I’d be remiss if I didn’t pause for a minute here and acknowledge a loss at the paper.Last week, six of my newsroom colleagues were laid off, the latest indication of tough economic times in the newspaper business. I just want to say that these six folks — Susan Reinhardt, Jason Sandford, John Fletcher, Jaime McKee, Thomas Fraser and Rob Mikulak — are all top-notch people and journalists, and I’ll miss them around the office.
They gave a lot of fantastic years to this paper and the community, and I wish them the best.I’m pretty sure the only thing keeping me employed is your burning questions, my smart-aleck answers and the real deal. So let’s get to this week’s batch.Chuck Tessier, of Ceramic tile, which handles maintenance on the landmark building, said the scaffolding is part of a 14-18-month project to repair the parapet walls and the roof of the main building. It is there mainly as a safety precaution.
“They’re working on the parapets and the caps of the parapets, and we want to make sure nothing falls off onto the sidewalk while they’re doing that,” Tessier said. “They will move the scaffolding with them as they move around the building.”Water has been seeping through the terra cotta tile on the parapets, then traveling down the walls. The workers will remove the cap, seal up the parapets and add flashing, then replace the caps. Next, crews will re-roof the building.
“They are going to have to take it down to the original structure, then come back up with layers of insulation and a membrane roof,” Tessier said.Built by malaria chill tonic magnate E.W. Grove, the Grove Arcade opened in 1929. At 269,000 square feet, it now houses shops and restaurants on the first floor and offices and apartments above. The building became federal offices during World War II but closed when the National Climatic Data Center moved to a new federal building in the mid-1990s.
As far as the tiles, many of which on the lower level have become faded or discolored looking, Tessier said that repair will come after the roof and parapet project. The water seepage has affected glazing on the tiles, and a previous glaze used on them was inappropriate and allowed ultraviolet rays to discolor them.The tiles and roof of the top two floors were redone previously, and they give a good idea of what the rest of the building will look like when the tile work eventually is done.
“First of all, we didn’t eliminate all the one-hour times for parking on that street,” said Harry Brown, parking services manager for the city of Asheville. “We just took the six spaces directly adjacent to our parking deck and made it bus parking. It’s perfect for it, for our city buses, and we don’t have enough parking for tour buses downtown.”Right now, the only spot tour buses can park is next to the Wall Street deck on Battery Park. Brown said they’ve gotten several calls from tour bus companies asking about places to park.
“We decided to make it accessible on South Lexington so people on tour buses could access that part of town,” Brown said. “Our mission is to accommodate everybody.”Andrea Barclay knows what makes a great kitchen. The classically trained pastry chef has worked in enough of them, including the one at her popular Global Gourmet restaurant in Carbondale.
In fact, it was that kitchen’s cramped, enclosed layout that drove the design of her home version. “I’m tall, so I feel claustrophobic in a hurry,” the Johnston City native said, Floor tiles. “I work all day and night in my small kitchen at Global, so I really wanted to open up my kitchen at home.”
When Barclay bought the house last year, the kitchen was filled with white appliances, brown-painted cabinets and worn linoleum flooring. Along with completing many other projects, she expanded her kitchen’s size and vastly improved its aesthetics. She worked with a local contractor to design the layout, ordered new cabinets and removed the soffit above the cabinets to open the ceiling height. This captured a more airy atmosphere while also allowing her to display unique artwork.
The black marble floor contrasts starkly against the white cabinets and tall, angled ceiling. It is a visual that almost didn’t come to fruition. “My original plan was to have dark, distressed looking cabinets with a white marble floor,” she said. But when Barclay fell in love with the black marble, it was a perfect fit. It transitions seamlessly into the upper level’s wood floor that she refinished to its original light color.
The kitchen opens to a sitting area Barclay designed to allow guests to enjoy a casual chat, a glass of wine and an up-close view of the chef in her element.Her kitchen is loaded with gadgets, platters, pots and pans — some of which are stored in a printer’s table sideboard she purchased from Restoration Hardware, one of Barclay’s favorite furniture vendors.
The high-level commercial equipment is all stainless steel and provides a perfect pairing to the silver specks within the honed white granite countertop. “It’s gorgeous,” she said. “I love a splash of bling, so I fell in love with it. It’s very unique and super thick, so it will withstand the wear and tear of a chef.”
The refrigerator, range and hood are all Viking, one of the top names in kitchen appliances. Barclay’s Bosch dishwasher is also a sight to see.“It’s my favorite appliance,” she said, marveling at the red light that shines on the floor to let you know that the ultra-quiet machine is running a cycle. “It’s so cool.”“Cool” is how Barclay describes the overall feel of her kitchen. Rustic, yet modern, with a definite European flair.
“It’s a mix of Paris and Provence,” she said. “It is very rustic European-looking. I’ve made several trips to Europe and love a mix of French/Italian country, but with a modern twist.”
Read the full products at http://www.tilees.com/!
2013年8月26日星期一
2013年7月31日星期三
Turns out thieves are economists
Last week’s Economist magazine carried a headline reading, “The Curious Case of the Fall in Crime.” It seems that all around the industrialized world – including in Canada – all kinds of criminal activity is on the decline. Contrary to the belief that evil thugs lurk around every corner, we are actually safer than we have been in decades.
The magazine’s editorial offers only guesses as to why crime rates are falling. Aging demographics may play a role, along with better theft-prevention technologies. Stiffer punishment and “get tough on crime” policies might make for good political posturing, but they seem to have little impact: Crime rates are falling in countries where sentencing has become tougher as well as where it has been loosened.
The Economist failed to mention the most obvious reason for the change – economic incentives. Thieves are simply doing what most of us do every day. They are responding to market signals.
This is particularly true of property crimes such as residential break-and-enter, car theft and armed robbery. The possible payoff for stealing from a home is dwindling. What is there worth taking? Electronics are increasingly less valuable – a computer or a television in the 1980s would have been worth thousands of dollars on the street; now they would fetch a few hundred bucks. Why buy a stolen iPod dock out of the back of some guy’s truck when you can get a new one for less than $100?
Car theft is down dramatically, too. According to Statistics Canada, car theft in Ontario plunged to 141 per 100,000 people last year, down from 443 in 1998. Better technology, car alarm systems and anti-theft devices have deterred most would-be thieves. And lower-priced cars without car alarms probably are not worth stealing anyway. The bad guys aren’t less bad, they’re just good economists.
Muggings and purse-snatchings are increasingly less common as well. But let’s not over-think the reasons why fewer thieves are snatching purses. It has nothing to do with the culprit’s age or job situation. Whether there was a father present in the thief’s childhood, or whether he or she played violent video games is irrelevant. The reason is that there’s just not much of value inside purses or wallets anymore. Cash has been largely replaced by debit and Ceramic tile, and as long as the PIN is secure, the thief makes away with nothing more than plastic cards and chewing gum. Cellphones are more costly, but stolen ones are difficult to wipe and resell.
Criminals, like all of us, respond to market signals. If the potential payoff for any activity is too low, we weigh the risks and decide it isn’t worth it. For non-criminals, the question isn’t “Should I steal this car?” but something along the lines of “Should I put in new bathroom tile before I list my house?” People are quite good at reading and responding to market signals.
Still, we shouldn’t think that poor economic incentives are making crime go away. Crime is simply morphing. Traditional crime statistics tend to focus on activities such as robbery, property theft and murder. Fewer long-term trend statistics are available for crimes that are doubtless increasing, such as identity theft and cyber-crime. Not only are they potentially more lucrative, they are global in scope and much more difficult to track.
Thieves are also getting smarter, using technology for evil deeds. Internet scams abound, and bank-card skimming and credit-card fraud is a serious problem. Banks have had to fight back with their own technology and it has been costly.
Economic incentives play a huge role motivating us in almost everything we do. Certain actions are no doubt spurred by altruism and generosity, such as helping our neighbour shovel snow or donating to charity (although we still want the tax receipt). Weighing the financial incentives against the potential risks is the basis of our economy. Criminals may not know they’re doing it, but they’re just responding to market signals – and doing a good job of it.
Today, the OS is a self-funded, civilian organisation with ￡100 million in turnover. While the OS is best known by the public for its paper maps, data accounts for 90% of that turnover.When it started its digital business back in the 1990s, the OS simply scanned in its paper maps. It used these scans to build a system called Landlines, which was simply a digital recreation of the maps.
In 2001, though, it launched a more powerful platform, called ‘OS MasterMap’. Instead of simply recreating the maps in digital form, OS MasterMap is a spatial database of 450 million geographical features, from rivers to roads to post boxes.“The difference was that instead of having what we call ‘spaghetti data’, the lines and points on the mapsheets actually represent physical features,” explains Andrew Howles, chief architect at Ordnance Survey.
Building OS MasterMap allowed the Ordnance Survey to offer a number of new services on top of its wealth of geographical information, and paying customers use the data for a range of application from satellite navigation to flood prevention.
But the first generation of the OS MasterMap platform had a few drawbacks. Firstly, like the maps that preceded it, it was made up of separate ‘tiles’ covering specific areas. This meant data had to be captured on a tile-by-tile basis, slowing down retrieval. “OS MasterMap was built using systems designed for digital cartography,” says Howles.
Also, data was extracted from a number of different source systems. These would evolve over time, so there was an ever-growing integration overhead involved in pulling it all together.
Read the full products at http://artsunlight.com/.
The magazine’s editorial offers only guesses as to why crime rates are falling. Aging demographics may play a role, along with better theft-prevention technologies. Stiffer punishment and “get tough on crime” policies might make for good political posturing, but they seem to have little impact: Crime rates are falling in countries where sentencing has become tougher as well as where it has been loosened.
The Economist failed to mention the most obvious reason for the change – economic incentives. Thieves are simply doing what most of us do every day. They are responding to market signals.
This is particularly true of property crimes such as residential break-and-enter, car theft and armed robbery. The possible payoff for stealing from a home is dwindling. What is there worth taking? Electronics are increasingly less valuable – a computer or a television in the 1980s would have been worth thousands of dollars on the street; now they would fetch a few hundred bucks. Why buy a stolen iPod dock out of the back of some guy’s truck when you can get a new one for less than $100?
Car theft is down dramatically, too. According to Statistics Canada, car theft in Ontario plunged to 141 per 100,000 people last year, down from 443 in 1998. Better technology, car alarm systems and anti-theft devices have deterred most would-be thieves. And lower-priced cars without car alarms probably are not worth stealing anyway. The bad guys aren’t less bad, they’re just good economists.
Muggings and purse-snatchings are increasingly less common as well. But let’s not over-think the reasons why fewer thieves are snatching purses. It has nothing to do with the culprit’s age or job situation. Whether there was a father present in the thief’s childhood, or whether he or she played violent video games is irrelevant. The reason is that there’s just not much of value inside purses or wallets anymore. Cash has been largely replaced by debit and Ceramic tile, and as long as the PIN is secure, the thief makes away with nothing more than plastic cards and chewing gum. Cellphones are more costly, but stolen ones are difficult to wipe and resell.
Criminals, like all of us, respond to market signals. If the potential payoff for any activity is too low, we weigh the risks and decide it isn’t worth it. For non-criminals, the question isn’t “Should I steal this car?” but something along the lines of “Should I put in new bathroom tile before I list my house?” People are quite good at reading and responding to market signals.
Still, we shouldn’t think that poor economic incentives are making crime go away. Crime is simply morphing. Traditional crime statistics tend to focus on activities such as robbery, property theft and murder. Fewer long-term trend statistics are available for crimes that are doubtless increasing, such as identity theft and cyber-crime. Not only are they potentially more lucrative, they are global in scope and much more difficult to track.
Thieves are also getting smarter, using technology for evil deeds. Internet scams abound, and bank-card skimming and credit-card fraud is a serious problem. Banks have had to fight back with their own technology and it has been costly.
Economic incentives play a huge role motivating us in almost everything we do. Certain actions are no doubt spurred by altruism and generosity, such as helping our neighbour shovel snow or donating to charity (although we still want the tax receipt). Weighing the financial incentives against the potential risks is the basis of our economy. Criminals may not know they’re doing it, but they’re just responding to market signals – and doing a good job of it.
Today, the OS is a self-funded, civilian organisation with ￡100 million in turnover. While the OS is best known by the public for its paper maps, data accounts for 90% of that turnover.When it started its digital business back in the 1990s, the OS simply scanned in its paper maps. It used these scans to build a system called Landlines, which was simply a digital recreation of the maps.
In 2001, though, it launched a more powerful platform, called ‘OS MasterMap’. Instead of simply recreating the maps in digital form, OS MasterMap is a spatial database of 450 million geographical features, from rivers to roads to post boxes.“The difference was that instead of having what we call ‘spaghetti data’, the lines and points on the mapsheets actually represent physical features,” explains Andrew Howles, chief architect at Ordnance Survey.
Building OS MasterMap allowed the Ordnance Survey to offer a number of new services on top of its wealth of geographical information, and paying customers use the data for a range of application from satellite navigation to flood prevention.
But the first generation of the OS MasterMap platform had a few drawbacks. Firstly, like the maps that preceded it, it was made up of separate ‘tiles’ covering specific areas. This meant data had to be captured on a tile-by-tile basis, slowing down retrieval. “OS MasterMap was built using systems designed for digital cartography,” says Howles.
Also, data was extracted from a number of different source systems. These would evolve over time, so there was an ever-growing integration overhead involved in pulling it all together.
Read the full products at http://artsunlight.com/.
2013年7月16日星期二
Artists, teachers find inspiration
Former Traverse City resident Kristin Anton and Liz Lancashire, sister of the SCRAP Portland executive director, both moved from Portland to Traverse City and decided to put their efforts towards opening a SCRAP locally along with Meaghan Wells Thomas, says Dayna Valpey, SCRAP TC director."They all felt that TC was a great fit because of the close-knit community, services that SCRAP TC could provide to educators, and the strong focus on protecting and educating the community about our environment," Valpey says.
By selling items that are donated rather than allowing them to be thrown out, SCRAP TC keeps these potential art supplies out of landfills, which has added up to about 4,500 pounds of items this year alone."Instead of adding additional products to our growing waste stream you are keeping products from the waste stream by creatively reusing them...In addition, our items are priced extremely reasonably and whether you are an educator or glazed porcelain tile , everyone likes to save money, especially in the difficult economy of the last few years," Valpey says.
SCRAP takes a variety of donations (which can be turned away if it is something they don't need, can't take or isn't clean) including zippers, crochet hooks, silk flowers, candle wax, buttons, frames, large carpet samples, various office supplies, bottle caps, slide projectors, and the list goes on and on.They have seen a variety of unique items come through their doors, including a recent donation of 30 plastic foot-shaped displays from a shoe store, which have now found new life as planters.
Local businesses have also gotten on board with the SCRAP TC mission. McLain Cycle and Fitness is one such business; it donates used inner tubes that have been repurposed as mini flower gardens and even as pieces for a fashion show."We truly appreciate the local businesses that work with us and are always actively seeking more to partner with," Valpey says.
Anyone can shop at SCRAP, from teachers, to artists, to hobbyists looking for a great deal on supplies. Because SCRAP TC is run by volunteers, they are only open two days a week for shopping and for the public to drop off donations. Valpey hopes to increase the hours of operation and offer more special events, in addition to their current craft night, such as workshops and birthday parties, as more volunteers are added to the organization.
SCRAP is especially useful for teachers, because of budget cuts in the classroom. Recently retired art teacher and glass fusing artist Debra Coburn-Anton has been shopping at SCRAP for a little over a year. Due to limited classroom budgets for supplies she has been able to get more bang for her buck by shopping here.
"My list is quite extensive, as I shop there often. Fabric, yarn, wine corks for sculpture-making, buttons, beads, illustration board, ceramic tile, and my favorite is the containers that come in for storing my supplies," Coburn-Anton says.Prior to retiring, Coburn was able to introduce reusable materials into the classroom for her students to use from SCRAP."Our favorite projects were recycled art, where the students made sculptures out of wine corks. They worked in teams of two to three students and created really amazing scenes, such as a giraffe eating leaves from a tree,'" she says.
Coburn-Anton also takes the time to volunteer about every six weeks at SCRAP and sometimes attends craft nights, where she purchases her supplies. She encourages others to shop at SCRAP in order to save money and come up with new and fun ideas."SCRAP TC offers us as educators a way to connect students to the importance of reuse and repurposing craft supplies that may otherwise find their way into a landfill," Coburn-Anton says. "It helps us get the message out that we all must do our part to salvage and donate extra items we may not use again but others will find them true treasures to be used in their own artistic adventures."
Mixed-media artist Pam Yee began shopping at SCRAP soon after it opened in order to get supplies for her artwork which includes altered books, journals and cards. She began this art form about 13 years ago."Altered books are made of old discarded books and turned into works of art," Yee says. "Repurposing books keeps them out of the landfills and makes a nice addition to a coffee table or shelf. Using what we have instead of buying more is a small way to save the planet."
She creates these pieces of art by taking an existing book and making changes to it with items she already has, like ink and glue, but adds materials found at SCRAP to the mix like wallpaper and notebooks, or whatever she can get her hands on.Using odds and ends to create art can be a challenge, says Yee, but it truly makes her art unique while helping the china glass mosaic .
"SCRAP is the place to go to pick up materials for art projects without spending too much and to keep more room in the landfills," she says.SCRAP TC is open on Tuesdays from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visit their website and Facebook page to learn more.
Brown County commissioners will take public testimony and consider a petition for partial abandonment of County Ditch 28 at 10:30 a.m. today in the courthouse.The hearing deals with a petition by Gary Tauer and Daniel Tauer for partial abandonment of a public drainage system in Section 27, Mulligan Township. The Tauers farm their properties together, according to the RBA.
The petition reads that the location and configuration of the open ditch on Daniel Tauer's property interferes with and makes impractical petitioner's use of the irrigation system on both of their properties.The petition proposes a portion of the open ditch of CD 28 crossing Daniel Tauer's property be abandoned and filled in, and that the Tauers build a private tile line to replace the portion of the open ditch that will be abandoned.
The private tile line will be of sufficient capacity and design to drain and serve as an outlet for that portion of the open ditch of CD 28, located in the southwest corner of the southeast quarter of Section 27. The private tile line will drain the Tauers' property and outlet into the open portion of CD 28, according to the petition.All lands to be drained by the proposed private tile line currently are assessed benefits for CD 28 and are part of the CD 28 ditch system. After the private tile line is built, the open ditch portion of CD 28 crossing Daniel Tauer's property will no longer serve any substantial purpose and should be abandoned, according to the petition.
The open ditch of CD 28 has sufficient capacity and is an adequate outlet for the proposed private tile line, according to the petition which state laws as legal references.
By selling items that are donated rather than allowing them to be thrown out, SCRAP TC keeps these potential art supplies out of landfills, which has added up to about 4,500 pounds of items this year alone."Instead of adding additional products to our growing waste stream you are keeping products from the waste stream by creatively reusing them...In addition, our items are priced extremely reasonably and whether you are an educator or glazed porcelain tile , everyone likes to save money, especially in the difficult economy of the last few years," Valpey says.
SCRAP takes a variety of donations (which can be turned away if it is something they don't need, can't take or isn't clean) including zippers, crochet hooks, silk flowers, candle wax, buttons, frames, large carpet samples, various office supplies, bottle caps, slide projectors, and the list goes on and on.They have seen a variety of unique items come through their doors, including a recent donation of 30 plastic foot-shaped displays from a shoe store, which have now found new life as planters.
Local businesses have also gotten on board with the SCRAP TC mission. McLain Cycle and Fitness is one such business; it donates used inner tubes that have been repurposed as mini flower gardens and even as pieces for a fashion show."We truly appreciate the local businesses that work with us and are always actively seeking more to partner with," Valpey says.
Anyone can shop at SCRAP, from teachers, to artists, to hobbyists looking for a great deal on supplies. Because SCRAP TC is run by volunteers, they are only open two days a week for shopping and for the public to drop off donations. Valpey hopes to increase the hours of operation and offer more special events, in addition to their current craft night, such as workshops and birthday parties, as more volunteers are added to the organization.
SCRAP is especially useful for teachers, because of budget cuts in the classroom. Recently retired art teacher and glass fusing artist Debra Coburn-Anton has been shopping at SCRAP for a little over a year. Due to limited classroom budgets for supplies she has been able to get more bang for her buck by shopping here.
"My list is quite extensive, as I shop there often. Fabric, yarn, wine corks for sculpture-making, buttons, beads, illustration board, ceramic tile, and my favorite is the containers that come in for storing my supplies," Coburn-Anton says.Prior to retiring, Coburn was able to introduce reusable materials into the classroom for her students to use from SCRAP."Our favorite projects were recycled art, where the students made sculptures out of wine corks. They worked in teams of two to three students and created really amazing scenes, such as a giraffe eating leaves from a tree,'" she says.
Coburn-Anton also takes the time to volunteer about every six weeks at SCRAP and sometimes attends craft nights, where she purchases her supplies. She encourages others to shop at SCRAP in order to save money and come up with new and fun ideas."SCRAP TC offers us as educators a way to connect students to the importance of reuse and repurposing craft supplies that may otherwise find their way into a landfill," Coburn-Anton says. "It helps us get the message out that we all must do our part to salvage and donate extra items we may not use again but others will find them true treasures to be used in their own artistic adventures."
Mixed-media artist Pam Yee began shopping at SCRAP soon after it opened in order to get supplies for her artwork which includes altered books, journals and cards. She began this art form about 13 years ago."Altered books are made of old discarded books and turned into works of art," Yee says. "Repurposing books keeps them out of the landfills and makes a nice addition to a coffee table or shelf. Using what we have instead of buying more is a small way to save the planet."
She creates these pieces of art by taking an existing book and making changes to it with items she already has, like ink and glue, but adds materials found at SCRAP to the mix like wallpaper and notebooks, or whatever she can get her hands on.Using odds and ends to create art can be a challenge, says Yee, but it truly makes her art unique while helping the china glass mosaic .
"SCRAP is the place to go to pick up materials for art projects without spending too much and to keep more room in the landfills," she says.SCRAP TC is open on Tuesdays from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visit their website and Facebook page to learn more.
Brown County commissioners will take public testimony and consider a petition for partial abandonment of County Ditch 28 at 10:30 a.m. today in the courthouse.The hearing deals with a petition by Gary Tauer and Daniel Tauer for partial abandonment of a public drainage system in Section 27, Mulligan Township. The Tauers farm their properties together, according to the RBA.
The petition reads that the location and configuration of the open ditch on Daniel Tauer's property interferes with and makes impractical petitioner's use of the irrigation system on both of their properties.The petition proposes a portion of the open ditch of CD 28 crossing Daniel Tauer's property be abandoned and filled in, and that the Tauers build a private tile line to replace the portion of the open ditch that will be abandoned.
The private tile line will be of sufficient capacity and design to drain and serve as an outlet for that portion of the open ditch of CD 28, located in the southwest corner of the southeast quarter of Section 27. The private tile line will drain the Tauers' property and outlet into the open portion of CD 28, according to the petition.All lands to be drained by the proposed private tile line currently are assessed benefits for CD 28 and are part of the CD 28 ditch system. After the private tile line is built, the open ditch portion of CD 28 crossing Daniel Tauer's property will no longer serve any substantial purpose and should be abandoned, according to the petition.
The open ditch of CD 28 has sufficient capacity and is an adequate outlet for the proposed private tile line, according to the petition which state laws as legal references.
2013年6月4日星期二
African markets outperforming emerging peers
In a column last week, I mentioned the significant outperformance of the S&P 500 index since 2010 compared with the MSCI emerging market index, this at a time when the economies of emerging markets are growing faster than those of developed countries.
Monday was another bearish one for emerging markets, with, for instance, Turkish stocks down by as much as 10% and Russia’s RTS index declining up to 2.1%.
The JSE’s all share index was down 2.48% on the stronger rand and the market playing follow-my-leader from a sell-off in the US on Friday — although US stock markets were rebounding by late Monday afternoon.
Standard Bank on Monday released a research report saying African currencies, bonds and equities remained relatively uncorrelated to other emerging markets, "potentially offering outperformance during the present profit-taking".
The report says that in the year to May this year, the MSCI African index was up 28.8%, the S&P 500 had climbed 18% over the same period, while the MSCI emerging markets index declined 3.7%
Standard says African currencies have performed better than expected against the strengthening dollar so far this year, and it is only the rand, Botswana pula and Mauritian rupee that have produced a negative return. "We expect a similar situation to materialise in the coming months, albeit we may see some short-term weakness, in line with global sentiment ."
A STORY flighted on SABC3 on Thursday night about the securitisation of South Africa’s mortgages by the banks prompted me to delve a little into the health of the local mortgage securitisation sector, a market not often covered by newspapers in this country.
Securitisation is the conversion of a pool of assets with a regular and predictable cash income such as mortgage repayments or credit card receivables into a security or marketable instrument.
It allows mostly the banks to "sell" a large number of its assets such as mortgage loans, which would otherwise not be attractive as individual purchases, to a specially formed company, which funds the purchase by issuing debt securities in the capital markets. It helps banks to improve their liquidity.
Other than the fact that I found out that these markets are relatively healthy, I discovered also that recent concerns among JSE investors about the exposure of some banks to high levels of unsecured lending may also affect the securitisation market.
For instance, Moody’s Investors Services senior analyst Anthony Parry says South Africa’s securitised mortgage market has a negative ratings outlook because of a number of macroeconomic factors. One such factor is unsecured debt, which "has grown significantly. We can’t separate that from the fact that consumers are already under pressure," he said.
Global rating agency Fitch said earlier this year that low economic growth and rising interest rates were not significant risk factors on the performance of mortgages, but "another downside risk ... would lie in a further, unexpected economic deterioration".
ON THE subjects of unsecured lending and property, cracks in the unsecured lending sector are as a result of an increase in bad debts and a slowdown in consumer household spending.
Gary Palmer, CEO of Paragon Lending Solutions, says the bank’s push into more profitable non-interest income was because of it not making sufficient earnings from traditional mortgage bonds. He argues that a decrease in interest rates and new lending regulations such as Basel 3 have pushed local banks into focusing on more profitable noninterest income, with increased involvement in the recovery process. This was why there had been a sharp decline in mortgage lending and a boom in unsecured credit.
Property investors may start finding it more difficult to obtain funding in the tighter economic environment, while commercial property owners will need to focus on rent collections from tenants, Mr Palmer says. But there remains big demand for income-generating properties, especially from blue-chip tenants.
The company developing tools that let people create stuff, today announced the official launch of Stitch -- the FREE iPhone app that takes a user's message, music and photos and puts it into motion. Saying "Good luck," "Happy birthday" or "Sorry I sold your cat" used to mean spending too much time online searching through old-school eCards. Users can now "Stitch" together slides with their images and music to create and share personalized messages at any time for any moment. The app is available exclusively in the Apple App Store.
"People want to create cool stuff and share it, and the products currently on the market don't allow us to get creative and personal," said Dustin Haisler, President of KlabLab. "Stitch was developed to give people the opportunity to convey the message they want to. Stitch isn't your grandma's greeting card."
Stitch fills the creativity void in the eCard space as the only mobile app that lets people design original content and put that content in motion. Templates act as guides, with popular subjects like Happy Birthday, I Love You and Thinking of You, while the blank template gives users total freedom to say exactly what is on their mind, whether that's wishing your son luck in the big game, saying hello to someone after a first date or asking mom to make her famous chocolate chip cookies.
Users can pull music directly from their iTunes library to customize the Stitch or select stock music within the app. Stiches can be further personalized by pulling images from the user's camera roll, Instagram's photo feed or Google Images. Text boxes can be inserted, sized and placed anywhere on the slides and users can also change the font color, size and justification. Stitchers can quickly render and share their completed Stitch on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and through email and text, without ever connecting to Wi-Fi.Click on their website www.tilees.com for more information.
Monday was another bearish one for emerging markets, with, for instance, Turkish stocks down by as much as 10% and Russia’s RTS index declining up to 2.1%.
The JSE’s all share index was down 2.48% on the stronger rand and the market playing follow-my-leader from a sell-off in the US on Friday — although US stock markets were rebounding by late Monday afternoon.
Standard Bank on Monday released a research report saying African currencies, bonds and equities remained relatively uncorrelated to other emerging markets, "potentially offering outperformance during the present profit-taking".
The report says that in the year to May this year, the MSCI African index was up 28.8%, the S&P 500 had climbed 18% over the same period, while the MSCI emerging markets index declined 3.7%
Standard says African currencies have performed better than expected against the strengthening dollar so far this year, and it is only the rand, Botswana pula and Mauritian rupee that have produced a negative return. "We expect a similar situation to materialise in the coming months, albeit we may see some short-term weakness, in line with global sentiment ."
A STORY flighted on SABC3 on Thursday night about the securitisation of South Africa’s mortgages by the banks prompted me to delve a little into the health of the local mortgage securitisation sector, a market not often covered by newspapers in this country.
Securitisation is the conversion of a pool of assets with a regular and predictable cash income such as mortgage repayments or credit card receivables into a security or marketable instrument.
It allows mostly the banks to "sell" a large number of its assets such as mortgage loans, which would otherwise not be attractive as individual purchases, to a specially formed company, which funds the purchase by issuing debt securities in the capital markets. It helps banks to improve their liquidity.
Other than the fact that I found out that these markets are relatively healthy, I discovered also that recent concerns among JSE investors about the exposure of some banks to high levels of unsecured lending may also affect the securitisation market.
For instance, Moody’s Investors Services senior analyst Anthony Parry says South Africa’s securitised mortgage market has a negative ratings outlook because of a number of macroeconomic factors. One such factor is unsecured debt, which "has grown significantly. We can’t separate that from the fact that consumers are already under pressure," he said.
Global rating agency Fitch said earlier this year that low economic growth and rising interest rates were not significant risk factors on the performance of mortgages, but "another downside risk ... would lie in a further, unexpected economic deterioration".
ON THE subjects of unsecured lending and property, cracks in the unsecured lending sector are as a result of an increase in bad debts and a slowdown in consumer household spending.
Gary Palmer, CEO of Paragon Lending Solutions, says the bank’s push into more profitable non-interest income was because of it not making sufficient earnings from traditional mortgage bonds. He argues that a decrease in interest rates and new lending regulations such as Basel 3 have pushed local banks into focusing on more profitable noninterest income, with increased involvement in the recovery process. This was why there had been a sharp decline in mortgage lending and a boom in unsecured credit.
Property investors may start finding it more difficult to obtain funding in the tighter economic environment, while commercial property owners will need to focus on rent collections from tenants, Mr Palmer says. But there remains big demand for income-generating properties, especially from blue-chip tenants.
The company developing tools that let people create stuff, today announced the official launch of Stitch -- the FREE iPhone app that takes a user's message, music and photos and puts it into motion. Saying "Good luck," "Happy birthday" or "Sorry I sold your cat" used to mean spending too much time online searching through old-school eCards. Users can now "Stitch" together slides with their images and music to create and share personalized messages at any time for any moment. The app is available exclusively in the Apple App Store.
"People want to create cool stuff and share it, and the products currently on the market don't allow us to get creative and personal," said Dustin Haisler, President of KlabLab. "Stitch was developed to give people the opportunity to convey the message they want to. Stitch isn't your grandma's greeting card."
Stitch fills the creativity void in the eCard space as the only mobile app that lets people design original content and put that content in motion. Templates act as guides, with popular subjects like Happy Birthday, I Love You and Thinking of You, while the blank template gives users total freedom to say exactly what is on their mind, whether that's wishing your son luck in the big game, saying hello to someone after a first date or asking mom to make her famous chocolate chip cookies.
Users can pull music directly from their iTunes library to customize the Stitch or select stock music within the app. Stiches can be further personalized by pulling images from the user's camera roll, Instagram's photo feed or Google Images. Text boxes can be inserted, sized and placed anywhere on the slides and users can also change the font color, size and justification. Stitchers can quickly render and share their completed Stitch on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and through email and text, without ever connecting to Wi-Fi.Click on their website www.tilees.com for more information.
2013年5月21日星期二
RTO runs out of smart cards
Owners of new vehicles have to wait for over two months to get them registered because the regional transport office (RTO) has run out of smart cards given as registration certificates.
Similar is the fate of all those who have applied for transfer of ownership - either because of vehicles changing hands or getting the hypothecation tags off the registration documents.
"The situation is same across the state. As far as the queue of individuals seeking new registration certificate books is concerned, there are at least 11,000 people in waiting for over three months," deputy regional transport officer Jayant Patil said.
He said the problem rose because the vendor who has been given the contract to prepare, print and supply the cards was importing those from a manufacturer in China. "It takes some time for the card to reach. Besides, it's a state-wide problem and the shortage is being felt everywhere. Senior officials in the department are aware of the problem," he added.
Patil, however, said the RTO, Nashik had received a consignment of 1,000 cards, which would be processed and posted to the respective customers.
"We are in receipt of some cards - about 1,000 in numbers. Those are being signed and posted. We will get another batch of nearly 3,000 cards. These cards would be ready to be delivered in a matter of three-to-four days. We hope that our office will be in a position to clear the outstanding rush within two weeks," the officer said.
Kishor Rahane, a resident of Nashik Road, said, "I had taken a bank loan to buy my car. I have cleared the loan and applied to get hypothecation mark off in February. But I am yet to receive any communication from the Ceramic tile."
The department had outsourced the job of computerizing records of registration documents and driving licences and issuing fresh registration documents and driving licences to a consortium as part of a public-private partnership.
The private vendor has set up the necessary infrastructure and the manpower to do the job and gets a share of the revenue. For every new driving licence and a registration certificate, a fee of Rs 200 and Rs 350 is collected, respectively. The vendor gets a share of Rs 83 in each driving licence issued. There is no vendor's share in the issuance of the registration certificate, the official said.
Price optimization strategies and adaptable technology are vital to ensuring retailers’ competitive advantage, success and growth. By using electronic shelf labels (ESL) with E Ink’s technology, retailers have the ability to change pricing strategies as needed in real time, allowing them to stay one step ahead of competitors while attracting consumers based on changing market conditions. Spectra allows retailers to elevate the impact of their ESLs, by adding color to logos and quickly directing consumers’ attention to important information, such as product sales and promotions.
“The three pigment system is a major achievement for E Ink, and a technological accomplishment in our industry,” explained Giovanni Mancini, director of product management, E Ink. “As the first product line to feature this advanced ink, Spectra provides retailers with the same visual and power savings attributes of our black and white ESL products, with the option of adding a third color to highlight promotions or other relevant information.”
“We are excited to see the addition of color, something requested by many of our customers,” said Niclas Qvist, Head of Marketing and Global Partner Management at Pricer, the leading Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) solution provider. “Pricer use E Ink’s e-paper in all our graphic products today. E Ink and Pricer are leading the way by giving shoppers the best in-store experience with clear and easy to read price tags. Product development is guided by market feedback and the first products will be developed in close cooperation with both E Ink and selected customers.”
“Pervasive Displays is committed to delivering innovative electronic paper enhancements and solutions that enable revolutionary commercial industrial electronic paper display applications,” said Scott Soong, CEO of Pervasive Displays. “Adding color to electronic paper is an effective advancement to this technology. Color adds the benefit of being able to quickly draw attention to specific messages – in retail, red is prevalent for promotions; in other industries red is used for exception management. The ability to quickly discern the importance of a message is critical in any environment.”
Spectra will support both active matrix and segmented format ESLs, making it the ideal product for a range of retail applications. The three pigment EPD is also appropriate for industrial, smart card and medical market applications, where Spectra can be used to display information on electronic identification badges.
Providing low power usage and cost optimization through a 5-volt driving capability, Aurora supports applications in conditions as cold as -25 C. Additionally; Aurora has been tuned for non-eReader applications, and is ideal for electronic shelf labels (ESLs) and smart cards in the retail, medical and logistics markets. Aurora will be available to partners and customers starting in July 2013.
The release of Aurora is an indication of E Ink’s product diversification strategy and commitment to providing the ESL market with an extremely durable, low power display technology. While eReaders continue to be an important market for E Ink, and the company is unequivocally committed to the eReader product line, E Ink believes that its unique technology addresses retailers’ and business owners’ needs to install displays in previously impossible or impractical locations across markets.
“Opticon is excited to work with E Ink to expand our portfolio of e-paper based electronic shelf labeling (ESL) products. With the integration of a low temp film, we can finally install our ESL solution into all departments in a grocery or convenience store,” said Mike Waters, Opticon, Inc. “To date, we’ve lacked the technical capability to operate our wireless shelf tags inside a freezer, limiting the opportunities to completely eliminate manual paper price changes. Opticon will now be able to offer a line of IP rated freezer tags in 2″, 2.7″, 4.41″, and 7.4″ form factors.”
“Pervasive Displays is committed to advancing the use of electronic paper in industrial applications,” said Scott Soong, CEO of Pervasive Displays. “The new Aurora product from E Ink extends the reach of electronic paper to cold chain applications, signage, automotive and a myriad of additional industries, unlocking new ROI potential for e-paper applications.”
“Inaccurate prices are one of consumers’ major gripes when shopping at supermarkets,” said Giovanni Mancini, director of product management, E Ink. “With an average of close to 40,000 items carried in supermarkets, effective price management can become a herculean task. At E Ink we believe that ESLs not only cut down on the instances of mislabelled information, but also can ultimately help retail stores maximize profits.”
Similar is the fate of all those who have applied for transfer of ownership - either because of vehicles changing hands or getting the hypothecation tags off the registration documents.
"The situation is same across the state. As far as the queue of individuals seeking new registration certificate books is concerned, there are at least 11,000 people in waiting for over three months," deputy regional transport officer Jayant Patil said.
He said the problem rose because the vendor who has been given the contract to prepare, print and supply the cards was importing those from a manufacturer in China. "It takes some time for the card to reach. Besides, it's a state-wide problem and the shortage is being felt everywhere. Senior officials in the department are aware of the problem," he added.
Patil, however, said the RTO, Nashik had received a consignment of 1,000 cards, which would be processed and posted to the respective customers.
"We are in receipt of some cards - about 1,000 in numbers. Those are being signed and posted. We will get another batch of nearly 3,000 cards. These cards would be ready to be delivered in a matter of three-to-four days. We hope that our office will be in a position to clear the outstanding rush within two weeks," the officer said.
Kishor Rahane, a resident of Nashik Road, said, "I had taken a bank loan to buy my car. I have cleared the loan and applied to get hypothecation mark off in February. But I am yet to receive any communication from the Ceramic tile."
The department had outsourced the job of computerizing records of registration documents and driving licences and issuing fresh registration documents and driving licences to a consortium as part of a public-private partnership.
The private vendor has set up the necessary infrastructure and the manpower to do the job and gets a share of the revenue. For every new driving licence and a registration certificate, a fee of Rs 200 and Rs 350 is collected, respectively. The vendor gets a share of Rs 83 in each driving licence issued. There is no vendor's share in the issuance of the registration certificate, the official said.
Price optimization strategies and adaptable technology are vital to ensuring retailers’ competitive advantage, success and growth. By using electronic shelf labels (ESL) with E Ink’s technology, retailers have the ability to change pricing strategies as needed in real time, allowing them to stay one step ahead of competitors while attracting consumers based on changing market conditions. Spectra allows retailers to elevate the impact of their ESLs, by adding color to logos and quickly directing consumers’ attention to important information, such as product sales and promotions.
“The three pigment system is a major achievement for E Ink, and a technological accomplishment in our industry,” explained Giovanni Mancini, director of product management, E Ink. “As the first product line to feature this advanced ink, Spectra provides retailers with the same visual and power savings attributes of our black and white ESL products, with the option of adding a third color to highlight promotions or other relevant information.”
“We are excited to see the addition of color, something requested by many of our customers,” said Niclas Qvist, Head of Marketing and Global Partner Management at Pricer, the leading Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) solution provider. “Pricer use E Ink’s e-paper in all our graphic products today. E Ink and Pricer are leading the way by giving shoppers the best in-store experience with clear and easy to read price tags. Product development is guided by market feedback and the first products will be developed in close cooperation with both E Ink and selected customers.”
“Pervasive Displays is committed to delivering innovative electronic paper enhancements and solutions that enable revolutionary commercial industrial electronic paper display applications,” said Scott Soong, CEO of Pervasive Displays. “Adding color to electronic paper is an effective advancement to this technology. Color adds the benefit of being able to quickly draw attention to specific messages – in retail, red is prevalent for promotions; in other industries red is used for exception management. The ability to quickly discern the importance of a message is critical in any environment.”
Spectra will support both active matrix and segmented format ESLs, making it the ideal product for a range of retail applications. The three pigment EPD is also appropriate for industrial, smart card and medical market applications, where Spectra can be used to display information on electronic identification badges.
Providing low power usage and cost optimization through a 5-volt driving capability, Aurora supports applications in conditions as cold as -25 C. Additionally; Aurora has been tuned for non-eReader applications, and is ideal for electronic shelf labels (ESLs) and smart cards in the retail, medical and logistics markets. Aurora will be available to partners and customers starting in July 2013.
The release of Aurora is an indication of E Ink’s product diversification strategy and commitment to providing the ESL market with an extremely durable, low power display technology. While eReaders continue to be an important market for E Ink, and the company is unequivocally committed to the eReader product line, E Ink believes that its unique technology addresses retailers’ and business owners’ needs to install displays in previously impossible or impractical locations across markets.
“Opticon is excited to work with E Ink to expand our portfolio of e-paper based electronic shelf labeling (ESL) products. With the integration of a low temp film, we can finally install our ESL solution into all departments in a grocery or convenience store,” said Mike Waters, Opticon, Inc. “To date, we’ve lacked the technical capability to operate our wireless shelf tags inside a freezer, limiting the opportunities to completely eliminate manual paper price changes. Opticon will now be able to offer a line of IP rated freezer tags in 2″, 2.7″, 4.41″, and 7.4″ form factors.”
“Pervasive Displays is committed to advancing the use of electronic paper in industrial applications,” said Scott Soong, CEO of Pervasive Displays. “The new Aurora product from E Ink extends the reach of electronic paper to cold chain applications, signage, automotive and a myriad of additional industries, unlocking new ROI potential for e-paper applications.”
“Inaccurate prices are one of consumers’ major gripes when shopping at supermarkets,” said Giovanni Mancini, director of product management, E Ink. “With an average of close to 40,000 items carried in supermarkets, effective price management can become a herculean task. At E Ink we believe that ESLs not only cut down on the instances of mislabelled information, but also can ultimately help retail stores maximize profits.”
2013年3月14日星期四
Smart shopping can keep you safe online
Those who know me well may be amused to see that I’m writing about
shopping. And I understand why. I develop an annoying twitch at the
thought of going to a mall.
But online shopping is different. I do fine with that. In fact, I do so fine that my wife occasionally feels it necessary to hide my credit cards. After a successful holiday shopping season, I feel moved to offer some year-round online shopping advice. It can save you a few bucks or, if it keeps you out of the hands of some online crook, it can save your neck.
The best thing about online shopping is the same as the worst thing. It’s blazing fast compared to driving around town to shop. But the speed of online shopping encourages impulse buying. You might start your online shopping expedition looking for a new coffee pot. But, in the process,We sell 100% hand-painted bestluggagetag online. you happen on a page describing the wonders of pressure cookers. It’s so easy to click your mouse and add that item to your order. Unless money is irrelevant stick to your original mission.
It’s smart – especially with high priced items – to check with local stores. While online stores often offer great bargains, there are times when buying from a local merchant offers the best deal. So, once you’ve found the best price online, spend a few extra minutes on the telephone checking with local stores. Not only can you find some bargains that way, you’ll be able to get your hands on the item you want almost instantly. Be sure, when comparing prices, to add in taxes and shipping cost – you want to know the final amount you’ll pay from either the online store or brick and mortar store downtown.
There are fake websites that offer unbelievable prices to lure you into their trap. They stay online long enough to make a number of “sales” then will fold their tents and disappear with your money. Obviously there also are some terrific small shops out there too. But, at the very least, spend some time making sure that new site is real. Here are so things to check – make sure it has a real street address listed rather than just an email address. Consider contacting the Better Business Bureau in the city where the site is headquartered to check its credentials. Also use Google to see if there are postings – good or bad – about the business. Even after all that, think twice before venturing into unknown waters.
If your own computer is infected with spyware, then a hacker can easily harvest your credit card information, banking data, or just about anything else.If you are looking for earcap for your bathroom walls. So it’s absolutely essential that you use a program (or separate programs) to check for viruses and spyware. It is almost certain, if you use an unprotected computer long enough,Have a look at all our customkeychain models starting at 59.90US$ with free proofing. that you’ll be hacked.
With online orders it’s always possible for a shipment to be delayed. It doesn’t happen often but will be times when the merchant won’t meet the promised delivery date. You can’t do much about that. But when you absolutely need to have the item on hand on some specific date, check with the online merchant to be sure that the item is in stock. I’ve seen cases where a product showed as in stock but it really wasn’t. Email or otherwise contact the merchant and ask specifically if it’s in stock when it’s important that you receive the item on a given date.
Chief Minister N Rangasamy inaugurated the scheme in presence of JIPMER Director Dr T S Ravikumar,Inspector General of Police R S Krishnia and legislator Tamailselvan.We sell 100% hand-painted bestluggagetag online.
Termed as “partners in prevention”, the programme will target preventable health conditions among police personnel who are serving the community at large for the safety and well being of the population.
As per the programme, the police personnel numbering around 3,000 in Puducherry have been issued Smart cards which contains 16 digit code numbers, specific to each individual, and a bar code, said Dr Anita Rastogi, Additional Medical Superintendent,The term 'bobbleheads control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. JIPMER, and coordinator of the wellness programme.
All the details of the personnel including basic details and their health records could be accessed through the smart card, even if the personnel is out of the country. It is a web-based service and the details can be accessed online.
The police personnel will be screened in batches of 30, twice a week (Wednesdays and Fridays) facilitating checkup for around 240 police personnel in a month, said Dr Anita Rastogi.
Thereafter those requiring further investigations will be referred to the particular department, depending on the disease.
The details of the patients would be audited every month to see whether the follow ups have been done properly, she said.
The goal of this wellness programme is to attain better health,wellness for the masses at an affordable cost, said Dr Ravikumar.
However, the wellness programme will take off in a big way only after the establishment of the School of Public Health, which will tie up with the other medical colleges, National Rural Health Mission, and other institutions of the state and central government, Dr Ravikumar told Express.
There will be different platforms for major diseases like cardiac diseases, cancer, from road traffic accidents to rape and people will be stratified according to the risks, he said.
But online shopping is different. I do fine with that. In fact, I do so fine that my wife occasionally feels it necessary to hide my credit cards. After a successful holiday shopping season, I feel moved to offer some year-round online shopping advice. It can save you a few bucks or, if it keeps you out of the hands of some online crook, it can save your neck.
The best thing about online shopping is the same as the worst thing. It’s blazing fast compared to driving around town to shop. But the speed of online shopping encourages impulse buying. You might start your online shopping expedition looking for a new coffee pot. But, in the process,We sell 100% hand-painted bestluggagetag online. you happen on a page describing the wonders of pressure cookers. It’s so easy to click your mouse and add that item to your order. Unless money is irrelevant stick to your original mission.
It’s smart – especially with high priced items – to check with local stores. While online stores often offer great bargains, there are times when buying from a local merchant offers the best deal. So, once you’ve found the best price online, spend a few extra minutes on the telephone checking with local stores. Not only can you find some bargains that way, you’ll be able to get your hands on the item you want almost instantly. Be sure, when comparing prices, to add in taxes and shipping cost – you want to know the final amount you’ll pay from either the online store or brick and mortar store downtown.
There are fake websites that offer unbelievable prices to lure you into their trap. They stay online long enough to make a number of “sales” then will fold their tents and disappear with your money. Obviously there also are some terrific small shops out there too. But, at the very least, spend some time making sure that new site is real. Here are so things to check – make sure it has a real street address listed rather than just an email address. Consider contacting the Better Business Bureau in the city where the site is headquartered to check its credentials. Also use Google to see if there are postings – good or bad – about the business. Even after all that, think twice before venturing into unknown waters.
If your own computer is infected with spyware, then a hacker can easily harvest your credit card information, banking data, or just about anything else.If you are looking for earcap for your bathroom walls. So it’s absolutely essential that you use a program (or separate programs) to check for viruses and spyware. It is almost certain, if you use an unprotected computer long enough,Have a look at all our customkeychain models starting at 59.90US$ with free proofing. that you’ll be hacked.
With online orders it’s always possible for a shipment to be delayed. It doesn’t happen often but will be times when the merchant won’t meet the promised delivery date. You can’t do much about that. But when you absolutely need to have the item on hand on some specific date, check with the online merchant to be sure that the item is in stock. I’ve seen cases where a product showed as in stock but it really wasn’t. Email or otherwise contact the merchant and ask specifically if it’s in stock when it’s important that you receive the item on a given date.
Chief Minister N Rangasamy inaugurated the scheme in presence of JIPMER Director Dr T S Ravikumar,Inspector General of Police R S Krishnia and legislator Tamailselvan.We sell 100% hand-painted bestluggagetag online.
Termed as “partners in prevention”, the programme will target preventable health conditions among police personnel who are serving the community at large for the safety and well being of the population.
As per the programme, the police personnel numbering around 3,000 in Puducherry have been issued Smart cards which contains 16 digit code numbers, specific to each individual, and a bar code, said Dr Anita Rastogi, Additional Medical Superintendent,The term 'bobbleheads control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. JIPMER, and coordinator of the wellness programme.
All the details of the personnel including basic details and their health records could be accessed through the smart card, even if the personnel is out of the country. It is a web-based service and the details can be accessed online.
The police personnel will be screened in batches of 30, twice a week (Wednesdays and Fridays) facilitating checkup for around 240 police personnel in a month, said Dr Anita Rastogi.
Thereafter those requiring further investigations will be referred to the particular department, depending on the disease.
The details of the patients would be audited every month to see whether the follow ups have been done properly, she said.
The goal of this wellness programme is to attain better health,wellness for the masses at an affordable cost, said Dr Ravikumar.
However, the wellness programme will take off in a big way only after the establishment of the School of Public Health, which will tie up with the other medical colleges, National Rural Health Mission, and other institutions of the state and central government, Dr Ravikumar told Express.
There will be different platforms for major diseases like cardiac diseases, cancer, from road traffic accidents to rape and people will be stratified according to the risks, he said.
2013年2月27日星期三
Council considers proposal to stay at church center to further mission
The church’s denominational offices would remain at the Episcopal Church Center in New York if the Executive Council accepts a recommendation it received Feb. 26 from a group of Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society executives.
Of four main scenarios analyzed, “God’s mission of reconciliation is best furthered” by remaining at 815 Second Ave. in Manhattan and consolidating DFMS operations at the church center to free up even more space to rent to outside tenants than the 3.5 floors that are currently leased out, a report to council says. This choice would be “in the organization’s best interests financially, both in terms of budget effect and for long-term investment purposes,” according to the report.
The DFMS, the church’s corporate entity, currently rents 2.5 floors to the Ad Council and one floor to Permanent Mission of Haiti to the United Nations. The church center has nine floors of office space.
The study began in February 2012, five months before General Convention met, when council’s Finances for Mission committee asked DFMS management to study the possible relocation of the church center.
The report said the group believes that “the real underlying energy in examining the location of the church center is less about its location and more about how it actually functions,” adding that the writers “could not be in greater agreement about the need to reform how the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society functions and serves the needs of the church, particularly as to fostering, encouraging, and supporting mission at the local level in partnership with local leadership.”
Calling the desire for relocation “only a mask for the real reform needed and called for,” the group asks “how long, we wonder, would it be before complaints about the isolation of the Church Center in New York would become complaints about the isolation of the Church Center in some other city?”
“Perhaps rather than shifting the locus of our communal anxiety from one site to another, we would be better served in the long run to use our best judgment to make a rational and strategic decision in the best interests of the church’s engagement of God’s mission and then clearly articulate that decision to the church.”
Episcopal Church Chief Operating Officer Bishop Stacy Sauls told the council that the question of relocating the church center is regularly asked. The first time was about eight years after the building began to be used, and the issue seems to return at the same interval, he said.
Sauls, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Kurt Barnes, Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Director of Mission Sam McDonald, Director of Human Resources John Colon and Legal Counsel Paul Nix, all members of the 10-person Executive Oversight Group, conducted the study that began last spring.
The study considered Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Minneapolis, Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia, Boston, Charlotte, Ft. Lauderdale and Cincinnati, as well as another location in New York as alternatives to the 50-year-old church center.
Later in the day, Nat Rockett, Cushman & Wakefield executive vice president, told the entire council that it is not unusual that his firm came to a different conclusion that the Executive Oversight Group because the real estate firm looked at a different, limited set of factors.
After the recommendation was presented, council discussed the conclusion during an executive session on the second day of council’s three-day winter meeting. The session was closed because part of the discussion of the group’s report involved proprietary information such as the anticipated per-square-foot market rental rate for the 11-story building and its presumed value on the Manhattan real estate market. That information will also be absent from the version of the report that is expected to be posted here Feb. 27.
Council took no action on the recommendation and Finances for Mission and Governance and Administration for Mission will take up the report at council’s June 8-10 meeting.
The Executive Oversight Group came to its unanimous conclusion, the report says, after analyzing five “mission considerations,” including the unity of the church, mission partnerships, continuation of services provided, promoting justice and maximizing financial resources for mission. The overall consideration, according to Sauls, was stewardship in terms of financial management of the church’s resources for mission.
“We question the prudence of such a disruption at precisely the time when the church is reforming itself to have an increasingly missional focus and the staff is most needed to facilitate, encourage, and lead the initiatives being implemented as part of the Marks of Mission Budget as adopted at the 2012 General Convention,” the writers say.
In addition, Episcopal Migration Ministries might be threatened by a move because it is unlikely many staffers would leave New York since resettlement jobs abound there. If a major loss of staff impacted EMM’s abilities to offer the services for which it receives government grants, the ministry might have to be discontinued, the report says.
The report expresses concern about leaving New York because of the laws that might be encountered elsewhere. Married same-sex couples would be forced to choose between their jobs and moving to a jurisdiction that did not recognize their marriages, the writers suggest. New York recognizes same-sex marriage.
“We wish to be clear that we, as management, will implement whatever needs to be done to serve the church, and further, that we believe the entire staff of the Church will exercise its best efforts to the same end,” the writers say. “However, we do wonder about the effect on our prophetic voice of the indiscriminate dismissal of staff in order to replace them with cheaper labor absent some persuasive, if not compelling reason, to do so.”
“As leaders in the church, we have a particular concern about the effect on our witness on the issue of marriage equality when some married persons employed by us would be forced to make a choice between keeping their jobs and having their marriages recognized.”
Of four main scenarios analyzed, “God’s mission of reconciliation is best furthered” by remaining at 815 Second Ave. in Manhattan and consolidating DFMS operations at the church center to free up even more space to rent to outside tenants than the 3.5 floors that are currently leased out, a report to council says. This choice would be “in the organization’s best interests financially, both in terms of budget effect and for long-term investment purposes,” according to the report.
The DFMS, the church’s corporate entity, currently rents 2.5 floors to the Ad Council and one floor to Permanent Mission of Haiti to the United Nations. The church center has nine floors of office space.
The study began in February 2012, five months before General Convention met, when council’s Finances for Mission committee asked DFMS management to study the possible relocation of the church center.
The report said the group believes that “the real underlying energy in examining the location of the church center is less about its location and more about how it actually functions,” adding that the writers “could not be in greater agreement about the need to reform how the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society functions and serves the needs of the church, particularly as to fostering, encouraging, and supporting mission at the local level in partnership with local leadership.”
Calling the desire for relocation “only a mask for the real reform needed and called for,” the group asks “how long, we wonder, would it be before complaints about the isolation of the Church Center in New York would become complaints about the isolation of the Church Center in some other city?”
“Perhaps rather than shifting the locus of our communal anxiety from one site to another, we would be better served in the long run to use our best judgment to make a rational and strategic decision in the best interests of the church’s engagement of God’s mission and then clearly articulate that decision to the church.”
Episcopal Church Chief Operating Officer Bishop Stacy Sauls told the council that the question of relocating the church center is regularly asked. The first time was about eight years after the building began to be used, and the issue seems to return at the same interval, he said.
Sauls, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Kurt Barnes, Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Director of Mission Sam McDonald, Director of Human Resources John Colon and Legal Counsel Paul Nix, all members of the 10-person Executive Oversight Group, conducted the study that began last spring.
The study considered Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Minneapolis, Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia, Boston, Charlotte, Ft. Lauderdale and Cincinnati, as well as another location in New York as alternatives to the 50-year-old church center.
Later in the day, Nat Rockett, Cushman & Wakefield executive vice president, told the entire council that it is not unusual that his firm came to a different conclusion that the Executive Oversight Group because the real estate firm looked at a different, limited set of factors.
After the recommendation was presented, council discussed the conclusion during an executive session on the second day of council’s three-day winter meeting. The session was closed because part of the discussion of the group’s report involved proprietary information such as the anticipated per-square-foot market rental rate for the 11-story building and its presumed value on the Manhattan real estate market. That information will also be absent from the version of the report that is expected to be posted here Feb. 27.
Council took no action on the recommendation and Finances for Mission and Governance and Administration for Mission will take up the report at council’s June 8-10 meeting.
The Executive Oversight Group came to its unanimous conclusion, the report says, after analyzing five “mission considerations,” including the unity of the church, mission partnerships, continuation of services provided, promoting justice and maximizing financial resources for mission. The overall consideration, according to Sauls, was stewardship in terms of financial management of the church’s resources for mission.
“We question the prudence of such a disruption at precisely the time when the church is reforming itself to have an increasingly missional focus and the staff is most needed to facilitate, encourage, and lead the initiatives being implemented as part of the Marks of Mission Budget as adopted at the 2012 General Convention,” the writers say.
In addition, Episcopal Migration Ministries might be threatened by a move because it is unlikely many staffers would leave New York since resettlement jobs abound there. If a major loss of staff impacted EMM’s abilities to offer the services for which it receives government grants, the ministry might have to be discontinued, the report says.
The report expresses concern about leaving New York because of the laws that might be encountered elsewhere. Married same-sex couples would be forced to choose between their jobs and moving to a jurisdiction that did not recognize their marriages, the writers suggest. New York recognizes same-sex marriage.
“We wish to be clear that we, as management, will implement whatever needs to be done to serve the church, and further, that we believe the entire staff of the Church will exercise its best efforts to the same end,” the writers say. “However, we do wonder about the effect on our prophetic voice of the indiscriminate dismissal of staff in order to replace them with cheaper labor absent some persuasive, if not compelling reason, to do so.”
“As leaders in the church, we have a particular concern about the effect on our witness on the issue of marriage equality when some married persons employed by us would be forced to make a choice between keeping their jobs and having their marriages recognized.”
2012年9月26日星期三
A Map App, as Sleek as iPhone 5, Is Often Off
The GPS navigation screen was clean, bold and distraction-free. The voice instructions spoke the actual street names. The prompts gave me just the right amount of time to prepare for each turn.
There was only one problem: When the app told me that I had arrived, I was sitting in a random suburban cul-de-sac. Children were playing in the front yard, the sky was a crisp blue, and I was late for my talk.
As almost everyone knows by now, that’s not an unusual tale. Horror stories about Apple’s maps — and ridicule — are flooding the Internet.
The iPhone’s old mapping app was powered by Google. But in the new iOS 6 software for iPhones and iPads, Apple replaced Google’s maps with its own, built from scratch.
Unfortunately, in this new app, the Washington Monument has been moved to a new spot across the street. The closest thing Maps can find for “Dulles Airport” is “Dulles Airport Taxi.” Search for Cleveland, Ga., and you’ll wind up right smack in Cleveland, Tenn. Riverside Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., is in the right place but the wrong decade; it became a Publix supermarket 11 years ago.
And on, and on, and on. Entire lakes, train stations, bridges and tourist attractions have been moved, mislabeled or simply erased. Satellite photo views consist of stitched-together scenes from completely different seasons, weather conditions and even years. The point-of-interest data, in particular, seems to be incomplete or flaky, especially overseas.
The most stunning new feature, Flyover, offers interactive, photorealistic 3-D models of major cities — but some scenes have gone horribly wrong. The Brooklyn Bridge has melted into the river, the road to the Hoover Dam plunges straight down into a canyon and Auckland’s main train station is in the middle of the sea.
In short, Maps is an appalling first release. It may be the most embarrassing, least usable piece of software Apple has ever unleashed.
Yes, it adds spoken turn-by-turn directions, auto-rerouting and a 3-D view of your route, all of which the old app lacked. Its design is elegant, smart and attractive. Flyover is neat. And Maps works beautifully with Siri; setting a destination is as easy as saying, “Give me directions to the White House,” and off you go. The spoken instructions continue even if you turn off the screen.
But Maps is missing Street View, which lets you see street-level photos of any address (it has taken Google’s photo cars five million miles of driving through 3,000 cities in 40 countries to build it). It’s also missing public transportation guidance; where Google’s maps could show you what buses or subways to take, the new app just hands you off to a list of independent bus and train schedule apps.
And while you’re navigating, you can’t zoom out from that spare, elegant routing screen to look ahead at your itinerary — to pick a better route on your own, for example. You can tap an Overview button for that kind of map, but now you’re flipping between two displays.
As the magnitude of Mapplegate became clearer, I had three questions.
First, why did Apple jettison Google’s map service, which is polished and mature? Second, how did Apple and its squad of perfectionists misfire so badly? Third, what exactly is the underlying problem, and how long will it take to fix?
First, why Apple dropped the old version: Google, it says, was saving all the best features for phones that run its Android software. For example, the iPhone app never got spoken directions or vector maps (smooth lines, not tiles of pixels), long after those features had come to rival phones.
The even greater issue may be data. Every time you use Google’s maps, you’re sending data from your phone to Google. That information — how you’re using maps, where you’re going, which roads actually exist — is extremely valuable; it can be used to improve both the maps and Google’s ability to deliver location-based offers and advertising.
Apple, of late, has been disentangling itself from Google.So when it came time to renew its contract, Apple declined. It was no longer interested in supplying so much valuable user data to its rival.
There was only one problem: When the app told me that I had arrived, I was sitting in a random suburban cul-de-sac. Children were playing in the front yard, the sky was a crisp blue, and I was late for my talk.
As almost everyone knows by now, that’s not an unusual tale. Horror stories about Apple’s maps — and ridicule — are flooding the Internet.
The iPhone’s old mapping app was powered by Google. But in the new iOS 6 software for iPhones and iPads, Apple replaced Google’s maps with its own, built from scratch.
Unfortunately, in this new app, the Washington Monument has been moved to a new spot across the street. The closest thing Maps can find for “Dulles Airport” is “Dulles Airport Taxi.” Search for Cleveland, Ga., and you’ll wind up right smack in Cleveland, Tenn. Riverside Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., is in the right place but the wrong decade; it became a Publix supermarket 11 years ago.
And on, and on, and on. Entire lakes, train stations, bridges and tourist attractions have been moved, mislabeled or simply erased. Satellite photo views consist of stitched-together scenes from completely different seasons, weather conditions and even years. The point-of-interest data, in particular, seems to be incomplete or flaky, especially overseas.
The most stunning new feature, Flyover, offers interactive, photorealistic 3-D models of major cities — but some scenes have gone horribly wrong. The Brooklyn Bridge has melted into the river, the road to the Hoover Dam plunges straight down into a canyon and Auckland’s main train station is in the middle of the sea.
In short, Maps is an appalling first release. It may be the most embarrassing, least usable piece of software Apple has ever unleashed.
Yes, it adds spoken turn-by-turn directions, auto-rerouting and a 3-D view of your route, all of which the old app lacked. Its design is elegant, smart and attractive. Flyover is neat. And Maps works beautifully with Siri; setting a destination is as easy as saying, “Give me directions to the White House,” and off you go. The spoken instructions continue even if you turn off the screen.
But Maps is missing Street View, which lets you see street-level photos of any address (it has taken Google’s photo cars five million miles of driving through 3,000 cities in 40 countries to build it). It’s also missing public transportation guidance; where Google’s maps could show you what buses or subways to take, the new app just hands you off to a list of independent bus and train schedule apps.
And while you’re navigating, you can’t zoom out from that spare, elegant routing screen to look ahead at your itinerary — to pick a better route on your own, for example. You can tap an Overview button for that kind of map, but now you’re flipping between two displays.
As the magnitude of Mapplegate became clearer, I had three questions.
First, why did Apple jettison Google’s map service, which is polished and mature? Second, how did Apple and its squad of perfectionists misfire so badly? Third, what exactly is the underlying problem, and how long will it take to fix?
First, why Apple dropped the old version: Google, it says, was saving all the best features for phones that run its Android software. For example, the iPhone app never got spoken directions or vector maps (smooth lines, not tiles of pixels), long after those features had come to rival phones.
The even greater issue may be data. Every time you use Google’s maps, you’re sending data from your phone to Google. That information — how you’re using maps, where you’re going, which roads actually exist — is extremely valuable; it can be used to improve both the maps and Google’s ability to deliver location-based offers and advertising.
Apple, of late, has been disentangling itself from Google.So when it came time to renew its contract, Apple declined. It was no longer interested in supplying so much valuable user data to its rival.
2012年8月5日星期日
Ken Clark
Among his greatest triumphs was recreating the red lustre acclimated a aeon beforehand by the potter-novelist William De Morgan. This arose from a agency for red tiles by the blur administrator Michael Winner. Clark went on to appreciate the secrets of De Morgan’s added glazes, including those of Islamic agent which had been about absolutely absent amid the backward Middle Ages and De Morgan’s rediscovering them in the 1870s.
Such abilities brought Clark commissions from added patrons, whose celebrity could bout the lustre of his own tiles. Socially, his consummate accomplishment was to carbon the Windsor Castle dairy’s tiles afterward the adverse blaze there of 1992. He aswell fabricated copious adorning ceramics for the Sultanate of Oman.
Artistically, he abutting his contemporaries’ apostasy adjoin the Bernard Leach academy of gentlemanly, aerial colours, substituting for them a ablaze bright anarchism aggressive by Picasso’s and Matisse’s plan on affectation in the South of France, which he visited on his amusement aloft a Vespa scooter, with his new wife benumbed pillion.
Kenneth Inman Carr Clark was built-in on July 31 1922 in Nelson, New Zealand, the additional son of Aubrey Clark, a farms inspector. The “Carr” actual his 18th-century antecedent John Carr of York, artist of the Crescent at Buxton and of Harewood House.
At Nelson College, New Zealand’s oldest school, Ken won several cartoon prizes. Ill health, again the war, concise his education. He initially abutting the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, but transferred to the Royal Navy, demography allotment in the 1944 Normandy landings, of which he fabricated superb drawings. He was mentioned in despatches.
Clark backward on in Britain, enrolling at the Slade, area he was accomplished by Stanley Spencer. In 1953 he founded Kenneth Clark Pottery, calm with his wife-to-be Ann Wynn-Reeves, whom he affiliated the afterward year. The firm’s bounds on Clipstone Street, Fitzrovia, were area Vanessa Bell had created her pottery.
He advised items for the Denby Ware and Bristol ranges of domiciliary crockery. Backward in activity he concentrated on breeding Arts and Crafts tiles advised not just by De Morgan but aswell by William Morris and the artist Philip Webb. Ann, however, was the firm’s arch artist of motifs and adorning emblems, Clark application them to animate its basal bowl lines.
The firm’s account of clandestine assemblage included John Cleese , David Attenborough , Ben Kingsley, and Felicity Lott. Wayne Sleep, on getting asked what adumbration of dejected he capital for his asphalt commission, told Clark: “the colour of your eyes”.
In the backward Seventies, Sir Ralph Richardson had a allotment in a West End play acute him to alcohol amaranthine cups of coffee. This, if undertaken faithfully, would accept artificial the accouterments of a man Sir Ralph’s age. Clark anesthetized a coffee cup amber central to accomplish it attending assuredly topped-up.
Nor were institutional and accumulated audience lacking. For the accountants Arthur Andersen, Kenneth Clark Ceramics created a all-inclusive abatement mural in the company’s London headquarters. Perhaps Clark’s outstanding accomplishment in affair commissions was the reproduction of Islamic adorning tiles for the acclaimed Debenham House abreast Holland Park.
Such abilities brought Clark commissions from added patrons, whose celebrity could bout the lustre of his own tiles. Socially, his consummate accomplishment was to carbon the Windsor Castle dairy’s tiles afterward the adverse blaze there of 1992. He aswell fabricated copious adorning ceramics for the Sultanate of Oman.
Artistically, he abutting his contemporaries’ apostasy adjoin the Bernard Leach academy of gentlemanly, aerial colours, substituting for them a ablaze bright anarchism aggressive by Picasso’s and Matisse’s plan on affectation in the South of France, which he visited on his amusement aloft a Vespa scooter, with his new wife benumbed pillion.
Kenneth Inman Carr Clark was built-in on July 31 1922 in Nelson, New Zealand, the additional son of Aubrey Clark, a farms inspector. The “Carr” actual his 18th-century antecedent John Carr of York, artist of the Crescent at Buxton and of Harewood House.
At Nelson College, New Zealand’s oldest school, Ken won several cartoon prizes. Ill health, again the war, concise his education. He initially abutting the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, but transferred to the Royal Navy, demography allotment in the 1944 Normandy landings, of which he fabricated superb drawings. He was mentioned in despatches.
Clark backward on in Britain, enrolling at the Slade, area he was accomplished by Stanley Spencer. In 1953 he founded Kenneth Clark Pottery, calm with his wife-to-be Ann Wynn-Reeves, whom he affiliated the afterward year. The firm’s bounds on Clipstone Street, Fitzrovia, were area Vanessa Bell had created her pottery.
He advised items for the Denby Ware and Bristol ranges of domiciliary crockery. Backward in activity he concentrated on breeding Arts and Crafts tiles advised not just by De Morgan but aswell by William Morris and the artist Philip Webb. Ann, however, was the firm’s arch artist of motifs and adorning emblems, Clark application them to animate its basal bowl lines.
The firm’s account of clandestine assemblage included John Cleese , David Attenborough , Ben Kingsley, and Felicity Lott. Wayne Sleep, on getting asked what adumbration of dejected he capital for his asphalt commission, told Clark: “the colour of your eyes”.
In the backward Seventies, Sir Ralph Richardson had a allotment in a West End play acute him to alcohol amaranthine cups of coffee. This, if undertaken faithfully, would accept artificial the accouterments of a man Sir Ralph’s age. Clark anesthetized a coffee cup amber central to accomplish it attending assuredly topped-up.
Nor were institutional and accumulated audience lacking. For the accountants Arthur Andersen, Kenneth Clark Ceramics created a all-inclusive abatement mural in the company’s London headquarters. Perhaps Clark’s outstanding accomplishment in affair commissions was the reproduction of Islamic adorning tiles for the acclaimed Debenham House abreast Holland Park.
2012年7月4日星期三
Designer Chosen for Chiasso Furnished Archetypal in Fiddler’s Creek
Horton has called One of a Kind Architectonics Inc. as the autogenous architectonics close for its archetypal home at Chiasso, a apple of 59 single-family residences amidst lakes and waterways in Fiddler’s Creek.
The aggregation at One of a Kind Architectonics will absolutely accouter the archetypal to highlight celebrated living, administering amplitude planning, actual specification, autogenous account and appliance acquisition.
The activity will be led by Mercedes Lopez, architect and admiral of One of a Kind Design. An accomplished autogenous designer, Lopez founded the full-service close in Fort Lauderdale in 1991.
Located aural the Veneta breadth at Fiddler’s Creek, the apple of Chiasso will affection four different attic plans, alignment from 2,583 air-conditioned aboveboard anxiety to 3,522 air-conditioned aboveboard feet. The absolutely furnished Washington archetypal home encompasses 2,788 air-conditioned aboveboard feet. It has three bedrooms, 3.5 baths, den and two-car garage. The starting amount for the Washington is $509,990.
The active breadth in the Washington offers a adorable alloy of appearance for absorbing ancestors and friends, including a gourmet kitchen with eat-in bar, ample abundant allowance and lanai, agreeable courtyard entry, and able amplitude for an alternative pond pool. Molding data were added added to the autogenous walls to enhance amplitude and add anamnesis credibility to the residence.
Each abode aural Chiasso will affection classical Mediterranean architectonics and be congenital of structurally engineered able accurate block bank construction. Each home will accept brick paver drives and a two- or three-car garage. Autogenous architectonics appearance will cover a affluence kitchen with granite adverse acme and cabinets with adorning finishes; artist ablution accessories and able marble countertops; bowl asphalt flooring; and a amount of activity extenuative features.
Located just off Collier Boulevard amid Naples and Marco Island, Fiddler’s Creek is an award-winning association that has afresh been called by the readers of the Naples Daily News and Bonita Daily News as “Best Community” in the 2012 Southwest Florida Readers’ Choice Awards.
The luxury, master-planned association comprises of about 4,000 acreage and is benumbed for 6,000 residences. With about 1,700 residences completed, Fiddler’s Creek has about 4,300 residences yet to be built. With a actual low body akin of 1.6 homes per gross acre, the association will accept about 100 audible neighborhoods aloft completion. Less than a third of Fiddler’s Creek will be developed for residential use, while the butt of the acreage is committed primarily to attributes reserves, lakes, parks, golf courses and recreational areas.
Amenities cover the 54,000-square-foot Club & Spa, Fitness Center, Multi-Pool Pond Complex, Tennis Courts, Tot Lot and Restaurants. Residents aswell accept the befalling to accompany The Golf Club, and The Tarpon Club, alms the befalling for a bank and canoeing lifestyle.
The aggregation at One of a Kind Architectonics will absolutely accouter the archetypal to highlight celebrated living, administering amplitude planning, actual specification, autogenous account and appliance acquisition.
The activity will be led by Mercedes Lopez, architect and admiral of One of a Kind Design. An accomplished autogenous designer, Lopez founded the full-service close in Fort Lauderdale in 1991.
Located aural the Veneta breadth at Fiddler’s Creek, the apple of Chiasso will affection four different attic plans, alignment from 2,583 air-conditioned aboveboard anxiety to 3,522 air-conditioned aboveboard feet. The absolutely furnished Washington archetypal home encompasses 2,788 air-conditioned aboveboard feet. It has three bedrooms, 3.5 baths, den and two-car garage. The starting amount for the Washington is $509,990.
The active breadth in the Washington offers a adorable alloy of appearance for absorbing ancestors and friends, including a gourmet kitchen with eat-in bar, ample abundant allowance and lanai, agreeable courtyard entry, and able amplitude for an alternative pond pool. Molding data were added added to the autogenous walls to enhance amplitude and add anamnesis credibility to the residence.
Each abode aural Chiasso will affection classical Mediterranean architectonics and be congenital of structurally engineered able accurate block bank construction. Each home will accept brick paver drives and a two- or three-car garage. Autogenous architectonics appearance will cover a affluence kitchen with granite adverse acme and cabinets with adorning finishes; artist ablution accessories and able marble countertops; bowl asphalt flooring; and a amount of activity extenuative features.
Located just off Collier Boulevard amid Naples and Marco Island, Fiddler’s Creek is an award-winning association that has afresh been called by the readers of the Naples Daily News and Bonita Daily News as “Best Community” in the 2012 Southwest Florida Readers’ Choice Awards.
The luxury, master-planned association comprises of about 4,000 acreage and is benumbed for 6,000 residences. With about 1,700 residences completed, Fiddler’s Creek has about 4,300 residences yet to be built. With a actual low body akin of 1.6 homes per gross acre, the association will accept about 100 audible neighborhoods aloft completion. Less than a third of Fiddler’s Creek will be developed for residential use, while the butt of the acreage is committed primarily to attributes reserves, lakes, parks, golf courses and recreational areas.
Amenities cover the 54,000-square-foot Club & Spa, Fitness Center, Multi-Pool Pond Complex, Tennis Courts, Tot Lot and Restaurants. Residents aswell accept the befalling to accompany The Golf Club, and The Tarpon Club, alms the befalling for a bank and canoeing lifestyle.
2011年9月26日星期一
Visalia's business Olympics brings workers together
Forget those 49ers. Visalia Ceramic Tile employees have a lot more to talk about around the water cooler today after winning the fourth annual Visalia Corporate Games.
The 10-day event, which wrapped up Friday, is designed to boost morale and help employees get to know each other outside the formal work atmosphere, said Michelle Fitzgerald, Visalia parks and recreation supervisor.
With competitions including tug of war and obstacle courses, as well as volleyball and Texas hold 'em, the city tries to provide something for everyone, whether or not they are an athlete.
"Adults don't get to do these types of things very often. It's our own little Olympics in Visalia," Fitzgerald said.
And it's just like the big games, right down to the gold and silver medals awarded for each activity.
The only requirements are to be a business in Visalia and to pay the $500 registration fee, which includes entry in all 20 competitions and pays for 10 days of friendly competition.
While the overall champion gets bragging rights and a trophy, everyone becomes a winner in a different sense, Fitzgerald said.
"You see and hear stories about people who feel
they've been brought closer together by this," Fitzgerald said. "Maybe they shot an email back and forth or spoke on the phone, but they never met face-to-face until this."
While some of the larger competitors, such the Visalia Unified School District and Kaweah Delta Health District, have 500 to 600 people on their teams, other companies may only have 15.
But they have the same number competing in each event to keep all things equal, Fitzgerald said.
Events are held in different locations throughout the city to help boost community spirit and local business, she said.
When the Rock Band 3 competition was held Thursday night at Howie & Son's Pizza Parlor, participants dressed in crazy wigs, wild garb and fake tattoos while more than 200 people crammed in to watch.
"People coming in for pizza would go, 'Whoa! What's going on here?'," Fitzgerald said with a laugh.
The fall event has been so successful that with 14 teams competing in 2011, it has more than doubled in size since it started in 2008.
Fitzgerald would like to see it reach 20 teams so the competition can divide into large and small business divisions, but said it is already so successful that some businesses are fielding teams for other things outside work, such as the recreation department's volleyball league.
In addition to the grand winner, the Inspirational Peer award — chosen from teams nominated by each company — was won by Pacific Southwest Container.
The most sportsmanship team award, chosen by a panel from parks and recreation, was won by Visalia Ceramic Tile.
The 10-day event, which wrapped up Friday, is designed to boost morale and help employees get to know each other outside the formal work atmosphere, said Michelle Fitzgerald, Visalia parks and recreation supervisor.
With competitions including tug of war and obstacle courses, as well as volleyball and Texas hold 'em, the city tries to provide something for everyone, whether or not they are an athlete.
"Adults don't get to do these types of things very often. It's our own little Olympics in Visalia," Fitzgerald said.
And it's just like the big games, right down to the gold and silver medals awarded for each activity.
The only requirements are to be a business in Visalia and to pay the $500 registration fee, which includes entry in all 20 competitions and pays for 10 days of friendly competition.
While the overall champion gets bragging rights and a trophy, everyone becomes a winner in a different sense, Fitzgerald said.
"You see and hear stories about people who feel
they've been brought closer together by this," Fitzgerald said. "Maybe they shot an email back and forth or spoke on the phone, but they never met face-to-face until this."
While some of the larger competitors, such the Visalia Unified School District and Kaweah Delta Health District, have 500 to 600 people on their teams, other companies may only have 15.
But they have the same number competing in each event to keep all things equal, Fitzgerald said.
Events are held in different locations throughout the city to help boost community spirit and local business, she said.
When the Rock Band 3 competition was held Thursday night at Howie & Son's Pizza Parlor, participants dressed in crazy wigs, wild garb and fake tattoos while more than 200 people crammed in to watch.
"People coming in for pizza would go, 'Whoa! What's going on here?'," Fitzgerald said with a laugh.
The fall event has been so successful that with 14 teams competing in 2011, it has more than doubled in size since it started in 2008.
Fitzgerald would like to see it reach 20 teams so the competition can divide into large and small business divisions, but said it is already so successful that some businesses are fielding teams for other things outside work, such as the recreation department's volleyball league.
In addition to the grand winner, the Inspirational Peer award — chosen from teams nominated by each company — was won by Pacific Southwest Container.
The most sportsmanship team award, chosen by a panel from parks and recreation, was won by Visalia Ceramic Tile.
2011年5月2日星期一
10 worst car names--plus six more
In the car name game, there are winners and there are losers. Our friends at Hagerty Insurance recently posted their vote for the 10 worst car names. We took it upon ourselves to critique that list and add six of our own contenders. Got an entry of your own? Drop it in the Comments section.
1. Mohs Ostentatienne Opera Sedan: The MOOS, as it should have been called, could win for one of the ugliest cars on the list, too. The Opera Sedan could only be entered from a rear hatch, leaving the side doors as mainly a conversation piece.
2. Zimmer Quicksilver: Although quicksilver is an antiquated word for mercury, which causes cancer and a host of other ailments, we think it's actually not a bad name for a car. It definitely sounds fast, and shiny. Of course, saying "I just bought a silver Zimmer Quicksilver" doesn't really roll off the tongue.
3. Studebaker Dictator: Fortunately for Studebaker, the Dictator was produced in the 1920s and '30s, before the word had such a negative connotation. Unfortunately, it's now the answer to the question WWFD--what would Fidel drive?
4. Geely Beauty Leopard: Because of a fuzzy translation--and the words "beauty" and "leopard" just not meshing well--the compact Geely's name is slightly more impressive than the car. Other choices were the Geely Happy Fun Time and the Geely Amazing Fast Car.
5. Mitsubishi MAUS (Mini Active Urban Sandal): Introduced at the Tokyo motor show in 1995, the MAUS really wasn't heard from after that. Whether it conjures images of hippies in hemp shoes or pantry rodents, it's all bad for Mitsubishi.
6. Isuzu Mysterious Utility Wizard: This is the actual name of an SUV that debuted in Japan in 1991. At least if it was the Mysterious Utility Vehicle, it could have been a MUV, which would have been a little funny. As it stands, it seems to be another wobbly translation to an Americanized name.
7. Honda That's: Honda's rationale for the name was that it wanted people to see the car and exclaim, "That's it!" It was probably more like, "That's um . . . what?" The That's was, until 2007, a 0.65-liter Kei car shaped like the Nissan Cube.
8. Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear: This is not a piece of steel to fix your broken rocket ship: "We need a new Delica Space Gear or we won't be able to get through the atmosphere." Or new sneakers that will let you jump into orbit--"Just got a pair of the new Space Gears; cost me 300 bucks." It's just another in a long line of names like Starion, Cordia and Tredia.
9. Datsun Fairlady: We really don't mind the name Fairlady. The 50 years of performance have blinded us to the absurdity of the fact than Nissan actually named the car after the musical My Fair Lady.
10. Mazda Bongo Friendee: Another name that could double for a Japanese TV show, the Bongo Friendee was a minivan you could stuff full of . . . Friendees.
Here are five also-rans from AutoWeek that we think should have made the top 10:
1. Pontiac Aztek: Because no list of ugly cars or worst car names would be authentic without it. Name your car for a long-dead civilization, misspell that name and sell it with a tent. Marketing gold.
2. Audi E-tron Concept: The Audi has nothing to be ashamed of with the looks of its electric E-tron. It looks like a smaller, battery-powered R8. Unfortunately, after the car debuted, the French translation became clear. Étron roughly means "a lump of excrement."
3. Dodge Diplomat: The Diplomat is different from the dictator for several reasons. First, a dictator might have actually driven a Dictator. A diplomat has never driven a Dodge Diplomat. Also, there will be no talk of diplomatic immunity in a Dodge; any crime you commit will be yours and yours alone, including driving a Diplomat. The only other interesting thing about the hapless Dippy was that it was used for police cars for a short time.
4. Volugrafo Bimbo: Designer Claudio Belmondo named the Bimbo after the Italian word for baby. The 125-cc vehicle has quite a different connotation in the States--not to mention that the last thing you'll be picking up in the near-toy car is people of the opposite sex.
5. Ford Aspire: The last thing the renamed Festiva will do is get better. The uninspired hatchback was a joint project by Ford and Kia. It lived in Ford's stable for a few years as the Aspire and as the Kia Avella before being dropped. It did have the lofty aspirations to be the first car in its class to feature dual front airbags and optional four-wheel antilock brakes, and for that we thank you.
6. Anything alphanumeric: R8. X5. CTS-V. Some of our favorite rides, but the marketing teams couldn't even muster the creativity to give them proper names. It's the automotive equivalent of a forfeit.
1. Mohs Ostentatienne Opera Sedan: The MOOS, as it should have been called, could win for one of the ugliest cars on the list, too. The Opera Sedan could only be entered from a rear hatch, leaving the side doors as mainly a conversation piece.
2. Zimmer Quicksilver: Although quicksilver is an antiquated word for mercury, which causes cancer and a host of other ailments, we think it's actually not a bad name for a car. It definitely sounds fast, and shiny. Of course, saying "I just bought a silver Zimmer Quicksilver" doesn't really roll off the tongue.
3. Studebaker Dictator: Fortunately for Studebaker, the Dictator was produced in the 1920s and '30s, before the word had such a negative connotation. Unfortunately, it's now the answer to the question WWFD--what would Fidel drive?
4. Geely Beauty Leopard: Because of a fuzzy translation--and the words "beauty" and "leopard" just not meshing well--the compact Geely's name is slightly more impressive than the car. Other choices were the Geely Happy Fun Time and the Geely Amazing Fast Car.
5. Mitsubishi MAUS (Mini Active Urban Sandal): Introduced at the Tokyo motor show in 1995, the MAUS really wasn't heard from after that. Whether it conjures images of hippies in hemp shoes or pantry rodents, it's all bad for Mitsubishi.
6. Isuzu Mysterious Utility Wizard: This is the actual name of an SUV that debuted in Japan in 1991. At least if it was the Mysterious Utility Vehicle, it could have been a MUV, which would have been a little funny. As it stands, it seems to be another wobbly translation to an Americanized name.
7. Honda That's: Honda's rationale for the name was that it wanted people to see the car and exclaim, "That's it!" It was probably more like, "That's um . . . what?" The That's was, until 2007, a 0.65-liter Kei car shaped like the Nissan Cube.
8. Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear: This is not a piece of steel to fix your broken rocket ship: "We need a new Delica Space Gear or we won't be able to get through the atmosphere." Or new sneakers that will let you jump into orbit--"Just got a pair of the new Space Gears; cost me 300 bucks." It's just another in a long line of names like Starion, Cordia and Tredia.
9. Datsun Fairlady: We really don't mind the name Fairlady. The 50 years of performance have blinded us to the absurdity of the fact than Nissan actually named the car after the musical My Fair Lady.
10. Mazda Bongo Friendee: Another name that could double for a Japanese TV show, the Bongo Friendee was a minivan you could stuff full of . . . Friendees.
Here are five also-rans from AutoWeek that we think should have made the top 10:
1. Pontiac Aztek: Because no list of ugly cars or worst car names would be authentic without it. Name your car for a long-dead civilization, misspell that name and sell it with a tent. Marketing gold.
2. Audi E-tron Concept: The Audi has nothing to be ashamed of with the looks of its electric E-tron. It looks like a smaller, battery-powered R8. Unfortunately, after the car debuted, the French translation became clear. Étron roughly means "a lump of excrement."
3. Dodge Diplomat: The Diplomat is different from the dictator for several reasons. First, a dictator might have actually driven a Dictator. A diplomat has never driven a Dodge Diplomat. Also, there will be no talk of diplomatic immunity in a Dodge; any crime you commit will be yours and yours alone, including driving a Diplomat. The only other interesting thing about the hapless Dippy was that it was used for police cars for a short time.
4. Volugrafo Bimbo: Designer Claudio Belmondo named the Bimbo after the Italian word for baby. The 125-cc vehicle has quite a different connotation in the States--not to mention that the last thing you'll be picking up in the near-toy car is people of the opposite sex.
5. Ford Aspire: The last thing the renamed Festiva will do is get better. The uninspired hatchback was a joint project by Ford and Kia. It lived in Ford's stable for a few years as the Aspire and as the Kia Avella before being dropped. It did have the lofty aspirations to be the first car in its class to feature dual front airbags and optional four-wheel antilock brakes, and for that we thank you.
6. Anything alphanumeric: R8. X5. CTS-V. Some of our favorite rides, but the marketing teams couldn't even muster the creativity to give them proper names. It's the automotive equivalent of a forfeit.
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