The chancellor will claim he's pulling off the well-known royal baby effect if, as expected, growth figures improve on Thursday. Prince Charles's birth in 1948 came as Britain entered a quarter-century of recovery, Prince William's heralded green shoots in 1982. Can Prince No-Name-Yet do it again?
The short answer is no. To hit what George Osborne originally promised his austerity would achieve, GDP has to rise by an impossible 5.3% in each of the next two years. Whose growth is it anyway? The great majority will see no improvement in living standards, with wages still falling behind inflation, year after year. And what kind of growth? Instead of his promised rebalancing, the bartender in the Treasury brings the down-and-out alcoholic a bottle of the rot-gut feelgood that put us all in the gutter in the first place. No productivity, no manufacturing, no exports, no investment but instead cheap money, zombie banks primed with quantitative easing who still won't lend, unsustainably low interest rates – and now Help to Buy to pump up house prices.
Homeowners may feel better by the election, able to remortgage and spend again – and what else matters? But we are back on the bottle big-time. Savings are falling, investment is down by a quarter since the crash and 158 countries invest more than Britain. Foreign investment into Britain has been good – but that's put at risk by Conservative euro-madness: as the Engineering Employers Federation said, it relies on access to EU markets.
So is this the time to spend ￡12bn on urging people to buy with a 5% deposit, not even restricted to first-time buyers, on properties up to ￡600,000? True, neither prices nor quantity of sales have reached pre-crash levels – but that's a dangerous benchmark. It's rare to see such a phalanx of loyal Tory-supporters, such as the Institute of Directors, throwing their hands in the air in horror as happened after Osborne's Help to Buy launch on Tuesday. By 2017 the scheme is supposed to end – but as with the Lawson-induced house-price bubble, how do you take the bottle away without another collapse, his critics asked?
Although home owning is falling, down to 64% of the population in 2011, property prices remain our national addiction: just count the number of stories a week gleefully predicting rises. Osborne is betting that homeowners will bring home the electoral bacon. But people now know apparent growth based on cheap money and artificial mortgages is fool's gold. Here is Labour's chance to be the wiser party, ready to sober up the real time Location system.
House prices are highly sensitive to government words and actions. Labour should say loudly and firmly that it will do everything in its power to freeze prices. Language and firm intent can chill expectations. Lay out a policy whose stated aim is to house people well and restore homes as a commodity like any other, not a one-way bet to wealth. Plan to build at least a million homes, instruct and enable local authorities and housing associations to build and force developers to use their hoarded land or sell it on. Freeze rents so they rise by no more than annual inflation to stop property being used as investment, redirecting that money productively. Warn that if prices still rise, from now on capital gains tax may be imposed on homes to chill the market. Do whatever it takes, and say so loudly.
Labour will borrow to invest outside the current spending straitjacket it has accepted for year one, that investment sum to be announced nearer the election. Why not describe that as the national mortgage, the nation borrowing to build massively to invest in the future generation, just as households do? A national mortgage to build would contrast well with Help to Buy inflating existing stock into new bubble prices.
The federal government may be one step closer to keeping tabs on consumers’ health care information with a new data hub compiling personal information from a host of government agencies and newly collected health status information.Some experts warn it could get even more invasive over time.The Data Services Hub will be the primary computer program to verify eligibility for Obamacare exchanges. But the program will collect and compile such massive amounts of information that lawmakers and experts are increasingly fearful of privacy infringement.
Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Pat Meehan warned The Daily Caller News Foundation that the program is a “massive data grab” and will put citizens’ private information at risk.But the program, which has been receiving heat over the large amount of personal data it will connect from various government sources, will also add health status to the mix — an addition Meehan finds distrubing
Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief Marilyn Tavenner, whose department will oversee the Hub, told lawmakers last week that the limited health information required will be relevant to the type of coverage they receive under Obamacare exchanges.
The government’s problem lies in an Obamacare requirement for a certain level of coverage for a certain price, creating “huge incentives for insurers to avoid the sick,” Cannon explained. “Insurers have to provide coverage to customers for $10,000 when the person uses $100,000 in medical care.”One attempt to alleviate price fixing problems is CMS’s Risk Adjustment Program, which would give subsidies to insurance companies with the sickest patients. But Cannon argues that this system will inherently lead to more government snooping.
“Well, how do they know which insurance companies have the sickest patients? The only way they can do that and keep costs under control is to delve into the illnesses that people have and the treatments they’re receiving to verify if these people are actually sick,” Cannon told TheDCNF. The adjustment will require more federal intrusion in the health of the masses.
And the Data Services Hub could be the means to that end. The hub is already set to collect what it calls “limited” personal health information, pertaining only to pregnancy status, blindness, and disability status.On top of these disclosures, Meehan warned that more and more information could be wrangled out of consumers. “When CMS articulates what they’re asking for now, they say ‘including but not limited to’ in all the descriptions,” the congressman told TheDCNF, leaving a window open to adding more federal agencies to the sharing program or increasing the amount of health information to be included in the Hub.
Cannon warns, “There’s a built-in need in Obamacare for the federal government to have more and more access to people’s medical information.” With such pressures on federal regulators it seems unlikely that the data sharing program, which two experts alleged in USA Today will be the “largest consolidation of personal information in the history of the republic,” will be limited to just three categories of health information.
Along with the federal government’s collection of ever-increasing amounts of personal health data comes increased security risks. Meehan told TheDCNF he is unsatisfied with CMS’s cyber security protocols, after his questioning during a House hearing last week forced Tavenner to admit she’d never attended an FBI or Department of Homeland Security briefing on preventing cyber attacks against the data hub.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Showing posts with label autonomous robot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label autonomous robot. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Thank You For Using The Internet
Between 1999 and 2001, the Napster peer-to-peer file sharing program was indispensable for millions. At its peak, the service drew 26.4 million monthly unique users, who spent a collective 6.3 billion minutes a month pilfering shared hard drives for free music. In just over two years, Napster managed to cripple and nearly destroy the music industry. At the same time, it conditioned a generation to see the internet as a place where almost anything can, and therefore should, be free.
Since its beginning, the internet and a broad, loose conception of “freedom” have been inextricably linked. The “first web page”, authored by Tim Berners Lee, described the web as a “wide-area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents”. The notion of a “free and open internet” has animated some of the web’s biggest movements, from open source software to Wikipedia to, in some cases, outright theft. Broadband connections grew popular, leaving users continuously logged on. Regular internet users soon came to expect that almost every type of media they once paid for — music, movies, news — would be available for free, legally or rtls.
That era — let’s call it the internet’s free trial period — is coming to an end. In the 12 years since courts shut down Napster, the internet has taken its hatchet to every other branch of the media industry, deftly pruning ad dollars, jobs, and shaving away bottom lines. Now the reaction, opposite but never quite equal, and always late, is starting to take effect. The untamed and lawless expanses of web content are quickly being replaced by paywalls and monthly fees. And, surprisingly, we don’t really seem to mind all that much. Most of us don’t even seem to notice.
Before sites like Amazon and eBay legitimized the process, paying for anything online — either physical or digital — was widely perceived as a risky proposition. A 2001 New York Times article captures this consumer trepidation with e-commerce, quoting a survey in which over 20 percent of respondents were identified as either “fearful browsers” or “suspicious learners”.
In 2003 that all changed, with the launch of the iTunes music store. With the backing of all five major record labels, Apple and Steve Jobs turned the music industry on its head, introducing the first efficient, truly appealing system for buying a digital product online. Set at 99 cents a song, the low price point helped Apple sell a million songs in its first month of operation (over 50 million in its first year). But more importantly, it was a crucial first step in conditioning normal internet users to pay for media online.
“99 cents felt like the price point that would be just enticing enough,” Paul Vidich, a former executive vice president of Warner Music Group, and the first to suggest the 99 cent price point to Jobs, told BuzzFeed. “It was low enough that in that moment, when you’re doing that value equation in your head, it’s something you don’t have to think twice about before buying.” Vidich also credits iTunes’ simple interface and one-click purchasing, which made buying a painless, easily repeatable experience — even psychologically satisfying. “We made it very easy to have honest people act honestly, Vidich said. “Most people don’t desire to steal this stuff. There’ll always be the hacker vanity of getting it for free but the majority of people aren’t in that category. If you give people the right things in the right window in the right time, they’ll pay.”
The growth of iTunes and the music store was the beginning for paid media online. “I was confident and so was Steve that we’d have some success, but we did not anticipate it would be as big as it was,” Vidich confessed. At the time, Apple had no way of knowing it, but 99 cent songs were indeed the turning point, priming users for Apple’s next coup. When iTunes’ App Store caught fire, online digital purchases graduated from a regular semi-habit to a weekly, or even daily, part of life. Even free apps had to be “purchased” through the same system and with the same password, ingraining the behavior deeper and deeper with every mouse click and finger swipe. It’d be fair to assume that most regular iOS users don’t remember when they first added a credit card to their iTunes accounts.
Ten years later, iTunes has sold over 25 billion songs. It recently celebrated its 50 billionth app download. Other companies, like Amazon, which was armed with millions of credit-card linked profiles from selling physical goods, followed suit, building out their own vast digital libraries. Meanwhile, services like Netflix transformed from a DVD mailing service into a mammoth on-demand streaming video network with over 30 million paid subscribers. Platforms like Steam, once seen as a nuisance by the gaming community, quickly became the most trusted destination for game purchases, digital or otherwise, with over 54 million active user accounts.
The rise of paid sites like Netflix coupled with wildly effective crackdowns on online piracy and the shutdown of massive file sharing sites like Megaupload mean that it’s now often easier for the average internet user to pay a nominal monthly fee for a Netflix account than navigate the murky waters of illegal streaming and hands free access.
There’s a shift in reader sentiment as well. In 2010, Pew’s State of the Media report revealed that 82 percent of its 11,000 respondents would abandon their favorite news site if it introduced a paywall. In 2012, a study by DigiCareers posed the same question. This time, only 52 percent indicated they’d be willing to abandon their favorite site if it erected a paywall. Similarly, a report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism noted “a significant shift in public attitudes towards digital news, with more than twice as many people paying for digital news content than a year ago.”
As far as trends move, paid news’ is creaking along glacially. The percentage of enthusiastic paywall subscribers is still below 20 percent, but it’s growing — an encouraging sign for a business model that was widely predicted to fail at the outset. “Today’s paywalls are by no means perfect, [and] have a lot of big holes in them,” Magid Advisors’ president Mike Vorhaus told BuzzFeed. “But we’re all going to pay for more and pay for stuff we’re not used to paying for. And as a result, publishers of all kinds will continue do a better job figuring out what we value and packaging our content better and more efficiently.”
While we’re nowhere near the end of the “free” internet, the web’s untamed corners undoubtedly feel smaller; increasingly, they’re hardly “untamed” at all, subject to various levels of co-opting by the companies they appear to undercut. A recent Variety article on password sharing revealed that while 40 percent of Netflix and 36 percent of HBO Go subscribers share their login credentials, the streaming companies don’t seem all that worried. “Enabling freeloading could be a counterintuitively savvy promotional tool for getting potential customers hooked on a product they wouldn’t otherwise sample,” the article speculates. Adding credence to the theory, the study also notes that “forty-one percent of HBO non-subs said they were willing to fork over fees within the next six months, while 33% of Netflix non-subs said they were ready to pay, as well.”
Since its beginning, the internet and a broad, loose conception of “freedom” have been inextricably linked. The “first web page”, authored by Tim Berners Lee, described the web as a “wide-area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents”. The notion of a “free and open internet” has animated some of the web’s biggest movements, from open source software to Wikipedia to, in some cases, outright theft. Broadband connections grew popular, leaving users continuously logged on. Regular internet users soon came to expect that almost every type of media they once paid for — music, movies, news — would be available for free, legally or rtls.
That era — let’s call it the internet’s free trial period — is coming to an end. In the 12 years since courts shut down Napster, the internet has taken its hatchet to every other branch of the media industry, deftly pruning ad dollars, jobs, and shaving away bottom lines. Now the reaction, opposite but never quite equal, and always late, is starting to take effect. The untamed and lawless expanses of web content are quickly being replaced by paywalls and monthly fees. And, surprisingly, we don’t really seem to mind all that much. Most of us don’t even seem to notice.
Before sites like Amazon and eBay legitimized the process, paying for anything online — either physical or digital — was widely perceived as a risky proposition. A 2001 New York Times article captures this consumer trepidation with e-commerce, quoting a survey in which over 20 percent of respondents were identified as either “fearful browsers” or “suspicious learners”.
In 2003 that all changed, with the launch of the iTunes music store. With the backing of all five major record labels, Apple and Steve Jobs turned the music industry on its head, introducing the first efficient, truly appealing system for buying a digital product online. Set at 99 cents a song, the low price point helped Apple sell a million songs in its first month of operation (over 50 million in its first year). But more importantly, it was a crucial first step in conditioning normal internet users to pay for media online.
“99 cents felt like the price point that would be just enticing enough,” Paul Vidich, a former executive vice president of Warner Music Group, and the first to suggest the 99 cent price point to Jobs, told BuzzFeed. “It was low enough that in that moment, when you’re doing that value equation in your head, it’s something you don’t have to think twice about before buying.” Vidich also credits iTunes’ simple interface and one-click purchasing, which made buying a painless, easily repeatable experience — even psychologically satisfying. “We made it very easy to have honest people act honestly, Vidich said. “Most people don’t desire to steal this stuff. There’ll always be the hacker vanity of getting it for free but the majority of people aren’t in that category. If you give people the right things in the right window in the right time, they’ll pay.”
The growth of iTunes and the music store was the beginning for paid media online. “I was confident and so was Steve that we’d have some success, but we did not anticipate it would be as big as it was,” Vidich confessed. At the time, Apple had no way of knowing it, but 99 cent songs were indeed the turning point, priming users for Apple’s next coup. When iTunes’ App Store caught fire, online digital purchases graduated from a regular semi-habit to a weekly, or even daily, part of life. Even free apps had to be “purchased” through the same system and with the same password, ingraining the behavior deeper and deeper with every mouse click and finger swipe. It’d be fair to assume that most regular iOS users don’t remember when they first added a credit card to their iTunes accounts.
Ten years later, iTunes has sold over 25 billion songs. It recently celebrated its 50 billionth app download. Other companies, like Amazon, which was armed with millions of credit-card linked profiles from selling physical goods, followed suit, building out their own vast digital libraries. Meanwhile, services like Netflix transformed from a DVD mailing service into a mammoth on-demand streaming video network with over 30 million paid subscribers. Platforms like Steam, once seen as a nuisance by the gaming community, quickly became the most trusted destination for game purchases, digital or otherwise, with over 54 million active user accounts.
The rise of paid sites like Netflix coupled with wildly effective crackdowns on online piracy and the shutdown of massive file sharing sites like Megaupload mean that it’s now often easier for the average internet user to pay a nominal monthly fee for a Netflix account than navigate the murky waters of illegal streaming and hands free access.
There’s a shift in reader sentiment as well. In 2010, Pew’s State of the Media report revealed that 82 percent of its 11,000 respondents would abandon their favorite news site if it introduced a paywall. In 2012, a study by DigiCareers posed the same question. This time, only 52 percent indicated they’d be willing to abandon their favorite site if it erected a paywall. Similarly, a report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism noted “a significant shift in public attitudes towards digital news, with more than twice as many people paying for digital news content than a year ago.”
As far as trends move, paid news’ is creaking along glacially. The percentage of enthusiastic paywall subscribers is still below 20 percent, but it’s growing — an encouraging sign for a business model that was widely predicted to fail at the outset. “Today’s paywalls are by no means perfect, [and] have a lot of big holes in them,” Magid Advisors’ president Mike Vorhaus told BuzzFeed. “But we’re all going to pay for more and pay for stuff we’re not used to paying for. And as a result, publishers of all kinds will continue do a better job figuring out what we value and packaging our content better and more efficiently.”
While we’re nowhere near the end of the “free” internet, the web’s untamed corners undoubtedly feel smaller; increasingly, they’re hardly “untamed” at all, subject to various levels of co-opting by the companies they appear to undercut. A recent Variety article on password sharing revealed that while 40 percent of Netflix and 36 percent of HBO Go subscribers share their login credentials, the streaming companies don’t seem all that worried. “Enabling freeloading could be a counterintuitively savvy promotional tool for getting potential customers hooked on a product they wouldn’t otherwise sample,” the article speculates. Adding credence to the theory, the study also notes that “forty-one percent of HBO non-subs said they were willing to fork over fees within the next six months, while 33% of Netflix non-subs said they were ready to pay, as well.”
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Kingdom comes good again
So close to being crowned champion jockey when riding 161 winners during a fantastic 2011 campaign - losing out on the title by just four to Paul Hanagan - De Sousa was snapped up by the powerful Godolphin operation just a few months later.
He may not have ridden the same quantity of winners since, but the quality of his rides has unsurprisingly been on the rise and he continues to be one of the most sought-after jockeys in the weighing room when available.
A four-timer at Pontefract on Sunday was quickly backed up by Wednesday's across-the-card treble at Salisbury and Bath, and he found the target again at Gosforth Park as My Freedom turned in a stylish display in the Betfred TV Seaton Delaval Handicap.
Last seen finishing down the field in a valuable Meydan handicap back in February, the 6/1 chance was never too far off the gallop, which proved sensible in a race run at a crawl.
When asked to go about his business, Saeed bin Suroor's five-year-old showed a nice change of gear to put the race to bed and only had to be pushed out in the closing stages to beat favourite Validus by two and a quarter lengths.De Sousa said: "He travelled well and when I asked him to go two (furlongs) out he picked up and won really well.
"We went a bit slow for the first furlong, but I was happy with my position and it gave my horse chance to organise himself and find his feet."He has had a few issues at home, but has done it well today."
While Saturday's Northumberland Plate appeared likely to be run on fast ground at the start of the week, steady rain fell throughout Thursday's card and de Sousa warned: "It won't take much to turn it soft."Big Time Billy made the most of her lowly Flat rating with a facile victory in the Betfred Slatyford Old Boys Handicap.
Peter Bowen's seven-year-old won in Listed company during her bumper days and also struck at that level over timber at Cheltenham in April, but went into her latest Flat assignment off a mark of just 62.
The 4/5 favourite travelled powerfully, picked up well and was eased down by Joe Fanning in the final furlong, but still came home with five lengths in hand over the pacesetting Brasingaman Eric.Fanning said: "She did it very easily. She travelled well and when the gap came she quickened up well."She was running here as I don't think there was much for her over hurdles."
Trainer Ruth Carr was delighted to see 4/1 favourite Amazing Blue Sky secure his first victory of the campaign, making every yard of the running in division one of the Betfred "Racing's Biggest Supporter" Handicap.Carr said: "He'd come so far down the weights and just needs things to go his own way."He needs an easy lead, which he got, and when the other horse loomed upsides he really stuck his neck out. He meant business today.
"There are a few options next week, so we'll see what the handicapper does."The Bob Johnson-trained Bygones For Coins was a shock 25/1 winner of the second division.Johnson's son and assistant, National Hunt jockey Kenny Johnson, said: "She was going to win with me on at Cartmel last time when she fell at the last.
"She just has to be ridden properly. A lot of jockeys throw everything at her but she doesn't find much off the bridle and you have to sit and suffer."Andrew [Mullen] listened to what he was told and showed a lot of bottle."She is in again tomorrow, but we'll see. There's a hurdle race at Southwell I think she'd win [July 14]."Richard Fahey is in no rush to make fancy plans for Good Old Boy Lukey (10/11 favourite) after he made it two wins from as many starts in the Betfred Mobile Lotto Novice Stakes.
Fahey said: "He's two out of two and you can't knock him. The form is just okay and we'll have to see what the handicapper does."We don't really want to take on the real stars now. Hopefully we'll be able to go for a nursery."
In the aftermath of leaked data concerning the surveillance of those abroad and American citizens by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden (now wanted on charges of espionage and believed to be at Moscow Airport), the FTC has begun scrutinizing the control and rights of consumers who have had information collected and stored about them.
One type of business at the forefront of such analysis is data brokerages. These companies are B2B-based and collect thousands of details on the general public, from shopping habits to vacation choices, and from ethnicity to estimated income. Collected through various means including online activity, data brokers then sell this information to corporations for marketing and future product research.
Although data brokerages sometimes include ways for consumers to opt-out of marketing databases, the U.S. agency wants more transparency to prevent sensitive details including present medical condition and financial status from leaving the control of the average consumer.
"We spew data every minute we walk the street, park our cars, or enter a building, the ubiquitous CCTV and security cameras blinking prettily in the background — every time we go online, use a mobile device, or hand a credit card to a merchant who is online or on mobile," FTC member Julie Brill noted. "We spend most of our days, and a good deal of our nights, surfing the web, tapping at apps, or powering on our smart phones, constantly adding to the already bursting veins from which data miners are pulling pure gold. That's where the "big" in "Big Data" comes from."
"Reclaim Your Name" is the initiative proposed by Brill to combat the issue. Under the terms of the scheme, Brill envisions an online portal where data brokerage firms would describe their data mining practices and consumer access policies, giving individuals the power to correct information where necessary. For example, inaccurately-mined data could harm a user's credit score, potential to secure a loan, employment or benefits.
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
He may not have ridden the same quantity of winners since, but the quality of his rides has unsurprisingly been on the rise and he continues to be one of the most sought-after jockeys in the weighing room when available.
A four-timer at Pontefract on Sunday was quickly backed up by Wednesday's across-the-card treble at Salisbury and Bath, and he found the target again at Gosforth Park as My Freedom turned in a stylish display in the Betfred TV Seaton Delaval Handicap.
Last seen finishing down the field in a valuable Meydan handicap back in February, the 6/1 chance was never too far off the gallop, which proved sensible in a race run at a crawl.
When asked to go about his business, Saeed bin Suroor's five-year-old showed a nice change of gear to put the race to bed and only had to be pushed out in the closing stages to beat favourite Validus by two and a quarter lengths.De Sousa said: "He travelled well and when I asked him to go two (furlongs) out he picked up and won really well.
"We went a bit slow for the first furlong, but I was happy with my position and it gave my horse chance to organise himself and find his feet."He has had a few issues at home, but has done it well today."
While Saturday's Northumberland Plate appeared likely to be run on fast ground at the start of the week, steady rain fell throughout Thursday's card and de Sousa warned: "It won't take much to turn it soft."Big Time Billy made the most of her lowly Flat rating with a facile victory in the Betfred Slatyford Old Boys Handicap.
Peter Bowen's seven-year-old won in Listed company during her bumper days and also struck at that level over timber at Cheltenham in April, but went into her latest Flat assignment off a mark of just 62.
The 4/5 favourite travelled powerfully, picked up well and was eased down by Joe Fanning in the final furlong, but still came home with five lengths in hand over the pacesetting Brasingaman Eric.Fanning said: "She did it very easily. She travelled well and when the gap came she quickened up well."She was running here as I don't think there was much for her over hurdles."
Trainer Ruth Carr was delighted to see 4/1 favourite Amazing Blue Sky secure his first victory of the campaign, making every yard of the running in division one of the Betfred "Racing's Biggest Supporter" Handicap.Carr said: "He'd come so far down the weights and just needs things to go his own way."He needs an easy lead, which he got, and when the other horse loomed upsides he really stuck his neck out. He meant business today.
"There are a few options next week, so we'll see what the handicapper does."The Bob Johnson-trained Bygones For Coins was a shock 25/1 winner of the second division.Johnson's son and assistant, National Hunt jockey Kenny Johnson, said: "She was going to win with me on at Cartmel last time when she fell at the last.
"She just has to be ridden properly. A lot of jockeys throw everything at her but she doesn't find much off the bridle and you have to sit and suffer."Andrew [Mullen] listened to what he was told and showed a lot of bottle."She is in again tomorrow, but we'll see. There's a hurdle race at Southwell I think she'd win [July 14]."Richard Fahey is in no rush to make fancy plans for Good Old Boy Lukey (10/11 favourite) after he made it two wins from as many starts in the Betfred Mobile Lotto Novice Stakes.
Fahey said: "He's two out of two and you can't knock him. The form is just okay and we'll have to see what the handicapper does."We don't really want to take on the real stars now. Hopefully we'll be able to go for a nursery."
In the aftermath of leaked data concerning the surveillance of those abroad and American citizens by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden (now wanted on charges of espionage and believed to be at Moscow Airport), the FTC has begun scrutinizing the control and rights of consumers who have had information collected and stored about them.
One type of business at the forefront of such analysis is data brokerages. These companies are B2B-based and collect thousands of details on the general public, from shopping habits to vacation choices, and from ethnicity to estimated income. Collected through various means including online activity, data brokers then sell this information to corporations for marketing and future product research.
Although data brokerages sometimes include ways for consumers to opt-out of marketing databases, the U.S. agency wants more transparency to prevent sensitive details including present medical condition and financial status from leaving the control of the average consumer.
"We spew data every minute we walk the street, park our cars, or enter a building, the ubiquitous CCTV and security cameras blinking prettily in the background — every time we go online, use a mobile device, or hand a credit card to a merchant who is online or on mobile," FTC member Julie Brill noted. "We spend most of our days, and a good deal of our nights, surfing the web, tapping at apps, or powering on our smart phones, constantly adding to the already bursting veins from which data miners are pulling pure gold. That's where the "big" in "Big Data" comes from."
"Reclaim Your Name" is the initiative proposed by Brill to combat the issue. Under the terms of the scheme, Brill envisions an online portal where data brokerage firms would describe their data mining practices and consumer access policies, giving individuals the power to correct information where necessary. For example, inaccurately-mined data could harm a user's credit score, potential to secure a loan, employment or benefits.
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Android SDK from SecuGen
SecuGen Corporation is pleased to announce the release of the FDx SDK Pro for the Android Operating System. This new Software Developer Kit (SDK) enables software developers to add fingerprint authentication to their Android based software running on ARM tablets and smart phones. This Android SDK incorporates SecuGen’s MINEX certified, FIPS 201/PIV compliant template extraction and matching algorithms.SecuGen makes its 1:1 SDKs, such as the new Android SDK, available for free via download from the SecuGen website.
Mobile computing is a rapidly growing platform for delivering a wide variety of applications including applications that demand high levels of security such as, finance, health care and medical records, as well as government services. SecuGen’s Hamster IV and Hamster Plus fingerprint readers, along with the iD-USB SC and iD-USB SC/PIV dual mode fingerprint and smartcard readers are sold through reseller partners worldwide. SecuGen’s products are widely recognized for being rugged, accurate and affordable.
Dan Riley, Vice President of Engineering for SecuGen said, “We are very excited to be able to offer Android compatibility for our fingerprint readers. Our partners have been asking for this and our role, as always, is to provide them with the tools that they need. The Android SDK is one of several exciting new products that we will be bringing to market in 2013.”
Won Lee, CEO of SecuGen added, “We are very pleased to offer our partners the new Android SDK. We work tirelessly to provide the tools that our partners need to succeed. Today mobile computing has become a ubiquitous platform for a broad range of rtls. We are proud to be able to deliver to our partners the ability to leverage that platform.”
If so, you ought to be very worried about a pair of developments in the last week that offer a theoretical framework to end shareholder class actions. If, on the other hand, you're of the view that shareholder litigation is merely a transfer of wealth from corporations to plaintiffs' lawyers, with little actual return to investors, you might want to start thinking about how to use the new rulings to stop that from happening.
Let's look first at the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-3 decision last week in American Express v. Italian Colors. That case, as you know, was brought by small businesses that believed American Express was abusing its monopoly in the charge card market by requiring them also to accept Amex credit cards carrying higher fees than competing credit cards. The Supreme Court said that even though the merchants had statutory antitrust rights under the Sherman Act, they had given up their right to sue Amex as a class when they signed arbitration agreements barring such suits. It was of no matter, the majority said, that the cost of arbitrating an individual antitrust claim would dwarf the recovery of any single small business: The merchants signed contracts that included arbitration clauses and those contracts bound them. (Or, as Justice Elena Kagan put it in a memorable dissent: "Here is the nutshell version of today's opinion, admirably flaunted rather than camouflaged: Too darn bad.")
The Amex ruling immediately drew the ire of consumer and employment rights advocates, who argued that it gives corporations the power effectively to insulate themselves against all sorts of legitimate claims by cutting off escape routes from class action waivers in mandatory arbitration clauses. But what about shareholders? In a very smart column on Monday, Kevin LaCroix of D&O Diary raised the question of Amex's potential impact on securities fraud and shareholder derivative class actions. Does the court's ruling, he asked, mean that "the broad enforceability of arbitration agreements reaches far enough to include the enforceability of arbitration agreements and class action waivers in corporate articles of incorporation or by-laws?"
Why shouldn't it, after all? Shareholders sue corporations and corporate boards under a pair of laws passed in the 1930s, meaning that their federal statutory rights are no more powerful than those of the merchants who tried to sue Amex under the Sherman Act. So why can't corporations, as LaCroix suggests, impose mandatory arbitration and class action waivers on shareholders?
They may well be able to under this Supreme Court, Duke law professor James Cox told me Tuesday. Cox said he believes that sooner than later, some private start-up or company engaged in an initial public offering will include a mandatory arbitration provision in its corporate charter. The company will have to be able to show that shareholders consented to the provision, just as the merchants in the Amex case agreed to mandatory arbitration, Cox said, "but I could easily imagine this court fantasizing that when you buy shares of the company, you consent."
What about the Securities and Exchange Commission? When the private equity fund Carlyle floated the idea of shareholder arbitration in an IPO in 2012, the SEC quietly objected and Carlyle ended up dropping the proposal. Though the SEC has never permitted the IPO of a company with a mandatory arbitration clause, Cox told me he believes the SEC "has limited power" to block such provisions if a corporation really wants to litigate the issue up to the Supreme Court.
Doomsday has not yet arrived for shareholder litigation, and perhaps it never will. Another Harvard law professor, Jesse Fried, cautioned in an email that forum selection by-laws are "very different animals from arbitration provisions, especially when the shareholders can change the by-laws if they are really unhappy about them." Strine's ruling Tuesday included a caveat noting that forum selection by-laws regulate just where suits are brought, not what suits shareholders may bring (nor, by extension, whether they can bring suits at all). Fried and Coates both told me that Delaware courts will question whether mandatory shareholder arbitration clauses are consistent with a board's fiduciary duties to shareholders. Fried added that corporate defense lawyers may also be philosophically (and financially) opposed to moving shareholder claims to arbitration; Coates posited that corporations may prefer to resolve shareholder claims through class actions rather than through endless individual arbitrations. (I have my doubts on that score.)
Opponents of mandatory shareholder arbitration can also point to specific laws as evidence that Congress intended shareholder claims to be litigated on a classwide basis, including the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act, both of which assume that shareholders will litigate as a class. The Supreme Court, moreover, has not (to my knowledge) suggested diverting shareholder claims to arbitration, even though it has spent a lot of time in the last couple of years tinkering with the mechanics of securities class actions. For that matter, the court's securities rulings haven't been nearly as hard on plaintiffs as some of the court's other class action decisions.
Mobile computing is a rapidly growing platform for delivering a wide variety of applications including applications that demand high levels of security such as, finance, health care and medical records, as well as government services. SecuGen’s Hamster IV and Hamster Plus fingerprint readers, along with the iD-USB SC and iD-USB SC/PIV dual mode fingerprint and smartcard readers are sold through reseller partners worldwide. SecuGen’s products are widely recognized for being rugged, accurate and affordable.
Dan Riley, Vice President of Engineering for SecuGen said, “We are very excited to be able to offer Android compatibility for our fingerprint readers. Our partners have been asking for this and our role, as always, is to provide them with the tools that they need. The Android SDK is one of several exciting new products that we will be bringing to market in 2013.”
Won Lee, CEO of SecuGen added, “We are very pleased to offer our partners the new Android SDK. We work tirelessly to provide the tools that our partners need to succeed. Today mobile computing has become a ubiquitous platform for a broad range of rtls. We are proud to be able to deliver to our partners the ability to leverage that platform.”
If so, you ought to be very worried about a pair of developments in the last week that offer a theoretical framework to end shareholder class actions. If, on the other hand, you're of the view that shareholder litigation is merely a transfer of wealth from corporations to plaintiffs' lawyers, with little actual return to investors, you might want to start thinking about how to use the new rulings to stop that from happening.
Let's look first at the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-3 decision last week in American Express v. Italian Colors. That case, as you know, was brought by small businesses that believed American Express was abusing its monopoly in the charge card market by requiring them also to accept Amex credit cards carrying higher fees than competing credit cards. The Supreme Court said that even though the merchants had statutory antitrust rights under the Sherman Act, they had given up their right to sue Amex as a class when they signed arbitration agreements barring such suits. It was of no matter, the majority said, that the cost of arbitrating an individual antitrust claim would dwarf the recovery of any single small business: The merchants signed contracts that included arbitration clauses and those contracts bound them. (Or, as Justice Elena Kagan put it in a memorable dissent: "Here is the nutshell version of today's opinion, admirably flaunted rather than camouflaged: Too darn bad.")
The Amex ruling immediately drew the ire of consumer and employment rights advocates, who argued that it gives corporations the power effectively to insulate themselves against all sorts of legitimate claims by cutting off escape routes from class action waivers in mandatory arbitration clauses. But what about shareholders? In a very smart column on Monday, Kevin LaCroix of D&O Diary raised the question of Amex's potential impact on securities fraud and shareholder derivative class actions. Does the court's ruling, he asked, mean that "the broad enforceability of arbitration agreements reaches far enough to include the enforceability of arbitration agreements and class action waivers in corporate articles of incorporation or by-laws?"
Why shouldn't it, after all? Shareholders sue corporations and corporate boards under a pair of laws passed in the 1930s, meaning that their federal statutory rights are no more powerful than those of the merchants who tried to sue Amex under the Sherman Act. So why can't corporations, as LaCroix suggests, impose mandatory arbitration and class action waivers on shareholders?
They may well be able to under this Supreme Court, Duke law professor James Cox told me Tuesday. Cox said he believes that sooner than later, some private start-up or company engaged in an initial public offering will include a mandatory arbitration provision in its corporate charter. The company will have to be able to show that shareholders consented to the provision, just as the merchants in the Amex case agreed to mandatory arbitration, Cox said, "but I could easily imagine this court fantasizing that when you buy shares of the company, you consent."
What about the Securities and Exchange Commission? When the private equity fund Carlyle floated the idea of shareholder arbitration in an IPO in 2012, the SEC quietly objected and Carlyle ended up dropping the proposal. Though the SEC has never permitted the IPO of a company with a mandatory arbitration clause, Cox told me he believes the SEC "has limited power" to block such provisions if a corporation really wants to litigate the issue up to the Supreme Court.
Doomsday has not yet arrived for shareholder litigation, and perhaps it never will. Another Harvard law professor, Jesse Fried, cautioned in an email that forum selection by-laws are "very different animals from arbitration provisions, especially when the shareholders can change the by-laws if they are really unhappy about them." Strine's ruling Tuesday included a caveat noting that forum selection by-laws regulate just where suits are brought, not what suits shareholders may bring (nor, by extension, whether they can bring suits at all). Fried and Coates both told me that Delaware courts will question whether mandatory shareholder arbitration clauses are consistent with a board's fiduciary duties to shareholders. Fried added that corporate defense lawyers may also be philosophically (and financially) opposed to moving shareholder claims to arbitration; Coates posited that corporations may prefer to resolve shareholder claims through class actions rather than through endless individual arbitrations. (I have my doubts on that score.)
Opponents of mandatory shareholder arbitration can also point to specific laws as evidence that Congress intended shareholder claims to be litigated on a classwide basis, including the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act, both of which assume that shareholders will litigate as a class. The Supreme Court, moreover, has not (to my knowledge) suggested diverting shareholder claims to arbitration, even though it has spent a lot of time in the last couple of years tinkering with the mechanics of securities class actions. For that matter, the court's securities rulings haven't been nearly as hard on plaintiffs as some of the court's other class action decisions.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Tackling the identity crisis
The financial challenge facing police authorities in the UK is all too apparent. Soon after coming to power, the coalition government announced plans to cut central grants to the police by 20% over the four years to 2015. And with the task of reducing the national deficit proving harder than anticipated, it is quite possible that even deeper cuts lie ahead. In terms of ‘boots on the ground’, this equates to at least 15,000 fewer officers, and a total reduction in headcount of over 32,000. Furthermore, financial retrenchment is going hand in hand with demands to maintain or even enhance frontline policing. To try and square this particular circle, police authorities are pursuing a number of strategies. One option is to make more effective use of mobile computing. However, whilst there are undoubtedly opportunities to cut costs and boost productivity this way, concerns over the potential vulnerability of IT networks must also be taken into account.
Of course, the trend towards mobile technology predates the age of austerity. Police vehicles have increasingly resembled remote offices on wheels in recent years and a report by the UK National Audit Office in 2012 noted that trials of mobile technology showed a positive impact on the speed and efficiency with which routine administrative tasks were completed. With the right tools at their fingertips, officers are able to spend more time within the communities they serve.
But such efficiency gains cannot be made at the expense of protecting the sensitive data which officers handle on a daily basis. Reports of advanced cyber threats, including hacking, spyware, ID theft and viruses are increasingly commonplace, and police forces are clearly high profile targets for malicious attacks. In terms of addressing these risks, robust user authentication is one of the cornerstones of an effective security infrastructure. Currently, the most common technique is the classic username and ‘memorable’ password combination. Unfortunately, numerous security breaches have demonstrated the inherent weaknesses of this approach. This is certainly recognized in the US, where plans are now in place to ensure that access to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS), the national database which contains information such as fingerprints and criminal records, must only be via a secure user authentication method.
In practice, secure user authentication means moving beyond traditional username/password techniques. And whilst the methodologies may vary, the basic principle is straightforward. Secure user authentication for log-in requires at least two form factors. For example: something the user knows (such as a name and password) plus something the user has. This might be a smartcard that holds a securely encrypted ID, or a ‘token’ that can generate a single-use password or PIN that is entered into a computer or device during log-in.
For police forces struggling with unprecedented budget reductions, the good news is that the enhanced security delivered by strong user authentication can also reduce overheads and improve productivity. The reason for this lies in the plethora of different credentials currently carried by both officers and administrative staff. Studies suggest that the typical officer has up to five, including not just the obvious warrant card, but also those used for physical access to buildings, rooms and lockers, and logical access to computers and networks. However, by making use of a secure user authentication solution such as Gemalto’s Protiva Defender Suite, it is possible to combine multiple access functions on a single credential such as a smartcard, cutting costs and increasing the speed with which officers can complete everyday tasks. Furthermore, because it is designed specifically for military and emergency service applications, Protiva Defender Suite utilizes the high level encryption and security technology necessary to resist sophisticated cyber-attacks.
In common with many other frontline public services, the police are wrestling with the challenge of making fewer resources go further than ever. Modern IT is one of the most valuable tools at the disposal of those charged with rising to the challenge. And although the issue of streamlining and strengthening user authentication is clearly part of a much bigger picture, it is at least one area in which there is demonstrable evidence of the ability to squeeze improved performance from a shrinking budget.
Gemalto, a world leader in digital security, help organizations protect and manage their logical, physical, and cloud-based data assets. Our Protiva strong multi-factor authentication solutions provide the highest level of protection.
Gemalto develops secure embedded software and secure products which we design and personalize. Our platforms and services manage these products, the confidential data they contain and the trusted end-user services made possible.
The smartphone application, called ‘myEcoCost’, has been developed as part of a ￡2.6 million study by Nottingham Trent University, coordinated by Bavarian-based company TriaGnoSys, into whether consumers make more sustainable choices when information on products, such as ecological footprint, is made available to them.
Developed by ‘experts’, the electronic system will enable shoppers with smart phones to scan a product’s barcode and receive a rating of how ‘sustainable’ it is. The aim is for consumers to identify which products have the smallest carbon footprint, which use the least resources and which are the healthiest for them to consume.
Shoppers will be able to view the cumulative ecological cost of the products or services they have purchased online using a system similar to reward or loyalty card schemes.
Professor Daizhong Su, Head of the Advanced Design and Manufacturing Engineering Centre at the university’s School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment, said: “The aim is for consumers to make a more environmentally conscious decision about what they buy. For example, shoppers may choose a ‘greener’ product over another item that is the same price if they know that it has less of an impact on the environment.
“The desired knock-on effect of this would be that manufacturers would refocus their priorities and make their products and processes more sustainable, with luxury packaging, for instance, becoming a thing of the past and being deemed distasteful by society.”
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
Of course, the trend towards mobile technology predates the age of austerity. Police vehicles have increasingly resembled remote offices on wheels in recent years and a report by the UK National Audit Office in 2012 noted that trials of mobile technology showed a positive impact on the speed and efficiency with which routine administrative tasks were completed. With the right tools at their fingertips, officers are able to spend more time within the communities they serve.
But such efficiency gains cannot be made at the expense of protecting the sensitive data which officers handle on a daily basis. Reports of advanced cyber threats, including hacking, spyware, ID theft and viruses are increasingly commonplace, and police forces are clearly high profile targets for malicious attacks. In terms of addressing these risks, robust user authentication is one of the cornerstones of an effective security infrastructure. Currently, the most common technique is the classic username and ‘memorable’ password combination. Unfortunately, numerous security breaches have demonstrated the inherent weaknesses of this approach. This is certainly recognized in the US, where plans are now in place to ensure that access to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS), the national database which contains information such as fingerprints and criminal records, must only be via a secure user authentication method.
In practice, secure user authentication means moving beyond traditional username/password techniques. And whilst the methodologies may vary, the basic principle is straightforward. Secure user authentication for log-in requires at least two form factors. For example: something the user knows (such as a name and password) plus something the user has. This might be a smartcard that holds a securely encrypted ID, or a ‘token’ that can generate a single-use password or PIN that is entered into a computer or device during log-in.
For police forces struggling with unprecedented budget reductions, the good news is that the enhanced security delivered by strong user authentication can also reduce overheads and improve productivity. The reason for this lies in the plethora of different credentials currently carried by both officers and administrative staff. Studies suggest that the typical officer has up to five, including not just the obvious warrant card, but also those used for physical access to buildings, rooms and lockers, and logical access to computers and networks. However, by making use of a secure user authentication solution such as Gemalto’s Protiva Defender Suite, it is possible to combine multiple access functions on a single credential such as a smartcard, cutting costs and increasing the speed with which officers can complete everyday tasks. Furthermore, because it is designed specifically for military and emergency service applications, Protiva Defender Suite utilizes the high level encryption and security technology necessary to resist sophisticated cyber-attacks.
In common with many other frontline public services, the police are wrestling with the challenge of making fewer resources go further than ever. Modern IT is one of the most valuable tools at the disposal of those charged with rising to the challenge. And although the issue of streamlining and strengthening user authentication is clearly part of a much bigger picture, it is at least one area in which there is demonstrable evidence of the ability to squeeze improved performance from a shrinking budget.
Gemalto, a world leader in digital security, help organizations protect and manage their logical, physical, and cloud-based data assets. Our Protiva strong multi-factor authentication solutions provide the highest level of protection.
Gemalto develops secure embedded software and secure products which we design and personalize. Our platforms and services manage these products, the confidential data they contain and the trusted end-user services made possible.
The smartphone application, called ‘myEcoCost’, has been developed as part of a ￡2.6 million study by Nottingham Trent University, coordinated by Bavarian-based company TriaGnoSys, into whether consumers make more sustainable choices when information on products, such as ecological footprint, is made available to them.
Developed by ‘experts’, the electronic system will enable shoppers with smart phones to scan a product’s barcode and receive a rating of how ‘sustainable’ it is. The aim is for consumers to identify which products have the smallest carbon footprint, which use the least resources and which are the healthiest for them to consume.
Shoppers will be able to view the cumulative ecological cost of the products or services they have purchased online using a system similar to reward or loyalty card schemes.
Professor Daizhong Su, Head of the Advanced Design and Manufacturing Engineering Centre at the university’s School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment, said: “The aim is for consumers to make a more environmentally conscious decision about what they buy. For example, shoppers may choose a ‘greener’ product over another item that is the same price if they know that it has less of an impact on the environment.
“The desired knock-on effect of this would be that manufacturers would refocus their priorities and make their products and processes more sustainable, with luxury packaging, for instance, becoming a thing of the past and being deemed distasteful by society.”
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Tiny backpacks for dragonflies track their brains in flight
The brain of a dragonfly has to do some serious calculations -- and fast -- if it hopes to nab a mosquito or midge in midair. It has to predict the trajectory of its prey, plot a course to intersect it, then make adjustments on the fly to counteract any evasive manoeuvres. Neuroscientist Anthony Leonardo created the tiny dragonfly backpack above to study how circuits of neurons do these computations.
The backpack weighs 40 milligrams, about as much as a couple grains of sand, equal to just 10 percent of the dragonfly's weight. Electrodes inserted into the dragonfly's body and brain record the electrical activity of neurons, and a custom-made chip amplifies the signals and transmits them wirelessly to a nearby computer.
One of the trickiest design challenges was how to power the chip without adding so much mass that the insects couldn't get off the ground, says Leonardo, who's based at Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia.
He and collaborators at Duke University and Intan Technologies came up with a clever solution based on the same technology found in the RFID key card access system used in many office buildings. There, a reader, usually a small pad next to a door, emits radio waves to create a magnetic field. When a key card gets close enough to the reader, the magnetic field induces a current that powers a chip inside the card, enabling it to transmit a code to unlock the door.
The two long antennae on the dragonfly backpack harvest radio waves and power the chip in a similar way. Eliminating the need for a battery on the backpack was the key to keeping the weight down.
Getting dragonflies to hunt inside the lab turned out to be a little tricky too, Leonardo says. In a plain white room, the insects exhaust themselves trying to escape. So the team installed turf on the floor, installed a small pond, and covered the walls with a scene that evokes a springtime meadow.
In their experiments, the researchers release fruit flies and watch the dragonflies take off from a perch and catch them. Eighteen high-speed infrared video cameras positioned around the room capture every move as a dragonfly closes in on its prey and launches its body upwards, curling its hairy legs inward to form a sort of basket trap (see video below).
As the dragonfly hunts, the backpack captures the firing of neurons Leonardo thinks play a crucial role in guiding it towards its prey. "We know a lot about their anatomy," he said. "They gather input from visual parts of the brain and send axons down to the motor neurons that move the rtls."
The question that fascinates Leonardo is how those neurons and others transform information about the visual scene into a plan of action, and how they continuously update the plan as the dragonfly and its prey move through space. All animals do this type of transformation, from a centre fielder running down a fly ball to a lion running down a gazelle. But a neuroscientist can't exactly study those situations in the lab.
Earlier this year, I wrote about my wish for a digital insurance card that could be displayed on my smart phone, similar to the electronic boarding passes now available with airline apps.
I rarely seem able to remember to transfer the latest paper cards from the envelope mailed to me by my insurer to my glove compartment, and my wallet. So the card I have with me is often dog-eared and out of date, even though I have paid my premiums and my coverage is current.
When I first wrote about digital insurance cards, just seven states permitted them (Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana and Minnesota.)
But after a busy legislative season, 25 states now permit drivers to show “e-cards” at traffic stops, according to a map prepared by the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, a trade group that supports use of the digital cards.
The 18 states that approved electronic proof-of-coverage laws this year (including Arkansas, the state where I live) are: Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
The association’s director of personal lines policy, Alex Hageli, has said the use of electronic identification cards is more convenient for consumers, and can help reduce time spent by courts addressing tickets issued simply because (like me) drivers forgot to put the card in their wallets.
“It makes good sense to allow consumers and insurers to use increasingly ubiquitous technology to comply with the law,” Mr. Hageli said in a prepared statement.
The association supports “flexible” rules allowing use of the digital cards as an option for insurers and consumers–meaning that those who prefer paper cards can still use them.
The backpack weighs 40 milligrams, about as much as a couple grains of sand, equal to just 10 percent of the dragonfly's weight. Electrodes inserted into the dragonfly's body and brain record the electrical activity of neurons, and a custom-made chip amplifies the signals and transmits them wirelessly to a nearby computer.
One of the trickiest design challenges was how to power the chip without adding so much mass that the insects couldn't get off the ground, says Leonardo, who's based at Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia.
He and collaborators at Duke University and Intan Technologies came up with a clever solution based on the same technology found in the RFID key card access system used in many office buildings. There, a reader, usually a small pad next to a door, emits radio waves to create a magnetic field. When a key card gets close enough to the reader, the magnetic field induces a current that powers a chip inside the card, enabling it to transmit a code to unlock the door.
The two long antennae on the dragonfly backpack harvest radio waves and power the chip in a similar way. Eliminating the need for a battery on the backpack was the key to keeping the weight down.
Getting dragonflies to hunt inside the lab turned out to be a little tricky too, Leonardo says. In a plain white room, the insects exhaust themselves trying to escape. So the team installed turf on the floor, installed a small pond, and covered the walls with a scene that evokes a springtime meadow.
In their experiments, the researchers release fruit flies and watch the dragonflies take off from a perch and catch them. Eighteen high-speed infrared video cameras positioned around the room capture every move as a dragonfly closes in on its prey and launches its body upwards, curling its hairy legs inward to form a sort of basket trap (see video below).
As the dragonfly hunts, the backpack captures the firing of neurons Leonardo thinks play a crucial role in guiding it towards its prey. "We know a lot about their anatomy," he said. "They gather input from visual parts of the brain and send axons down to the motor neurons that move the rtls."
The question that fascinates Leonardo is how those neurons and others transform information about the visual scene into a plan of action, and how they continuously update the plan as the dragonfly and its prey move through space. All animals do this type of transformation, from a centre fielder running down a fly ball to a lion running down a gazelle. But a neuroscientist can't exactly study those situations in the lab.
Earlier this year, I wrote about my wish for a digital insurance card that could be displayed on my smart phone, similar to the electronic boarding passes now available with airline apps.
I rarely seem able to remember to transfer the latest paper cards from the envelope mailed to me by my insurer to my glove compartment, and my wallet. So the card I have with me is often dog-eared and out of date, even though I have paid my premiums and my coverage is current.
When I first wrote about digital insurance cards, just seven states permitted them (Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana and Minnesota.)
But after a busy legislative season, 25 states now permit drivers to show “e-cards” at traffic stops, according to a map prepared by the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, a trade group that supports use of the digital cards.
The 18 states that approved electronic proof-of-coverage laws this year (including Arkansas, the state where I live) are: Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
The association’s director of personal lines policy, Alex Hageli, has said the use of electronic identification cards is more convenient for consumers, and can help reduce time spent by courts addressing tickets issued simply because (like me) drivers forgot to put the card in their wallets.
“It makes good sense to allow consumers and insurers to use increasingly ubiquitous technology to comply with the law,” Mr. Hageli said in a prepared statement.
The association supports “flexible” rules allowing use of the digital cards as an option for insurers and consumers–meaning that those who prefer paper cards can still use them.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
The Business Of Scouting And A Crisis Of Our Own Making
I’m an Eagle Scout. When I turned 8, and for the next twenty years, Scouting occupied the majority of my time in life.
I was elected and appointed to national Scouting posts for several years as a kid, and served for several more as an adult. When I was 19 years old, I met — then lived with, and traveled the world assisting — one of the great mentors of my life. He was 91 years old, and William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt was renowned as one of the founding fathers of the worldwide movement of Scouting. Hillcourt was a hero to millions of Scouts and Scouters. He wrote many of the Scout handbooks and shaped much of the Scouting program for nearly 70 years, though was often out of step with the corporate decision makers of the Boy Scouts of America.
Following Bill’s death, I carried a spark from the torch he tried to pass, and one of my earliest startups was a magazine for Boy Scout leaders, together with a web community we launched in 1994, the dark ages of the internet. We reached tens of thousands of leaders, and for several years it was my honor to write and travel and speak to a grassroots movement of Scouting, and lead an incredible team of staff and volunteers that loved their jobs.
In some ways that early startup experience really set an impossible standard for my future business ventures… we didn’t just satisfy customers. Instead, the words we published and ideas we promoted brought customer letters proclaiming “Bless you for helping me change the lives of kids!”, and went on to paint in vivid detail how we had done so. It was pretty inspirational and heady stuff for all of us in that business, even if we weren’t making any money.
There was a time when I expected my entire life would be spent in the service of Scouting, humbly trying to continue the legacy of Bill Hillcourt, and give back to a movement that had done more to shape and mold the man I became than anything I learned in school, from my parents, or from any other influence.
Scouting inspired the value of cheerful service, honed my leadership, and fostered my ambition to nurture and advance my community. From those lessons, I’ve launched startups, mentored founders, created schools and built several organizations. I’ve succeeded and failed plenty of times, and Scouting was the lab where I first learned how to do both.
The Scouting of my youth was a welcoming place for all kids to learn and grow. But twenty years ago, Scouting in America chose to become a culture warrior, and has increasingly marginalized itself and eroded its brand.
The BSA won a Supreme Court case in 2000, defending its right as a private organization to define its own membership. That case may have been specifically about gay members, but it was really about a broader right of association. The BSA was correct to defend itself in that case, and the final decision of the Court was also correct.
Many may argue that BSA was drawn into the battle. But where BSA failed, and instead placed itself at the tip of the dagger, was in not announcing the very next day that they were granting local chartering partners (the churches, civic clubs, and parent groups) the power to decide who the best leaders would be for their kids.
BSA correctly fought for the right to association, but then denied that right to their most important partners, the parents in neighborhoods and communities across America.
It may be a difficult nuance to understand the difference between the movement of Scouting, which grows in more than 140 countries and still shines brightly with millions of kids in local neighborhoods throughout this country, and the organization of the Boy Scouts of America. The BSA is the national corporation, exclusively granted a charter by the US Congress to administer the only boy scout program in this country. It’s the organization that established this policy.
The movement of Scouting continues to be one of the great opportunities for light and goodness in the world. But in my opinion, and one shared by millions of parents with kids who could benefit from Scouting, the corporation that administers Scouting in America lost its moral compass a long time ago.
The BSA will argue they were only honoring the wishes and concerns of parents. They will argue they didn’t expressly ban gay kids and adults, they simply compelled them to keep that part of their identity secret if they wanted to remain in Scouting. But in reality they refused to allow all local parents, troop leaders and chartering partners to decide for themselves.
In retrospect, the Boy Scouts of America made a bad business decision. It might have been good short-term business, in that it placated a few of their largest chartering partners, like the LDS and Catholic church, who were then using the Boy Scouts as a sectarian tool (even if many smaller churches and other partners were marginalized in dissent). But it was clearly bad business in the long run.
Not long after that Supreme Court case, in a rare, candid moment, the chief scout executive at the time was quoted in the media saying “when [parents] start walking away from us, that’s the signal for us to revisit the issue”. That’s a business decision, driven by numbers, not a moral one.
And for the next thirteen years, the BSA became an increasingly isolated echo chamber of like minded customers, where their business decision ignored the total addressable market.
I was elected and appointed to national Scouting posts for several years as a kid, and served for several more as an adult. When I was 19 years old, I met — then lived with, and traveled the world assisting — one of the great mentors of my life. He was 91 years old, and William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt was renowned as one of the founding fathers of the worldwide movement of Scouting. Hillcourt was a hero to millions of Scouts and Scouters. He wrote many of the Scout handbooks and shaped much of the Scouting program for nearly 70 years, though was often out of step with the corporate decision makers of the Boy Scouts of America.
Following Bill’s death, I carried a spark from the torch he tried to pass, and one of my earliest startups was a magazine for Boy Scout leaders, together with a web community we launched in 1994, the dark ages of the internet. We reached tens of thousands of leaders, and for several years it was my honor to write and travel and speak to a grassroots movement of Scouting, and lead an incredible team of staff and volunteers that loved their jobs.
In some ways that early startup experience really set an impossible standard for my future business ventures… we didn’t just satisfy customers. Instead, the words we published and ideas we promoted brought customer letters proclaiming “Bless you for helping me change the lives of kids!”, and went on to paint in vivid detail how we had done so. It was pretty inspirational and heady stuff for all of us in that business, even if we weren’t making any money.
There was a time when I expected my entire life would be spent in the service of Scouting, humbly trying to continue the legacy of Bill Hillcourt, and give back to a movement that had done more to shape and mold the man I became than anything I learned in school, from my parents, or from any other influence.
Scouting inspired the value of cheerful service, honed my leadership, and fostered my ambition to nurture and advance my community. From those lessons, I’ve launched startups, mentored founders, created schools and built several organizations. I’ve succeeded and failed plenty of times, and Scouting was the lab where I first learned how to do both.
The Scouting of my youth was a welcoming place for all kids to learn and grow. But twenty years ago, Scouting in America chose to become a culture warrior, and has increasingly marginalized itself and eroded its brand.
The BSA won a Supreme Court case in 2000, defending its right as a private organization to define its own membership. That case may have been specifically about gay members, but it was really about a broader right of association. The BSA was correct to defend itself in that case, and the final decision of the Court was also correct.
Many may argue that BSA was drawn into the battle. But where BSA failed, and instead placed itself at the tip of the dagger, was in not announcing the very next day that they were granting local chartering partners (the churches, civic clubs, and parent groups) the power to decide who the best leaders would be for their kids.
BSA correctly fought for the right to association, but then denied that right to their most important partners, the parents in neighborhoods and communities across America.
It may be a difficult nuance to understand the difference between the movement of Scouting, which grows in more than 140 countries and still shines brightly with millions of kids in local neighborhoods throughout this country, and the organization of the Boy Scouts of America. The BSA is the national corporation, exclusively granted a charter by the US Congress to administer the only boy scout program in this country. It’s the organization that established this policy.
The movement of Scouting continues to be one of the great opportunities for light and goodness in the world. But in my opinion, and one shared by millions of parents with kids who could benefit from Scouting, the corporation that administers Scouting in America lost its moral compass a long time ago.
The BSA will argue they were only honoring the wishes and concerns of parents. They will argue they didn’t expressly ban gay kids and adults, they simply compelled them to keep that part of their identity secret if they wanted to remain in Scouting. But in reality they refused to allow all local parents, troop leaders and chartering partners to decide for themselves.
In retrospect, the Boy Scouts of America made a bad business decision. It might have been good short-term business, in that it placated a few of their largest chartering partners, like the LDS and Catholic church, who were then using the Boy Scouts as a sectarian tool (even if many smaller churches and other partners were marginalized in dissent). But it was clearly bad business in the long run.
Not long after that Supreme Court case, in a rare, candid moment, the chief scout executive at the time was quoted in the media saying “when [parents] start walking away from us, that’s the signal for us to revisit the issue”. That’s a business decision, driven by numbers, not a moral one.
And for the next thirteen years, the BSA became an increasingly isolated echo chamber of like minded customers, where their business decision ignored the total addressable market.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Is there major league benefit to minor league baseball?
If the city of Ocala decides to help the Yankees move their Class A-Advanced minor league team here from Tampa, the decision will likely hinge on whether it is a good deal for the community.
But researchers say Ocala will have to look beyond the team's direct economic impact to make that decision because Minor League Baseball, in itself, does not generate a lot of jobs and doesn't attract millions of fans like a Major League team.
That doesn't mean Minor League Baseball can't be an economic driver, however.
A minor league stadium erected in the right location could revitalize an area or open up undeveloped land, both of which could be catalysts for new homes, businesses and jobs, researchers say.
And having a stadium and a baseball team like the Tampa Yankees could bring some cache to a town and engender civic pride that could be attractive to companies looking to relocate. At the very least, it could provide the community with new, affordable family entertainment and a venue for other events.
It is those ancillary benefits, researchers say, that may make a community's investment in Minor League Baseball worthwhile, even if it is not a big job creator or money-maker.
“You're never going to notice it's there economically,” said Roger Knoll, professor emeritus at Stanford University's Department of Economics. “It's too small and too unimportant. A Single A team is lucky if it draws 1,000 (fans) a game. It's not even as big as high school football.”
The Yankees and the city have been tight-lipped about their discussions to bring a farm team here. Ocala officials have said only that the talks are in the early stages. It is not known where a stadium would be built, who would pay for it or what other commitments of public dollars the Yankees would be asking for.
But Steve Densa, Minor League Baseball's executive director of communications, said when all the costs and benefits are calculated, minor league teams have a positive impact on communities.
“A MiLB (Minor League Baseball) club brings money to the area in the form of housing and/or hotel nights for the home club and the visiting one, coaches, scouts, umpires and various Major League personnel who visit each one of their affiliates during the season,” Densa wrote in an email. “There's also business generated for restaurants for these people as well. Other businesses may pop up around the ballpark, which may have not done so if there isn't a stadium. The ballpark is a community asset and can be used to attract other events throughout the year, such as concerts, fairs, holiday events, etc., that add to the quality of life of the community.”
The Tampa Yankees, like other Class-A minor league teams such as the Lakeland Flying Tigers and the Daytona Cubs, belong to the Florida State League. The Flying Tigers won the Florida State League's championship this year. Attendance at the final championship game at Lakeland's Joker Merchant Stadium, which holds 8,500 spectators, was 400 people.
“There were 398 and my wife and I,” said Bill Tinsley, the city of Lakeland's liaison to the Tigers and manager of financial resources. “The intent of minor league operations, typically, is that you don't lose money, that you break even and you provide some additional quality of life for your city.”
Breaking even, he admits, is no guarantee. There are considerable costs to a community, like the $35 million to $40 million price tag to build a minor league stadium.
“We're so different because we have spring training, which kind of covers the bills,” Tinsley said. “Spring training is huge.”
The Yankees are not considering moving their Major League New York Yankees' spring training to Ocala.
Tinsley said Lakeland “pretty much” breaks even on Minor League Baseball. He said the team and the city share expenses. Lakeland estimates that each Flying Tigers game costs the city $145 for utilities and field maintenance.
The city receives 15 percent of ticket sales and 15 percent of concessions, or a minimum of $125 a game from the team.
A minor league ticket costs between $5 and $7, although on nights when a business sponsors a game, a ticket could cost as little as $2. And if Tinsley can rent the stadium when there are no games, he receives $150 or more a night. The Flying Tigers' total 2012 attendance was 59,589. It averaged 1,027 fans a game for the 58 games it played.
The Flying Tigers do not pay to use the stadium, but the big league team pays Lakeland $325,000 a year to use the stadium for spring training, which helps offset the costs of the minor league team.
Knoll, of Stanford, said the Lakeland model works because the city uses the stadium for events beyond baseball.
“There's no real return on that investment to the city itself unless it's going to use that facility for lots of other things,” Knoll said.
Knoll said that in Stockton, Calif., the stadium is used by the local high schools.
But researchers say Ocala will have to look beyond the team's direct economic impact to make that decision because Minor League Baseball, in itself, does not generate a lot of jobs and doesn't attract millions of fans like a Major League team.
That doesn't mean Minor League Baseball can't be an economic driver, however.
A minor league stadium erected in the right location could revitalize an area or open up undeveloped land, both of which could be catalysts for new homes, businesses and jobs, researchers say.
And having a stadium and a baseball team like the Tampa Yankees could bring some cache to a town and engender civic pride that could be attractive to companies looking to relocate. At the very least, it could provide the community with new, affordable family entertainment and a venue for other events.
It is those ancillary benefits, researchers say, that may make a community's investment in Minor League Baseball worthwhile, even if it is not a big job creator or money-maker.
“You're never going to notice it's there economically,” said Roger Knoll, professor emeritus at Stanford University's Department of Economics. “It's too small and too unimportant. A Single A team is lucky if it draws 1,000 (fans) a game. It's not even as big as high school football.”
The Yankees and the city have been tight-lipped about their discussions to bring a farm team here. Ocala officials have said only that the talks are in the early stages. It is not known where a stadium would be built, who would pay for it or what other commitments of public dollars the Yankees would be asking for.
But Steve Densa, Minor League Baseball's executive director of communications, said when all the costs and benefits are calculated, minor league teams have a positive impact on communities.
“A MiLB (Minor League Baseball) club brings money to the area in the form of housing and/or hotel nights for the home club and the visiting one, coaches, scouts, umpires and various Major League personnel who visit each one of their affiliates during the season,” Densa wrote in an email. “There's also business generated for restaurants for these people as well. Other businesses may pop up around the ballpark, which may have not done so if there isn't a stadium. The ballpark is a community asset and can be used to attract other events throughout the year, such as concerts, fairs, holiday events, etc., that add to the quality of life of the community.”
The Tampa Yankees, like other Class-A minor league teams such as the Lakeland Flying Tigers and the Daytona Cubs, belong to the Florida State League. The Flying Tigers won the Florida State League's championship this year. Attendance at the final championship game at Lakeland's Joker Merchant Stadium, which holds 8,500 spectators, was 400 people.
“There were 398 and my wife and I,” said Bill Tinsley, the city of Lakeland's liaison to the Tigers and manager of financial resources. “The intent of minor league operations, typically, is that you don't lose money, that you break even and you provide some additional quality of life for your city.”
Breaking even, he admits, is no guarantee. There are considerable costs to a community, like the $35 million to $40 million price tag to build a minor league stadium.
“We're so different because we have spring training, which kind of covers the bills,” Tinsley said. “Spring training is huge.”
The Yankees are not considering moving their Major League New York Yankees' spring training to Ocala.
Tinsley said Lakeland “pretty much” breaks even on Minor League Baseball. He said the team and the city share expenses. Lakeland estimates that each Flying Tigers game costs the city $145 for utilities and field maintenance.
The city receives 15 percent of ticket sales and 15 percent of concessions, or a minimum of $125 a game from the team.
A minor league ticket costs between $5 and $7, although on nights when a business sponsors a game, a ticket could cost as little as $2. And if Tinsley can rent the stadium when there are no games, he receives $150 or more a night. The Flying Tigers' total 2012 attendance was 59,589. It averaged 1,027 fans a game for the 58 games it played.
The Flying Tigers do not pay to use the stadium, but the big league team pays Lakeland $325,000 a year to use the stadium for spring training, which helps offset the costs of the minor league team.
Knoll, of Stanford, said the Lakeland model works because the city uses the stadium for events beyond baseball.
“There's no real return on that investment to the city itself unless it's going to use that facility for lots of other things,” Knoll said.
Knoll said that in Stockton, Calif., the stadium is used by the local high schools.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
The attribution pit
In today’s antique world there is a great deal of talk, concern and hand-wringing over the number of fake and reproduction items being offered for sale. The Professional Show Managers Association is trying to get the Federal Trade Commission to include an “Antiques and Collectibles” category to the Consumer Protection website to provide an avenue of relief for buyers who fall prey to unscrupulous dealers and fraudulent transactions.
In many categories of the antiques and collectibles trade these concerns are justified based on the level of expertise used by potential crooks in producing fake objects and reproductions. To the uninitiated in the nuances of say American art pottery or folk art one object looks pretty much like another and one piece of modern art can be as undecipherable as the next. The use of molds to produce certain kinds of works of art makes reliable individual checks on authenticity difficult if not impossible. Of course with almost any category a professional or vigorous amateur who has dedicated his or her life to the pursuit of knowledge on the subject can easily detect a fake Roseville Futura vase or a bogus Buddy L tanker truck reproduction. It’s all the other folks in the beginning and middle phases of collecting and dealing who have a problem in this area.
But the area of antique furniture does not have quite so difficult a problem. It is significantly harder and much more expensive to duplicate an early 18th century Queen Anne chair than a 1920s toy truck and the duplication of a Federal sideboard clearly is a work of major proportion. And the return in most cases would result in a net loss for the faker. It’s just too hard to do a good fake of antique furniture. There have been some notable exceptions like the “17th century” turned chair made in the 1970s by Armand LeMontagne with the express purpose of embarrassing some museum officials as detailed by Myrna Kaye in her memorable book Fake, Fraud or Genuine? LeMontagne was so successful in his attempt that the museum officials did not believe him even after he confessed to the counterfeit.
For the most part, however, outright fake antique furniture is easily detectable by even the occasional collector who has a bit of interest in the subject and it generally is not worth the effort for the crook.
But there are other areas in the furniture category that do have room for some confusion and a bit wishful thinking or artful redirection. True American antique furniture pieces in good condition with a reliable provenance and some verifiable traces of the maker normally sell for higher prices than do “anonymous” similar pieces. While it is true that occasionally the impressive workmanship and style found on a genuine anonymous treasure will lead to a bidding battle at auction that recognizes the quality of the piece, it more often falls to the better-known name with a wider recognition.
That leads to two areas of potential concern, labeling and attribution. One of the best works on the subject of labeling is William C. Ketchum’s book American Cabinetmakers - Marked American Furniture 1640 – 1940 published by Crown in 1995. It is by far the most comprehensive work on an elusive subject that still leaves lots of room for more investigation. Ketchum illustrates such seldom seen marks as Duncan Phyfe’s paper label used between 1811 and 1815 when his shop was on Partition Street or the engraved label of Anthony Quervelle when he was on Second Street in Philadelphia. But Ketchum also shows the hand-signed marks of people like John Chipman, the Salem, Mass., cabinetmaker who signed a Chippendale blockfront secretary made between 1770 and 1790 and the brand of William Fiske on a Hepplewhite mahogany chair while working in Salem 1788-1793.
Brands and chalk signatures are hard to duplicate accurately, but paper labels and metal tags leave lots of room for chicanery. Metal and porcelain tags, like some of those used by R.J. Horner, have an annoying habit of falling off the back of a cabinet and reappearing elsewhere. Paper labels can be carefully removed and accurately duplicated with laser scanning technology available to anyone. In fact some very good new reproduction labels are boldly offered for sale for Globe-Wernicke and Macey bookcases on America’s universal auction site. Other “vintage” labels, including paper and foil, are offered for Hoosier, Knoll, Charles Eames and Herman Miller among others. In the Fall/Winter 2006-07 edition of Style 1900, a magazine devoted to Arts & Crafts, noted Arts & Crafts authority, author and collector Bruce Johnson responds to a reader’s concerns about fraudulent L. & J.G. Stickley labels. He said “Shopmarks sometimes render collectors temporarily blind to otherwise obvious clues.” He then cites author David Cathers who said in 1981, “Get to know the furniture first by examining it carefully – then look for marks of confirmation.”
This gets harder to do in some periods. In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, a great many cabinetmakers and factories did not label their work for a variety of reasons. That makes it awfully hard to confirm your suspicion (or hopes) that the cabinet might be a Pabst, Herter Brothers or Berkey & Gay cabinet. That leads to the next area of possible misdirection – the attribution game.
Many dealers and auctioneers, when at loss for descriptive material for a catalog or advertisement, easily fall into the “attribution pit.” This deep pit is surrounded by a long slippery slope lubricated with terms like “it looks just like …,” “it’s the same style as …” and “there was one at ...” et al. It has gotten to the point where almost any upholstered piece that features a carved head and face is “attributed to Jelliff.” It is true that John Jelliff of New Jersey did make some parlor sets that had heads and faces carved in them. But so did a number of other cabinetmakers and carvers. And Jelliff wasn’t even in the business when most of the Renaissance Revival sets attributed to him were made. Jelliff actually retired in 1860 and his company was taken over by an employee, Henry H. Miller, who continued the business under Jelliff’s name until 1890. So is that parlor set an artifact of John Jelliff & Co.? If it has the simple brand used by Miller after Jelliff retired, “J.J. Co.” it probably is. If it is unmarked it probably isn’t.
As far as distinctive features found in the attribution pit, all winged animals, griffins or not, were not made by R.J. Horner although most of them are attributed as such. And all Mission oak chairs were not made by some variation of the Stickley family as much as someone might want them to be and all oddly configured, angular chairs were not made by George Hunzinger no matter how quirky they are.
In many categories of the antiques and collectibles trade these concerns are justified based on the level of expertise used by potential crooks in producing fake objects and reproductions. To the uninitiated in the nuances of say American art pottery or folk art one object looks pretty much like another and one piece of modern art can be as undecipherable as the next. The use of molds to produce certain kinds of works of art makes reliable individual checks on authenticity difficult if not impossible. Of course with almost any category a professional or vigorous amateur who has dedicated his or her life to the pursuit of knowledge on the subject can easily detect a fake Roseville Futura vase or a bogus Buddy L tanker truck reproduction. It’s all the other folks in the beginning and middle phases of collecting and dealing who have a problem in this area.
But the area of antique furniture does not have quite so difficult a problem. It is significantly harder and much more expensive to duplicate an early 18th century Queen Anne chair than a 1920s toy truck and the duplication of a Federal sideboard clearly is a work of major proportion. And the return in most cases would result in a net loss for the faker. It’s just too hard to do a good fake of antique furniture. There have been some notable exceptions like the “17th century” turned chair made in the 1970s by Armand LeMontagne with the express purpose of embarrassing some museum officials as detailed by Myrna Kaye in her memorable book Fake, Fraud or Genuine? LeMontagne was so successful in his attempt that the museum officials did not believe him even after he confessed to the counterfeit.
For the most part, however, outright fake antique furniture is easily detectable by even the occasional collector who has a bit of interest in the subject and it generally is not worth the effort for the crook.
But there are other areas in the furniture category that do have room for some confusion and a bit wishful thinking or artful redirection. True American antique furniture pieces in good condition with a reliable provenance and some verifiable traces of the maker normally sell for higher prices than do “anonymous” similar pieces. While it is true that occasionally the impressive workmanship and style found on a genuine anonymous treasure will lead to a bidding battle at auction that recognizes the quality of the piece, it more often falls to the better-known name with a wider recognition.
That leads to two areas of potential concern, labeling and attribution. One of the best works on the subject of labeling is William C. Ketchum’s book American Cabinetmakers - Marked American Furniture 1640 – 1940 published by Crown in 1995. It is by far the most comprehensive work on an elusive subject that still leaves lots of room for more investigation. Ketchum illustrates such seldom seen marks as Duncan Phyfe’s paper label used between 1811 and 1815 when his shop was on Partition Street or the engraved label of Anthony Quervelle when he was on Second Street in Philadelphia. But Ketchum also shows the hand-signed marks of people like John Chipman, the Salem, Mass., cabinetmaker who signed a Chippendale blockfront secretary made between 1770 and 1790 and the brand of William Fiske on a Hepplewhite mahogany chair while working in Salem 1788-1793.
Brands and chalk signatures are hard to duplicate accurately, but paper labels and metal tags leave lots of room for chicanery. Metal and porcelain tags, like some of those used by R.J. Horner, have an annoying habit of falling off the back of a cabinet and reappearing elsewhere. Paper labels can be carefully removed and accurately duplicated with laser scanning technology available to anyone. In fact some very good new reproduction labels are boldly offered for sale for Globe-Wernicke and Macey bookcases on America’s universal auction site. Other “vintage” labels, including paper and foil, are offered for Hoosier, Knoll, Charles Eames and Herman Miller among others. In the Fall/Winter 2006-07 edition of Style 1900, a magazine devoted to Arts & Crafts, noted Arts & Crafts authority, author and collector Bruce Johnson responds to a reader’s concerns about fraudulent L. & J.G. Stickley labels. He said “Shopmarks sometimes render collectors temporarily blind to otherwise obvious clues.” He then cites author David Cathers who said in 1981, “Get to know the furniture first by examining it carefully – then look for marks of confirmation.”
This gets harder to do in some periods. In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, a great many cabinetmakers and factories did not label their work for a variety of reasons. That makes it awfully hard to confirm your suspicion (or hopes) that the cabinet might be a Pabst, Herter Brothers or Berkey & Gay cabinet. That leads to the next area of possible misdirection – the attribution game.
Many dealers and auctioneers, when at loss for descriptive material for a catalog or advertisement, easily fall into the “attribution pit.” This deep pit is surrounded by a long slippery slope lubricated with terms like “it looks just like …,” “it’s the same style as …” and “there was one at ...” et al. It has gotten to the point where almost any upholstered piece that features a carved head and face is “attributed to Jelliff.” It is true that John Jelliff of New Jersey did make some parlor sets that had heads and faces carved in them. But so did a number of other cabinetmakers and carvers. And Jelliff wasn’t even in the business when most of the Renaissance Revival sets attributed to him were made. Jelliff actually retired in 1860 and his company was taken over by an employee, Henry H. Miller, who continued the business under Jelliff’s name until 1890. So is that parlor set an artifact of John Jelliff & Co.? If it has the simple brand used by Miller after Jelliff retired, “J.J. Co.” it probably is. If it is unmarked it probably isn’t.
As far as distinctive features found in the attribution pit, all winged animals, griffins or not, were not made by R.J. Horner although most of them are attributed as such. And all Mission oak chairs were not made by some variation of the Stickley family as much as someone might want them to be and all oddly configured, angular chairs were not made by George Hunzinger no matter how quirky they are.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Police want access to private sector cameras
The Police Department wants to partner with private companies in the city willing to have security cameras on their property fed to a high-tech video surveillance center being built at police headquarters.
Police Chief Gary J. Gemme said his department does not intend to continuously monitor the video feeds. Instead, he said, the video will be accessed only in instances of a shooting, robbery or other serious crime.
"If there is an incident going on, if there is an armed robbery in progress or if we get information as part of our investigations that a crime is going to be committed in a certain area, we will be able tap into the video cameras that already exist at that location," the chief said.
He emphasized that the police surveillance center, known as the Real Time Crime Center, will not be able to store video surveillance data.
"We don't plan on installing new cameras as part of this system and we don't have a system in place where we're going to set up cameras throughout the city that we're going to monitor from this location," Chief Gemme told the City Council Public Safety Committee Wednesday night.
"The Real Time Crime Center simply gives us the ability to look at what's out there, using existing cameras, very quickly for investigative purposes. It has no storage capabilities, so it's not a question of retaining data or monitoring multiple cameras around the clock to see what's going on in the city. To monitor all the cameras throughout the city, we'd probably need more than 1,000 monitors. This center will not be manned 24/7."
Chief Gemme said the Police Department has spent about $68,000 of the $75,000 state grant to create the Real Time Crime Center.
He said the video surveillance hub will be able to access video feeds from the cameras of private entities throughout the city. But to be able to do so, he said, the department first has to sign memorandums of understanding with each property owner.
"If we have a shooting or a homicide, we can immediately go into the Real Time Crime Center, (turn on) the existing cameras and take a look at the video to see if there is some information we can get out quickly to our officers as well as to the public," he added. "At that location, we're not going to access any information that we couldn't access by knocking on doors or canvassing neighborhoods, which is labor intensive."
Chief Gemme said police routinely use video from private surveillance cameras as part of their investigations. He said when there is an incident, police canvass the neighborhood to see if they can identify surveillance cameras that may be in place in that area.
"We do that on a regular basis and it's been instrumental in solving a lot of serious crimes in the city," he said.
The chief said when police identify a suspect or if there is information they need from something seen in the Real Time Crime Center, police will still have to go to the owner of the surveillance system to retrieve the video so it can be used as evidence in a criminal case.
He said that will need to be done because the Real Time Crime Center will not have any storage capacity within its system. Even if it did, he said, it wouldn't be practical to try to retrieve it once it was in the system because there would be no way of cataloging it.
Brian D. Halloran, president of the police patrolmen's union, spoke in favor of the Real Time Crime Center, saying it will be an invaluable tool in assisting police to do their job and, in the process, could help save lives as well.
"It's absolutely 100 percent the right thing to be doing and we back it," Officer Halloran said. "Having access to this kind of system will put officer safety paramount to everything else."
Enerati uses easy to deploy wireless sensors that give users real time feedback on how well their operations are performing. The solution gives small companies the ability to monitor electricity, gas and water usage in one minute intervals. In addition the service can track multiple locations concurrently. Enerati notification program alerts users automatically if certain events occur in real time and therefore allow users to react quickly, whether a freezer is not working properly in a small pizza restaurant or a pump is being overloaded at a local factory.
Low cost wireless sensors are manufactured by Current Cost, one of the largest suppliers of energy monitoring systems worldwide. The sensors wirelessly send real time updates to an internet connected gateway that automatically upload live data to the Enerati cloud. Installation usually takes less than one hour. Standard monitoring kits retail for $189 and are capable of monitoring the energy usage for one whole building. The standard kit can be expanded with 9 additional wireless sensors that can measure single outlets, other hardwired panels, solar installations, generators, water and gas meters.
Enerati offers three online subscription plans. The LITE plan is free and can be used single locations with only one sensor, The BASIC plan is $3 per month per location and shows up to 10 sensors with full analysis, reporting and alerts. The PROFESSIONAL plan is only $5 per month and is perfect for organizations with multiple locations.
Police Chief Gary J. Gemme said his department does not intend to continuously monitor the video feeds. Instead, he said, the video will be accessed only in instances of a shooting, robbery or other serious crime.
"If there is an incident going on, if there is an armed robbery in progress or if we get information as part of our investigations that a crime is going to be committed in a certain area, we will be able tap into the video cameras that already exist at that location," the chief said.
He emphasized that the police surveillance center, known as the Real Time Crime Center, will not be able to store video surveillance data.
"We don't plan on installing new cameras as part of this system and we don't have a system in place where we're going to set up cameras throughout the city that we're going to monitor from this location," Chief Gemme told the City Council Public Safety Committee Wednesday night.
"The Real Time Crime Center simply gives us the ability to look at what's out there, using existing cameras, very quickly for investigative purposes. It has no storage capabilities, so it's not a question of retaining data or monitoring multiple cameras around the clock to see what's going on in the city. To monitor all the cameras throughout the city, we'd probably need more than 1,000 monitors. This center will not be manned 24/7."
Chief Gemme said the Police Department has spent about $68,000 of the $75,000 state grant to create the Real Time Crime Center.
He said the video surveillance hub will be able to access video feeds from the cameras of private entities throughout the city. But to be able to do so, he said, the department first has to sign memorandums of understanding with each property owner.
"If we have a shooting or a homicide, we can immediately go into the Real Time Crime Center, (turn on) the existing cameras and take a look at the video to see if there is some information we can get out quickly to our officers as well as to the public," he added. "At that location, we're not going to access any information that we couldn't access by knocking on doors or canvassing neighborhoods, which is labor intensive."
Chief Gemme said police routinely use video from private surveillance cameras as part of their investigations. He said when there is an incident, police canvass the neighborhood to see if they can identify surveillance cameras that may be in place in that area.
"We do that on a regular basis and it's been instrumental in solving a lot of serious crimes in the city," he said.
The chief said when police identify a suspect or if there is information they need from something seen in the Real Time Crime Center, police will still have to go to the owner of the surveillance system to retrieve the video so it can be used as evidence in a criminal case.
He said that will need to be done because the Real Time Crime Center will not have any storage capacity within its system. Even if it did, he said, it wouldn't be practical to try to retrieve it once it was in the system because there would be no way of cataloging it.
Brian D. Halloran, president of the police patrolmen's union, spoke in favor of the Real Time Crime Center, saying it will be an invaluable tool in assisting police to do their job and, in the process, could help save lives as well.
"It's absolutely 100 percent the right thing to be doing and we back it," Officer Halloran said. "Having access to this kind of system will put officer safety paramount to everything else."
Enerati uses easy to deploy wireless sensors that give users real time feedback on how well their operations are performing. The solution gives small companies the ability to monitor electricity, gas and water usage in one minute intervals. In addition the service can track multiple locations concurrently. Enerati notification program alerts users automatically if certain events occur in real time and therefore allow users to react quickly, whether a freezer is not working properly in a small pizza restaurant or a pump is being overloaded at a local factory.
Low cost wireless sensors are manufactured by Current Cost, one of the largest suppliers of energy monitoring systems worldwide. The sensors wirelessly send real time updates to an internet connected gateway that automatically upload live data to the Enerati cloud. Installation usually takes less than one hour. Standard monitoring kits retail for $189 and are capable of monitoring the energy usage for one whole building. The standard kit can be expanded with 9 additional wireless sensors that can measure single outlets, other hardwired panels, solar installations, generators, water and gas meters.
Enerati offers three online subscription plans. The LITE plan is free and can be used single locations with only one sensor, The BASIC plan is $3 per month per location and shows up to 10 sensors with full analysis, reporting and alerts. The PROFESSIONAL plan is only $5 per month and is perfect for organizations with multiple locations.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Should Citizens Be Allowed to Own Guns?
The rising case of insecurity in the country has given room for many debates, one of which included the creation of state police to tackle the spate of general insecurity in the country. However, the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) added a new twist to the whole debate when it recently called the Federal Government to consider the relaxation of gun ownership laws as a way to reduce crime. In other words, he wanted more private citizens to have access to guns. Michael Oche examines the scenario.
"It will lead to anarchy" was the first response by Dr. Emmanuel Oga when the question was thrown to him. The suspicion however was suppressed by the NMA President, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, who argued that "in view of psychological fear factor among criminals or vandals, liberal gun ownership will curb criminality among hoodlums." The NMA's call for arms in private hands is premised on deterrence, that potential perpetrators are less likely to attack if they know their victims bear arms.
Another respondent, Ishiaku Abdul argued that "We are civilians, we should be like one and let the authorities handle the safety and security of us." But another respondent, Okoye Samuel countered that; "I believe that private individuals have a right to own guns. I do feel that there should be strict testing, though, before they are allowed to buy one. With the way the crime rates are now, individuals need ways to protect themselves."
The NMA argument also came amidst concern that "several doctors have been kidnapped even while on emergency and call duty within hospital premises."
"That will mean lawyers, teachers and even journalists should also carry guns because they have often been targeted as well," Abdul argued.
Amazingly, the debate seemed centered on the argument that with everyone having guns, killing rate will go up and later stablise. On the other side of the debate is also the argument that the large number of illegal guns in circulation in Nigeria is what has led to the increased insecurity.
NMA argued that over time, its members have become targets of kidnappers who make quick and easy money from the collection of ransom. One of such cases was the kidnap last year of a certain Dr. Stanley Uche, the proprietor of Victory Christian Hospital, Aba, Abia State. His corpse was recovered after a ransom of N30 million had been reportedly paid.
A few months ago, another doctor, Adegboyega Rufai, in Oko-Oba area of Lagos, was reportedly shot dead by unknown gun men who walked into the premises of his private hospital and requested an audience with him. Many medical directors of hospitals, including Dr. Adebowale Saddiq of Mount Arafat Hospital, Nsukka and Prof. Michael Ibadin of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Edo State, have also been victims of kidnapping since the escalation of the vice across the country.
However, Dr. Emmanuel Oga of the Society of Nigerian Doctors for the Welfare of Mankind (SNDWM) said "The gun control debate is one that has been around for decades, and is unlikely to go away; it is one issue we must continue to dialogue on. It is our opinion that the NMA remarks were wide off the mark and portrays a one-sided view of the problems in Nigeria.
While these remarks are borne out of the belief that private gun ownership reduces violence by serving as a "deterrent" to potential criminals, it is disingenuous to ignore the real possibility that easy access to weapons will worsen the security situation in this country.
He said further, "As rife as gun violence is in Nigeria, there is reason to believe it could and would not be abated with easy accessibility of guns. Also, the "deterrent" argument is flawed; a criminal (who had no plan to kill ab initio) is more likely to kill his victim if he perceives the victim as a threat to his own life, such as a victim who owns a gun. If the to-be victim has a pistol, the criminals will show up with automatic rifle and so on. It is difficult to see how this benefits society.
Another aspect of private gun ownership which he overlooked is that which makes it all the more likely for guns to cause domestic harm and acerbate lethality during episodes of violence among intimate partners: An unsuspecting child or ward, a careless adult relative or indeed the owner of such a gun might in a moment of curiosity and plane stupidity or needless machismo inflict permanent injury on loved ones."
"It will lead to anarchy" was the first response by Dr. Emmanuel Oga when the question was thrown to him. The suspicion however was suppressed by the NMA President, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, who argued that "in view of psychological fear factor among criminals or vandals, liberal gun ownership will curb criminality among hoodlums." The NMA's call for arms in private hands is premised on deterrence, that potential perpetrators are less likely to attack if they know their victims bear arms.
Another respondent, Ishiaku Abdul argued that "We are civilians, we should be like one and let the authorities handle the safety and security of us." But another respondent, Okoye Samuel countered that; "I believe that private individuals have a right to own guns. I do feel that there should be strict testing, though, before they are allowed to buy one. With the way the crime rates are now, individuals need ways to protect themselves."
The NMA argument also came amidst concern that "several doctors have been kidnapped even while on emergency and call duty within hospital premises."
"That will mean lawyers, teachers and even journalists should also carry guns because they have often been targeted as well," Abdul argued.
Amazingly, the debate seemed centered on the argument that with everyone having guns, killing rate will go up and later stablise. On the other side of the debate is also the argument that the large number of illegal guns in circulation in Nigeria is what has led to the increased insecurity.
NMA argued that over time, its members have become targets of kidnappers who make quick and easy money from the collection of ransom. One of such cases was the kidnap last year of a certain Dr. Stanley Uche, the proprietor of Victory Christian Hospital, Aba, Abia State. His corpse was recovered after a ransom of N30 million had been reportedly paid.
A few months ago, another doctor, Adegboyega Rufai, in Oko-Oba area of Lagos, was reportedly shot dead by unknown gun men who walked into the premises of his private hospital and requested an audience with him. Many medical directors of hospitals, including Dr. Adebowale Saddiq of Mount Arafat Hospital, Nsukka and Prof. Michael Ibadin of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Edo State, have also been victims of kidnapping since the escalation of the vice across the country.
However, Dr. Emmanuel Oga of the Society of Nigerian Doctors for the Welfare of Mankind (SNDWM) said "The gun control debate is one that has been around for decades, and is unlikely to go away; it is one issue we must continue to dialogue on. It is our opinion that the NMA remarks were wide off the mark and portrays a one-sided view of the problems in Nigeria.
While these remarks are borne out of the belief that private gun ownership reduces violence by serving as a "deterrent" to potential criminals, it is disingenuous to ignore the real possibility that easy access to weapons will worsen the security situation in this country.
He said further, "As rife as gun violence is in Nigeria, there is reason to believe it could and would not be abated with easy accessibility of guns. Also, the "deterrent" argument is flawed; a criminal (who had no plan to kill ab initio) is more likely to kill his victim if he perceives the victim as a threat to his own life, such as a victim who owns a gun. If the to-be victim has a pistol, the criminals will show up with automatic rifle and so on. It is difficult to see how this benefits society.
Another aspect of private gun ownership which he overlooked is that which makes it all the more likely for guns to cause domestic harm and acerbate lethality during episodes of violence among intimate partners: An unsuspecting child or ward, a careless adult relative or indeed the owner of such a gun might in a moment of curiosity and plane stupidity or needless machismo inflict permanent injury on loved ones."
Monday, October 22, 2012
MB Digital Marketing 101
We believe there are two reasons SMBs haven’t yet embraced the full power of digital marketing: 1) Confusion over which online marketing efforts will provide the greatest value and 2) Limited resources to devote to marketing, exacerbated by the challenging economic climate.
Digital marketing requires more than just creating a website. SMBs need to leverage the power of online and mobile channels, a growing list of social channels, locally focused online directories and review sites. It can seem too daunting to even begin. More importantly, SMBs have limited budgets to allocate to digital advertising and there is still confusion on how marketing and advertising investments can be measured because some of the benefits are immediate and tangible, and others are just basic necessity.
The good news is that there are a number of relatively-simple, cost-effective ways for SMBs to market online and increase their ability to be found and stay top-of-mind by more of the right local consumers in their area.
It’s critical for SMB owners to ensure their company is listed in all relevant online directories, maps, apps and popular internet websites. According to research, most SMBs only update their directory listings once. In order to stand above the competition, SMBs need to think of their listing as an advertisement. Consumers looking for products and services want to see reviews, photos, coupons and have direct access to a current website. If an SMB has listed their company in the past, it’s a good idea to go back and make sure that all of the listings are accurate and current with any changes in location or contact information.
Creating a website is the core to an SMBs online presence. All other online activities should point to the businesses website and help efficiently generate business. Just like baking a cake, a website requires key content such as a prominently placed local phone number, email address and form for customers to reach their business. For SMBs, having their hours, driving directions, address and a map are critical. As the online “front door” to their business, they need to ensure their website is professionally-designed, filled with visual elements like videos and photos, and provides links to their Facebook and Twitter pages.
Being found online is very important for SMBs because so many people rely on the other major search engines as their go-to source for finding information about local products and services. SMBs should make sure that all of their online marketing and advertising activities are improving SEO and helping their business be found online. This includes making sure they have secured an intelligent URL that is both keyword and geo-targeted to the terms your customers use when they think about your business. The copy on their website should also be search engine optimized with relevant keywords and location based language.
The best part of social media is that it’s free… and it works. In a study conducted last year by comScore for 15 Miles and Localeze, findings revealed that 63% of those surveyed are more likely to use a local business if it’s visible on a social networking site. SMB owners without a social presence are missing out on opportunities to easily market their companies and connect directly with their consumers. Twitter and Facebook are great tools for SMBs as it allows them to communicate with potential and current customers in real-time. SMBs should consider putting out Twitter-only coupon offers or posting photos of their work environment on Facebook. There are companies that can manage this entire process for SMBs at low cost and effort. Consumers are already used to interacting with larger brands and small businesses across social channels, so SMBs need to take advantage of this to pull in new customers and maintain relationships with existing customers.
Digital marketing requires more than just creating a website. SMBs need to leverage the power of online and mobile channels, a growing list of social channels, locally focused online directories and review sites. It can seem too daunting to even begin. More importantly, SMBs have limited budgets to allocate to digital advertising and there is still confusion on how marketing and advertising investments can be measured because some of the benefits are immediate and tangible, and others are just basic necessity.
The good news is that there are a number of relatively-simple, cost-effective ways for SMBs to market online and increase their ability to be found and stay top-of-mind by more of the right local consumers in their area.
It’s critical for SMB owners to ensure their company is listed in all relevant online directories, maps, apps and popular internet websites. According to research, most SMBs only update their directory listings once. In order to stand above the competition, SMBs need to think of their listing as an advertisement. Consumers looking for products and services want to see reviews, photos, coupons and have direct access to a current website. If an SMB has listed their company in the past, it’s a good idea to go back and make sure that all of the listings are accurate and current with any changes in location or contact information.
Creating a website is the core to an SMBs online presence. All other online activities should point to the businesses website and help efficiently generate business. Just like baking a cake, a website requires key content such as a prominently placed local phone number, email address and form for customers to reach their business. For SMBs, having their hours, driving directions, address and a map are critical. As the online “front door” to their business, they need to ensure their website is professionally-designed, filled with visual elements like videos and photos, and provides links to their Facebook and Twitter pages.
Being found online is very important for SMBs because so many people rely on the other major search engines as their go-to source for finding information about local products and services. SMBs should make sure that all of their online marketing and advertising activities are improving SEO and helping their business be found online. This includes making sure they have secured an intelligent URL that is both keyword and geo-targeted to the terms your customers use when they think about your business. The copy on their website should also be search engine optimized with relevant keywords and location based language.
The best part of social media is that it’s free… and it works. In a study conducted last year by comScore for 15 Miles and Localeze, findings revealed that 63% of those surveyed are more likely to use a local business if it’s visible on a social networking site. SMB owners without a social presence are missing out on opportunities to easily market their companies and connect directly with their consumers. Twitter and Facebook are great tools for SMBs as it allows them to communicate with potential and current customers in real-time. SMBs should consider putting out Twitter-only coupon offers or posting photos of their work environment on Facebook. There are companies that can manage this entire process for SMBs at low cost and effort. Consumers are already used to interacting with larger brands and small businesses across social channels, so SMBs need to take advantage of this to pull in new customers and maintain relationships with existing customers.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Microfracture surgery 'last resort' for FGCU athlete
Focused more on the textbook in her lap than her volleyball teammates in front of her, FGCU junior Jessica Barnes was interrupted during a break in practice when one asked about her recent knee operation.
“I had microfracture surgery,” Barnes said to a blank stare from her teammate. “Not many people know about it.”
Until her doctor mentioned it this summer, the two-sport athlete had never heard of it, either.
But plagued by chronic, worsening pain in her left knee, she opted in August to become the first FGCU athlete to undergo knee microfracture surgery, the same procedure with the dubious reputation for failing top athletes.
Pioneered in the 1980s, microfracture can prolong careers and has been shown to have high success rates for patients under age 40. But it is often considered a last resort and as recently as last decade was still being called experimental and a “career death sentence.”
“It kind of scared me, just because I was looking at a lot of the statistics on it with the NBA players who get it done,” said Barnes, a star center fielder on the FGCU softball team and top reserve in volleyball.
“Some of them don’t return to the full capacity they were before. But I figured I’m young, and the doctor says the younger you are the better a candidate you are because the body can actually heal.”
Microfracture aims to regenerate a substitute cartilage in joints where the natural cartilage has been worn or sheered down to the bone, in athletes usually through a jarring-type injury.
Through a minimally invasive arthroscopic procedure, small holes are drilled or chipped into the exposed bone to reach the marrow. The stems cells released through bleeding help form a type of replacement cartilage.
“What will grow back is not quite the same as (natural) cartilage but a fiber cartilage that is the next best thing,” said Dr. James Guerra, a Naples orthopedic surgeon and the FGCU team physician.
“Microfracture is a legitimate procedure, and it works well on young athletes. It does not work well on patients over age 40.”
Because the other primary answer to damaged cartilage — a knee replacement — is not an option for athletes trying to prolong their careers, microfracture is sometimes deemed an athlete’s last resort.
“I really try to avoid it if I can. But sometimes there’s no choice,” Guerra said of microfracture, which he estimates he has done some 100 times in his dozen years of practice in Southwest Florida. “When a young athlete has a lesion there, there isn’t much you can do.”
Barnes, who earned all-Atlantic Sun Conference honors in softball last season, is missing volleyball this fall but hopes to return in the spring for softball. Her rehabilitation has varied from three to five days a week and includes routine thigh-strengthening and range-of-motion exercises.
“She’s a great kid to work with,” FGCU athletic trainer Mike Estes said of Barnes’ adherence to the strict rehab. “We plan on having her back on the field in the spring.”
Barnes consulted with FGCU coaches and staff and her parents before having microfracture surgery with Winter Haven orthopedist Larry Padgett, who performed surgery on Barnes’ thumb in high school.
Padgett, the Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves team physician, was not available to participate in this story.
“They were all for whatever I want to do. They said they would support me 100 percent,” Barnes said of FGCU coaches before adding that her parents’ support was the biggest influence on her decision.
“They knew that this was a problem for me. They were the people after practice and games I would tell how much pain I was in. They wanted me to feel better.”
“I had microfracture surgery,” Barnes said to a blank stare from her teammate. “Not many people know about it.”
Until her doctor mentioned it this summer, the two-sport athlete had never heard of it, either.
But plagued by chronic, worsening pain in her left knee, she opted in August to become the first FGCU athlete to undergo knee microfracture surgery, the same procedure with the dubious reputation for failing top athletes.
Pioneered in the 1980s, microfracture can prolong careers and has been shown to have high success rates for patients under age 40. But it is often considered a last resort and as recently as last decade was still being called experimental and a “career death sentence.”
“It kind of scared me, just because I was looking at a lot of the statistics on it with the NBA players who get it done,” said Barnes, a star center fielder on the FGCU softball team and top reserve in volleyball.
“Some of them don’t return to the full capacity they were before. But I figured I’m young, and the doctor says the younger you are the better a candidate you are because the body can actually heal.”
Microfracture aims to regenerate a substitute cartilage in joints where the natural cartilage has been worn or sheered down to the bone, in athletes usually through a jarring-type injury.
Through a minimally invasive arthroscopic procedure, small holes are drilled or chipped into the exposed bone to reach the marrow. The stems cells released through bleeding help form a type of replacement cartilage.
“What will grow back is not quite the same as (natural) cartilage but a fiber cartilage that is the next best thing,” said Dr. James Guerra, a Naples orthopedic surgeon and the FGCU team physician.
“Microfracture is a legitimate procedure, and it works well on young athletes. It does not work well on patients over age 40.”
Because the other primary answer to damaged cartilage — a knee replacement — is not an option for athletes trying to prolong their careers, microfracture is sometimes deemed an athlete’s last resort.
“I really try to avoid it if I can. But sometimes there’s no choice,” Guerra said of microfracture, which he estimates he has done some 100 times in his dozen years of practice in Southwest Florida. “When a young athlete has a lesion there, there isn’t much you can do.”
Barnes, who earned all-Atlantic Sun Conference honors in softball last season, is missing volleyball this fall but hopes to return in the spring for softball. Her rehabilitation has varied from three to five days a week and includes routine thigh-strengthening and range-of-motion exercises.
“She’s a great kid to work with,” FGCU athletic trainer Mike Estes said of Barnes’ adherence to the strict rehab. “We plan on having her back on the field in the spring.”
Barnes consulted with FGCU coaches and staff and her parents before having microfracture surgery with Winter Haven orthopedist Larry Padgett, who performed surgery on Barnes’ thumb in high school.
Padgett, the Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves team physician, was not available to participate in this story.
“They were all for whatever I want to do. They said they would support me 100 percent,” Barnes said of FGCU coaches before adding that her parents’ support was the biggest influence on her decision.
“They knew that this was a problem for me. They were the people after practice and games I would tell how much pain I was in. They wanted me to feel better.”
Monday, September 3, 2012
Ukrainian journalists interrupt president's speech to protest
Top Ukrainian journalists interrupted President Viktor Yanukovych's speech on press rights Monday, protesting increasing media censorship by the authorities.
About a dozen reporters rose from their seats and held up posters reading "Stop Censorship" and "Media Oligarchs Serve the Authorities." Security guards violently ripped them out of the hands of some protesters.
Yanukovych was speaking at the opening of the annual World Newspaper Congress, a meeting of dozens of news executives from around the world that has complained of waning press freedoms in the former Soviet state.
Opening the event, Jacob Mathew, president of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, urged Ukrainian authorities to "regain freedoms that sustain democracy and human dignity."
Since Yanukovych's election, opposition parties have had little access to television, with the majority of TV channels controlled by magnates loyal to the government, reporters complain of being denied access to crucial information, and a rising number of attacks on journalists are left unpunished.
Yanukovych did not react to the protest. Some of the journalist were allowed to hold up their signs through the entire speech.
Yanukovych's office later called the incident an "unfortunate event," but said that the fact that the journalists were able to hold their protest was a testament to Yanukoyvch's commitment to democracy.
In his speech, Yanukovych vowed to uphold democratic principles and media freedoms.
"The main task of the government in the media sphere, as I have set it, is to create conditions when free press can develop freely and be independent of any kind of control," he said.
However, later in his speech Yanukovych called on journalists to be "biased," when he apparently meant the opposite — a slip of the tongue that critics said demonstrated his stated commitment to freedom and democracy is merely lip service.
"I call on journalists to maintain a high level of ethical standards and uphold the principles of being objective and politically biased," Yanukovych said.
Mustafa Nayem, a top investigative reporter who took part in the protest, called Yanukovych's words on media freedom cynical lies.
"When the president says everything is good in Ukraine, he is lying ... to put it mildly," Nayem told The Associated Press. "It is not a secret to anyone that the (media) atmosphere under President Yanukovych has worsened drastically."
He expressed hope that the conference would help address these problems and improve the media climate.
"By choosing Ukraine as our venue, we stand in solidarity with the local independent press, and draw international attention to the situation here," Kilman said. "The protesters were a very powerful reminder that there is still much to be done."
About a dozen reporters rose from their seats and held up posters reading "Stop Censorship" and "Media Oligarchs Serve the Authorities." Security guards violently ripped them out of the hands of some protesters.
Yanukovych was speaking at the opening of the annual World Newspaper Congress, a meeting of dozens of news executives from around the world that has complained of waning press freedoms in the former Soviet state.
Opening the event, Jacob Mathew, president of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, urged Ukrainian authorities to "regain freedoms that sustain democracy and human dignity."
Since Yanukovych's election, opposition parties have had little access to television, with the majority of TV channels controlled by magnates loyal to the government, reporters complain of being denied access to crucial information, and a rising number of attacks on journalists are left unpunished.
Yanukovych did not react to the protest. Some of the journalist were allowed to hold up their signs through the entire speech.
Yanukovych's office later called the incident an "unfortunate event," but said that the fact that the journalists were able to hold their protest was a testament to Yanukoyvch's commitment to democracy.
In his speech, Yanukovych vowed to uphold democratic principles and media freedoms.
"The main task of the government in the media sphere, as I have set it, is to create conditions when free press can develop freely and be independent of any kind of control," he said.
However, later in his speech Yanukovych called on journalists to be "biased," when he apparently meant the opposite — a slip of the tongue that critics said demonstrated his stated commitment to freedom and democracy is merely lip service.
"I call on journalists to maintain a high level of ethical standards and uphold the principles of being objective and politically biased," Yanukovych said.
Mustafa Nayem, a top investigative reporter who took part in the protest, called Yanukovych's words on media freedom cynical lies.
"When the president says everything is good in Ukraine, he is lying ... to put it mildly," Nayem told The Associated Press. "It is not a secret to anyone that the (media) atmosphere under President Yanukovych has worsened drastically."
He expressed hope that the conference would help address these problems and improve the media climate.
"By choosing Ukraine as our venue, we stand in solidarity with the local independent press, and draw international attention to the situation here," Kilman said. "The protesters were a very powerful reminder that there is still much to be done."
Monday, August 27, 2012
US Universities' Focus on Profit
Imagine a business that rakes in billions of dollars in taxpayer funds, but provides its customers with a defective product that fails for more than half of them--though that track record hasn't stopped the business owners from enjoying ever-increasing profits.
Sounds like the parasites of Wall Street or the insurance industry, doesn't it?
But according to a U.S. Senate report, the same is true of a growing number of colleges and universities--the expanding sector of higher education that is run for profit.
The Senate report is a shocking exposé of a new growth industry that turns out to be another scheme for the 1 percent to make money at the expense of some of the most vulnerable people in society.
But anyone who investigates the for-profit college scam will be struck by something else, too--the abuses of College Inc. are extreme examples of a trend toward privatization and business-like operations throughout all of higher education, which threaten to undermine the system as a whole.
For-profit colleges are capturing a greater share of students nationwide. Over the past 10 years, the for-profit higher education industry has tripled in size, with fall enrollment growing to more than 2.4 million in 2010. That increase is seven and a half times faster than the 28.8 percent increase in enrollment at public colleges, according to the College Board.
This is despite the fact that for-profit colleges are more expensive than even the most prestigious public institutions. Bachelor's degrees average $62,702 at for-profit institutions, versus $52,522 at flagship state public universities. The average associate degree at a for-profit college costs $34,988, more than four times the $8,313 at the average public community college. Certificate programs at for-profit colleges average $19,806, compared with $4,249 at community colleges.
Although the profits generated by for-profit colleges end up in private hands, the vast majority of revenues come from the government, in the form of federal grants and federally guaranteed student loans. According to the Harkin report, the Apollo Group, the largest of the for-profit education companies and operator of the infamous University of Phoenix, "$3.1 billion in federal student aid, in addition to $46 million in military education benefits...86.8 percent of the company's revenue, and $925 million of their profit, is attributed to federal taxpayer sources."
At the same time that states, pleading poverty, are slashing public university budgets and the federal government now charges interest on loans to graduate students while they're in school, more than $30 billion are funneled each year to for-profit colleges from the federal government, in the form of grants and loans.
Despite paying (and borrowing) significantly more, students at for-profit schools are less likely than their counterparts at public four-year institutions to leave school with a degree. Of the nearly half a million students who enrolled in an associate degree program in 2008-09, the report found that nearly two-thirds (62.9 percent) had dropped out by the middle of 2010. Over half (54.3 percent) left their bachelor's degree programs by that point.
And studies show the benefits of a degree from a for-profit school are likely negligible. A study published in June by two Boston University economists found that while those who get degrees from public or private non-profit colleges and universities experience significant benefits, including higher wages and lower unemployment, students who attended for-profit universities don't. As Time magazine reported:
The [Boston University] researchers found that six years after they enter college, for-profit students are more likely to be unemployed--and to be unemployed for periods longer than three months. And, further, if they are able to find a job, students who attend for-profits make, on average, between $1,800 and $2,000 less annually than their peers who attended other institutions.
This isn't surprising given how little of their inflated tuition prices for-profit colleges actually spend on students' educations. The Senate report estimates average per-student spending at for-profit colleges to be just over $2,000 in 2009--and some spend much less.
For example, the Apollo Group, which "educated" over 500,000 students in 2010, spent just $892 per student on instruction. According to its own estimates--which the bosses at the University of Phoenix reserve the right to change at any time--a bachelor's of arts degree at the school will likely cost over $10,000 per year, while a bachelor's of science degree runs nearly $15,000 annually, well over 10 times the amount spent on teaching.
Far from being the most efficient way to deliver a service, as proponents of free enterprise like to claim, market-based, for-profit approaches to higher education result in massive waste. Instead of student instruction, the bulk of tuition money goes to marketing to bring in new students, multimillion-dollar salaries for top executives, lobbying politicians and, last but certainly not least, profits.
Sounds like the parasites of Wall Street or the insurance industry, doesn't it?
But according to a U.S. Senate report, the same is true of a growing number of colleges and universities--the expanding sector of higher education that is run for profit.
The Senate report is a shocking exposé of a new growth industry that turns out to be another scheme for the 1 percent to make money at the expense of some of the most vulnerable people in society.
But anyone who investigates the for-profit college scam will be struck by something else, too--the abuses of College Inc. are extreme examples of a trend toward privatization and business-like operations throughout all of higher education, which threaten to undermine the system as a whole.
For-profit colleges are capturing a greater share of students nationwide. Over the past 10 years, the for-profit higher education industry has tripled in size, with fall enrollment growing to more than 2.4 million in 2010. That increase is seven and a half times faster than the 28.8 percent increase in enrollment at public colleges, according to the College Board.
This is despite the fact that for-profit colleges are more expensive than even the most prestigious public institutions. Bachelor's degrees average $62,702 at for-profit institutions, versus $52,522 at flagship state public universities. The average associate degree at a for-profit college costs $34,988, more than four times the $8,313 at the average public community college. Certificate programs at for-profit colleges average $19,806, compared with $4,249 at community colleges.
Although the profits generated by for-profit colleges end up in private hands, the vast majority of revenues come from the government, in the form of federal grants and federally guaranteed student loans. According to the Harkin report, the Apollo Group, the largest of the for-profit education companies and operator of the infamous University of Phoenix, "$3.1 billion in federal student aid, in addition to $46 million in military education benefits...86.8 percent of the company's revenue, and $925 million of their profit, is attributed to federal taxpayer sources."
At the same time that states, pleading poverty, are slashing public university budgets and the federal government now charges interest on loans to graduate students while they're in school, more than $30 billion are funneled each year to for-profit colleges from the federal government, in the form of grants and loans.
Despite paying (and borrowing) significantly more, students at for-profit schools are less likely than their counterparts at public four-year institutions to leave school with a degree. Of the nearly half a million students who enrolled in an associate degree program in 2008-09, the report found that nearly two-thirds (62.9 percent) had dropped out by the middle of 2010. Over half (54.3 percent) left their bachelor's degree programs by that point.
And studies show the benefits of a degree from a for-profit school are likely negligible. A study published in June by two Boston University economists found that while those who get degrees from public or private non-profit colleges and universities experience significant benefits, including higher wages and lower unemployment, students who attended for-profit universities don't. As Time magazine reported:
The [Boston University] researchers found that six years after they enter college, for-profit students are more likely to be unemployed--and to be unemployed for periods longer than three months. And, further, if they are able to find a job, students who attend for-profits make, on average, between $1,800 and $2,000 less annually than their peers who attended other institutions.
This isn't surprising given how little of their inflated tuition prices for-profit colleges actually spend on students' educations. The Senate report estimates average per-student spending at for-profit colleges to be just over $2,000 in 2009--and some spend much less.
For example, the Apollo Group, which "educated" over 500,000 students in 2010, spent just $892 per student on instruction. According to its own estimates--which the bosses at the University of Phoenix reserve the right to change at any time--a bachelor's of arts degree at the school will likely cost over $10,000 per year, while a bachelor's of science degree runs nearly $15,000 annually, well over 10 times the amount spent on teaching.
Far from being the most efficient way to deliver a service, as proponents of free enterprise like to claim, market-based, for-profit approaches to higher education result in massive waste. Instead of student instruction, the bulk of tuition money goes to marketing to bring in new students, multimillion-dollar salaries for top executives, lobbying politicians and, last but certainly not least, profits.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Google Shelving “Search Plus Your World” Service?
A Google initiative designed to personalize search results for members of its social network is no longer being actively pursued by the Mountain View, California-based tech giant, a company representative told The Telegraph on Sunday..
Amit Singhal, the Google official in charge of improving the website’s information retrieval systems, told Emma Barnett, Digital Media Editor for the UK newspaper, that the company had found a “better place” for results linked to Google+. The initiative, which was dubbed “Google Plus Your World,” was launched in January and was almost immediately the target of rivals such as Facebook and Twitter, which accused Google of promoting their social network at the expense of others.
Singhal told Barnett that the personalized search results for Google+ “have now settled in a place which were better than when we launched.” He added that the initiative, which drew accusations that Google was promoting its other services through its popular search engine, was “a learning process… we experiment, we learn, we improve — that’s what Google does.”
“Search Plus Your World” was officially unveiled in a January 10 blog post by Singhal.
Three major features comprised the core of the then-fledgling service: personalized results based on an individual’s Google+ posts and photos; the ability to immediately locate the profiles of other Google+ users that you follow or might be interested in following, both in search results and in auto-complete; and Google+ profiles and pages associated with a specific topic or area of interest.
“Search is pretty amazing at finding that one needle in a haystack of billions of webpages, images, videos, news and much more. But clearly, that isn’t enough. You should also be able to find your own stuff on the web, the people you know and things they’ve shared with you, as well as the people you don’t know but might want to… all from one search box,” Singhal said. “We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships.”
Other social networks wasted little time crying foul, according to The Telegraph. By the end of the month, Twitter senior counsel Alex Macgillivray accused Google of “warping” search engine results and called the “Search Plus Your World” launch date a “bad day for the Internet.” Twitter also teamed up with Facebook and MySpace to launch web browser tool in an attempt to counteract the pro-Google+ initiative, Barnett added.
Despite Singhal’s admission, some experts aren’t anticipating major changes in the service.
“Google has a vested interest in sending users to its relatively young social platform, so we don’t expect to see Google+ pages plummeting to the bottom of search results anytime soon,” Chris Welch of The Verge said. “A few quick searches confirmed as much, with Google+ content still being displayed prominently more often than not. Still, for those finding that Google’s ‘improvements’ aren’t coming at a rapid enough clip, there’s always the option of disabling personalized search altogether.”
Amit Singhal, the Google official in charge of improving the website’s information retrieval systems, told Emma Barnett, Digital Media Editor for the UK newspaper, that the company had found a “better place” for results linked to Google+. The initiative, which was dubbed “Google Plus Your World,” was launched in January and was almost immediately the target of rivals such as Facebook and Twitter, which accused Google of promoting their social network at the expense of others.
Singhal told Barnett that the personalized search results for Google+ “have now settled in a place which were better than when we launched.” He added that the initiative, which drew accusations that Google was promoting its other services through its popular search engine, was “a learning process… we experiment, we learn, we improve — that’s what Google does.”
“Search Plus Your World” was officially unveiled in a January 10 blog post by Singhal.
Three major features comprised the core of the then-fledgling service: personalized results based on an individual’s Google+ posts and photos; the ability to immediately locate the profiles of other Google+ users that you follow or might be interested in following, both in search results and in auto-complete; and Google+ profiles and pages associated with a specific topic or area of interest.
“Search is pretty amazing at finding that one needle in a haystack of billions of webpages, images, videos, news and much more. But clearly, that isn’t enough. You should also be able to find your own stuff on the web, the people you know and things they’ve shared with you, as well as the people you don’t know but might want to… all from one search box,” Singhal said. “We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships.”
Other social networks wasted little time crying foul, according to The Telegraph. By the end of the month, Twitter senior counsel Alex Macgillivray accused Google of “warping” search engine results and called the “Search Plus Your World” launch date a “bad day for the Internet.” Twitter also teamed up with Facebook and MySpace to launch web browser tool in an attempt to counteract the pro-Google+ initiative, Barnett added.
Despite Singhal’s admission, some experts aren’t anticipating major changes in the service.
“Google has a vested interest in sending users to its relatively young social platform, so we don’t expect to see Google+ pages plummeting to the bottom of search results anytime soon,” Chris Welch of The Verge said. “A few quick searches confirmed as much, with Google+ content still being displayed prominently more often than not. Still, for those finding that Google’s ‘improvements’ aren’t coming at a rapid enough clip, there’s always the option of disabling personalized search altogether.”
Monday, July 16, 2012
VC-backed redBus looks at acquisitions in Singapore
The acquisitions will advice redBus aggrandize its bounded brand while those companies can advantage its technology and backend operations. However, redBus will appear up with country-specific sites instead of operating its business from a individual online platform.
Speaking alone to us, redBus CEO Phanindra Sama said, "We are not searching at any Indian aggregation as we are the alone vertical amateur in this amplitude and agnate companies (those alone affairs bus tickets) are not currently operating here. redBus is, therefore, searching at some offline companies alfresco the country, who intend to go online."
Asked why the aggregation was agog on Singapore and Malaysia, Sama said, "These two countries accept all-encompassing bus networks and hence, accept agnate companies operating there."
Right now, the aggregation is evaluating if it has the bandwidth to handle a new asset. "If it happens, it will be our aboriginal anytime accretion and we charge to go through a lot of processes. Once you do an acquisition, you get to apperceive the action and consecutive acquisitions become easier," added Sama.
"We will never admission a aggregation that is not into bus ticketing. Neither would we attending at a area which we accept not handled before. Even accompanying domains like auberge booking will never appear into our consideration," he added clarified.
Till now, redBus has aloft added than $7.5 actor from three circuit of funding. Last May, it aloft $6.5 actor from Helion Venture Partners, Inventus Capital Partners and Seedfund. Earlier, it had aloft $1 actor in Series A allotment from Seedfund, followed by an bearding sum from Inventus Capital Partners and Seedfund in July 2009.
redBus has acquired cogent absorption and alone a few canicule ago, it claimed to accept awash added than one crore bus seats in India. The aggregation awash about 40-50 lakh tickets during FY2012. According to redBus, it has a registered chump abject of over two millions and has developed at an boilerplate amount of 250 per cent year on year for the accomplished 5 years. The gross commodity amount or GMV in FY2012 about angled to ability Rs 300 crore over the antecedent year.
It currently employs 400 humans beyond 18 offices and facilitates admission booking for over 1.8 lakh bus routes all over India - run by added than 700 bus operators. Earlier this year, it had launched its ticketing account on mobile, allowance travellers admission bus schedules, fares and bench layouts on their handsets besides admission booking.
Calgary Stampeders quarter-back Drew Tate is accepted to absence the butt of the CFL division afterwards electing to abide accept surgery.
The aggregation appear on its website Sunday that Tate will abide the anaplasty afterwards dislocating his non-throwing larboard accept during Calgary's 39-36 accident to the Toronto Argonauts on July 7. The anaplasty will be per-formed by Dr. James Stewart, the Stampeders' orthopedic surgeon.
"We attending advanced to accepting him aback on the football acreage in four months. Obviously, we will do aggregate we can to advice Drew in his alley to recovery," said arch drillmaster and accepted administrator John Hufnagel in a account acquaint on the team's website. Tate confused the aforementioned accept during the 2011 pre-season.
Don't bother suggesting to the 27-year-old Texan that his sea-son is over.
"Well, it's not over," he said absolutely on Sunday. "The season's not over. The chase isn't won at the start, I can acquaint you that appropriate now. We accept three [games] down appropriate now, there's 15 to go. Additional [playoffs]. I plan on getting on this aggregation at the end of that 15 or plus. But I don't anticipate this season's over yet."
Veteran Kevin Glenn has stepped into the starter's role but threw a key interception on Friday that amount Calgary in its 33-32 accident to Montreal. Brad Sinopoli and Bo Levi Mitchell are the added quarterbacks on the Stampeders' alive roster.
NEW DIGS FOR RIDER NATION: Football admirers in Saskatchewan accept accustomed the account they were cat-and-mouse for - a accord has been addled to body a new stadium. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall appear the account to admirers at the city's accepted football facility, Mosaic Amphitheater on Saturday.
The new 33,000-seat amphitheater will be congenital on Ervaz Place acreage in Regina and is accepted to be accessible in aboriginal 2017. Wall alleged the Roughriders "Canada's Team" and he said it deserves a world-class stadium.
The arena says the ability won't accept a roof for the field, but that it will be congenital so one can be added later. Mosaic Stadium, with its bench-style seating, is structurally complete but it is aswell one of the oldest barrio in the Canadian Football League. Construction is appointed to activate in 2013.
SIMON SAYS RIDER NATION IS GREAT: Star B.C. receiver Geroy Simon has a lot of account for Saskatchewan Roughrider admirers and what they accompany to bold day at Mosaic Stadium.
"I adulation the atmosphere. I adulation the fans. The admirers get on you but they're just acknowledging their home team. You accept to adulation that. You appear into adverse area and try to get a achievement and you accept everybody adjoin you. You say it's us adjoin the apple [on the road]. When you appear to Regina it's absolutely your aggregation adjoin the accomplished arena and it seems like the world."
Speaking alone to us, redBus CEO Phanindra Sama said, "We are not searching at any Indian aggregation as we are the alone vertical amateur in this amplitude and agnate companies (those alone affairs bus tickets) are not currently operating here. redBus is, therefore, searching at some offline companies alfresco the country, who intend to go online."
Asked why the aggregation was agog on Singapore and Malaysia, Sama said, "These two countries accept all-encompassing bus networks and hence, accept agnate companies operating there."
Right now, the aggregation is evaluating if it has the bandwidth to handle a new asset. "If it happens, it will be our aboriginal anytime accretion and we charge to go through a lot of processes. Once you do an acquisition, you get to apperceive the action and consecutive acquisitions become easier," added Sama.
"We will never admission a aggregation that is not into bus ticketing. Neither would we attending at a area which we accept not handled before. Even accompanying domains like auberge booking will never appear into our consideration," he added clarified.
Till now, redBus has aloft added than $7.5 actor from three circuit of funding. Last May, it aloft $6.5 actor from Helion Venture Partners, Inventus Capital Partners and Seedfund. Earlier, it had aloft $1 actor in Series A allotment from Seedfund, followed by an bearding sum from Inventus Capital Partners and Seedfund in July 2009.
redBus has acquired cogent absorption and alone a few canicule ago, it claimed to accept awash added than one crore bus seats in India. The aggregation awash about 40-50 lakh tickets during FY2012. According to redBus, it has a registered chump abject of over two millions and has developed at an boilerplate amount of 250 per cent year on year for the accomplished 5 years. The gross commodity amount or GMV in FY2012 about angled to ability Rs 300 crore over the antecedent year.
It currently employs 400 humans beyond 18 offices and facilitates admission booking for over 1.8 lakh bus routes all over India - run by added than 700 bus operators. Earlier this year, it had launched its ticketing account on mobile, allowance travellers admission bus schedules, fares and bench layouts on their handsets besides admission booking.
Calgary Stampeders quarter-back Drew Tate is accepted to absence the butt of the CFL division afterwards electing to abide accept surgery.
The aggregation appear on its website Sunday that Tate will abide the anaplasty afterwards dislocating his non-throwing larboard accept during Calgary's 39-36 accident to the Toronto Argonauts on July 7. The anaplasty will be per-formed by Dr. James Stewart, the Stampeders' orthopedic surgeon.
"We attending advanced to accepting him aback on the football acreage in four months. Obviously, we will do aggregate we can to advice Drew in his alley to recovery," said arch drillmaster and accepted administrator John Hufnagel in a account acquaint on the team's website. Tate confused the aforementioned accept during the 2011 pre-season.
Don't bother suggesting to the 27-year-old Texan that his sea-son is over.
"Well, it's not over," he said absolutely on Sunday. "The season's not over. The chase isn't won at the start, I can acquaint you that appropriate now. We accept three [games] down appropriate now, there's 15 to go. Additional [playoffs]. I plan on getting on this aggregation at the end of that 15 or plus. But I don't anticipate this season's over yet."
Veteran Kevin Glenn has stepped into the starter's role but threw a key interception on Friday that amount Calgary in its 33-32 accident to Montreal. Brad Sinopoli and Bo Levi Mitchell are the added quarterbacks on the Stampeders' alive roster.
NEW DIGS FOR RIDER NATION: Football admirers in Saskatchewan accept accustomed the account they were cat-and-mouse for - a accord has been addled to body a new stadium. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall appear the account to admirers at the city's accepted football facility, Mosaic Amphitheater on Saturday.
The new 33,000-seat amphitheater will be congenital on Ervaz Place acreage in Regina and is accepted to be accessible in aboriginal 2017. Wall alleged the Roughriders "Canada's Team" and he said it deserves a world-class stadium.
The arena says the ability won't accept a roof for the field, but that it will be congenital so one can be added later. Mosaic Stadium, with its bench-style seating, is structurally complete but it is aswell one of the oldest barrio in the Canadian Football League. Construction is appointed to activate in 2013.
SIMON SAYS RIDER NATION IS GREAT: Star B.C. receiver Geroy Simon has a lot of account for Saskatchewan Roughrider admirers and what they accompany to bold day at Mosaic Stadium.
"I adulation the atmosphere. I adulation the fans. The admirers get on you but they're just acknowledging their home team. You accept to adulation that. You appear into adverse area and try to get a achievement and you accept everybody adjoin you. You say it's us adjoin the apple [on the road]. When you appear to Regina it's absolutely your aggregation adjoin the accomplished arena and it seems like the world."
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
A contempo history of acquaintance and distance
I spent about four years in Washington in the mid 1990s, from the summer of 1992 to the backward summer of 1996. Initially my position was as Israel's arch adjudicator with Syria, again as Israel's agent to the U.S., with the Syrian negotiations as allotment of my portfolio. In the accident captivation these two positions accepted to be actual fortuitous. For the Clinton administration, an Israeli-Syrian accord acceding was a top priority, and my plan on the Syrian clue facilitated my plan with the president, the secretary of state, the civic aegis adviser, and their teams.
My antecedent plan in the negotiations with Syria was done in bike with George Bush Sr.'s administration. Needless to say, it was the administering that put the Madrid Accord Action in place. This was the artefact of two above geopolitical efforts: first, administering the alteration from the Cold War to a unipolar apple bedeviled by the United States, and secondly, acquisition Saddam Hussein at the arch of a massive all-embracing coalition. Bush Sr. as admiral and James Baker as secretary of accompaniment acquainted that adjoin this accomplishments they could seek to boldness the Arab-Israeli conflict.
But the Bush administering I encountered was a abbreviating administration. A admiral with amazing adopted action achievements was abaft in the acclamation due to calm bread-and-butter problems. Baker was asked to leave the Accompaniment Department and appear aback to the White House in an accomplishment to deliver his friend's campaign. As we now know, this was a bootless accomplishment and Bill Clinton was adopted admiral in 1993.
It is absolutely accepted for U.S. presidents to ambit themselves from projects that are articular with their predecessors. But Bill Clinton adopted the Middle East accord action that had been put in abode by Bush, and pursued it with his appropriate affection and enthusiasm. He and his aggregation saw it in geopolitical terms. The absolute crisis in the Middle East was presented by its eastern flank, by Iran and Iraq. U.S. action had to be two pronged: to accommodate Iran and Iraq, and advice Israel accomplish accord with its actual neighbors. Once the amount breadth of the Middle East had been stabilized, Iran and Iraq could be confronted added effectively.
This appearance of the arena was aggregate by Israel's prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin. A accepted geopolitical appearance and the abnormal claimed accord that was formed amid Clinton and Rabin produced a aeon of close, affectionate cooperation. Being Israel's agent in Washington during that aeon was a 18-carat privilege.
George W. Bush antipodal Clinton's access afterwards his acclamation to the admiral in 2001.He began by break himself from the accord action that Clinton had pursued with such passion. The collapse of the Syrian and Palestinian tracks, and the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000, fabricated that break easier.
Bush and his aggregation had a altered appearance of the cartography of the region. In their view, a acute action had to activate by ambidextrous with the two able abolitionist regimes, Iran and Iraq, in the Middle East. Once that had been achieved, bringing accord to the region's amount breadth would become abundant easier. This was supplemented with the brainy acute of the neo-cons in the administration, and of bourgeois Republicans: the Middle East should be democratized.
The basement of this accord was, and remains, the appearance of a lot of Americans that Israel is a abutting accessory and that charge to Israel's aegis is a acute basic of America's action in the Middle East. But this abandoned would not accept sufficed. Two added elements played a basic role: the assurance of a lot of Israeli prime ministers of this aeon to move advanced in the accord action of their own volition, and their adeptness to body a accord of assurance with the U.S. president.
This afflicted in 2009. Barack Obama, like George W. Bush, came into appointment bent to ambit himself from his antecedent and his policies. If Bush seemed to be on a blow advance with ample locations of the Muslim and Arab worlds, Obama believed that he could adjustment these relationships. He aswell believed that animating the Israeli-Palestinian accord action and breaking the acumen of an American-Israeli acquaintance were keys to the success of this policy. Unfortunately alone a few months afterwards advancing into office, Obama encountered a bourgeois Israeli government bedevilled of a actual bound appearance of what could be done on the Palestinian track.
My antecedent plan in the negotiations with Syria was done in bike with George Bush Sr.'s administration. Needless to say, it was the administering that put the Madrid Accord Action in place. This was the artefact of two above geopolitical efforts: first, administering the alteration from the Cold War to a unipolar apple bedeviled by the United States, and secondly, acquisition Saddam Hussein at the arch of a massive all-embracing coalition. Bush Sr. as admiral and James Baker as secretary of accompaniment acquainted that adjoin this accomplishments they could seek to boldness the Arab-Israeli conflict.
But the Bush administering I encountered was a abbreviating administration. A admiral with amazing adopted action achievements was abaft in the acclamation due to calm bread-and-butter problems. Baker was asked to leave the Accompaniment Department and appear aback to the White House in an accomplishment to deliver his friend's campaign. As we now know, this was a bootless accomplishment and Bill Clinton was adopted admiral in 1993.
It is absolutely accepted for U.S. presidents to ambit themselves from projects that are articular with their predecessors. But Bill Clinton adopted the Middle East accord action that had been put in abode by Bush, and pursued it with his appropriate affection and enthusiasm. He and his aggregation saw it in geopolitical terms. The absolute crisis in the Middle East was presented by its eastern flank, by Iran and Iraq. U.S. action had to be two pronged: to accommodate Iran and Iraq, and advice Israel accomplish accord with its actual neighbors. Once the amount breadth of the Middle East had been stabilized, Iran and Iraq could be confronted added effectively.
This appearance of the arena was aggregate by Israel's prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin. A accepted geopolitical appearance and the abnormal claimed accord that was formed amid Clinton and Rabin produced a aeon of close, affectionate cooperation. Being Israel's agent in Washington during that aeon was a 18-carat privilege.
George W. Bush antipodal Clinton's access afterwards his acclamation to the admiral in 2001.He began by break himself from the accord action that Clinton had pursued with such passion. The collapse of the Syrian and Palestinian tracks, and the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000, fabricated that break easier.
Bush and his aggregation had a altered appearance of the cartography of the region. In their view, a acute action had to activate by ambidextrous with the two able abolitionist regimes, Iran and Iraq, in the Middle East. Once that had been achieved, bringing accord to the region's amount breadth would become abundant easier. This was supplemented with the brainy acute of the neo-cons in the administration, and of bourgeois Republicans: the Middle East should be democratized.
The basement of this accord was, and remains, the appearance of a lot of Americans that Israel is a abutting accessory and that charge to Israel's aegis is a acute basic of America's action in the Middle East. But this abandoned would not accept sufficed. Two added elements played a basic role: the assurance of a lot of Israeli prime ministers of this aeon to move advanced in the accord action of their own volition, and their adeptness to body a accord of assurance with the U.S. president.
This afflicted in 2009. Barack Obama, like George W. Bush, came into appointment bent to ambit himself from his antecedent and his policies. If Bush seemed to be on a blow advance with ample locations of the Muslim and Arab worlds, Obama believed that he could adjustment these relationships. He aswell believed that animating the Israeli-Palestinian accord action and breaking the acumen of an American-Israeli acquaintance were keys to the success of this policy. Unfortunately alone a few months afterwards advancing into office, Obama encountered a bourgeois Israeli government bedevilled of a actual bound appearance of what could be done on the Palestinian track.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
London landlords squeeze cash from dead space
Eleven million fans, sponsors and athletes are expected to arrive in Europe's second-most crowded city from July, stoking huge demand for storage, temporary shops and vantage points for TV cameras, in turn allowing landlords to cash in on otherwise dead space.
"You'll see usable space created that doesn't currently exist," said Mark Hughes-Webb, managing director of Space-2 Consultancy, a specialist real estate firm that finds buildings for events and film shoots.
"It's been a long time since the Games were in such a densely populated city," Hughes-Webb said. "People are having to be more imaginative."
London, the European Union's most densely populated city after Paris according to EU statistics, will host the games between July 27 and August 12. Homeowners have already hiked rents by up to six times in anticipation of the influx and commercial landlords are getting in on the act.
Unlike the last two Olympic cities of Beijing and Athens, where neighborhoods were demolished to create venues, or they were located in more sparsely populated outlying areas, most of the 34 London sites are at the heart of built-up areas.
The Games' epicenter at Stratford in the east of the city has benefited from a 7 billion pound ($11 billion) injection of infrastructure, sporting venues and homes, revitalizing an area better known for its polluted waterways and industrial estates.
Sites for hire include a former limestone quarry near the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, southeast England, the owner of which is targeting contractors seeking temporary staff accommodation. Its proximity to a high-speed rail link means it is 30 minutes from the Olympic stadium in Stratford.
Elsewhere the owners of a sports field in Chiswick, west London, are in talks with an overseas group of performers to rehearse for the handover ceremony to Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian city that will host the Games in 2016.
Sites like these can cost between 10,000 to 20,000 pounds a week, Hughes-Webb said.
Also in demand are empty shops, particularly those close to busy retail areas like Oxford Street and Covent Garden, which are being snapped up by the likes of high-end U.S. clothing brand Opening Ceremony to house temporary, pop-up stores.
"Enquiries from landlords looking to lease out their vacant units during the Olympics have risen by 50 percent," said Rosie Cann, director at consultancy Pop-up Space.
Rents can be between a few hundred pounds to 20,000 pounds depending on the location and size. Stores generally remain open for between a day and two weeks, agents said.
Vacant shops around train and subway stations or Olympic venues are being rented by smaller sporting and drinks brands in need of makeshift space to store merchandise, Hughes-Webb said.
Not all attempts to find space are successful. Nike Inc's plan to build a temporary two-storey building to host exercise classes in Regents Park was blocked by Westminster council on the grounds it would ruin the park's appearance.
Equally those with empty space near venues may not see a big pay day. The London Olympic organizing committee (LOCOG) bans non-sponsors from advertising within 300 meters of venues, keeping demand in check, property experts say.
Official sponsors Cadbury, BMW and British Airways are among those companies expected to seek temporary space near Olympic venues, which include a man-made beach on the Greenwich peninsula on the Thames built specially for the Games.
"You'll see usable space created that doesn't currently exist," said Mark Hughes-Webb, managing director of Space-2 Consultancy, a specialist real estate firm that finds buildings for events and film shoots.
"It's been a long time since the Games were in such a densely populated city," Hughes-Webb said. "People are having to be more imaginative."
London, the European Union's most densely populated city after Paris according to EU statistics, will host the games between July 27 and August 12. Homeowners have already hiked rents by up to six times in anticipation of the influx and commercial landlords are getting in on the act.
Unlike the last two Olympic cities of Beijing and Athens, where neighborhoods were demolished to create venues, or they were located in more sparsely populated outlying areas, most of the 34 London sites are at the heart of built-up areas.
The Games' epicenter at Stratford in the east of the city has benefited from a 7 billion pound ($11 billion) injection of infrastructure, sporting venues and homes, revitalizing an area better known for its polluted waterways and industrial estates.
Sites for hire include a former limestone quarry near the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, southeast England, the owner of which is targeting contractors seeking temporary staff accommodation. Its proximity to a high-speed rail link means it is 30 minutes from the Olympic stadium in Stratford.
Elsewhere the owners of a sports field in Chiswick, west London, are in talks with an overseas group of performers to rehearse for the handover ceremony to Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian city that will host the Games in 2016.
Sites like these can cost between 10,000 to 20,000 pounds a week, Hughes-Webb said.
Also in demand are empty shops, particularly those close to busy retail areas like Oxford Street and Covent Garden, which are being snapped up by the likes of high-end U.S. clothing brand Opening Ceremony to house temporary, pop-up stores.
"Enquiries from landlords looking to lease out their vacant units during the Olympics have risen by 50 percent," said Rosie Cann, director at consultancy Pop-up Space.
Rents can be between a few hundred pounds to 20,000 pounds depending on the location and size. Stores generally remain open for between a day and two weeks, agents said.
Vacant shops around train and subway stations or Olympic venues are being rented by smaller sporting and drinks brands in need of makeshift space to store merchandise, Hughes-Webb said.
Not all attempts to find space are successful. Nike Inc's plan to build a temporary two-storey building to host exercise classes in Regents Park was blocked by Westminster council on the grounds it would ruin the park's appearance.
Equally those with empty space near venues may not see a big pay day. The London Olympic organizing committee (LOCOG) bans non-sponsors from advertising within 300 meters of venues, keeping demand in check, property experts say.
Official sponsors Cadbury, BMW and British Airways are among those companies expected to seek temporary space near Olympic venues, which include a man-made beach on the Greenwich peninsula on the Thames built specially for the Games.
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