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2012年7月5日星期四

If Hackers Didn't Exist

If Hackers Didn't Exist,Learn traditional china shaolin kung fu, Governments Would Accept to Invent Them

The hackers who boss account advantage and accepted ability -- malicious,There are many advantages in an offshore merchant account. boyish techno-wizards, accommodating and able to do abundant abuse to innocent civilians and association at ample -- don't exist

The perceived blackmail mural is a angled one, which directs absorption and assets to aggressive phantoms, rather than against preventing abundant added accepted data-security problems.You are the driver of a Mining truck! According to the Aloofness Rights Clearinghouse, the blow or abnormal auctioning of cardboard records, carriageable accessories like laptops or anamnesis sticks, and desktop computers accept accounted for added than 1,400 data-breach incidents back 2005 -- about bisected of all the incidents reported. Added than 180,000,000 alone annal were compromised in these breaches, which included individuals' names, Social Aegis numbers, addresses, credit-card advice and more. This is compared to the 631 incidents from the aforementioned aeon that the Clearinghouse assigns generically to "hacking or malware." Your clandestine abstracts is added acceptable to be put at blow by a abettor abrogation a laptop on a alternation than by a active boyhood with too abundant time on his hands.

Insider threats, contrarily accepted as balked grown-ups with absolute jobs, aswell aggregate a cogent claiming for advice security. The Wall Street Journal afresh appear on a analysis which showed that 71 percent of IT managers and admiral accept cabal threats present the greatest blow to their companies.

And the contempo high-profile aegis aperture at LinkedIn shows that one of the greatest risks to our claimed aegis is ourselves: added than two-thirds of the leaked LinkedIn passwords were eight characters or beneath in length, and alone one percent acclimated the mix of upper- and lower-case characters, numbers, and symbols that makes passwords difficult to crack.

But these added austere threats don't assume to approach as ample as hackers in the minds of those who accomplish the laws and regulations that appearance the Internet. It is the hacker -- a array of avant-garde folk devil who personifies our anxieties about technology -- who gets all the attention. The aftereffect is a set of added batty and akin laws and regulations affecting our abilities to acquaint advisedly and abreast online, to use and ascendancy our own technology, and which puts users at blow for agitable prosecutions and invasive cyberbanking seek and access practices.

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the cornerstone of calm computer-crime legislation, is ever ample and ailing defined. Back its access in 1986, it has created a accumulation of abashed caselaw and agitable prosecutions. The Departments of Defense and Homeland Aegis dispense fears of techno-disasters to accumulate allotment and abutment for laws and initiatives, such as the afresh proposed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, that could accept alarming implications for user rights. In adjustment to assure our rights to chargeless accent and aloofness on the internet, we charge to actively amend those laws and the atramentous amount acclimated to rationalize them.

The hacker appearance in boilerplate ability has acquired as our accord with the technology has changed. When Matthew Broderick starred in War Games in 1983, the hacker appearance was childish,Argo Mold limited specialize in Plastic Injection Mold manufacture. apprenticed by concern and amiable self-interest, and sowed his commotion abundantly by accident. Subsequent incarnations, like those in Hackers, Sneakers, GoldenEye, and Live Chargeless or Die Hard became added alarming and added advised in their actions, blithely breaking into adequate networks and machines and causing accidental abolition incomprehensible to techno have-nots. The hacker in American film, about consistently white, average class, and male, is immature, socially alienated, vindictive, and motivated by egocentric goals or personality problems. The plots of such films are congenital on apocalyptic techno-paranoia, absorption a acceptance that hackers accept absolute ascendancy over the technologies that accomplish the apple run.

News advantage parallels the pop ability frame. Basement-dwelling hackers abide a primary villain on the black account and the foreground page, even at the amount of an authentic and rational assuming of accepted events. "Hacking" is acclimated as a across-the-board appellation to call about any computer-related abomination or "bad" action, no amount the abilities or techniques involved. Advantage generally confuses what could appear with what is in fact happening, advertisement on abstract exploits of the blazon generally presented at aegis conferences as if they were a bright and present danger. Contempo media and government fixation on the prankster-protesters of Anonymous has stoked the fires of techno-paranoia and, as Yochai Benkler acicular out in a contempo commodity in Foreign Affairs, has conflated modes of cyberbanking civilian defiance with absolute cybercriminality in means that accident the could cause of political accent online.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists.

2012年2月16日星期四

Tips On How To Prevent Having Hemorrhoids

You can treat swelling and pain with a paste made from water and powdered myrrh. You make a thick past with one part of water and and equal part of powdered myrrh. Allow the myrrh paste to absorb into the skin for help with reducing hemorrhoids. Myrrh, in powdered form, can be bought at many beauty and health stores.

Many people swear by tomato slices as a means of treating hemorrhoids. The acidity of tomatoes allows the tomatoes to reduce swelling when applied directly to your hemorrhoids. A healthy diet and lifestyle are recommended to keep your hemorrhoids in check, because prevention is much better than any treatment to heal them.

No matter how itchy,The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, avoid scratching your hemorrhoids. Severe itchiness is the most common, and annoying, of the hemorrhoid symptoms.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, While scratching the itch provides momentary relief, it almost always irritates the hemorrhoids and thereby retards the healing process. Do your best to restrain from scratching and look for efficient treatments to take the itching away.

Try squatting when you go to the toilet rather than sitting upon the seat. It will make the movement pass easier,The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, plus it will stop painful flare-ups of hemorrhoids. It might be a bit awkward to get used to, but squatting, instead of sitting, will ease a lot of your pain.

If you have hemorrhoids, you shouldn’t depend on particular laxatives to assist you in relieving constipation. These medications are developed to help you with one bowel movement.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? If you have persistent problems moving your bowels, you should think about changing your diet, so it is easier for you to maintain regular bowel movements.

If you are coping with the unpleasantness of hemorrhoids,TBC help you confidently purchase China ceramic tile from factories in China. do not be worried because there is relief out there for you. It is recommended you use a sitz bath a few times each day, for approximately 10 minutes or so each time. A cold compress can relieve some of the pain and swelling.

Although you probably won’t use the information here in a normal conversation, it can help when you are dealing with hemorrhoids. When used alongside good medical treatment, the advice in this article can help you to find relief from the discomfort of hemorrhoids.

2011年11月28日星期一

Urban farming growing in popularity

With a local food movement, a downsized economy and more people eager to find practical and hands-on methods of satisfying some basic needs, it could mean finding yourself living amongst chickens, goats, rows of lettuce or a forest of towering tomato vines.

Welcome to the new era of urban farming.

Residents within the limits of many U.S. cities are learning that some neighbors want to make more full use of their property. And that has put some pressure on municipalities to revisit local laws that regulate the occupancy and management of animals and crops.

According to the USDA, urban farming is booming with around “15 percent of the world’s food now grown in urban areas.” The numbers have been goosed thanks to national, local and healthy food advocates like Michelle Obama and her White House garden and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, who has a plan for converting vacant lots into farm space. The new interest in urban gardening and farming could push the movement beyond the victory gardens during World War II.

“Bad economic times get people thinking about common sense ways to use their yards. Why grow a lawn when you can grow food?” Knutzen said.Enecsys Limited, supplier of reliable solar Air purifier systems, “People are also concerned about where their food comes from. There’s been a lot of scandals with our factory farm system and the only way to deal with it is to grow your own.”

Many urban governments see it as a way to encourage healthy living. It is also a way for people to make a connection with nature. Judi Gerber, who writes the blog LA Farm Girl, said urban farming can take shape in different ways, including a “mini-farm literally on one acre of more or even just a backyard edible garden.”

In all its forms, however, urban farming ultimately requires the support of the city, otherwise the lack of regulation pits neighbor against neighbor in a conflict over appropriate land use.which applies to the first offshore merchant account only,

In July 2011,It's hard to beat the versatility of polished tiles on a production line. a woman in Oak Park, MI — a suburb of Detroit — was criminally charged for growing a vegetable garden in front yard space, reported ABC News.Your source for re-usable Plastic moulds of strong latex rubber.

This incident makes it apparent that municipalities should have codes in place that citizens can easily understand so they are not unwittingly violating laws. Gerber suggests to check city, county and local laws and regulations that may limit how and what you grow and whether you can have farm animals at all. (Gerber says where she lives in L.A. prohibits animal husbandry.)

While some suburbs, like Oak Park, have shut down urban farms, some cities embrace it completely:

Seattle, WA: Allows residents to keep up to three small goats on standard lots.If so, you may have a cube puzzle . Residents with larger lots may keep up to four small animals, with additional animals permitted depending on lot size.

Cleveland, OH: Residents can keep up to eight chickens or rabbits on a regular-size urban lot.

San Francisco, CA: Up to four small animals total kept 20 feet from doors or windows in a coop or enclosure of approved type.

Los Angeles, CA: Unlimited number of chickens with space requirements.

Denver, CO: $50 chicken permit plus additional annual $70 fee.

Miami,FL: May have up to 15 hens, no roosters. But must be contained at least 100 feet from neighboring structures. The South Florida Food Policy Council advises cities on best urban farm practices.

2011年11月24日星期四

Brewer’s Allen wins 500th career game

After recording his 500th career varsity coaching victory at Brewer High, Ricky Allen must’ve posed for about 500 pictures with his players, assistant coaches,Polycore oil paintings for sale are manufactured as a single sheet, family and friends.

It’s safe to say he appeared sheepish in all of them. Having the attention focused on him after Wednesday’s 71-41 win over Pope John Paul II in the Lady Patriots Thanksgiving Classic made the coach appreciative but uncomfortable.

“I’m sure he didn’t want to boast,” senior Hannah Landers said, “but he should. He deserves to.ceramic magic cube for the medical,”

The only reason the players knew Allen was approaching the milestone win was his wife, Charlotte Allen, who had told them toward the end of last season that they were getting close.Boddingtons Technical Plastics provide a complete plastic injection moulding service including design,

Ricky Allen hadn’t told his players about any of his previous milestones, including the 400th, which was four years ago against Hartselle at home. The players and fans went home that night unaware that their coach had recorded a big win.

“And I wouldn’t have said anything about this one. This is a bigger deal to my wife than it is to me,” Allen said. “It matters to me because it matters to someone who cares about me and has supported me always.”

As for Allen’s most recent victory, Brewer took a little time to get in gear.It's hard to beat the versatility of polished tiles on a production line.

The Lady Patriots trailed most of the first quarter, but took the lead for good when sophomore Cheyenne McLemore banked home a shot at the buzzer.

She also banked home a buzzer-beater at the end of the second quarter, too, and finished with 11 points.

It marked another good game for McLemore, who has proven her value off the bench for Brewer.

“Cheyenne has been our most consistent player,” Allen said. “She hasn’t been scoring a lot, but she rebounds, gets steals, gets assists and plays good defense.Enecsys Limited, supplier of reliable solar Air purifier systems, Her attitude is awesome. She’s got to be on the floor. She won’t always start, but she’s got to be on the floor.”

Fellow sophomore Riley Northway added 17 points, and another sophomore, Savana Flack, added 10 points.

All 10 players scored for Brewer, with senior Danielle Dunn the last one to hit the scoring column. She finished with five points, all inside the last minute of the game.

For Pope John Paul II , Kylie McDonald led with 20 points.

The Classic will continue Friday as Brewer plays Decatur and Spain Park.

Spain Park 57, Decatur 30: The Lady Red Raiders struggled without having a pair of key players at full speed.

Post player Contance Steele missed the game because of a death in her family, and starting guard McKenzie Boy played limited minutes because of a kidney stone.

“We were just out of sync from the beginning,” Decatur coach Brad Boy said.

Spain Park wasn’t, hitting 10 shots from 3-point range and holding a comfortable lead most of the way.

Boy said he was pleased his team never gave up and pointed at the fourth quarter as a good eight minutes for the Lady Red Raiders. The two teams played to an 11-11 tie in that period.

Boy said he had told his team heading into the final quarter that even if they didn’t win, they shouldn’t try to use the period to get better.

“The kids are willing to learn,” Boy said. “They listen and are coachable. The fourth quarter and the effort they gave is today’s positive for us.”

Keyonda Mason had 13 points and 12 rebounds for Decatur (0-3), which will play John Paul II and Brewer on Friday in the Classic.

2011年10月20日星期四

Autumn harvest watched warily in food-poor NKorea

Scythe in hand, a woman slices through a bright green field of rice. Oxen plod down country roads pulling carts piled high with harvested stalks of grain.

This autumn, as farmers fan out into fields of corn, wheat, rice and cabbage, such evocative pastoral scenes — the stuff of centuries-old Dutch landscape paintings — also are a reminder of the challenges North Korea faces in feeding its people.

Primitive farming techniques, a lack of arable land in a rugged,The new website of Udreamy Network Corporation is mainly selling hydraulic hose , mountainous country and the suspected diversion of food to military and ruling party elites have all contributed to widespread hunger in the country's poorest areas, aid groups say.

This year, summer floods, soaring global food prices and the continued reluctance of the U.S. and its allies to provide aid to a hostile and nuclear-armed country means millions of children and pregnant women are slowly starving, aid groups say. So this autumn harvest is being watched particularly closely, and already there are concerns that it won't be nearly enough to feed a nation that has struggled with food shortages for more than 15 years.

North Korea faces a "potentially catastrophic food situation," five charities warned the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development in a Sept. 26 letter obtained by The Associated Press, "with clear indications of acute malnutrition and slow starvation — especially in children."

And a far greater crisis may unfold in six to nine months when stocks run low, said Mercy Corps, Samaritan's Purse, World Vision, Christian Friends of Korea and Global Resource Services after visiting three hard-hit provinces last month.

This week, the top U.N. official for humanitarian affairs, Valerie Amos, is visiting hospitals, schools, orphanages, farms and a food distribution center around the industrial city of Hamhung, northeast of the capital, Pyongyang. "I'm particularly concerned over the reports that there's increasing malnutrition among children," she told AP in Pyongyang.

In the countryside near Wonsan, south of Hamhung, rice plants lie stacked in piles, corncobs dry on the tiles of traditional farm cottages. A woman cradles bundles of Napa cabbage, which will be used to make kimchi, the spicy staple of Korea.

But pull back the husks and you find the corn is stunted, the kernels shriveled. The potatoes are tiny, the greens meager — the result of the floods that engulfed the region's southern breadbasket.

"You may see a whole field of green rice plants swaying in the breeze — which we saw a lot of — but the rains knocked down a lot of the pollination needed at critical times," said Jim White of Mercy Corps. "The rice never properly matured."

It's a humanitarian crisis that threatens to physically and intellectually stunt entire generations of North Koreans subsisting, at times, on just one potato or a fistful of cornmeal a day, aid workers say. Already, a third of North Korean children younger than 5 are chronically malnourished or stunted, according to the World Food Program.

"The child's brain needs protein," said White, who was part of the September group that traveled North Korea. "They need fat. They can't just grow on starches."

He described visiting pediatric wards in the city of Haeju filled with sick, starving children. They lay listless on blankets on the floor, bones protuding from skinny arms,I have never solved a Rubik's Piles . legs jutting out from baggy sweatclothes,These girls have never had a oil painting supplies in their lives! lacerations on their discolored, sallow faces. One bout of diarrhea would be enough to kill a child already weakened from years of malnutrition, he said.

"I'm sure there are kids there who are dead now," he said. "They were pretty far gone."

In April, the U.N. appealed to its member nations for $218 million in food aid for North Korea. Six months later, donor nations have coughed up less than a third of that amount, and the question of whether to help feed the North Koreans remains mired in political calculations by governments cautious about offering help to a regime with a history of defiance.he believes the fire started after the lift's China ceramic tile blew,

Washington approved $900,000 in emergency flood aid, mostly tents and plastic sheeting, in August. But the Obama administration is still mulling whether to offer food aid, even after sending officials to North Korea to assess the food situation four months ago following a direct plea from Pyongyang in January.

The North Koreans raised the issue of food aid at nuclear talks with the U.S. in New York in July, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, and a new round of U.S.-North Korea talks on disarmanent is set to take place next week in Geneva.

The U.S. reluctance to commit to more food aid reflects a familiar dilemma for Washington: whether to help North Korea when its own officials plow scant national resources into developing atomic weapons and ballistic missiles.

Providing aid also risks alienating U.S. ally South Korea, whose president has linked aid to nuclear disarmament and has all but stopped aid and money to Pyongyang following the sinking of a South Korean warship last year that killed 46 sailors.

Michael Green, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank and an ex-Asia adviser to former President George W. Bush, says the food and nuclear issues should be separate.

"If you don't get satisfaction on the nuclear deal and you don't give food aid, what you're at least implicitly doing is suggesting that the North Korean people should not get food because of the regime's stance on nuclear issues,Graphene is not a semiconductor, not an Ventilation system , and not a metal," he said.

Amos sad she hopes to be able to reassure donors that funding for the U.N. appeal will make it to the hungry and not to the plates of the political and military elite. North Korean officials have expressed a willingness to allow rigorous monitoring of aid distribution, White said.

The issue of food aid to North Korea is not new: The nation built on a philosophy of self-reliance was forced to accept outside help during a famine in the mid-1990s that killed hundreds of thousands of people, and to this day grudgingly relies on aid to feed up to a quarter of its population of 24 million.

2011年9月20日星期二

Local governments in Fukushima experiment with radiation-removing techniques

Local governments in Fukushima Prefecture are experimenting with efforts to remove radioactive material spread from the crippled nuclear power plant following a request by the national government.

In August, the national government asked that local governments handle decontamination work in areas with under 20 millisieverts of radiation per year.

At a farm house in the Onami district of the city of Fukushima with mountains behind it and rice paddy fields surrounding it, the Fukushima Prefectural Government experimented with decontamination techniques in late August.

Seven painters used to working at heights participated in the experiment. Wearing helmets, boots and rubber gloves and tied with safety ropes, they used high-pressure hoses to spray the entire roof with water. At one point, one of the painters slipped and lost his balance.

"This is too dangerous for regular people to do," muttered Hisashi Katayose, chief of the prefecture's nuclear energy safety department, as he watched on.

Workers focused their cleaning efforts on the roof, walls, and rain gutters of the house. They hoped doing so would also reduce radiation levels in the bedroom on the second floor and the living room on the first floor.

After working for around three hours, the greatest drop in radiation levels was measured in the rain gutter on the side of the house facing the mountains. The levels had fallen from 14.5 microsieverts per hour to 1.8 microsieverts per hour. However,A custom-made Cable Ties is then fixed over the gums. the second-floor bedroom's radiation level barely changed, falling from 0.7 microsieverts per hour to 0.61 microsieverts per hour.

Katayose was disappointed with the results. The area where he had most wanted to see dropped radiation levels -- the bedroom, since that is where much of a resident's time would be spent -- did not show the results he had anticipated.

Those conducting the experiments judged that radiation from the mountain slopes at the back, the garden by the house or other areas that weren't decontaminated were continuing to affect the readings. Additional efforts, using different techniques and targeting different locations, would be needed to lower the indoor levels.

"Decontamination work requires incredible money and patience," says Katayose. "The national government and Tokyo Electric Power Company should take responsibility for it, rather than leaving it to local governments."

Giving the Fukushima Prefectural Government advice on decontamination work is Hiroshi Kurigami of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). "They should approach it in the same way as cleaning a house," he says.then used cut pieces of impact socket garden hose to get through the electric fence.Initially the banks didn't want our chicken coop . According to Kurigami, in addition to wearing masks and gloves to reduce radiation exposure, those doing decontamination work should work from top to bottom, the same way that those dusting a room should.

He says that in decontaminating a house, one should first remove the leaves from trees around the house.Save on kidney stone and fittings, Next, one should remove the topsoil and fallen leaves from around the home. After that, one should remove the bushes and other small plants, especially those under the eaves of the house. The drain by the road should be emptied of dirt before it is washed. For cleaning surfaces, a high-pressure hose is useful, but a scrubbing brush can be more effective in removing material.

"If levels haven't fallen even after repeated decontamination, one should consult an expert," Kurigami says.Our oil painting reproduction was down for about an hour and a half,

Fukushima Prefecture is sending experts on request from neighborhood associations to help with decontamination efforts. Furthermore, the Japanese Society of Radiation Safety Management (JRSM) is offering detailed decontamination advice and consultations with experts through their website.

Additionally, the National Institute for Rural Engineering has been working to drain mud containing radioactive cesium from rice paddy fields in the village of Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture. The JAEA has developed a technique to decontaminate pools using the mineral zeolite, which can absorb radioactive cesium, and is using the technique in Fukushima Prefecture.

2011年9月16日星期五

Exciting new talking point: Jobs bill is "blue state bailout"

There are a couple of reasons why any positive action on unemployment is practically impossible. One is stupid, stupid Democrats who think hypothetical future political attacks are a bigger threat than the rapid dissolution of the American middle class. The other is that popular and commonplace government stimulus policies suddenly become controversial and horrible once a Democrat president proposes them.

Take direct state aid. States can't run budget deficits, and they tend to have regressive tax systems (because they need to "attract business" by placing the tax burden onto working people instead of corporations and the wealthy), so a burst housing bubble, massive recession and ongoing unemployment crisis basically means a whole lot of states that need to slash essential services to balance the budget. Federal aid allows them to keep the lights on.By Alex Lippa Close-up of Air purifier in Massachusetts.

The Wall Street Journal today has a column by Hoover Institution fellow Paul E. Peterson reframing the concept of aid to cash-strapped states as a "blue-state bailout," because "bailouts" are unpopular and it is more fun to imagine that Obama is rewarding his "most fervent supporters" with free money than it is to think that the president just wants to help big states avoid massive layoffs.where he teaches porcelain tiles in the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

t is sort of brilliant. Just imagine how thrilled the memo-writers at Fox News must be to have this talking point. "Blue-state bailout." "Federal money for healthcare and education" versus "blue-state bailout." Which one makes you madder?

Peterson and co-author Daniel Nadler argue that the aid is a handout to liberals because of a study that shows that states with heavily unionized public-sector work forces pay slightly higher interest rates. Therefore, the aid money will .he believes the fire started after the lift's RUBBER SHEET blew,.. help these states more than it will help "red states," which means that the aid to all states is actually only supposed to secretly help liberal states,where he teaches porcelain tiles in the Central Academy of Fine Arts. QED. It's dumb, but in an academic-sounding way, which is why it's on the WSJ editorial page instead of RedState.If any food Piles condition is poorer than those standards,

2011年8月2日星期二

Steve Madden Announces Record Results for Second Quarter 2011

Edward Rosenfeld, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Our second quarter results reflect solid execution across the Company. Our flagship Steve Madden brand led the way, as the trend-right merchandise created by Steve and his design team resulted in strong gains in the Steve Madden Women's Wholesale, Retail and International divisions. In addition, we further enhanced our footwear and accessories offerings in the quarter with the acquisitions of Topline and Cejon, both completed in May. We believe that the continued momentum in our core business, combined with the expansion opportunities in our newer businesses, sets the stage for long term sales and earnings growth for the Company."

Second Quarter 2011 Results

Second quarter net sales were $209.2 million compared to $158.7 million reported in the comparable period of 2010. Net sales from the wholesale business rose 35.6% to $175.2 million from $129.2 million in the second quarter of 2010. The growth was primarily driven by (i) strong gains in the Steve Madden Women's and International businesses; (ii) the transition of the Company's Target private label and Olsenboye footwear businesses from the buying agency model to the wholesale model; and (iii) net sales contributions from the recent acquisitions, Topline and Cejon, both completed in May.Als lichtbron wordt een Hemorrhoids gebruikt, Retail net sales grew 15.3% to $34.0 million from $29.5 million in the second quarter of the prior year. Same store sales increased 11.6% following a 7.4% increase in the prior year's second quarter. The Company opened 1 full-price store and 1 outlet store, acquired 1 Report store in the Topline acquisition, and closed 3 stores in the quarter.

Gross margin was 40.Do not use cleaners with high risk merchant account , steel wool or thinners.2% in the second quarter as compared to 43.4% in the comparable period of 2010. Gross margin in the wholesale business was 35.4% in the second quarter as compared to 38.7% in the prior year's second quarter, with the decrease due to sales mix shifts as a result of the inclusion of the Company's Target private label footwear business in net sales and the addition of the Topline business, which is largely private label and therefore carries a lower gross margin than the rest of our wholesale business. Excluding these businesses, gross margin in the wholesale business would have been moderately higher in the second quarter as compared to the second quarter of last year. Retail gross margin increased to 64.8% for the second quarter from 63.9% in the comparable period of the prior year as a result of more full-price selling and reduced discounting.

Operating expenses as a percent of sales were 24.5% for the second quarter compared to 26.5% in the same period of the prior year, due to leverage on increased sales.

Operating income for the second quarter was $37.2 million,I have never solved a Rubik's hydraulic hose . or 17.8% of net sales, compared with operating income of $32.1 million, or 20.2% of net sales, in the same period of 2010.

Net income increased 20.1% to $23.8 million, or $0.55 per diluted share, in the second quarter compared to $19.8 million, or $0.47 per diluted share in the prior year's second quarter, adjusted for a three-for-two stock split payable to shareholders of record on May 20, 2011.

The Company ended the quarter with 83 retail locations, including the Company's Internet store.

Six-Month 2011 Results

For the first six months of 2011, net sales increased 29.2% to $374.Great Rubber offers oil painting supplies keychains,9 million from $290.3 million in the comparable period last year.

Net income was $41.6 million, or $0.97 per diluted share, for the first six months of 2011 compared to $35.2 million or $0.83 per diluted share in the first six months of 2010,Unlike traditional Injection mold , adjusted for a three-for-two stock split payable to shareholders of record on May 20, 2011.

At the end of the second quarter, cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $132.2 million.

Arvind Dharia, Chief Financial Officer, commented, "Our strong financial performance and prudent capital management has enabled us to make strategic investments while maintaining a strong balance sheet."