Charles L. Madden, of Maple Glen

He won a prestigious P.S.F.S. scholarship award at the age of 16, presented by Eugene Ormandy at The Philadelphia Academy of Music.

He graduated from Mastbaum High School, delivering the valedictorian address, earning a full scholarship, and went on to earn his B.A. in Fine Arts from Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts) in 1956.

While in art school Charles served his country in the Naval Reserve during the early 1950's, after classes on nights and weekends, and went on active duty upon completing college.

He began his long career as a professional artist when he co-founded Madden Barron & Barron, a graphics design and advertising firm, garnering accounts with Ford Motor Co, producing early advertising for the Mustang, Atlantic Richfield, Honeywell, Rohm & Haas and creating religious iconography for the Medical Mission Sisters of Philadelphia.

His artistic reach quickly expanded and evolved across a diversity of media, including sketches, painting, stained glass, sculpture, tapestries and mosaics.

In the mid 1960's he founded Contemporary Stained Glass Corporation, producing religious designs and large stained glass windows for Gwynedd Mercy Chapel, The Sons of Israel Synagogue, Holy Redeemer Chapel, The Norbertine Monastery, St. Margaret's Catholic Church, The Passionist Nuns and many other religious sites throughout the country.

He later founded Urban Arts as an outlet for creating public and corporate art for such diverse installations as Sacred Heart Hospital, The Philadelphia Electric Company, Louis I. Kahn Memorial Park, Penn Mutual Insurance Company, Houston Natural Gas and many private collectors.

Madden's interest in new forms of art media extended into designs of custom-made stained glass hand-crafted in Darmstadt, Germany, tapestry designs woven in Aubusson, France and Barcelona, Spain, and sculptures crafted from marble he selected from the travertine quarries of Northern Italy. During this time period, he created numerous steel, bronze, marble and enamel sculptures.

He routinely traveled the world in search of the finest materials for his works of art. Projects included commissions for Sun Oil Corporate Headquarters, King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, and The Gallery at Center City.

In 1972 he was chosen as the artist representing the United States at the Basilica of Nazareth, Israel, creating a monumental bronze, aluminum and glass enamel sculpture of Mary's Ascension to Heaven. During this period, he was commissioned to design the Papal Vestments worn by Pope Paul XXIII and bishops from around the world assembled for the Eucharistic Congress held at J.F.K. Stadium in Philadelphia. The chalice elevated by the Pope at this event was a Charles Madden creation.

In the 1990's he formed Architectural Features, LLC, creating large works commissioned by the U. S. Department of State for the embassies in Cairo, Egypt and Chengdu, China.

During this period he also created a large mosaic installation in the center atrium of the Harrisburg International Airport, and bronze, glass and mosaic works for The Carmelite Monastery and Saint Augustine Chapel at Villanova University.

For the Turn of the Millennium, he was commissioned by the Franciscan Order custodians of sacred sites of the Holy Land, to create a monumental 12 foot bronze sculpture of St. Peter at the site of Peter's home on the Sea of Galilee, Capharnaum, Israel which was blessed and dedicated by Pope John Paul II at a Papal visit in March, 2000.

His profession took him many places and situations throughout the world, during a visit to Australia, to meet with the new Archbishop of Victoria, the 9/11 attacks occurred and he was asked to speak on Australian radio to provide an American perspective on the tragedy.

He continued to work on major projects until the end of his life. At the time of his death, he was creating a monumental bronze sculpture of Moses for the Franciscan Order, to be installed at Mt. Nebo, Amman, Jordan, the burial site of Moses.

Enhancing Your Security With IP Surveillance

In today's world, an IP surveillance camera system may be the smart solution to security issues as terrorist becomes more sophisticated in devising new methods in carrying out there attack more people are turning to video surveillance to help identify threat and monitor events. In today article we will analyze the advantage of this equipments and how implementing it can proffer solutions. In a home, business, or other establishment. Compared to traditional security cameras, IP or Internet protocol has its advantages. As more and more people switch to IP surveillance system as against the old CCTV, ease of installation and higher resolution of video, CCTV (closed circuit television) and DVR methods are quickly becoming obsolete because IP allows business owner, law enforcement officers, etc to view video from anywhere with an Internet or network connection. With a wide market out there, some business owners may feel a little overwhelmed, but by configuring some key simple features one can relax and be rest assured that the desired solution will be achieved.

An IP camera captures and sends video footage over an IP network, allowing users to view, record, store, and manage their video surveillance images either locally or remotely over the network infrastructure. The camera can be placed wherever there's an IP network connection. It has its own IP address and unlike a webcam, doesn't require a connection to a PC in order to operate.

Along with streaming video footage, network cameras can include a number of additional functionalities, such as pan/tilt/zoom operation, motion detection, audio surveillance, integration with alarms and other security systems, automated alerts, intelligent video analytics, and much more. Many IP cameras can also send multiple streams of video, using different compression technologies for live viewing and archiving.

IP cameras offer flexible installation, ease of use, higher-quality images, stability, and scalability as new cameras can be added to the network at any time.

Video motion detection is a useful tool that allows you to program your network camera to begin recording, and perform other functions such as sending automated email alerts, when movement is detected within a scene. The functionality comes either built-in with your IP camera, or through video management software.

There are a number of advantages to using motion detection. Since you can limit recording to situations when activity is taking place, motion detection helps to conserve bandwidth, saves storage space, reduces CPU load on recording servers, and also allows for integration with other systems such as alarms and access control systems. The system can be set up so that unless movement is detected, no video is being recorded. It can also be programmed to send video at a low frame-rate until motion is perceived.

A number of actions can be triggered using motion detection. Examples include: saving images before or after an event, delivering video images to specific locations for recording or monitoring, sending email and phone alerts, activating door locks and lights, sounding alarms, and more.

Bathroom cabinet decorating ideas

You can use a sponging technique to stencil designs in your bathroom for a really creative and decorative look. Buy stencils at a craft store, or make your own by cutting shapes into paper or sheets of plastic. You can go with virtually any shapes or designs you can imagine, but some of the most popular stencils shapes are hearts, flowers, seashells, clovers, or animals. Keep in mind that you could have an array of shapes throughout the bathroom and on your cabinets – you don’t have to choose just one. If you want to have a tropical theme in your bathroom, you could have such shapes as fish, suns, sunglasses, and waves. Also, you can stencil the shapes all over the bathroom, or just around the border and on your cabinets, depending on your design preference.

This is a very simple craft that you could finish in an afternoon easily. Choose paints in the color or colors of your liking. Cut sponges into two-inch squares. You will use a new sponge square for each color and each stencil. Tape your stencils onto the walls and onto the cabinets where you want to paint on your shapes. Dip your sponge into the paint, and dab onto a scrap piece of paper a few times so that you will get the desired look. If you have too much paint on the sponge, you will not get a textured look with you stenciled designs. Lightly dab the paint-covered sponge over your stencil, and then remove the stencil from the surface gently, so as not to mess up the paint. If you are using the same stencil again, rinse it clean and dry it off before you use it again so that you don’t accidentally get any of the paint from the last stencil onto the wall where you don’t want it. That’s all it takes to sponge paint stencil designs in your bathroom… and of course, you can use the same idea in any rooms in your home.

Artificial vines and flowers can really work wonders in a boring bathroom. Take the stems off of artificial flowers and vines and glue them to the cabinets. You should also decorate the inside of the cabinets, once the outside is dry. Create a border around the mirror with vines, or take the stems of off flowers and make a floral and vine border. Attach the vines and flowers to the mirror with glue, or if you want to have the ability to diversify your décor at a moment’s notice, you can use Velcro to attach them. You can also decorate your toilet seat with artificial flowers. Buy a toilet seat cover in the color of your choice, and use a needle and thread to attach flowers (without stems) to the seat cover. You could also cut leaves off of artificial vines, and then use a needle and thread to sew them on as well, to fill in any gaps between flowers.

Buy one-inch squares of mirror at your local craft store. Use a waterproof glue to make a mosaic border of mini mirrors on your cabinets. Glue them together so that they are almost touching, but not quite. Once you have attached the mirror pieces and they have dried, use nail polish to paint some of the mirror squares. You could just randomly paint scattered pieces, or you could paint them to form a design. You can also use the mirror squares to decorate a border around your mirror, or even to make a border around the whole room.

Coat your cabinet with waterproof glue (except for the back that will be against the wall). Use pebbles to make random shapes and designs on the cabinet, or just line the shelves with pebbles – whatever your design preference. Next, cover the remaining space on your cabinet with sand. Keep in mind that you can buy sand in many colors at your local craft store, or you can dye sand yourself with some food coloring.

Tricks of the hacker

Lately I have received a couple of suspicious emails that seem innocent and from people I know, mostly consisting of quick get rich schemes. Coming from a trusted friend it can seem genuine. But then the same type of message would come from different people on my contact list. So when I confront these people about the emails, fortunately without opening the links, they would say they didn't send such emails. So who did?

There are geniuses who have too much time on their hands, they have decided to hack into people's privacy using the World Wide Web and unfortunately some of those on my mailing list are victims.

Through this, the hackers have managed to do a lot of damage both on a small and big scale.

On one occasion, the world's largest credit card payments processor recently got hacked. Over 1.5 million cards from Visa and MasterCard were digitally stolen through a cyber attack. This is just the latest in a series of brazen attacks on some of America's largest and most secure companies.

Or on a smaller scale, private pictures or videos have been displayed publicly without the owner of these pictures or videos ever knowing how.

Besides stealing and exposing individual privacy, some hackers have bigger plans in mind, Terrorist attacks! How? By hacking or hijacking computer networks of their enemies to steal secret information that could contribute to war, like weapon blueprints, operational plans and significant surveillance data.

They also at times, sabotage equipment used to control computer networks. This can be very destructive since the 21st century is so reliant on computer controlled facilities.

According to Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, one in three online computers is remotely controlled by a hacker and not the owner of the device or email address. An alarming find, making the emailing facility very unreliable.

One is using Virus; this is the most popular one in the 21st century. This form of hacking works by injecting a few specialised lines of code into an otherwise harmless executable file.

The infected file is then made available for download on the Internet, and the downloader's gadget subsequently become infected with the virus.

As web technology advanced, some hackers discovered an internet security flaw that allowed them to install the malicious program directly onto a user's computer when the user simply visited a certain website.

By exploiting security holes in web browsers such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, the program could be quietly downloaded and installed in the background. Once the program infects the machine, the hacker can easily access the machine, take over the machine, or use the infected computer to send bulk advertising (spam) without fear of punishment.

So if you have noticed the IT guys in your firm getting strict with internet or device access, it's because of safety.

Prevention is better than cure and to prevent a whole institute from crashing to the ground because money has been stolen by hackers or significant information is in the wrong hands, IT security has probably doubled its strength.

The reputation of a company could be tainted if it has just once been known to be hacked, no one would want to invest or share information with a company that's easily hacked, it would be a risky and an unwise move.

To counter this problem, according to Forbes, the world's largest search engine Google, has been offering up rewards to security researchers and friendly hackers to find flaws or bugs in its programming for a while.

There have been several people that have collected rewards for finding these bugs by notifying Google rather than trying to exploit the issues. Google has now announced that it has increased the available rewards for reporting bugs to as much as $20,000 per bug.

Restaurants get tech savvy

When hungry patrons visit The Market House at Jackson Square when it opens in Oak Ridge later this month, they'll be greeted by servers with iPhones not notepads.

Gone are designated point of sale systems where servers go to punch in food and drink orders. Instead, servers will check out an iPhone and take orders in real time tableside.

The twenty-something owners, Dan Tremaine and Bo Shipley, say using this type of technology will prevent staff from misreading their own handwriting or forgetting to ask essential follow-up questions, like how a person wants their steak cooked.

"It's all right there. You can even add pictures of everything," Shipley said. "It's just cool."

As new technologies are developed for smartphones and tablets, more restaurants are flirting with ways to take advantage of opportunities to streamline processes, market directly to customers and ultimately lower costs.

"As far as technology goes, it takes a leap of faith," Tremaine said.

For the owners of the new farm-to-table restaurant, in the former Jackson Square Bistro location, the decision to forego a traditional point of sale system wasn't automatic.

"We considered it and then backed off, looked at other POS systems and then came back to it. Honestly, it was a heck of a lot cheaper," Tremaine added.

Tennessee Hospitality Association CEO Greg Adkins said customers can expect to see more restaurants trying to capitalize on a broad range of new technologies that can be used for marketing, loyalty and operations.

"They say that's the next wave," Adkins said of the latter. "It's very cutting edge. But it depends on the type of restaurant it is and the type of experience they want their guests to have."

Dylan Roskop of National Restaurant Properties, which is providing consulting services to The Market House, said it comes down to accuracy and speed.

"With all the technology and software that's being created, it can be a better way to go," Roskop said. "With their system, they will save 3 minutes per table."

Six months ago, the Old City gastro pub Crown and Goose replaced its buzzing pagers with an iPad app that sends a text message to waiting patrons, letting them know when their table is ready.

The No Wait app works much the same way as an old-fashioned, write-your-name-on-a-piece of paper list, when it comes to taking a person's name and the number of people in the party.

But the cloud-based system also prompts the hostess to enter a phone number, giving customers the flexibility to wander nearby, said Gretchen Paxton, the restaurant's marketing and events coordinator.

"It just works wonderfully. They can do their own thing," Paxton said.

The restaurant and pub at 123 S. Central St. doesn't have a large waiting area, so having a wait list management system tied to a person's mobile device provides flexibility. Guests can take a walk or hang out at the bar. It also syncs with its online reservation program, Open Table.

"It's so cutting edge, the patent is still pending," Paxton said.

At nearby Remedy Coffee, an iPad rests behind the counter, where orders are entered and customers pay. It sends them a receipt by text or email.

"If you could do a cash register the right way, this is the way it would look like," owner Sean Alsobrooks said.

Almost one year has passed since Alsobrooks made the decision to switch from a traditional processor to running his business off an iPad with Square, a payment system that allows businesses to accept credit cards on their mobile or tablet device. Nearly 1,500 people in Knoxville are using Square, according to the company.

"It came down to the fees. I got tired every time I got my bill of seeing a swipe fee, a batch processing fee, a card fee," he said.

The move has saved him almost $100 per month.

"It's a beautiful experience," Alsobrooks said. "Square was the first, but I think it's going to become more common."

True, we're 'not free' — but we're not Zimbabwe

The New York-based human rights watchdog Freedom House released its annual survey of press freedom in almost 200 countries today. At first blush it may not seem surprising that Russia, which will inaugurate Vladimir Putin for his third presidential term on May 7, remains firmly in the "Not Free" category of nations, holding down a dismal 172nd place, together with Zimbabwe and Azerbaijan, just one slot higher than last year's rating.

But this year, at least, many Russian media experts and journalists say that Freedom House makes some good points, but its judgement is too monochromatic and has failed to note sweeping changes — often happening below the West's radar screen — that are broadening out Russia's media spectrum, creating new and independent sources of information that the public can access.

The analytical reports issued by Freedom House, which is 80 percent funded by the US government, are typically received by Russian officialdom with an angry scoff and an occasional diatribe on Western double-standards. In his final interview as Russian president last week, Dmitry Medvedev flatly denied there is any state censorship of the media in Russia.

"There's a better mood among journalists today, and a new fighting spirit," says Yassen Zassoursky, who was dean of Moscow State University's journalism faculty from 1965 to 2007. "I talk to a lot of my former students, and keep close track. Things are changing in our society, and today's journalists are pushing harder, making incremental improvements, but they are trying to do their jobs. Yes, there's still self-censorship, and an attitude of caution, but I feel very optimistic about how things are going."

While major TV networks, which reach the bulk of the population, remain closely state-guided, there is a wide spectrum of newspapers and a growing number of independent radio stations that have consistently pushed the limits of what they can report. For example, a two-year-old cable and Internet TV station, Dozhd TV, successfully weathered official threats of shutdown early this year after it gave coverage to the wave of street protests against alleged electoral fraud in last December's Duma elections.

Russia's unfettered Internet has become host to thousands of critical blogs, uncensored online newspapers, and an expanding social media that proved the main organizational force behind the protest rallies of recent months.

Russia is one of the world's fastest-growing Internet markets, with penetration now estimated at 44 percent, and Europe's biggest, with over 60 million users.

One of the reforms proposed by outgoing President Medvedev was a pledge — still far from being realized — to establish a public TV channel that would be independent of state control. If that should happen, it might change Russia's media landscape fundamentally, experts say.

Freedom House defended its finding that Russia's media remains unfree, citing "the use of a pliant judiciary to prosecute independent journalists, impunity for the physical harassment and murder of journalists, and continued state control or influence over almost all traditional media outlets."

But, despite threats, there have been no shutdowns or takeovers of independent Russian media this year. While there is a list of almost 20 unsolved murders of journalists since Mr. Putin came to power, there have been fewer violent incidents recorded over the past year.

Some of Freedom House's arguments are valid points, says Yelena Zelinskaya, vice president of Media Soyuz, the more pro-Kremlin of Russia's two major associations of media workers.

"But the situation of our media is more complicated and problematic than Freedom House pictures it. What Freedom House describes seems to be a picture from a completely different life," she says. "I agree that the authorities do pressure the mass media, but the pressure comes in different forms and is not direct, while authorities themselves feel pressure from the mass media. Even inside the media itself there are lots of pressures and problems. The situation is more complicated but totally different" from Freedom House's portrayal, she says.

But critics argue that only inhabitants of big cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg have access to relatively independent radio stations, newspapers, and niche TV stations like Dozhd.

"There are really serious problems with press freedom in Russia," says Nadezhda Prusenkova, spokesperson for Novaya Gazeta, the combative opposition weekly that's seen several of its own journalists, including Anna Politkovskaya, murdered in the past decade.

"Big TV channels are all in the hands of structures that are close to the Kremlin, and even if journalists are not subject to direct censorship they are hemmed-in by self-censoring fears. I don't find Freedom House's ranking of Russia at 172nd place the least bit surprising," she says.

Drawn by Pushkin pull

Oligarchs have to eat, just like the rest of us. But it doesn’t mean we have to eat like them. Over-the-top Brasserie Pushkin lets you pig out amid billionaires without going broke. Just order cheaper dishes which tend to be the best — and forget about finding green vegetables at any price.

You want to laugh at this czarist-mansion fantasy a block east from the Russian Tea Room. At Pushkin, large-lipped women prowl the parquet floor in 6-inch heels. Some complain “the food’s not greasy enough,” an insider confided.

Yet the menu’s more refined than at any Russian place I’ve been in New York — about time in a city where it took Mr. Prokhorov to bring the Nets to Brooklyn. For all its giddy opulence and goofy pageantry (think coat-check numbers in golden lockets), Brasserie Pushkin is a very good restaurant that will be better if it rethinks its pricing and banishes certain old ways.

Owner Andrey Dellos can’t fill a 157-seat, West 57th Street satellite of his humongous Cafe Pushkin in Moscow just with vagabonding fertilizer and natural-gas moguls from the ex-USSR.

So it tries to be “New York” — but not Brighton Beach. The chef’s from Rockefeller Center, the floor staff from lots of local joints. The menu boasts a “contemporary interpretation of Russian haute cuisine through the cosmopolitan lens of New York City” and “French influence.” A Murano glass chandelier over the front lounge and pastry shop announces the rococo onslaught — pleated banquettes, French oak walls, ceilings “inspired” by the Hall of Hercules at Versailles and a mural of skybound nymphs.

The menu’s printed on a mock newspaper called the Pushkin Telegraph. Experts disagree on what czarist-era Russians really ate. But whatever it may have been, 74 years of Soviet privations turned it to lead and oil.

Executive chef Andrey Makhov and chef de cuisine Jawn Chasteen (recently at the Sea Grill ) pretend the revolution never happened, striking a precarious balance between expectations and innovation.

They can lose unreconstructed war horses — clay-like pelmeni (Russian meat dumplings), same-old beef stroganoff and “classic” beef and veal aspic terrine, an unfathomable mess I was born to hate.

The appalling side-dish list offers three forms of spuds, but only one “vegetable du jour” — one night, canned-tasting asparagus.

But pretty presentations and rare delicacy characterize many choices. Chicken Kiev appears only as caesar salad — chicken lollipops stuffed with oozy Emmentaler cheese and champignons amidst Romaine leaves.

“Are you from Moscow?” a lunching lady giggled to the Spanish-accented waiter. Scallop and ocean trout crudo seemed more attuned to tastes on the Hudson than on the Moskva. The mosaic tasted as striking as it looked — the raw scallops paper-thin, poker-chip rounds of trout vivid pink, their harmonious essences crystalline in vanilla-mustard dressing.

A flotilla of spicy short ribs navigates the surface of scarlet borscht ($18). Three-fish soup ukha ($18), ethereally light, brimmed with lush wedges of poached pike, sturgeon and salmon. Accompanied by a squirty fish dumpling and a shot of ginger vodka, it’s enough for an entree.

But pricing is all over the map. Cod ruined by cloying apple puree was a $36 rip-off. Rack of lamb was fabulous but felonious at $48.

On the other hand, there’s herbed Cornish hen for a mere $28, embraced in a winning marinade of the Georgian tomato-garlic paste Adjica. Pojarsky ($28) is a sublime breed of cutlet, a craggy-surfaced, garlic-crouton-breaded crescent stuffed with chicken and veal lightly bound as if by magic.

Fun desserts such as the sweet-filled, dome-shaped “Cafe Pushkin” are enough for two — as they should be at $16 each. They send you out merry at 11:30 p.m., when black limousines line the deserted sidewalk.

On a misty night, you imagine ZiL sedans waiting on dour commissars in Leonid Brezhnev’s day. Then the doors open and out pops a flock of laughing, blond giantesses. Moscow isn’t the same, and neither is New York. Welcome to the party, comrades.