During a period of great economic challenge, the privately-owned Viokyt has exercised a careful balancing act between tight fiscal management and investment in major capital equipment to ensure maintaining its position as a leader in the corrugated market. In the past five years the company expanded into high-quality flexo post-print, added new coating units on its corrugator as well as recently installing the HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press and a digital cutter.
"Even though the economy was presenting real problems, our customers still needed packaging to deliver their goods, and we needed to deliver the packaging they required," said Theodore Daskalopolous, managing director, Viokyt Packaging SA. "The company president, Jossif Matarasso, attended an open day at HP in Sant Cugat and saw a demonstration of the HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press and thought it would be the press to address our short-run requirements."
Within a few months, an order was placed, and working through HP reseller Graphcom, in Athens, the press was installed and was being used for packaging, POP/POS and large special displays for retail outlets. With the ability to produce up to 500m2/ hr (5380 ft2/hr) or 95 full-size sheets/hr(1) with ? automation, the HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press can print on flexible and rigid sheets from 130g/m2 to 25mm thick.
Among its broad client base, Viokyt carries out packaging work for the Greek agricultural sector as well as for large retail enterprises and supermarkets.
"For exporting companies, like the wine and olive oil producers, the variable data capabilities of the FB7600 press enables cost-effective printing of languages as well as giving us the ability to print barcodes and tracking information," continued Daskalopolous. "This is work that would have been impossible to do otherwise.
"The FB7600 press was our first digital press and we are pleased with its ability to handle the growing short-run jobs which are otherwise prohibitively expensive."
Violyt's HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press is equipped with the optional Multi-sheet loader Kit that enables the production of four-sheets from 700 x 1000mm up to 775 x 1650mm(2) simultaneously.
"As well as watching costs, we are also watching our impact on the environment," said Daskalopolous. "Both for us and for our customers we made environmental features part of our equipment selection criteria as well as productivity."
HP FB225Scitex Inks used by the HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press are GREENGUARD Children & Schools CertifiedSM, colour inks meet AgBB criteria(3) and have reduced odour(4) that enable indoor applications. This enables products printed with the press to be used in area where solvent or UV-curable ink-printed materials could not be.
"We now have the digital capacity to handle the wide range of short-run jobs effectively and efficiently for our customers," concluded Dskalopolous. "The HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press gives us the quality and production flexibility to meet today's markets."
Following the widespread growth of smartphones and other portable connected devices in recent years, there has been a huge growth of mobile data consumption. One of the key issues for MNO's has been to address this increasing data traffic demand with sufficient capacity at Hands free access. Due to limited spectrum availability and increasing rates of data consumption, the user experience is often somewhat sacrificed.
One of the solutions to the rising wireless broadband capacity crunch is through deploying heterogeneous networks (Hetnets) comprising of macro cells and a range of small cell solutions namely microcells, picocells, carrier Wi-Fi and femtocells.
Small cells are being widely deployed by mobile operators the world over. 2G/3G small cells have already been used widely by operators for quite some time now, for the purposes of boosting network capacity in urban areas, provide wider coverage in rural areas, and furthermore to extend services into large public areas such as train stations, airports and shopping malls. More recently, with the widespread rollout of 4G LTE technologies there has been a renewed vigour in the deployment of 4G small cells in the form of public space femto cells and mini eNode base stations, in order to keep up with the increasing capacity and backhaul requirements for ubiquitous access to mobile broadband at 4G speeds.
Visiongain predicts growth in the small cells market, particularly in the 4G small cell types. The market is poised for vendors and solution providers as there is a huge uptake both from the consumer market, enterprise sector and the mobile operators, driven by limited spectrum and capacity constraints. The overall small cells market is growing and will continue to do so over the forecast period 2013-2018. As a consequence, visiongain has determined that the value of the global small cells market in 2013 will reach.
"Es ist eine so extreme Situation zur Zeit, dass ich das Gefühl habe, dass ich nicht atmen kann", erkl?rte Sylvie van der Vaart in dem gefühlvollen Interview. Mehrmals muss Sylvie tief einatmen, wahrscheinlich um nicht immer wieder in Tr?nen auszubrechen. "Es wird immer schwieriger, Leuten zu vertrauen", sagte sie und gab zu, dass sie in der Vergangenheit wohl den falschen Leuten ihr Vertrauen geschenkt hat.
"Für mich ist es wichtig, dass Damian sich an die neue Lebenssituation gew?hnt, dass er glücklich ist. In seinem Interesse will ich, dass wieder Ruhe einkehrt", erz?hlte Sylvie. Sie und Rafael van der Vaart (30) werden sich das Sorgerecht für ihren Sohn in Zukunft teilen. So bleibt es sicherlich nicht aus, dass sie und Sabia Boulahrouz hin und wieder aufeinandertreffen werden.
Im Interview f?llt auf, dass Frauke Ludowig weder den Namen von Sabia Boulahrouz, noch den des Ex-Freundes Guillaume Zarka (33) nennt – wahrscheinlich konnte Sylvie van der Vaart ihre eigene Situation so objektiver betrachten. "Manchmal sitze ich zu Hause und weine", gestand sie. Die momentane Zeit ist offensichtlich nicht leicht für die Moderatorin. "Mein Bruder und meine Eltern sind für mich da – am Ende ist es die Familie, die z?hlt." Aber ihren Sohn wolle sie damit nicht belasten, erkl?rte Sylvie van der Vaart.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/!
Showing posts with label equipment designed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label equipment designed. Show all posts
Monday, September 2, 2013
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Obama at 50th anniversary embodies
President Barack Obama led civil rights pioneers Wednesday in a ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech roused the 250,000 people who rallied there decades ago for racial equality.
Large crowds gathered at the Lincoln Memorial, where the first black U.S. president spoke just after 1900 GMT – the same time that King delivered his spellbinding speech.The first march was early in the turbulent 1960s, when the South still had separate restrooms, schools and careers for blacks and whites, and racism lingered across the country. In the two years following the march, President Lyndon Johnson signed the landmark Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act to outlaw discrimination, and King received the Nobel Peace Prize.
“There were couples in love who couldn’t marry. Soldiers who fought for freedom abroad but couldn’t find any at home,” Obama said, speaking of that era. “America changed for you and rtls,” he added later.But he pointed to the nation’s economic disparities as evidence that King’s hopes remain unfulfilled.
Obama has said King is one of two people he admires “more than anybody in American history.” The other is Abraham Lincoln. Thousands of people were in attendance in wet weather.Two former presidents, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, spoke movingly of King’s legacy – and of problems still to overcome.“This march, and that speech, changed America,” Clinton declared.
Carter said King’s efforts had helped not just black Americans, but “In truth, he helped to free all people.”Oprah Winfrey, Forest Whitaker and Jamie Foxx were among the celebrities.Winfrey said King forced the nation “to wake up, look at itself and eventually change.”
International commemorations were being held at London’s Trafalgar Square, as well as in the nations of Japan, Switzerland, Nepal and Liberia. London Mayor Boris Johnson has said King’s speech resonates around the world and continues to inspire people as one of the great pieces of oratory.
Obama considers the 1963 march part of his generation’s “formative memory.” A half-century after the march, he said, is a good time to reflect on how far the country has come and how far it still has to go, particularly after the recent acquittal of George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager.
Race isn’t a subject Obama likes to talk about in public, but the Martin case is one time he has done so.In an interview Tuesday on Tom Joyner’s radio show, Obama said he imagines that King “would be amazed in many ways about the progress that we’ve made.” He listed advances such as equal rights before the law, an accessible judicial system, thousands of African-American elected officials, African-American CEOs and the doors that the civil rights movement opened for Latinos, women and gays.
The white minivan packed with armed Syrian fighters hurtled along the narrow winding road and passed old stone houses nestled among lush orchards of apples, pomegranates and figs clinging to dry-stone terraces stepped into the soaring pine-covered mountains and rocky ravines of Jabal al-Akrad in Syria's northwestern Latakia province.
The seven men munched on potato chips as revolutionary songs, mainly Islamist but a few secular, played through the van's speakers: "We are your soldiers, Osama. We seek martyrdom," went one.There was another soundtrack playing outside - the roar of MiG fighter jets and the soft thump-thump of helicopter rotor blades before they opened their doors to drop large improvised explosives packed into barrels. A MiG suddenly swooped directly overhead, prompting the van to screech to a halt. The men clambered out and hid under the sprawling branches of a walnut tree by the side of the road.
A rebel 23-mm anti-aircraft gun nearby chased the jet with several thunderous rounds. It was joined by several other anti-aircraft guns of various calibers. All missed their target. A chicken clucked. An old man in a red and white checkered headscarf, riding an ash-gray donkey a shade darker than the color of his whiskers, slowly continued up the steep path, seemingly oblivious to events around him.
After 10 minutes and several circular passes, the jet again dived in low and unleashed its explosive payload into an adjacent hill, creating plumes of white smoke that obscured the gentle, rounded mountaintop like a vertical cloud.
The men of the Ansar al-Din battalion got back into the van and drove toward the many other plumes of smoke rising from the hills. They were headed to one of the most important front lines in the Syrian civil war: the battle for the mountain heartlands of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect, his ancestral homeland and the backbone of his regime.
Read the full products at www.ecived.com/en/!
Large crowds gathered at the Lincoln Memorial, where the first black U.S. president spoke just after 1900 GMT – the same time that King delivered his spellbinding speech.The first march was early in the turbulent 1960s, when the South still had separate restrooms, schools and careers for blacks and whites, and racism lingered across the country. In the two years following the march, President Lyndon Johnson signed the landmark Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act to outlaw discrimination, and King received the Nobel Peace Prize.
“There were couples in love who couldn’t marry. Soldiers who fought for freedom abroad but couldn’t find any at home,” Obama said, speaking of that era. “America changed for you and rtls,” he added later.But he pointed to the nation’s economic disparities as evidence that King’s hopes remain unfulfilled.
Obama has said King is one of two people he admires “more than anybody in American history.” The other is Abraham Lincoln. Thousands of people were in attendance in wet weather.Two former presidents, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, spoke movingly of King’s legacy – and of problems still to overcome.“This march, and that speech, changed America,” Clinton declared.
Carter said King’s efforts had helped not just black Americans, but “In truth, he helped to free all people.”Oprah Winfrey, Forest Whitaker and Jamie Foxx were among the celebrities.Winfrey said King forced the nation “to wake up, look at itself and eventually change.”
International commemorations were being held at London’s Trafalgar Square, as well as in the nations of Japan, Switzerland, Nepal and Liberia. London Mayor Boris Johnson has said King’s speech resonates around the world and continues to inspire people as one of the great pieces of oratory.
Obama considers the 1963 march part of his generation’s “formative memory.” A half-century after the march, he said, is a good time to reflect on how far the country has come and how far it still has to go, particularly after the recent acquittal of George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager.
Race isn’t a subject Obama likes to talk about in public, but the Martin case is one time he has done so.In an interview Tuesday on Tom Joyner’s radio show, Obama said he imagines that King “would be amazed in many ways about the progress that we’ve made.” He listed advances such as equal rights before the law, an accessible judicial system, thousands of African-American elected officials, African-American CEOs and the doors that the civil rights movement opened for Latinos, women and gays.
The white minivan packed with armed Syrian fighters hurtled along the narrow winding road and passed old stone houses nestled among lush orchards of apples, pomegranates and figs clinging to dry-stone terraces stepped into the soaring pine-covered mountains and rocky ravines of Jabal al-Akrad in Syria's northwestern Latakia province.
The seven men munched on potato chips as revolutionary songs, mainly Islamist but a few secular, played through the van's speakers: "We are your soldiers, Osama. We seek martyrdom," went one.There was another soundtrack playing outside - the roar of MiG fighter jets and the soft thump-thump of helicopter rotor blades before they opened their doors to drop large improvised explosives packed into barrels. A MiG suddenly swooped directly overhead, prompting the van to screech to a halt. The men clambered out and hid under the sprawling branches of a walnut tree by the side of the road.
A rebel 23-mm anti-aircraft gun nearby chased the jet with several thunderous rounds. It was joined by several other anti-aircraft guns of various calibers. All missed their target. A chicken clucked. An old man in a red and white checkered headscarf, riding an ash-gray donkey a shade darker than the color of his whiskers, slowly continued up the steep path, seemingly oblivious to events around him.
After 10 minutes and several circular passes, the jet again dived in low and unleashed its explosive payload into an adjacent hill, creating plumes of white smoke that obscured the gentle, rounded mountaintop like a vertical cloud.
The men of the Ansar al-Din battalion got back into the van and drove toward the many other plumes of smoke rising from the hills. They were headed to one of the most important front lines in the Syrian civil war: the battle for the mountain heartlands of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect, his ancestral homeland and the backbone of his regime.
Read the full products at www.ecived.com/en/!
National Review's Ugly Civil Rights History
National Review has published numerous articles this week marking the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.'s seminal "I have a dream" speech. Given its ugly history, the long-running conservative magazine is ill-suited for such transparent attempts to re-appropriate the civil rights movement. National Review opposed major civil rights legislation and published appallingly racist commentary during the height of the civil rights movement.
In an editorial published this morning, the editors of National Review invoke the March on Washington in order to attack the "decrepitude of today's civil-rights movement" and label the original civil rights movement "in a crucial sense conservative" because "it did not seek to invent rights, but to secure ones that the government already respected in principle."
In a nod to the magazine's own shameful history, the editors concede that "too many conservatives and real time Location system, including the editors of this magazine" missed what it sees as the centrally conservative and theological arguments underpinning the movement.
It's commendable that the editors are acknowledging the magazine's role in opposing important facets of the civil rights movement. Nonetheless, claiming that National Review "worried about the effects of the civil-rights movement on federalism and limited government" glosses over the odious nature of some of the magazine's writing from the 50s and 60s, when that publication stood athwart history yelling stop as King and his allies fought to end a brutal regime of racial segregation and voter disenfranchisement.
In his 2007 book The Conservative Ascendancy, historian Donald Critchlow documents that from the founding of the magazine in 1955, the editors of National Review "opposed federal involvement in enforcing equal access to public accommodations and protecting black voting rights in the South." Though the National Review "based their opposition on constitutional grounds and conservative resistance to radical social change," Critchlow explains that "their rhetoric overstepped the bounds of civility and was racially offensive."
The central question that emerges - and it is not a parliamentary question or a question that is answered by merely consulting a catalog of the rights of American citizens, born Equal - is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes - the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race.
Surely one thing is clear enough at this point in American history, namely, that the Negro problem cannot be solved by even the most artful piece of legislation. This kind of "progress" projected under the proposed civil rights laws is the kind of progress which is based on the assumption that people can be brought under coercive pressure to do things they are disciplined to do.
There are those who sincerely believe progress is not fashioned out of that kind of clay. There actually are true and wise friends of the Negro race who believe that a federal law, artificially deduced from the Commerce Clause of the Constitution or from the 14th Amendment, whose marginal effect will be to instruct small merchants in the Deep South on how they may conduct their business, is no way at all of promoting the kind of understanding which is the basis of progressive and charitable relationships between the races.
Mass demonstrations, in a free society, should be reserved for situations about which there is simply no doubting the correct moral course. If it is true that the Senate and the House of Representatives cannot be trusted to write a law which is manifestly just and imperatively moral, then and only then is the pressure of the mob in order.
The internal order is now in jeopardy; and it is in jeopardy because of the doings of such highminded, self-righteous "children of light" as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his associates in the leadership role of the "civil rights" movement. If you are looking for those ultimately responsible for the murder, arson, and looting in Los Angeles, look to them: they are the guilty ones, these apostles of "non-violence."
For years now, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his associates have been deliberately undermining the foundations of internal order in this country. With their rabble-rousing demagoguery, they have been cracking the "cake of custom" that holds us together. With their doctrine of "civil disobedience," they have been teaching hundreds of thousands of Negroes - particularly the adolescents and the children - that it is perfectly all right to break the law and defy constituted authority if you are a Negro-with-a-grievance; in protest against injustice. And they have done more than talk.
As explained by FAIR, Buckley did eventually change some of his views on the civil rights movement, telling Time magazine in 2004, "I once believed we could evolve our way up from Jim Crow. I was wrong: Federal intervention was necessary."
By 2000, the white nationalist magazine American Renaissance was lamenting "The Decline of National Review" and what it termed their "complete abandonment of the interests of whites as a group" after the magazine had spent so many years "heap[ing] criticism on the civil rights movement, Brown v. Board of Education, and people like Adam Clayton Powell and Martin Luther King, whom it considered race hustlers" and publishing "articles defending the white South and white South Africans in the days of segregation and apartheid."
While National Review has certainly taken strides in distancing itself from its ugly history, it has had to fire two different writers for troubling racial views as recently as last year. It fired writer John Derbyshire after he published a piece in a different magazine advising parents to tell their children to be wary of black people. It also dropped contributor Robert Weissberg in light of reports that he had given a speech at an American Renaissance conference about "A Politically Viable Alternative to White Nationalism."
Read the full products at www.ecived.com/en/!
In an editorial published this morning, the editors of National Review invoke the March on Washington in order to attack the "decrepitude of today's civil-rights movement" and label the original civil rights movement "in a crucial sense conservative" because "it did not seek to invent rights, but to secure ones that the government already respected in principle."
In a nod to the magazine's own shameful history, the editors concede that "too many conservatives and real time Location system, including the editors of this magazine" missed what it sees as the centrally conservative and theological arguments underpinning the movement.
It's commendable that the editors are acknowledging the magazine's role in opposing important facets of the civil rights movement. Nonetheless, claiming that National Review "worried about the effects of the civil-rights movement on federalism and limited government" glosses over the odious nature of some of the magazine's writing from the 50s and 60s, when that publication stood athwart history yelling stop as King and his allies fought to end a brutal regime of racial segregation and voter disenfranchisement.
In his 2007 book The Conservative Ascendancy, historian Donald Critchlow documents that from the founding of the magazine in 1955, the editors of National Review "opposed federal involvement in enforcing equal access to public accommodations and protecting black voting rights in the South." Though the National Review "based their opposition on constitutional grounds and conservative resistance to radical social change," Critchlow explains that "their rhetoric overstepped the bounds of civility and was racially offensive."
The central question that emerges - and it is not a parliamentary question or a question that is answered by merely consulting a catalog of the rights of American citizens, born Equal - is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes - the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race.
Surely one thing is clear enough at this point in American history, namely, that the Negro problem cannot be solved by even the most artful piece of legislation. This kind of "progress" projected under the proposed civil rights laws is the kind of progress which is based on the assumption that people can be brought under coercive pressure to do things they are disciplined to do.
There are those who sincerely believe progress is not fashioned out of that kind of clay. There actually are true and wise friends of the Negro race who believe that a federal law, artificially deduced from the Commerce Clause of the Constitution or from the 14th Amendment, whose marginal effect will be to instruct small merchants in the Deep South on how they may conduct their business, is no way at all of promoting the kind of understanding which is the basis of progressive and charitable relationships between the races.
Mass demonstrations, in a free society, should be reserved for situations about which there is simply no doubting the correct moral course. If it is true that the Senate and the House of Representatives cannot be trusted to write a law which is manifestly just and imperatively moral, then and only then is the pressure of the mob in order.
The internal order is now in jeopardy; and it is in jeopardy because of the doings of such highminded, self-righteous "children of light" as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his associates in the leadership role of the "civil rights" movement. If you are looking for those ultimately responsible for the murder, arson, and looting in Los Angeles, look to them: they are the guilty ones, these apostles of "non-violence."
For years now, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his associates have been deliberately undermining the foundations of internal order in this country. With their rabble-rousing demagoguery, they have been cracking the "cake of custom" that holds us together. With their doctrine of "civil disobedience," they have been teaching hundreds of thousands of Negroes - particularly the adolescents and the children - that it is perfectly all right to break the law and defy constituted authority if you are a Negro-with-a-grievance; in protest against injustice. And they have done more than talk.
As explained by FAIR, Buckley did eventually change some of his views on the civil rights movement, telling Time magazine in 2004, "I once believed we could evolve our way up from Jim Crow. I was wrong: Federal intervention was necessary."
By 2000, the white nationalist magazine American Renaissance was lamenting "The Decline of National Review" and what it termed their "complete abandonment of the interests of whites as a group" after the magazine had spent so many years "heap[ing] criticism on the civil rights movement, Brown v. Board of Education, and people like Adam Clayton Powell and Martin Luther King, whom it considered race hustlers" and publishing "articles defending the white South and white South Africans in the days of segregation and apartheid."
While National Review has certainly taken strides in distancing itself from its ugly history, it has had to fire two different writers for troubling racial views as recently as last year. It fired writer John Derbyshire after he published a piece in a different magazine advising parents to tell their children to be wary of black people. It also dropped contributor Robert Weissberg in light of reports that he had given a speech at an American Renaissance conference about "A Politically Viable Alternative to White Nationalism."
Read the full products at www.ecived.com/en/!
Monday, August 19, 2013
Is Glenn Greenwald's journalism
The detention at Heathrow on Sunday of the Brazilian David Miranda is the sort of treatment western politicians love to deplore in Putin's Russia or Ahmadinejad's Iran. His "offence" under the 2000 Terrorism Act was apparently to be the partner of a journalist, Glenn Greenwald, who had reported for the Guardian on material released by the American whistleblower, Edward Snowden. We must assume the Americans asked the British government to nab him, shake him down and take his personal effects.
Miranda's phone and laptop were confiscated and he was held incommunicado, without access to friends or lawyer, for the maximum nine hours allowed under law. It is the airport equivalent of smashing into someone's flat, rifling through their drawers and stealing papers and documents. It is simple harassment and intimidation.
Greenwald himself is not known to have committed any offence, unless journalism is now a "terrorist" occupation in the eyes of British and Hands free access. As for Miranda, his only offence seems to have been to be part of his family. Harassing the family of those who have upset authority is the most obscene form of state terrorism.
Last month, the British foreign secretary, William Hague, airily excused the apparently illegal hoovering of internet traffic by British and American spies on the grounds that "the innocent have nothing to fear," the motto of police states down the ages. Hague's apologists explained that he was a nice chap really, but that relations with America trumped every libertarian card.
The hysteria of the "war on terror" is now corrupting every area of democratic government. It extends from the arbitrary selection of drone targets to the quasi-torture of suspects, the intrusion on personal data and the harassing of journalists' families. The disregard of statutory oversight – in Britain's case pathetically inadequate – is giving western governments many of the characteristics of the enemies they profess to oppose. How Putin must be rubbing his hands with glee.
The innocent have nothing to fear? They do if they embarrass America and happen to visit British soil. The only land of the free today in this matter is Brazil.But those early years living with his family of eight in a 12-foot by 20-foot cabin without indoor plumbing — “Our air-conditioning was our two windows,” he jokes good-naturedly — laid the groundwork for his future career as a successful alfalfa farmer with 250 acres in Queen Creek.
He was part of an SSAR team who in 2009 tracked down two prospectors who were reported missing in Mammoth, Ariz., he said. On the final day of the search, the team found the pair alive after scouring 11 miles of terrain, Mr. Barrientos said.
The searchers were traveling on quad-runners; a cattle pond filled with water prevented the off-road vehicles from traveling farther but the trackers communicated with a helicopter and told the pilot in which direction they suspected the prospectors had traveled, Mr. Barrientos said. Five minutes later, the pilot spotted the missing men.
Three of Avallone and Wargo’s students — they teach the same 90 students — borrowed the new Kindles during summer vacation.The group picked the same title to read, the fantasy-adventure book “Shadow and Bone” by Leigh Bardugo, and then discussed it together on Goodreads, a website where readers can share their opinions.Avallone said she had hoped more students would participate, but it was hard to get many to meet regularly during the real time Location system.
One of the summer participants was 13-year-old Melissa Garcia, who read the most book titles in Avallone’s class last year.Before the summer reading club, Garcia had used a Kindle only once before.“I really like it because I’m not very good at vocabulary,” Garcia said. With the Kindle Fire she could click on words she wasn’t sure of and get a definition immediately.
Garcia also liked that the Kindle Fire allowed her to change the size and color of the font if the text started hurting her eyes.“I could keep reading all day without my eyes getting tired,” Garcia said.
The e-readers also have financial benefits. A new title’s e-edition is often cheaper than a hardcover book, and with e-readers a teacher can purchase one book copy and share it among multiple devices. That makes a big difference for Avallone, who estimates she spent about $1,000 out of pocket buying books for her library last year.
Avallone, who earned her master’s degree as a reading specialist from Aurora University, tries to promote independent reading in her classroom by giving students time to read, stocking popular young adult titles and providing recommendations.Last year she dedicated 25 to 35 minutes every Wednesday to self-selected reading, then upped the amount to 10 minutes a day toward the end of the year. She worried many students wouldn’t read over the summer because they didn’t have library cards or money to buy books.
Avallone is an avid young adult books reader, so she can make targeted recommendations based on her students’ interests and current trends. Right now, dystopian and fantasy books are the most popular.She also suggests young adult books that will turn into movies — like “Divergent,” the “Percy Jackson” series and the “Hunger Games” trilogy — to generate student interest.
To keep track of her inventory, Avallone installed a free web-based program called Classroom Organizer on her computers, so students can check in and out the titles that they borrow. When they return a book, students can offer a star rating and a review, which helps other students decide if they want to read the book.
Each of Avallone’s students also signs up for a Goodreads account, so they can talk about their books together and get recommendations on the site. And when they leave her class, it’s a way for Avallone to keep in touch with her students and keep encouraging them to read.
Read the full products at www.ecived.com/en/!
Miranda's phone and laptop were confiscated and he was held incommunicado, without access to friends or lawyer, for the maximum nine hours allowed under law. It is the airport equivalent of smashing into someone's flat, rifling through their drawers and stealing papers and documents. It is simple harassment and intimidation.
Greenwald himself is not known to have committed any offence, unless journalism is now a "terrorist" occupation in the eyes of British and Hands free access. As for Miranda, his only offence seems to have been to be part of his family. Harassing the family of those who have upset authority is the most obscene form of state terrorism.
Last month, the British foreign secretary, William Hague, airily excused the apparently illegal hoovering of internet traffic by British and American spies on the grounds that "the innocent have nothing to fear," the motto of police states down the ages. Hague's apologists explained that he was a nice chap really, but that relations with America trumped every libertarian card.
The hysteria of the "war on terror" is now corrupting every area of democratic government. It extends from the arbitrary selection of drone targets to the quasi-torture of suspects, the intrusion on personal data and the harassing of journalists' families. The disregard of statutory oversight – in Britain's case pathetically inadequate – is giving western governments many of the characteristics of the enemies they profess to oppose. How Putin must be rubbing his hands with glee.
The innocent have nothing to fear? They do if they embarrass America and happen to visit British soil. The only land of the free today in this matter is Brazil.But those early years living with his family of eight in a 12-foot by 20-foot cabin without indoor plumbing — “Our air-conditioning was our two windows,” he jokes good-naturedly — laid the groundwork for his future career as a successful alfalfa farmer with 250 acres in Queen Creek.
He was part of an SSAR team who in 2009 tracked down two prospectors who were reported missing in Mammoth, Ariz., he said. On the final day of the search, the team found the pair alive after scouring 11 miles of terrain, Mr. Barrientos said.
The searchers were traveling on quad-runners; a cattle pond filled with water prevented the off-road vehicles from traveling farther but the trackers communicated with a helicopter and told the pilot in which direction they suspected the prospectors had traveled, Mr. Barrientos said. Five minutes later, the pilot spotted the missing men.
Three of Avallone and Wargo’s students — they teach the same 90 students — borrowed the new Kindles during summer vacation.The group picked the same title to read, the fantasy-adventure book “Shadow and Bone” by Leigh Bardugo, and then discussed it together on Goodreads, a website where readers can share their opinions.Avallone said she had hoped more students would participate, but it was hard to get many to meet regularly during the real time Location system.
One of the summer participants was 13-year-old Melissa Garcia, who read the most book titles in Avallone’s class last year.Before the summer reading club, Garcia had used a Kindle only once before.“I really like it because I’m not very good at vocabulary,” Garcia said. With the Kindle Fire she could click on words she wasn’t sure of and get a definition immediately.
Garcia also liked that the Kindle Fire allowed her to change the size and color of the font if the text started hurting her eyes.“I could keep reading all day without my eyes getting tired,” Garcia said.
The e-readers also have financial benefits. A new title’s e-edition is often cheaper than a hardcover book, and with e-readers a teacher can purchase one book copy and share it among multiple devices. That makes a big difference for Avallone, who estimates she spent about $1,000 out of pocket buying books for her library last year.
Avallone, who earned her master’s degree as a reading specialist from Aurora University, tries to promote independent reading in her classroom by giving students time to read, stocking popular young adult titles and providing recommendations.Last year she dedicated 25 to 35 minutes every Wednesday to self-selected reading, then upped the amount to 10 minutes a day toward the end of the year. She worried many students wouldn’t read over the summer because they didn’t have library cards or money to buy books.
Avallone is an avid young adult books reader, so she can make targeted recommendations based on her students’ interests and current trends. Right now, dystopian and fantasy books are the most popular.She also suggests young adult books that will turn into movies — like “Divergent,” the “Percy Jackson” series and the “Hunger Games” trilogy — to generate student interest.
To keep track of her inventory, Avallone installed a free web-based program called Classroom Organizer on her computers, so students can check in and out the titles that they borrow. When they return a book, students can offer a star rating and a review, which helps other students decide if they want to read the book.
Each of Avallone’s students also signs up for a Goodreads account, so they can talk about their books together and get recommendations on the site. And when they leave her class, it’s a way for Avallone to keep in touch with her students and keep encouraging them to read.
Read the full products at www.ecived.com/en/!
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Aymara herder is 123 years old
"I see a bit dimly. I had good vision before. But I saw you coming," he tells a group of journalists who visited after a local TV report about him.Hobbling down a dirt path, Flores greets them with a raised arm, smiles and sits down on a rock to chat. His gums bulge with coca leaf, a mild stimulant that staves off hunger that, like most Bolivian highlands peasants, he has been chewing all his life.
Guinness World Records says the oldest living person verified by original proof of birth is Misao Okawa, a 115-year-old Japanese woman, while the oldest verified age on record was 122 years and 164 days: Jeanne Calment of France. She died in 1997.Flores' 27-year-old grandson Edwin said he was unfamiliar with the Guinness organization and the group's spokeman Jamie Panas said it wasn't aware of any claim being filed with it regarding Flores.
"I should be about 100 years old or more," Flores says.The director of Bolivia's civil registrar, Eugenio Condori, showed The Associated Press the registry that lists Carmelo Flores' birthdate as July 16, 1890.Condori said there is no birth certificate because they did not exist in Bolivia until 1940. Births previously were registered with Hands free access from the nearest Roman Catholic church, authenticated by two witnesses.
"For the state, the baptism certificate is valid because in those days priests provided them and they were literate," Condori said. He said he could not show Flores' baptism certificate to the AP because it is a private document.The grandson says the family showed the baptism certificate to the government so Flores could qualify for a monthly subsidy for the elderly.
The sight of emaciated horses on New Mexico tribal lands between Albuquerque and Santa Fe has stirred concern among animal advocates, some of whom have taken matters into their own hands.Members of a fledgling equine advocacy group have been feeding the horses hay daily for the last month, after photos of hungry-looking animals sparked a groundswell of Internet outrage and calls to boycott tribally owned casinos.
However, tribal leaders say the issue is more complicated than advocates portray it.Pueblo leaders say outsiders have made the problem worse by feeding the horses over fences that run along Interstate 25 and, in more extreme cases, cutting fences on tribal lands."Some of the people who feel like they're helping are actually exacerbating the situation," said Debra Haaland, a tribal administrator at San Felipe Pueblo.
The pueblo has sought to ensure the horses - roughly 100 animals that it claims are a mix of "wild horses" and those "dumped" on San Felipe tribal land - have access to water, but their efforts are hamstrung by recent federal budget cuts that have hit tribes hard, Haaland said.The situation, which is complicated by the fact that the tribes are sovereign nations generally not subject to state jurisdiction, reached its boiling point in July when tribal authorities say they received dozens of rude and irate phone calls.
Most of those reports focus on San Felipe and Santo Domingo pueblos, both located between Albuquerque and Santa Fe along the highly-traveled I-25 corridor. In some cases, advocates claim the horses appear to be near death.
Barbara Tellier of Albuquerque said she saw four or five rail-thin horses on Santo Domingo Pueblo land on a recent drive with a friend.After a flurry of phone calls to state officials generated little response, Tellier said she became increasingly frustrated.
"I'd bet you anything there are some skeletons out there," said Tellier, who noted she has owned or cared for horses most of her life.Similar experiences have prompted other advocates to discuss options ranging from fundraisers to benefit the horses to boycott casinos.
However, Empey said she's hopeful the recent dialogue between animal advocates and San Felipe tribal leaders might be replicated with other pueblo governments, leading to a less confrontational relationship between the two sides.
As for Santo Domingo Pueblo Governor Felix Tenorio Jr., he told the Journal the tribal government was dealing with real time Location system of at least one starving horse. "We're working on that one," Tenorio Jr. said. "We're trying to contact the owner to see what's going on."
Instead, she produced and narrated an audio tour called "Our Shameless Name Dropping Princeton Cell Phone Tour" for weekday visitors. It's almost as much fun as the two-hour, three-mile "Afternoon Princeton University Campus, Genius Neighborhood & Princeton Tycoon Walking Tour" that she leads on Saturday afternoons.
On that walk you'll see some of the campus and some of the town, including two houses that were literally split apart and reseated after their owners divorced. You'll see where Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer used to take tea while discussing development of the atomic bomb. You'll see where Toni Morrison lived and Thomas Mann wrote.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Guinness World Records says the oldest living person verified by original proof of birth is Misao Okawa, a 115-year-old Japanese woman, while the oldest verified age on record was 122 years and 164 days: Jeanne Calment of France. She died in 1997.Flores' 27-year-old grandson Edwin said he was unfamiliar with the Guinness organization and the group's spokeman Jamie Panas said it wasn't aware of any claim being filed with it regarding Flores.
"I should be about 100 years old or more," Flores says.The director of Bolivia's civil registrar, Eugenio Condori, showed The Associated Press the registry that lists Carmelo Flores' birthdate as July 16, 1890.Condori said there is no birth certificate because they did not exist in Bolivia until 1940. Births previously were registered with Hands free access from the nearest Roman Catholic church, authenticated by two witnesses.
"For the state, the baptism certificate is valid because in those days priests provided them and they were literate," Condori said. He said he could not show Flores' baptism certificate to the AP because it is a private document.The grandson says the family showed the baptism certificate to the government so Flores could qualify for a monthly subsidy for the elderly.
The sight of emaciated horses on New Mexico tribal lands between Albuquerque and Santa Fe has stirred concern among animal advocates, some of whom have taken matters into their own hands.Members of a fledgling equine advocacy group have been feeding the horses hay daily for the last month, after photos of hungry-looking animals sparked a groundswell of Internet outrage and calls to boycott tribally owned casinos.
However, tribal leaders say the issue is more complicated than advocates portray it.Pueblo leaders say outsiders have made the problem worse by feeding the horses over fences that run along Interstate 25 and, in more extreme cases, cutting fences on tribal lands."Some of the people who feel like they're helping are actually exacerbating the situation," said Debra Haaland, a tribal administrator at San Felipe Pueblo.
The pueblo has sought to ensure the horses - roughly 100 animals that it claims are a mix of "wild horses" and those "dumped" on San Felipe tribal land - have access to water, but their efforts are hamstrung by recent federal budget cuts that have hit tribes hard, Haaland said.The situation, which is complicated by the fact that the tribes are sovereign nations generally not subject to state jurisdiction, reached its boiling point in July when tribal authorities say they received dozens of rude and irate phone calls.
Most of those reports focus on San Felipe and Santo Domingo pueblos, both located between Albuquerque and Santa Fe along the highly-traveled I-25 corridor. In some cases, advocates claim the horses appear to be near death.
Barbara Tellier of Albuquerque said she saw four or five rail-thin horses on Santo Domingo Pueblo land on a recent drive with a friend.After a flurry of phone calls to state officials generated little response, Tellier said she became increasingly frustrated.
"I'd bet you anything there are some skeletons out there," said Tellier, who noted she has owned or cared for horses most of her life.Similar experiences have prompted other advocates to discuss options ranging from fundraisers to benefit the horses to boycott casinos.
However, Empey said she's hopeful the recent dialogue between animal advocates and San Felipe tribal leaders might be replicated with other pueblo governments, leading to a less confrontational relationship between the two sides.
As for Santo Domingo Pueblo Governor Felix Tenorio Jr., he told the Journal the tribal government was dealing with real time Location system of at least one starving horse. "We're working on that one," Tenorio Jr. said. "We're trying to contact the owner to see what's going on."
Instead, she produced and narrated an audio tour called "Our Shameless Name Dropping Princeton Cell Phone Tour" for weekday visitors. It's almost as much fun as the two-hour, three-mile "Afternoon Princeton University Campus, Genius Neighborhood & Princeton Tycoon Walking Tour" that she leads on Saturday afternoons.
On that walk you'll see some of the campus and some of the town, including two houses that were literally split apart and reseated after their owners divorced. You'll see where Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer used to take tea while discussing development of the atomic bomb. You'll see where Toni Morrison lived and Thomas Mann wrote.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
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/!
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/!
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/.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Challenges as Union ready for Dallas
Keon Daniel, who has already been called-up by Trinidad & Tobago, will not be available for Saturday’s game. Daniel said, “I’m always happy to play for my country. I think it’s an honor for every player. We haven’t been in a tournament for a while and I think the whole team is eager to play in a tournament like this—a major tournament…It will be sad for me to miss [MLS] games because I love being here to help my teammates. But life goes on and that’s why we are a team and not one player.”
John Hackworth described Daniel as having “his most consistent year as a professional at the highest level,” and said of the effect his call-up will have on the Union, “We’re going to miss (Daniel), but I think the most logical player (to replace him) would be Michael Farfan,. I think it’s an opportunity for Farfan to come back to a more natural position for him.”
Turning to Saturday’s game against Dallas —the start of a four game stretch that Hackworth said the team has talked about as “being pivotal to our success all year long”— there are a number of concerns.
Speaking at Wednesday’s weekly press conference (click here to watch video of the press conference), Hackworth noted that it important that the team put the euphoria over beating New York for the first time in two years behind them. “It is a challenge, there’s no question. We need to try to do a really good job of staying focused and not still thinking about New York. So far this week, I think the team has responded very positively. From what our staff can tell and in the conversations we’re having in our training, we’re fully focused on Dallas.”
Saturday’s game is the beginning of a three games in a week that includes road games against Real Salt Lake on Wednesday and Houston the following Saturday. Hackworth said, “I think we’ll be smart because we have to be. Anytime you’re faced with the selection challenges that we are going into Dallas and then knowing on the back side that we’re going to have to really tough road games, I think we have to play really smart. We have to know that this stretch of three games is going to be very difficult to get through and how we manage our roster at the time being and down a few members is going to be important.”
Hoppenot said, “We look at these next three games as being the most important of the season. Even at the beginning of the season, we knew this was going to be the deciding point of our season.”
Myanmar has announced the results of a landmark telecommunications auction, permitting investment into the country’s communication infrastructure and lifting traditional restrictions on cellphone ownership.
Telenor Mobile Communications of Norway and Ooredoo of Qatar have won 15-year concessions for the creation of mobile phone networks. Under military rule, mobile phones were kept in short supply — with only three percent of the population owning such a gadget in 2011. Laos, despite similar poverty levels, has a mobile penetration rate of 87 percent.
The landmark auction paves the way for additional freedom and access to information for the country’s 55 million people.
Three years ago, a mobile SIM card cost upwards of $2,500 which meant mobile devices were luxuries owned by the rich. Now recovering from military rule, mobile contracts will allow for innovation in the banking and payment industry, which is currently reliant on cash transactions. This will be key for Myanmar’s economic prospects in addition to the added bonus of improved communications infrastructure.
One crucial element remains: only 13 percent of Myanmar’s population has consistent access to electricity. This in itself will make cellular transmission towers difficult to place. However, because Myanmar is one of the world’s last remaining undeveloped mobile markets, the business prospects remain promising.
Recently, Myanmar’s Ministry for Hotels and Tourism unveiled a “master plan” to entice more tourists across the border. The plan includes strengthening tourism-related training and education, expanding international air arrivals rates, building better transport links and streamlining tourist-based business licensing.
Despite the long lines and Tarek el-Barkatawy, head of the Egyptian Gas and Petroleum Company, acknowledging a gas shortage at a press conference earlier in the week, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sherif Hadarra denied any shortage on June 26. While Hadarra blamed the long lines at gas stations on false rumors that the government intends to halt the supply of gas products, el-Barkatawy reported that the current rate of gas consumption is exceeding normal levels by 20 to 30%.
Saad Abdel Magid, a Cairo taxi driver, also pointed to Egypt’s diminishing foreign reserves, which are a major factor underlying many of the nation's problems. “The country doesn’t have money, so the country doesn’t have gas,” he said while staring in frustration at a downtown traffic jam of cars haphazardly lined up near a gas station.
In a report issued June 25, the office of the president blamed the lack of fuel on the lack of foreign currency, but also cited smuggling and the black market for the shortage.
Oil-rich Iraq and Libya agreed to deals in March 2013 to supply oil to help ease Egypt's fuel shortages, but they both fell through in June. Indicative of a lack of confidence in Egypt’s economy, the talks ended when Iraq rejected a guarantee by the Egyptian Central Bank for the $1.2 billion value of the oil.
For Manar el-Barrawy, a private language instructor who depends on her car to reach her students, the lack of financial reserves, smuggling, hoarding all seem like plausible reasons for the gas shortage. She also thinks that the government’s ineptitude in monitoring fuel supplies and acting accordingly has a lot to do with the current problem. She told Al-Monitor, “Nothing is really clear.”
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
John Hackworth described Daniel as having “his most consistent year as a professional at the highest level,” and said of the effect his call-up will have on the Union, “We’re going to miss (Daniel), but I think the most logical player (to replace him) would be Michael Farfan,. I think it’s an opportunity for Farfan to come back to a more natural position for him.”
Turning to Saturday’s game against Dallas —the start of a four game stretch that Hackworth said the team has talked about as “being pivotal to our success all year long”— there are a number of concerns.
Speaking at Wednesday’s weekly press conference (click here to watch video of the press conference), Hackworth noted that it important that the team put the euphoria over beating New York for the first time in two years behind them. “It is a challenge, there’s no question. We need to try to do a really good job of staying focused and not still thinking about New York. So far this week, I think the team has responded very positively. From what our staff can tell and in the conversations we’re having in our training, we’re fully focused on Dallas.”
Saturday’s game is the beginning of a three games in a week that includes road games against Real Salt Lake on Wednesday and Houston the following Saturday. Hackworth said, “I think we’ll be smart because we have to be. Anytime you’re faced with the selection challenges that we are going into Dallas and then knowing on the back side that we’re going to have to really tough road games, I think we have to play really smart. We have to know that this stretch of three games is going to be very difficult to get through and how we manage our roster at the time being and down a few members is going to be important.”
Hoppenot said, “We look at these next three games as being the most important of the season. Even at the beginning of the season, we knew this was going to be the deciding point of our season.”
Myanmar has announced the results of a landmark telecommunications auction, permitting investment into the country’s communication infrastructure and lifting traditional restrictions on cellphone ownership.
Telenor Mobile Communications of Norway and Ooredoo of Qatar have won 15-year concessions for the creation of mobile phone networks. Under military rule, mobile phones were kept in short supply — with only three percent of the population owning such a gadget in 2011. Laos, despite similar poverty levels, has a mobile penetration rate of 87 percent.
The landmark auction paves the way for additional freedom and access to information for the country’s 55 million people.
Three years ago, a mobile SIM card cost upwards of $2,500 which meant mobile devices were luxuries owned by the rich. Now recovering from military rule, mobile contracts will allow for innovation in the banking and payment industry, which is currently reliant on cash transactions. This will be key for Myanmar’s economic prospects in addition to the added bonus of improved communications infrastructure.
One crucial element remains: only 13 percent of Myanmar’s population has consistent access to electricity. This in itself will make cellular transmission towers difficult to place. However, because Myanmar is one of the world’s last remaining undeveloped mobile markets, the business prospects remain promising.
Recently, Myanmar’s Ministry for Hotels and Tourism unveiled a “master plan” to entice more tourists across the border. The plan includes strengthening tourism-related training and education, expanding international air arrivals rates, building better transport links and streamlining tourist-based business licensing.
Despite the long lines and Tarek el-Barkatawy, head of the Egyptian Gas and Petroleum Company, acknowledging a gas shortage at a press conference earlier in the week, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sherif Hadarra denied any shortage on June 26. While Hadarra blamed the long lines at gas stations on false rumors that the government intends to halt the supply of gas products, el-Barkatawy reported that the current rate of gas consumption is exceeding normal levels by 20 to 30%.
Saad Abdel Magid, a Cairo taxi driver, also pointed to Egypt’s diminishing foreign reserves, which are a major factor underlying many of the nation's problems. “The country doesn’t have money, so the country doesn’t have gas,” he said while staring in frustration at a downtown traffic jam of cars haphazardly lined up near a gas station.
In a report issued June 25, the office of the president blamed the lack of fuel on the lack of foreign currency, but also cited smuggling and the black market for the shortage.
Oil-rich Iraq and Libya agreed to deals in March 2013 to supply oil to help ease Egypt's fuel shortages, but they both fell through in June. Indicative of a lack of confidence in Egypt’s economy, the talks ended when Iraq rejected a guarantee by the Egyptian Central Bank for the $1.2 billion value of the oil.
For Manar el-Barrawy, a private language instructor who depends on her car to reach her students, the lack of financial reserves, smuggling, hoarding all seem like plausible reasons for the gas shortage. She also thinks that the government’s ineptitude in monitoring fuel supplies and acting accordingly has a lot to do with the current problem. She told Al-Monitor, “Nothing is really clear.”
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Are the Armed Forces a Rape Culture?
US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have produced quagmires of crime, corruption and abuse, beginning with the torture of prisoners, the creation of offshore penal colonies, and repeated airborne attacks on shepherd boys, wedding parties, TV crews and allied troops — and ending with atrocity-producing chauvinism, bigotry, night-time home invasions and indefinite detention without charges. We don’t so much spread democracy as shred a mockery.
This war system has produced epidemic suicide rates, boot camp fatalities, plane and copter crash losses, friendly fire deaths, “green-on-blue insider” attacks by Afghan trainees, combat wounds and amputations, PTSD and several unknown or undiagnosed syndromes many of which are permanently debilitating. The abuse and even murder of spouses are on the rise among returning vets while sexual battery, assault and rape have reached staggering rates.
The Department of Defense’s 2012 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military estimates there were 26,000 sexual assaults in the military last year, up 35 percent from 19,000 in 2011. You know that sexual predators are rampaging through the services when the president calls the rape statistics “shameful” and “disgraceful,” when Pentagon Chief Chuck Hagel calls the chronic outrages a “betrayal” and a “scourge that must be stamped out,” and when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey says, “We’re losing the confidence of the women who serve.”
Why would Dempsey admit such a thing? Because, according to Kirby Dick, director of the film “The Invisible War,” less than one percent of the 26,000 cases resulted in a court-martial conviction. Kirby’s documentary reviews the scandal of military commanders — not prosecutors and judges — deciding whether to prosecute “embedded serial sexual predators.” In a recent editorial, Dick writes, “500,000 uniformed men and women have been assaulted since 1991” (the year of the Navy’s Tailhook sexual assaults in Las Vegas), and fewer than 15 percent were ever reported. In 1996, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland was the site of infamous sexual assaults on female recruits. In 2003, it was the Air Force Academy in Colorado that represented the military’s rape scene.
The problem of unreported and unprosecuted sexual assaults in the military is notorious. Of the estimated 26,000 cases last year, the Department of Defense claims only 3,374 were reported. Tens of thousands of victims keep quiet out of fear of retribution by superior officers and a distrust of the military court system.
One such case came to light June 1, 2013 as the Naval Academy announced that three of its football players were under investigation for the serial rape of a female midshipman in 2012. The victim’s lawyer, Susan Burke, has said that after reporting her attack the sophomore was harassed and taunted by other midshipmen and ostracized and retaliated against by the Naval Academy community. While still under investigation, the three perpetrators were allowed to play football while the victim was disciplined for underage drinking. They were formally charged June 19, 2013. In a second case, on May 1, 2013, the Air Force said it disciplined five former commanders for not reporting sexual assault allegations at Joint Base San Antonio – Lackland in Texas — where 18 sexual assault trials have taken place and 32 basic training instructors are under investigation for assaulting recruits. In addition, on May 14, 2013 Sgt. Michael McClendon at West Point was charged with secretly videotaping a dozen women, sometimes in the shower. In December 2012, a Pentagon report warned that sexual assaults reported by students at its three prestigious military academies jumped 23 percent in one year.
Three more current cases — beyond being too ironic for words — telegraph just how pervasive the culture of male sexual violence is in the military and how unlikely it is to be abolished by committee. First, Army Lt. Col. Darin Haas, sexual assault prevention officer at Fort Campbell in Ky., was removed from his position after being charged with and arrested for stalking and violating a restraining order procured by his ex-wife. Second, an Army sergeant first class that served as a sexual assault prevention and response coordinator at Fort Hood, Texas, is now accused of abusive sexual contact, assault, pandering and maltreatment of subordinates. Third, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski — who until May 7, 2013 was in charge of the Air Force’s sexual assault prevention and response branch — was arrested on a charge of sexual battery for allegedly groping a women after midnight in a parking lot.
The case of Virginia Messick, who was raped at basic training in Texas, is grimly representative, although her assailant, Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, went to prison last July for raping 10 trainees. Messick didn’t initially report being raped. She was staggered by the dilemma that the rapist was the same officer she was supposed to inform.
Under pressure from Pentagon brass, Congress rejected a bill by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of N.Y. that would have given military prosecutors, not commanding officers, the power to decide which sexual assault cases to try. Without fear of retaliation, the law would have increased the number of reported crimes, but the generals objected, saying it would negatively affect “good order and discipline.” Gillibrand didn’t buy the cliché. She told the generals at a senate hearing in March 2012, “I don’t know how you can say having 19,000 sexual assaults and rapes a year is discipline and order.”
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
This war system has produced epidemic suicide rates, boot camp fatalities, plane and copter crash losses, friendly fire deaths, “green-on-blue insider” attacks by Afghan trainees, combat wounds and amputations, PTSD and several unknown or undiagnosed syndromes many of which are permanently debilitating. The abuse and even murder of spouses are on the rise among returning vets while sexual battery, assault and rape have reached staggering rates.
The Department of Defense’s 2012 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military estimates there were 26,000 sexual assaults in the military last year, up 35 percent from 19,000 in 2011. You know that sexual predators are rampaging through the services when the president calls the rape statistics “shameful” and “disgraceful,” when Pentagon Chief Chuck Hagel calls the chronic outrages a “betrayal” and a “scourge that must be stamped out,” and when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey says, “We’re losing the confidence of the women who serve.”
Why would Dempsey admit such a thing? Because, according to Kirby Dick, director of the film “The Invisible War,” less than one percent of the 26,000 cases resulted in a court-martial conviction. Kirby’s documentary reviews the scandal of military commanders — not prosecutors and judges — deciding whether to prosecute “embedded serial sexual predators.” In a recent editorial, Dick writes, “500,000 uniformed men and women have been assaulted since 1991” (the year of the Navy’s Tailhook sexual assaults in Las Vegas), and fewer than 15 percent were ever reported. In 1996, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland was the site of infamous sexual assaults on female recruits. In 2003, it was the Air Force Academy in Colorado that represented the military’s rape scene.
The problem of unreported and unprosecuted sexual assaults in the military is notorious. Of the estimated 26,000 cases last year, the Department of Defense claims only 3,374 were reported. Tens of thousands of victims keep quiet out of fear of retribution by superior officers and a distrust of the military court system.
One such case came to light June 1, 2013 as the Naval Academy announced that three of its football players were under investigation for the serial rape of a female midshipman in 2012. The victim’s lawyer, Susan Burke, has said that after reporting her attack the sophomore was harassed and taunted by other midshipmen and ostracized and retaliated against by the Naval Academy community. While still under investigation, the three perpetrators were allowed to play football while the victim was disciplined for underage drinking. They were formally charged June 19, 2013. In a second case, on May 1, 2013, the Air Force said it disciplined five former commanders for not reporting sexual assault allegations at Joint Base San Antonio – Lackland in Texas — where 18 sexual assault trials have taken place and 32 basic training instructors are under investigation for assaulting recruits. In addition, on May 14, 2013 Sgt. Michael McClendon at West Point was charged with secretly videotaping a dozen women, sometimes in the shower. In December 2012, a Pentagon report warned that sexual assaults reported by students at its three prestigious military academies jumped 23 percent in one year.
Three more current cases — beyond being too ironic for words — telegraph just how pervasive the culture of male sexual violence is in the military and how unlikely it is to be abolished by committee. First, Army Lt. Col. Darin Haas, sexual assault prevention officer at Fort Campbell in Ky., was removed from his position after being charged with and arrested for stalking and violating a restraining order procured by his ex-wife. Second, an Army sergeant first class that served as a sexual assault prevention and response coordinator at Fort Hood, Texas, is now accused of abusive sexual contact, assault, pandering and maltreatment of subordinates. Third, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski — who until May 7, 2013 was in charge of the Air Force’s sexual assault prevention and response branch — was arrested on a charge of sexual battery for allegedly groping a women after midnight in a parking lot.
The case of Virginia Messick, who was raped at basic training in Texas, is grimly representative, although her assailant, Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, went to prison last July for raping 10 trainees. Messick didn’t initially report being raped. She was staggered by the dilemma that the rapist was the same officer she was supposed to inform.
Under pressure from Pentagon brass, Congress rejected a bill by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of N.Y. that would have given military prosecutors, not commanding officers, the power to decide which sexual assault cases to try. Without fear of retaliation, the law would have increased the number of reported crimes, but the generals objected, saying it would negatively affect “good order and discipline.” Gillibrand didn’t buy the cliché. She told the generals at a senate hearing in March 2012, “I don’t know how you can say having 19,000 sexual assaults and rapes a year is discipline and order.”
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Civics website teaches students lessons on history
That’s one of the reasons behind a free website organized and championed by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor labeled iCivics.
It’s a resource for students and teachers alike, and one where the need is prevalent, O’Connor said during a visit to central Illinois in April.
“The statistics are pretty scary. Only about one-third of Americans can name the three branches of government, let alone what they do,” she said. “... More Americans can name a judge on ‘American Idol’ than a judge on the Supreme Court.”
Hence the effort, which started off as a program to help teachers explain how the American court system operated, but then evolved into civics lessons from basic American government to complex historical issues such as the segregationist Jim Crow laws of the South after the Civil War. It now also includes lessons — and games — about learning to write persuasive essays, because O’Connor noticed that students were falling short there.
The games are absorbing — to say the least — for people of all ages, but are particularly geared toward middle schoolers and Hands free access.
“That’s the perfect age to teach kids,” O’Connor said. “The brain is fully formed. ... (and) young people like to play games.”
More to the point, for teachers each module comes with lessons, ideas, options they can bring into the classroom to keep kids engaged and remind them of the fun of the games.
“I taught the concept first, but then (the game) reviews the concept again,” Quest Charter Academy social studies teacher Deb Breyman said. “They don’t realize they’re learning and having fun at the same time.”
But the proof is in the students themselves. Students in Breyman’s seventh-grade class adored the program, and some still use it for fun even though their class is over and their state-mandated test on the U.S. Constitution was passed.
“I learn easier when I have hands-on (opportunities),” Lindsay Steff said. “I got to take what I learned and put it into the game and learn more.”
Syrian government troops backed by Hezbollah guerrillas seized the western village of Buwayda on Saturday, ending rebel resistance around the town of Qusair in a fresh success for President Bashar al-Assad.
The swift fall of Buwayda came just three days after rebels were swept out of Qusair, denying them an important supply route into neighbouring Lebanon and giving renewed momentum to Assad's forces battling a two-year civil war.
Several opposition activists confirmed Buwayda was in government hands and said dozens of rebels, including a number of foreign fighters, had been captured alive. There was no immediate word of their fate.
"We can now declare Qusair and the surrounding area to be a fully liberated area. We will go after the terrorists wherever they are," an unnamed, senior Syrian army officer told state television from the rubble-filled streets of Buwayda.
Fighting flared elsewhere in Syria, including close to the capital Damascus and in the northern Aleppo province, which is expected to be the focus of renewed attack by Assad's forces following the collapse of the Qusair rebel front.
In Syria's third city Homs, an epicentre of the anti-government revolt, a suicide bomber detonated a car full of explosives in a pro-Assad neighbourhood, killing seven people, Syrian television reported.
Syrian state television broadcast live from the deserted streets of Buwayda, 13-km (eight miles) northeast of Qusair, showing destroyed buildings, debris-strewn roads and large numbers of boxes full of unused ammunition.
"We sacrifice our blood and souls for you, Syria," a group of soldiers chanted in the background.
Rebel groups from across Syria had sent hundreds of men into the Qusair area to try to stave off the assault by the Syrian army and well-trained Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon, but they were rapidly overwhelmed, with opposition activists complaining of a lack of arms and poor coordination.
It’s a resource for students and teachers alike, and one where the need is prevalent, O’Connor said during a visit to central Illinois in April.
“The statistics are pretty scary. Only about one-third of Americans can name the three branches of government, let alone what they do,” she said. “... More Americans can name a judge on ‘American Idol’ than a judge on the Supreme Court.”
Hence the effort, which started off as a program to help teachers explain how the American court system operated, but then evolved into civics lessons from basic American government to complex historical issues such as the segregationist Jim Crow laws of the South after the Civil War. It now also includes lessons — and games — about learning to write persuasive essays, because O’Connor noticed that students were falling short there.
The games are absorbing — to say the least — for people of all ages, but are particularly geared toward middle schoolers and Hands free access.
“That’s the perfect age to teach kids,” O’Connor said. “The brain is fully formed. ... (and) young people like to play games.”
More to the point, for teachers each module comes with lessons, ideas, options they can bring into the classroom to keep kids engaged and remind them of the fun of the games.
“I taught the concept first, but then (the game) reviews the concept again,” Quest Charter Academy social studies teacher Deb Breyman said. “They don’t realize they’re learning and having fun at the same time.”
But the proof is in the students themselves. Students in Breyman’s seventh-grade class adored the program, and some still use it for fun even though their class is over and their state-mandated test on the U.S. Constitution was passed.
“I learn easier when I have hands-on (opportunities),” Lindsay Steff said. “I got to take what I learned and put it into the game and learn more.”
Syrian government troops backed by Hezbollah guerrillas seized the western village of Buwayda on Saturday, ending rebel resistance around the town of Qusair in a fresh success for President Bashar al-Assad.
The swift fall of Buwayda came just three days after rebels were swept out of Qusair, denying them an important supply route into neighbouring Lebanon and giving renewed momentum to Assad's forces battling a two-year civil war.
Several opposition activists confirmed Buwayda was in government hands and said dozens of rebels, including a number of foreign fighters, had been captured alive. There was no immediate word of their fate.
"We can now declare Qusair and the surrounding area to be a fully liberated area. We will go after the terrorists wherever they are," an unnamed, senior Syrian army officer told state television from the rubble-filled streets of Buwayda.
Fighting flared elsewhere in Syria, including close to the capital Damascus and in the northern Aleppo province, which is expected to be the focus of renewed attack by Assad's forces following the collapse of the Qusair rebel front.
In Syria's third city Homs, an epicentre of the anti-government revolt, a suicide bomber detonated a car full of explosives in a pro-Assad neighbourhood, killing seven people, Syrian television reported.
Syrian state television broadcast live from the deserted streets of Buwayda, 13-km (eight miles) northeast of Qusair, showing destroyed buildings, debris-strewn roads and large numbers of boxes full of unused ammunition.
"We sacrifice our blood and souls for you, Syria," a group of soldiers chanted in the background.
Rebel groups from across Syria had sent hundreds of men into the Qusair area to try to stave off the assault by the Syrian army and well-trained Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon, but they were rapidly overwhelmed, with opposition activists complaining of a lack of arms and poor coordination.
Friday, June 7, 2013
Releases Social Group Gifting Platform for Retail Websites
The social gifting company, has expanded its social group gifting platform to support social group gifts for any product on an eCommerce web site. The new offering enables retailers to add social and group gifting to the product catalog on their web sites with a simple integration effort.
The unique capabilities of the eGifter system allow visitors to create a group gift around any product on the retailer’s site. The recipient receives an email or social notification presenting the product their friends have chosen for them. When they redeem they are presented with an eGift card in the amount they need to buy that gift, but can optionally choose any other item available on the retailer’s site.
The solution addresses key issues with group gifting a specific product such as under- or over-funding. “It is often difficult to get just the right amount collected from a group of participants,” said Tyler Roye, CEO of eGifter. “Our platform addresses this issue by using a variable denomination eGift card program in a very unique way to help make group gifting for products as easy as it is for an eGift card.”
The retailer may optionally choose to make the feature available only on select products, such as higher ticket items more suitable for a group gift. The system is also designed to work in conjunction with existing wish list and gift registry systems. “Our innovative hosted solution is truly turn-key. Retailers will be amazed at just how little integration work is required,” said David Levinsky, CTO of eGifter.
The new offering includes all of eGifter’s latest features, including a personalization feature which lets all contributors to a group gift add personal videos or pictures to the gift. The messages can be recorded or viewed with their computer or smart phone.
The entire experience, including video creation and delivery, can also take place on a mobile device where any or all of the participants in a given group gift can do their part on iOS or Android device. “Making this an intuitive mobile solution further separates our solution from anything else available on the market today,” concluded Roye.
In news that surprised exactly nobody at the Santa Fe Reporter—delivered around 5:00 PM Friday, when exactly nobody wants to care about news—the state of New Mexico has denied SFR's records request asking how two security officers spent taxpayer money during a hunting trip with First Gentleman Chuck Franco.
The backstory: In September, 2011, Gov. Susana Martinez' husband went on a hunting trip to Louisiana. Cool, right? Well it turns out that Mr. Franco, because he is the first gentleman, had a security detail accompany him during this particular trip.
This is the same Mr. Franco whose law-enforcement career "spanned over thirty years" as a police officer, magistrate judge and undersheriff. The same Mr. Franco who was working undercover during his courtship of Gov. Martinez. The same Mr. Franco who served in the Las Cruces Police Department where he "worked to protect his community."
SFR obtained those same records, which showed the names of the two state police officers, Frank Chavez and Ruben Maynes, their shifts, which gas stations they visited during the road-trip, along with the transaction dates and transaction times for the gas-station purchases.
SFR wanted to learn more. So we requested the expenditures made on the security detail's "procurement card." We requested the records on April 15. It took the Department of Finance and Administration nearly two months to submit a final response denying our request. Nearly two months to say "no." Odd.
"Disclosure of procurement card statements create security risks to the Governor and the Governor’s family," states the response. "Procurement card statements for the Governor’s security detail identify the officer assigned to protect the Governor and/or her family on specific dates and include transaction-level detail, including the transaction date, vendor name (e.g., hotel or restaurant), and city and state of the transaction."
We already know the names of the officers. We already know "transaction-level detail" for gas-station purchases made during the trip, along with "the transaction date, vender name...and city and state of the transaction" for all the gas station purchases.
But we can't know the same for the "hotel or restaurant" the jolly gang patronized during the trip? Maybe it was multiple restaurants. Maybe they spent taxpayer money judiciously. We just don't know, based on this response.
“Where it get really interesting, on your second screen, whatever app you’re using, it could be ‘Angry Birds,’ it could be checking Yahoo Mail, the ads you see on the second screen are synchronized with the ads you see on the first screen and that’s where we basically transformed the second screen into the most viable direct response ad form there is,” Navin says. “Because any piece of inventory is up for grabs. Ads on Facebook will relate to the ads you see on TV and that kind of magical jump never existed before.”
Flingo named Jackson Huynh its chief operating officer, making him responsible for further development of Samba. It’s for him to get the networks and producers to make the deals with the advertisers and traverse the complicated structure that, in just a part of a second, takes Advertiser A over to Device B and C and so on. Hyunh most recently served as Global Head of Google’s AdMob Operations.
Navin says the data given viewers—the bios, the plot lines, etc—can be “very hit and miss” in other interactive applications, and that can be a killer “when you are trying to build a habit. When it doesn’t work most of the time it just defeats the education.”
Weirdly, Flingo found that there are tons of metadata about virtually every TV show on the air now or the past. All Flingo had to do was find it so it can be displayed to users. Even if a program or network doesn’t align itself with the Samba service, data about those shows will be provided data to users. “You are never left with nothing,” he says. Read the full story at www.ecived.com/en!
The unique capabilities of the eGifter system allow visitors to create a group gift around any product on the retailer’s site. The recipient receives an email or social notification presenting the product their friends have chosen for them. When they redeem they are presented with an eGift card in the amount they need to buy that gift, but can optionally choose any other item available on the retailer’s site.
The solution addresses key issues with group gifting a specific product such as under- or over-funding. “It is often difficult to get just the right amount collected from a group of participants,” said Tyler Roye, CEO of eGifter. “Our platform addresses this issue by using a variable denomination eGift card program in a very unique way to help make group gifting for products as easy as it is for an eGift card.”
The retailer may optionally choose to make the feature available only on select products, such as higher ticket items more suitable for a group gift. The system is also designed to work in conjunction with existing wish list and gift registry systems. “Our innovative hosted solution is truly turn-key. Retailers will be amazed at just how little integration work is required,” said David Levinsky, CTO of eGifter.
The new offering includes all of eGifter’s latest features, including a personalization feature which lets all contributors to a group gift add personal videos or pictures to the gift. The messages can be recorded or viewed with their computer or smart phone.
The entire experience, including video creation and delivery, can also take place on a mobile device where any or all of the participants in a given group gift can do their part on iOS or Android device. “Making this an intuitive mobile solution further separates our solution from anything else available on the market today,” concluded Roye.
In news that surprised exactly nobody at the Santa Fe Reporter—delivered around 5:00 PM Friday, when exactly nobody wants to care about news—the state of New Mexico has denied SFR's records request asking how two security officers spent taxpayer money during a hunting trip with First Gentleman Chuck Franco.
The backstory: In September, 2011, Gov. Susana Martinez' husband went on a hunting trip to Louisiana. Cool, right? Well it turns out that Mr. Franco, because he is the first gentleman, had a security detail accompany him during this particular trip.
This is the same Mr. Franco whose law-enforcement career "spanned over thirty years" as a police officer, magistrate judge and undersheriff. The same Mr. Franco who was working undercover during his courtship of Gov. Martinez. The same Mr. Franco who served in the Las Cruces Police Department where he "worked to protect his community."
SFR obtained those same records, which showed the names of the two state police officers, Frank Chavez and Ruben Maynes, their shifts, which gas stations they visited during the road-trip, along with the transaction dates and transaction times for the gas-station purchases.
SFR wanted to learn more. So we requested the expenditures made on the security detail's "procurement card." We requested the records on April 15. It took the Department of Finance and Administration nearly two months to submit a final response denying our request. Nearly two months to say "no." Odd.
"Disclosure of procurement card statements create security risks to the Governor and the Governor’s family," states the response. "Procurement card statements for the Governor’s security detail identify the officer assigned to protect the Governor and/or her family on specific dates and include transaction-level detail, including the transaction date, vendor name (e.g., hotel or restaurant), and city and state of the transaction."
We already know the names of the officers. We already know "transaction-level detail" for gas-station purchases made during the trip, along with "the transaction date, vender name...and city and state of the transaction" for all the gas station purchases.
But we can't know the same for the "hotel or restaurant" the jolly gang patronized during the trip? Maybe it was multiple restaurants. Maybe they spent taxpayer money judiciously. We just don't know, based on this response.
“Where it get really interesting, on your second screen, whatever app you’re using, it could be ‘Angry Birds,’ it could be checking Yahoo Mail, the ads you see on the second screen are synchronized with the ads you see on the first screen and that’s where we basically transformed the second screen into the most viable direct response ad form there is,” Navin says. “Because any piece of inventory is up for grabs. Ads on Facebook will relate to the ads you see on TV and that kind of magical jump never existed before.”
Flingo named Jackson Huynh its chief operating officer, making him responsible for further development of Samba. It’s for him to get the networks and producers to make the deals with the advertisers and traverse the complicated structure that, in just a part of a second, takes Advertiser A over to Device B and C and so on. Hyunh most recently served as Global Head of Google’s AdMob Operations.
Navin says the data given viewers—the bios, the plot lines, etc—can be “very hit and miss” in other interactive applications, and that can be a killer “when you are trying to build a habit. When it doesn’t work most of the time it just defeats the education.”
Weirdly, Flingo found that there are tons of metadata about virtually every TV show on the air now or the past. All Flingo had to do was find it so it can be displayed to users. Even if a program or network doesn’t align itself with the Samba service, data about those shows will be provided data to users. “You are never left with nothing,” he says. Read the full story at www.ecived.com/en!
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Budget adds up to status quo for next two years
An anticipated increase of $6.7 million into the city of Lompoc’s General Fund for the next two-year budget cycle won’t result in much change to business as usual, according to a draft budget to be presented to City Council members Tuesday evening.
The $57.5 million budget prepared by city staff for fiscal years 2013-15 assumes a 13-percent increase in General Fund revenues from the prior budget, including more than $2 million in grants to fund nine public safety positions, a $2.4 million increase in funds for streets and roads, and a $1 million increase in sales tax receipts.
The draft budget, prepared by City Administrator Laurel Barcelona and Management Services Director Brad Wilkie, includes a total of $6.6 million in reserve funds — about 24 percent of the city’s budget for one year.
“This budget reflects the council’s goal to deliver a balanced General Fund budget without use of reserves,” Barcelona said Friday. “We have achieved that.”
Increased expenses from unfunded, new federal and state mandates, the loss of redevelopment funds and increased employee salary and benefit expenses will deplete the projected new revenue, leaving essential city services and workforce — including employee furlough days — largely status quo.
“CalPERS retirement and healthcare cost increases place the highest level of challenge and pressure on the budget in this fiscal year and increasingly in the years ahead,” Barcelona wrote in her budget message to council members.
The draft budget assumes that previously negotiated employee concessions — including eight unpaid furlough days per year and no cost-of-living increases — will continue, though employee salary step increases are budgeted.
Negotiations with bargaining units representing city employees are still continuing, thus the potential impact of the outcome of the negotiations on the budget remains unknown. Employee salaries and benefits, including pension contributions to PERS, account for 73 percent of the General Fund budget.
Five employee positions were eliminated after the adoption of the 2011-13 budget — resulting in a reduction of total employees from 371 in the prior budget to a proposed 367. Positions previously eliminated include two department managers, a library assistant and a position at both the city’s waste water and water treatment plants.
An additional two positions are proposed to be eliminated in the draft budget. A victim’s advocate position, working out of the Police Department as an employee of the North County Rape Crisis and Child Protection Center, and a part-time literacy program coordinator at the Lompoc Library were both paid for from General Fund reserves after grants expired in 2011. Council members are expected to be asked to fund one or both positions from reserves during the budget discussion.
A previously approved — but never funded in the last budget cycle — position for a second assistant city planner is included in the draft budget. Barcelona said funding the additional position was essential to process an increasing number of development requests in the city.
The 226-page detailed budget document assumes modest increases in sales and property taxes, and a 5-percent increase in tourism-related revenue from the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT). TOT tax receipts fell far short of projections built into the current budget cycle, but are expected to rise with the opening of Hancock College’s Public Safety Training Complex this December.
Six new firefighter positions and three new police officer positions, funded by federal and state grants announced earlier this year. Most of those slots have already been filled.
$210,000 of a total of $870,000 in one-time funds from the dissolution of the redevelopment agency and a property tax settlement with the county will be used for security updates and a new heating/air conditioning system in council chambers. The $660,000 remaining is proposed to be added to general fund reserves.
The General Fund subsidy of the city’s Aquatic Center operations is proposed for the same amount as the prior budget — $420,000 — despite an increase in revenue from user fees. Increased operating expenses from the recent addition of a dehumidifier to prevent corrosion of metal structures offset the revenue increases achieved.
Approval of property tax assessments for the Park Maintenance and City Pool Assessment District is also on the agenda, along with final approval of the city’s revised parking ordinance, now written to cite pavers as an approved paved surface if installed per manufacturer’s specifications.Click on their website www.ecived.com/en for more information.
The $57.5 million budget prepared by city staff for fiscal years 2013-15 assumes a 13-percent increase in General Fund revenues from the prior budget, including more than $2 million in grants to fund nine public safety positions, a $2.4 million increase in funds for streets and roads, and a $1 million increase in sales tax receipts.
The draft budget, prepared by City Administrator Laurel Barcelona and Management Services Director Brad Wilkie, includes a total of $6.6 million in reserve funds — about 24 percent of the city’s budget for one year.
“This budget reflects the council’s goal to deliver a balanced General Fund budget without use of reserves,” Barcelona said Friday. “We have achieved that.”
Increased expenses from unfunded, new federal and state mandates, the loss of redevelopment funds and increased employee salary and benefit expenses will deplete the projected new revenue, leaving essential city services and workforce — including employee furlough days — largely status quo.
“CalPERS retirement and healthcare cost increases place the highest level of challenge and pressure on the budget in this fiscal year and increasingly in the years ahead,” Barcelona wrote in her budget message to council members.
The draft budget assumes that previously negotiated employee concessions — including eight unpaid furlough days per year and no cost-of-living increases — will continue, though employee salary step increases are budgeted.
Negotiations with bargaining units representing city employees are still continuing, thus the potential impact of the outcome of the negotiations on the budget remains unknown. Employee salaries and benefits, including pension contributions to PERS, account for 73 percent of the General Fund budget.
Five employee positions were eliminated after the adoption of the 2011-13 budget — resulting in a reduction of total employees from 371 in the prior budget to a proposed 367. Positions previously eliminated include two department managers, a library assistant and a position at both the city’s waste water and water treatment plants.
An additional two positions are proposed to be eliminated in the draft budget. A victim’s advocate position, working out of the Police Department as an employee of the North County Rape Crisis and Child Protection Center, and a part-time literacy program coordinator at the Lompoc Library were both paid for from General Fund reserves after grants expired in 2011. Council members are expected to be asked to fund one or both positions from reserves during the budget discussion.
A previously approved — but never funded in the last budget cycle — position for a second assistant city planner is included in the draft budget. Barcelona said funding the additional position was essential to process an increasing number of development requests in the city.
The 226-page detailed budget document assumes modest increases in sales and property taxes, and a 5-percent increase in tourism-related revenue from the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT). TOT tax receipts fell far short of projections built into the current budget cycle, but are expected to rise with the opening of Hancock College’s Public Safety Training Complex this December.
Six new firefighter positions and three new police officer positions, funded by federal and state grants announced earlier this year. Most of those slots have already been filled.
$210,000 of a total of $870,000 in one-time funds from the dissolution of the redevelopment agency and a property tax settlement with the county will be used for security updates and a new heating/air conditioning system in council chambers. The $660,000 remaining is proposed to be added to general fund reserves.
The General Fund subsidy of the city’s Aquatic Center operations is proposed for the same amount as the prior budget — $420,000 — despite an increase in revenue from user fees. Increased operating expenses from the recent addition of a dehumidifier to prevent corrosion of metal structures offset the revenue increases achieved.
Approval of property tax assessments for the Park Maintenance and City Pool Assessment District is also on the agenda, along with final approval of the city’s revised parking ordinance, now written to cite pavers as an approved paved surface if installed per manufacturer’s specifications.Click on their website www.ecived.com/en for more information.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Current And Former Residents, And Strangers, Find Ways To Help And Heal
The Long Island resident dedicated his training and the marathon “in memory of the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook school tragedy,” Mr Schneider wrote in an email to The Newtown Bee. “When I decided to undertake this memorial fundraising effort, I was just struggling to figure out a way to help,” he added.
Mr Schneider has a lot of family and friends in the Northeast, including a cousin, Reinhard Hillefeld, who lives in Newtown.
“The tragedy our community is going through really hit him hard, being a father to three little boys,” Mr Hillefeld said in early March.
Thanks to donations from family, friends, co-workers and even strangers who heard of Mr Schneider’s decision, he was able to raise over $4,100 for The Sandy Hook School Support Fund.
In addition to fundraising for the fund, Mr Schneider wore a pair of sneakers during the Louisiana run that he had marked with the initials of each of the Sandy Hook School victims while running the marathon. In addition, he wore a green T-shirt with white lettering that read 26 Miles for the Sandy Hook School 26.
“I added the initials to the sneakers after I completed a training run in memory of each victim,” he wrote. “The stories I read about each victim carried me throughout my training and the marathon. As I approached the finish line, I stopped and took off my sneakers, raised them up, and bowed my head to honor the memory of the victims and recognize their inspiration in my Hands free access.”
Madeline Gagne raised a few hundred dollars a few months ago. Above the fundraising effort, though, the work the 19-year old Sandy Hook resident and University of Tampa sophomore feel better about returning to school after her holiday break.
“I had a hard time going back to Florida for school this semester,” she said. “I felt like I was betraying Newtown by leaving it after such a tragic event.
“I still feel guilty being in warm and sunny Florida while my family drives past Sandy Hook Center every day and is reminded of what happened,” she said via email.
Like many residents and friends of Newtown, Madeline began to immediately incorporate something into each day’s outfit that would remind her of 12/14 — a We Are Newtown T-shirt, a Pura Vida bracelet, “or even green and white nail polish,” she said — but it didn’t feel like enough. Before she returned to school earlier this year, Madeline reached out to Jason Sumerau, her sociology professor, looking for some advice.
They decided that instead of creating a separate event to serve as a fundraiser, Madeline would piggyback onto something that had already been planned. They decided to keep things simple, setting up a table during the school’s spring dance concert on February 23, where Madeline had hoped to sell snacks and water, as well as stickers and bracelets, during two performances that day.
Madeline’s stepfather is Adam Zuckerman, who in February designed stickers that feature a red heart surrounding a depiction of the Sandy Hook School sign. With white lettering above and below the school sign, the message of the stickers read “Sandy Hook School In Our Heart.”
She learned that the school’s theater department already handles water and snack sales, but “they were more than willing to have the proceeds from the Saturday shows go to Sandy Hook,” she reported. Madeline — a dance student, who was also in one of the numbers during the annual show — had decided that she would donate any money she raised to Sandy Hook Promise.
“I knew the father of [one of the children] also graduated from New Milford High School,” said Mrs Regan, a member of the NMHS Class of 1993. “It became clear that we needed to show our support for this family, and show my own children that we can still support these families living quite some distance away.”
Within hours of learning the names of the victims, Mrs Regan announced on her Facebook page that she would be designing, ordering, and selling green and white silicone bracelets, in exchange for $5 donations. The bracelets are green, with white lettering that say Sandy Hook Newtown CT on one side, and Forever Angels 12/14/12 on the other.
Before she was even able to figure out where the donations would be sent, the first order of bracelets arrived, and she had orders for more than that first batch of 800 bracelets.
Meanwhile, Mrs Regan approached her employer, Patriot National Insurance Group, to see if the company would be willing to help in selling the bracelets.
“Turns out the HR director, who I knew was from Connecticut, knows the mom of [the child whose father attended New Milford High School that Mrs Regan knew of],” she said. “Small world. So we worked together ordering another 800 bracelets.”
By March 11, Mrs Regan had raised more than $7,500, and she had decided to divide those funds between four funds: $3,000 is being donated to Newtown Park & Bark, in memory of Olivia Engel; $2,000 is going to Newtown Kindness/The Act of Kindness Awards, in memory of Charlotte Bacon; $1,350 will go to Newtown Social Services, earmarked for the police officers who responded to Sandy Hook School on 12/14; and another $1,350 has been donated to the Town of Newtown, for teachers and survivors.
A group of women in the Capitol Region of New York, Niskayuna Moms on the Run listened when Newtown’s town leaders began to plead with the nation to stop sending so many items into town. Knowing that the town was still being overwhelmed with visitors, the women, an informal running group, decided to host their own memorial run and walk on January 19, with proceeds to benefit one Newtown fund and two Niskayuna funds.
The event was called Strides for Sandy Hook Memorial. Participants were invited to choose from a 5K run and 1-mile walk, each leaving from Niskayuna Town Hall.
“We were originally going to go to Newtown to do Strides For Sandy Hook [a 5K run-gathering and balloon release at Fairfield Hills held on January 19], but when people were encouraged to do their own runs and events, we decided to do this,” Tina Lee, who organized the New York event with Kelly Anderson, told The Newtown Bee. “We have a large email list that we could send information out to, but we realized there were a number of people in our community who might also want to be involved.”
Mr Schneider has a lot of family and friends in the Northeast, including a cousin, Reinhard Hillefeld, who lives in Newtown.
“The tragedy our community is going through really hit him hard, being a father to three little boys,” Mr Hillefeld said in early March.
Thanks to donations from family, friends, co-workers and even strangers who heard of Mr Schneider’s decision, he was able to raise over $4,100 for The Sandy Hook School Support Fund.
In addition to fundraising for the fund, Mr Schneider wore a pair of sneakers during the Louisiana run that he had marked with the initials of each of the Sandy Hook School victims while running the marathon. In addition, he wore a green T-shirt with white lettering that read 26 Miles for the Sandy Hook School 26.
“I added the initials to the sneakers after I completed a training run in memory of each victim,” he wrote. “The stories I read about each victim carried me throughout my training and the marathon. As I approached the finish line, I stopped and took off my sneakers, raised them up, and bowed my head to honor the memory of the victims and recognize their inspiration in my Hands free access.”
Madeline Gagne raised a few hundred dollars a few months ago. Above the fundraising effort, though, the work the 19-year old Sandy Hook resident and University of Tampa sophomore feel better about returning to school after her holiday break.
“I had a hard time going back to Florida for school this semester,” she said. “I felt like I was betraying Newtown by leaving it after such a tragic event.
“I still feel guilty being in warm and sunny Florida while my family drives past Sandy Hook Center every day and is reminded of what happened,” she said via email.
Like many residents and friends of Newtown, Madeline began to immediately incorporate something into each day’s outfit that would remind her of 12/14 — a We Are Newtown T-shirt, a Pura Vida bracelet, “or even green and white nail polish,” she said — but it didn’t feel like enough. Before she returned to school earlier this year, Madeline reached out to Jason Sumerau, her sociology professor, looking for some advice.
They decided that instead of creating a separate event to serve as a fundraiser, Madeline would piggyback onto something that had already been planned. They decided to keep things simple, setting up a table during the school’s spring dance concert on February 23, where Madeline had hoped to sell snacks and water, as well as stickers and bracelets, during two performances that day.
Madeline’s stepfather is Adam Zuckerman, who in February designed stickers that feature a red heart surrounding a depiction of the Sandy Hook School sign. With white lettering above and below the school sign, the message of the stickers read “Sandy Hook School In Our Heart.”
She learned that the school’s theater department already handles water and snack sales, but “they were more than willing to have the proceeds from the Saturday shows go to Sandy Hook,” she reported. Madeline — a dance student, who was also in one of the numbers during the annual show — had decided that she would donate any money she raised to Sandy Hook Promise.
“I knew the father of [one of the children] also graduated from New Milford High School,” said Mrs Regan, a member of the NMHS Class of 1993. “It became clear that we needed to show our support for this family, and show my own children that we can still support these families living quite some distance away.”
Within hours of learning the names of the victims, Mrs Regan announced on her Facebook page that she would be designing, ordering, and selling green and white silicone bracelets, in exchange for $5 donations. The bracelets are green, with white lettering that say Sandy Hook Newtown CT on one side, and Forever Angels 12/14/12 on the other.
Before she was even able to figure out where the donations would be sent, the first order of bracelets arrived, and she had orders for more than that first batch of 800 bracelets.
Meanwhile, Mrs Regan approached her employer, Patriot National Insurance Group, to see if the company would be willing to help in selling the bracelets.
“Turns out the HR director, who I knew was from Connecticut, knows the mom of [the child whose father attended New Milford High School that Mrs Regan knew of],” she said. “Small world. So we worked together ordering another 800 bracelets.”
By March 11, Mrs Regan had raised more than $7,500, and she had decided to divide those funds between four funds: $3,000 is being donated to Newtown Park & Bark, in memory of Olivia Engel; $2,000 is going to Newtown Kindness/The Act of Kindness Awards, in memory of Charlotte Bacon; $1,350 will go to Newtown Social Services, earmarked for the police officers who responded to Sandy Hook School on 12/14; and another $1,350 has been donated to the Town of Newtown, for teachers and survivors.
A group of women in the Capitol Region of New York, Niskayuna Moms on the Run listened when Newtown’s town leaders began to plead with the nation to stop sending so many items into town. Knowing that the town was still being overwhelmed with visitors, the women, an informal running group, decided to host their own memorial run and walk on January 19, with proceeds to benefit one Newtown fund and two Niskayuna funds.
The event was called Strides for Sandy Hook Memorial. Participants were invited to choose from a 5K run and 1-mile walk, each leaving from Niskayuna Town Hall.
“We were originally going to go to Newtown to do Strides For Sandy Hook [a 5K run-gathering and balloon release at Fairfield Hills held on January 19], but when people were encouraged to do their own runs and events, we decided to do this,” Tina Lee, who organized the New York event with Kelly Anderson, told The Newtown Bee. “We have a large email list that we could send information out to, but we realized there were a number of people in our community who might also want to be involved.”
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Steve Wozniak discusses his dependency
I have a calendar life that is complicated, so I use BusyCal and Google Calendar. I keep two different browsers open to avoid some confusion. I enter calendar dates with time zones, which I can't do on my iPhone. I watch DVD's since I don't have broad- band where I live. I record videos for promotions and interviews and it's handy to have the notes in front of me on the screen. I do a lot of Skype interviews and it's handy to see notes for those as well. I often copy from one source (web page maybe) to an email I'm composing.
I read Google news and use NetNewsWire to keep up with general and tech news. I use it when I travel for Slingbox. I'm better on the large keyboard. The larger screen is great for maps and photo viewing. I also keep tons of music and movies on the SSD, although the smaller size cramps me over a full HD. I often take notes regarding business talks and paste them into TextEdit docs to view during phone calls. These calls I usually make with my iPhone. I use FileChute to upload files that I want to distribute but which are too large for email. I use Dropbox to share with my iPhones. I'm always backed up with my home Time Capsule. I write AppleScripts, too.
Most of my photos I collect with iPhoto but I use Aperture for my finer photos, mostly from my Leica M9. I keep reminder links and files on my desktop and I have categories (folders) in my dock for things like "fun relief" and "important". I keep folders on my desktop for things like the songs I'm currently attracted to and upcoming speech events. I also keep many notes of info I need all the time, like home IP numbers and game scores, in Stickies, but I close Stickes to keep things neater. I also have a few games in my dock for Hands free access.
When Sunny Varkey was 4 years old, his parents left him in the care of family members in his native India while they “went to seek green pastures” teaching English as a second language in Dubai in the late 1950s, in what was then a sleepy British protectorate on the southeast coast of the Gulf.
“My parents were brought over by Easa Saleh al-Gurg, who later became the United Arab Emirates ambassador to Great Britain,” he said in a recent interview in London. “Our family came with empty hands, but in those days the U.A.E. was a land of opportunity.”
Initially his parents’ pupils came almost exclusively from local families, but the discovery of oil in Dubai in 1966 brought an influx of foreign workers, many from the Asian Subcontinent. Two years later, Mr. Varkey’s parents opened Our Own English High School, the first private school in Dubai for Indian students. Meanwhile Mr. Varkey was completing his own education, first at a Catholic boarding school in India and then in Dubai, followed by a year at a college on the Isle of Wight, in Britain.
“I did not study much,” Mr. Varkey said. He joined his parents in 1970, just before Dubai gained its independence from Britain, and took over the company in 1980, starting with his parents’ single school in Dubai.
Although he never attended university himself, he now runs GEMS Education, which claims to be the largest private provider of K-12 education in the world, and presides over a network of about 70 schools operating in 18 countries, from the United States to Britain, Egypt to China. His two sons, Dino and Jay, now hold senior positions at the company, making it a three-generation endeavor.
In addition to owning schools with a total of 130,000 students, the Dubai-based company also manages schools and school systems on government contracts and acts as consultants in the Philippines and several African countries.
Despite his company’s growing influence, Mr. Varkey has long avoided the media spotlight. But with more recent moves into Britain and the United States, that seems to have changed. In February the company hosted the first Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai, bringing together 500 delegates to discuss the relationship between governments and the private sector. It included Bill Clinton, the former U.S. president who was recently named honorary chairman of the Varkey GEMS Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm.
Mr. Varkey’s increasing prominence has also brought greater scrutiny both of his business model and his educational philosophy. From the beginning, the GEMS schools in Dubai took for granted a kind of ethnic segregation.
“We had an Indian school, we had a Pakistani school. We also opened a British school,” where “we had key British teachers — the head of school, head of curriculum, and so on, as well as a number of Asian teachers,” Mr. Varkey said.
The company remains the largest employer of British teachers outside of the United Kingdom, as well as the largest employer of Indian teachers outside of India. Pay scales at each school are linked not to the local economy or the nature of the school, but to salaries in a teacher’s home country.
And while the company boasts that it provides the same high-quality education at its least-expensive schools (where fees are approximately $750 a year) as it does at premium schools (where fees can exceed $40,000), there has been criticism at both ends of the scale.
In 2008, parents with children at the GEMS Jumeirah Primary School in Dubai wrote to Mr. Varkey after class sizes were increased. There have also been complaints about sharp increases in school fees and the closure of the Westminster School in Dubai after the country’s school regulator would not raise a cap on private school tuition.
Jane Donovan’s two daughters, now aged 10 and 7, have attended GEMS Wellington since they moved to Dubai three years ago. In Britain, they had attended a private school with similar tuition fees.
“I can see how it would be a struggle for parents who, for the first time, have to pay for education because there is no public option for them,” she said, referring to the fact that expatriates in the U.A.E. do not have the same access to free public education that local citizens do, or that they would have had back in their home countries.
“But we were paying anyway back home, and we were very happy with the quality of teaching and school grounds at GEMS,” Mrs. Donovan said.
When challenged on class size, Mr. Varkey pointed to airlines, which offer first class, business and economy seats on the same plane, or to Mercedes, which produces several classes of cars.
I read Google news and use NetNewsWire to keep up with general and tech news. I use it when I travel for Slingbox. I'm better on the large keyboard. The larger screen is great for maps and photo viewing. I also keep tons of music and movies on the SSD, although the smaller size cramps me over a full HD. I often take notes regarding business talks and paste them into TextEdit docs to view during phone calls. These calls I usually make with my iPhone. I use FileChute to upload files that I want to distribute but which are too large for email. I use Dropbox to share with my iPhones. I'm always backed up with my home Time Capsule. I write AppleScripts, too.
Most of my photos I collect with iPhoto but I use Aperture for my finer photos, mostly from my Leica M9. I keep reminder links and files on my desktop and I have categories (folders) in my dock for things like "fun relief" and "important". I keep folders on my desktop for things like the songs I'm currently attracted to and upcoming speech events. I also keep many notes of info I need all the time, like home IP numbers and game scores, in Stickies, but I close Stickes to keep things neater. I also have a few games in my dock for Hands free access.
When Sunny Varkey was 4 years old, his parents left him in the care of family members in his native India while they “went to seek green pastures” teaching English as a second language in Dubai in the late 1950s, in what was then a sleepy British protectorate on the southeast coast of the Gulf.
“My parents were brought over by Easa Saleh al-Gurg, who later became the United Arab Emirates ambassador to Great Britain,” he said in a recent interview in London. “Our family came with empty hands, but in those days the U.A.E. was a land of opportunity.”
Initially his parents’ pupils came almost exclusively from local families, but the discovery of oil in Dubai in 1966 brought an influx of foreign workers, many from the Asian Subcontinent. Two years later, Mr. Varkey’s parents opened Our Own English High School, the first private school in Dubai for Indian students. Meanwhile Mr. Varkey was completing his own education, first at a Catholic boarding school in India and then in Dubai, followed by a year at a college on the Isle of Wight, in Britain.
“I did not study much,” Mr. Varkey said. He joined his parents in 1970, just before Dubai gained its independence from Britain, and took over the company in 1980, starting with his parents’ single school in Dubai.
Although he never attended university himself, he now runs GEMS Education, which claims to be the largest private provider of K-12 education in the world, and presides over a network of about 70 schools operating in 18 countries, from the United States to Britain, Egypt to China. His two sons, Dino and Jay, now hold senior positions at the company, making it a three-generation endeavor.
In addition to owning schools with a total of 130,000 students, the Dubai-based company also manages schools and school systems on government contracts and acts as consultants in the Philippines and several African countries.
Despite his company’s growing influence, Mr. Varkey has long avoided the media spotlight. But with more recent moves into Britain and the United States, that seems to have changed. In February the company hosted the first Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai, bringing together 500 delegates to discuss the relationship between governments and the private sector. It included Bill Clinton, the former U.S. president who was recently named honorary chairman of the Varkey GEMS Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm.
Mr. Varkey’s increasing prominence has also brought greater scrutiny both of his business model and his educational philosophy. From the beginning, the GEMS schools in Dubai took for granted a kind of ethnic segregation.
“We had an Indian school, we had a Pakistani school. We also opened a British school,” where “we had key British teachers — the head of school, head of curriculum, and so on, as well as a number of Asian teachers,” Mr. Varkey said.
The company remains the largest employer of British teachers outside of the United Kingdom, as well as the largest employer of Indian teachers outside of India. Pay scales at each school are linked not to the local economy or the nature of the school, but to salaries in a teacher’s home country.
And while the company boasts that it provides the same high-quality education at its least-expensive schools (where fees are approximately $750 a year) as it does at premium schools (where fees can exceed $40,000), there has been criticism at both ends of the scale.
In 2008, parents with children at the GEMS Jumeirah Primary School in Dubai wrote to Mr. Varkey after class sizes were increased. There have also been complaints about sharp increases in school fees and the closure of the Westminster School in Dubai after the country’s school regulator would not raise a cap on private school tuition.
Jane Donovan’s two daughters, now aged 10 and 7, have attended GEMS Wellington since they moved to Dubai three years ago. In Britain, they had attended a private school with similar tuition fees.
“I can see how it would be a struggle for parents who, for the first time, have to pay for education because there is no public option for them,” she said, referring to the fact that expatriates in the U.A.E. do not have the same access to free public education that local citizens do, or that they would have had back in their home countries.
“But we were paying anyway back home, and we were very happy with the quality of teaching and school grounds at GEMS,” Mrs. Donovan said.
When challenged on class size, Mr. Varkey pointed to airlines, which offer first class, business and economy seats on the same plane, or to Mercedes, which produces several classes of cars.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Paul’s Supermarket measures success by people
For 44 years, Paul’s Supermarket has “made it on their own.” Paul’s is a home-grown business, swelling over the years from one original location to three, implementing several store expansions, and touting a combined workforce of 200 employees that have never been laid off. And all that with no tax incentives.
“The American dream is to go out there and make it on your own. We have done everything on our own,” said Steve Hermann, vice-president of Paul’s Supermarket, and grandson of Paul Hermann, the hands free access. “We believe in the American way and giving back to our community, the community who has given so much to us,” he added.
Hermann, who manages the day-to-day operations, said projects like the toll bridge, The Villages, Porta Cima and some of the condominiums are what bring the people to the Lake. “In turn, we want to give back to those people, committing to excellence in customer service, quality and value, a family philosophy since Paul Hermann took over the United Super in 1968.”
Hermann said Paul’s Supermarket has grown and become what it is today because of his grandfather’s people skills and pride in meat cutting. “The meat is cut, not butchered, as some people say,” he said. “Grandpa was not a butcher.”
Hermann reflected on his grandfather’s belief that a butcher killed the cow; a meat cutter is an artist. “At Paul’s, the customers got their meat cut the way they wanted: the right grain, the right way,” he said. “It is always fresh, unlike corporate stores where the meat is usually cut and processed somewhere else.
“Think about it…do you want your meat cut by an artist or butchered?” he asked. “The meat department is our foundation… our strength… and still is today.”
“Hamburger, sausages… those are all cut fresh in our store… we still do it the way Grandpa taught us,” Hermann said. “In fact, our current meat director was raised from a teenager by my grandpa and [Grandpa] taught him everything he knows.”
As Paul’s Supermarket continued to grow, Paul’s son, Gary, joined the business full-time in 1990. Shortly thereafter they took over the Osage Beach store located in the Parkway Center. Hermann said they worked well together. “My dad was a thinker and focused on the business side of things. With my grandpa’s strength in meat and my father’s focus in business and how to take care of the customers, keeping the prices right, we have grown the business, and now have bakery, deli, floral, and wine and spirit departments,” he said.
Even with all the added departments, freshness in foods and excellence in customer service are still a priority. Hermann said breads are baked fresh daily, deli products are fresh, and cooked food is prepared anew each day.
”All our meat is fresh. You can’t find a better cut of deli meat,” he said. “Boar’s Head has 21 meats certified by the American Heart Association. Our famous chicken tenders are made with fresh chicken that has never been frozen and has no msg. They are hand battered in a secret recipe of spices and cooked in no trans fat, cholesterol free oil,” he said. “We want the freshest and the healthiest…the best tasting,” Hermann boasted.
Hermann, who is also in charge of the marketing aspects of the three stores, said In addition to the quality, Paul’s also wants to provide incentives and give to “the client” without taking anything away.
“A customer is someone who comes and goes,” he added. “A client is someone you build a relationship with, and that is what we want to do with each person that shops in their store,” he said. To help with this, the Rewards Card was introduced, which keeps track of spending levels. There are also multiple clubs to join at Paul’s, such as the Cleaning Club, Pet Club, Smart Chicken Club and Lunch Club, all of which provide the client savings based on the amount they spend, Hermann shared.
Hermann said Paul’s also runs specials throughout the year with prize give-a-ways and other spending level incentives such as a free turkey at Thanksgiving. “This is just another way to give back,” he said. “Our clients in our stores are the best at the Lake and we want to say thanks.
Hermann, who proudly claims Paul’s status as a hometown grocer, was born and raised at the Lake and has been involved with the store since he was 14-years-old. He and his wife Lauren are committed to giving back to the community.
He is on the school board and his three children attend School of the Osage. Lauren, who has a degree in education, has been chairwoman for the March of Dimes the past two years and has raised over $150,000 for the organization. She is also incoming president of the PTA. “She gives! That is all she knows and it amazes me how much she gives,” Hermann said proudly.
While she is not directly involved in the operations of Paul’s, Hermann said without Lauren, he would not be able to be involved and have a family. “I owe everything to her,” he said.
Hermann’s Uncle Pat also works with the store; he had worked for Little Debbie’s for over 20 years before coming to Paul’s full-time. Hermann said his uncle helps make sure Paul’s is giving clients the best service possible.
Hermann said it is important to adapt to the clients’ needs, which is why the owners of Paul’s are readily available and always open to suggestions. “We have a commitment to excellence in customer service, value, and quality,” he said. “That is what I am passionate about.”
When Hermann looks at the future, he sees Paul’s clients. “We are always looking for expansion and if the opportunity presents itself and it is fruitful to Paul’s family and the community, then we will,” he said.
“We take one step at a time. We have been in business 44 years and compete with the largest corporations in world: Kroger, Hy-Vee, Wal-Mart and now Dierbergs. We don’t want to make a mistake on that level.” “We want to take care of our associates as well as our clients,” he said. “We are a hometown grocery store. We don’t look at numbers, we look at people. “
“The American dream is to go out there and make it on your own. We have done everything on our own,” said Steve Hermann, vice-president of Paul’s Supermarket, and grandson of Paul Hermann, the hands free access. “We believe in the American way and giving back to our community, the community who has given so much to us,” he added.
Hermann, who manages the day-to-day operations, said projects like the toll bridge, The Villages, Porta Cima and some of the condominiums are what bring the people to the Lake. “In turn, we want to give back to those people, committing to excellence in customer service, quality and value, a family philosophy since Paul Hermann took over the United Super in 1968.”
Hermann said Paul’s Supermarket has grown and become what it is today because of his grandfather’s people skills and pride in meat cutting. “The meat is cut, not butchered, as some people say,” he said. “Grandpa was not a butcher.”
Hermann reflected on his grandfather’s belief that a butcher killed the cow; a meat cutter is an artist. “At Paul’s, the customers got their meat cut the way they wanted: the right grain, the right way,” he said. “It is always fresh, unlike corporate stores where the meat is usually cut and processed somewhere else.
“Think about it…do you want your meat cut by an artist or butchered?” he asked. “The meat department is our foundation… our strength… and still is today.”
“Hamburger, sausages… those are all cut fresh in our store… we still do it the way Grandpa taught us,” Hermann said. “In fact, our current meat director was raised from a teenager by my grandpa and [Grandpa] taught him everything he knows.”
As Paul’s Supermarket continued to grow, Paul’s son, Gary, joined the business full-time in 1990. Shortly thereafter they took over the Osage Beach store located in the Parkway Center. Hermann said they worked well together. “My dad was a thinker and focused on the business side of things. With my grandpa’s strength in meat and my father’s focus in business and how to take care of the customers, keeping the prices right, we have grown the business, and now have bakery, deli, floral, and wine and spirit departments,” he said.
Even with all the added departments, freshness in foods and excellence in customer service are still a priority. Hermann said breads are baked fresh daily, deli products are fresh, and cooked food is prepared anew each day.
”All our meat is fresh. You can’t find a better cut of deli meat,” he said. “Boar’s Head has 21 meats certified by the American Heart Association. Our famous chicken tenders are made with fresh chicken that has never been frozen and has no msg. They are hand battered in a secret recipe of spices and cooked in no trans fat, cholesterol free oil,” he said. “We want the freshest and the healthiest…the best tasting,” Hermann boasted.
Hermann, who is also in charge of the marketing aspects of the three stores, said In addition to the quality, Paul’s also wants to provide incentives and give to “the client” without taking anything away.
“A customer is someone who comes and goes,” he added. “A client is someone you build a relationship with, and that is what we want to do with each person that shops in their store,” he said. To help with this, the Rewards Card was introduced, which keeps track of spending levels. There are also multiple clubs to join at Paul’s, such as the Cleaning Club, Pet Club, Smart Chicken Club and Lunch Club, all of which provide the client savings based on the amount they spend, Hermann shared.
Hermann said Paul’s also runs specials throughout the year with prize give-a-ways and other spending level incentives such as a free turkey at Thanksgiving. “This is just another way to give back,” he said. “Our clients in our stores are the best at the Lake and we want to say thanks.
Hermann, who proudly claims Paul’s status as a hometown grocer, was born and raised at the Lake and has been involved with the store since he was 14-years-old. He and his wife Lauren are committed to giving back to the community.
He is on the school board and his three children attend School of the Osage. Lauren, who has a degree in education, has been chairwoman for the March of Dimes the past two years and has raised over $150,000 for the organization. She is also incoming president of the PTA. “She gives! That is all she knows and it amazes me how much she gives,” Hermann said proudly.
While she is not directly involved in the operations of Paul’s, Hermann said without Lauren, he would not be able to be involved and have a family. “I owe everything to her,” he said.
Hermann’s Uncle Pat also works with the store; he had worked for Little Debbie’s for over 20 years before coming to Paul’s full-time. Hermann said his uncle helps make sure Paul’s is giving clients the best service possible.
Hermann said it is important to adapt to the clients’ needs, which is why the owners of Paul’s are readily available and always open to suggestions. “We have a commitment to excellence in customer service, value, and quality,” he said. “That is what I am passionate about.”
When Hermann looks at the future, he sees Paul’s clients. “We are always looking for expansion and if the opportunity presents itself and it is fruitful to Paul’s family and the community, then we will,” he said.
“We take one step at a time. We have been in business 44 years and compete with the largest corporations in world: Kroger, Hy-Vee, Wal-Mart and now Dierbergs. We don’t want to make a mistake on that level.” “We want to take care of our associates as well as our clients,” he said. “We are a hometown grocery store. We don’t look at numbers, we look at people. “
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