Most people who opened last Tuesday’s paper saw a graphic with eight
logos they had probably never seen before and must have thought the
sports section was undergoing a hipster renaissance. No renaissance,
folks, just a change of pace for you. And now the best part of it all:
TIME FOR PART DEUX.
You probably were so compelled by my first
UEFA Champions League column that you made reservations on your couch
at 1:45 p.m. last Tuesday and Wednesday with one eye on the TV and the
other on your computer, streaming the other game online. Right? Tell me
I’m right.
Just an awesome way to kick off the round of 16 in
the Champions League. Real Madrid now has to go to Old Trafford and win
on the road or hope for a penalty shoot-out to get by Manchester
United. Zlatan Ibrahimovic and his high boot will be out for PSG’s
second leg against Valencia. Anyone see how he acted when he got that
red card? Ron Artest-esque.wind turbine
Borussia Dortmund, still with its never-say-die mentality, found a
late equalizer in the Ukraine against Shaktar Donetsk to bring the
second leg back to Germany on level ground. But enough of these second
leg previews, there’s four more first legs to go this week. Shall we?
This
is the second-most compelling matchup after Real Madrid and Manchester
United. I’d be quick to dismiss Arsenal with its recent flubs in the
FA Cup, losing to lower-division sides with regularity. But I actually
trust the team more on the European stage. Lucas Podolski has to have
the biggest chip on his shoulder, going up against the premier German
side and a side that never struck any interest in the 29-year-old
German winger.
The midfield will ultimately be the key in this
matchup. It will be a matter of which side can be more creative.
Arsenal certainly has the tools, with young talents like Jack Wilshere
and Santi Cazorla. Bayern has more of a veteran midfield with Bastian
Schweinsteiger, Tony Kroos and Frank Ribery. Bayern could be playing
the best soccer in the world right now, as it has absolutely ran away
with the Bundesliga, and it’s not a good sign for opponents when former
Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola is waiting in the wings to take over at
the end of the season.
A very pleasant Iberian matchup. Malaga
shocked many people, including myself, by winning Group C over AC
Milan and Zenit St.Welcome to Find the right laser Engraver or Laser engraver machines. Petersburg.Looking for the Best Air purifier?
And then controversy hit the club. Failure to pay its taxes and bills
has Malaga banned from European play for next year. The club that
wanted to spend big in the offseason now has to hold on to players who
could be on their way out. Making a statement in the knockout will be
huge for them.Porto finished two points behind PSG in group play and
looked very convincing in the victories. I can’t really see either
Porto or Malaga making noise when either reaches the quarterfinals, but
the knockout round is certainly not uncharted waters for Porto.
Before
the January transfer window opened, this was Schalke’s match to coast
through to the quarterfinals. Now it’s turned upside down. Turkish-side
Galatasaray did some research and pulled a Minnesota Wild by bringing
two superstars to a team no one expected and is confined to the middle
of nowhere. The signed tandem of Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder is
certainly comparable with Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Both have
captained and led their teams at the highest level and pretty much made
it clear they wanted out of their old locations for bigger and
brighter futures with a little cash money involved. Galatasaray barely
advanced past group stage, finishing behind Manchester United, but
getting through was all the club needed to make an impression on luring
Drogba and Sneijder to Turkey.
On the other hand, while
Galatasaray was signing, Schalke was sighing. The departure of Lewis
Holtby to Tottenham Hotspur leaves a huge hole in the midfield, where
Sneijder will look to expose. Schalke still has a solid attack with
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Jefferson Farfan, but this matchup will come
down to which side can steal a goal away from home soil.
A
result-oriented and dynamic leader, Ayhan Yalcintas holds a strong track
record of performance in turning around high-paced organisations. He
had previously held the position of General Manager for FutureCard for
the past two years. Ayhan continues to breathe fresh life into the
region's leading cards manufacturer by defining and implementing new
strategies, organisational structure and increasing operational
efficiency. He also oversees worldwide sales, and handles business
development to strengthen the regional positioning of the company in
the banking and telecommunications industries.
As a CEO,
Yalcintas' high-pressure role involves making high-level decisions about
the policies and strategies of the company. Since his joining date
with the company, he has made a name for himself with prompt business
actions that align with the culture and goals of the organisation.
Talking
about his appointment, Yalcintas said, "I am delighted at this
opportunity to build on the strength and reputation of such a strong
brand like FutureCard . With a heavy presence in regional and
international markets, I look forward to extending the business into
new markets and new product areas across industries, while taking our
services to the next level.It's not hard to see why outdoor solar light is all the rage."
Prior
to his work with FutureCard , Ayhan acted as Board Member and General
Manager for a Turkish establishment where he transformed the company
into one of the world's top ten leading cards manufacturing
companies.Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobblehead
available anywhere. He has also acted as Finance and Administration
Manager with Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), where he led
the Istanbul office in becoming a leading example for the remaining
Middle Eastern offices.
2013年2月19日 星期二
Qantas launches new pre-paid cash card
Bronze members of the program will also be able to use their card to
check-in at airports and as a boarding pass - a service that is
currently only available to higher tier cardholders.
More than nine million people are members of the airline's loyalty program, around two-thirds of them Australian.
The card is a pre-paid card - not a debit card or credit card - so users will be able to withdraw cash they have loaded onto it via transfer from their bank account or BPAY.
They will be able to load up to nine currencies on the card, lock in exchange rates and use it for shopping at places where MasterCard is accepted.
Qantas Loyalty CEO Lesley Grant said the new cards were one of the biggest leaps in innovation for the program since it launched 26 years ago.
''This new generation card will open the door to a lot of other uses through smart chip technology and the ability to integrate it with mobiles,Looking for the Best Air purifier? meaning the sky really is the limit,'' she said.
MasterCard Australasia Division president Eddie Grobler said more Australians were preferring the convenience and security of using a card instead of cash.
What a way to end the regular season for EURFC. The 1st XV produced an accomplished performance on Wednesday night to send Bath packing and ruing their luck after their third successive Sandy Park Varsity defeat.
Conditions were always going to play their part and certainly the first half suffered due to the wet, foggy atmosphere and bog-like pitch. The intense pressure of playing in front of an expectant and vociferous crowd coupled with the weather made sure that the first period would become a no holds barred midfield battle. For the initiated, the first 40 minutes were tense and, dare I say, exciting, but could be seen as slow and dull for the newcomer.
Neither side could wrestle control of proceedings in the first half and the only real points scoring was physical rather than numerical. Bath were intent on playing a slow, grinding and narrow game hoping to grind Exeter down until they ran out of ideas.wind turbine It looked as though this might work as the game neared half time as muddled decision making, opting not to turn their territorial advantage into points, by Exeter made sure Bath went into the break a sole penalty ahead.
Varsity will always have big collisions and players will demonstrate a never-back-down attitude so it was great shame to see Club Captain Bertie Haskins limp off with a foot injury after 32 minutes. His replacement, Sinel, last season’s winning try scorer,Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobblehead available anywhere. however, had an instant impact. His first scrum was superb as EURFC marched Bath back 20 metres and won the penalty.
Support from the AU clubmen and especially the EURFC members was vociferous and unwavering throughout, surely adding wind to the Exeter sails.
If the first half was an attritional battle,Welcome to Find the right laser Engraver or Laser engraver machines. the second was an attacking slaughter as Exeter, no doubt buoyed by half-time words, came out with upped intensity and went for the jugular from the outset. Bath were unable to cope with the speed of Exeter’s attacking play after the break and conceded early after a superb piece of two-on-one play by scrum half Rob Coote to feed Bain who finished well in the corner.
Bath constantly tried to slow Exeter’s momentum but the referee was hot on their tail reaching for her yellow card on no less than three occasions. This was very costly as Chisholm’s chip and Gray’s charge down put the men in green in an unassailable lead.
The second period proved that the first was worth it. Exeter capitalised as Bath wilted before their eyes. When Claxton touched down for Exeter’s fourth you felt that the final whistle couldn’t come sooner for the visitors. Full-back Ali Chisholm will take the plaudits for a complete performance but credit must go to the work of the forwards in the first half in grinding Bath down so that the second half onslaught was possible.
Exeter have now won all three of their Sandy Park Varsity fixtures and end the normal BUCS season unbeaten on their own turf, a fantastic achievement. The 1st XV’s season does not end here however as they have now secured a home draw in the play-offs. If they perform as well as they have done all season Exeter could be making a rare trip to rugby HQ, Twickenham to play in the BUCS final.
All told, it’s been a fantastic season for the club. The 2nd XV are currently two points clear at the top of the Western 1A league with four fixtures left in the campaign, while Exeter also are dominating the Western 2A league with the 3rd and 4th XV BUCS teams first and third respectively as of this week. EURFC’s 5th XV, otherwise known as the mighty Flair XV, have four matches to secure promotion, with only three points separating them and breaking into the top two. Finally, the 6th XV,It's not hard to see why outdoor solar light is all the rage. the second fresher XV, have won all five of their BUCS fixtures so far.
More than nine million people are members of the airline's loyalty program, around two-thirds of them Australian.
The card is a pre-paid card - not a debit card or credit card - so users will be able to withdraw cash they have loaded onto it via transfer from their bank account or BPAY.
They will be able to load up to nine currencies on the card, lock in exchange rates and use it for shopping at places where MasterCard is accepted.
Qantas Loyalty CEO Lesley Grant said the new cards were one of the biggest leaps in innovation for the program since it launched 26 years ago.
''This new generation card will open the door to a lot of other uses through smart chip technology and the ability to integrate it with mobiles,Looking for the Best Air purifier? meaning the sky really is the limit,'' she said.
MasterCard Australasia Division president Eddie Grobler said more Australians were preferring the convenience and security of using a card instead of cash.
What a way to end the regular season for EURFC. The 1st XV produced an accomplished performance on Wednesday night to send Bath packing and ruing their luck after their third successive Sandy Park Varsity defeat.
Conditions were always going to play their part and certainly the first half suffered due to the wet, foggy atmosphere and bog-like pitch. The intense pressure of playing in front of an expectant and vociferous crowd coupled with the weather made sure that the first period would become a no holds barred midfield battle. For the initiated, the first 40 minutes were tense and, dare I say, exciting, but could be seen as slow and dull for the newcomer.
Neither side could wrestle control of proceedings in the first half and the only real points scoring was physical rather than numerical. Bath were intent on playing a slow, grinding and narrow game hoping to grind Exeter down until they ran out of ideas.wind turbine It looked as though this might work as the game neared half time as muddled decision making, opting not to turn their territorial advantage into points, by Exeter made sure Bath went into the break a sole penalty ahead.
Varsity will always have big collisions and players will demonstrate a never-back-down attitude so it was great shame to see Club Captain Bertie Haskins limp off with a foot injury after 32 minutes. His replacement, Sinel, last season’s winning try scorer,Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobblehead available anywhere. however, had an instant impact. His first scrum was superb as EURFC marched Bath back 20 metres and won the penalty.
Support from the AU clubmen and especially the EURFC members was vociferous and unwavering throughout, surely adding wind to the Exeter sails.
If the first half was an attritional battle,Welcome to Find the right laser Engraver or Laser engraver machines. the second was an attacking slaughter as Exeter, no doubt buoyed by half-time words, came out with upped intensity and went for the jugular from the outset. Bath were unable to cope with the speed of Exeter’s attacking play after the break and conceded early after a superb piece of two-on-one play by scrum half Rob Coote to feed Bain who finished well in the corner.
Bath constantly tried to slow Exeter’s momentum but the referee was hot on their tail reaching for her yellow card on no less than three occasions. This was very costly as Chisholm’s chip and Gray’s charge down put the men in green in an unassailable lead.
The second period proved that the first was worth it. Exeter capitalised as Bath wilted before their eyes. When Claxton touched down for Exeter’s fourth you felt that the final whistle couldn’t come sooner for the visitors. Full-back Ali Chisholm will take the plaudits for a complete performance but credit must go to the work of the forwards in the first half in grinding Bath down so that the second half onslaught was possible.
Exeter have now won all three of their Sandy Park Varsity fixtures and end the normal BUCS season unbeaten on their own turf, a fantastic achievement. The 1st XV’s season does not end here however as they have now secured a home draw in the play-offs. If they perform as well as they have done all season Exeter could be making a rare trip to rugby HQ, Twickenham to play in the BUCS final.
All told, it’s been a fantastic season for the club. The 2nd XV are currently two points clear at the top of the Western 1A league with four fixtures left in the campaign, while Exeter also are dominating the Western 2A league with the 3rd and 4th XV BUCS teams first and third respectively as of this week. EURFC’s 5th XV, otherwise known as the mighty Flair XV, have four matches to secure promotion, with only three points separating them and breaking into the top two. Finally, the 6th XV,It's not hard to see why outdoor solar light is all the rage. the second fresher XV, have won all five of their BUCS fixtures so far.
10 Incredible Black Women Balancing Career and Motherhood
This is such an incredible time to be an American. Our first black
President is in his second term, fighting for – among many things –
equal pay and secure reproductive rights for women. Hillary Clinton
just completed her tenure as Secretary of State, the third woman to
hold that prestigious title. Female leaders like Kirsten Gillibrand and
Elizabeth Warren are demanding a new kind of transparency in
Washington. And First Lady Michelle Obama is about as perfect a role
model as anyone can be, leading the charge for a healthier (and more
stylish) America.
I often think about how transcendent Michelle Obama is, about how expert she is at blending her work life with her family life. Yes, she’s a style icon,It's not hard to see why outdoor solar light is all the rage. and I certainly do admire her for her looks as well as her grace, but mostly I’m inspired by how dedicated she is to the protection and support of her husband and daughters. I keep a magnet of the Obama family on my fridge at home, not just because I love my President, but because the Obamas are such an exceptionally lovely family unit. Their genuine affection and respect for one another is so profound and profoundly touching, and being given the chance to observe such a healthy family dynamic in the White House is a tremendous gift to our nation.
While thinking about the power and strength Michelle Obama possesses, I realized that though when it comes to marketing “mom” is the new black, one group of women we almost never hear about in the media is black moms. And unfortunately when black moms are alluded to in the news, they’re still trotted out as the tired stereotype of the welfare queen, the cautionary tale single mother failure. I find that so depressing, and I knew I could rattle off a list of 10 black moms I admired in less than as many seconds. I’ve compiled a slideshow shouting-out these media mogul moms, and I thought I’d share some of their thoughts about career and motherhood with you, in the hopes that not only will they be celebrated, but that we can all glean something from their tenacity, smarts and bravery:
Although normal wear and tear vs damage can be hard to define, there are a few things you can do to protect yourself from any confusion. As with most things, communication is the key: if both you and your tenants are clear about the condition of the unit at move-in, the importance of promptly reporting needed repairs, and expectations at move-out, the tenancy and the end of the tenancy will be smoother.
Insist on a walk-through with new tenants. At the walk-through the tenants will have an opportunity to note in writing existing damage and wear and tear in the rental. Also, take dated photographs to keep on file. This way both the landlord and tenant are protected. The tenant can't be charged for damage that was not documented in the walk through, and the landlord has picture proof of the unit's condition at move in.
Have your lease outline the requirements for taking care of the property and promptly calling for any repairs needed. Make the tenants aware if they do not not notify the landlord in a timely manner of any issues, they can be charged for any damage that occurred from their negligence. Make your contact information readily available to the tenants, such as a business card, fridge magnet, or website.
Before move-out refer tenants to the “Wear and Tear versus Damages” document and cleaning checklist. This way the tenant knows what is expected of them in preparation for move out and cleaning of the unit.
A championship for the Mets in 2013? Yeah, fat chance of that happening. But here we are at Citi Field, plastic covering the lockers in the home clubhouse with champagne dripping off of every surface in sight. The New York Mets are champions, as unlikely as that seemed coming into the season.
The only thing the Mets were expected to contend for in 2013 was the NL East basement. Yet, things didn't exactly work out that way.wind turbine Veterans Johan Santana and Shaun Marcum not only stabilized the top of New York's rotation, but formed one of the best starting duos in the league. The pair each threw at least 190 innings, and posted ERAs under 3.50 for the orange and blue. Past those two, New York's rotation was excellent with Jonathon Niese, Dillon Gee, and the exciting youngster Matt Harvey holding their own. Harvey was especially a revelation for the Mets in his first full season in the majors, striking out 160 batters in 173 innings while pitching to a 3.79 ERA.
Offensively,Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobblehead available anywhere. it was supposed to be a struggle for the Mets. And at times, it was. New York's outfield was thoroughly unimpressive, totaling just 24 homers among the three regular starters and playing below average defense for the mostpart. But it was in the infield where New York's offense shined. David Wright put together an MVP-caliber season after signing a contract extension this winter, winning a Gold Glove and homering 27 times while hitting .303 with a .Welcome to Find the right laser Engraver or Laser engraver machines.942 OPS. First baseman Ike Davis stayed healthy all season and built on his strong second half, belting 38 homers and providing Wright with protection in New York's lineup. Behind the plate, rookie catcher Travis d'Arnaud made his major league debut in May, and ended up hitting 14 homers in 313 plate appearances behind the dish for the Mets.Looking for the Best Air purifier?
New York's bullpen also performed better than expectations, especially after a disastrous 2012. Bobby Parnell, slotted into the closer's role after Frank Francisco was placed on the DL for Opening Day, finally took the next step in his new role, striking out 70 hitters in 72 innings and walking only 18. Veteran Brandon Lyon was the ideal setup man for Parnell, striking out 63 in 60 innings and finally earning the label of "underpaid" after years of being overpaid.
I often think about how transcendent Michelle Obama is, about how expert she is at blending her work life with her family life. Yes, she’s a style icon,It's not hard to see why outdoor solar light is all the rage. and I certainly do admire her for her looks as well as her grace, but mostly I’m inspired by how dedicated she is to the protection and support of her husband and daughters. I keep a magnet of the Obama family on my fridge at home, not just because I love my President, but because the Obamas are such an exceptionally lovely family unit. Their genuine affection and respect for one another is so profound and profoundly touching, and being given the chance to observe such a healthy family dynamic in the White House is a tremendous gift to our nation.
While thinking about the power and strength Michelle Obama possesses, I realized that though when it comes to marketing “mom” is the new black, one group of women we almost never hear about in the media is black moms. And unfortunately when black moms are alluded to in the news, they’re still trotted out as the tired stereotype of the welfare queen, the cautionary tale single mother failure. I find that so depressing, and I knew I could rattle off a list of 10 black moms I admired in less than as many seconds. I’ve compiled a slideshow shouting-out these media mogul moms, and I thought I’d share some of their thoughts about career and motherhood with you, in the hopes that not only will they be celebrated, but that we can all glean something from their tenacity, smarts and bravery:
Although normal wear and tear vs damage can be hard to define, there are a few things you can do to protect yourself from any confusion. As with most things, communication is the key: if both you and your tenants are clear about the condition of the unit at move-in, the importance of promptly reporting needed repairs, and expectations at move-out, the tenancy and the end of the tenancy will be smoother.
Insist on a walk-through with new tenants. At the walk-through the tenants will have an opportunity to note in writing existing damage and wear and tear in the rental. Also, take dated photographs to keep on file. This way both the landlord and tenant are protected. The tenant can't be charged for damage that was not documented in the walk through, and the landlord has picture proof of the unit's condition at move in.
Have your lease outline the requirements for taking care of the property and promptly calling for any repairs needed. Make the tenants aware if they do not not notify the landlord in a timely manner of any issues, they can be charged for any damage that occurred from their negligence. Make your contact information readily available to the tenants, such as a business card, fridge magnet, or website.
Before move-out refer tenants to the “Wear and Tear versus Damages” document and cleaning checklist. This way the tenant knows what is expected of them in preparation for move out and cleaning of the unit.
A championship for the Mets in 2013? Yeah, fat chance of that happening. But here we are at Citi Field, plastic covering the lockers in the home clubhouse with champagne dripping off of every surface in sight. The New York Mets are champions, as unlikely as that seemed coming into the season.
The only thing the Mets were expected to contend for in 2013 was the NL East basement. Yet, things didn't exactly work out that way.wind turbine Veterans Johan Santana and Shaun Marcum not only stabilized the top of New York's rotation, but formed one of the best starting duos in the league. The pair each threw at least 190 innings, and posted ERAs under 3.50 for the orange and blue. Past those two, New York's rotation was excellent with Jonathon Niese, Dillon Gee, and the exciting youngster Matt Harvey holding their own. Harvey was especially a revelation for the Mets in his first full season in the majors, striking out 160 batters in 173 innings while pitching to a 3.79 ERA.
Offensively,Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobblehead available anywhere. it was supposed to be a struggle for the Mets. And at times, it was. New York's outfield was thoroughly unimpressive, totaling just 24 homers among the three regular starters and playing below average defense for the mostpart. But it was in the infield where New York's offense shined. David Wright put together an MVP-caliber season after signing a contract extension this winter, winning a Gold Glove and homering 27 times while hitting .303 with a .Welcome to Find the right laser Engraver or Laser engraver machines.942 OPS. First baseman Ike Davis stayed healthy all season and built on his strong second half, belting 38 homers and providing Wright with protection in New York's lineup. Behind the plate, rookie catcher Travis d'Arnaud made his major league debut in May, and ended up hitting 14 homers in 313 plate appearances behind the dish for the Mets.Looking for the Best Air purifier?
New York's bullpen also performed better than expectations, especially after a disastrous 2012. Bobby Parnell, slotted into the closer's role after Frank Francisco was placed on the DL for Opening Day, finally took the next step in his new role, striking out 70 hitters in 72 innings and walking only 18. Veteran Brandon Lyon was the ideal setup man for Parnell, striking out 63 in 60 innings and finally earning the label of "underpaid" after years of being overpaid.
Special Cruise for a Special Kid
Six-year-old Bryon has a brain tumor that buys him membership in the
ultra-exclusive Children Battling Cancer club. It isn't a club anyone
would choose, but once you're in, the advantages can be astounding.
Children Battling Cancer teamed with Celebration Cruise line's Hope on
Water granted Bryon a dream vacation on the Bahamas Celebration.
Bryon arrived at his grandparents home in Vero Beach several days before his voyage. He helped catch Crevalle Jack, Lane Snappers, Sheepshead and even a hideous Big Headed Sea Robin and foolhardy tern - all released none too the worse for wear - and enjoyed bananna pudding at Woody's in Sebastian, and and a fabulous ice-cream Sundae at the Riverside Cafe. He hopes to take the wheelchair accessible half day fishing excursion from Vero Tackle under the bridge next time he is in town....but on this visit, he had other fish to fry!
Gramma & Grampa drove Bryon, Dada and Mommy to Riviera Beach. They wound through the neighborhood, aiming for the huge cranes looming high in the sky and suddenly the Port of West Palm appeared in front of them. They pulled down into the parking lot just after the bridge and unloaded quickly curbside. It was about 11:30 am – and eager people were being let through security already, even though check in does not officially start until 1:00 pm.
Bryon made the acquaintance of a stylish lady and her husband, who were outside waiting for wheelchairs and assistance with their baggage. Mommy told them how nervous she had been about this trip,Wide range of unique crystal mosaic and natural stone mosaic tiles. and the couple assured them that they will have a nice time, and not to worry. The man is 98 years old, and he was not nervous, he just couldn’t wait to get on board and start having some fun!
A man named Steve with a name badge that identified him as Cruise Director greeted Bryon, Dada and Mommy with a booming voice and friendly smile. Mommy started to explain that Bryon is the “CBC” kid – but Steve laughed and says he knows that – he has been waiting for them! Steve helped with the bags, and shows them in….and so the adventure began.
After clearing security, Steve introduced the trio to Max (Italy), the Restaurant Manager. Max wore a neat white official-looking suit and matching shoes. Max escorted Bryon and his parents to the elevator, and on up to the VIP Check In counter on the second floor, all the while inquiring after Bryon’s food preferences and dietary requirements, which he then discussed with the Chef who also came to meet Bryon. Max told Bryon’s family that he would like to make reservations for them at The Cove Restaurant for their first night and at The Crystal Dining Room for the second, and asks whether they prefer to dine at 6 or 9. Max took leave of the party to make the appropriate arrangements, but introduced them to Jody (Honduras) in Guest Relations, who would see them onto the ship. There was a line of excited people steadily streaming up the escalator, arriving early to check in and receive their cabin keys.
Bryon was the first one to board! He was so excited to wheel into the grand lobby, with its rich wood, twin glass cylinder elevators, and gilt laced mahi-mahi sculpture. Everywhere was polished metals and sparkling mirrors and delightful scents wafted out of the Fountain of Youth Spa across from the Information desk. The Concierge and Excursion booking desks were on the far side, and there was a Gift Shop by the Spa entrance.
Jody led them up to Level 7, and showed them their cabin. The doorway was wide enough to allow Bryon’s wheelchair to pass, and the cabin suite was large enough to roll him around easily. The shower had a roll-in lip too – which was a nice amenity. The staff had made a mouse out of towels that sat bright and perky on the soft white down comforter covering the queen bed, and a towel elephant sat by the window on a table.dry cabinet There was a basket of fruit, and plate of fat red dark chocolate-dipped strawberries drizzled with white chocolates by the mini bar. Jody gave the family a few minutes to drop their bags and explore the room, and then hurried them off to Level 9, to beat the crowds to the lunch buffet.
The Captain and mate greeted the family as they stepped out onto the upper deck. A waiter carried Mommy’s tray while she wheeled Bryon through the buffet, and DaDa pointed out various dishes she might like to try. There was a great variety of fresh salads,Willkommen im virtuellen Zuhause der Lercher Werkzeugbau GmbH. and delicious coconut chicken, and savory paella. They relaxed with their loaded plates at a shaded table on the warm sunny deck. Chef and Sous Chef brought Bryon a special dish of whipped sweet potatoes with pureed broccoli and chicken that he gobbled.Welcome to the premier industrial source for Custom IInjection Mold Plastics in New York.
Bryon does not eat much because his brain tumor has rendered his chewing ability and swallow reflex ineffective and the chemotherapy plays havoc on his sense of taste. Bryon’s primary nutrition is in the form of enteral formula delivered through a gastric tube directly into his stomach, but this special meal he enjoyed very much, and this made Chef very happy. The waiter Ivan (Macedonia) checked in unobtrusively to clear plates and refill soft drink glasses. He made time to answer questions about the ship, its staff, and their schedules. It became clear that the food service staff works about 18 hours every day – but somehow they were all smiling and joking with each other and the passengers the whole trip.
Mommy and DaDa relaxed into their seats and ordered the celebratory Bahama Mamas that come in souvenir plastic glasses from the beverage service waiter named Su. Su was very attentive and explained how to order alcohol-containing drinks at the best overall value for the duration of the trip – either by buying an entire bottle with a half dozen or so cans of soda to share, or by ordering the ice buckets full of beer specials. Once the ship is out on the water and in the Bahamas, the drinking age is 18 years old, so this must be a popular Spring Break destination. As with airline travel, ship passengers are not allowed to bring liquor aboard with them, but they may order it once aboard. Perhaps this allows the crew some modicum of control over unpleasant alcohol-related incidents, and truthfully, it did not seem like anyone regretfully over-indulged, so maybe this system is effective.
Jody swung by after lunch and gave Bryon, Mommy and DaDa a tour of the ship. Newly arrived passengers were pouring on board; the elevators were stuffed with people and luggage and the lobbies were hectic hubs of people trying to get their bearings. Jody steered Bryon’s family to the Spa, and helped them make arrangements for a couples massage that afternoon. She showed them the restaurants, the casino, the theatre lounge, and the three age- appropriate kids clubs. Finally, they returned to their cabin and Jody left them to change into bathing suits and hit the pool.
The kid’s pool is only about 12” deep, but it has a long tubular water slide and the kids loved it. Bryon joined several other kids at the pool, one travelling with her Grandmother Pat (Michigan), and two other little blondies (Finland). Everything, including the deck, looked freshly painted and bright. There was some grit to the surface, but Mommy walked Bryon along carefully where it was wet. Mommy jumped in the aquarium-looking adult pool quickly and splashed around a little before DaDa and she had to change for the Spa appointment and Bryon was due at the Kids Club.
After luxurious massages, the trio returned to the upper deck to find a full blown Conga line and pool full of party goers. There were so many events happening at once – a wine tasting,The stone mosaic series is a grand collection of coordinating Travertine mosaics and listellos. a dance contest, a Latin Mojito party, bingo, poker games – that it was almost overwhelming. It seemed like everywhere people were dancing and laughing and eating and drinking and generally having a really good time – and they hadn’t even set sail yet!
The breeze picked up and the sun started to sag, so Bryon and his parents returned to their cabin to change for dinner. Mommy went downstairs to get an adapter from the concierge for Bryon’s enteral pump while DaDa finished dressing. Jody picked them up and escorted them to The Cove, where Max took over and led them to a quiet table by the window. Chef prepared Bryon another delicious puree, but Bryon nodded off, leaving Mommy and DaDa to enjoy dinner on their own. DaDa selected a lobster avocadotini appetizer, Mommy had the escargot. They had mushroom cappuccino soup, followed by goat cheese-dotted arugula salad topped with crisp fried onion strings. After a tablespoon sized taste of lemon sorbet drizzled with Compari and topped with a mint leaf intermezzo, DaDa dove into a thick filet mignon, cooked to perfection; and Mommy had lamb chops that were so good that she felt compelled to take a photo of them. Bryon snored on.
DaDa rarely eats dessert, but this night he opted for the mousse trio: tiramisu, raspberry-white chocolate, and dark and white chocolate served in three petite glasses perched in a silvery stand. Mommy chose a Grand Marnier brittle glazed crème brulee that was divine. Max arranged to have Bryon’s untouched meal delivered to the refrigerator in his cabin, in case he was hungry later in the evening.
Bryon arrived at his grandparents home in Vero Beach several days before his voyage. He helped catch Crevalle Jack, Lane Snappers, Sheepshead and even a hideous Big Headed Sea Robin and foolhardy tern - all released none too the worse for wear - and enjoyed bananna pudding at Woody's in Sebastian, and and a fabulous ice-cream Sundae at the Riverside Cafe. He hopes to take the wheelchair accessible half day fishing excursion from Vero Tackle under the bridge next time he is in town....but on this visit, he had other fish to fry!
Gramma & Grampa drove Bryon, Dada and Mommy to Riviera Beach. They wound through the neighborhood, aiming for the huge cranes looming high in the sky and suddenly the Port of West Palm appeared in front of them. They pulled down into the parking lot just after the bridge and unloaded quickly curbside. It was about 11:30 am – and eager people were being let through security already, even though check in does not officially start until 1:00 pm.
Bryon made the acquaintance of a stylish lady and her husband, who were outside waiting for wheelchairs and assistance with their baggage. Mommy told them how nervous she had been about this trip,Wide range of unique crystal mosaic and natural stone mosaic tiles. and the couple assured them that they will have a nice time, and not to worry. The man is 98 years old, and he was not nervous, he just couldn’t wait to get on board and start having some fun!
A man named Steve with a name badge that identified him as Cruise Director greeted Bryon, Dada and Mommy with a booming voice and friendly smile. Mommy started to explain that Bryon is the “CBC” kid – but Steve laughed and says he knows that – he has been waiting for them! Steve helped with the bags, and shows them in….and so the adventure began.
After clearing security, Steve introduced the trio to Max (Italy), the Restaurant Manager. Max wore a neat white official-looking suit and matching shoes. Max escorted Bryon and his parents to the elevator, and on up to the VIP Check In counter on the second floor, all the while inquiring after Bryon’s food preferences and dietary requirements, which he then discussed with the Chef who also came to meet Bryon. Max told Bryon’s family that he would like to make reservations for them at The Cove Restaurant for their first night and at The Crystal Dining Room for the second, and asks whether they prefer to dine at 6 or 9. Max took leave of the party to make the appropriate arrangements, but introduced them to Jody (Honduras) in Guest Relations, who would see them onto the ship. There was a line of excited people steadily streaming up the escalator, arriving early to check in and receive their cabin keys.
Bryon was the first one to board! He was so excited to wheel into the grand lobby, with its rich wood, twin glass cylinder elevators, and gilt laced mahi-mahi sculpture. Everywhere was polished metals and sparkling mirrors and delightful scents wafted out of the Fountain of Youth Spa across from the Information desk. The Concierge and Excursion booking desks were on the far side, and there was a Gift Shop by the Spa entrance.
Jody led them up to Level 7, and showed them their cabin. The doorway was wide enough to allow Bryon’s wheelchair to pass, and the cabin suite was large enough to roll him around easily. The shower had a roll-in lip too – which was a nice amenity. The staff had made a mouse out of towels that sat bright and perky on the soft white down comforter covering the queen bed, and a towel elephant sat by the window on a table.dry cabinet There was a basket of fruit, and plate of fat red dark chocolate-dipped strawberries drizzled with white chocolates by the mini bar. Jody gave the family a few minutes to drop their bags and explore the room, and then hurried them off to Level 9, to beat the crowds to the lunch buffet.
The Captain and mate greeted the family as they stepped out onto the upper deck. A waiter carried Mommy’s tray while she wheeled Bryon through the buffet, and DaDa pointed out various dishes she might like to try. There was a great variety of fresh salads,Willkommen im virtuellen Zuhause der Lercher Werkzeugbau GmbH. and delicious coconut chicken, and savory paella. They relaxed with their loaded plates at a shaded table on the warm sunny deck. Chef and Sous Chef brought Bryon a special dish of whipped sweet potatoes with pureed broccoli and chicken that he gobbled.Welcome to the premier industrial source for Custom IInjection Mold Plastics in New York.
Bryon does not eat much because his brain tumor has rendered his chewing ability and swallow reflex ineffective and the chemotherapy plays havoc on his sense of taste. Bryon’s primary nutrition is in the form of enteral formula delivered through a gastric tube directly into his stomach, but this special meal he enjoyed very much, and this made Chef very happy. The waiter Ivan (Macedonia) checked in unobtrusively to clear plates and refill soft drink glasses. He made time to answer questions about the ship, its staff, and their schedules. It became clear that the food service staff works about 18 hours every day – but somehow they were all smiling and joking with each other and the passengers the whole trip.
Mommy and DaDa relaxed into their seats and ordered the celebratory Bahama Mamas that come in souvenir plastic glasses from the beverage service waiter named Su. Su was very attentive and explained how to order alcohol-containing drinks at the best overall value for the duration of the trip – either by buying an entire bottle with a half dozen or so cans of soda to share, or by ordering the ice buckets full of beer specials. Once the ship is out on the water and in the Bahamas, the drinking age is 18 years old, so this must be a popular Spring Break destination. As with airline travel, ship passengers are not allowed to bring liquor aboard with them, but they may order it once aboard. Perhaps this allows the crew some modicum of control over unpleasant alcohol-related incidents, and truthfully, it did not seem like anyone regretfully over-indulged, so maybe this system is effective.
Jody swung by after lunch and gave Bryon, Mommy and DaDa a tour of the ship. Newly arrived passengers were pouring on board; the elevators were stuffed with people and luggage and the lobbies were hectic hubs of people trying to get their bearings. Jody steered Bryon’s family to the Spa, and helped them make arrangements for a couples massage that afternoon. She showed them the restaurants, the casino, the theatre lounge, and the three age- appropriate kids clubs. Finally, they returned to their cabin and Jody left them to change into bathing suits and hit the pool.
The kid’s pool is only about 12” deep, but it has a long tubular water slide and the kids loved it. Bryon joined several other kids at the pool, one travelling with her Grandmother Pat (Michigan), and two other little blondies (Finland). Everything, including the deck, looked freshly painted and bright. There was some grit to the surface, but Mommy walked Bryon along carefully where it was wet. Mommy jumped in the aquarium-looking adult pool quickly and splashed around a little before DaDa and she had to change for the Spa appointment and Bryon was due at the Kids Club.
After luxurious massages, the trio returned to the upper deck to find a full blown Conga line and pool full of party goers. There were so many events happening at once – a wine tasting,The stone mosaic series is a grand collection of coordinating Travertine mosaics and listellos. a dance contest, a Latin Mojito party, bingo, poker games – that it was almost overwhelming. It seemed like everywhere people were dancing and laughing and eating and drinking and generally having a really good time – and they hadn’t even set sail yet!
The breeze picked up and the sun started to sag, so Bryon and his parents returned to their cabin to change for dinner. Mommy went downstairs to get an adapter from the concierge for Bryon’s enteral pump while DaDa finished dressing. Jody picked them up and escorted them to The Cove, where Max took over and led them to a quiet table by the window. Chef prepared Bryon another delicious puree, but Bryon nodded off, leaving Mommy and DaDa to enjoy dinner on their own. DaDa selected a lobster avocadotini appetizer, Mommy had the escargot. They had mushroom cappuccino soup, followed by goat cheese-dotted arugula salad topped with crisp fried onion strings. After a tablespoon sized taste of lemon sorbet drizzled with Compari and topped with a mint leaf intermezzo, DaDa dove into a thick filet mignon, cooked to perfection; and Mommy had lamb chops that were so good that she felt compelled to take a photo of them. Bryon snored on.
DaDa rarely eats dessert, but this night he opted for the mousse trio: tiramisu, raspberry-white chocolate, and dark and white chocolate served in three petite glasses perched in a silvery stand. Mommy chose a Grand Marnier brittle glazed crème brulee that was divine. Max arranged to have Bryon’s untouched meal delivered to the refrigerator in his cabin, in case he was hungry later in the evening.
2013年2月18日 星期一
Choice-free holidays
As travel becomes more accessible, many today look to the internet to
help them discover new and exciting holiday options. Yet, the seemingly
endless degree of choice available means that time-starved luxury
travellers are willing to give away responsibility for deciding their
holidays to others – in the quest for truly rarified experiences, it
makes sense for discerning holidaymakers to enjoy a travel experience
hand-selected by a trustworthy holiday operator.
Six-year-old luxury travel operator Black Tomato, which specialises in piecing together unique tailor-made experiences for its customers, recorded a 14 million annual turnover in 2012. In addition to planning the usual holiday itinerary - flights, accommodation, etc - Black Tomato prides itself on meeting customers’ every minor need or desire. This can be anything from compiling a selection of songs on an iTunes playlist for the traveller to listen to while away to providing a film for the traveller to watch once back home and faced with the post-holiday blues.
If one of the purposes of a holiday is to allow relaxation, then it makes sense that travellers are handing over control of the decision-making process.Check out our selection of eyewear Optical frame today!Find the best iPhone headset for you Increasingly, travellers are opting out of the strenuous input required to filter through the plethora of holiday possibilities. Instead, this process is being wholly placed into the hands of operators who are trusted to offer more simplified, exclusive and novel holiday selections that expedite (and, at times, entertain during) the decision-making process.
The coming year will see more travel services evolving not only to help their discerning customers discover appropriate holidays, but also to help plan, finalise and offer those experiences in the most interesting and exclusive of ways. This may manifest through the way in which holidays are presented; the story behind how they are selected; the exclusivity of the platform they reside upon; and even via the additional perks with which they are offered.Our premium collection of quality personalized keychains generously offers affordability in a custom keychain.
Take a look at how these brands are using innovative methods and platforms to package and present ‘choice cut’ holidays, services and experiences for their customers:
Hotel Haiku is a travel website that lists hotels around the world in an exceptionally simple fashion. Information about a featured hotel is limited to a single image and a haiku-style description of the property. The site also features ‘notels’, which are architecturally or conceptually unique holiday rental properties
American Express Travel launched Nextpedition, a tailor-made mystery vacation with social media integration. The trip begins with a quiz designed to attribute a Travel Sign to each user, based on their interests and personality. Travellers can share the quiz on Facebook and then have the opportunity to speak to a Nextpedition Travel Specialist, who will create a vacation based on their Travel Sign, as well as duration and budget. Destinations include cities in the US, Canada and Europe, and the vacation itinerary is revealed gradually via a mobile device; the Travel Console. This device suggests personalized activities and makes recommendations on places to see and things to do. The Travel Console also allows vacation-makers to keep a record of their trip, uploading photograph and videos, sharing on Facebook and making comments – plus family and friends can follow the progress of the trip in real-time. Package prices start at $1000.
Mumbai-based travel brand SOTC launched Box Holidays – tangible, pre-packaged travel offerings that can be purchased online or off the shelf in a participating retail store. Rather than having to spend time and effort researching options with a travel agent,Bay monitoring and parking guidance system come together in seamless integration offering more benefits. purchasers can simply buy a Box Holiday, which features all the key details on the outside of the box,Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. including price, validity period, service inclusions, images and so on. Pricing begins at INR5,990 per couple (71) for domestic getaways and INR47,410 (570) for international packages.
Roadtrippers is a travel website offering driving directions through the US based not on the most efficient journey, but the most interesting route. Users enter their start location and destination, and Roadtrippers shows the most direct path to take; drivers can then alter the distance they are willing to travel away from that route and add filters depending on what kind of things they would like to see along the way – including local dining options, offbeat hotels and national parks. Suggestions featured on the site are curated by local experts.
New York-based Excursionist is a members-only travel website selling exclusive vacation experiences curated by local professionals and site members. Excursionist offers vacations to worldwide destinations that involve local individuals, including artists, scientists, chefs and activists. The handpicked travel guides accompany the tourist on their vacation, providing information and local knowledge, so creating a unique, educational experience. Excursionist also works to provide its members with special access to tourism-related sites such as archaeological digs and other places that are often closed to the public.
Indeed, the increase in travellers relinquishing their roles as holiday planners is bound to result in more travel operators fighting to win their attention by presenting holidays in interesting ways. However, those with wanderlust will ultimately only demonstrate loyalty to the providers that accurately source and tailor every single holiday in a way that exceeds expectations.
Six-year-old luxury travel operator Black Tomato, which specialises in piecing together unique tailor-made experiences for its customers, recorded a 14 million annual turnover in 2012. In addition to planning the usual holiday itinerary - flights, accommodation, etc - Black Tomato prides itself on meeting customers’ every minor need or desire. This can be anything from compiling a selection of songs on an iTunes playlist for the traveller to listen to while away to providing a film for the traveller to watch once back home and faced with the post-holiday blues.
If one of the purposes of a holiday is to allow relaxation, then it makes sense that travellers are handing over control of the decision-making process.Check out our selection of eyewear Optical frame today!Find the best iPhone headset for you Increasingly, travellers are opting out of the strenuous input required to filter through the plethora of holiday possibilities. Instead, this process is being wholly placed into the hands of operators who are trusted to offer more simplified, exclusive and novel holiday selections that expedite (and, at times, entertain during) the decision-making process.
The coming year will see more travel services evolving not only to help their discerning customers discover appropriate holidays, but also to help plan, finalise and offer those experiences in the most interesting and exclusive of ways. This may manifest through the way in which holidays are presented; the story behind how they are selected; the exclusivity of the platform they reside upon; and even via the additional perks with which they are offered.Our premium collection of quality personalized keychains generously offers affordability in a custom keychain.
Take a look at how these brands are using innovative methods and platforms to package and present ‘choice cut’ holidays, services and experiences for their customers:
Hotel Haiku is a travel website that lists hotels around the world in an exceptionally simple fashion. Information about a featured hotel is limited to a single image and a haiku-style description of the property. The site also features ‘notels’, which are architecturally or conceptually unique holiday rental properties
American Express Travel launched Nextpedition, a tailor-made mystery vacation with social media integration. The trip begins with a quiz designed to attribute a Travel Sign to each user, based on their interests and personality. Travellers can share the quiz on Facebook and then have the opportunity to speak to a Nextpedition Travel Specialist, who will create a vacation based on their Travel Sign, as well as duration and budget. Destinations include cities in the US, Canada and Europe, and the vacation itinerary is revealed gradually via a mobile device; the Travel Console. This device suggests personalized activities and makes recommendations on places to see and things to do. The Travel Console also allows vacation-makers to keep a record of their trip, uploading photograph and videos, sharing on Facebook and making comments – plus family and friends can follow the progress of the trip in real-time. Package prices start at $1000.
Mumbai-based travel brand SOTC launched Box Holidays – tangible, pre-packaged travel offerings that can be purchased online or off the shelf in a participating retail store. Rather than having to spend time and effort researching options with a travel agent,Bay monitoring and parking guidance system come together in seamless integration offering more benefits. purchasers can simply buy a Box Holiday, which features all the key details on the outside of the box,Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. including price, validity period, service inclusions, images and so on. Pricing begins at INR5,990 per couple (71) for domestic getaways and INR47,410 (570) for international packages.
Roadtrippers is a travel website offering driving directions through the US based not on the most efficient journey, but the most interesting route. Users enter their start location and destination, and Roadtrippers shows the most direct path to take; drivers can then alter the distance they are willing to travel away from that route and add filters depending on what kind of things they would like to see along the way – including local dining options, offbeat hotels and national parks. Suggestions featured on the site are curated by local experts.
New York-based Excursionist is a members-only travel website selling exclusive vacation experiences curated by local professionals and site members. Excursionist offers vacations to worldwide destinations that involve local individuals, including artists, scientists, chefs and activists. The handpicked travel guides accompany the tourist on their vacation, providing information and local knowledge, so creating a unique, educational experience. Excursionist also works to provide its members with special access to tourism-related sites such as archaeological digs and other places that are often closed to the public.
Indeed, the increase in travellers relinquishing their roles as holiday planners is bound to result in more travel operators fighting to win their attention by presenting holidays in interesting ways. However, those with wanderlust will ultimately only demonstrate loyalty to the providers that accurately source and tailor every single holiday in a way that exceeds expectations.
Boart eyes two-year turnaround
The result came on the same day that the firm announced that Richard
O'Brien -- the chief of New York Stock Exchange-listed Newmont Mining --
would become Boart's chief executive, replacing ousted chief Craig
Kipp.
Boart chairman David McLemore, who has been acting in the role since Mr Kipp's exit, said the firm's main indicators of rig use and order backlog of drilling products had stabilised but the global outlook for mining services remained unclear. It was looking to restructure its cost base in preparation for any resurgence.
"Our customers clearly are re-setting their cost base and . . .Check out our selection of eyewear Optical frame today! they're going to expect (us) to negotiate a new price for 2013 versus 2012 and we're well into that cycle, and it looks like our planning for pricing going into 2013 is also in line with that, " Mr McLemore said. Despite recent action to create greater efficiency at the company, which slashed global job numbers and moved manufacturing to low cost centres, Mr McLemore -- who will step down as chairman but remain on the board -- said the biggest challenge remained on the cost side as Boart looked to put in place a structure that was more resilient.
"So that it's a true overhead that's got leverage on it in the good times," he said.Our premium collection of quality personalized keychains generously offers affordability in a custom keychain. "We don't have any headcount numbers on that, but we do know that our operating margins have got to improve by 2 or 3 per cent to be in line with our peers . . . my view in terms of us leading the industry, in terms of our operating margins, it's a two-year journey," he said.
Drilling products revenue, including equipment and performance tooling, fell by 13 per cent for the period to $US495m, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation slumped by 19 per cent to $US107m. The firm gave no specific guidance for this year but said consensus expectations for revenue between $US1.7 billion and $US2bn was in line with its forecasts.
Deutsche Bank analyst Craig Wong-Pan said although the outlook remained uncertain it was a good result,Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. with Boart coming in at the top end of guidance.
"The working capital will continue to build and we won't see a recovery in that working capital until the second half of this financial year," he said.
Total revenue was flat at $US2bn, in line with earlier guidance, while EBITDA came in slightly above revised guidance at $US322m -- a long way from initial expectations announced last year of $US460m. Board member Barbara Jeremiah was elected to the chairman's position.
Bucks County Fire Marshal Walter M. Carwithen said the cause of the fire is unknown at this time and under investigation. The ruins were still smoldering as of Saturday morning. Damage to the building, furnishings and equipment could go as high as $150,000.
The three-building complex, topped by a 19th century bell cupola, formerly served as the Doylestown Public School.
The fire, which was reported at 2:15 p.m. Friday, apparently started in the abandoned third floor of the main grey stone building and spread to the second floor. The roof later collapsed in flames. The red brick annex adjacent to the main building was heavily damaged by smoke, water and falling debris.
A torch 50 feet high, five stories above the top of the hill around which Doylestown is built, was visible for at least four miles. It consumed the building's cupola in a sunny, cold setting of rainbows from the spray of firemen's hoses.
Firemen from nine volunteer fire companies,Bay monitoring and parking guidance system come together in seamless integration offering more benefits. two rescue squads and an ambulance corps were involved. Fire companies fought the flames for more than three hours before getting the fire under control. Four provided auxiliary service.
Close to 1,000 persons ringed the site. As spectators left, more arrived on the scene.
Since 1966, when the county bought the complex for $80,000, the main building housed offices of the Bucks County Public Schools Intermediate Unit 22, the Central Bucks YMCA, the Bucks Neighborhood Youth Corps, the Bucks District Soil Conservation Service and the U.S. Navy recruiting office.
The brick addition, built in 1912, was used as a major storage facility for priceless county records, including deeds, wills and marriage licenses, some dating to the 1680s.Find the best iPhone headset for you A third building to the rear of the main building, constructed in 1925, is vacant. It escaped serious damage.
Dr. Albert Neiman, assistant executive director of the Intermediate Unit, whose office was on the second floor of the main building, discovered the flames in a former science laboratory on the dusty third floor.
"I smelled the smoke and ran upstairs. There were flames shooting up. Everybody started to yell to get out," he said.
Neighborhood children and county officials formed chain lines to pass on cartons and files of documents. Pulled from the smoldering complex were about 300 hardbound marriage license dockets and more than 600 metal files of wills.
In addition, thousands of other records of the prothonotary and district attorney were safely left in wire-mesh pens in the annex after the flames were repulsed. Also saved was a collection of 75 stuffed big game animal trophies, valued at $100,000, donated to the county for educational purposes.
County building supervisor John Hofman coordinated the effort to save the records. He said a county truck took the material to the county-owned Roads and Bridges Building on Route 413 in Buckingham Township.
Boart chairman David McLemore, who has been acting in the role since Mr Kipp's exit, said the firm's main indicators of rig use and order backlog of drilling products had stabilised but the global outlook for mining services remained unclear. It was looking to restructure its cost base in preparation for any resurgence.
"Our customers clearly are re-setting their cost base and . . .Check out our selection of eyewear Optical frame today! they're going to expect (us) to negotiate a new price for 2013 versus 2012 and we're well into that cycle, and it looks like our planning for pricing going into 2013 is also in line with that, " Mr McLemore said. Despite recent action to create greater efficiency at the company, which slashed global job numbers and moved manufacturing to low cost centres, Mr McLemore -- who will step down as chairman but remain on the board -- said the biggest challenge remained on the cost side as Boart looked to put in place a structure that was more resilient.
"So that it's a true overhead that's got leverage on it in the good times," he said.Our premium collection of quality personalized keychains generously offers affordability in a custom keychain. "We don't have any headcount numbers on that, but we do know that our operating margins have got to improve by 2 or 3 per cent to be in line with our peers . . . my view in terms of us leading the industry, in terms of our operating margins, it's a two-year journey," he said.
Drilling products revenue, including equipment and performance tooling, fell by 13 per cent for the period to $US495m, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation slumped by 19 per cent to $US107m. The firm gave no specific guidance for this year but said consensus expectations for revenue between $US1.7 billion and $US2bn was in line with its forecasts.
Deutsche Bank analyst Craig Wong-Pan said although the outlook remained uncertain it was a good result,Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. with Boart coming in at the top end of guidance.
"The working capital will continue to build and we won't see a recovery in that working capital until the second half of this financial year," he said.
Total revenue was flat at $US2bn, in line with earlier guidance, while EBITDA came in slightly above revised guidance at $US322m -- a long way from initial expectations announced last year of $US460m. Board member Barbara Jeremiah was elected to the chairman's position.
Bucks County Fire Marshal Walter M. Carwithen said the cause of the fire is unknown at this time and under investigation. The ruins were still smoldering as of Saturday morning. Damage to the building, furnishings and equipment could go as high as $150,000.
The three-building complex, topped by a 19th century bell cupola, formerly served as the Doylestown Public School.
The fire, which was reported at 2:15 p.m. Friday, apparently started in the abandoned third floor of the main grey stone building and spread to the second floor. The roof later collapsed in flames. The red brick annex adjacent to the main building was heavily damaged by smoke, water and falling debris.
A torch 50 feet high, five stories above the top of the hill around which Doylestown is built, was visible for at least four miles. It consumed the building's cupola in a sunny, cold setting of rainbows from the spray of firemen's hoses.
Firemen from nine volunteer fire companies,Bay monitoring and parking guidance system come together in seamless integration offering more benefits. two rescue squads and an ambulance corps were involved. Fire companies fought the flames for more than three hours before getting the fire under control. Four provided auxiliary service.
Close to 1,000 persons ringed the site. As spectators left, more arrived on the scene.
Since 1966, when the county bought the complex for $80,000, the main building housed offices of the Bucks County Public Schools Intermediate Unit 22, the Central Bucks YMCA, the Bucks Neighborhood Youth Corps, the Bucks District Soil Conservation Service and the U.S. Navy recruiting office.
The brick addition, built in 1912, was used as a major storage facility for priceless county records, including deeds, wills and marriage licenses, some dating to the 1680s.Find the best iPhone headset for you A third building to the rear of the main building, constructed in 1925, is vacant. It escaped serious damage.
Dr. Albert Neiman, assistant executive director of the Intermediate Unit, whose office was on the second floor of the main building, discovered the flames in a former science laboratory on the dusty third floor.
"I smelled the smoke and ran upstairs. There were flames shooting up. Everybody started to yell to get out," he said.
Neighborhood children and county officials formed chain lines to pass on cartons and files of documents. Pulled from the smoldering complex were about 300 hardbound marriage license dockets and more than 600 metal files of wills.
In addition, thousands of other records of the prothonotary and district attorney were safely left in wire-mesh pens in the annex after the flames were repulsed. Also saved was a collection of 75 stuffed big game animal trophies, valued at $100,000, donated to the county for educational purposes.
County building supervisor John Hofman coordinated the effort to save the records. He said a county truck took the material to the county-owned Roads and Bridges Building on Route 413 in Buckingham Township.
Point Phillips to reopen in Moore Township
For decades, LeRoy Eckert looked down the hill from his front yard
and watched as his birthplace seemed to sink into the water that
gathered around its foundations.
By the time it closed five years ago, mud was climbing the Point Phillips Hotel's exterior walls. The business, once known in different circles for its cheesesteaks, video poker machines and barroom brawls, had become a crumbling stack of asphalt shingle siding. The centuries-old tavern it had been — the place where Eckert's parents carved out a living —- had long since dissolved.
Then Dan Tanczos stepped in. In 2008, he sold his interest in a Bethlehem beer distributor and bought the old tavern, namesake of the unincorporated Moore Township village of Point Phillips. Tanczos spent the next five years researching its history, damming the water and buffing the place to a sheen it never had .
In a few weeks, Tanczos says, he'll reopen the hotel as a bar and restaurant with two apartments.Sol provides the world with high-performance solar roadway and solar street light solutions.
"I'm looking forward to giving the people of this area a nice place to go," he said, pressing his palms to the polished bar he installed in a room where a grocer once sold flour and salt. "Something they can be proud of."
Tanczos, a broad-shouldered guy with a smile stamped above a dimpled chin, hopes visitors will come from all over the Lehigh Valley.We are designing Mold Maker and specialty tooling has been the backbone of our business since our inception. But he renovated it — learning how to install floors and Victorian ceiling tiles on the fly — for people like Eckert and himself.
On Aug. 6, 1928, in the same room where Tanczos recently planted his bar, Eckert was born. Growing up, he could step out the front door of his parents' house behind the hotel and find forest and swampland to hunt deer and squirrels. He played shortstop and second base on the old Point Phillips Hotel baseball team. In the bar, his dad served Horlacher, Old Dutch and Neuwiler, three mugs for a quarter. State law required you to offer hotel rooms, so, in six rooms on the second floor, they changed sheets on beds nobody ever slept in.
Since those days, ranchers and Cape Cods have pushed the forest aside. The one-room Point Phillips School, where Eckert learned English and math, closed eons ago. Even the 4-foot-high concrete letters that spelled "Point Phillips" his father installed on the embankment across from the hotel — the town's version of the Hollywood sign — eventually toppled.
When Eckert built the stone house next to the hotel in 1956, his mom asked him to take over running the place. Eckert said no. Tavern ownership wasn't for him. In those days, he explained, the place was pretty rough. Brawls were par for the course for neighborhood bars all over the area, in Petersville and Beersville, for example.
The quickest way to add a fresh look to a room or any part of a home (door or even a floor) is a fresh coat of paint. Every year - paint manufacturers come out with a new color to satisfy whatever trends might be going on. “Neutrals such as C2’s Scout - which is a kind of taupe and Reindeer which is a darker brown, are still popular. But eggplant and lime green are among the trendy colors this year,” said Frank Agrusa, who owns Van Jaarsveld Decorating Center in Utica.
You can also add richness and depth by applying a specialty paint treatment. As one decorator explains Trompe L’oeil is French for an art technique that involves using realistic imagery to create an optical illusion. Instead of rolling out two coats of flat paint you can use several paints to create the look of linen or leather. There are also metallic paints that can be used to create patterns. One of the home office photos on Houzz showed a walls covered with a black paint - once dry becomes a chalkboard surface.
Sculptures, hand blown glass vases, tile work and jewelry sparkled in the sunlight Sunday as people made their way through artists’ displays at Frances Stevens Park.
The three-day Desert Art Festival continues from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today with more than 100 artists presenting original work in all mediums of two- and three-dimensional art, including paintings in acrylic, oils and watercolors, photography and etchings, all sprawled out on the corner of North Palm Canyon Drive and Alejo Road.
It’s the diversity of art and the quality of the work that keeps festival-goer Marilyn Dorman of Boise, Idaho, coming back, she said, along with the scenery of the surrounding mountains.
She and her daughter, Diane Dorman, also of Boise,The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. were looking over the mixed media work of Fortune Sitole of Oakland.
Sitole’s depictions of life in South Africa are made with recyclable materials — wood,We offer advanced technology products and services for parking guidance control. sand, aluminum, oil and acrylic paint, sticks, bottle caps, soup cans, and other objects on a plywood background.
Across the way from Sitole, Marquis Leo of Palm Desert was surrounded by his brightly painted, glossy, ceramic tiles that varied in size from coasters to wall hangings.
The figures on each were painted on canvas first and embedded into the ceramic through a firing process.We offer a wide variety of high-quality standard ultrasonic sensor and controllers.
By the time it closed five years ago, mud was climbing the Point Phillips Hotel's exterior walls. The business, once known in different circles for its cheesesteaks, video poker machines and barroom brawls, had become a crumbling stack of asphalt shingle siding. The centuries-old tavern it had been — the place where Eckert's parents carved out a living —- had long since dissolved.
Then Dan Tanczos stepped in. In 2008, he sold his interest in a Bethlehem beer distributor and bought the old tavern, namesake of the unincorporated Moore Township village of Point Phillips. Tanczos spent the next five years researching its history, damming the water and buffing the place to a sheen it never had .
In a few weeks, Tanczos says, he'll reopen the hotel as a bar and restaurant with two apartments.Sol provides the world with high-performance solar roadway and solar street light solutions.
"I'm looking forward to giving the people of this area a nice place to go," he said, pressing his palms to the polished bar he installed in a room where a grocer once sold flour and salt. "Something they can be proud of."
Tanczos, a broad-shouldered guy with a smile stamped above a dimpled chin, hopes visitors will come from all over the Lehigh Valley.We are designing Mold Maker and specialty tooling has been the backbone of our business since our inception. But he renovated it — learning how to install floors and Victorian ceiling tiles on the fly — for people like Eckert and himself.
On Aug. 6, 1928, in the same room where Tanczos recently planted his bar, Eckert was born. Growing up, he could step out the front door of his parents' house behind the hotel and find forest and swampland to hunt deer and squirrels. He played shortstop and second base on the old Point Phillips Hotel baseball team. In the bar, his dad served Horlacher, Old Dutch and Neuwiler, three mugs for a quarter. State law required you to offer hotel rooms, so, in six rooms on the second floor, they changed sheets on beds nobody ever slept in.
Since those days, ranchers and Cape Cods have pushed the forest aside. The one-room Point Phillips School, where Eckert learned English and math, closed eons ago. Even the 4-foot-high concrete letters that spelled "Point Phillips" his father installed on the embankment across from the hotel — the town's version of the Hollywood sign — eventually toppled.
When Eckert built the stone house next to the hotel in 1956, his mom asked him to take over running the place. Eckert said no. Tavern ownership wasn't for him. In those days, he explained, the place was pretty rough. Brawls were par for the course for neighborhood bars all over the area, in Petersville and Beersville, for example.
The quickest way to add a fresh look to a room or any part of a home (door or even a floor) is a fresh coat of paint. Every year - paint manufacturers come out with a new color to satisfy whatever trends might be going on. “Neutrals such as C2’s Scout - which is a kind of taupe and Reindeer which is a darker brown, are still popular. But eggplant and lime green are among the trendy colors this year,” said Frank Agrusa, who owns Van Jaarsveld Decorating Center in Utica.
You can also add richness and depth by applying a specialty paint treatment. As one decorator explains Trompe L’oeil is French for an art technique that involves using realistic imagery to create an optical illusion. Instead of rolling out two coats of flat paint you can use several paints to create the look of linen or leather. There are also metallic paints that can be used to create patterns. One of the home office photos on Houzz showed a walls covered with a black paint - once dry becomes a chalkboard surface.
Sculptures, hand blown glass vases, tile work and jewelry sparkled in the sunlight Sunday as people made their way through artists’ displays at Frances Stevens Park.
The three-day Desert Art Festival continues from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today with more than 100 artists presenting original work in all mediums of two- and three-dimensional art, including paintings in acrylic, oils and watercolors, photography and etchings, all sprawled out on the corner of North Palm Canyon Drive and Alejo Road.
It’s the diversity of art and the quality of the work that keeps festival-goer Marilyn Dorman of Boise, Idaho, coming back, she said, along with the scenery of the surrounding mountains.
She and her daughter, Diane Dorman, also of Boise,The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. were looking over the mixed media work of Fortune Sitole of Oakland.
Sitole’s depictions of life in South Africa are made with recyclable materials — wood,We offer advanced technology products and services for parking guidance control. sand, aluminum, oil and acrylic paint, sticks, bottle caps, soup cans, and other objects on a plywood background.
Across the way from Sitole, Marquis Leo of Palm Desert was surrounded by his brightly painted, glossy, ceramic tiles that varied in size from coasters to wall hangings.
The figures on each were painted on canvas first and embedded into the ceramic through a firing process.We offer a wide variety of high-quality standard ultrasonic sensor and controllers.
Panera Bread Aims For Social 'Food Chain Reaction
As one key element in its new “Live Consciously” brand platform,
Panera Bread is launching a “Food Chain Reaction” social media campaign.
The overall “Live Consciously” campaign, from Cramer-Krasselt, Chicago, eschews restaurants’ typical focus on product offerings, instead aiming to articulate Panera’s “purpose-driven” brand philosophy -- including how it does business, the kinds of cultural values it wants to reflect, and the impact it wants to have on society.
The campaign -- which includes advertising on national cable and local television, radio, national print, outdoor and digital video and display ads as well as social -- is budgeted for approximately $70 million, about 30% higher than last year’s advertising spending, and the largest annual advertising investment in the company’s history.
Its tagline -- “Live consciously. Eat deliciously.” -- ties the original mission defined by the company’s founder and current chairman and co-CEO, Ron Shaich, of “adding value to people’s lives” to the idea of “eating deliciously,” sums up Lisa Lorenz, director, brand marketing-creative content for Panera.
“Instead of talking about what we do, the campaign talks about the how and why behind our practices,” Lorenz tells Marketing Daily.
In addition to its commitment to fresh, local ingredients sourcing (and antibiotic-free chicken), the chain has long engaged in community-support practices, including donating its unsold baked goods every evening to local food banks. Through the Panera Bread Foundation,We offer a wide variety of high-quality standard ultrasonic sensor and controllers. it’s also established Panera Cares Cafes – locations where people can order from the usual Panera menu and pay whatever they can afford (or nothing at all). The fifth café, in Boston, was opened in January. The others are in St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago and Portland,We offer advanced technology products and services for parking guidance control. Ore.
The campaign’s “Food Chain Reaction” social element builds on a partnership Panera began late last year with Feeding America, to enable Panera to donate food to Feeding America that is distributed by FA to food banks as needed within its national network, reports Lorenz.
The social initiative’s premise: Panera’s socially conscious customers are being encouraged to join with others to create online circles of five friends on a Food Chain Reaction platform in Panera’s Facebook page. For every circle of five friends formed, Panera will work with its Foundation to provide a bowl of its Low-Fat Vegetarian Black Bean soup to a person in need through its alliance with Feeding America.
The goal is to donate 500,000 bowls of soup by April 11 -- while also increasing awareness of America’s “food insecurity” crisis (one in six Americans don’t know where their next meal will be coming from, according to Feeding America).
Like the overall campaign, the Food Chain Reaction employs the concept of a circle to convey that “one conscious choice leads to another,” ultimately changing lives for the better, says Lorenz.
To drive awareness and participation in the donation program, Panera sent an advance email message on February 14 (the campaign launches formally on February 18) to the 9 million of its total 13 million My Panera loyalty program participants who have opted in to receive communications from the brand.
Beyond that, while a few of its paid digital ads will mention the Food Chain Reaction program, Panera will rely mainly on its social messaging (and a video about the program) and sharing about the program among its more than 1.5 million highly engaged Facebook fans, more than 88,000 Twitter followers, more than 6,000 Pinterest followers and other social word-of-mouth,The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. according to Lorenz.
While several businesses are making great fuss of the hardships in the present economic crisis, Lien led Vinamilk to enter the list of largest businesses in the Asia-Pacific region with turnover of US$1 billion.
Lien says that she had anticipated the crisis and prepared measures to cope with bad times. Businesses must build a long term plan to take new initiatives in any circumstance. Every year the plan should be revised and reviewed to adapt to prevailing market conditions.
In 2012,We are designing Mold Maker and specialty tooling has been the backbone of our business since our inception. she made an impressive decision to import material for the entire year. In order to choose the time to do that,Sol provides the world with high-performance solar roadway and solar street light solutions. the company’s leader needed good forecast ability, experience of the market and production and trade strategies. This indispensable factor is called resolution.
That was only one of several decisions of nerves that she made in her leadership position over the last tens of years. For instance, she invited a boss of a multinational group to undertake marketing for Vinamilk because their own marketing activities were weak at that time.
To reach the current position, Vinamilk has faced strong competition from foreign milk which has been preferred over domestic products. As a result, Lien never accepts producing items that other companies have yielded much success in, but encourages new products.
She said that all products born at the company have raked in good profits. The company introduced yoghurt and ice cream for the first time in 1993, when people lined up to purchase them. They reclaimed their investment within three months.
Vinamilk inaugurated Dielac-- the first powder milk plant in Vietnam in 1987. In the beginning, their staff had to travel everywhere but still failed to sell their product because consumers just believed in foreign milk.
At present, powder milk of the company occupies 30 percent of the domestic market share and now Lien is targeting 50 percent.
Vinamilk is currently exporting its products to 23 countries in the world with turnover from Dielac powder milk alone reaching millions of US dollars a year.
The overall “Live Consciously” campaign, from Cramer-Krasselt, Chicago, eschews restaurants’ typical focus on product offerings, instead aiming to articulate Panera’s “purpose-driven” brand philosophy -- including how it does business, the kinds of cultural values it wants to reflect, and the impact it wants to have on society.
The campaign -- which includes advertising on national cable and local television, radio, national print, outdoor and digital video and display ads as well as social -- is budgeted for approximately $70 million, about 30% higher than last year’s advertising spending, and the largest annual advertising investment in the company’s history.
Its tagline -- “Live consciously. Eat deliciously.” -- ties the original mission defined by the company’s founder and current chairman and co-CEO, Ron Shaich, of “adding value to people’s lives” to the idea of “eating deliciously,” sums up Lisa Lorenz, director, brand marketing-creative content for Panera.
“Instead of talking about what we do, the campaign talks about the how and why behind our practices,” Lorenz tells Marketing Daily.
In addition to its commitment to fresh, local ingredients sourcing (and antibiotic-free chicken), the chain has long engaged in community-support practices, including donating its unsold baked goods every evening to local food banks. Through the Panera Bread Foundation,We offer a wide variety of high-quality standard ultrasonic sensor and controllers. it’s also established Panera Cares Cafes – locations where people can order from the usual Panera menu and pay whatever they can afford (or nothing at all). The fifth café, in Boston, was opened in January. The others are in St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago and Portland,We offer advanced technology products and services for parking guidance control. Ore.
The campaign’s “Food Chain Reaction” social element builds on a partnership Panera began late last year with Feeding America, to enable Panera to donate food to Feeding America that is distributed by FA to food banks as needed within its national network, reports Lorenz.
The social initiative’s premise: Panera’s socially conscious customers are being encouraged to join with others to create online circles of five friends on a Food Chain Reaction platform in Panera’s Facebook page. For every circle of five friends formed, Panera will work with its Foundation to provide a bowl of its Low-Fat Vegetarian Black Bean soup to a person in need through its alliance with Feeding America.
The goal is to donate 500,000 bowls of soup by April 11 -- while also increasing awareness of America’s “food insecurity” crisis (one in six Americans don’t know where their next meal will be coming from, according to Feeding America).
Like the overall campaign, the Food Chain Reaction employs the concept of a circle to convey that “one conscious choice leads to another,” ultimately changing lives for the better, says Lorenz.
To drive awareness and participation in the donation program, Panera sent an advance email message on February 14 (the campaign launches formally on February 18) to the 9 million of its total 13 million My Panera loyalty program participants who have opted in to receive communications from the brand.
Beyond that, while a few of its paid digital ads will mention the Food Chain Reaction program, Panera will rely mainly on its social messaging (and a video about the program) and sharing about the program among its more than 1.5 million highly engaged Facebook fans, more than 88,000 Twitter followers, more than 6,000 Pinterest followers and other social word-of-mouth,The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. according to Lorenz.
While several businesses are making great fuss of the hardships in the present economic crisis, Lien led Vinamilk to enter the list of largest businesses in the Asia-Pacific region with turnover of US$1 billion.
Lien says that she had anticipated the crisis and prepared measures to cope with bad times. Businesses must build a long term plan to take new initiatives in any circumstance. Every year the plan should be revised and reviewed to adapt to prevailing market conditions.
In 2012,We are designing Mold Maker and specialty tooling has been the backbone of our business since our inception. she made an impressive decision to import material for the entire year. In order to choose the time to do that,Sol provides the world with high-performance solar roadway and solar street light solutions. the company’s leader needed good forecast ability, experience of the market and production and trade strategies. This indispensable factor is called resolution.
That was only one of several decisions of nerves that she made in her leadership position over the last tens of years. For instance, she invited a boss of a multinational group to undertake marketing for Vinamilk because their own marketing activities were weak at that time.
To reach the current position, Vinamilk has faced strong competition from foreign milk which has been preferred over domestic products. As a result, Lien never accepts producing items that other companies have yielded much success in, but encourages new products.
She said that all products born at the company have raked in good profits. The company introduced yoghurt and ice cream for the first time in 1993, when people lined up to purchase them. They reclaimed their investment within three months.
Vinamilk inaugurated Dielac-- the first powder milk plant in Vietnam in 1987. In the beginning, their staff had to travel everywhere but still failed to sell their product because consumers just believed in foreign milk.
At present, powder milk of the company occupies 30 percent of the domestic market share and now Lien is targeting 50 percent.
Vinamilk is currently exporting its products to 23 countries in the world with turnover from Dielac powder milk alone reaching millions of US dollars a year.
2013年2月17日 星期日
Stanford, UC Berkeley engineering a new frontier
Most people look at the cedar in Drew Endy's front yard and admire
its graceful green boughs, heavy with needles, sap and cones.
Endy sees something much different: an industrial manufacturing platform, waiting to be exploited.
"I dream we could someday reprogram trees that could self-assemble a computer chip in your front yard," exudes the brilliant and intense Stanford University scientist, who has emerged as a leading evangelist in the new field of synthetic biology.
One gene at a time, Endy and other elite teams of Bay Area scientists are striving to design and build organisms unlike anything made by Mother Nature.
It's not yet possible to create artificial life from scratch. But it's getting closer, through projects that essentially swap out a cell's original operating system for a lab-designed one. These made-to-order creations then can be put to work.
The Human Genome Project gave us the ability to read nature's instruction manual -- DNA -- like words in a book. But the real opportunities, scientists say, lie in our ability to not only read genetic code, but to write it, then build it using off-the-shelf chemical ingredients, strung together like holiday lights. It is the creation of new genomes -- and a new frontier in bioengineering.
Synthetic biology works because biological creatures are, in essence, programmable manufacturing systems. The DNA instruction manual buried inside every cell -- its software,Which Air purifier is right for you? in a sense -- can be replaced with a man-made version, giving us the ability to tell it what to make.
This presages the distant day when Endy's big Menlo Park cedar churns out computer chips, not cones. Or makes cancer-fighting drugs. Or fuels. Or building materials. Or anything else.
There are concerns about safety and ethics. In the wrong hands, lone villains or rogue regimes could unleash dangerous life forms. A review in 2010 by a White House commission concluded the field needs monitoring, but the risks are still limited.
Synthetic biology is different from genetic engineering,Professionals with the job title Mold Maker are on LinkedIn. which simply inserts a gene from one organism into another.
"Syn biologists" are engineers who construct whole new genomes -- using made-to-order parts from foundries, or "fabs," much as industry orders up cast and machined metal parts.
They might use naturally existing genes, but they apply them for a new purpose. They might redesign them. Or they might design genes from scratch, like Legos.
Frustrated by the lengthy, ad hoc and trial-and-error progress of current "bio-manufacturing" techniques, the National Science Foundation and the Pentagon are funding foundries to produce the stuff of life.
A $1.4 million National Science Foundation grant established the Emeryville-based BIOFAB lab, led by UC Berkeley and Stanford engineers. It is expected to produce thousands of free standardized DNA parts -- and the publicly available codes needed to assemble them.
The Pentagon's science wing,How cheaply can I build a solar power systems? the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has awarded a coveted $3.If we don't carry the bobblehead you want we can make a personalized bobbleheads for you!2 million grant to Stanford and $8 million to Emeryville-based company Amyris, co-founded by UC Berkeley's Jay Keasling.
The DARPA program, known as Living Foundries, "is focused on developing currently unattainable technologies and products ... including fluoropolymers, antifungal agents, enzymes, lubricants and coatings, as well as biosensors," DARPA program director Alicia Jackson wrote in an email.
The commercial market has jumped in, as well, selling genes or stitched-together gene sequences. The components can be ordered from companies such as Agilent in Santa Clara or DNA2.0 in Menlo Park. All they need is a credit card.Bay State Cable Ties is a full line manufacturer of nylon cable ties and related products.
It's not easy to jump-start life. Almost any scientist can type out gene sequences on a computer, order the genes and then assemble them.
But getting them to communicate to do what you want them to do? That's far tougher.
Keasling has succeeded, making the first bona fide product using synthetic biology: a lifesaving anti-malarial medicine, artemisinin.
His team dismantled three organisms, extracted the genes they wanted, and then custom-built a new genome. But this wasn't just any genome: It held the instructions needed to produce chemicals for artemisinin.
Endy sees something much different: an industrial manufacturing platform, waiting to be exploited.
"I dream we could someday reprogram trees that could self-assemble a computer chip in your front yard," exudes the brilliant and intense Stanford University scientist, who has emerged as a leading evangelist in the new field of synthetic biology.
One gene at a time, Endy and other elite teams of Bay Area scientists are striving to design and build organisms unlike anything made by Mother Nature.
It's not yet possible to create artificial life from scratch. But it's getting closer, through projects that essentially swap out a cell's original operating system for a lab-designed one. These made-to-order creations then can be put to work.
The Human Genome Project gave us the ability to read nature's instruction manual -- DNA -- like words in a book. But the real opportunities, scientists say, lie in our ability to not only read genetic code, but to write it, then build it using off-the-shelf chemical ingredients, strung together like holiday lights. It is the creation of new genomes -- and a new frontier in bioengineering.
Synthetic biology works because biological creatures are, in essence, programmable manufacturing systems. The DNA instruction manual buried inside every cell -- its software,Which Air purifier is right for you? in a sense -- can be replaced with a man-made version, giving us the ability to tell it what to make.
This presages the distant day when Endy's big Menlo Park cedar churns out computer chips, not cones. Or makes cancer-fighting drugs. Or fuels. Or building materials. Or anything else.
There are concerns about safety and ethics. In the wrong hands, lone villains or rogue regimes could unleash dangerous life forms. A review in 2010 by a White House commission concluded the field needs monitoring, but the risks are still limited.
Synthetic biology is different from genetic engineering,Professionals with the job title Mold Maker are on LinkedIn. which simply inserts a gene from one organism into another.
"Syn biologists" are engineers who construct whole new genomes -- using made-to-order parts from foundries, or "fabs," much as industry orders up cast and machined metal parts.
They might use naturally existing genes, but they apply them for a new purpose. They might redesign them. Or they might design genes from scratch, like Legos.
Frustrated by the lengthy, ad hoc and trial-and-error progress of current "bio-manufacturing" techniques, the National Science Foundation and the Pentagon are funding foundries to produce the stuff of life.
A $1.4 million National Science Foundation grant established the Emeryville-based BIOFAB lab, led by UC Berkeley and Stanford engineers. It is expected to produce thousands of free standardized DNA parts -- and the publicly available codes needed to assemble them.
The Pentagon's science wing,How cheaply can I build a solar power systems? the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has awarded a coveted $3.If we don't carry the bobblehead you want we can make a personalized bobbleheads for you!2 million grant to Stanford and $8 million to Emeryville-based company Amyris, co-founded by UC Berkeley's Jay Keasling.
The DARPA program, known as Living Foundries, "is focused on developing currently unattainable technologies and products ... including fluoropolymers, antifungal agents, enzymes, lubricants and coatings, as well as biosensors," DARPA program director Alicia Jackson wrote in an email.
The commercial market has jumped in, as well, selling genes or stitched-together gene sequences. The components can be ordered from companies such as Agilent in Santa Clara or DNA2.0 in Menlo Park. All they need is a credit card.Bay State Cable Ties is a full line manufacturer of nylon cable ties and related products.
It's not easy to jump-start life. Almost any scientist can type out gene sequences on a computer, order the genes and then assemble them.
But getting them to communicate to do what you want them to do? That's far tougher.
Keasling has succeeded, making the first bona fide product using synthetic biology: a lifesaving anti-malarial medicine, artemisinin.
His team dismantled three organisms, extracted the genes they wanted, and then custom-built a new genome. But this wasn't just any genome: It held the instructions needed to produce chemicals for artemisinin.
Pavilion at North Grounds expands student housing landscape
Although established local companies lead the student-oriented
housing market, the management of a new large residential project is
confident there's substantial untapped growth potential.
Nearly half of the units at The Pavilion at North Grounds, a residential complex that's geared toward students and young professionals, have been leased ahead of the building's anticipated opening in August.
Located on Arlington Boulevard next to Barracks Road Shopping Center, the project's statistics are impressive — the building's 230 units, which include one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, are designed to house up to 428 people.
Each apartment will have granite countertops, wood floors, designer lighting, stainless steel appliances and balconies. The building's residents will share a fitness center, pool, business center, game room, courtyard and covered parking garage.
“I don’t think you’ll see any more projects like this, but I do think Barracks Road needed it," said Frances Thompson, who will serve as the property manager and oversee a full-time staff of 10. "I think there’s young professionals and faculty and staff that they need something like this where they can walk to North Grounds and dine and shop without having to get in their car.”
The Pavilion at North Grounds is a project of Peak Campus Management, an Atlanta-based student housing realty company that manages 23,000 beds around the country.If we don't carry the bobblehead you want we can make a personalized bobbleheads for you! Construction began on the project last April, and the overall cost is about $19.1 million, according to a building permit on file with the city.
Thompson described the building's styling as "modern with a touch of Jeffersonian" and said the prices are comparable to other locations around the area that offer similar amenities. Two-bedroom units start at $815 and that rate includes water, sewer, trash, TV and Internet service.
“I’ve been in student housing for eight years and I’ve worked in close to 50 markets,” Thompson said. “My opinion of Charlottesville is that it’s driven by your local mom and pop owners in terms of student housing. Those are the folks that in my opinion are still kind of driving the majority of it, especially around the Corner area.”
Chris Engel,Bay State Cable Ties is a full line manufacturer of nylon cable ties and related products. Charlottesville's economic development director, said the economic boost for the University of Virginia's North Grounds area,Which Air purifier is right for you? which is home to UVa's law and graduate business schools and the John Paul Jones Arena, will be substantial.
"The addition of several hundred residents at this location should provide a noticeable boost for the retailers and service providers along the Emmet and Millmont corridors," Engel said by email. "Over time, the composition of the retailers may change to better serve the student and young professional market.
Another student-oriented project is also in the works. In October, local developer River Bend Management and a Georgia-based company submitted plans for a mixed-use residential complex that would occupy an entire block of West Main Street near the Amtrak station.
Barracks Road Shopping Center, one of the area's oldest and largest developments, is preparing to add retail space, and the addition of hundreds of residents nearby will help the center retain its leading spot in the Charlottesville-area market, said Sarah North, a spokeswoman for the center's owner, Maryland-based Federal Realty.
"We do not have vehicular or pedestrian traffic counters, but with easy access to student-friendly conveniences such as two 24-hour ... grocery stores, Bed Bath & Beyond, FedEx Kinkos, Greenberry’s Coffee & Tea, Barnes & Noble and [computer retailer] PeachMac, which plans to open this spring, as well as trendy shopping options like Bevello, Anthropologie, Banana Republic and Scarpa, Barracks Road Shopping Center is the primary shopping destination for students."
“Those people, along with their guests,Professionals with the job title Mold Maker are on LinkedIn. will be frequenting Barracks Road, so I think we’ll be really good business for them,” Thompson said.
As the housing market continues to emerge from the recession, Thompson, who has worked in Raleigh, N.C.; Austin, Texas; San Marcos, Calif.; and Tallahassee and Gainesville, Fla., said size, distance and convenience are emerging as factors that are just as important as price and style to renters when they make a decision on housing.
Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes attributed the steady decline in complaints to “staff inspections and proactive management interventions based in statistical analysis.”
“It’s much better to take corrective actions aimed at prevention than to just react to misconduct,” Fuentes said in a statement.
According to the report, 29 troopers in 2011 were disciplined for severe misconduct. The next highest total was 16, in 2003.How cheaply can I build a solar power systems? Reports prior to 2003 do not distinguish between discipline for severe misconduct and lesser infractions.
A spokesman for the State Police, Lt. Stephen Jones, said the 29 cases just happened to come up for a hearing that year and there was no particular significance to the spike.
The report shows one trooper was suspended 60 days for storing and sending pornography on a state cell phone, failing to protect his weapon and improper use of a patrol car. Another was suspended about a year for being pulled over 10 times in 13 months, including three times for drunken driving.
Other troopers were punished for excessive force, lying in investigation reports, failing to document crashes, threatening other troopers, using pepper spray on another trooper, fleeing an accident scene, improper investigations, drunken driving and drug use.
Six troopers quit as part of their punishments, the report said. Another 10 troopers were disciplined for less severe infractions, punishable by up to 30 days suspension, and 44 troopers were issued written reprimands, punishable by up to five days suspension, the report said. Seven troopers were criminally charged.
Nearly half of the units at The Pavilion at North Grounds, a residential complex that's geared toward students and young professionals, have been leased ahead of the building's anticipated opening in August.
Located on Arlington Boulevard next to Barracks Road Shopping Center, the project's statistics are impressive — the building's 230 units, which include one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, are designed to house up to 428 people.
Each apartment will have granite countertops, wood floors, designer lighting, stainless steel appliances and balconies. The building's residents will share a fitness center, pool, business center, game room, courtyard and covered parking garage.
“I don’t think you’ll see any more projects like this, but I do think Barracks Road needed it," said Frances Thompson, who will serve as the property manager and oversee a full-time staff of 10. "I think there’s young professionals and faculty and staff that they need something like this where they can walk to North Grounds and dine and shop without having to get in their car.”
The Pavilion at North Grounds is a project of Peak Campus Management, an Atlanta-based student housing realty company that manages 23,000 beds around the country.If we don't carry the bobblehead you want we can make a personalized bobbleheads for you! Construction began on the project last April, and the overall cost is about $19.1 million, according to a building permit on file with the city.
Thompson described the building's styling as "modern with a touch of Jeffersonian" and said the prices are comparable to other locations around the area that offer similar amenities. Two-bedroom units start at $815 and that rate includes water, sewer, trash, TV and Internet service.
“I’ve been in student housing for eight years and I’ve worked in close to 50 markets,” Thompson said. “My opinion of Charlottesville is that it’s driven by your local mom and pop owners in terms of student housing. Those are the folks that in my opinion are still kind of driving the majority of it, especially around the Corner area.”
Chris Engel,Bay State Cable Ties is a full line manufacturer of nylon cable ties and related products. Charlottesville's economic development director, said the economic boost for the University of Virginia's North Grounds area,Which Air purifier is right for you? which is home to UVa's law and graduate business schools and the John Paul Jones Arena, will be substantial.
"The addition of several hundred residents at this location should provide a noticeable boost for the retailers and service providers along the Emmet and Millmont corridors," Engel said by email. "Over time, the composition of the retailers may change to better serve the student and young professional market.
Another student-oriented project is also in the works. In October, local developer River Bend Management and a Georgia-based company submitted plans for a mixed-use residential complex that would occupy an entire block of West Main Street near the Amtrak station.
Barracks Road Shopping Center, one of the area's oldest and largest developments, is preparing to add retail space, and the addition of hundreds of residents nearby will help the center retain its leading spot in the Charlottesville-area market, said Sarah North, a spokeswoman for the center's owner, Maryland-based Federal Realty.
"We do not have vehicular or pedestrian traffic counters, but with easy access to student-friendly conveniences such as two 24-hour ... grocery stores, Bed Bath & Beyond, FedEx Kinkos, Greenberry’s Coffee & Tea, Barnes & Noble and [computer retailer] PeachMac, which plans to open this spring, as well as trendy shopping options like Bevello, Anthropologie, Banana Republic and Scarpa, Barracks Road Shopping Center is the primary shopping destination for students."
“Those people, along with their guests,Professionals with the job title Mold Maker are on LinkedIn. will be frequenting Barracks Road, so I think we’ll be really good business for them,” Thompson said.
As the housing market continues to emerge from the recession, Thompson, who has worked in Raleigh, N.C.; Austin, Texas; San Marcos, Calif.; and Tallahassee and Gainesville, Fla., said size, distance and convenience are emerging as factors that are just as important as price and style to renters when they make a decision on housing.
Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes attributed the steady decline in complaints to “staff inspections and proactive management interventions based in statistical analysis.”
“It’s much better to take corrective actions aimed at prevention than to just react to misconduct,” Fuentes said in a statement.
According to the report, 29 troopers in 2011 were disciplined for severe misconduct. The next highest total was 16, in 2003.How cheaply can I build a solar power systems? Reports prior to 2003 do not distinguish between discipline for severe misconduct and lesser infractions.
A spokesman for the State Police, Lt. Stephen Jones, said the 29 cases just happened to come up for a hearing that year and there was no particular significance to the spike.
The report shows one trooper was suspended 60 days for storing and sending pornography on a state cell phone, failing to protect his weapon and improper use of a patrol car. Another was suspended about a year for being pulled over 10 times in 13 months, including three times for drunken driving.
Other troopers were punished for excessive force, lying in investigation reports, failing to document crashes, threatening other troopers, using pepper spray on another trooper, fleeing an accident scene, improper investigations, drunken driving and drug use.
Six troopers quit as part of their punishments, the report said. Another 10 troopers were disciplined for less severe infractions, punishable by up to 30 days suspension, and 44 troopers were issued written reprimands, punishable by up to five days suspension, the report said. Seven troopers were criminally charged.
Ontario focuses on below-average students
Children who fail to achieve the provincial standard in testing have
the Ontario government's full attention, newly sworn-in Education
Minister Liz Sandals says.
A Fraser Institute Report Card on Ontario's Elementary Schools, as reported by QMI Agency, concluded that about 28% of the province's schools need more attention as they return results below provincial standards.A ridiculously low price on this All-Purpose solar lantern by Gordon.
Sandals said in a statement that the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) tests are not meant to be used to rank schools, but rather as a tool for examining individual, board and provincial data.
"In Ontario, 70% of students are now achieving the provincial standard in Grades 3 and 6 combined, up sixteen percentage points compared to 2002-03," Sandals said. "The Ministry of Education continues to work in partnership with all school boards to raise achievement results overall and close gaps for groups of students who are not achieving the provincial standard."
Student Achievement Officers (SAOs) work in regional teams across the province to improve outcomes, and the education ministry facilitates "extensive professional learning" to help teachers bring new knowledge and skills to their classroom instruction, Sandals said.
"We're very proud of the work students, teachers and administrators have done to improve student achievement," Sandals said.
Opposition education critics at Queen's Park point to cracks in the system, Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod, who recently released an education white paper which recommended that standardized testing be expanded to include science and technology, said the EQAO tests expose stagnate results.
"What we found, and referenced this in our white paper, is about 25% of our students are just not making the grade," MacLeod said. "And that has been consistent over the past couple of years. So it does highlight an issue."
Preparing Students for the Challenges of the 21st Century, which is a discussion paper and not a campaign platform, states the education system needs to focus more on literacy,Totech Americas delivers a wide range of drycabinets for applications spanning electronics. numeracy and science.
The Tories say they would identify schools where students fail to meet the provincewide test standard -- a "B" grade -- and invest in those schools to improve performance.
MacLeod said EQAO testing remains an important part of assessing the education system and its pupils, and she's concerned that it could become a bargaining chip in the current battle between teacher unions and the Ontario government over Bill 115 and imposed contracts.
It might be tempting for new Premier Kathleen Wynne, who is trying to bring extracurriculars back to elementary and secondary schools, to eliminate EQAO testing as a "carrot" to appease teachers, although there has been no suggestion publicly that that's the government's plan.
"It is well known that the unions, the teacher unions of Ontario, do not support EQAO. They think that the best way to save money in the education system and redirect (savings to) salary and benefits is by closing it off and not having any standards whatsoever," MacLeod said.If we don't carry the bobblehead you want we can make a personalized bobbleheads for you! "We in the Ontario PC Party are completely on the other side of that."
NDP MPP Peter Tabuns said standardized testing is not "a bad idea" but he believes that random testing, as is done in France and Ireland, is a more cost-effective option with equally reliable results.
In Ontario, the goal is to test all students although there are exemptions for those whose special accommodation needs cannot be met.
"We may be spending too much on testing and we could use that money in the classroom," Tabuns said. "The other concern is if teachers (are) spending all their time trying to make sure that kids pass these standardized tests, it reduces the time they have to engage with students and actually develop them as individuals."
For schools that perform poorly, Tabuns said a common dominator is often unemployment and poverty in the communities served.Ein innovativer und moderner Werkzeugbau Formenbau.
Children who live in households where parents are struggling to make ends meet can suffer from that anxiety and stress.
Making sure that adults have well-paying jobs and other supports would be reflected in their children's test scores, Tabuns predicted.
Tabuns said he is worried that the war over the Ontario Liberals' Bill 115, which teachers fought as an attack on their collective bargaining rights, could make it harder to improve overall student performance in the years ahead.
"Starting a conflict in the schools is not going to help students," Tabuns said,Source crystal mosaic Products at Mosaics. blaming the Ontario Liberals for the battle. "And if you demoralize a workforce you are not going to have as good an outcome. It's as simple as that."
A Fraser Institute Report Card on Ontario's Elementary Schools, as reported by QMI Agency, concluded that about 28% of the province's schools need more attention as they return results below provincial standards.A ridiculously low price on this All-Purpose solar lantern by Gordon.
Sandals said in a statement that the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) tests are not meant to be used to rank schools, but rather as a tool for examining individual, board and provincial data.
"In Ontario, 70% of students are now achieving the provincial standard in Grades 3 and 6 combined, up sixteen percentage points compared to 2002-03," Sandals said. "The Ministry of Education continues to work in partnership with all school boards to raise achievement results overall and close gaps for groups of students who are not achieving the provincial standard."
Student Achievement Officers (SAOs) work in regional teams across the province to improve outcomes, and the education ministry facilitates "extensive professional learning" to help teachers bring new knowledge and skills to their classroom instruction, Sandals said.
"We're very proud of the work students, teachers and administrators have done to improve student achievement," Sandals said.
Opposition education critics at Queen's Park point to cracks in the system, Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod, who recently released an education white paper which recommended that standardized testing be expanded to include science and technology, said the EQAO tests expose stagnate results.
"What we found, and referenced this in our white paper, is about 25% of our students are just not making the grade," MacLeod said. "And that has been consistent over the past couple of years. So it does highlight an issue."
Preparing Students for the Challenges of the 21st Century, which is a discussion paper and not a campaign platform, states the education system needs to focus more on literacy,Totech Americas delivers a wide range of drycabinets for applications spanning electronics. numeracy and science.
The Tories say they would identify schools where students fail to meet the provincewide test standard -- a "B" grade -- and invest in those schools to improve performance.
MacLeod said EQAO testing remains an important part of assessing the education system and its pupils, and she's concerned that it could become a bargaining chip in the current battle between teacher unions and the Ontario government over Bill 115 and imposed contracts.
It might be tempting for new Premier Kathleen Wynne, who is trying to bring extracurriculars back to elementary and secondary schools, to eliminate EQAO testing as a "carrot" to appease teachers, although there has been no suggestion publicly that that's the government's plan.
"It is well known that the unions, the teacher unions of Ontario, do not support EQAO. They think that the best way to save money in the education system and redirect (savings to) salary and benefits is by closing it off and not having any standards whatsoever," MacLeod said.If we don't carry the bobblehead you want we can make a personalized bobbleheads for you! "We in the Ontario PC Party are completely on the other side of that."
NDP MPP Peter Tabuns said standardized testing is not "a bad idea" but he believes that random testing, as is done in France and Ireland, is a more cost-effective option with equally reliable results.
In Ontario, the goal is to test all students although there are exemptions for those whose special accommodation needs cannot be met.
"We may be spending too much on testing and we could use that money in the classroom," Tabuns said. "The other concern is if teachers (are) spending all their time trying to make sure that kids pass these standardized tests, it reduces the time they have to engage with students and actually develop them as individuals."
For schools that perform poorly, Tabuns said a common dominator is often unemployment and poverty in the communities served.Ein innovativer und moderner Werkzeugbau Formenbau.
Children who live in households where parents are struggling to make ends meet can suffer from that anxiety and stress.
Making sure that adults have well-paying jobs and other supports would be reflected in their children's test scores, Tabuns predicted.
Tabuns said he is worried that the war over the Ontario Liberals' Bill 115, which teachers fought as an attack on their collective bargaining rights, could make it harder to improve overall student performance in the years ahead.
"Starting a conflict in the schools is not going to help students," Tabuns said,Source crystal mosaic Products at Mosaics. blaming the Ontario Liberals for the battle. "And if you demoralize a workforce you are not going to have as good an outcome. It's as simple as that."
It’s time that Europe and the US took note
It’s been a long time coming. So far Russia has been a Cinderella
market for both ecommerce and the Internet economy more generally,
lagging far behind the US and playing catch-up with Europe. But plenty
of evidence suggests that this is changing – and changing quickly.
According to research by Morgan Stanley, the Russian ecommerce sector stood at around $12bn in 2012 – just 1.9% of total retail sales; by comparison, the global average is currently about 6.5%. But with ecommerce projected to grow by 35%, to 4.5% of Russian retail sales by 2015, and to 7% by 2020 – making the market worth $72bn – a tipping point is fast approaching.
As CEO of Ozon, Russia’s ecommerce market leader, I have witnessed this slow-motion revolution of the country’s retail landscape first-hand. It hasn’t been easy; a number of ‘legacy’ issues have hobbled the sector.Ein innovativer und moderner Werkzeugbau Formenbau. The foremost of these was Internet adoption. The connected population had to reach a critical mass to sustain a real and addressable ecommerce market.
In 2003, fewer than 10% of the Russian population were online; today, almost 50% are. That’s about 68 million people. Last year, Russia overtook Germany, France and the UK to become the leading online marketplace in Europe (by number of users). The significance of this cannot be over-stated and it’s proving a game-changer.
The second thing was the lack of competition in the sector. Only now are we are starting to see genuine players emerge in this market – and by that I mean companies with the level of investment required to build experienced teams and, thus, viable, growing businesses. In terms of investment, only recently has Russian ecommerce begun to attract the mega roubles.
The market first opened up to international investors after the IPOs of Yandex, the Moscow-based search company, and the free email service Mail.ru, both of which helped dramatically boost the profile of the Russian Internet market. I think Ozon was extremely lucky to attract international investors before that; we were very much the exception that proved the rule. But since those companies have gone public,Source crystal mosaic Products at Mosaics. a range of Russian ecommerce businesses have attracted Western venture capital and private equity.
Then there’s the matter of Russia’s infamously creaking business infrastructure. Bit by bit, from banking to logistics, things are improving. While it’s worth celebrating the fact that nearly 50% of the population is online, until recently broadband rollout wasn’t of sufficient quality to underpin the sector. Other factors,A ridiculously low price on this All-Purpose solar lantern by Gordon. too, are reshaping the ecommerce business, here. Russia’s burgeoning middle class is one. Today we see the first generation of youngish (the average age is 44) city-based time-poor Russians with disposable incomes for whom browsing and shopping online makes sense. Talent is another; ecommerce has gradually become recognised as a respectable profession for Russians and is starting to attract high quality graduates.
The nation has a pool of smart, well-educated IT people, which is creating a workforce of talented coders, user experience (UX) and Web designers at a scale and speed that many European countries would envy. As the number of Internet companies in Russia’s leading cities grows, so there are increasing numbers of jobs, creating a virtuous circle in which young software programmers might choose to stay in the country now, rather than go to the US or Europe instead. Indeed, we are at the stage today, where a young Russian computer engineer might turn down an offer, say, from eBay in San Francisco for a job with Yandex in Moscow.
But for all the exhilarating momentum, there remain significant bumps in the road ahead. That’s almost literally true in the case of distribution. Ozon has been described as the “Amazon of Russia”, which mean our distribution networks necessarily stretch right across all nine time zones of this vast, sprawling country. Yet while the population density is relatively high on the Western side, the further away you go from Moscow, the quicker it thins out, meaning that we end up delivering goods to far-flung cities with small populations. This doesn’t make commercial sense: when the order value of goods is $50-$100, a delivery price of $30-$50 just won’t wash.Totech Americas delivers a wide range of drycabinets for applications spanning electronics.
There is, of course, a national postal service in Russia and given the scale of its territory and the complexity of the infrastructure it serves, it’s actually doing a creditable job. However, it has yet to adapt to the burgeoning demands of ecommerce. While they are a key partner for us (they ship around 10% of our orders), we cannot rely upon them exclusively as our business expands. That’s why we chose to develop and run our own distribution system – which also delivers for third parties. But as interest in ecommerce surges, we need other distributors to enter the fray to create competition. This will happen, I’m sure – but it will take time.
Another major obstacle is payments. There remains widespread distrust of online payments in Russia and although there are predictions that credit card usage is set to take off, card penetration is relatively low. Moreover many of the cards used by Russians cannot be used online. Even those that can oblige users to go through off-putting and complex security processes implemented by banks.
Instead, Russia remains overwhelmingly a cash economy – a glaring anomaly in the Internet age,If we don't carry the bobblehead you want we can make a personalized bobbleheads for you! which is why 80% of Ozon’s sales are cash on delivery. Overcoming this cash-centric mindset, while simultaneously developing the online payments ecosystem presents unique challenges to ecommerce companies. We have to find the right means with which to nudge or incentivize customers to swap cash for cards (or online payments) by, for example, offering sizeable discounts.
According to research by Morgan Stanley, the Russian ecommerce sector stood at around $12bn in 2012 – just 1.9% of total retail sales; by comparison, the global average is currently about 6.5%. But with ecommerce projected to grow by 35%, to 4.5% of Russian retail sales by 2015, and to 7% by 2020 – making the market worth $72bn – a tipping point is fast approaching.
As CEO of Ozon, Russia’s ecommerce market leader, I have witnessed this slow-motion revolution of the country’s retail landscape first-hand. It hasn’t been easy; a number of ‘legacy’ issues have hobbled the sector.Ein innovativer und moderner Werkzeugbau Formenbau. The foremost of these was Internet adoption. The connected population had to reach a critical mass to sustain a real and addressable ecommerce market.
In 2003, fewer than 10% of the Russian population were online; today, almost 50% are. That’s about 68 million people. Last year, Russia overtook Germany, France and the UK to become the leading online marketplace in Europe (by number of users). The significance of this cannot be over-stated and it’s proving a game-changer.
The second thing was the lack of competition in the sector. Only now are we are starting to see genuine players emerge in this market – and by that I mean companies with the level of investment required to build experienced teams and, thus, viable, growing businesses. In terms of investment, only recently has Russian ecommerce begun to attract the mega roubles.
The market first opened up to international investors after the IPOs of Yandex, the Moscow-based search company, and the free email service Mail.ru, both of which helped dramatically boost the profile of the Russian Internet market. I think Ozon was extremely lucky to attract international investors before that; we were very much the exception that proved the rule. But since those companies have gone public,Source crystal mosaic Products at Mosaics. a range of Russian ecommerce businesses have attracted Western venture capital and private equity.
Then there’s the matter of Russia’s infamously creaking business infrastructure. Bit by bit, from banking to logistics, things are improving. While it’s worth celebrating the fact that nearly 50% of the population is online, until recently broadband rollout wasn’t of sufficient quality to underpin the sector. Other factors,A ridiculously low price on this All-Purpose solar lantern by Gordon. too, are reshaping the ecommerce business, here. Russia’s burgeoning middle class is one. Today we see the first generation of youngish (the average age is 44) city-based time-poor Russians with disposable incomes for whom browsing and shopping online makes sense. Talent is another; ecommerce has gradually become recognised as a respectable profession for Russians and is starting to attract high quality graduates.
The nation has a pool of smart, well-educated IT people, which is creating a workforce of talented coders, user experience (UX) and Web designers at a scale and speed that many European countries would envy. As the number of Internet companies in Russia’s leading cities grows, so there are increasing numbers of jobs, creating a virtuous circle in which young software programmers might choose to stay in the country now, rather than go to the US or Europe instead. Indeed, we are at the stage today, where a young Russian computer engineer might turn down an offer, say, from eBay in San Francisco for a job with Yandex in Moscow.
But for all the exhilarating momentum, there remain significant bumps in the road ahead. That’s almost literally true in the case of distribution. Ozon has been described as the “Amazon of Russia”, which mean our distribution networks necessarily stretch right across all nine time zones of this vast, sprawling country. Yet while the population density is relatively high on the Western side, the further away you go from Moscow, the quicker it thins out, meaning that we end up delivering goods to far-flung cities with small populations. This doesn’t make commercial sense: when the order value of goods is $50-$100, a delivery price of $30-$50 just won’t wash.Totech Americas delivers a wide range of drycabinets for applications spanning electronics.
There is, of course, a national postal service in Russia and given the scale of its territory and the complexity of the infrastructure it serves, it’s actually doing a creditable job. However, it has yet to adapt to the burgeoning demands of ecommerce. While they are a key partner for us (they ship around 10% of our orders), we cannot rely upon them exclusively as our business expands. That’s why we chose to develop and run our own distribution system – which also delivers for third parties. But as interest in ecommerce surges, we need other distributors to enter the fray to create competition. This will happen, I’m sure – but it will take time.
Another major obstacle is payments. There remains widespread distrust of online payments in Russia and although there are predictions that credit card usage is set to take off, card penetration is relatively low. Moreover many of the cards used by Russians cannot be used online. Even those that can oblige users to go through off-putting and complex security processes implemented by banks.
Instead, Russia remains overwhelmingly a cash economy – a glaring anomaly in the Internet age,If we don't carry the bobblehead you want we can make a personalized bobbleheads for you! which is why 80% of Ozon’s sales are cash on delivery. Overcoming this cash-centric mindset, while simultaneously developing the online payments ecosystem presents unique challenges to ecommerce companies. We have to find the right means with which to nudge or incentivize customers to swap cash for cards (or online payments) by, for example, offering sizeable discounts.
Richard Gere on his new film Arbitrage
LATE last year Richard Gere was in Europe, touring film festivals and
picking up lifetime achievement awards in San Sebastián and Zurich.
It’s not as if he doesn’t appreciate the thought; it’s just that he’s a
little worried about the subtext to these decorations.
“It’s a little premature,” he says, wryly. “These are the dinosaur awards; you have to be a certain age and they start giving you this stuff.”
Gere has been walking this earth for 63 years, with no sign of imminent extinction. He’s still your mum’s favourite movie star,Bay State Cable Ties is a full line manufacturer of nylon cable ties and related products. with an impressive shaggy head of silver fox hair that makes your dad grit his teeth. The soft button-brown eyes are now behind steel-rimmed bifocals, but he can still rock jeans and a casual shirt. He laughs when you take in his dress-down Friday threads. “Early on, I used to be on the best-dressed list because of the characters I play. I’d be in a tuxedo movie, but a T-shirt and running pants is basically my world. I live very simply in the country, and that’s who I am.”
He’s a great advert for yoga and vegetarianism,Source crystal mosaic Products at Mosaics. ?although slightly humanised by the fact he also loves a good glass of wine. Not red: that zonks him out, but he says he can tell if a film is expected to do well by the quality of the booze served at the premiere. At home, however, life is not all Montrachet and Yquem.Ein innovativer und moderner Werkzeugbau Formenbau. He has a nice story about the time he tried to ?impress his wife with an expensive chardonnay, only to outrage her when she discovered he’d spent ￡180 on one bottle. “She turned the car around and I had to go back into the shop,” he recalls wryly. “And I had to tell them that my wife wouldn’t let me buy the wine.”
It’s a long time since Gere had to check the price tag on something, but he still remembers the days when he was starting out and struggled to scrape together enough to buy a sandwich. Yet over the past three decades, he has watched contemporaries like Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson rise and fall, while Gere ?remains a movie star in the real, pre-Grazia sense, ?despite never once bothering save the world from ?aliens, or rescue his wife or daughter from Albanians like Harrison Ford or Liam Neeson.
Instead, he’s been attracted to more chilly, complicated guys like the conman of The Hoax, the all-singing, all-dancing shyster lawyer of Chicago and the husband in Unfaithful who loves his wife but also bumps off her lover. “In real life, almost nobody is all good or all bad,” he says. “I’ve never met anyone evil beyond redemption.Totech Americas delivers a wide range of drycabinets for applications spanning electronics. Nobody is one-sided. I’ve even seen the Dalai Lama apologise for yelling at someone. A good script will reflect that people are complicated.”
His latest film, Arbitrage, is in this vein and has earned him some of the best reviews of his life. Gere plays an über-wealthy hedge fund executive who is a mix of wonderboy and weasel, frantically trying to juggle a complicated life that includes a wife, a ?mistress and a ballooning debt that he has tried to conceal with a massive fraud.
Gere had few contacts on Wall Street so he prepared by walking the floors of the New York Stock Exchange, quizzing high fliers about their wives, their families, what they loved, what they worried about, what they’d had for breakfast. Crooked types like Bernie Madoff were an influence but ultimately he drew from politicians who failed to live up to expectations: the charm and flexible ethics of Clinton, the magnetism of a Kennedy.
“Ted Kennedy was one of the most responsible senators we’ve ever had,” he says. “The best people in Washington working on human rights stuff, health stuff and civil rights stuff were trained in his office, came through the stuff he was pushing and working on his entire life. But he made one horrible decision: Chappaquiddick.” Gere is by inclination a Democrat himself, who voted for Obama in the last election and yet, Zen-like, he tries to appreciate a spectrum of personal and political beliefs. During the last electoral campaign he got a chance to quiz a Republican politician about the party resistance to taxation. “We were standing in a billionaire’s house and asked this very powerful Republican, ‘Do you think giving up $10 million in taxes will change his life’. And this Republican said, ‘No, it wouldn’t, but I think his concern was that the money would be squandered.’ I agree with some of that vigilance, even in terms of entitlements.”
Gere’s emphasis on care with money and self-sufficiency seems to come from his 81-year-old father, who grew up poor but managed to put himself through university. Gere was born in 1949 and raised in New York. By then his father, Homer, worked in insurance and his mother, Doris, raised their five children. “I was a shy kid,wind turbine” he says, and his first ambition wasn’t acting but to become an Olympic gymnast.
Watching the London 2012 Olympics, his son marvelled at an athlete’s dexterity on a pommel horse, prompting Gere to fetch a picture of himself twisting through a routine more than 50 years earlier.
At university, he finally abandoned the horizontal bars for a vertical ascent through acting. In 1973, ?he played Danny Zuko in Grease in New York, then London.
By the 1980s he was a movie star, in spite of himself. When he made An Officer and a Gentleman, it was because he needed the money, and he fought against the final sequence where he arrives in full uniform and scoops up Debra Winger from the production line and carries her off. “I knew it was the wrong ending,” he says. But he gave it a go anyway. “And when I saw it on film, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.”
Films like Yanks and American Gigolo confirmed him as a pin-up, and becoming a sex symbol is something he admits he may never understand. His agent was furious when Gere smouldered topless on the cover of Rolling Stone. For 40 years, this was the ?legendary Ed Limato, whose other discoveries ?included Mel Gibson and Michelle Pfeiffer, and apparently he gave Gere hell, telling him he was “a better actor than a hunk”.
The hunkiness aspect to Gere’s career has lasted far longer than either of them estimated, rooted in a time before celebrity image became an obsession. Gere ?admits that as one of the first of the movie mega-stars, he struggled. “I don’t know any actor who goes through this in order to be famous,” he offers. “To make money, and meet girls – that would be the top of the list.” He grins. “Actually it would be girls, above money. I did find the attention very difficult and it took me a while to figure it out.”
Gere has evolved into a bankable global film star, but nowadays that means his presence helps get a movie made – not that he will make serious money. Arbitrage’s modest budget had to be pulled together, piecemeal. “You used to make movies like this and get paid very well,” he says, lightly. “Now you make ?movies like this but you don’t get paid very well.”
The other surprise is that he has never been nominated for an Oscar. He didn’t get a nomination this time either, but he says this only got to him once, for Chicago. “Everyone else got nominated,” he says. And they did: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah, Renée Zellweger and John C Reilly all landed nominations in the run-up to the 2003 Oscars. “It was kind of like not getting picked on the baseball team when you’re a kid.”
This hasn’t affected his film choices, although lately he’s been making fewer films anyway. Arbitrage is his first in four years. “I’m very careful about who I work with. I don’t want to spend six months with someone I don’t respect or like.”
It’s interesting to speculate whether Gere will still be making movies ten years hence. He could graduate to the status of a Christopher Plummer, now a handsome éminence grise, who got more appreciation once there was less distracting talk of key films like the Sound of Music.
Like Plummer, Gere seems to have staying power, although he denies being ambitious. “I don’t know that I ever had huge goals,” he says. “I enjoy working. I like to be challenged by roles, and working with people I respect.” He’s a little pleased that recently ?he turned down quite a good script “with a director of the moment” even though it was chewy and ?interesting.
He doesn’t nurse any secret ambition to conquer the stage either and he rarely makes films outside New York because he prefers staying at his ranch-style home in Bedford, Connecticut. Three years ago he set up a boutique hotel nearby, with yoga classes and meditation spaces, and has been known to play the role of bellboy when they are short-staffed, carrying guests’ luggage to their rooms. He draws the line at running up breakfasts though. “I can boil an egg but that’s about it.”
Gere and Carey Lowell, the former Bond girl of ?Licence to Kill, got together shortly after the break-up of his four-year marriage to supermodel Cindy Crawford in 1995. He has a stepdaughter, Hannah, and a son, Homer, and as he says, they like a simple life.
“It’s a little premature,” he says, wryly. “These are the dinosaur awards; you have to be a certain age and they start giving you this stuff.”
Gere has been walking this earth for 63 years, with no sign of imminent extinction. He’s still your mum’s favourite movie star,Bay State Cable Ties is a full line manufacturer of nylon cable ties and related products. with an impressive shaggy head of silver fox hair that makes your dad grit his teeth. The soft button-brown eyes are now behind steel-rimmed bifocals, but he can still rock jeans and a casual shirt. He laughs when you take in his dress-down Friday threads. “Early on, I used to be on the best-dressed list because of the characters I play. I’d be in a tuxedo movie, but a T-shirt and running pants is basically my world. I live very simply in the country, and that’s who I am.”
He’s a great advert for yoga and vegetarianism,Source crystal mosaic Products at Mosaics. ?although slightly humanised by the fact he also loves a good glass of wine. Not red: that zonks him out, but he says he can tell if a film is expected to do well by the quality of the booze served at the premiere. At home, however, life is not all Montrachet and Yquem.Ein innovativer und moderner Werkzeugbau Formenbau. He has a nice story about the time he tried to ?impress his wife with an expensive chardonnay, only to outrage her when she discovered he’d spent ￡180 on one bottle. “She turned the car around and I had to go back into the shop,” he recalls wryly. “And I had to tell them that my wife wouldn’t let me buy the wine.”
It’s a long time since Gere had to check the price tag on something, but he still remembers the days when he was starting out and struggled to scrape together enough to buy a sandwich. Yet over the past three decades, he has watched contemporaries like Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson rise and fall, while Gere ?remains a movie star in the real, pre-Grazia sense, ?despite never once bothering save the world from ?aliens, or rescue his wife or daughter from Albanians like Harrison Ford or Liam Neeson.
Instead, he’s been attracted to more chilly, complicated guys like the conman of The Hoax, the all-singing, all-dancing shyster lawyer of Chicago and the husband in Unfaithful who loves his wife but also bumps off her lover. “In real life, almost nobody is all good or all bad,” he says. “I’ve never met anyone evil beyond redemption.Totech Americas delivers a wide range of drycabinets for applications spanning electronics. Nobody is one-sided. I’ve even seen the Dalai Lama apologise for yelling at someone. A good script will reflect that people are complicated.”
His latest film, Arbitrage, is in this vein and has earned him some of the best reviews of his life. Gere plays an über-wealthy hedge fund executive who is a mix of wonderboy and weasel, frantically trying to juggle a complicated life that includes a wife, a ?mistress and a ballooning debt that he has tried to conceal with a massive fraud.
Gere had few contacts on Wall Street so he prepared by walking the floors of the New York Stock Exchange, quizzing high fliers about their wives, their families, what they loved, what they worried about, what they’d had for breakfast. Crooked types like Bernie Madoff were an influence but ultimately he drew from politicians who failed to live up to expectations: the charm and flexible ethics of Clinton, the magnetism of a Kennedy.
“Ted Kennedy was one of the most responsible senators we’ve ever had,” he says. “The best people in Washington working on human rights stuff, health stuff and civil rights stuff were trained in his office, came through the stuff he was pushing and working on his entire life. But he made one horrible decision: Chappaquiddick.” Gere is by inclination a Democrat himself, who voted for Obama in the last election and yet, Zen-like, he tries to appreciate a spectrum of personal and political beliefs. During the last electoral campaign he got a chance to quiz a Republican politician about the party resistance to taxation. “We were standing in a billionaire’s house and asked this very powerful Republican, ‘Do you think giving up $10 million in taxes will change his life’. And this Republican said, ‘No, it wouldn’t, but I think his concern was that the money would be squandered.’ I agree with some of that vigilance, even in terms of entitlements.”
Gere’s emphasis on care with money and self-sufficiency seems to come from his 81-year-old father, who grew up poor but managed to put himself through university. Gere was born in 1949 and raised in New York. By then his father, Homer, worked in insurance and his mother, Doris, raised their five children. “I was a shy kid,wind turbine” he says, and his first ambition wasn’t acting but to become an Olympic gymnast.
Watching the London 2012 Olympics, his son marvelled at an athlete’s dexterity on a pommel horse, prompting Gere to fetch a picture of himself twisting through a routine more than 50 years earlier.
At university, he finally abandoned the horizontal bars for a vertical ascent through acting. In 1973, ?he played Danny Zuko in Grease in New York, then London.
By the 1980s he was a movie star, in spite of himself. When he made An Officer and a Gentleman, it was because he needed the money, and he fought against the final sequence where he arrives in full uniform and scoops up Debra Winger from the production line and carries her off. “I knew it was the wrong ending,” he says. But he gave it a go anyway. “And when I saw it on film, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.”
Films like Yanks and American Gigolo confirmed him as a pin-up, and becoming a sex symbol is something he admits he may never understand. His agent was furious when Gere smouldered topless on the cover of Rolling Stone. For 40 years, this was the ?legendary Ed Limato, whose other discoveries ?included Mel Gibson and Michelle Pfeiffer, and apparently he gave Gere hell, telling him he was “a better actor than a hunk”.
The hunkiness aspect to Gere’s career has lasted far longer than either of them estimated, rooted in a time before celebrity image became an obsession. Gere ?admits that as one of the first of the movie mega-stars, he struggled. “I don’t know any actor who goes through this in order to be famous,” he offers. “To make money, and meet girls – that would be the top of the list.” He grins. “Actually it would be girls, above money. I did find the attention very difficult and it took me a while to figure it out.”
Gere has evolved into a bankable global film star, but nowadays that means his presence helps get a movie made – not that he will make serious money. Arbitrage’s modest budget had to be pulled together, piecemeal. “You used to make movies like this and get paid very well,” he says, lightly. “Now you make ?movies like this but you don’t get paid very well.”
The other surprise is that he has never been nominated for an Oscar. He didn’t get a nomination this time either, but he says this only got to him once, for Chicago. “Everyone else got nominated,” he says. And they did: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah, Renée Zellweger and John C Reilly all landed nominations in the run-up to the 2003 Oscars. “It was kind of like not getting picked on the baseball team when you’re a kid.”
This hasn’t affected his film choices, although lately he’s been making fewer films anyway. Arbitrage is his first in four years. “I’m very careful about who I work with. I don’t want to spend six months with someone I don’t respect or like.”
It’s interesting to speculate whether Gere will still be making movies ten years hence. He could graduate to the status of a Christopher Plummer, now a handsome éminence grise, who got more appreciation once there was less distracting talk of key films like the Sound of Music.
Like Plummer, Gere seems to have staying power, although he denies being ambitious. “I don’t know that I ever had huge goals,” he says. “I enjoy working. I like to be challenged by roles, and working with people I respect.” He’s a little pleased that recently ?he turned down quite a good script “with a director of the moment” even though it was chewy and ?interesting.
He doesn’t nurse any secret ambition to conquer the stage either and he rarely makes films outside New York because he prefers staying at his ranch-style home in Bedford, Connecticut. Three years ago he set up a boutique hotel nearby, with yoga classes and meditation spaces, and has been known to play the role of bellboy when they are short-staffed, carrying guests’ luggage to their rooms. He draws the line at running up breakfasts though. “I can boil an egg but that’s about it.”
Gere and Carey Lowell, the former Bond girl of ?Licence to Kill, got together shortly after the break-up of his four-year marriage to supermodel Cindy Crawford in 1995. He has a stepdaughter, Hannah, and a son, Homer, and as he says, they like a simple life.
Libya’s national ID number and e-passport projects
The Libyan government announced on February 8 the issuance of NID
(National Identification) numbers to all Libyan citizens, and the
revelation of the new Libyan e-passport in a presentation by the Deputy
Prime Minister. These projects had been initially launched during the
time of the Gaddafi regime and were mostly operational when the
revolution started in 2011.
What’s puzzling in the announcement is the fact that the current government did not take into account all the flaws that marred these projects, specifically the NID Project, nor did it do a proper analysis or study of them. Most advanced countries do not have an NID system but rather a Social Number that is only relevant to the Tax and Social Services. Contrary to international standards in the field, Libya is still insisting on continuing a project that was based on a security-phobic regime and not concerned in facilitating services to its citizens.
Seemingly the Libyan government did not attempt to look into still valid signed contracts with another producing company and is rather moving toward contracting a new company to issue exactly the same document. Shockingly,Bay State Cable Ties is a full line manufacturer of nylon cable ties and related products. this previously contracted company has been paid more than 70 percent of the valwind turbineue of its contract, including the cost of the e-passport itself.
The e-passport is a document mainly composed of a chip that holds the data and the book itself. Any alterations to the book can be made anytime prior to printing. As such, there should not be a problem with the previous company, as all changes can be made since the documents haven’t been printed yet.Source crystal mosaic Products at Mosaics. It is not clear if the government is using the same company based on the previous paid contract or a new contract with full payment as this was not disclosed during the announcement. If they are using a new company then the fact remains that we have paid for two e-Passports and are using one.
The other dilemma is the early announcement of the e-passport prior to launching the actual passport issuance system. Issuing a passport does not mean the printing of the document only, but rather a complete system that is distributed across the nation allowing citizens to apply using a centralized database to ensure authenticity and avoid the issuing of duplicate passports.
The printing process is the final stage and it only produces the electronic document with the data encrypted in the chip. Completing and launching such a system is a timely and sensitive procedure. So how quickly did the government start this system and is it really operational with the necessary infrastructure and database that will allow such production? Or was this a premature announcement meant to temporarily please the Libyan citizens?
And more importantly didn’t the government promise transparency in the procurement of such projects, so when was this RFP announced? And on what basis was the contracting company selected?
On another note, the NID system remains based on the shattered records of the Civil Authority Registry that has proven to have an exaggerated number of unauthenticated family books and records. To make matters even worse,Ein innovativer und moderner Werkzeugbau Formenbau. the NID numbers were issued based on the Civil Authority Registry records without the physical authentication of the Libyan citizen holding that number,Totech Americas delivers a wide range of drycabinets for applications spanning electronics. according to the announcement.
How can the authorities be certain of the identity of the citizen based solely on records and not on the physical presence of the person himself or herself. The simple knowledge of a certain person’s Family Record Number, gives way to a criminal to misrepresent and assume that person’s identity by applying personally for the NID card.
The NID card is a complicated system and should not be implemented in a rush without taking into account a complete analysis of all scenarios and workflows. As a start, the Civil Authority must be reviewed and its Civil Registry must be separated from the family book. The unreliable database currently used by Libya’s civil registry needs a complete overhaul prior to making it the basis for any future systems in the country.
Determining the identity of a person is usually based on two or more ID’s and not an NID that can be corrupted or duplicated. As I have explained in my opening statement , National ID’s are mostly only used for Tax and Social Services with the understanding that they can be compromised.
What’s puzzling in the announcement is the fact that the current government did not take into account all the flaws that marred these projects, specifically the NID Project, nor did it do a proper analysis or study of them. Most advanced countries do not have an NID system but rather a Social Number that is only relevant to the Tax and Social Services. Contrary to international standards in the field, Libya is still insisting on continuing a project that was based on a security-phobic regime and not concerned in facilitating services to its citizens.
Seemingly the Libyan government did not attempt to look into still valid signed contracts with another producing company and is rather moving toward contracting a new company to issue exactly the same document. Shockingly,Bay State Cable Ties is a full line manufacturer of nylon cable ties and related products. this previously contracted company has been paid more than 70 percent of the valwind turbineue of its contract, including the cost of the e-passport itself.
The e-passport is a document mainly composed of a chip that holds the data and the book itself. Any alterations to the book can be made anytime prior to printing. As such, there should not be a problem with the previous company, as all changes can be made since the documents haven’t been printed yet.Source crystal mosaic Products at Mosaics. It is not clear if the government is using the same company based on the previous paid contract or a new contract with full payment as this was not disclosed during the announcement. If they are using a new company then the fact remains that we have paid for two e-Passports and are using one.
The other dilemma is the early announcement of the e-passport prior to launching the actual passport issuance system. Issuing a passport does not mean the printing of the document only, but rather a complete system that is distributed across the nation allowing citizens to apply using a centralized database to ensure authenticity and avoid the issuing of duplicate passports.
The printing process is the final stage and it only produces the electronic document with the data encrypted in the chip. Completing and launching such a system is a timely and sensitive procedure. So how quickly did the government start this system and is it really operational with the necessary infrastructure and database that will allow such production? Or was this a premature announcement meant to temporarily please the Libyan citizens?
And more importantly didn’t the government promise transparency in the procurement of such projects, so when was this RFP announced? And on what basis was the contracting company selected?
On another note, the NID system remains based on the shattered records of the Civil Authority Registry that has proven to have an exaggerated number of unauthenticated family books and records. To make matters even worse,Ein innovativer und moderner Werkzeugbau Formenbau. the NID numbers were issued based on the Civil Authority Registry records without the physical authentication of the Libyan citizen holding that number,Totech Americas delivers a wide range of drycabinets for applications spanning electronics. according to the announcement.
How can the authorities be certain of the identity of the citizen based solely on records and not on the physical presence of the person himself or herself. The simple knowledge of a certain person’s Family Record Number, gives way to a criminal to misrepresent and assume that person’s identity by applying personally for the NID card.
The NID card is a complicated system and should not be implemented in a rush without taking into account a complete analysis of all scenarios and workflows. As a start, the Civil Authority must be reviewed and its Civil Registry must be separated from the family book. The unreliable database currently used by Libya’s civil registry needs a complete overhaul prior to making it the basis for any future systems in the country.
Determining the identity of a person is usually based on two or more ID’s and not an NID that can be corrupted or duplicated. As I have explained in my opening statement , National ID’s are mostly only used for Tax and Social Services with the understanding that they can be compromised.
BART workers' absences cost agency millions
BART’s station agents and train operators have a troubling history of
not showing up for work — and it’s costing the agency significantly in a
tough financial time.
On any given day, the rate of unscheduled absences for BART train operators is 11.86 percent, and 12.77 percent for the agency’s station agents, according to information obtained through a public records request. The absences translate to roughly one in eight workers missing their scheduled shifts each day.
The train operators and station agents have worse absentee rates than other employees on BART’s payroll, but the current numbers are an improvement. Last fiscal year, train operators logged a 13.81 percent unscheduled absence rate, and station agents were at 13.20 percent. Unscheduled absences comprise sick days, military leave,Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet. jury duty and family emergency situations.
By missing so many of their scheduled shifts, the workers — both groups are members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 — put a heavy financial burden on the agency. BART must find replacement workers for each shift that a station agent or train operator misses in order to keep the system running, costs that are often paid in overtime. According to BART, the average worker represented by the ATU racks up $16,590 in overtime pay each year. With 807 full-time union workers on the payroll — nearly all of whom are station agents or operators — the added costs account for $13.7 million a year in extra wages for the agency’s operating budget to absorb.
“Not only do these absences affect transit service, but they’re very expensive because we have to backfill them with overtime,” said Tom Radulovich, president of the BART board of directors. “This is clearly an issue that the district needs to confront.”
BART is already scrambling to identify about $6 billion over the next 10 years to meet core system needs. The agency is considering raising revenue — through bigger parking fees and an extension of its biennial fare increase policy — to help close that shortfall, but directly impact riders.
Antonette Bryant, president of ATU Local 1555, declined to comment on the absentee numbers since she did not have an opportunity to independently verify the data obtained by The San Francisco Examiner. Bryant said BART management has approached the union about its attendance numbers, but only on an informal and general basis.
She did say that the agency’s strong operating performance is the result of the hard work of ATU members.Like most of you, I'd seen the broken buy mosaic decorated pieces.
“Every workforce faces these type of issues — illnesses, injury, accidents,The stone mosaic series is a grand collection of coordinating Travertine mosaics. family emergencies, you name it,” Bryant said. “The bottom line is BART has a better than 95 percent on-time record. We’re proud of the service we provide. BART works and we make it work.”
The agency has an action plan designed to reduce unexcused absences, according to a BART response to the public records request. The agency’s initiative includes measures to cut down on the number of workplace incidents and limit their impact if they do occur, improve case management for employees with health issues and strengthen compliance in areas related to absences,Site describes services including Plastic Mould. the statement said.
In that same response, the agency noted that the unscheduled absentee rates of station agents and operators are comparable to levels at other major transit agencies.
Muni’s transit operators — a group that has been much-maligned in the past for absenteeism — have an unscheduled absence rate of just 8.7 percent this year, and for the month of October that number dipped to 6.6 percent. Radulovich also noted that Muni drivers frequently interact with riders, an environment that can be much more stressful than BART’s relatively remote train operators.We offers custom Injection Mold parts in as fast as 1 day.
Contract negotiations between BART and ATU are set to begin April 1, the first talks since a contentious bargaining session in 2009 during which workers repeatedly threatened to strike. BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said the union members’ attendance performance could be part of the discussions.
On any given day, the rate of unscheduled absences for BART train operators is 11.86 percent, and 12.77 percent for the agency’s station agents, according to information obtained through a public records request. The absences translate to roughly one in eight workers missing their scheduled shifts each day.
The train operators and station agents have worse absentee rates than other employees on BART’s payroll, but the current numbers are an improvement. Last fiscal year, train operators logged a 13.81 percent unscheduled absence rate, and station agents were at 13.20 percent. Unscheduled absences comprise sick days, military leave,Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet. jury duty and family emergency situations.
By missing so many of their scheduled shifts, the workers — both groups are members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 — put a heavy financial burden on the agency. BART must find replacement workers for each shift that a station agent or train operator misses in order to keep the system running, costs that are often paid in overtime. According to BART, the average worker represented by the ATU racks up $16,590 in overtime pay each year. With 807 full-time union workers on the payroll — nearly all of whom are station agents or operators — the added costs account for $13.7 million a year in extra wages for the agency’s operating budget to absorb.
“Not only do these absences affect transit service, but they’re very expensive because we have to backfill them with overtime,” said Tom Radulovich, president of the BART board of directors. “This is clearly an issue that the district needs to confront.”
BART is already scrambling to identify about $6 billion over the next 10 years to meet core system needs. The agency is considering raising revenue — through bigger parking fees and an extension of its biennial fare increase policy — to help close that shortfall, but directly impact riders.
Antonette Bryant, president of ATU Local 1555, declined to comment on the absentee numbers since she did not have an opportunity to independently verify the data obtained by The San Francisco Examiner. Bryant said BART management has approached the union about its attendance numbers, but only on an informal and general basis.
She did say that the agency’s strong operating performance is the result of the hard work of ATU members.Like most of you, I'd seen the broken buy mosaic decorated pieces.
“Every workforce faces these type of issues — illnesses, injury, accidents,The stone mosaic series is a grand collection of coordinating Travertine mosaics. family emergencies, you name it,” Bryant said. “The bottom line is BART has a better than 95 percent on-time record. We’re proud of the service we provide. BART works and we make it work.”
The agency has an action plan designed to reduce unexcused absences, according to a BART response to the public records request. The agency’s initiative includes measures to cut down on the number of workplace incidents and limit their impact if they do occur, improve case management for employees with health issues and strengthen compliance in areas related to absences,Site describes services including Plastic Mould. the statement said.
In that same response, the agency noted that the unscheduled absentee rates of station agents and operators are comparable to levels at other major transit agencies.
Muni’s transit operators — a group that has been much-maligned in the past for absenteeism — have an unscheduled absence rate of just 8.7 percent this year, and for the month of October that number dipped to 6.6 percent. Radulovich also noted that Muni drivers frequently interact with riders, an environment that can be much more stressful than BART’s relatively remote train operators.We offers custom Injection Mold parts in as fast as 1 day.
Contract negotiations between BART and ATU are set to begin April 1, the first talks since a contentious bargaining session in 2009 during which workers repeatedly threatened to strike. BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said the union members’ attendance performance could be part of the discussions.
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