty good job of pretending otherwise.
Even the Federation of Small Business, which backs the principle of claimants bearing some of the cost for employment claims, has said it believes that the fee levels introduced today may be too high, while prominent employment lawyers argue that the reforms could actually lead to more litigation because of disputes over fee payment deadlines.
Meanwhile, the Institute of Employment Rights think tank warns that, when combined with other changes like the legal aid reforms, the doubling of the qualifying period for unfair dismissal to two years, the halving of consultation periods for collective redundancies, fees will add to a climate "in which it is extremely difficult for workers to receive compensation and support if they are treated unfairly by their employer." If you're lucky enough to be in work at the moment, that should worry you.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
The Ministry of Justice claims that the ￡84m (or ￡74m, depending on which particular Government document you happen to be looking at) cost of running the Employment Tribunals Service is too high. They say it's unfair for taxpayers to foot the bill for workers who choose to "escalate workplace disputes to a tribunal" and argue that "drawn out disputes" can "emotionally damage workers and financially damage businesses".
What this translates to is a fees system compelling claimants (almost always employees or ex-employees) to pay ￡160 just to begin the process of challenging employers over relatively simple matters like non-payment of wages or statutory redundancy pay.
Should they then want to take the case to a full hearing, they'll need a further ￡230. If that seems onerous, spare a thought for those challenging unfair dismissal, sexual or racial discrimination in the workplace, or sackings arising from whistle-blowing, who will now have to cough up ￡250 upfront, with a further ￡950 due for a day at tribunal.
There's no guarantee either that a claimant will get their fees back, even if they win their case. While the new rules allow tribunals to impose a costs order against a losing party, this is entirely at a judge's discretion, so even if an employee proves that they were, Indoor Positioning System, the victim of sexual harassment at work, a good chunk of their compensation awarded could well be swallowed up by fees.
Although the Government's own impact assesment freely concedes that it "cannot rule out... fees may have the effect of deterring some claimants from bringing a claim", it insists that the policy is not designed to reduce claims, only to transfer some of the cost from taxpayers. Responding to criticism that fees might put poor people off seeking redress, the MoJ points to the Civil Fee Remission scheme, whereby low-earners and those in receipt of state benefits such as Jobseekers Allowance can obtain a full or partial waiver of fees for tribunal proceedings.
Yet the MoJ is already planning major reforms to Civil Fee Remission and, while it has yet to respond to the four-week consultation it issued in the spring, proposals already floated include a tougher means test, a reduction in the number of benefits accepted as proof of entitlement to fee remission in line with the Universal Credit reforms and a 66 per cent reduction in the time limit for retrospective remission claims, from six to two months.
While it won't be clear for some months what the what the final reformed remissions system will look like, someone who qualifies for free access to an Employment Tribunal today might not necessarily make the grade come the autumn.
It's easy to raise the spectre of feckless employees cashing in on an overly-generous system. Indeed, the controversial Beecroft report commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and its rabidly "socialist" Secretary of State Vince Cable, warned of sacked workers with "time on their hands", who view a free employment tribunal "as a no cost option".
Beecroft's report didn't trouble itself with figures - he famously put the cost of red tape to business at a distinctly unscientific "Who knows?" - but here are a few to consider. Since hitting a peak of 236,100 in the wake of financial crash - when presumably there was a sudden spike in chancers with "time on their hands" - the number of claims accepted for consideration by employment tribunals has fallen by a fifth.
Only eight per cent of unfair dismissal claims are successful at hearing, while there was a whopping, er, zero per cent success rate for equal pay claims in 2011-12. Nobody wants British companies to be bogged down with unnecessary costs at a time of economic stagnation, but if this is a system stacked against employers, it's doing a pretty good job of pretending otherwise.
Even the Federation of Small Business, which backs the principle of claimants bearing some of the cost for employment claims, has said it believes that the fee levels introduced today may be too high, while prominent employment lawyers argue that the reforms could actually lead to more litigation because of disputes over fee payment deadlines.
Meanwhile, the Institute of Employment Rights think tank warns that, when combined with other changes like the legal aid reforms, the doubling of the qualifying period for unfair dismissal to two years, the halving of consultation periods for collective redundancies, fees will add to a climate "in which it is extremely difficult for workers to receive compensation and support if they are treated unfairly by their employer." If you're lucky enough to be in work at the moment, that should worry you.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Bach, Kodaly
His Sunday-morning recital in Atherton -- one of the festival's "Carte Blanche" concerts, where headliners are given a free hand to devise their own programs -- was "pleasant" in the deepest sense. "Pleasing" is the better adjective: Quiet contentment reigned in the Menlo School's Stent Family Hall. What a way to spend a Sunday morning; as good as crawling into a cozy nook with a favorite book, warmed by light through a window.
Beginning with Suite No. 3 in C major, Carr played with streaming clarity, bounding and bright. His earthy tone enriched the big splayed chords of the Prelude, the hopping rhythms of the Allemande, the expansive soulfulness of the Sarabande. The music was in his fingers. In fact, one could see Bach's cascading logic -- its physical representation -- in Carr's wily shifts in finger position and variety of bow attacks.
In a 2004 Carte Blanche concert, Carr played all six of the solo suites from memory. It was a memorable traversal of the works, which had been largely forgotten until 1890, when 13-year-old Pablo Casals stumbled on a crumbling copy of the sheet music in a Barcelona music shop.
In Carr's pithier Sunday recital, two suites were plenty. He also performed Bach's Suite No. 5 in C minor, which requires the cellist to change the instrument's tuning. By lowering the top string a whole step from A to G, the player can access additional chords and unleash unusual overtones and resonances, making this suite unique. It is the gravest of the rtls; "pleasant" doesn't do it justice.
Carr's first chord was a timbral explosion, and he took it on from there, flowing through the Prelude's fugue-like sequences, later opening into the painful beauty of the slow Sarabande. Carr's natural sense of phrasing seemed to scrub clean the concluding Gigue: For this listener, Bach's nifty voice leading and implied harmonies have never been easier to follow.
After intermission, Carr again retuned his instrument, this time for Zoltan Kodaly's Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 8. It instructs the player to lower the bottom two strings by a half-step, from C to B and from G to F-sharp, making possible more unusual resonances and contributing to the work's essential character.
This year's Menlo festival, titled "From Bach," attempts to spell out the connections between Bach and composers to the present day. Kodaly's Sonata for Solo Cello (1915) echoes Bach in specific chords and cadences. But Kodaly also was fascinated by Eastern European folk music, which he imitates with keening vocal-like effects and "unbridled slash-and-burn virtuosity," as Carr put it in his program notes.
Dedicating his performance to the late János Starker, who put this piece on the map, Carr rooted into the sonata's raw moans and ululations, shimmering pizzicato chords and volatile bass effects, which rattled the cello -- and the room. It was a terrific blood-and-guts performance that Bach could never have imagined.
“Kays” as they called him was son to a Gushungo who migrated from Serima and my gogo a Muturikwa whose parents possibly migrated from Mrehwa. He was born in 1945, across the river from Prime Minister’s home. Surprisingly that is as far as their similarities go because had he been alive, he would not vote for MDC-T today. This man who forever will be revered as a hero in my memory was disabled. It was not an inborn disability, but something happened to his right lower leg when he was young. Up to the day he died, he had not been able to discuss with me nor my siblings regards to what really happened. All I know is that it was a fire accident.
Kays believed in the revolutionary movement’s focus on policies that improve lives of the common man. He would always urge Zanu (PF) to go back to roots to emphasise on such policies to lure lost votes. “It will be a walkover on these directionless boys” he argued with me on his deathbed at Parerinyatwa. He belonged to a generation who had wanted to participate in liberation struggle but failed because of various reasons. They mobilised students, recruits, provided clothes and other support. Such a class faced wrath of Smith regime accused of being lifeblood to the comrades and withholding information. These professionals played their part but never clamoured for recognition to date.
The fire accident deformed his right leg such that his toes turned towards the heel to form a round like foot developing into a very thin sheen up the leg. So to speak he stepped on the top of his foot. That leg became shorter. At times he used clutches until Jairos Jiri organised a special shoe for him. From Bata shops, he would buy a pair of size 11 but only use the left one. That special shoe could only be repaired but he could not buy a new one. Courtesy of Mugabe’s health policy, more disadvantaged people like him during years after independence could always be treated for free regardless of medical needs. UK has maintained a similar socialist health policy to date. The number of health clinics opened country wide, more medical professionals training, building of toilets in rural areas, access to clean water all pointed to a caring leader in Mugabe.
Just like many, he was frustrated that the Lancaster House Agreement put land redistribution on hold for 10 years. Worse still after that period, Mugabe was frustrated into being unable to fulfil pre-war time period promises to resettle masses from reserves as apportioned by Land Apportionment Act 1930. When farm invasions started in 2000, all Kays said was “Commercial Farmers’ Union have shot themselves in the foot.” CFU never thought farms could be taken away from them. White farmers believed in the Courts which continued to make decisions against land redistribution. To date land redistribution has continued and although chaotic, people’s lives have been changed.
Kays was appointed acting headmaster closer to his home in 1985 but by then he was already involved in running elections. He would later work as presiding officer in charge of polling centres. Talk of Zanu (PF) vote rigging was doing rounds by 1990 elections. Edgar Tekere gave Mugabe a run for his cash and many expected a surprise. Results later indicated that “Two-Boy” Tekere actually lost dismally. I put it to him then about vote rigging and to the day he died, he maintained the answer he gave me 19 years before. He explained the system to me, how each candidate’s representatives verify boxes before they are sealed and sign to agree authenticity. The same happens when opening the boxes and counting the ballots. He believed that in the system run by Mudede, there is no way any rigging can happen. He reminded me that rigging could affect Mugabe as well and as such the system had to be water tight. I believed him and still can argue that it is possible Zanu (PF) has never rigged elections to this day.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Beginning with Suite No. 3 in C major, Carr played with streaming clarity, bounding and bright. His earthy tone enriched the big splayed chords of the Prelude, the hopping rhythms of the Allemande, the expansive soulfulness of the Sarabande. The music was in his fingers. In fact, one could see Bach's cascading logic -- its physical representation -- in Carr's wily shifts in finger position and variety of bow attacks.
In a 2004 Carte Blanche concert, Carr played all six of the solo suites from memory. It was a memorable traversal of the works, which had been largely forgotten until 1890, when 13-year-old Pablo Casals stumbled on a crumbling copy of the sheet music in a Barcelona music shop.
In Carr's pithier Sunday recital, two suites were plenty. He also performed Bach's Suite No. 5 in C minor, which requires the cellist to change the instrument's tuning. By lowering the top string a whole step from A to G, the player can access additional chords and unleash unusual overtones and resonances, making this suite unique. It is the gravest of the rtls; "pleasant" doesn't do it justice.
Carr's first chord was a timbral explosion, and he took it on from there, flowing through the Prelude's fugue-like sequences, later opening into the painful beauty of the slow Sarabande. Carr's natural sense of phrasing seemed to scrub clean the concluding Gigue: For this listener, Bach's nifty voice leading and implied harmonies have never been easier to follow.
After intermission, Carr again retuned his instrument, this time for Zoltan Kodaly's Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 8. It instructs the player to lower the bottom two strings by a half-step, from C to B and from G to F-sharp, making possible more unusual resonances and contributing to the work's essential character.
This year's Menlo festival, titled "From Bach," attempts to spell out the connections between Bach and composers to the present day. Kodaly's Sonata for Solo Cello (1915) echoes Bach in specific chords and cadences. But Kodaly also was fascinated by Eastern European folk music, which he imitates with keening vocal-like effects and "unbridled slash-and-burn virtuosity," as Carr put it in his program notes.
Dedicating his performance to the late János Starker, who put this piece on the map, Carr rooted into the sonata's raw moans and ululations, shimmering pizzicato chords and volatile bass effects, which rattled the cello -- and the room. It was a terrific blood-and-guts performance that Bach could never have imagined.
“Kays” as they called him was son to a Gushungo who migrated from Serima and my gogo a Muturikwa whose parents possibly migrated from Mrehwa. He was born in 1945, across the river from Prime Minister’s home. Surprisingly that is as far as their similarities go because had he been alive, he would not vote for MDC-T today. This man who forever will be revered as a hero in my memory was disabled. It was not an inborn disability, but something happened to his right lower leg when he was young. Up to the day he died, he had not been able to discuss with me nor my siblings regards to what really happened. All I know is that it was a fire accident.
Kays believed in the revolutionary movement’s focus on policies that improve lives of the common man. He would always urge Zanu (PF) to go back to roots to emphasise on such policies to lure lost votes. “It will be a walkover on these directionless boys” he argued with me on his deathbed at Parerinyatwa. He belonged to a generation who had wanted to participate in liberation struggle but failed because of various reasons. They mobilised students, recruits, provided clothes and other support. Such a class faced wrath of Smith regime accused of being lifeblood to the comrades and withholding information. These professionals played their part but never clamoured for recognition to date.
The fire accident deformed his right leg such that his toes turned towards the heel to form a round like foot developing into a very thin sheen up the leg. So to speak he stepped on the top of his foot. That leg became shorter. At times he used clutches until Jairos Jiri organised a special shoe for him. From Bata shops, he would buy a pair of size 11 but only use the left one. That special shoe could only be repaired but he could not buy a new one. Courtesy of Mugabe’s health policy, more disadvantaged people like him during years after independence could always be treated for free regardless of medical needs. UK has maintained a similar socialist health policy to date. The number of health clinics opened country wide, more medical professionals training, building of toilets in rural areas, access to clean water all pointed to a caring leader in Mugabe.
Just like many, he was frustrated that the Lancaster House Agreement put land redistribution on hold for 10 years. Worse still after that period, Mugabe was frustrated into being unable to fulfil pre-war time period promises to resettle masses from reserves as apportioned by Land Apportionment Act 1930. When farm invasions started in 2000, all Kays said was “Commercial Farmers’ Union have shot themselves in the foot.” CFU never thought farms could be taken away from them. White farmers believed in the Courts which continued to make decisions against land redistribution. To date land redistribution has continued and although chaotic, people’s lives have been changed.
Kays was appointed acting headmaster closer to his home in 1985 but by then he was already involved in running elections. He would later work as presiding officer in charge of polling centres. Talk of Zanu (PF) vote rigging was doing rounds by 1990 elections. Edgar Tekere gave Mugabe a run for his cash and many expected a surprise. Results later indicated that “Two-Boy” Tekere actually lost dismally. I put it to him then about vote rigging and to the day he died, he maintained the answer he gave me 19 years before. He explained the system to me, how each candidate’s representatives verify boxes before they are sealed and sign to agree authenticity. The same happens when opening the boxes and counting the ballots. He believed that in the system run by Mudede, there is no way any rigging can happen. He reminded me that rigging could affect Mugabe as well and as such the system had to be water tight. I believed him and still can argue that it is possible Zanu (PF) has never rigged elections to this day.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
The feds see no evil as a belligerent strongman
In the early years, the St. Louis biotech giant helped pioneer such leading chemicals as DDT, PCBs and Agent Orange. Unfortunately, these breakthroughs had a tendency to kill stuff. And the torrent of lawsuits that comes from random killing put a crimp on long-term profitability.
It began in the mid-'90s, when Monsanto developed genetically modified (GM) crops such as soybeans, alfalfa, sugar beets and wheat. These Franken-crops were immune to its leading weed killer, Roundup. That meant that farmers no longer had to till the land to kill weeds, as they'd done for hundreds of years. They could simply blast their entire fields with chemicals, leaving GM crops the only thing standing. Problem solved.
The so-called no-till revolution promised greater yields, better profits for the family farm and a heightened ability to feed a growing world. But there was one small problem: Agriculture had placed a belligerent strongman in charge of the buffet line.Monsanto knew that it needed more than genetically modified crops to squeeze out competitors, so it also began buying the biggest seed businesses, spending $12 billion by the time its splurge concluded. The company was cornering agriculture by buying up the best shelf space and indoor Tracking. All its boasting about global benevolence began to look much more like a naked power grab.
Seed prices soared. Between 1995 and 2011, the cost of soybeans increased 325 percent. The price of corn rose 259 percent. And the cost of genetically modified cotton jumped a stunning 516 percent.Instead of feeding the world, Monsanto simply drove prices through the roof, taking the biggest share for itself. A study by Dr. Charles Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State University, found that rapidly increasing seed and pesticide costs were lowering farmers' incomes.
To further corner the field, Monsanto offered steep discounts to independent dealers willing to restrict themselves to mostly selling Monsanto products. And the arrangements brought severe punishment if independents ever sold out to a rival.Intel had run a similar campaign within the tech industry, only to be drilled by the European Union with a record $1.45 billion fine for anti-competitive practices. Yet U.S. regulators showed little concern for Monsanto's expanding power.
"It was done in a completely open-sourced way," says Benbrook. "Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture exchanged all sorts of seeds with other scientists and researchers all over the world. This free trade and exchange of plant genetic resources was the foundation of progress in plant breeding. And in less than a decade, it was over."The first crack appeared in 1970, when Congress empowered the USDA to grant exclusive marketing rights to novel strains, with two exceptions: Farmers could replant the seeds if they chose, and patented varieties had to be provided to researchers.
But that wasn't enough. Corporations wanted more control, and they got it with a dramatic, landmark Supreme Court decision in 1980, which allowed the patenting of living organisms. The decision was intended to increase research and innovation. But it had the opposite effect, encouraging market concentration.Monsanto would soon go on its buying spree, gobbling up every rival seed company in sight. It patented the best seeds for genetic engineering, leaving only the inferior for sale as conventional, non-GM brands. (Monsanto declined an interview request for this story.)Biotech giants Syngenta and DuPont both sued, accusing Monsanto of monopolistic practices and a "scorched-earth campaign" in its seed-company contracts. But instead of bringing reform, the companies reached settlements that granted them licenses to use, sell and cross-develop Monsanto products. (Some DuPont suits drag on.)
"They're a pesticide company that's bought up seed firms," says Bill Freese, a scientist at the Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit public-interest and environmental-advocacy group. "Business-wise, it's a beautiful, really smart strategy. It's just awful for agriculture and the environment."Lineups were a big complaint last year, and while they exist at this year’s fest, wait times aren’t unreasonable. Hands down, the longest queue on the day we visited was for Tacofino, the bright orange taco truck that got its start in Tofino and now has a brick-and-mortar location on East Hastings Street. People waited a good 15 minutes to get their hands on one of its lingcod, yam tempura, black bean, or other tacos.
Feastro the Rolling Bistro features tacos too, with this day’s varieties being smoked salmon, jerk chicken, pulled pork, and red snapper. The last three are topped with a lively and lovely tomato-and-star-anise chutney. The big seller here, though, seemed to be Feastro’s sweet-potato frites, served with a side of smokin’ hot, smoked-chipotle aioli.Perhaps not surprisingly given the heat, the Chili Tank (which serves chilies and soups) wasn’t seeing a lot of action, but then inexplicably neither was E.L.I.’s Serious Sausage, which offers premium, all-natural bratwurst on Schrippen buns and currywurst in a dish with house-made, lip-smacking curry ketchup.
Hormone- and nitrate-free ingredients also make up the wieners at DougieDog Diner Truck, but these are not your typical ballpark franks. From his red-and-white-checkered truck, the owner, who goes by the name Dougie Luv, dishes up monsters like the Charlie Mac Dog, which is topped with bacon and macaroni and cheese, and the DougieDog, which comes with a crazy heap of pastrami, horseradish, melted Cheddar, and Grey Poupon mustard. Dougie makes his own butterscotch root beer, too.A favourite find was Johnny’s Pops, exotic popsicles in funky flavour combinations like raspberry-basil and avocado-lime. (There was also strawberry rhubarb, blueberry mojito, and creamy strawberry lemonade.)
Other things to know about the fest: this year, there’s a new admission fee of $2 for adults and a maximum of $5 for families (kids 13 and under get in free). The money goes toward renting the site, plus partial proceeds support A Loving Spoonful, which provides nourishing meals to people living with HIV/AIDS.Vancity members get in free, so remember to have that bank card handy. (There are ATMs onsite if you forget to bring cash.) There’s a market featuring vendors such as Zulu Records, as well as a rotating lineup of DJs, including Flipout and Cherchez La Femme. Kids have access to a bouncy castle and face-painting. Food prices vary, with most items costing between $5 and $9. Lunch for four of us came to $46.
Parking can be somewhat challenging, but there’s a pay lot across the road and some free street parking. Of course, you should be taking transit, walking, or cycling anyway; there’s even a bicycle valet. With so many fabulous trucks serving up generous portions made with passion, it helps if you’ve worked up an appetite.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
It began in the mid-'90s, when Monsanto developed genetically modified (GM) crops such as soybeans, alfalfa, sugar beets and wheat. These Franken-crops were immune to its leading weed killer, Roundup. That meant that farmers no longer had to till the land to kill weeds, as they'd done for hundreds of years. They could simply blast their entire fields with chemicals, leaving GM crops the only thing standing. Problem solved.
The so-called no-till revolution promised greater yields, better profits for the family farm and a heightened ability to feed a growing world. But there was one small problem: Agriculture had placed a belligerent strongman in charge of the buffet line.Monsanto knew that it needed more than genetically modified crops to squeeze out competitors, so it also began buying the biggest seed businesses, spending $12 billion by the time its splurge concluded. The company was cornering agriculture by buying up the best shelf space and indoor Tracking. All its boasting about global benevolence began to look much more like a naked power grab.
Seed prices soared. Between 1995 and 2011, the cost of soybeans increased 325 percent. The price of corn rose 259 percent. And the cost of genetically modified cotton jumped a stunning 516 percent.Instead of feeding the world, Monsanto simply drove prices through the roof, taking the biggest share for itself. A study by Dr. Charles Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State University, found that rapidly increasing seed and pesticide costs were lowering farmers' incomes.
To further corner the field, Monsanto offered steep discounts to independent dealers willing to restrict themselves to mostly selling Monsanto products. And the arrangements brought severe punishment if independents ever sold out to a rival.Intel had run a similar campaign within the tech industry, only to be drilled by the European Union with a record $1.45 billion fine for anti-competitive practices. Yet U.S. regulators showed little concern for Monsanto's expanding power.
"It was done in a completely open-sourced way," says Benbrook. "Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture exchanged all sorts of seeds with other scientists and researchers all over the world. This free trade and exchange of plant genetic resources was the foundation of progress in plant breeding. And in less than a decade, it was over."The first crack appeared in 1970, when Congress empowered the USDA to grant exclusive marketing rights to novel strains, with two exceptions: Farmers could replant the seeds if they chose, and patented varieties had to be provided to researchers.
But that wasn't enough. Corporations wanted more control, and they got it with a dramatic, landmark Supreme Court decision in 1980, which allowed the patenting of living organisms. The decision was intended to increase research and innovation. But it had the opposite effect, encouraging market concentration.Monsanto would soon go on its buying spree, gobbling up every rival seed company in sight. It patented the best seeds for genetic engineering, leaving only the inferior for sale as conventional, non-GM brands. (Monsanto declined an interview request for this story.)Biotech giants Syngenta and DuPont both sued, accusing Monsanto of monopolistic practices and a "scorched-earth campaign" in its seed-company contracts. But instead of bringing reform, the companies reached settlements that granted them licenses to use, sell and cross-develop Monsanto products. (Some DuPont suits drag on.)
"They're a pesticide company that's bought up seed firms," says Bill Freese, a scientist at the Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit public-interest and environmental-advocacy group. "Business-wise, it's a beautiful, really smart strategy. It's just awful for agriculture and the environment."Lineups were a big complaint last year, and while they exist at this year’s fest, wait times aren’t unreasonable. Hands down, the longest queue on the day we visited was for Tacofino, the bright orange taco truck that got its start in Tofino and now has a brick-and-mortar location on East Hastings Street. People waited a good 15 minutes to get their hands on one of its lingcod, yam tempura, black bean, or other tacos.
Feastro the Rolling Bistro features tacos too, with this day’s varieties being smoked salmon, jerk chicken, pulled pork, and red snapper. The last three are topped with a lively and lovely tomato-and-star-anise chutney. The big seller here, though, seemed to be Feastro’s sweet-potato frites, served with a side of smokin’ hot, smoked-chipotle aioli.Perhaps not surprisingly given the heat, the Chili Tank (which serves chilies and soups) wasn’t seeing a lot of action, but then inexplicably neither was E.L.I.’s Serious Sausage, which offers premium, all-natural bratwurst on Schrippen buns and currywurst in a dish with house-made, lip-smacking curry ketchup.
Hormone- and nitrate-free ingredients also make up the wieners at DougieDog Diner Truck, but these are not your typical ballpark franks. From his red-and-white-checkered truck, the owner, who goes by the name Dougie Luv, dishes up monsters like the Charlie Mac Dog, which is topped with bacon and macaroni and cheese, and the DougieDog, which comes with a crazy heap of pastrami, horseradish, melted Cheddar, and Grey Poupon mustard. Dougie makes his own butterscotch root beer, too.A favourite find was Johnny’s Pops, exotic popsicles in funky flavour combinations like raspberry-basil and avocado-lime. (There was also strawberry rhubarb, blueberry mojito, and creamy strawberry lemonade.)
Other things to know about the fest: this year, there’s a new admission fee of $2 for adults and a maximum of $5 for families (kids 13 and under get in free). The money goes toward renting the site, plus partial proceeds support A Loving Spoonful, which provides nourishing meals to people living with HIV/AIDS.Vancity members get in free, so remember to have that bank card handy. (There are ATMs onsite if you forget to bring cash.) There’s a market featuring vendors such as Zulu Records, as well as a rotating lineup of DJs, including Flipout and Cherchez La Femme. Kids have access to a bouncy castle and face-painting. Food prices vary, with most items costing between $5 and $9. Lunch for four of us came to $46.
Parking can be somewhat challenging, but there’s a pay lot across the road and some free street parking. Of course, you should be taking transit, walking, or cycling anyway; there’s even a bicycle valet. With so many fabulous trucks serving up generous portions made with passion, it helps if you’ve worked up an appetite.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
The Writers Workbench
Okay, so you've bought your iPhone, or SmartPhone, or iPod, or whatever the portable device is that you're going to carry with you and entrust so much of your life to. It's now time to protect it. Is that necessary? Well -- not totally. If the sides or back get dinged or scratched, does that really matter? To some people, it does -- the design of the thing, after all, is half the joy of a handheld device. More to the point, a case does offer some protection if it gets dropped. Okay, when it gets dropped. Though don't think you can drop something without impunity, just because there's a case around it. So, there is value in a case. But where protection is a near-necessity is with the screen, since if that gets scratched up, it might render your device too difficult to read. So, we look at a couple of those products here, as well -- with quite interesting results.
Know, too, that although these are all for the iPod touch (which was reviewed her in March), most of these cases will have an equivalent for the iPhone, so if something strikes your Indoor Positioning System, it's worth checking the company websites to see if there's something that matches. I know it's not a perfect solution, but one plays with the cards you have. Perhaps that will change in the future. Updates as they occur...
Griffin has long made a strong line of Apple accessories. The Reveal case is very simple, but it's perhaps my favorite here. At first sight, it's perhaps the least imposing -- a one-piece shell with black, rubber sides and a clear polycarbonate back, only 1.5 mm thin, flexible and very light. What I liked was how little weight was added to the iPod, how easy it was to slip the device in and remove it, and especially how well it retained the designed-appearance of the device.
I did find that dirt and dust could enter a bit easier than with others, which isn't a particular problem, except that because the back is clear plastic, so you might want to remove the case on occasion to dust it off. There isn't as much cushioning as with sturdier, fully-polycarbonate cases, but it's solid protection. The loop hole at the bottom is a little tight and not perfectly centered, which can cause a little drag, but then I suspect like many not everyone uses the loop. One last minor quibble: it appears to be slightly angled, so the protective side ridges don't cover the sides as high as at very bottom. I'd prefer more of a ridge in case you place the device face-down on a surface.
It has wide opening cut-outs for the camera and microphone on back, dock connector and earphone jack at bottom. The rubber covering over volume controls are easy to use without needing extra force, though a bit mushy. It retails for $20, but could be found for $18 onli
As part of its new one-to-one student learning initiative, the St. Clair R-XIII School District is rolling out new email addresses for faculty and staff and eventually will do the same for older students.
The initiative, which will be phased in over the next 18 months, will put a digital device in the hands of every junior and senior high school student and will allow for access of information available at numerous and almost limitless sources besides textbooks through the World Wide Web.The cost to initiate the program — $431,000 — was approved in June by the board of education as part of the 2013-14 budget. The money will be used to purchase 1,400 Google Chromebooks at a cost of about $300 per unit.Google Apps for Education, a cloud-based system, will be used. Superintendent Mike Murphy said the program is more than a search engine. He also said the program has no cost to use.
As part of the initiative, teachers and students will use email more frequently to communicate and assist with the learning process. Since the program is Google based, gmail accounts will be used.“The email transition is a thought process,” Murphy told board of education members during their July meeting last week. “And as a whole, this transitional process is beginning to take shape.”
At least, you’ll need some kind of self-made shade if you happen to show up at the foodie extravaganza during a heat wave. No longer adjacent to the Waldorf Hotel, the worthwhile weekly event, now in its second year, takes place at a reclaimed industrial site just west of the Olympic Village.
The site is huge, flat, and surrounded by a chain-link fence. Where there isn’t gravel or cement on the ground, there are mounds of small rocks. With nary a tree in sight, shade is nonexistent, save for a few white tents with table seating—about hundreds too few on a recent blazing afternoon.
Of course, it’s a good sign that there’s been a shortage of comfortable places to sit: about 5,000 people have shown up every Sunday since late June, according to Daniel Fazio, brand director for the Arrival Agency, which is presenting Food Cart Fest in collaboration with Streetfood Vancouver and Vancity. “We’re adding more tents and seating each week,” Fazio said in a follow-up query.That’s great news, but still, to be safe, for the love of Apollo wear a hat. Then you’ll be ready to fully enjoy this happening gathering of Vancouver’s finest purveyors of street food.
The number and names of carts taking part varies from week to week, but there are always at least 20. Among the mobile eateries we had to choose from were Yolk’s Breakfast (specializing in poached-egg sandwiches with cool add-ons like panko-tempura avocado and truffle-oil-and-lemon hash brown skewers) and Pig on the Street (the pink Westfalia celebrating all things pork in items like the Southern Piggy sandwich, which has double-smoked bacon and bourbon barbecue sauce, and in treats such as a bacon, bourbon, and caramel brownie). Then there were Mangall Kiss Mideast BBQ, which makes super-satisfying Moroccan-spiced meatballs (with a big hunk of yam and another of red potato on the side) and Soho Road Naan Kebab, which stuffs the soft bread with tandoori chicken, butter chicken, or other tantalizing options.
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/.
Know, too, that although these are all for the iPod touch (which was reviewed her in March), most of these cases will have an equivalent for the iPhone, so if something strikes your Indoor Positioning System, it's worth checking the company websites to see if there's something that matches. I know it's not a perfect solution, but one plays with the cards you have. Perhaps that will change in the future. Updates as they occur...
Griffin has long made a strong line of Apple accessories. The Reveal case is very simple, but it's perhaps my favorite here. At first sight, it's perhaps the least imposing -- a one-piece shell with black, rubber sides and a clear polycarbonate back, only 1.5 mm thin, flexible and very light. What I liked was how little weight was added to the iPod, how easy it was to slip the device in and remove it, and especially how well it retained the designed-appearance of the device.
I did find that dirt and dust could enter a bit easier than with others, which isn't a particular problem, except that because the back is clear plastic, so you might want to remove the case on occasion to dust it off. There isn't as much cushioning as with sturdier, fully-polycarbonate cases, but it's solid protection. The loop hole at the bottom is a little tight and not perfectly centered, which can cause a little drag, but then I suspect like many not everyone uses the loop. One last minor quibble: it appears to be slightly angled, so the protective side ridges don't cover the sides as high as at very bottom. I'd prefer more of a ridge in case you place the device face-down on a surface.
It has wide opening cut-outs for the camera and microphone on back, dock connector and earphone jack at bottom. The rubber covering over volume controls are easy to use without needing extra force, though a bit mushy. It retails for $20, but could be found for $18 onli
As part of its new one-to-one student learning initiative, the St. Clair R-XIII School District is rolling out new email addresses for faculty and staff and eventually will do the same for older students.
The initiative, which will be phased in over the next 18 months, will put a digital device in the hands of every junior and senior high school student and will allow for access of information available at numerous and almost limitless sources besides textbooks through the World Wide Web.The cost to initiate the program — $431,000 — was approved in June by the board of education as part of the 2013-14 budget. The money will be used to purchase 1,400 Google Chromebooks at a cost of about $300 per unit.Google Apps for Education, a cloud-based system, will be used. Superintendent Mike Murphy said the program is more than a search engine. He also said the program has no cost to use.
As part of the initiative, teachers and students will use email more frequently to communicate and assist with the learning process. Since the program is Google based, gmail accounts will be used.“The email transition is a thought process,” Murphy told board of education members during their July meeting last week. “And as a whole, this transitional process is beginning to take shape.”
At least, you’ll need some kind of self-made shade if you happen to show up at the foodie extravaganza during a heat wave. No longer adjacent to the Waldorf Hotel, the worthwhile weekly event, now in its second year, takes place at a reclaimed industrial site just west of the Olympic Village.
The site is huge, flat, and surrounded by a chain-link fence. Where there isn’t gravel or cement on the ground, there are mounds of small rocks. With nary a tree in sight, shade is nonexistent, save for a few white tents with table seating—about hundreds too few on a recent blazing afternoon.
Of course, it’s a good sign that there’s been a shortage of comfortable places to sit: about 5,000 people have shown up every Sunday since late June, according to Daniel Fazio, brand director for the Arrival Agency, which is presenting Food Cart Fest in collaboration with Streetfood Vancouver and Vancity. “We’re adding more tents and seating each week,” Fazio said in a follow-up query.That’s great news, but still, to be safe, for the love of Apollo wear a hat. Then you’ll be ready to fully enjoy this happening gathering of Vancouver’s finest purveyors of street food.
The number and names of carts taking part varies from week to week, but there are always at least 20. Among the mobile eateries we had to choose from were Yolk’s Breakfast (specializing in poached-egg sandwiches with cool add-ons like panko-tempura avocado and truffle-oil-and-lemon hash brown skewers) and Pig on the Street (the pink Westfalia celebrating all things pork in items like the Southern Piggy sandwich, which has double-smoked bacon and bourbon barbecue sauce, and in treats such as a bacon, bourbon, and caramel brownie). Then there were Mangall Kiss Mideast BBQ, which makes super-satisfying Moroccan-spiced meatballs (with a big hunk of yam and another of red potato on the side) and Soho Road Naan Kebab, which stuffs the soft bread with tandoori chicken, butter chicken, or other tantalizing options.
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Grain of salt needed on China moves
But although the decision by the People's Bank of China to end its mandated floor on lending rates is a noteworthy step in this process, we should treat any claims of "financial liberalisation" with a grain of salt in this case.
Yes, a bit more and cheaper credit will be made available, which is why the Australian dollar and copper prices rose earlier on hopes of stronger demand for commodities. But until the central bank goes after the elephant in the room -- its cap on the rates that banks can pay to depositors -- one could argue that this entrenches the power of the country's four big banks and its state-owned enterprises more than it opens up the financial system.
According to Alberto Ades, co-head of global economics at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, only 11 per cent of bank loans were charged at below benchmark during the first quarter of the year. This means that a small coterie of borrowers -- nearly all of them large, state-owned enterprises whose implicit government backing lets them obtain funds more cheaply than private-sector firms -- will benefit most from this measure.
As with the surprising hands-off approach that the central bank took to last month's worrying spike in short-term interbank lending rates, the major losers, and likely targets, of this interest rate change are the so-called "shadow banking" providers of "wealth management" products. These outfits had sprung up to fill a burgeoning demand for credit that the more tightly controlled official banking sector was unable to fill. Authorities worried that they were fuelling speculative real estate bubbles and fomenting risky debts.
The solution last month was to squeeze the shadow banking system, which funded itself through the wholesale credit markets, through higher interbank interest rates, a move that was far less of a problem for Indoor Positioning System, given their access to cheap deposits.
A far more important change would be an end to the cap on deposit rates, which have often been set at rates below inflation, because this would seriously challenge the banks' cost structures. The system as it works now is a form of financial repression for China's prodigious household and corporate savers, who stash away about 50 per cent of national income in rainy day funds but have little choice but to put that money in the banks and see it lose purchasing power.
It has been only three years since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act and five years since the 2008 financial crisis, but memories in Washington can be short. Even though we are still emerging from a foreclosure crisis that has affected tens of millions of American families, some in Congress are already pushing to weaken new rules designed to protect taxpayers and keep consumers safe from the faulty mortgage products that wrecked the economy.
The latest danger is H.R. 1077 and its companion bill, S. 949. Deceptively entitled the "Consumer Mortgage Choice Act," the bills seek to undermine Dodd-Frank’s ability-to repay provision. This provision, one of the most direct and important responses to the mortgage crisis, requires lenders to determine whether a borrower can afford a mortgage before they extend a loan. The rule was adopted to prohibit loans that were "designed to fail," a practice that was central to the origination model that brought on the financial crisis. Under the new rule, if lenders offer loans that meet the qualified mortgagestandards provided by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau , they are presumed to have proven the borrower’s ability to repay and are therefore protected from litigation.
One of these standards is a cap on points and fees, the up-front cost of getting a loan, at 3% of the loan amount. H.R. 1077 and S. 949 would create significant exceptions to this, allowing many more high-cost loans to qualify as QM loans.
Specifically, these bills recreate incentives for lenders to steer families into high-risk, high-fee loans they do not understand and cannot afford. In recent investigations, the U.S Department of Justice discovered that, in the lead up to the financial crisis, tens of thousands of borrowers, especially minorities, were sold unsustainable subprime loans even when they qualified for more affordable loans. The mark-up in the cost of those loans led to increased profits for the lenders and also became an indirect form of compensation and dangerous incentive for mortgage brokers. The ability-to-repay rule regulates this indirect compensation by counting it toward the points and fees cap. The new bill, however, would remove indirect compensation from the cap and encourage the same predatory loan companies that dominated the subprime market back into our neighborhoods.
In addition, H.R.1077 and S. 949 would allow additional loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac deem as risky to be counted as QM, and it would remove the cap on fees charged by title companies that are owned by the lender making the loan. The conflict of interest that exists when a title company is owned by the loan issuer can prevent consumers from getting the best prices on title insurance.
It is also very troubling to us that H.R. 1077 and S. 949 undermine the rulemaking authority of the CFPB. The consumer agency has received very positive reviews from industry and consumer groups alike in its work putting in place rules for QM – rules that it has modified several times to address reasonable industry concerns. The CFPB can monitor markets and make changes as conditions warrant, but putting these changes into statute ties the agency’s hands and makes it more difficult to protect consumers. The Senate has finally confirmed Director Richard Cordray, and the CFPB ought to be free to do its work.
Supporters of H.R. 1077 and S.949 claim that these changes will make sure that more safe mortgages pass the QM test and guarantee access to credit for low income Americans. We heard these same arguments in the early 2000s as the industry lobbied against consumer protection, and the result was that needed reforms were not made until after a financial crisis that nearly brought down the economy. The 2008 crisis cost millions of people their jobs, their pensions or their homes, and we should learn from what went wrong and avoid making the same mistakes moving forward.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Yes, a bit more and cheaper credit will be made available, which is why the Australian dollar and copper prices rose earlier on hopes of stronger demand for commodities. But until the central bank goes after the elephant in the room -- its cap on the rates that banks can pay to depositors -- one could argue that this entrenches the power of the country's four big banks and its state-owned enterprises more than it opens up the financial system.
According to Alberto Ades, co-head of global economics at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, only 11 per cent of bank loans were charged at below benchmark during the first quarter of the year. This means that a small coterie of borrowers -- nearly all of them large, state-owned enterprises whose implicit government backing lets them obtain funds more cheaply than private-sector firms -- will benefit most from this measure.
As with the surprising hands-off approach that the central bank took to last month's worrying spike in short-term interbank lending rates, the major losers, and likely targets, of this interest rate change are the so-called "shadow banking" providers of "wealth management" products. These outfits had sprung up to fill a burgeoning demand for credit that the more tightly controlled official banking sector was unable to fill. Authorities worried that they were fuelling speculative real estate bubbles and fomenting risky debts.
The solution last month was to squeeze the shadow banking system, which funded itself through the wholesale credit markets, through higher interbank interest rates, a move that was far less of a problem for Indoor Positioning System, given their access to cheap deposits.
A far more important change would be an end to the cap on deposit rates, which have often been set at rates below inflation, because this would seriously challenge the banks' cost structures. The system as it works now is a form of financial repression for China's prodigious household and corporate savers, who stash away about 50 per cent of national income in rainy day funds but have little choice but to put that money in the banks and see it lose purchasing power.
It has been only three years since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act and five years since the 2008 financial crisis, but memories in Washington can be short. Even though we are still emerging from a foreclosure crisis that has affected tens of millions of American families, some in Congress are already pushing to weaken new rules designed to protect taxpayers and keep consumers safe from the faulty mortgage products that wrecked the economy.
The latest danger is H.R. 1077 and its companion bill, S. 949. Deceptively entitled the "Consumer Mortgage Choice Act," the bills seek to undermine Dodd-Frank’s ability-to repay provision. This provision, one of the most direct and important responses to the mortgage crisis, requires lenders to determine whether a borrower can afford a mortgage before they extend a loan. The rule was adopted to prohibit loans that were "designed to fail," a practice that was central to the origination model that brought on the financial crisis. Under the new rule, if lenders offer loans that meet the qualified mortgagestandards provided by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau , they are presumed to have proven the borrower’s ability to repay and are therefore protected from litigation.
One of these standards is a cap on points and fees, the up-front cost of getting a loan, at 3% of the loan amount. H.R. 1077 and S. 949 would create significant exceptions to this, allowing many more high-cost loans to qualify as QM loans.
Specifically, these bills recreate incentives for lenders to steer families into high-risk, high-fee loans they do not understand and cannot afford. In recent investigations, the U.S Department of Justice discovered that, in the lead up to the financial crisis, tens of thousands of borrowers, especially minorities, were sold unsustainable subprime loans even when they qualified for more affordable loans. The mark-up in the cost of those loans led to increased profits for the lenders and also became an indirect form of compensation and dangerous incentive for mortgage brokers. The ability-to-repay rule regulates this indirect compensation by counting it toward the points and fees cap. The new bill, however, would remove indirect compensation from the cap and encourage the same predatory loan companies that dominated the subprime market back into our neighborhoods.
In addition, H.R.1077 and S. 949 would allow additional loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac deem as risky to be counted as QM, and it would remove the cap on fees charged by title companies that are owned by the lender making the loan. The conflict of interest that exists when a title company is owned by the loan issuer can prevent consumers from getting the best prices on title insurance.
It is also very troubling to us that H.R. 1077 and S. 949 undermine the rulemaking authority of the CFPB. The consumer agency has received very positive reviews from industry and consumer groups alike in its work putting in place rules for QM – rules that it has modified several times to address reasonable industry concerns. The CFPB can monitor markets and make changes as conditions warrant, but putting these changes into statute ties the agency’s hands and makes it more difficult to protect consumers. The Senate has finally confirmed Director Richard Cordray, and the CFPB ought to be free to do its work.
Supporters of H.R. 1077 and S.949 claim that these changes will make sure that more safe mortgages pass the QM test and guarantee access to credit for low income Americans. We heard these same arguments in the early 2000s as the industry lobbied against consumer protection, and the result was that needed reforms were not made until after a financial crisis that nearly brought down the economy. The 2008 crisis cost millions of people their jobs, their pensions or their homes, and we should learn from what went wrong and avoid making the same mistakes moving forward.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Soldier Show tour returns to Campbell
The Army Soldier Show returns to Fort Campbell’s Wilson Theater Saturday for two performances. Showcasing the musical talents of 22 Soldiers from locations across the globe, the 2013 Army Soldier Show celebrates 30 years of entertaining troops with their “Ready and Resilient” tour which pays tribute to many of the Nation’s milestones.
The 75-minute musical production by Active Duty, Army Reserve and Army National Guard Soldiers put an entertaining spin on how Soldiers and their Families maintain readiness and resiliency.“This year, the Soldier Show pays tributes to the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation; the 75th anniversary of “God Bless America;” the 60th anniversary of the Armistice of the Korean War; and the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Vietnam War,” said Jessica Ryan, MWR marketing.
“Ready and Resilient” is a high-energy live musical production that showcases the talents of active-duty Soldiers selected by audition from throughout the Army.The show is assembled and rehearsed five weeks for a four-month tour of more than 40 installations worldwide, said Sgt. 1st Class Robert Isom, Army Entertainment.
“During these trying times of rtls, along with the Army’s current status of deployments, Wounded Warriors, and loss; this message is not only important, but timely,” said Isom. “We as a Nation will bounce back as we have always done in the face of trying times, and we are here to do our part. It is not only a show, but a life changing message to give all those who will hear, hope for today and tomorrow, to continue on forward no matter what challenges life hands us.”
“Every American, military-affiliated or not, will be able to see themselves in the show,” said Army Soldier Show Artistic Director Victor Hurtado in a U.S. Army Installation Management Command news release. “The fact that the show is entertaining someone is already taking them away [from their mindset], but the messaging is going to inspire. We know they are coming to be entertained, but further, the content in the show is designed to hopefully be a time-released pool of inspiration.”
“The show is very much about illustrating not only ways to get away and be resilient, but also illustrating overarching solutions to certain issues that are facing the military today, like [the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Program], Gold Star, Blue Star and Survivor Outreach Services,” Hurtado said.
“Panhandling within the area creates a situation of unease and effects the quality of life and vacation experience for those here,” city attorney Tom Ellenburg told city councilmen in June.
Carotti said, however, it may go a little deeper than that and pointed to a U.S. Court of Appeals case where five “panhandlers” sued the city of Charlottesville, Va., claiming the city’s panhandling laws violated their rights to free speech and right to assemble.
“The presence of homeless people begging in public places makes some people feel uncomfortable. But the First Amendment does not allow the government to ban speech simply to prevent discomfort,” Rebecca Glenberg, ACLU of Virginia legal director, told its website publication in February when the ruling was filed. “Localities may not ban people from asking for money simply by invoking the magic words ’public safety.”
She said Thursday that the ordinance, which was ruled lawful in U.S. District Court but overturned in the Court of Appeals, was painted as a panhandling ordinance, but really deals with aggressive panhandling more so than restricting a person’s right to assemble and free speech.“What our ordinance is, is more about harassment... and violence,” Dickler said. “So it’s not panhandling, per se. That’s certainly how it got painted.”
Dickler said their case centered around the Downtown Mall where people were persistent in asking for money or donations. She said the city certainly stands by the rights of individuals to assemble and the freedom of speech, like to ask another person for money, but what it doesn’t stand for is when that question becomes harassment. In other words, to ask for a dollar is fine, but to get denied in that request and then ask for 50 cents and then a quarter is pushing it beyond someone’s hands free access.
The city of Charlottesville then went as far as creating a Downtown Ambassador Program, which, as Dickler puts it, “raises visibility of official presence.” These part-time city employees – funded partially by tourism funds and with some law enforcement funding – act as Polo-shirt wearing tour guides, but can also be the middle men between someone who feels they are being harassed and the police.
“If the county is going to entertain passing such legislation, we’re going to have to have evidence and make public record of the problem,” Carotti said. “ ... Things such as it interferes significantly with normal traffic flow... that it creates a heightened sense of insecurity or alarm. That it creates public safety or a nuisance type concerns for the county.
“And even if we establish that, our ordinance is going to have to be narrowly tailored with the least restrictive means of governing this type of activity. We are not going to be able to simply say, ‘We think this might be a problem for the county because the city is prohibiting this activity. We think that that’s going to mean that this activity is going to migrate into the unincorporated areas of the county.’ That’s not going to be sufficient,” he said.
The 75-minute musical production by Active Duty, Army Reserve and Army National Guard Soldiers put an entertaining spin on how Soldiers and their Families maintain readiness and resiliency.“This year, the Soldier Show pays tributes to the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation; the 75th anniversary of “God Bless America;” the 60th anniversary of the Armistice of the Korean War; and the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Vietnam War,” said Jessica Ryan, MWR marketing.
“Ready and Resilient” is a high-energy live musical production that showcases the talents of active-duty Soldiers selected by audition from throughout the Army.The show is assembled and rehearsed five weeks for a four-month tour of more than 40 installations worldwide, said Sgt. 1st Class Robert Isom, Army Entertainment.
“During these trying times of rtls, along with the Army’s current status of deployments, Wounded Warriors, and loss; this message is not only important, but timely,” said Isom. “We as a Nation will bounce back as we have always done in the face of trying times, and we are here to do our part. It is not only a show, but a life changing message to give all those who will hear, hope for today and tomorrow, to continue on forward no matter what challenges life hands us.”
“Every American, military-affiliated or not, will be able to see themselves in the show,” said Army Soldier Show Artistic Director Victor Hurtado in a U.S. Army Installation Management Command news release. “The fact that the show is entertaining someone is already taking them away [from their mindset], but the messaging is going to inspire. We know they are coming to be entertained, but further, the content in the show is designed to hopefully be a time-released pool of inspiration.”
“The show is very much about illustrating not only ways to get away and be resilient, but also illustrating overarching solutions to certain issues that are facing the military today, like [the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Program], Gold Star, Blue Star and Survivor Outreach Services,” Hurtado said.
“Panhandling within the area creates a situation of unease and effects the quality of life and vacation experience for those here,” city attorney Tom Ellenburg told city councilmen in June.
Carotti said, however, it may go a little deeper than that and pointed to a U.S. Court of Appeals case where five “panhandlers” sued the city of Charlottesville, Va., claiming the city’s panhandling laws violated their rights to free speech and right to assemble.
“The presence of homeless people begging in public places makes some people feel uncomfortable. But the First Amendment does not allow the government to ban speech simply to prevent discomfort,” Rebecca Glenberg, ACLU of Virginia legal director, told its website publication in February when the ruling was filed. “Localities may not ban people from asking for money simply by invoking the magic words ’public safety.”
She said Thursday that the ordinance, which was ruled lawful in U.S. District Court but overturned in the Court of Appeals, was painted as a panhandling ordinance, but really deals with aggressive panhandling more so than restricting a person’s right to assemble and free speech.“What our ordinance is, is more about harassment... and violence,” Dickler said. “So it’s not panhandling, per se. That’s certainly how it got painted.”
Dickler said their case centered around the Downtown Mall where people were persistent in asking for money or donations. She said the city certainly stands by the rights of individuals to assemble and the freedom of speech, like to ask another person for money, but what it doesn’t stand for is when that question becomes harassment. In other words, to ask for a dollar is fine, but to get denied in that request and then ask for 50 cents and then a quarter is pushing it beyond someone’s hands free access.
The city of Charlottesville then went as far as creating a Downtown Ambassador Program, which, as Dickler puts it, “raises visibility of official presence.” These part-time city employees – funded partially by tourism funds and with some law enforcement funding – act as Polo-shirt wearing tour guides, but can also be the middle men between someone who feels they are being harassed and the police.
“If the county is going to entertain passing such legislation, we’re going to have to have evidence and make public record of the problem,” Carotti said. “ ... Things such as it interferes significantly with normal traffic flow... that it creates a heightened sense of insecurity or alarm. That it creates public safety or a nuisance type concerns for the county.
“And even if we establish that, our ordinance is going to have to be narrowly tailored with the least restrictive means of governing this type of activity. We are not going to be able to simply say, ‘We think this might be a problem for the county because the city is prohibiting this activity. We think that that’s going to mean that this activity is going to migrate into the unincorporated areas of the county.’ That’s not going to be sufficient,” he said.
Corporate Business Development
As President of Chicago-based Quadrant Management Consulting, LLC, Mr. Epstein leverages his diverse background to support a client base ranging from major global corporations to small, advanced IP companies. Regardless of size, he delivers innovation and strategic growth initiatives by forging alliances and leveraging his network to support clients' business development efforts, including the commercialization and realization of the value inherent in their IP portfolios.
A creative problem-solver and innovator, Mr. Epstein graduated from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. His academic background includes physics, chemistry, mathematics and business, providing him an unusual insight into the world of innovation. He has been regularly published in international peer-reviewed physics journals and is currently writing his dissertation for a PhD in physics.
In addition to serving his clientele, Mr. Epstein is a sought-after public speaker on such topics as the future, sustainability, entrepreneurship science and packaging. He serves on a number of indoor positioning system, including the Edison Innovation Awards organization.
"Harry has demonstrated an ability to not only identify strategic relationships, but to make direct introductions to key decision-makers at Fortune 1000 companies," said Nathaniel Bradley, Chief Executive Officer of AudioEye, Inc. "We are excited to welcome Harry to our team and look forward to his day-to-day involvement in AudioEye's strategic efforts to increase our penetration of the corporate market. We believe Harry's contributions will open the doors to an extensive pipeline of opportunities, and he has already begun to impact the growth of our Company."
"AudioEye's technology involving the voice-enablement and navigation of websites is what I consider the future of 'hands-free convenience communications', which can empower and enhance people in their daily lives and drive the creation of novel services and devices," noted Mr. Epstein. "I am extremely enthusiastic about participating in the Company's future success."
This release includes forward-looking statements contained within Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements regarding our expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, financing plans, business strategy, products and services, competitive positions, growth opportunities, plans and objectives of management for future operations, as well as statements that include words such as "anticipate," "if," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "could," "should," "will," and other similar expressions are forward-looking statements.
All forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, or achievements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include those set forth in our Form 10-K and other reports filed with the SEC. We are under no obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or alter our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Khan Academy, best known for its free online library of video tutorials, is using the summer months to offer in-person teacher trainings in places like Chicago, New Orleans, and Redwood City, California. The workshops are integrating what teachers and Khan Academy staff have learned over the past few years while experimenting with different ways of integrating videos and Khan assessments into classrooms.
“Now that we are a couple of years in it, we have enough evidence of really great teacher practices that we are trying to share with a broader audience,” said Khan Academy President Shantanu Sinha, at a training workshop in Redwood City earlier this week.
Khan Academy isn’t new to many educators. Thousands of teachers are using the videos to reinforce concepts, introduce ideas, or as review resources. And as Khan Academy has grown in use, it has also expanded beyond videos by offering things like practice exercises and a dashboard for teachers to track how students are doing on those exercises.
Teachers sign up their students as a class and can monitor if students are watching videos and if they’re doing the associated practice exercises. This back-end view of how well a student understands the material helps teachers determine who is ready to move on and who needs more help.
“We think you should have the power to look at your data and say, ‘These four kids are ready to get off Khan Academy and do a deep dive into a hands-on project,’” workshop facilitator Maureen Suhendra said. She emphasized that Khan Academy believes learning should be mastery-based, kids don’t move on to a new skill until they’ve mastered the foundational ones.“We’re not about sitting kids down and leaving them in front of computers all day,” Suhendra said. In fact, she told the teachers gathered that kids get tired of the videos and exercises if they are used for more than an hour.
“It’s not that Sal is a better teacher and, ‘Oh, let’s bring him into the classroom,” said Anne Hong, an eighth-grade math teacher at the training. “But more that you are extending learning beyond the classroom.” She’s found that allowing students to access the lessons online has freed her up to do more engaging projects and one-on-one work in the classroom.
Educators at the workshop also learned that the site shows how each video lines up with Common Core standards, broken down by grade level.While the core materials on the site are still centered on K-12 math instruction, Khan Academy is beginning to branch out into other subjects as well, building up its video library on subjects ranging from art history to computer science. Those areas aren’t as robust as the math content, but Sinha says the plan is to build in ways to demonstrate knowledge and learning that are appropriate to each subject.
Khan Academy will not be able to offer in-person trainings like this one to all its users, but the website still provides teachers with instructions on how to get started as well as those looking for new ideas. But for those who were able to attend, the workshop was valuable.
“With this whole flipped model and the new standards coming out, it is nice to have some guidance,” said middle school teacher Larkin O’Leary. “I don’t think they are going to tell me how to do it, but maybe just give me some more strategies or different ways of thinking.” Other teachers said it was nice to meet the people behind what can feel like a faceless product. And teachers isolated in classrooms throughout the school year love to network and get ideas from one another.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/!
A creative problem-solver and innovator, Mr. Epstein graduated from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. His academic background includes physics, chemistry, mathematics and business, providing him an unusual insight into the world of innovation. He has been regularly published in international peer-reviewed physics journals and is currently writing his dissertation for a PhD in physics.
In addition to serving his clientele, Mr. Epstein is a sought-after public speaker on such topics as the future, sustainability, entrepreneurship science and packaging. He serves on a number of indoor positioning system, including the Edison Innovation Awards organization.
"Harry has demonstrated an ability to not only identify strategic relationships, but to make direct introductions to key decision-makers at Fortune 1000 companies," said Nathaniel Bradley, Chief Executive Officer of AudioEye, Inc. "We are excited to welcome Harry to our team and look forward to his day-to-day involvement in AudioEye's strategic efforts to increase our penetration of the corporate market. We believe Harry's contributions will open the doors to an extensive pipeline of opportunities, and he has already begun to impact the growth of our Company."
"AudioEye's technology involving the voice-enablement and navigation of websites is what I consider the future of 'hands-free convenience communications', which can empower and enhance people in their daily lives and drive the creation of novel services and devices," noted Mr. Epstein. "I am extremely enthusiastic about participating in the Company's future success."
This release includes forward-looking statements contained within Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements regarding our expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, financing plans, business strategy, products and services, competitive positions, growth opportunities, plans and objectives of management for future operations, as well as statements that include words such as "anticipate," "if," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "could," "should," "will," and other similar expressions are forward-looking statements.
All forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, or achievements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include those set forth in our Form 10-K and other reports filed with the SEC. We are under no obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or alter our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Khan Academy, best known for its free online library of video tutorials, is using the summer months to offer in-person teacher trainings in places like Chicago, New Orleans, and Redwood City, California. The workshops are integrating what teachers and Khan Academy staff have learned over the past few years while experimenting with different ways of integrating videos and Khan assessments into classrooms.
“Now that we are a couple of years in it, we have enough evidence of really great teacher practices that we are trying to share with a broader audience,” said Khan Academy President Shantanu Sinha, at a training workshop in Redwood City earlier this week.
Khan Academy isn’t new to many educators. Thousands of teachers are using the videos to reinforce concepts, introduce ideas, or as review resources. And as Khan Academy has grown in use, it has also expanded beyond videos by offering things like practice exercises and a dashboard for teachers to track how students are doing on those exercises.
Teachers sign up their students as a class and can monitor if students are watching videos and if they’re doing the associated practice exercises. This back-end view of how well a student understands the material helps teachers determine who is ready to move on and who needs more help.
“We think you should have the power to look at your data and say, ‘These four kids are ready to get off Khan Academy and do a deep dive into a hands-on project,’” workshop facilitator Maureen Suhendra said. She emphasized that Khan Academy believes learning should be mastery-based, kids don’t move on to a new skill until they’ve mastered the foundational ones.“We’re not about sitting kids down and leaving them in front of computers all day,” Suhendra said. In fact, she told the teachers gathered that kids get tired of the videos and exercises if they are used for more than an hour.
“It’s not that Sal is a better teacher and, ‘Oh, let’s bring him into the classroom,” said Anne Hong, an eighth-grade math teacher at the training. “But more that you are extending learning beyond the classroom.” She’s found that allowing students to access the lessons online has freed her up to do more engaging projects and one-on-one work in the classroom.
Educators at the workshop also learned that the site shows how each video lines up with Common Core standards, broken down by grade level.While the core materials on the site are still centered on K-12 math instruction, Khan Academy is beginning to branch out into other subjects as well, building up its video library on subjects ranging from art history to computer science. Those areas aren’t as robust as the math content, but Sinha says the plan is to build in ways to demonstrate knowledge and learning that are appropriate to each subject.
Khan Academy will not be able to offer in-person trainings like this one to all its users, but the website still provides teachers with instructions on how to get started as well as those looking for new ideas. But for those who were able to attend, the workshop was valuable.
“With this whole flipped model and the new standards coming out, it is nice to have some guidance,” said middle school teacher Larkin O’Leary. “I don’t think they are going to tell me how to do it, but maybe just give me some more strategies or different ways of thinking.” Other teachers said it was nice to meet the people behind what can feel like a faceless product. And teachers isolated in classrooms throughout the school year love to network and get ideas from one another.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/!
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Estimote Creator Talks About Building
Estimote’s first prototype looked like a parrot. They designed it to sit in stores and count the humans entering and leaving the location and could register their paths through the aisles and even added analytics based on sex and purchasing patterns. In all, if you were a store owner, that weird little parrot, eternally connected to the Internet, was a brand new way of doing business.
The parrot is gone but Estimote has just launched out of the latest Y Combinator class and is ready to create an OS for physical locations. Their product, the Beacon, now looks like a lumpen, colored gem and sticks to the wall, reporting on current retail traffic and pushing notifications to shoppers – who have pre-registered for the messages, of course. The promise of the platform is thrilling if you’re in sales and even more interesting if you’re a customer. In short, the environment interacts with you in a manner heretofore unavailable to individual retailers and it does it using your own hands free access.
Originally founded in Krakow, Poland by Jakub Krzych and ?ukasz Kostka, the company ran under the radar in 2012 – the parrot was a preliminary prototype – and is now officially accepting pre-orders. The pair have MSc degrees in computer science and Krzych founded AdTaily, a self-service advertising network.
Estimote is a technology startup that is engaged in building a sensor-based analytics and engagement platform. We developed what we like to call an operating system for physical locations—one that will change how people run businesses in the physical world and how consumers interact with real-world products and venues.
Our primary area of interest at this moment is brick and mortar retail stores. More than 90 percent of transactions worldwide are still made in physical venues. More importantly, more than half of consumers who visit stores have smartphones, and that number is growing rapidly.
Thanks to popular communication technologies such as Bluetooth and WiFi, there are exciting new opportunities to understand how people behave and engage with products in stores.
New data and communication technology can be used to improve customer experience, bringing in new revenue streams for retail stores or cutting their costs. We call this smart retail.
We are currently piloting our solutions with the largest retailers in the United States and Europe. We have also launched preorder sales of our Developer Kits, which consist of sample beacon devices, as well as our SDK, which enables mobile developers and retail consulting agencies to add micro-location context to their mobile apps.
The Internet of Things is pretty broad, and yet it still lacks standards because of competing technologies like Zigbee, NFC, WiFi, and Bluetooth.
We believe there is a winner already, and it is called Bluetooth Low Energy. Major phone manufacturers like Apple, Google, and Nokia have supported it in their latest phones. It means that objects and venues will eventually be connected to the Internet, but through people’s smartphones.
More than a half of shoppers visiting retail stores have smartphones, and brick and mortar stores are still responsible for the vast majority of transactions worldwide. We expect this to continue, at least for a while. Trying, touching, and browsing in the real world is a much better shopping experience that even the best eCommerce can provide.
In order to compete with online shopping, however, physical retailers need to shift toward something we call bricks-and-clicks. This involves getting rid of all the dirty parts, like carts, queues, inventory, swiping cards, bags, etc., and just focusing on providing an outstanding in-store customer experience.
The rest will be performed seamlessly, by technology in the shoppers’ pockets and by sensors in the venue. As a retailer, you don’t have to keep inventory in order to make your customers happy and generate revenue. Amazon and other online retailers have already demonstrated the right way to handle shipping and logistics.
The small beacons we produce broadcast venue-specific data to smartphones that are as far away as 160 feet (50 meters) and as close as 2 inches. They trigger different actions on consumer phones depending on their arrival time and distance from the product, and even precise behavior like trying on clothes or touching the product. The more beacons, the richer the experience, but even a few dozen will be enough to create great micro-location apps in the store. Different mobile apps could talk to the same beacons, and our strategy is to grow the network by delivering basic apps to retailers for their venues, like the in-store analytics or indoor navigation, as well as provide third parties a SDK to develop their own apps.
We are currently piloting our solutions with the largest retailers in the United States and Europe. We are registering millions of beacon-smartphone interactions every day.
We have also launched preorder sales of our Developer Kits, which consist of sample beacon devices, as well as our SDK, which enables mobile developers and retail consulting agencies to add micro-location context to their mobile apps. There is huge interest in our product, and we plan to ship the first batch of beacons later this summer.
There are other retail sensor companies that use, for example, WiFi scanners to register people’s in-store presence and behavior. But we don’t think tracking visitors’ smartphones without their permission is a good idea. We believe the superior approach is to incentivize users to download apps that will enrich their in-store experience by providing indoor navigation, on-demand customer service, and even contact-less payments. Consumers can opt-in if the app is solving their real problems, and most will accept some data collection if they know it will be used to improve their experience.
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/.
The parrot is gone but Estimote has just launched out of the latest Y Combinator class and is ready to create an OS for physical locations. Their product, the Beacon, now looks like a lumpen, colored gem and sticks to the wall, reporting on current retail traffic and pushing notifications to shoppers – who have pre-registered for the messages, of course. The promise of the platform is thrilling if you’re in sales and even more interesting if you’re a customer. In short, the environment interacts with you in a manner heretofore unavailable to individual retailers and it does it using your own hands free access.
Originally founded in Krakow, Poland by Jakub Krzych and ?ukasz Kostka, the company ran under the radar in 2012 – the parrot was a preliminary prototype – and is now officially accepting pre-orders. The pair have MSc degrees in computer science and Krzych founded AdTaily, a self-service advertising network.
Estimote is a technology startup that is engaged in building a sensor-based analytics and engagement platform. We developed what we like to call an operating system for physical locations—one that will change how people run businesses in the physical world and how consumers interact with real-world products and venues.
Our primary area of interest at this moment is brick and mortar retail stores. More than 90 percent of transactions worldwide are still made in physical venues. More importantly, more than half of consumers who visit stores have smartphones, and that number is growing rapidly.
Thanks to popular communication technologies such as Bluetooth and WiFi, there are exciting new opportunities to understand how people behave and engage with products in stores.
New data and communication technology can be used to improve customer experience, bringing in new revenue streams for retail stores or cutting their costs. We call this smart retail.
We are currently piloting our solutions with the largest retailers in the United States and Europe. We have also launched preorder sales of our Developer Kits, which consist of sample beacon devices, as well as our SDK, which enables mobile developers and retail consulting agencies to add micro-location context to their mobile apps.
The Internet of Things is pretty broad, and yet it still lacks standards because of competing technologies like Zigbee, NFC, WiFi, and Bluetooth.
We believe there is a winner already, and it is called Bluetooth Low Energy. Major phone manufacturers like Apple, Google, and Nokia have supported it in their latest phones. It means that objects and venues will eventually be connected to the Internet, but through people’s smartphones.
More than a half of shoppers visiting retail stores have smartphones, and brick and mortar stores are still responsible for the vast majority of transactions worldwide. We expect this to continue, at least for a while. Trying, touching, and browsing in the real world is a much better shopping experience that even the best eCommerce can provide.
In order to compete with online shopping, however, physical retailers need to shift toward something we call bricks-and-clicks. This involves getting rid of all the dirty parts, like carts, queues, inventory, swiping cards, bags, etc., and just focusing on providing an outstanding in-store customer experience.
The rest will be performed seamlessly, by technology in the shoppers’ pockets and by sensors in the venue. As a retailer, you don’t have to keep inventory in order to make your customers happy and generate revenue. Amazon and other online retailers have already demonstrated the right way to handle shipping and logistics.
The small beacons we produce broadcast venue-specific data to smartphones that are as far away as 160 feet (50 meters) and as close as 2 inches. They trigger different actions on consumer phones depending on their arrival time and distance from the product, and even precise behavior like trying on clothes or touching the product. The more beacons, the richer the experience, but even a few dozen will be enough to create great micro-location apps in the store. Different mobile apps could talk to the same beacons, and our strategy is to grow the network by delivering basic apps to retailers for their venues, like the in-store analytics or indoor navigation, as well as provide third parties a SDK to develop their own apps.
We are currently piloting our solutions with the largest retailers in the United States and Europe. We are registering millions of beacon-smartphone interactions every day.
We have also launched preorder sales of our Developer Kits, which consist of sample beacon devices, as well as our SDK, which enables mobile developers and retail consulting agencies to add micro-location context to their mobile apps. There is huge interest in our product, and we plan to ship the first batch of beacons later this summer.
There are other retail sensor companies that use, for example, WiFi scanners to register people’s in-store presence and behavior. But we don’t think tracking visitors’ smartphones without their permission is a good idea. We believe the superior approach is to incentivize users to download apps that will enrich their in-store experience by providing indoor navigation, on-demand customer service, and even contact-less payments. Consumers can opt-in if the app is solving their real problems, and most will accept some data collection if they know it will be used to improve their experience.
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Trayvon Martin 'Not Guilty' Verdict Sparks Hoodie Sunday
Realizing that he was going to have to preach in the morning, the pastor began thinking of what he would say to his largely black congregation called Community of Hope outside of Washington, D.C. Many in the congregation have lost loved ones to gun violence, and are simultaneously grieving and seething from what is being widely experienced in the black community as an injurious miscarriage of justice.
"I knew I would be wearing my hoodie while preaching," Lee said, "and I wrote to all the pastoral staff that hoodies are welcome."As church communities gather on the Sunday after the "not guilty" verdict in one of the most racially fraught trials in recent memory, black pastors are offering both pastoral and prophetic responses from their pulpits.
Lee is preaching on the topic "Where Do We Go From Here," in which he uses the Martin Luther King Jr. speech of the same title."I wanted Martin speaking on Martin," the pastor said in a phone conversation with The Huffington Post. "When King gave that speech, he was speaking to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and so he was using a Christian framework to talk about systemic problems with the United States. And King ends that speech with a call for the United States to be born again."
Lee's scripture lesson is about the stoning of Stephen, a young man who is considered an early martyr for the Christian faith."There has always been backlash, there was backlash with the early Christian movement with the killing of Stephen, but there in the crowd witnessing was Saul who later became Paul," Lee explained. "We have seen great movement forward in America, but there is always backlash. We just cannot use this as an excuse, but as a motivation to keep moving forward. There is a great pain but there continue to be seeds of hope that our nation that can be born again."
Rev. Mike McBride will also be wearing a hoodie with the words "Alive And Free" while preaching at his West Berkeley, Calif. hands free access, The Way Christian Center.Preaching on the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8, McBride plans to connect the scripture's reference to the broken body of Jesus and the mutilation of the Ethiopian to the plight of young African men and the poor in America.
"I want to talk about black bodies that have been mutilated and hurt but to remind the congregation that we do have good news and that power is to make us whole," McBride said. "The role of faith is to open the possibility of redemption in the lives of those that are broken, and I want to challenge our congregations to step into that role."
But congregants that show up at McBride's church will not only be getting a sermon, but also a training. "We will be organizing people right there during the service for direct action," he said. "We are going to be talking about humanizing the dehumanized and amplifying the value of life for all people, but especially our young black men."
McBride has been working on an anti-violence campaign called "Lifelines to Healing" that works on gun violence and gun policy. "Going forward we are thinking about targeting the 'Stand Your Ground' laws that are largely used against African-Americans," he said. "We need to talk about how the justice system continues to fail black bodies."
When Emma Marcegaglia was four or five years old, she recalls playing a game of dolls with her brother Antonio, her fellow heir to Italy’s Marcegaglia steel multinational. “We’d say this doll is head of the commercial office, this is the head of production. I had all of these dolls working instead of making a party with cakes,” she says with a burst of laughter.
It is telling that Ms Marcegaglia’s passion for business was present well before she became co-chief executive of the Marcegaglia group, making her Italy’s most high-profile businesswoman and earning her the moniker “Italy’s iron lady”.
Her four-year term at Confindustria ended in early 2012. Having slipped out of the spotlight for a year – during which she took up yoga and martial arts – Ms Marcegaglia is back in the public eye this month as she becomes president of Business Europe, the region’s largest lobby representing 41 business associations, 20m companies and 120m people.
“The idea is to become the voice of business in Europe and to be constructively outspoken. If we come up against the position of the [European] Commission, then that’s not a problem for me,” she says with a glint of that famous steeliness.
Seated in the all-white decor of her study in Milan, she is wearing her signature spectacles, a fitted blue dress, diamond earrings and strappy heels. Her long blonde hair is expensively coloured. It is a classic model of Milanese power-dressing for the city’s steamy summer.
Ms Marcegaglia considers her greatest achievement at Confindustria striking an agreement with unions to negotiate contracts on a plant-by-plant level. It was the first big change in 60 years to Italy’s tradition of collective bargaining. Business leaders and entrepreneurs weakened by globalisation and the sovereign debt crisis welcomed the move. Unionists feared it made workers vulnerable but were brought around.
At Business Europe, Ms Marcegaglia plans another strike for business by taking on what she calls the “Brussels bubble”.
“The crisis is still here, we have to say that. We need growth and the crisis will be finished when growth returns. Growth comes from private entrepreneurs and we have a problem of competitiveness in Europe, a very big problem and we need to tackle this point.”
Click on their website http://www.ecived.com/en/.
"I knew I would be wearing my hoodie while preaching," Lee said, "and I wrote to all the pastoral staff that hoodies are welcome."As church communities gather on the Sunday after the "not guilty" verdict in one of the most racially fraught trials in recent memory, black pastors are offering both pastoral and prophetic responses from their pulpits.
Lee is preaching on the topic "Where Do We Go From Here," in which he uses the Martin Luther King Jr. speech of the same title."I wanted Martin speaking on Martin," the pastor said in a phone conversation with The Huffington Post. "When King gave that speech, he was speaking to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and so he was using a Christian framework to talk about systemic problems with the United States. And King ends that speech with a call for the United States to be born again."
Lee's scripture lesson is about the stoning of Stephen, a young man who is considered an early martyr for the Christian faith."There has always been backlash, there was backlash with the early Christian movement with the killing of Stephen, but there in the crowd witnessing was Saul who later became Paul," Lee explained. "We have seen great movement forward in America, but there is always backlash. We just cannot use this as an excuse, but as a motivation to keep moving forward. There is a great pain but there continue to be seeds of hope that our nation that can be born again."
Rev. Mike McBride will also be wearing a hoodie with the words "Alive And Free" while preaching at his West Berkeley, Calif. hands free access, The Way Christian Center.Preaching on the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8, McBride plans to connect the scripture's reference to the broken body of Jesus and the mutilation of the Ethiopian to the plight of young African men and the poor in America.
"I want to talk about black bodies that have been mutilated and hurt but to remind the congregation that we do have good news and that power is to make us whole," McBride said. "The role of faith is to open the possibility of redemption in the lives of those that are broken, and I want to challenge our congregations to step into that role."
But congregants that show up at McBride's church will not only be getting a sermon, but also a training. "We will be organizing people right there during the service for direct action," he said. "We are going to be talking about humanizing the dehumanized and amplifying the value of life for all people, but especially our young black men."
McBride has been working on an anti-violence campaign called "Lifelines to Healing" that works on gun violence and gun policy. "Going forward we are thinking about targeting the 'Stand Your Ground' laws that are largely used against African-Americans," he said. "We need to talk about how the justice system continues to fail black bodies."
When Emma Marcegaglia was four or five years old, she recalls playing a game of dolls with her brother Antonio, her fellow heir to Italy’s Marcegaglia steel multinational. “We’d say this doll is head of the commercial office, this is the head of production. I had all of these dolls working instead of making a party with cakes,” she says with a burst of laughter.
It is telling that Ms Marcegaglia’s passion for business was present well before she became co-chief executive of the Marcegaglia group, making her Italy’s most high-profile businesswoman and earning her the moniker “Italy’s iron lady”.
Her four-year term at Confindustria ended in early 2012. Having slipped out of the spotlight for a year – during which she took up yoga and martial arts – Ms Marcegaglia is back in the public eye this month as she becomes president of Business Europe, the region’s largest lobby representing 41 business associations, 20m companies and 120m people.
“The idea is to become the voice of business in Europe and to be constructively outspoken. If we come up against the position of the [European] Commission, then that’s not a problem for me,” she says with a glint of that famous steeliness.
Seated in the all-white decor of her study in Milan, she is wearing her signature spectacles, a fitted blue dress, diamond earrings and strappy heels. Her long blonde hair is expensively coloured. It is a classic model of Milanese power-dressing for the city’s steamy summer.
Ms Marcegaglia considers her greatest achievement at Confindustria striking an agreement with unions to negotiate contracts on a plant-by-plant level. It was the first big change in 60 years to Italy’s tradition of collective bargaining. Business leaders and entrepreneurs weakened by globalisation and the sovereign debt crisis welcomed the move. Unionists feared it made workers vulnerable but were brought around.
At Business Europe, Ms Marcegaglia plans another strike for business by taking on what she calls the “Brussels bubble”.
“The crisis is still here, we have to say that. We need growth and the crisis will be finished when growth returns. Growth comes from private entrepreneurs and we have a problem of competitiveness in Europe, a very big problem and we need to tackle this point.”
Click on their website http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Senate Legacy Leaves Kentucky In The Lurch
Ever since the U.S. government's uranium enrichment plant started hiring in 1951, there has been a Buckley helping to run it. Before his sons, a daughter-in-law and a grandson clocked in, Fred Buckley, now 86, would travel three hours a day from his home in West Tennessee to make $1.46 per hour as a plant security guard.
It felt to Buckley like he was back in the Army, working with a close-knit group of men on a secret mission. He'd served in World War II -- after a few weeks of basic training, he ended up on the front lines at the Battle of the Bulge. He rose quickly from infantryman to staff sergeant to squad leader. The job at the plant promised the safety of a stable income and a sense of purpose at the dawn of the Cold War. One month before he started, the first of his two sons was born.
It seemed like Paducah was being reborn too. As new workers from neighboring Illinois, Ohio and Tennessee showed up, the small city in Western Kentucky faced a housing shortage. "So many people came in, you know?" Buckley told The Huffington Post. "Anything that had a roof on it -- chicken house, any kind of outbuilding, they were in it."
Room rates tripled until local officials imposed rent control. Home construction blanketed the city, while trailer parks rose up on cinder blocks throughout the surrounding county. More than 1,100 homes were built while Buckley waited for his chance to move to the Paducah area. After more than six years, he found a one-story, two-bedroom white frame house on a corner lot off Highway 60, just three miles from the plant. He still lives there today.The flood of well-paid men had ramifications well beyond the homebuilding industry, lifting almost every business in the region. Even the local brothel expanded.
Paducah embraced the plant and its patriotic celebration of nuclear power. It called itself "The Atomic City" and envisioned thoroughfares bright with shiny, pastel-colored automobiles, a downtown humming with Cold War money. "The plant just made the Hands free access, you know?" Buckley says. He still remembers when they first raised the American flag in front of the plant's administration building. He was there, standing at attention.
Nobody understands the plant's importance more than Mitch McConnell. For the past 30 years, the Senate minority leader, now 71, has been the plant's most ardent defender in Washington. The Republican lawmaker knows its 750 acres located just 12 miles from downtown. He's walked its grid under the haze of the ever-present steam cloud emanating from its cooling towers. He grasps its history, its hold on the imaginations of men like Buckley. No other jobs in Western Kentucky presented the opportunity to use more electricity than Detroit and more water than New York City every day of the week.
The senator has remained loyal to the plant and its workers, keeping it running on federal earmarks and complicated deals with the Department of Energy to convert its core function from producing warheads to mining nuclear waste to create electricity. At least in Paducah, McConnell is not the "abominable no-man," the sour-faced persona of Washington gridlock. He is an honorary union man. "He's been the best friend to the plant we've had over the years," Buckley says. "He went above and beyond the call of duty for the union."
Up until the tea party-led ban on earmarks a few years ago, McConnell played out this dichotomy across Kentucky. In Washington, he voted against a health care program for poor children. In Kentucky, he funneled money to provide innovative health services for pregnant women. In Washington, he railed against Obamacare. In Kentucky, he supported free health care and prevention programs paid for by the federal government without the hassle of a private-insurance middleman. This policy ping-pong may not suggest a coherent belief system, but it has led to loyalty among the GOP in Washington and something close to fealty in Kentucky. It has advanced McConnell's highest ideal: his own political survival.
McConnell's hold on Kentucky is a grim reminder of the practice of power in America -- where political excellence can be wholly divorced from successful governance and even public admiration. The most dominant and influential Kentucky politician since his hero Henry Clay, McConnell has rarely used his indefatigable talents toward broad, substantive reforms. He may be ruling, but he's ruling over a commonwealth with the lowest median income in the country, where too many counties have infant mortality rates comparable to those of the Third World. His solutions have been piecemeal and temporary, more cynical than merciful.
And with McConnell's rise into the GOP leadership, his continuous search for tactical advantage with limited regard for policy consequences has overrun Washington. McConnell has more than doubled the previous high-water mark for the number of filibusters deployed to block legislation, infamously declaring that his "top political priority" was to make President Barack Obama a one-term president. This obstruction has had serious consequences, as the Great Recession grinds on and large-scale problems like climate change march inexorably forward. Congress has failed to address the nation's most pressing challenges, and America has come to look more and more like McConnell's Kentucky.
At the Paducah plant, and throughout the Bluegrass State, McConnell's influence is a complicated, even poisonous one. As other aging nuclear facilities have been shuttered, Paducah has groaned its way into the 21st century. The plant has become a barely functional relic in the midst of a decades-long power down. The town's post-war pastels have given way to rust, padlocks and contaminated waterways. After three decades under McConnell, Kentucky residents are wondering whether his survival is good for them.
Click on their website www.ecived.com.
It felt to Buckley like he was back in the Army, working with a close-knit group of men on a secret mission. He'd served in World War II -- after a few weeks of basic training, he ended up on the front lines at the Battle of the Bulge. He rose quickly from infantryman to staff sergeant to squad leader. The job at the plant promised the safety of a stable income and a sense of purpose at the dawn of the Cold War. One month before he started, the first of his two sons was born.
It seemed like Paducah was being reborn too. As new workers from neighboring Illinois, Ohio and Tennessee showed up, the small city in Western Kentucky faced a housing shortage. "So many people came in, you know?" Buckley told The Huffington Post. "Anything that had a roof on it -- chicken house, any kind of outbuilding, they were in it."
Room rates tripled until local officials imposed rent control. Home construction blanketed the city, while trailer parks rose up on cinder blocks throughout the surrounding county. More than 1,100 homes were built while Buckley waited for his chance to move to the Paducah area. After more than six years, he found a one-story, two-bedroom white frame house on a corner lot off Highway 60, just three miles from the plant. He still lives there today.The flood of well-paid men had ramifications well beyond the homebuilding industry, lifting almost every business in the region. Even the local brothel expanded.
Paducah embraced the plant and its patriotic celebration of nuclear power. It called itself "The Atomic City" and envisioned thoroughfares bright with shiny, pastel-colored automobiles, a downtown humming with Cold War money. "The plant just made the Hands free access, you know?" Buckley says. He still remembers when they first raised the American flag in front of the plant's administration building. He was there, standing at attention.
Nobody understands the plant's importance more than Mitch McConnell. For the past 30 years, the Senate minority leader, now 71, has been the plant's most ardent defender in Washington. The Republican lawmaker knows its 750 acres located just 12 miles from downtown. He's walked its grid under the haze of the ever-present steam cloud emanating from its cooling towers. He grasps its history, its hold on the imaginations of men like Buckley. No other jobs in Western Kentucky presented the opportunity to use more electricity than Detroit and more water than New York City every day of the week.
The senator has remained loyal to the plant and its workers, keeping it running on federal earmarks and complicated deals with the Department of Energy to convert its core function from producing warheads to mining nuclear waste to create electricity. At least in Paducah, McConnell is not the "abominable no-man," the sour-faced persona of Washington gridlock. He is an honorary union man. "He's been the best friend to the plant we've had over the years," Buckley says. "He went above and beyond the call of duty for the union."
Up until the tea party-led ban on earmarks a few years ago, McConnell played out this dichotomy across Kentucky. In Washington, he voted against a health care program for poor children. In Kentucky, he funneled money to provide innovative health services for pregnant women. In Washington, he railed against Obamacare. In Kentucky, he supported free health care and prevention programs paid for by the federal government without the hassle of a private-insurance middleman. This policy ping-pong may not suggest a coherent belief system, but it has led to loyalty among the GOP in Washington and something close to fealty in Kentucky. It has advanced McConnell's highest ideal: his own political survival.
McConnell's hold on Kentucky is a grim reminder of the practice of power in America -- where political excellence can be wholly divorced from successful governance and even public admiration. The most dominant and influential Kentucky politician since his hero Henry Clay, McConnell has rarely used his indefatigable talents toward broad, substantive reforms. He may be ruling, but he's ruling over a commonwealth with the lowest median income in the country, where too many counties have infant mortality rates comparable to those of the Third World. His solutions have been piecemeal and temporary, more cynical than merciful.
And with McConnell's rise into the GOP leadership, his continuous search for tactical advantage with limited regard for policy consequences has overrun Washington. McConnell has more than doubled the previous high-water mark for the number of filibusters deployed to block legislation, infamously declaring that his "top political priority" was to make President Barack Obama a one-term president. This obstruction has had serious consequences, as the Great Recession grinds on and large-scale problems like climate change march inexorably forward. Congress has failed to address the nation's most pressing challenges, and America has come to look more and more like McConnell's Kentucky.
At the Paducah plant, and throughout the Bluegrass State, McConnell's influence is a complicated, even poisonous one. As other aging nuclear facilities have been shuttered, Paducah has groaned its way into the 21st century. The plant has become a barely functional relic in the midst of a decades-long power down. The town's post-war pastels have given way to rust, padlocks and contaminated waterways. After three decades under McConnell, Kentucky residents are wondering whether his survival is good for them.
Click on their website www.ecived.com.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Wearable devices and the future of our homes
The new Flex device from Fitbit released in January, the new Pulse device from the French Withings announced this month, and rumored revamp of the current Nike+ FuelBand later this year make the self tracking devices a hot market right now.
So far, these companies have been working hard to add more input variables into their devices, to expand the possibilities of their ecosystems. Withings started as a smart scale and now is a full-fledged health monitoring system with weight, body fat measurements, outdoor activities, sleep, heart rate, blood pressure and indoor air quality.
The consumer market for self-tracking devices rides on the quantified self trend that is growing fast in Europe. Products like Google Glass and smart watches like the Pebble will only push this trend further, and the quality of the ecosystem of each of these companies can determine their hands free access.
What if these devices could understand how I feel, what I need, what I did during the day, and what I will most likely want to do that evening? And what if this information could be passed to my home, a digital automated home? Individual tracking has the power to harness the potential of the automated home. We’ve seen attempts to connect all of our appliances at home, and the Internet of things can make this a reality, but without consumer-oriented integration this will only add a layer of complexity to our already crowded tech day-to-day activities.
Could it be that the automated home hasn’t yet taken off because of the lack of integration with our lifestyle? Is it possible that smart user insights can make the automated home make sense? I don’t see digital homes becoming mainstream for the sheer purpose of digitifying our lives, they need to add value for the user without complexity. If my kitchen knows I’m low on Vitamin C, it can adjust my daily food plan, or if my living room knows I fell asleep on the sofa, it can dim the lights and turn off the television.
What’s interesting is that what started as fitness tracking devices have developed into a powerful ecosystem of user’s body information, their databases evolved into a valuable asset to feed our home’s digital brain, and it might as well be the needed trigger to shift towards a true integrated home! Most of these ecosystems are opening their huge data sets to developers – like the RunKeeper Health Graph – they need to become the de facto platform for the personal tracking experience. Nike on the other hand has a walled garden ecosystem a la Apple (is that why Tim Cook wears a Nike FuelBand?). If a closed platform in this arena can survive in the long run is for time to tell.
What do we need to see happening next? For one we need these tracking devices to get more input variables like continuous heart rate monitoring (without the awkward bands), to integrate the function of different devices into one – like having the function of the Sanofi iBG Star into a tracking wristband, and also to have more devices feeding into this ecosystem, with more complex body variables – could toilets measure our body waste composition and infer on our health?
If these ecosystems are open, the potential for creating a truly intelligent and connected home is huge! The connected home needs to react to my emotions, to my lifestyle, and to my health. And the winner in the battle for self tracking devices will come from the one with the most complete ecosystem, with intelligent insights delivered to third party developers. The device itself will mean nothing: all of the current devices will merge in our smart watches anyway!
When Google released the futuristic prototype of its much heralded Google Glass in April, many called the hands-free device revolutionary and speculated on how they could change the travel game as we know it for tourists.
Think of it: Now you can have your GPS right in front of your eyes without using your hands, or take pictures or video with a simple voice command. There's also the possibility of, say, getting real-time flight information as you walk to your gate or ditching those guide books completely and using it as a built-in tour guide when visiting museums or historic sites. In fact, many of the icons on the current prototype's modified screen already have functions used frequently by travels, such as camera, location, search, chat and maps.
Living in New York City, there are plenty of towns a stone’s throw from the city. I decided to head north to Sleepy Hollow in Hudson Valley, N.Y.-- a picturesque town filled with cafes, shops and historic sites, made famous by Washington Irving and his tales of the Headless Horseman.
As of now, Google Glass can do things like record video, send text messages, provide translations, and give directions. It doesn't yet have its own cellular radio, so it has to sync up with mobile phones via Bluetooth to access Wi-Fi and 3G or 4G data connections.
The trip was about 45 minutes door to door. Before I headed out, I powered up and connected Google Glass to get directions. The GPS function doesn’t work with an iPhone yet, so I had to use an Android phone.When paired to a smart phone, using voice activation, Google Glass can provide maps and turn-by-turn directions that you can see through a tiny lens that’s attached to the device.
When I arrived in Sleepy Hollow, I followed the signs to the center of town and figured I’d give Google Glass another try. This time, instead of asking for directions, I used the voice command to find nearby restaurants. Jackpot! I was actually surprised at how well the voice recognition software worked. I didn’t have to repeat myself and Glass gave me a list of choices within a few miles from where I was standing.
Glass’ voice recognition can be used for just about anything: to ask a general question, get a phrase translated, find flight information, speak and send an email or text, take a picture or record a video, and share them with friends, and the list goes on. At this point, I needed to use voice recognition to find an ATM. And once again, it worked perfectly, listing several banks in the area.
While I was on a roll, I decided to try to book a hotel. Three for three. Google Glass gave me plenty of options to choose from. I would have liked to see them separated by price, even ranked, but the ones listed fit my criteria of being “nearby." So, after using the track pad to swipe through my choices, I picked one of them by tapping the track pad. Glass gave me the address, and the options to get directions or call the hotel. I tested Glass once more by tapping “call,” so I could to make a reservation. That worked too.
Read the full story at http://www.ecived.com/en/!
So far, these companies have been working hard to add more input variables into their devices, to expand the possibilities of their ecosystems. Withings started as a smart scale and now is a full-fledged health monitoring system with weight, body fat measurements, outdoor activities, sleep, heart rate, blood pressure and indoor air quality.
The consumer market for self-tracking devices rides on the quantified self trend that is growing fast in Europe. Products like Google Glass and smart watches like the Pebble will only push this trend further, and the quality of the ecosystem of each of these companies can determine their hands free access.
What if these devices could understand how I feel, what I need, what I did during the day, and what I will most likely want to do that evening? And what if this information could be passed to my home, a digital automated home? Individual tracking has the power to harness the potential of the automated home. We’ve seen attempts to connect all of our appliances at home, and the Internet of things can make this a reality, but without consumer-oriented integration this will only add a layer of complexity to our already crowded tech day-to-day activities.
Could it be that the automated home hasn’t yet taken off because of the lack of integration with our lifestyle? Is it possible that smart user insights can make the automated home make sense? I don’t see digital homes becoming mainstream for the sheer purpose of digitifying our lives, they need to add value for the user without complexity. If my kitchen knows I’m low on Vitamin C, it can adjust my daily food plan, or if my living room knows I fell asleep on the sofa, it can dim the lights and turn off the television.
What’s interesting is that what started as fitness tracking devices have developed into a powerful ecosystem of user’s body information, their databases evolved into a valuable asset to feed our home’s digital brain, and it might as well be the needed trigger to shift towards a true integrated home! Most of these ecosystems are opening their huge data sets to developers – like the RunKeeper Health Graph – they need to become the de facto platform for the personal tracking experience. Nike on the other hand has a walled garden ecosystem a la Apple (is that why Tim Cook wears a Nike FuelBand?). If a closed platform in this arena can survive in the long run is for time to tell.
What do we need to see happening next? For one we need these tracking devices to get more input variables like continuous heart rate monitoring (without the awkward bands), to integrate the function of different devices into one – like having the function of the Sanofi iBG Star into a tracking wristband, and also to have more devices feeding into this ecosystem, with more complex body variables – could toilets measure our body waste composition and infer on our health?
If these ecosystems are open, the potential for creating a truly intelligent and connected home is huge! The connected home needs to react to my emotions, to my lifestyle, and to my health. And the winner in the battle for self tracking devices will come from the one with the most complete ecosystem, with intelligent insights delivered to third party developers. The device itself will mean nothing: all of the current devices will merge in our smart watches anyway!
When Google released the futuristic prototype of its much heralded Google Glass in April, many called the hands-free device revolutionary and speculated on how they could change the travel game as we know it for tourists.
Think of it: Now you can have your GPS right in front of your eyes without using your hands, or take pictures or video with a simple voice command. There's also the possibility of, say, getting real-time flight information as you walk to your gate or ditching those guide books completely and using it as a built-in tour guide when visiting museums or historic sites. In fact, many of the icons on the current prototype's modified screen already have functions used frequently by travels, such as camera, location, search, chat and maps.
Living in New York City, there are plenty of towns a stone’s throw from the city. I decided to head north to Sleepy Hollow in Hudson Valley, N.Y.-- a picturesque town filled with cafes, shops and historic sites, made famous by Washington Irving and his tales of the Headless Horseman.
As of now, Google Glass can do things like record video, send text messages, provide translations, and give directions. It doesn't yet have its own cellular radio, so it has to sync up with mobile phones via Bluetooth to access Wi-Fi and 3G or 4G data connections.
The trip was about 45 minutes door to door. Before I headed out, I powered up and connected Google Glass to get directions. The GPS function doesn’t work with an iPhone yet, so I had to use an Android phone.When paired to a smart phone, using voice activation, Google Glass can provide maps and turn-by-turn directions that you can see through a tiny lens that’s attached to the device.
When I arrived in Sleepy Hollow, I followed the signs to the center of town and figured I’d give Google Glass another try. This time, instead of asking for directions, I used the voice command to find nearby restaurants. Jackpot! I was actually surprised at how well the voice recognition software worked. I didn’t have to repeat myself and Glass gave me a list of choices within a few miles from where I was standing.
Glass’ voice recognition can be used for just about anything: to ask a general question, get a phrase translated, find flight information, speak and send an email or text, take a picture or record a video, and share them with friends, and the list goes on. At this point, I needed to use voice recognition to find an ATM. And once again, it worked perfectly, listing several banks in the area.
While I was on a roll, I decided to try to book a hotel. Three for three. Google Glass gave me plenty of options to choose from. I would have liked to see them separated by price, even ranked, but the ones listed fit my criteria of being “nearby." So, after using the track pad to swipe through my choices, I picked one of them by tapping the track pad. Glass gave me the address, and the options to get directions or call the hotel. I tested Glass once more by tapping “call,” so I could to make a reservation. That worked too.
Read the full story at http://www.ecived.com/en/!
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Several Detainees Killed
Shells smashed into a central prison in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo, killing prisoners, a rights group said Sunday, part of a long battle for control of the ancient city.The explosions killed six prisoners, said the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which communicates with a network of activists on the ground. The explosives hit on Friday night, the Observatory said. It was not clear who fired the shells.
The Observatory reported about 70 soldiers and fighters were killed on Sunday, as well as 40 civilians, in fighting across Syria. The U.N. estimates some 93,000 people have been killed in the civil war.With government forces stepping up offensives, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood called on the U.S. and Europe to send arms.
"Providing the Free Syrian Army and the revolutionary rebels with appropriate arms is more urgent now than at any time in the past," the movement wrote on social media sites. "We feel cheated and disappointed because the U.S. and Europe have backed out from arming the FSA," it said.
Last month the U.S. decided in principle to provide some weapons to rebel forces, though Western countries are concerned they might land in the hands of extremist Sunni Muslims fighting with the hands free access.The forces include an al-Qaida-linked group which has been fighting for weeks to seize control of the prison in Aleppo, besieging it. The Observatory estimated some 120 prisoners have died in the jail since April from fighting, illness and executions.
Syria's state run news agency SANA said "a number" of rebels were killed in the shelling but did not give an exact number.Aleppo, Syria's largest city, is near the border with Turkey. Many of its ancient monuments and its marketplace, once a magnet for tourists, have been destroyed in fighting.
Rebels and government forces also clashed near the Shiite towns of Nubul and Zahra in Aleppo province, the Observatory and pro-rebel activists reported. The towns have been besieged since at least May by hard-line Sunni rebels seeking to dislodge their enemies.
The Observatory said fighting killed three regime troops, including one foreigner, code for a fighter from the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah.Rebels claim that Assad's forces and Hezbollah fighters are in the two towns. A hard-line Sunni brigade warned last week it would punish Shiites for harboring the forces, suggesting the towns' populations of some 40,000 Shiites could be targeted.
The fighting underscores the growing sectarian nature of the two-year uprising against Assad's regime. It began as peaceful protests but turned into an armed rebellion after a brutal government crackdown. It has since taken on regional dimensions, with Hezbollah fighters joining Assad's forces. Foreign Sunni fighters have joined predominantly Sunni Syrian rebels who are formed in bands ranging from secular to hard-line Islamists.
At home, Assad draws support largely from Syria's minorities, including fellow Alawites – followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam – as well as Christians, Shiites and Sunnis who fear the hard-line rebels.In recent weeks, Assad's forces, bolstered by Hezbollah fighters, have pushed back to seize rebel-held areas in several parts of Syria.In the central Syrian city of Homs, Assad's forces fired mortar shells from a stronghold of buildings on the edge of the rebel-held area of Khaldiyeh, trying to flush out fighters, said two activists.
Explosions could be heard as they spoke via Skype.The shells were exploding in the densely-built area surrounding the 13th-century mosque of Khalid Ibn al-Walid, famous for its nine domes and two minarets, said a Homs-based activist identified as Nedal. He said parts of the wall surrounding the historic complex were blown away. Other parts were damaged in previous rounds of fighting.
Khaldiyeh-based activist Abu Bilal said fighters were low on weapons. He said the international community, despite promises to arm rebels, had left them hanging in Homs.
She needs food and medical assistance, child care and Supplemental Security Income, among other public support, she says. She and the boys have received more than $150,000 worth of taxpayer-funded benefits in the last five years.
What she fails to tell the state in her application for the help, however, is that she collects thousands of dollars in rent every month from at least $4 million worth of properties in Shorewood, the east side of Milwaukee and elsewhere.
Porush says the properties are not hers, despite Milwaukee County property and tax records and court documents that list her as an owner or having substantial interest."My mother owns all the property," she told the Journal Sentinel. "I don't get a penny."
Porush's 80-year-old mother, Lidia Kolchinsky, lives with her in the downstairs unit of a 4,300-square-foot duplex on N. Shepard Ave. listed in multiple public records as owned by Porush. Kolchinsky's name is included as a co-owner of several of the properties.
Read the full story at www.ecived.com/en/!
The Observatory reported about 70 soldiers and fighters were killed on Sunday, as well as 40 civilians, in fighting across Syria. The U.N. estimates some 93,000 people have been killed in the civil war.With government forces stepping up offensives, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood called on the U.S. and Europe to send arms.
"Providing the Free Syrian Army and the revolutionary rebels with appropriate arms is more urgent now than at any time in the past," the movement wrote on social media sites. "We feel cheated and disappointed because the U.S. and Europe have backed out from arming the FSA," it said.
Last month the U.S. decided in principle to provide some weapons to rebel forces, though Western countries are concerned they might land in the hands of extremist Sunni Muslims fighting with the hands free access.The forces include an al-Qaida-linked group which has been fighting for weeks to seize control of the prison in Aleppo, besieging it. The Observatory estimated some 120 prisoners have died in the jail since April from fighting, illness and executions.
Syria's state run news agency SANA said "a number" of rebels were killed in the shelling but did not give an exact number.Aleppo, Syria's largest city, is near the border with Turkey. Many of its ancient monuments and its marketplace, once a magnet for tourists, have been destroyed in fighting.
Rebels and government forces also clashed near the Shiite towns of Nubul and Zahra in Aleppo province, the Observatory and pro-rebel activists reported. The towns have been besieged since at least May by hard-line Sunni rebels seeking to dislodge their enemies.
The Observatory said fighting killed three regime troops, including one foreigner, code for a fighter from the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah.Rebels claim that Assad's forces and Hezbollah fighters are in the two towns. A hard-line Sunni brigade warned last week it would punish Shiites for harboring the forces, suggesting the towns' populations of some 40,000 Shiites could be targeted.
The fighting underscores the growing sectarian nature of the two-year uprising against Assad's regime. It began as peaceful protests but turned into an armed rebellion after a brutal government crackdown. It has since taken on regional dimensions, with Hezbollah fighters joining Assad's forces. Foreign Sunni fighters have joined predominantly Sunni Syrian rebels who are formed in bands ranging from secular to hard-line Islamists.
At home, Assad draws support largely from Syria's minorities, including fellow Alawites – followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam – as well as Christians, Shiites and Sunnis who fear the hard-line rebels.In recent weeks, Assad's forces, bolstered by Hezbollah fighters, have pushed back to seize rebel-held areas in several parts of Syria.In the central Syrian city of Homs, Assad's forces fired mortar shells from a stronghold of buildings on the edge of the rebel-held area of Khaldiyeh, trying to flush out fighters, said two activists.
Explosions could be heard as they spoke via Skype.The shells were exploding in the densely-built area surrounding the 13th-century mosque of Khalid Ibn al-Walid, famous for its nine domes and two minarets, said a Homs-based activist identified as Nedal. He said parts of the wall surrounding the historic complex were blown away. Other parts were damaged in previous rounds of fighting.
Khaldiyeh-based activist Abu Bilal said fighters were low on weapons. He said the international community, despite promises to arm rebels, had left them hanging in Homs.
She needs food and medical assistance, child care and Supplemental Security Income, among other public support, she says. She and the boys have received more than $150,000 worth of taxpayer-funded benefits in the last five years.
What she fails to tell the state in her application for the help, however, is that she collects thousands of dollars in rent every month from at least $4 million worth of properties in Shorewood, the east side of Milwaukee and elsewhere.
Porush says the properties are not hers, despite Milwaukee County property and tax records and court documents that list her as an owner or having substantial interest."My mother owns all the property," she told the Journal Sentinel. "I don't get a penny."
Porush's 80-year-old mother, Lidia Kolchinsky, lives with her in the downstairs unit of a 4,300-square-foot duplex on N. Shepard Ave. listed in multiple public records as owned by Porush. Kolchinsky's name is included as a co-owner of several of the properties.
Read the full story at www.ecived.com/en/!
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Chevron to build skyscraper in Houston
Chevron, which has moved numerous jobs to Texas in recent years, announced plans Wednesday to build a 50-story office tower, creating an "urban campus" for the company's growing workforce here.The new building, which will have 1.7 million square feet of office space and room for some 4,200 workers, could break ground early next year and open at the end of 2016.
Together with Chevron's existing Houston buildings, the new tower will become part of a campus-like environment with indoor and outdoor common areas, dining facilities, a fitness center and training and conference rooms.In making the announcement, Chevron emphasized that its headquarters would remain in San Ramon. The company was founded in California 130 years ago.
Chevron has about 9,000 employees and contractors in Houston, where nine of its businesses are headquartered. The new building will house about 1,700 workers, which will be new jobs for Houston that will be created over the next eight years, the company said.In return for its economic contribution, the company is set to reap a generous financial gift from the state.Rick Perry said Wednesday the state's Texas Enterprise Fund will provide $12 million for the project.
As Houston has rebounded from the latest recession, the downtown core has seen an uptick in new development. A number of Hands free access, including office towers, hotels and luxury apartments are on the drawing boards."Here's a major player in Houston; they chose to be downtown in an environment in which there has been for the last two decades a considerable amount of decentralization of employment outside the Central Business District," said Barton Smith, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Houston.
While some companies have created large suburban office developments, Chevron has been positioning itself to grow downtown for some time.Chevron, the second largest oil company in the U.S., already owns and occupies its two downtown buildings. It bought the site where the new tower is planned more than a year ago.The new project also signifies a widespread trend among Houston-area energy firms of developing top-of-the-line corporate complexes to house thousands of employees.
With the upswing in the energy industry, companies are competing for the most talented employees. Modern office campuses with state-of-the-art technologies and amenities are often used as recruiting tools, said Aaron Roffwarg, a partner at Bracewell & Giuliani who represents large energy firms in their real estate dealings.The most significant example of the energy company expansions is arguably Exxon Mobil Corp., which is preparing to relocate 10,000 employees to a new facility under construction on several hundred acres.
In a more urban-style setting, BHP Billiton Petroleum said earlier this year it would lease a new 30-story office tower to be built near the Galleria, adding a second building to its footprint.The new Chevron building will allow the company to consolidate workers from nearby space the company has been leasing in two other buildings.
The new building will have 46 stories of office space atop five levels of common areas, including one below ground, said Jay Tatum, senior vice president and regional principal of architecture firm HOK, which designed the tower.Chevron, which reported a first-quarter profit of $6.2 billion, said the company sought no special treatment on the project.
Langham Hospitality Group announced today it will manage the first new luxury city centre hotel under the Langham Place brand in Haining, a bustling metropolis in the Zhejiang coastal province. The property, which is being developed by Hong Kong-based Mingly Real Estate Corporation, is scheduled to open in 2014.
Featuring 266 spacious guest rooms and suites, Langham Place, Haining will be part of an integrated complex comprising a retail shopping centre, commercial offices and residential apartments. Says Langham Hospitality Group's Chief Executive Officer Brett Butcher, "we are delighted to introduce the Langham Place brand to the rapidly growing city of Haining. Together with the developer Mingly Corporation, we will create a luxury hotel that will be the centerpiece of this exciting new urban development."
"Following the successful debut of the Langham Place in Hong Kong with subsequent openings in Beijing and most recently in New York City, we are well on track to grow the Langham Place brand in China and key destinations around the world," he continues.
Langham Place, Haining will offer guests a wide variety of innovative dining and entertainment options including an all-day dining restaurant, a casual signature lounge and bar, and for the first time in Haining, the fine-dining Chinese restaurant that is inspired by the renowned Michelin-starred Ming Court at Langham Place, Hong Kong. The hotel's highest floor will be the penultimate setting for special occasions, complemented by the panoramic vistas of the sparkling city below.
The hotel's meeting and banqueting facilities will feature a 900 square-metre pillar-free grand ballroom, a junior ballroom of 300 square metres, and eight multi-function rooms ranging from 45 to 100 square metres. The highlight for event planners will be the generously proportioned 3,000 square-metre ceremonial hall set amidst a private landscaped Wedding Park along the city's river, the first of its kind in Zhejiang province.
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/.
Together with Chevron's existing Houston buildings, the new tower will become part of a campus-like environment with indoor and outdoor common areas, dining facilities, a fitness center and training and conference rooms.In making the announcement, Chevron emphasized that its headquarters would remain in San Ramon. The company was founded in California 130 years ago.
Chevron has about 9,000 employees and contractors in Houston, where nine of its businesses are headquartered. The new building will house about 1,700 workers, which will be new jobs for Houston that will be created over the next eight years, the company said.In return for its economic contribution, the company is set to reap a generous financial gift from the state.Rick Perry said Wednesday the state's Texas Enterprise Fund will provide $12 million for the project.
As Houston has rebounded from the latest recession, the downtown core has seen an uptick in new development. A number of Hands free access, including office towers, hotels and luxury apartments are on the drawing boards."Here's a major player in Houston; they chose to be downtown in an environment in which there has been for the last two decades a considerable amount of decentralization of employment outside the Central Business District," said Barton Smith, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Houston.
While some companies have created large suburban office developments, Chevron has been positioning itself to grow downtown for some time.Chevron, the second largest oil company in the U.S., already owns and occupies its two downtown buildings. It bought the site where the new tower is planned more than a year ago.The new project also signifies a widespread trend among Houston-area energy firms of developing top-of-the-line corporate complexes to house thousands of employees.
With the upswing in the energy industry, companies are competing for the most talented employees. Modern office campuses with state-of-the-art technologies and amenities are often used as recruiting tools, said Aaron Roffwarg, a partner at Bracewell & Giuliani who represents large energy firms in their real estate dealings.The most significant example of the energy company expansions is arguably Exxon Mobil Corp., which is preparing to relocate 10,000 employees to a new facility under construction on several hundred acres.
In a more urban-style setting, BHP Billiton Petroleum said earlier this year it would lease a new 30-story office tower to be built near the Galleria, adding a second building to its footprint.The new Chevron building will allow the company to consolidate workers from nearby space the company has been leasing in two other buildings.
The new building will have 46 stories of office space atop five levels of common areas, including one below ground, said Jay Tatum, senior vice president and regional principal of architecture firm HOK, which designed the tower.Chevron, which reported a first-quarter profit of $6.2 billion, said the company sought no special treatment on the project.
Langham Hospitality Group announced today it will manage the first new luxury city centre hotel under the Langham Place brand in Haining, a bustling metropolis in the Zhejiang coastal province. The property, which is being developed by Hong Kong-based Mingly Real Estate Corporation, is scheduled to open in 2014.
Featuring 266 spacious guest rooms and suites, Langham Place, Haining will be part of an integrated complex comprising a retail shopping centre, commercial offices and residential apartments. Says Langham Hospitality Group's Chief Executive Officer Brett Butcher, "we are delighted to introduce the Langham Place brand to the rapidly growing city of Haining. Together with the developer Mingly Corporation, we will create a luxury hotel that will be the centerpiece of this exciting new urban development."
"Following the successful debut of the Langham Place in Hong Kong with subsequent openings in Beijing and most recently in New York City, we are well on track to grow the Langham Place brand in China and key destinations around the world," he continues.
Langham Place, Haining will offer guests a wide variety of innovative dining and entertainment options including an all-day dining restaurant, a casual signature lounge and bar, and for the first time in Haining, the fine-dining Chinese restaurant that is inspired by the renowned Michelin-starred Ming Court at Langham Place, Hong Kong. The hotel's highest floor will be the penultimate setting for special occasions, complemented by the panoramic vistas of the sparkling city below.
The hotel's meeting and banqueting facilities will feature a 900 square-metre pillar-free grand ballroom, a junior ballroom of 300 square metres, and eight multi-function rooms ranging from 45 to 100 square metres. The highlight for event planners will be the generously proportioned 3,000 square-metre ceremonial hall set amidst a private landscaped Wedding Park along the city's river, the first of its kind in Zhejiang province.
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
The selfie lets us express ourselves
In these hyper-connected, over-shared times dwell two kinds of people: those preoccupied with taking and uploading photos of themselves and those who have never heard of the selfie.
The raunchy, goofy, poignant, sexy or drunken self-portrait has been a common sight since phone camera met social media. Now, nearly a decade since the arm-extended or in-the-mirror photos became a mainstay of MySpace, selfies are a pastime across generations and cultures.
Justin Bieber puts up plenty of shirtless pics and Rihanna poses for sultry snaps, but a beaming Hillary Clinton recently took a turn with daughter Chelsea, who tweeted their happy first attempt with the hashtag #ProudDaughter.
Two other famous daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, selfied at dad's second inauguration, pulling faces in front of a smart phone. And Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide earned a spot in the Selfie Hall of Fame with a striking, otherworldly shot, arms extended as reflected in his helmet outside the International Space Station last year.
"It just comes so naturally after a point," said Elizabeth Zamora, a 24-year-old marketing account coordinator in Dallas who has taken hundreds of selfies since she got her first iPhone two years ago, with the front-facing camera that has become the selfie gold standard.
"You just take it and you don't even realize it, and then you're sharing it with all your friends," she said. "I try not to go crazy."If we're not taking them, we're certainly looking, regardless of whether we know what they're called. We're lurking on the selfies of our teens, enjoying the high jinx of co-workers and friends, and mooning over celebrities, who have fast learned the marketing value — and scandalous dangers — of capturing their more intimate, unpolished selves.
The practice of freezing and sharing our thinnest slices of life has become so popular that the granddaddy of dictionaries, the Oxford, is monitoring the term selfie as a possible addition. Time magazine included the selfie in its Top 10 buzzwords of 2012 (at No. 9) and New York magazine's The Cut blog declared in April: "Ugly Is the New Pretty: How Unattractive Selfies Took Over the Internet."
On Instagram alone, there's #selfiesunday, along with related tags where millions of selfies land daily. More than 23 million photos have been uploaded to the app with the tag #selfie and about 70 million photos clog Instagram's #me.
What are we to make of all this navel-gazing (sometimes literally)? Are selfies, by definition, culturally dangerous? Offensive? An indicator of moral decline?Beverly Hills, Calif., psychiatrist Carole Lieberman sees narcissism with a capital N. "The rise of the selfie is a perfect metaphor for our increasingly narcissistic culture. We're desperately crying out: Look at me!"
But Pamela Rutledge doesn't see it that way. The director of the nonprofit Media Psychology Research Center, which explores how humans interact with technology, sees the selfie as democratizing the once-snooty practice of self-portraiture, a tradition that long predates Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.
She sees some key differences between selfies and self-portraits of yore. Unlike painted portraiture, selfies are easily deletable. And "bad or funny is good in a way that wasn't the case when people had to pay for film to be developed," or for a professional painter, she said.
"Albrecht Durer's self-portraiture is these incredible self-reflections and explorations of technique, and then when Rihanna snaps her picture it's just self-aggrandizement, or it's promotion, so you have a fairly interesting double standard based upon who's taking the self-portrait," said Rutledge, in Boston.
In selfies, we can be famous, and in control of our own images and story lines. As for the young, the more authority figures — parents, teachers — dislike them and "declare them a sign of a self-obsessed, narcissistic generation, the more desirable they become," she said.
The word selfie in itself carries multiple connotations, Rutledge observes. "The 'ie' at the end makes selfie a diminutive, implying some affection and familiarity." From a semantic's perspective, the selfie is a "little self" — a small, friendly bit of the Hands free access, she said.There's a sense of immediacy and temporariness. "Granted, little is really temporary on the internet, but it is more that by definition. Transient, soon to be upstaged by the next one," Rutledge said.
Self-portraits tagged as 'selfie' first surfaced on Flickr, a photo-sharing site, and on MySpace in 2004, Rutledge said. The earliest reference in UrbanDictionary was to "selfy" in 2005.In historical terms, elites in ancient Egypt were fond of self-portraits, Rutledge said. And then there was the mirror, invented in the 15th century and allowing artists like the prolific Durer in Germany to have at it in more meaningful detail.
While the self-involved Narcissus stared at his reflection in a pond in Greek mythology, it was the mirror that "really was the first piece of technology where an artist could see his own image long enough to paint it, other than just painting self-impressions," Rutledge said.
Fast forward to the 1860s and the advent of cameras, launching a new round of selfies, though they took considerable skill and expense.Leap with us once again to 2010 and the launch of Instagram, and on to 2012, when 86 percent of the U.S. population had a cell phone, bringing on the cheaper selfie as social media and mobile internet access spread.
"What's most interesting to me is how we're trying to grapple with what it means," Rutledge said. "We know what it means when we see somebody's picture of their kid holding a soccer ball. We're okay with that. And we know what it means to have a portrait in a high school yearbook or of a real estate agent on a business card. We know how to think about all of those things, but we don't know how to think about this mass production of self-reflection."
Is it possible the selfie doesn't mean anything at all?"In the era of the Kardashians, everyone has become their own paparazzi," mused Rachel Weingarten, a personal-brand consultant in New York.
Another New Yorker, 14-year-old Beatrice Landau, tends to agree. She regularly uploads selfies — from vacation shots on Instagram to fleeting images using Snapchat, a phone app that deletes them after 10 seconds.
"I know selfies are ridiculous, but it's definitely part of our 'teenage culture,'?" Beatrice said. "You don't have to have a person with you to take a picture of you, when you can take one yourself."
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
The raunchy, goofy, poignant, sexy or drunken self-portrait has been a common sight since phone camera met social media. Now, nearly a decade since the arm-extended or in-the-mirror photos became a mainstay of MySpace, selfies are a pastime across generations and cultures.
Justin Bieber puts up plenty of shirtless pics and Rihanna poses for sultry snaps, but a beaming Hillary Clinton recently took a turn with daughter Chelsea, who tweeted their happy first attempt with the hashtag #ProudDaughter.
Two other famous daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, selfied at dad's second inauguration, pulling faces in front of a smart phone. And Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide earned a spot in the Selfie Hall of Fame with a striking, otherworldly shot, arms extended as reflected in his helmet outside the International Space Station last year.
"It just comes so naturally after a point," said Elizabeth Zamora, a 24-year-old marketing account coordinator in Dallas who has taken hundreds of selfies since she got her first iPhone two years ago, with the front-facing camera that has become the selfie gold standard.
"You just take it and you don't even realize it, and then you're sharing it with all your friends," she said. "I try not to go crazy."If we're not taking them, we're certainly looking, regardless of whether we know what they're called. We're lurking on the selfies of our teens, enjoying the high jinx of co-workers and friends, and mooning over celebrities, who have fast learned the marketing value — and scandalous dangers — of capturing their more intimate, unpolished selves.
The practice of freezing and sharing our thinnest slices of life has become so popular that the granddaddy of dictionaries, the Oxford, is monitoring the term selfie as a possible addition. Time magazine included the selfie in its Top 10 buzzwords of 2012 (at No. 9) and New York magazine's The Cut blog declared in April: "Ugly Is the New Pretty: How Unattractive Selfies Took Over the Internet."
On Instagram alone, there's #selfiesunday, along with related tags where millions of selfies land daily. More than 23 million photos have been uploaded to the app with the tag #selfie and about 70 million photos clog Instagram's #me.
What are we to make of all this navel-gazing (sometimes literally)? Are selfies, by definition, culturally dangerous? Offensive? An indicator of moral decline?Beverly Hills, Calif., psychiatrist Carole Lieberman sees narcissism with a capital N. "The rise of the selfie is a perfect metaphor for our increasingly narcissistic culture. We're desperately crying out: Look at me!"
But Pamela Rutledge doesn't see it that way. The director of the nonprofit Media Psychology Research Center, which explores how humans interact with technology, sees the selfie as democratizing the once-snooty practice of self-portraiture, a tradition that long predates Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.
She sees some key differences between selfies and self-portraits of yore. Unlike painted portraiture, selfies are easily deletable. And "bad or funny is good in a way that wasn't the case when people had to pay for film to be developed," or for a professional painter, she said.
"Albrecht Durer's self-portraiture is these incredible self-reflections and explorations of technique, and then when Rihanna snaps her picture it's just self-aggrandizement, or it's promotion, so you have a fairly interesting double standard based upon who's taking the self-portrait," said Rutledge, in Boston.
In selfies, we can be famous, and in control of our own images and story lines. As for the young, the more authority figures — parents, teachers — dislike them and "declare them a sign of a self-obsessed, narcissistic generation, the more desirable they become," she said.
The word selfie in itself carries multiple connotations, Rutledge observes. "The 'ie' at the end makes selfie a diminutive, implying some affection and familiarity." From a semantic's perspective, the selfie is a "little self" — a small, friendly bit of the Hands free access, she said.There's a sense of immediacy and temporariness. "Granted, little is really temporary on the internet, but it is more that by definition. Transient, soon to be upstaged by the next one," Rutledge said.
Self-portraits tagged as 'selfie' first surfaced on Flickr, a photo-sharing site, and on MySpace in 2004, Rutledge said. The earliest reference in UrbanDictionary was to "selfy" in 2005.In historical terms, elites in ancient Egypt were fond of self-portraits, Rutledge said. And then there was the mirror, invented in the 15th century and allowing artists like the prolific Durer in Germany to have at it in more meaningful detail.
While the self-involved Narcissus stared at his reflection in a pond in Greek mythology, it was the mirror that "really was the first piece of technology where an artist could see his own image long enough to paint it, other than just painting self-impressions," Rutledge said.
Fast forward to the 1860s and the advent of cameras, launching a new round of selfies, though they took considerable skill and expense.Leap with us once again to 2010 and the launch of Instagram, and on to 2012, when 86 percent of the U.S. population had a cell phone, bringing on the cheaper selfie as social media and mobile internet access spread.
"What's most interesting to me is how we're trying to grapple with what it means," Rutledge said. "We know what it means when we see somebody's picture of their kid holding a soccer ball. We're okay with that. And we know what it means to have a portrait in a high school yearbook or of a real estate agent on a business card. We know how to think about all of those things, but we don't know how to think about this mass production of self-reflection."
Is it possible the selfie doesn't mean anything at all?"In the era of the Kardashians, everyone has become their own paparazzi," mused Rachel Weingarten, a personal-brand consultant in New York.
Another New Yorker, 14-year-old Beatrice Landau, tends to agree. She regularly uploads selfies — from vacation shots on Instagram to fleeting images using Snapchat, a phone app that deletes them after 10 seconds.
"I know selfies are ridiculous, but it's definitely part of our 'teenage culture,'?" Beatrice said. "You don't have to have a person with you to take a picture of you, when you can take one yourself."
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
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