2013年2月19日星期二

Campus students get debit card deal

“Basically, it’s a card that allows students to get discounts of an average of Sh300 once they sign up and begin using it. Once you get the card, you load it up and start using it and the advantage is that you won’t be paying the same prices for products as everyone else in the country,” he explained.

Topping up the card can be done at any Chase Bank Branch as well as through M-Pesa and Airtel Money at no additional cost and Odhiambo added, that the card also acts as an ID card for all UNISCOO members.

He explained that big companies and corporations such as Chase Bank are looking to be part of this initiative in order to build a loyal base of young, impressionable consumers.

“Part of the logic is loyalty. As you know, university students make up medium income earners in the country.How would you like to have a personalized bobbleheads of yourself. In five years, these students will have their own money and options on how they want to spend it in the market,” he said.

“If someone has been loyal for four years to a brand or institution, after they finish school, they will remain loyal customers and consumers,” he emphasised.

Assistant General Manager at Chase Bank John Fernandez noted that the UNISCOO card is a unique and target specific card that is powered by MasterCard as a tool of empowerment in order to provide financial freedom to every young person that craves it.

“The bank intends to launch many more youth oriented products that will not only provide a financial platform for the youth to becomes tomorrow’s leaders, but also products that address their lifestyle issues today,” he added.

With the UNISCOO pre-paid MasterCard card, students will have access to discounts at partner outlets such as; Nakumatt, Imax cinema, Uchumi, Ashley’s Salon and BarberShop, Text Book Centre, Samsung, Dixons, Bidco,Sol provides the world with high-performance solar roadway and solar street light solutions. Bata, ChickKing and PhoneExpress.

MasterCard East Africa and Indian Ocean Islands Vice President James Wainaina said that the UNISCOO card is about convenience, lifestyle, an identity and above all,Learn more about the different types of laser marking machine by careel-tech.com. inclusion; which is why card holders will be able to not only enjoy efficient payments and safe, easy access to their money, but also the added value of partnerships with entertainment, retail, education, technology and even grooming providers.

"As far as financial and stuff like that, I've been blessed with great sponsors, and I've been smart with my money, and I have a good team supporting me. That's not an issue for me. The thing for me is knowing you're only as good as your last fight, and my last fight was crap."

Schaub, a finalist on "The Ultimate Fighter 10," finished his reality-series run with four-straight wins in the UFC after downing Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, Gabriel Gonzaga, Chris Tuchscherer and Chase Gormley. However, back-to-back first-round losses to Ben Rothwell and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira led Schaub to move to Los Angeles in hopes of getting a few fresh looks in training.There are generally three different configurations of industrial laser cutting machine.

He was set to return to action this past December against the hard-hitting Lavar Johnson (17-6 MMA, 2-1 UFC), but the Strikeforce import suffered an injury late in training camp and the bout was scrapped.

The bout was later rescheduled for this week's UFC 157 event, which takes place at Honda Center in Anaheim,A card with an embedded IC (Integrated Circuit) is called an IC card. Calif. The pair meets on the FX-broadcast prelims, which precede the evening's pay-per-view main card.

Schaub said the delay has been a little difficult, largely because he can't wait to step foot again in the cage.

"It's been a long time," Schaub said. "The fight with Lavar has been kind of an ongoing process. I'm not going to lie to you, it's been a beast. I live in L.A., and I do my camps in Denver, at least the last part of it, so I've been going back and forth between L.A. and Denver."

When the two finally do set foot in the octagon, it's not likely to be a lengthy affair. Both are known for an attack-first style, and they've combined for 22 knockouts in 25 total career wins.

"The judges, they can go on their coffee break or do whatever they do on their off time," Schaub said. "I guarantee you this one's not going to a decision."

The Catalysts for near Field Communication

NFC sessions will take place in each of the six tracks, The Wallet War, Securing Mobile Payments and Services, EMV Implementation & Financial Services, Electronic ID for a Secure Identity, Commerce Convergence: Going Mobile and EMV and Security, over the first two days of the conference, with a half-day track devoted exclusively to NFC: Not Only Payment on April 25. On April 23, CARTES America will host sessions on US NFC Implementation Actions and Results,A card with an embedded IC (Integrated Circuit) is called an IC card. EMV, NFC and Mobile Implementations, The Convergence of EMV and NFC, as well as case studies on European NFC implementations. NFC sessions on April 24 will include Managing Secure Digital Mobile Identities, Mobile and NFC: Smart Implementation Strategies and From Classic EMV Cards to NFC and Stickers.

The United States market for smartphones which can be used as mobile wallets is likely to increase by a factor of 17.8 from 2012 to 2016. That would mean the market would more than double in size every year. The smart money appears to back NFC as the dominant technology for mobile wallets, according to M for Mobile.

“NFC is the focus of a lot of attention and holds promise in a range of applications from contactless payment to ticketing and access control,” said Isabelle Alfano, event director of CARTES America. “As the leading conference devoted to smart technologies, we’re bringing together the key stakeholders in the NFC ecosystem to discuss the ways they are moving NFC toward mainstream adoption.”

The second CARTES America exhibition and conference will bring smart technologies, mobile commerce and digital security authorities and leading technology providers to Las Vegas, Nev. for 80 educational sessions with more than 100 presenters. The event will focus on the topics, trends and technologies to facilitate new business in the large and dynamic American market for innovative smart technologies. The CARTES America conference program includes a number of sessions addressing three broad themes: EMV and NFC deployments, mobile & advanced payments and security. The event will feature technology and application demonstrations by a sold-out roster of 130 exhibitors.

“Last year’s Cartes America event enabled ABnote and other leading edge companies in the EMV and NFC payment application space to present their solutions. This year, Cartes will be bigger and better with a broader display of EMV, NFC and TSM emerging payment and transaction solutions demonstrating real-world consumer applications,” said Jim Ellis, sr. vice president North America, ABnote.

CARTES America is produced by Comexposium. Sponsors and exhibitors include ABnote, Bell ID, Bowe Systec, CPI Card Group, Datacard,Learn more about the different types of laser marking machine by careel-tech.com. Gemalto, GET Group, HID, Mastercard,There are generally three different configurations of industrial laser cutting machine. Morpho, Oberthur, STmicroelectronics and Underwriters Laboratories. Event partners include ACT Canada, BayPay Forum, Eurosmart, Global Platform, Inc., Global Prepaid Exchange, Homeland Security Research and Smart Payment Association.

My day starts out normally enough: I drop the kids at school and head to the Starbucks, where I use my Smart Phone to pay for my tall Caffé Mocha soy because that’s how I roll: I save one minute not having to reach into my wallet to physically pull out my credit card, it’s logged into the app.

After "checking in" with Foursquare, which tells me a couple of moms from the school have already been there this morning, and then my Facebook, which tells me another "friend" is headed there now, I dash to the Safeway, where I get discounts on my feta cheese, avocados, organic yogurt and Fat Bastard chardonnay because I logged it all in the store’s Just for U program. Again, that’s how we roll.How would you like to have a personalized bobbleheads of yourself.

I Skype with an activist in Australia before she leaves for a fact-finding mission in Iraq. Then I Google the news for the latest Brennan/drone hearings and fire off angry commentaries on Gmail and Twitter to friends, declaring the U.S government fascistic, and worse than the Taliban. I then rush to meet colleagues,Sol provides the world with high-performance solar roadway and solar street light solutions. including writer Gareth Porter – who just got back from the Middle East and is now writing a story about how Israel may be responsible for leaking fraudulent documents describing Iran’s nuclear capability – at the Lebanese Taverna down the street. I check in two more times with Facebook and Foursquare, because I get extra points when I check into the restaurant. Maybe tomorrow I’ll be the mayor.

I go to the Home Depot to get some material for my son’s science project – he’s going to facilitate electromagnetic energy with batteries and copper coil. I check in again at the Starbucks attached to the Barnes & Noble for my second coffee of the day and buy the book The Perfect Soldiers about the 9/11 hijackers, because I heard it was taken away from one of the 9/11 conspirators at Gitmo, and I wanted to see for myself whether it posed a danger to national security.

Two days later, I am standing at the checkpoint at Dulles Airport heading for Europe. I am flagged for an extra screen. They search my laptop, because, as it were, this happens a lot. I am never told why, though I am eventually cleared to travel. I may never know. Was it my lunching partners and the frequency with which we met, or the diatribes on Twitter? Was it my phone calls overseas, or the purchase of materials that are commonly used to make an explosive devise? My reading habits? My love for feta cheese?

5 Ways to Prepare for the Coming Cyber War

This spring, the term "cyber war" turns 20. In his seminal 1993 paper "Cyberwar is Coming!" master military strategist John Arquilla envisioned an entirely new kind of battle.

That vision was articulated again, but as reality, in President Obama's State of the Union Address last week. The president's call for a more serious approach to the growing threat of full spectrum cyber war, or "cybergeddon," came just a week before Mandiant, an American cyber security firm, released a 60-page report detailing a Chinese military unit in Shanghai that poses serious threats to United States infrastructure. The silver lining here is that the report bolsters the president's intiative, which begins today, a crucial steps in the right direction for our union, as the state of things in the realm of cyber security are daily showing signs of collapse in the face of relentless foreign attacks against traditional war-time targets like utilities, newspapers, banks, and essential government agencies.

The battlefield is everywhere: personal computers, bank accounts, 401Ks and cash management accounts, drinking water, gasoline pipelines, electrical plants and dams. As news of major breaches roll in like waves on a storm-eroded beach, the likelihood increases that the next war we fight will be waged on computers aimed at crippling the systems that keep the wheels of government and daily life turning.

"There's a strong likelihood that the next Pearl Harbor that we confront could very well be a cyber attack," said Leon Panetta, the Secretary of Defense and former director of the CIA.

Are we prepared? How can we plan for, and survive, a Pearl Harbor-style attack on everyday life? There are two answers: one for the nation and one for America and one for Americans.Learn more about the different types of laser marking machine by careel-tech.com.

The first answer is that our lawmakers need to quit screwing around and do a better job.

Last week, Bloomberg Business Week catalogued the depth and breadth of the problem with breaches that originate in China while driving home the underlying fact that individual incidents "don't convey the unrelenting nature of the attacks. It's not a matter of isolated incidents; it's a continuous invasion." The Washington Post reported that China was the main aggressor -- targeting "energy, finance, information technology, aerospace and automotives" using malware and other techniques -- with a goal of "economic gain." However, the Chinese government ain't the only Barbarian at the Gate. Al Qaeda has demonstrated over and over their desire to eviscerate the American way of life. We have a multitude of enemies, and increasingly we are vulnerable to them.

The day after President Obama's address, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) began its second journey through the House. The problematic bill died last year in the Senate for lack of John Arquilla's vision. I expressed concerns about CISPA the first time around, specifically regarding privacy safeguards. Privacy advocates don't think it has enough, because CISPA demands the flow of information going both ways: government to private sector and vice versa. That two-way traffic pattern was notably missing in Obama's vision this time around (he advocated only for government sharing with the private sector), which may help pave the way for CISPA; provided, lawmakers act on the president's cue. We can only hope that with a few intelligent tweaks CISPA can become law soon.A card with an embedded IC (Integrated Circuit) is called an IC card.

While, the creation of uniform security standards for computer systems that run the nation's critical infrastructure is a no brainer, the answer to the question "Are we prepared" is, for the time being, a resounding "Not exactly."

A worst-case scenario would feature a cornucopia of catastrophe such as shutting down major sections of the power grid, erasing millions of bank accounts, manipulating or hijacking tens of millions of identities, and/or disrupting transportation systems throughout the land. Simply put - systems failure.

This feature demos well and in practice, I found it much nicer to use than having to pause a running application and switch to mail to see what's going on. Other smartphone OSes often have notifications, but I like BlackBerry's approach.

Similarly, you see your mail and calendar items in a combined view called the BlackBerry Hub.How would you like to have a personalized bobbleheads of yourself. This can combine mail from multiple accounts (including corporate and personal mail), text messages, and Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. You can see everything in one combined Hub view, or view the individual accounts. Other systems can show you mail from multiple accounts in one view, but they typically don't include the social media accounts. I also like how you can scroll up in your mail list and see your next few calendar meetings. Again, this reduces the number of times you need to switch applications, which I think is a good thing.

Overall, the mail application works pretty well. Perhaps the most interesting thing outside of Hub is the predictive keyboard. Other systems auto-correct typos or even suggest words,There are generally three different configurations of industrial laser cutting machine. but the BlackBerry Z10 has a unique arrangement where the suggested words hover just above the next letter you would type; instead of hitting the letter, you can swipe up on the suggested word to complete a sentence. It took a little getting used to,Sol provides the world with high-performance solar roadway and solar street light solutions. but after I got the hang of it, I find this works well.

Hostage for a Day

I knew we should have opted to take an older, cheaper car. As the tribesmen running the checkpoint demanded that we pull over,A card with an embedded IC (Integrated Circuit) is called an IC card. I cursed myself for letting my misgivings slide. I'd taken the road before -- the split-second pause before getting the go-ahead from the armed locals who run the informal roadblocks dotting the roads running through the villages north of Sanaa may have raised my blood pressure, but I had never had any issues. Until now.

Confusion quickly ensued. The guys running the checkpoint -- a disorganized group of about a dozen armed, but generally disheveled, tribesmen in their late twenties -- seemed split on what to do. Most just wanted to let us pass, one seemed intent on stealing my friend's car, and a few seemed convinced I was an Iranian spy. After about 15 minutes, I realized that revealing my identity as an American journalist was probably the best of a slate of bad options.

Frantic arguments continued. Growing increasingly nervous, I pulled out what I knew would be the trump card, threatening to bring their sheikh into the matter. As I dialed the number for a close associate of the sheikh, a longtime friend, I vainly hoped they'd realize that it wasn't worth troubling one of Yemen's most powerful men with what was, until that point, a rather minor issue.

It didn't work out that way. Dragging the sheikh into it turned out to be exactly what the tribesmen wanted: They now agreed that I was indeed an American journalist rather than an Iranian spy, and further decided that I would be an excellent bargaining chip in their lingering dispute with the central government.

"You'll stay until the government compensates us for what we lost in the war in Hasaba," I was told.Sol provides the world with high-performance solar roadway and solar street light solutions. I had come here to get a better idea of the tenuous state of things in the tribal areas north of Sanaa. Instead, I had become a hostage of them.There are generally three different configurations of industrial laser cutting machine.

My kidnapping -- which occurred, ironically, on the second anniversary of the start of Yemen's revolution -- had its roots in the wounds opened up by that revolt, which remain unhealed to this day. In May 2011, the uprising against then President Ali Abdullah Saleh finally sparked the urban warfare that many feared was inevitable. A day after Saleh refused to sign an internationally backed power transfer agreement, fighting erupted between pro-Saleh troops and fighters loyal to one of the country's most powerful tribal leaders. Despite the seeming asymmetry, the tribal forces put up a hell of a fight in the ensuing weeks,Learn more about the different types of laser marking machine by careel-tech.com. seizing control of a number of government ministries as their scores of kinsmen -- including the guys who kidnapped me -- descended from north of the capital to join.

A year and a half after the sporadic battles ended, Hasaba, the neighborhood where the fighting was concentrated, still bears resemblance to civil war-era Beirut. Government assurances of compensation for those who were affected by the fighting, it seems,How would you like to have a personalized bobbleheads of yourself. have yet to come to fruition. I've largely associated all of this with the bombed-out buildings in the area that was once the epicenter of the fighting. But the ripple effects of the fighting extend for miles: The guys that kidnapped me, it turned out, were still bitter over the loss of their car, which was destroyed when they traveled to Sanaa to join in the battle. The Hasaba war of May 2011, oddly enough, bore indirect responsibility for my time as a hostage in February 2013.

The visitors took the lead in the seventh minute as Boyd controlled the ball in the penalty area before cutting it back into the path of Tomlin, who rifled past David Forde for his ninth goal of the season.

Millwall reacted well to falling behind and almost levelled four minutes later as Liam Trotter found Henry, whose cross just evaded the on-rushing Rob Hulse.

The equaliser soon followed as Lowry released Henry who lofted a beautiful chip over Robert Olejnik for his third goal in as many games.

Posh looked sharp whenever they attacked and took the lead for a second time 13 minutes before half-time with Boyd again the architect.

The 27-year-old showed a mixture of determination and skill to beat Millwall right-back Adam Smith, showing good awareness as he rolled the ball into the feet of captain Rowe who arrowed Posh back in front.

Darren Ferguson's half-time team-talk was nearly made easier with 40 minutes gone as Tomlin's flick released Dwight Gayle whose near-post effort had Forde sprawling to save.

Millwall boss Kenny Jackett made two changes at the break with Martyn Woolford and Alan Dunne replacing Benik Afobe and Smith.

But it was Boyd, looking to turn from provider to scorer, who struck a 51st-minute effort that flashed wide of Forde's left-hand post.

The game settled into a rhythm with neither side forcing the issue until an error by Millwall defender Karleigh Osbourne let Posh in for their third goal.

Osbourne played a pass across his defensive line that was too short and Peterborough reacted quickly with Kane Ferdinand robbing Jimmy Abdou of possession and Tomlin was again on hand to finish another perfectly-weighted Boyd pass.

The Posh fans were soon cheering another goal as Mendez-Laing drifted past two Millwall defenders with ease before unleashing a fierce effort that gave Forde no chance.

2013年2月18日星期一

Colored pencil and oil exhibit at Palace

Two of the more experienced artists from the Art Guild at Fairfield Glade are the exhibitors at the Palace Theatre in Crossville for the month of February.

Barbara Rogers is co-president of the Art Guild and has won a number of prizes for her colored pencil drawings.

Colored pencil can be long and tedious hours of work as a picture is produced through layers upon layers of color. Barb’s work can frequently be seen in the monthly art exhibits at the Plateau Creative Arts Center, 451 Lakeview Dr.,Design and order your own custom silicone bracelet / rubber bracelets with personalized message and artwork. Fairfield Glade. Rogers recently had a personal exhibit at the art gallery.

Another main interest of the artist is gardening, which is perhaps why she does flowers so well. Her picture of a pair of “Pink Lady Slippers” appealed to me because it was beautifully done. (Drawn? Painted? Pastels and colored pencil works have some aspects of both). My woods along the creek have a few Lady Slippers every spring. These little orchids need pine needles (Note: Rogers had these in the picture) for just the right amount of drainage, water, shade and a dollop of sun in order to bloom. Never transplant — their special needs are why they are so rare. So look, admire, and perhaps buy an artist’s painting, but leave these pink jewels where they are!

Donna Slinkard is the co-coordinator for Exhibits and Shows, another time consuming and sometimes under appreciated job. Of course, if no one took on this difficult task, there would be no exhibits.

I have seen most of Donna’s Palace work elsewhere, but she does a marvelous job of combining the past with the present. Slinkard uses her ability of create clear, realistic-looking glass. I don’t know where she collected all those old fashioned bottles, and I suspect some are hand-blown glass. She certainly puts them to good use. “Peek-a-Boo” with the immense green glass bottle shows a child peering from the other side of the glass. The child seems like a genie frozen forever in green glass. I’m not sure what the green glass bottle was used for because all such modern day large vessels are made of boring, thin, white plastic — lighter, easier to handle but most emphatically not beautiful.

The portrait of a “Young Gentleman” definitely came at a time when people would have said, “A Hippie, what is that?” “All That Jazz” with its porcelain statue and fringed throw dropped table depicts the 1920s or 1930s perhaps.

"Our main objective had been to win a third Aintree Hurdle but Big Buck's not being there has opened it up," he said.

"That has invited us there, and we'll go."

While Grandouet, set for a later gallop after recovering from a minor issue, and Kingwell Hurdle runner-up Khyber Kim join Binocular in the Stan James Champion Hurdle, Henderson effectively ruled out My Tent Or Yours.

A facile winner of the Betfair Hurdle, JP McManus' youngster will revert to the William Hill Supreme Novices' Hurdle.

"He's very good and he goes for the Supreme," he said.

"I have been speaking to everyone and that is the plan, I believe. I know JP has Jezki in the Supreme as well, but don't forget he's got Binocular in the Champion and we're happy with him."

Virtually all the team have competed their racing trials ahead of Cheltenham, one or two handicappers aside, but Saturday could see last-ditch Triumph auditions for Vasco Du Ronceray and Courtesy Call.

All of this came to mind in reading the report of the Marine Casualty Investigation Board into a RIB accident in Cork Harbour last June when the sole occupant was thrown into the water, the outboard engine didn't cut out and the RIB hit him causing serious injuries. In commenting on the findings the Director of the Coast Guard, Chris Reynolds, urged the MCIB "that the report should make a strong recommendation against anyone venturing to sea or on the water on their own. It is neither safe nor conducive to good seamanship.Our precision manufactured lasers and laser systems deliver the highest possible laser cutter performance on a wide variety of materials."

The MCIB report focuses on the kill cord which, it says, was not functioning correctly,Can you spot the answer in the fridge magnet? that the operator of the boat knew this and that he was not seated at the wheel when the accident occurred. The man concerned said his boat struck something.There are generally three different configurations of industrial laser cutting machine. There is no conclusive evidence either way on this, but the MCIB said that rescuers did not note any object in the water. The MCIB is blunt, rightly so, in warning about the essential importance of the kill cord for safety in all open motorboats and that it should always be used and checked regularly. It also says that "all pleasure craft owners should complete a recognised powerboat handling course, regardless of previous experience."

The MCIB did not go as far as making the "strong recommendation" which the Coast Guard sought, but it did say that "owners and operators of recreational craft should be aware and follow the Department of Transport, Tourist and Sport's Code of Practice for the Safe Operation of Recreational Craft.We've had a lot of people asking where we had our make your own bobblehead." If you haven't read this document, you can download it from the Department's website. The Coast Guard and Marine Safety Directorate are, of course, part of the Department. You might be surprised, for example to learn, depending on the size of your boat and where you use it, what you are required to carry aboard under safety regulations – and there is a lot more besides.

Militants Attack Office in Pakistan

Militants wearing suicide vests and disguised as policemen attacked the office of a senior political official in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing five people, police and hospital officials said.

In Pakistan’s southwest, meanwhile, several thousand Shiite Muslims protested for a second day following a massive bombing targeting the minority sect that killed 84 people. The protesters have refused to bury victims of the attack until authorities take action against the militants who were responsible.

The target of Monday’s attack in the city of Peshawar was the office of the top political official for the Khyber tribal area, a major militant sanctuary in the country. The militants were disguised in the same type of uniform worn by the tribal policemen who protect the compound.

Four militants opened fire on the policemen protecting the compound and managed to get inside, said senior tribal policeman Sajad Hussain. Once inside, three of the attackers detonated their suicide vests,There are generally three different configurations of industrial laser cutting machine. said Hussain. It’s unclear what happened to the fourth attacker.

The bodies of five people killed in the attack have been brought to a local hospital, along with seven others who were wounded, said hospital spokesman Jamil Shah.

The dead included four tribal policemen and one elderly civilian, said police officer Noor Mohammed Khan. The wounded included four tribal policemen and three civilians, he said.

An eyewitness, Shahid Shinwari,We've had a lot of people asking where we had our make your own bobblehead. said the militants launched the attack when a van carrying prisoners arrived at the office compound. The militants tried to free the prisoners from the van, he said.

The compound is open to members of the public on Mondays, and it was filled with dozens of people who became trapped inside by the attack. Soldiers and police responded to the attack, and the people trapped inside were eventually freed.

Local TV footage showed them walking out of the compound with their hands raised as they were led out of the compound to an area for screening. White smoke from the explosions billowed out of the compound.Design and order your own custom silicone bracelet / rubber bracelets with personalized message and artwork.

In the southwest city of Quetta, over 4,000 men and women staged a protest in an area of the city where a bombing targeting Shiites ripped through a produce market on Saturday. The death toll from the attack rose to 84 on Monday, after three people died from their injuries, said senior police officer Fayaz Saumbal.

Nearly 1,000 others protested in a different part of the city, at the location where a bombing at a billiards hall that also targeted Shiite Muslims killed 86 people in January.

Members of the country’s minority sect have increasingly been targeted by radical Sunni militants who do not consider them to be real Muslims. The most prominent among the attackers has been Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which claimed responsibility for both of the recent bombings in Quetta. Rights groups and members of the Shiite community have accused the government of not doing enough to crack down on the militants.

Many of the attacks have occurred in Baluchistan province, where Quetta is the capital. The province has the largest concentration of Shiites in the country. Many are Hazaras, an ethnic group that migrated from Afghanistan over a century ago.

Azizullah Hazara, the vice chairman of the Hazara Democratic Party, a political group representing Hazaras, threatened Sunday to hold widespread protests unless the government finds those responsible for the most recent attack and arrests them within 48 hours.

Protesters have also demanded the army take over control of Quetta and launch a targeted operation against the militants who have been attacking Shiites.

After the bombing in January that killed 86 people, Shiites camped out in the street for four days alongside the coffins of their loved ones. Eventually the country’s prime minister ordered a shake-up in the regional administration, putting the local governor in charge of the whole province. But the governor has expressed frustration, saying the recent bombing was the result of a failure of the provincial security and intelligence services.

Sometimes a study or some broader body of research emerges that points to this uncontrollable side of life, arguing that something about the way we were born has a bearing on who we are. When doctors find that certain genes or family histories may predispose us to heart disease, it's called medicine. But when scientists argue that the circumstances of our birth—be they genetic, environmental or otherwise—determine our behavior and attitudes, our successes and failures, even our intelligence, that's called determinism. And wherever it appears, controversy attends,Our precision manufactured lasers and laser systems deliver the highest possible laser cutter performance on a wide variety of materials. raising specters of days when colonialists, eugenicists, public health officials, and political idealists believed they could cure the human condition through manipulation and force.

Understanding those fears helps shed light on the controversy surrounding a recent paper published in the American Economic Review, entitled,Can you spot the answer in the fridge magnet? “The ‘Out of Africa’ Hypothesis, Human Genetic Diversity, and Comparative Economic Development.” In it, economists Quamrul Ashraf and Oded Galor argue that the economic development of broad human populations correlate with their levels of genetic diversity—which is, in turn, pinned to the distance its inhabitants migrated from Africa thousands of years ago. Reaction in some circles has been swift and vehement.

An article signed by 18 academics in Current Anthropology accuses the researchers of “bad science”—“something false and undesirable” based on “weak data and methods” that “can become a justification for reactionary policy.” The paper attacks everything from its sources of population data to its methods for measuring genetic diversity, but the economists are standing by their methods.

Former Duke star Phil Henderson dies at 44

Henderson was still involved in the game. He had been in the Philippines since last year, said his ex-wife, Shervonne Henderson, and was the director of the Filipino Basketball Academy.

Henderson, who played at Duke from 1986-1990, was a member of the 1988, 1989 and 1990 Final Four teams.Can you spot the answer in the fridge magnet? He finished his Duke career with 1,397 points, 330 rebounds, 217 assists and 128 3-point field goals in 115 games.

“There’s no question he was an integral part of our success during that time period,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “He was a really talented player and could really score the ball deceptively. You didn’t think of him being the athlete that he was because he kind of had a frail body and was thin. But he could shoot, really a streak shooter where he could put up points real quick.Our precision manufactured lasers and laser systems deliver the highest possible laser cutter performance on a wide variety of materials.”

Krzyzewski, who spoke to Henderson’s mother Monday morning, described him as a gentle man. Brickey, who lived with Henderson at Duke that first summer and then their freshman and junior years, remembered Henderson’s ability to reach out and connect with people around him.

Henderson was a senior captain in 1990 and led the Blue Devils, who lost in the NCAA title game to UNLV, with an average of 18.5 points per game. To ensure Duke reached that title game, the University Park, Ill., native scored 17 of his 28 points in the second half of the 97-83 victory against Arkansas in the national semifinal game. Henderson averaged 22.3 points per game in tournament play en route to collecting ACC All-Tournament, NCAA All-East Regional and NCAA All-Final Four team honors. He also earned second-team All-ACC honors.

A 1986 McDonald’s All-American, Henderson was drafted in the second round of the 1990 NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks. He played professionally in the CBA and international leagues. He met Shervonne, his ex-wife, in 2004 while running coaching clinics at the University of West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, where she worked. They married in 2005, had three children, separated after 4 1/2 years and divorced in 2012, she said. Shervonne is also working to return their three children from the Philippines to the United States.

A lasting image of Henderson will be his dunk over Georgetown’s Alonzo Mourning in the 1989 NCAA region finals. Krzyzewski referenced that play earlier this season when Duke played Temple in the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., the location of Henderson’s highlight.

Next to the map on Slate's website, bodies are lined up in rows representing the gender of each person killed. Each death report is accompanied by a link to an original source.

"I think that you can point to the many things standing in the way of making guns safer or making guns more difficult for dangerous people to get, or banning guns outright, depending on what you think the right solution to this problem is," he said. "But I don't think you can put that on the feet of people not caring."

By plotting where the gun-related deaths have occurred, the map makes it clear this isn't just an urban issue, or a mass shooting issue.We've had a lot of people asking where we had our make your own bobblehead.

"If you look at the map that's associated with our interactive, you see it spreads across the nation in 49 of 50 states and there are deaths in tiny towns and all over the country that are murders, accidental deaths, or police killings of suspects using justifiable violence," he said.Design and order your own custom silicone bracelet / rubber bracelets with personalized message and artwork. "But in all cases, what connects them is that guns were available and guns became part of that event and someone ended up dead as a result."

Before this project started, Kois thought someone was already tracking and publishing this information. Though the Center for Disease Control and the FBI keep track of gun-related deaths, they don't publish the stats until a year later.

We witnessed change incrementally for some time now, with technology evolving to meet new needs.There are generally three different configurations of industrial laser cutting machine. Recently, however, this technology evolution became more rapid. The ability to know with precision the location, identity and condition of assets and materials in the supply chain in real time creates new opportunities for speedy, agile and efficient operations. This new capability has been called pervasive or extreme real time. And when properly leveraged, it can be transformative in any significant supply chain operation.

In this new environment, everything operates in real time. Data flows upstream and downstream from the storefront to the warehouse and back into the supply chain. Accuracy is at a premium—protecting both business profitability and the end-user experience. Replenishing the store can now happen as frequently as necessary with the right line items in whatever quantities are actually required.

Manufacturing facilities can better track assets and forecast deliveries with greater accuracy. The warehouse and distribution system can now be as simple or sophisticated as required; and can be adjusted with greater ability to respond to market demands or segmented and customized for a particular set of goods. Fulfillment is no longer a perfunctory task—it is the core of business strategy.

For example, in retail environments, consumers have more power than before to find the right product at the right price. As such, retailers must strive to create a more personalized experience for each shopper—ensuring availability of the right product at the right time and increasingly also in the right place. Thus, fulfillment and delivery are just as important as price considerations for these consumers.

A weekend at the LVL UP Expo

The weekend of Feb 16 and 17 may have been nothing more than a recovery weekend from Valentines Day for most; but for those in the Henderson, NV area, it marked the launch of the LVL UP Expo. Self-proclaimed as being a “convention that covers the vast fields of gaming”, the LVL UP Expo brought to Henderson an outlet for all types of gamers, from table-top to arcade,We've had a lot of people asking where we had our make your own bobblehead. and undoubtedly left its mark at the Henderson Convention Center on Water St.

Walking in to the older-looking convention center for the first time, I felt like I had walked into a broken-down hospital. Drab, brown walls led me down a hallway of doors labeled with event names until I reached the main reception area. It wasn’t until this open space did I feel like I was about to attend an event made for nerds, gamers, and other walks of geek-life. After a warm and enthusiastic greeting from a quartet of LVL UP Expo volunteers and employees, who proceeded to tag me with a wrist band, I walked through a set of double doors into a space that was quite shockingly small.

Being the initial run of the LVL UP Expo, I expected a few hitches to throw things off balance,Can you spot the answer in the fridge magnet? but I was unprepared for the cramped space that the Henderson Convention Center really allowed. Oddly enough, the minimal amount of room almost added to the ambience to the expo and forced guests to mingle with the various booths. If not for the small quarters, I can almost guarantee my enlightening chat with the Las Vegas branch of N.E.R.O., a Live-Action Roleplaying community, never would have occurred. After a quick rundown of what is commonly known as “LARPing”, I found myself engaged in the troop’s charm, so much so that I still have an inner monologue going as to if I should show up to their next meet.

My experience with N.E.There are generally three different configurations of industrial laser cutting machine.R.O. was not a fluke, either. The rest of the booths, which included staff from Cosmic Comics, the Elite Vegas Paranormal Society,Design and order your own custom silicone bracelet / rubber bracelets with personalized message and artwork. and L33T Ladies, were just as willing to converse with the masses. Product was strewn near and far and came in the form of plastic creations known as Perler Pixel Pals to somewhat pricey,Our precision manufactured lasers and laser systems deliver the highest possible laser cutter performance on a wide variety of materials. albeit unique, posters for “The Walking Dead” and other nerd-related mediums. In a separate set up for table and card games, guests could pick up any range of table-top fare, including the “Resident Evil” Deck Building Game and an assortment of individual cards for games like “Yu-Gi-Oh!”. On one table, a sextet of young men were engaged in a rousing game of “Metal Gear Solid” Risk, proving that any game can be played in any atmosphere.

Beyond merchandise, guests had the opportunity to sign up for numerous tournaments for games like “Halo 4”, “Super Smash Bros. Melee”, “Mortal Kombat”, “Tekken Tag Tournament 2”, and such card games as “Dungeon & Dragons: First Encounters” and “Yu-Gi-Oh!”. The atmosphere was booming with life as gamers engaged one another in all out brawls to emerge the victor in a setting more public than one’s own home. Whether through partaking in the tournament or simply awaiting for a spot to free up, guests also had the opportunity to jump onto the online multiplayer shoot “Primal Carnage”. Though its current span of coverage is relatively small in comparison to what it deserves, my time in “Primal Carnage’s” arena of human vs. dinosaur battles left me craving more, something most current multiplayer shooters just don’t do. A small chat I had with founder of Lukewarm Media and “Primal Carnage” producer, Aaron Pollack, confirmed that, while “Primal Carnage” will be without a console release, the developer will support its title to the fullest.

The cream of the crop of LVL UP Expo wasn’t the tournaments or the available merchandise, though. It was the sheer level of interactivity between local and out of town influences in the gaming industry. Meet and Greets for the cast of the local production of “Evil Dead The Musical 4D” and the internet radio comedy show “Jim and Them” were good ways to pass the time and get to know the people behind the personas. Indy game developer, Lukewarm Games, also held a panel discussion regarding game development, ensuring that at least some portion of this entertaining event was interestingly education.

What there is to complain about is minimal. As mentioned previously, the event space is somewhat cramped. It was difficult to move in-between booths, and oftentimes I questioned whether or not I should be stepping over the slew of wires on the floor. Booth variety would also be a welcomed plus, as there seemed to be three or four booths selling the Perler Pixel Palls. Other local talents brought to the table merchandise such as white tile painted with gaming’s favorite characters, but overall, there wasn’t a whole lot to browse through.

Ultimately, the crew behind the LVL UP Expo did a fantastic job of bringing gaming to downtown Henderson. The ambiance simply reeked of gaming expo, especially with familiar faces, such as an impressively accurate rendition of an Umbrella Special Forces Soldier (complete with an astounding make-up of Albert Wesker’s signature pistol). From what was experienced and what could be seen, there doesn’t seem to be a reason as to why 2014 shouldn’t see a return of this fantastic set-up.

2013年2月17日星期日

Preowned gift cards can be a good deal if used wisely

For years, some smaller retailers have set a minimum purchase amount to use a credit card. I can understand why. Everyone has a bottom line. I’d hate to cause someone to go out of business because I continually charged a pack of gum.

The consumer has to be just as canny. Used responsibly, credit cards can do for your income what warm sugar does to yeast: make your dough rise. I stick to cards that offer incentives for spending. Depending on the structure of the program, points are earned that can be redeemed for cash back, statement credits, gift cards, products, travel and entertainment.

It pays to put just about any and everything on a credit card. Points add up quickly when credit is used to pay for household expenses such as groceries and insurance,Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. gasoline, utility, cellphone and cable bills.

These are recurring expenses, so it shouldn’t be hard to pay the credit card balance in full each month. But if a merchant were to tack on the newly allowed credit card swipe fee, which can amount to up to 3 percent of your purchase, it won’t be worth it.

You also have to watch out for businesses whose swipe machines allegedly process only debit transactions as credit. From time to time, at retailers large and small, I’ve swiped my debit card and got ready to enter my PIN, and the store associate says, “Oh, our machine will only recognize it as credit.”

Online clearinghouses buy your unwanted gift cards and gift codes, offering up to 92 percent of the face value. In turn, those cards and codes are made available at up to 35 percent off the face value. Those sites include GiftCards.com, PlasticJungle.com, CardPool.com and GiftCardRescue.com. Standard shipping is free, and the cards are guaranteed.

It works best with planning. For example: You know you’ll soon have to replace your iron. If you’re like me, you consider an iron to be indispensable and will spend major loot on the best possible one. Before that iron totally conks out, scout for a discounted card to the retailer of your choice, then pounce on a sale.

Or perhaps you’re in the market for a really big purchase such as an Apple computer. Deals are few and far between, usually happening only around back-to-school time or Black Friday. If you can’t wait, create your own sale. You could save more than $80 if you scored a $900 gift card from GiftCards.com, which is offering 9 percent off Apple cards versus PlasticJungle.com’s 5 percent and CardPool.com’s 1.5 percent. That savings could be used toward software or accessories. Or on getting your hair done.

And then there are those chain establishments that you frequently run in and out of, such as the off-price retailers and discount box stores.Online shopping for luggage tag from a great selection of Clothing.

GiftCards.com offers its Target cards at a 6 percent discount, which is better than the Target credit card’s 5 percent discount. It’s hard to beat a J.C. Penney gift card bought at 27 percent off, then used during a clearance sale and with coupons.

A Dover woman brightened Hot Line’s afternoon when she called to report her experience with a couple of crooks who couldn’t seem to decide which con game they would use to make her a victim. She enjoyed frustrating their attempts throughout the call, she said.

Her story, as she told Hot Line, was this: She answered the phone and a man with a heavy accent she could barely understand said he was calling to tell her that she would get a new Medicare card. This one would be plastic instead of paper, he said, but she must verify the number in order to get the new card.

With the creation of demand for such services a lot of people have entered the market with new technology-based products. Everyday new products and services are being launched. In this area of technology-based payment services Bangladesh is not far behind. The country has implemented a good number of key payment solutions. Thus the whole payment system has undergone a sea of change with the successful implementation of electronic cheque processing and electronic fund transfer. The central bank of Bangladesh has also adopted some very important projects like data centre, online Credit Information Bureau (CIB) etc. There might be a debate whether projects like the National Payment Switch and Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) are premature or not. But there is no denying the fact that the two key projects are very much needed, if the future demand in the banking industry is taken into consideration. Now mobile banking is gaining popularity and the number of users is increasing everyday.

Over the last one decade the rapid technological advances in most countries have made financial services available to consumers at cheaper and cheaper prices and also have ensured their access to greater functionality. Seldom do banks lead the way in using technology to deliver services to their consumers, rather they ride the wave of better, cheaper and more powerful technology-based tools being made available to consumers. So, in a very real sense, it is consumers who are driving the evolution of financial services by turning to technology very rapidly.

This certainly applies to Bangladesh where the rapid adoption of mobile phone technology offers a pathway for delivery of financial services to anyone having access to a mobile phone.Where you can create a custom lanyard from our wide selection of styles and materials. The service providers here have very little to do with the access but a great deal to do with the security, prevention of fraud. Many countries have already demonstrated consumer willingness to accept financial services delivered on their mobile phones but there is the issue of security and accuracy of the delivery method.

There are, of course, basic fundamental requirements for delivery of any sort of payment service whether it is mobile-based or not. Thanks to the far-reaching vision of Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, the then Governor of Bangladesh Bank, and the generosity of the United Kingdom (UK), Bangladesh finds itself in an excellent position with the foundation of electronic payments already laid, including a fully functional electronic payments clearing house with secure connections to each of the country's commercial banks and a unique, uniform national account numbering system.

Additionally, the country boasts of a strong and growing network of mobile phone systems. The total number of mobile phone users has already crossed 900 million. Together they amount to a highway for delivery of both voice and digital information to consumers without accessing either a physical bank branch or a computer. In fact,Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. most mobile phones today are really small computers. And the latest smart phones aren't so small in terms of their computing capabilities. So now it is up to the banks, the regulatory authorities and the telecommunications companies to develop secure methods for funds transfer and other financial services through mobile phones.

Mobile phone companies need to work out who owns what in delivery of these services and there is a natural turf battle that ensues as the services evolve.Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action Regulators also must play a vitally important mediator role here. Banks have capital requirements and they must follow strictly regulations that help ensure the safety and soundness of deposits and financial transactions. Allowing mobile phone companies to become de facto banks without similar rules and regulations could lead to a catastrophe involving the loss of funds for hundreds or thousands or even millions of consumers. Beyond the immediate losses, such an event would shake the trust of consumers in any sort of mobile payment scheme. And so the financial and telecommunications regulators must work together as never before to delineate which regulatory authority has what responsibility in the world of mobile payments and to make sure there are no loopholes in the financial safety net between the regulators that would put consumer funds at risk.

Memaksimalkan Produktivitas Saat Bekerja

Hitam polos merupakan tema warna yang diusung Lenovo Thinkpad T430u. Mulai dari cover, keyboard, mousepad, hingga seluruh permukaan bodi, semuanya berwarna hitam. Masuk ke dalam jajaran Ultrabook, Lenovo Thinkpad T430u memiliki bobot yang ringan serta tipis sehingga membuatnya mudah untuk dibawa saat bepergian.

Berbekal desain Island-style six-row pada keyboard yang digunakannya, Ultrabook ini mampu menghadirkan tuts keyboard yang nyaman saat Anda menekannya. Selain touchpad yang dapat digunakan untuk menggeser pointer, Lenovo Thinkpad T430u juga menyediakan pointer mouse di tengah-tengah keyboard. Meski kecil,Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action namun pointer mouse tersebut cukup nyaman dan tidak licin saat digunakan.Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business.

Hadir dengan empat buah varian prosesor Intel Core generasi ketiga, mulai dari Intel Core i3-3217U, Intel Core i5-3317U, Intel Core i5-3427U, hingga kelas high-end, Intel Core i7-3517U. Dengan empat buah varian tersebut, Anda dapat memilih performa prosesor sesuai kebutuhan. Untuk menyimpan hasil kerja Anda selama seharian, Ultrabook ini menyediakan hard disk berkapasitas 500 GB. Selain hard disk, SSD Sandisk sebesar 24 GB juga tersedia. Namun SSD ini tidak digunakan untuk menyimpan data, melainkan untuk caching yang terjadi pada sistem operasi.

Interface yang disediakan pun terbilang sangat lengkap. Mulai dari interface standar seperti dua buah USB 3.0, satu buah port RJ-45, satu buah jack combo Audio-out/in, HDMI, serta satu buah card reader. Tidak hanya HDMI, Mini DisplayPort yang lengkap dengan feature audio pun tersedia untuk menampilkan gambar sekaligus suara pada output display seperti projector, TV, maupun monitor.

Berbeda dengan Ultrabook lainnya yang bodi bagian bawahnya sulit atau bahkan tidak bisa dibuka, Lenovo Thinkpad T430u justru memudahkan Anda untuk mencopotnya. Selain meng-upgrade hardware, membersihkan kipas pun menjadi lebih mudah. Dengan menggunakan sistem Lockdown, Anda tidak lagi memerlukan obeng untuk membuka bodi bagian bawah tersebut. Untuk membukanya, cukup dengan menggeser tuas saja.

Emails were exchanged, though, and apologies were given by the company. Still, Kennedy said he couldn’t get a replacement until two months of email exchanges and finally a new model and replacement pedometer showed up at his Intracoastal West home in mid-January.

“There’s no replacement for human interaction in customer service,” Kennedy said.Online shopping for luggage tag from a great selection of Clothing. “You could resolve so many problems just by getting that reassurance with a human being. It shows 1) that you care and 2) that they’re going to address your problem. Emails are impersonal; you can’t detect tone in an email.”

Those kinds of stories are growing and the reliable telephone number is decreasing on the Internet.

“This is a new trend that has been slowly coming forward probably for the past five years,” said Angela Mattia, a Jacksonville University assistant professor of information management.

Local, national or international, businesses are starting to get rid of phone numbers on their websites, Mattia said. There have been no studies that she’s aware of that tracks the impact of reducing phone number access on websites because the trend is so new.

“I guess it’s a retraction in one sense because it’s a reduction in visibility in a phone number,” Mattia said. “In the other sense, it’s just a shift in how we’re communicating.”

Mattia said the trend is a reaction to more people getting accustomed to using computers and email.

Jennifer McCoy owns the Mobile Ad Group that specializes in web application development and advertising partnership consulting. Originally from Fernandina Beach, McCoy said she’s in the process of rebranding her company as she’s relocating to New York City and said she’s never provided phone numbers.

“As a small business, we’re working from multiple locations and we’re constantly moving so our main point of contact is either from email or cellphone,” McCoy said. “Most of our employees don’t feel comfortable putting their cellphones on the Internet.”

Strange acknowledged business from phone orders generate the most credit card fraud, so he’s expanded his options for dealing with customers who don’t come into the 5,500-square-foot shop on Anastasia Boulevard.

Strange has incorporated a pop-up chat window operated by a store representative who engages in real time. A Surf Station worker will ask Internet shoppers how they can be helped, detail specifics about a surfboard or offer suggestions on swimsuits among all the other beach gear sold at the store.

“The live chat is another way for our customers to connect with us,” Strange said. “A lot of times they’re in their cubicle at work and can’t call us.”

Mattia said the chat windows on business websites offer a good middle ground without phone contact because it still provides the customer interaction with a human being.

Strange said he’s been offering the chat window on Surf Station’s website for about three years. But there are risks in staffing the workers who chat with customers. The employees have to be near experts with the inventory offered at the store and they have to have a flair for courteous, possibly even entertaining, Internet chat.

“There’s been a learning curve and our staff has to be trained. We have to know our product real well because there are a lot of questions that come from left field. It can appear to be a big waste of time unless you really invested the time and effort to train your staff up front,” Strange said.

The value of Internet sales can’t be ignored, though, Strange said. Surf Station’s website sales soared in 2012, jumping by 32 percent over the $500,000 in Internet sales in 2011, he said.

Strange’s approach is a far cry from Leahy’s experience with the Irish clothing website that lists a physical address in State College,Where you can create a custom lanyard from our wide selection of styles and materials. Pa.Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. Leahy said she still hasn’t heard from the company after multiple emails and even posting requests for answers on the company’s Facebook site. She said those posts were removed by a site administrator.

MENA regions calls for advances in mobile payment industry

Mobile commerce expert Sammy Tuffaha called for the telecommunications companies in the MENA region to join efforts to develop the mobile payment industry which would provide an integrated commerce interface allowing mobile phone users to pay bills, make purchases, and complete their financial transactions via their mobile phones.

Tuffaha made such comments through his participation in the Electronic and Mobile Payment Conference held by the Information and Communications Technology Association of Jordan (int@j) to highlight vital current and future issues related to electronic and mobile payment industry, challenges, and opportunities in Jordan.

"Mobile commerce is the future of personal financial transactions around the globe. However, as the electronic and web-payment services have not yet matured in the MENA region, the transition to mobile commerce entails rigorous consumer education. This obstacle, combined with the limited availability of service standardization, calls for higher collaboration among service providers in an industry that is known for fierce competition," Tuffaha said.Where you can create a custom lanyard from our wide selection of styles and materials.

"Mobile-payment projects have become a priority for most telecommunications companies and financial institutions which often attempts to develop e-payment systems as a standalone service. What we need today is a comprehensive integration between mobile wallet systems, bill payments, merchant networks, loyalty programs, and value-added services that utilize similar technologies,Online shopping for luggage tag from a great selection of Clothing." Tuffaha added.

Held under the patronage of Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Dr. Hatem Al-Halawani, and bringing together over 250 specialists in the industry of online and mobile payments, the event aimed at providing participants with a comprehensive overview of the services made available by the currently-used e-payment technologies.

It also opened the door for participants to discuss the successful attempts made in this field in other markets and the potential of setting up a unified, secure infrastructure capable of storing and manipulating data while performing accounting processes electronically.

In his speech at the conference, Tuffaha discussed the main types of electronic and mobile payments and the methods that can be applied in the MENA region, noting that the web-based technologies, especially the most seamless user-friendly mobile digital wallets which function much like physical wallets, are the most commonly used payment options.

"The growing increase in the use of the Internet and mobile phone services on one hand, and the increasingly penetration of near-field technology on the other hand are vital factors that push toward building a unified and integrated e-payment system that will contribute to reducing the time and effort needed to perform financial transactions, pay for products and services, settle civil liabilities owed to the government, or pay water, electricity, communications and other bills," Tuffaha said.

Tuffaha noted, "The e-wallet is like a smart card that allows users to store money and make electronic commerce transactions at sale points, online, or by using a mobile phone application and can be recharged through many deposit options,Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action including the ATM and direct bank transfers. Tuffaha also shed light on experiences of other nations like the US and Kenya where e-payment technologies enjoy widespread acceptance among users and institutions concerned with e-operations."

Tuffaha called for promoting the e-payment culture, raising public awareness about electronic services, and engaging public and private sector institutions in setting up comprehensive strategies that aim at making payments by digital wallet both a habit and preference.Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh.

There's a lot to love about being Asian. At least that's what my parents liked to say when my sister and I ever complained about doing anything culturally strenuous. We were lucky to be different, they'd remind us.Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. Not everyone got to watch Chinese cable, enjoy exotic crisps or experience sarcasm in a different language.
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But even as a child, I knew it was a bitter-sweet kind of luck -- like surviving a bad strain of typhoid or saying "at least we have our cousins" when we’re yet to befriend anyone. At school, our teachers did their best to be kind. They kept a straight face when I expressed my confusion over a TV show I thought was called "Married... to children" and simply nodded when I said my favourite hoppy was table tennis. Still, it was an awkward time. And I was both grateful and embarrassed by any special treatment.

Growing Up Emanuel

He looked harmless enough, bundled in a blanket and struggling to focus his eyes. My cousin Gary and I were impressed with his grasp refliex—all babies will grab on to a finger as it touches their palm. But since this was his only real trick, he seemed pretty useless.Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action My mother, however, acted as if he were extremely precious and treated him with so much care that it was clear that she loved him every bit as much as she loved me. Part of me knew that here was a competitor.

In December 1959, Gary was five years old and I was just two. On this particular morning, we were jumping up and down on our convertible sofa. It was a monstrous, ugly piece of furniture covered in indestructible black Naugahyde. When opened, it practically filled the living room in my family’s first Chicago apartment, and the metal that held the mattress was so thin and springy that when we used the sofa as a trampoline we could make the whole frame shake.

My mother had fixed breakfast, dispatched my father, a pediatrician, to care for patients at Michael Reese Hospital, and fed and diapered the baby. Dodging the toys on the flioor, she brought the baby into the living room and called to us to stop our gymnastics.

“I’m going to put Rahmy down here and you boys can watch him for a little while. Take care of him,” said my mother. Clearly, she hoped we might like being the big boys in charge for a few minutes. My guess is that she also needed a little break.

We seemed agreeable enough, so she laid Rahm down on the sofa bed’s mattress and surrounded him with pillows to make him secure before leaving the room. It took us only a few seconds before we decided to climb back up on the bed and invent a new game that might have been called “Bounce the Baby.”

We positioned ourselves on either side of the little bundle and timed our jumps so that we landed simultaneously. The mattress bowed and the metal bands that held it were loaded with enough energy to bounce Rahm on the surface of the bed.

Instantly, we grasped the situation’s potential. With enough effort, and perfect timing, we might bounce Rahm off the mattress and onto the flioor. The noise we made as we jumped like a couple of jackhammers brought my mother running into the room.

It’s not so easy to stop bouncing once you get going. As Gary and I crashed together, my mother scooped Rahm off the bed with a sweep of her arm.

Tall, with long brown hair and a beautiful warm and open face, my 26-year-old mother was young and strong,Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. but the sight of her second-born son being launched into the air had sent her heart racing. As Gary and I tumbled to a stop, she took a moment to catch her breath and choose her next move. Though we had behaved like idiots, my mother knew we were too young to have formed any malice aforethought. As a devotee of the pediatrician and author Benjamin Spock, who appealed to her with his radically sympathetic approach to child rearing, she had vowed to control the impulse to scream, hit, or punish us.

“Boys,” she finally said, “babies aren’t grown-up enough to play that way. You could have hurt Rahmy if he fell off the bed, or you fell onto him.”

Few mothers would have exercised the restraint my mother showed that morning, and fewer still would have had such confidence in Spock’s advice that they would have followed it so closely, and with such conviction, in the heat of battle.

Later, she bundled us three boys up and bounced a stroller down the stairs so we could walk a few blocks in the stinging-cold December air to a local market. Along the way we passed some of our neighbors, older Jewish women who clucked in Yiddish, assuming my mother did not know that they were saying something disparaging about the “hillbillies” with all their kids.

Low rents and easy access to public transportation had made our neighborhood popular with poor whites from Appalachia who fliocked to Chicago seeking jobs. Distinctive in the way they talked and dressed, these newcomers had met with their share of bigotry,Online shopping for luggage tag from a great selection of Clothing. and the term “hillbilly” was a put-down. My mother, who refused to use the word, startled the women with a little Yiddish admonition—“Ich bin a yid,Where you can create a custom lanyard from our wide selection of styles and materials.” which means “I am a Jew”—to remind them of the ugliness of prejudice and their own ignorance.

In this one morning, the very first memory of my life, Marsha Emanuel had confronted, as a matter of routine,Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. most of the responsibilities and issues that would define her adult life. She had risen early to cook breakfast, care for three kids, and see her husband depart for a day’s work that might not end until late in the evening. Before noon she had saved Rahm’s life, taught Gary and me some life lessons, confronted bigotry on the sidewalk, and done a little shopping. All this would be repeated, in a rough way, for at least 4,000 more days, until the Emanuel boys—me, Rahm, and soon-to-come brother Ariel—started to be more self-sufficient.

2013年2月16日星期六

Just another quiet night out for Keith McNally

Keith McNally is anxious. He is fretting that Balthazar's ceiling is the wrong shade of smoky yellow. He is worried the strip lights aren't right and the hanging fans are definitely wrong. He is concerned about his chips, his tea strainers, his salads. But now he is mostly anxious about not being able to find his childhood home.

We start our search, appropriately it seems, in "barmy park" next to the tube, where the Bethnal Green Library was built on the site of a 200-year-old asylum. "I haven't been here for 50 years," he says. "I was terrified of this place. It was so austere. I was a local kid and they would make me wash my hands before letting me in. I was in terror of not bringing books back in time."

It is a decade since McNally was here, despite living in London for the last two years in an expensive, expansive Notting Hill house, light years and a lifetime away. "I haven't brought my wife or children here either,Like most of you, I'd seen the broken buy mosaic decorated pieces." he says. "I have reluctance … "

As we walk in the cold, winter rain he tells me about Joyce and Jack, his mum and dad. "They should never have married,Service Report a problem with a street light." he says. "My mother was neurotic, cautious. She always felt slighted. We were never allowed to bring anyone into the house or sit on the green sofa or go into a certain room. My father was a docker, more easygoing,The cost of cleaning just 2 infected lenses is already higher than the cost of a dry cabinet. a keen amateur boxer and footballer."

His parents parted in the late 80s, he says, as we pass by Joyce's final home: "She was unsettled in every way, always moving, always thinking the next home would make her happy.Which Air purifier is right for you? She was a deeply unhappy woman." But it was her ambition – and his fear – that drove him. "My mother read a lot, did well at school but wasn't allowed to stay on. I only did slightly well out of fear of ending up at Fairfields School, over there. They used to put your head down the toilet on your first day at Fairfields so I worked just hard enough to get to the grammar school."

We walk past the site of the old ABC bakery in search of a pie and mash shop. Like many exiles, McNally has a romantic longing for scraps of his childhood culture and history: he talks knowledgeably and happily about Wat Tyler's death at nearby Mile End and of the old market gardeners and silk weavers of Stepney. We stop a pair of passers-by and ask directions to the pub near to long-gone Palm Street where the McNally family home once stood. "If I can see the Palm Tree I will know where we were," he says.

We are close now but times, the landscape – and McNally – have changed. We cross a park with a failing "ecology pavilion" while he reels off the routes and numbers of local buses like a reassuring mantra. We are lost and cold and wet. Then suddenly he sees it – an old-school East End boozer, standing alone, shorn of the streets that once surrounded it, and it all comes flooding back. "Look, there it is," he says with relief. "My prefab where I lived would have been … right here. God, I broke one of the pub windows with a cricket ball. Palm Street …" We stop, he exhales, then is quiet. "It is a terrible feeling when the place where you grew up has vanished," he says finally.

McNally's life could be a mini-series: poverty, exile, money, fame, bitter family rivalries. A younger sister, Josephine, was born eight years after Keith and there are two older brothers: the eldest,Site describes services including Plastic Mould. Peter, is now a taxi driver living in Wanstead, and Brian – the Kinks' Dave Davies to Keith's Ray, as Vanity Fair once put it – with whom McNally opened his smash-hit Odeon while still in his 20s, and who was for a time a rival to his restaurant crown.

Much of what we understand about the glamour of New York restaurants was created by McNally. In a 30-year career, he has opened a stream of successful businesses – Odeon in TriBeCa, the nightclub Nell's, Pastis in the Meatpacking District, Minetta Tavern, Balthazar – that defined their times and the downtown areas they dominated. It hasn't always been easy. He has walked away more than once, to make films, to farm. At the height of Odeon's success, the McNally brothers fell out; something about Keith and their mum, some say, and didn't speak for five years. Now, though, they talk or write every day, perhaps because Brian is running a restaurant in Saigon, on the other side of the world.

David Bailey, the Stones. McNally is working as a bell boy at the Hilton on Park Lane when he gets a break: "Some American producers were making a film about Dickens with Michael Redgrave, and they couldn't cast a part," he says. "I was 16 but looked 12 and I got it. A limousine would pick me up from home and take me to filming. Later, I played The Winslow Boy in York and had a lead on TV, though my parents wouldn't watch it."

McNally's lifelong love affair with theatre and film had begun. He appeared in Alan Bennett's 40 Years On at the Apollo theatre in the West End for a year, though when he told Joyce he'd be on stage with John Gielgud, she "burst into tears: 'You're going to be working with a homosexual!'" It was with Bennett he ate his first restaurant meal: steak at Bianchi's in Soho, and the playwright was later an investor in the Odeon.

By 1971, McNally had followed the hippie trail, hitchhiking through India and Afghanistan. On returning home, he worked the lighting board at The Rocky Horror Show and moonlighted at the Nell Gwynne strip club in Soho, where his current backer Richard Caring's Dean Street Townhouse now stands. "I was the stage manager," he says. "I checked the girls in, checked they were dressed, undressed, and stood at the side of the stage, taking their clothes. I had a terrible fear of seeing someone I knew, maybe my dad." He was sacked when one night the tape machine sped up, forcing the women to strip too fast: "Even when you are fired from a job you don't care about it is devastating."

While working at Rocky Horror, McNally had made a "couple of short films, some bits and pieces", and arrived in New York in 1975 intending to become a director, but restaurants got in his way. For a while he was working as the ma?tre'd at One Fifth in Greenwich Village, where the Saturday Night Live team – John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd et al – had their aftershow parties. When McNally teamed with brother Brian and Lynn Wagenknecht, later his wife, to turn a tired TriBeCa cafeteria, the Towers, into the Odeon, the showbiz scene followed and the rest is restaurant legend. Warhol, De Niro, Scorsese, Cher, Mick Jagger, Liz Taylor, Warren Beatty were all regulars. Belushi helped himself to food in the walk-in fridge ("Leave him," was McNally's smart response) and once saddled and rode supermodel Janice Dickinson around the restaurant. Excess was everywhere – fistfights with artist Richard Serra and with the aggrieved owner of One Fifth; Jeff Koons and Jean-Michel Basquiat being kicked out. Cocaine was snorted from every rest-room surface, chronicled by another regular, writer Jay McInerney, in 1980s New York's definitive novel, Bright Lights, Big City. When Random House published the book their lawyers were worried McNally would sue over the talk of drugs – instead he approved the use of the Odeon's awning on the cover.

Next came Cafe Luxembourg, Nell's – New York's hippest nightclub – more restaurants, McNally's Midas touch turning everywhere into a goldmine. But, of course, he wasn't happy. "I got so depressed about being in New York not doing what I wanted," he sighs. "By the late 80s I had the Odeon, Cafe Luxembourg, Lucky Strike. I had Nell's where Rose Gray [later of London's River Café] cooked. But I didn't care.

Fire at Pratt Institute Destroys Studios and Artwork of Students

Maria De Los Angeles, a 24-year-old student at the Pratt Institute, has an admissions interview at Yale University’s graduate art school next month and was planning to show the officers there some of her 100 paintings and 300 prints.

But in Friday’s early hours, a fast-moving fire ravaged the top two floors of the historic main building at the private art, design and architecture college in Brooklyn, destroying dozens of art studios and the precious student works they contained.

“My studio’s gone, everything I’ve made at Pratt is gone,The cost of cleaning just 2 infected lenses is already higher than the cost of a dry cabinet.” Ms. De Los Angeles said, sobbing as she stood outside the student union near the site of the fire. “I don’t even think I have a pencil.”

The aggressive fire and the water needed to extinguish it caused significant damage to the landmark six-story building, a sturdy Romanesque Revival brick fortress that opened in 1887. Known as Main Building, it houses administrative offices as well as studios and classrooms and has been a keystone of the district of 36 Pratt buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The cause of the fire, which resulted in minor injuries to three firefighters and one other unidentified person, is under investigation.

Firefighters battled the flames for two hours after the fire was reported at 2:13 a.m., propelling ladders up to the fifth and sixth floors so they could shoot water through the windows, even as parts of the roof caved in. The blaze grew to four alarms, and eventually 39 fire trucks and 168 firefighters were summoned to the scene, on Willoughby Avenue in Clinton Hill.

“It’s a very old building with very high ceilings on the top floor,” said James Esposito, chief of fire operations. “So the fire had a large amount of area to consume and it was a very difficult fire to extinguish.”

“Inside there’s quite a bit of destruction,” he told reporters. “It’s all wood inside and the roof did collapse on the left side of the building on the top floor. There’s a lot of damage up there, and we have a lot of water damage.”

Some students at the school, founded by Charles Pratt, a pioneer of the American oil industry, were awakened by the commotion and gathered on the street to watch. By 6:30 a.m., Madeline Mikolon, a 22-year-old senior studying painting, rushed to the building, where the paintings for her thesis show — scheduled for next month — were stored and saw firefighters still dousing the blaze. She realized it had destroyed her works, and the works of dozens of her peers.

“Now we’ve got no work, no supplies, nowhere to meet, nothing,” said Ms. Mikolon, staring blankly at her studio’s charred interior.

Another tearful student soon learned that she had caught a lucky break. From a building across the street,Which Air purifier is right for you? Rebecca Warwick, 21, saw some of her paintings through a smashed window at Main Building. They had been twisted and bent by the heat but they had not been destroyed. She let out a cry of relief.

“I feel bad even being happy because all my friends lost their work,” she said.

The school canceled classes through Saturday at the building and at nearby South Hall, Amy Aronoff, a spokeswoman, said. She said the sixth floor, which contained 42 senior painting studios, was completely gutted by the fire; the fifth floor, containing two large classrooms for painting majors and one painting seminar room, was badly scorched; and there was water damage to all the lower floors.

Designed by Lamb & Rich Architects, Main Building is part of a complex that has been designated a New York City landmark as well as a national treasure. In 2011, the school was chosen by Architectural Digest as one of the 10 most architecturally significant campuses in the country.

Michael Madison, a Fire Department spokesman, said he knew of no immediate reason to consider the fire’s cause suspicious and Chief Esposito told reporters that he doubted there were large amounts of “combustibles stored up there.” Nevertheless, some students speculated that the fire might have started among the chemical-soaked rags,Like most of you, I'd seen the broken buy mosaic decorated pieces. paper, canvas and oil paint kept in the studios.

“It’s a tinderbox,” said Brad Isnard, 22, an architecture student who said he visited the studios often.

“It all goes up in flames; it’s completely numbing,” he said,Service Report a problem with a street light. as he and Ms. Mikolon gazed up at the blue sky visible through the windows of the art studios.

“I’m here to tell my students that even though all the work no longer exists, all the time, and the effort, and what they learned making the works still exists, and nothing, not even a fire, can take that away.”

Docent Rosalyn Voget remains calm. In this situation, being interrupted is hardly a bad thing. These kids are engaged and enthusiastic. There are also a lot of them.

The new Family Sunday programs at Stanford's Cantor Arts Center are only in their second weekend, and already the groups of attendees are so large that some of them need to be split in two. Family tours have been filling the main lobby, and young artists have been packing the drop-in art activities down in the Moorman Studio. Upstairs in the galleries, kids are drawing away with the colored pencils they've been given to sketch the art around them.

On the first Family Sunday, which happened to be Super Bowl Sunday, 80-some people showed up for the tours,Site describes services including Plastic Mould. and more than 100 lined up at the art studio. Museum director Connie Wolf, who is spearheading the new initiative, was "overwhelmed" and pleased.

"It indicates that there is a huge hunger for (families) to find meaningful things to do together that provide new ways of thinking and educational, but are not classroom-based," Wolf said. "There's a time to put all that technology aside and just be in the moment."

Last Sunday, Feb. 10, more than 35 people were on hand for the 12:30 tour, with more showing up for later tours. Voget chose two display cases and a painting -- Astley David Middleton Cooper's circa-1898 oil "Mrs. Stanford's Jewel Collection" -- to show her young charges. The first case was filled with ornate Venetian glass vessels; the second, with colorful Chinese snuff bottles of glass, porcelain, crystal, silver. The common theme? Beautiful objects that you give people you love, often on Valentine's Day.

The kids seemed fascinated. With wide eyes, they peered at the bottles, chose their favorites and speculated what might have been kept in them. Mint. Lavender. "Spells," one suggested.

Family Sunday tours tie into the drop-in art activities held in the studio from 1 to 3 p.m. On this day artist Stephanie Crowell also centered the project on glass bottles. Small bottles had been glued to heavy paper, with children encouraged to be creative about what their bottles could hold -- or what could be spilling out onto the paper. A crowd of kids and parents filled the room, the young artists descending on the crayons, construction paper, glue, red lacy hearts and "glitter station."

What's your Jericho?

Tooling through the aisles of a local superstore,Which Air purifier is right for you? trying to avoid the piles of merchandise being restocked, I overheard a creative but disgruntled employee. He was explaining a great idea he had for a new display.

His idea sounded colorful, eye-catching and informative. He had me wanting to buy the product. Yet I heard hesitancy in his voice as he began to assess how to achieve his goal.

Now, this was a superstore; the hardware section, a carpenter's dream.Service Report a problem with a street light. There was even an office supply section with various kinds of staples and alternatives to staples. Staples everywhere.

Problem was in order to get the staples it required a bit of effort. It was simply too much trouble. Creativity crushed.

Talk about a "that'll preach" video from God. I wouldn't have been surprised to have heard my name being called over the intercom, "This is God letting you know, don't quit. I've given you the creativity, the dream and the means to complete it all. You may have to sweat. It may take a lot of time talking to me, and it may take longer than you think, but do not quit. Persevere."

It reminds me of the ladies and I talking in Bible study, "What if Joshua quit marching around Jericho on the sixth trip around? One thing's for sure, no walls would have come tumbling down. What's your Jericho?

How many times have you quit before you even started? Was it because it seemed like it was going to take too much of your time? Was it a lack of resources? Was it just plain puttin' your neck on the line? Maybe it was a staple that stood between you and the work God has called you to complete.

I don't know about you, but I have a new bounce in my step. If God called us to do something for Him, He knows my time schedule and my resources. He is my resource. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He is able to sufficiently supply all our needs.

God will also be with me if it requires my neck being on the line. If I stand obedient to do the task before me, even if rejection occurs repeatedly, I can stand secure. I can because I serve God who is faithful to complete the work that He began in me.

He gave us His son. He gave it all that we might have life, abundant life. That means, with Him, we can have a life of accomplishing more than we ever thought or dreamed.Site describes services including Plastic Mould. So are you ready? Will you join with me? Let's get going on what He's calling us each to do today.

The postal service plans to transition to a new delivery schedule beginning Aug. 5, 2013. The new schedule includes package delivery Monday through Saturday and mail delivery Monday through Friday. The purpose is to generate a $2-billion annual cost savings, the post office said in a release.

Although Redding has four post offices, only the West Redding post office delivers mail.Like most of you, I'd seen the broken buy mosaic decorated pieces. The other three — Redding Center, Redding Ridge and Georgetown — offer window services and only have post office (PO) boxes.The cost of cleaning just 2 infected lenses is already higher than the cost of a dry cabinet. All four will remain open on Saturdays.

“The postal service is advancing an important new approach to delivery that reflects the strong growth of our package business and responds to the financial realities resulting from America’s changing mail habits,” said Patrick R. Donahue, postmaster general and CEO.

Over the past several years, the USPS has advocated shifting to a five-day delivery schedule for mail and packages. However, recent growth in package delivery (14% volume increase since 2010) and projections of continued strong package growth throughout the coming decade led to the revised approach to maintain package delivery six days a week, according to the release.

Maureen Marion, a U.S. Postal Service spokesperson, said the change is a “re-tooling” of postal operations and reflects what most customers consider critical for them.

Since 2006, said Ms. Marion, overall mail circulation has decreased by 20% to 25% while first class mail is down by one-third.

“It’s not just a change in the use of email, but a change in how the Internet has worked into our communications. We need to be right-sized for the way people use their mailboxes today. We still have an enormous volume of mail, but it is different than 10 years ago,” Ms. Marion said.

These deliveries will not require the same level of staff or vehicles as everyday mail delivery, Ms. Marion said. She said the mail service is not a tax-funded operation, but is paid for through mail service revenue.

Packages that will continue to be delivered on Saturdays include a wide range of items, from premium overnight express mail to priority boxes, to parcel post, to packages containing medication.