It’s the first media-focused pick-up for Robert F.X. Sillerman’s
revived empire, joining a collection of promoters and live entities
including Disco Donnie Presents, Life in Color,Stock up now and start
saving on smartcard
at Dollar Days. and ID&T (the latter via a North American-only
joint venture). But judging from conversations today with Sillerman and
Beatport CEO Matthew Adell, Beatport could be the lynchpin of the entire
venture, encompassing music sales, mobile media, research, and even
ticketing.
“Beatport is unquestionably the source for EDM music
for DJs, and consequently it provides the backbone - the DNA, if you
will - for what is successful and what people like,” says Sillerman. “It
provides us a great starting point for really everything we do.”
Beatport’s
bread and butter is digital downloads, aimed at a professional DJ user
base; the site offers exclusives and high-quality WAV files to justify
its higher costs (from $1.49 to $3.24 each). But that core business is
just one element of its value to the brand- and data-focused Sillerman,
who defended its reported $50 million price tag without actually
confirming it.
“Look, Beatport has 40 million users, the
majority of whom are not in the U.S.,” he said. “I don’t know how people
value these things, but if you take a look at a business like
Instagram, it only had 10 million users and no revenue.Explore online
some of the many available selections in drycabinet. So what are 40 million users with lots of revenue worth? If we paid $50 million, maybe it’s the bargain of all time.”
Tempel,
Bradley Roulier, and Eloy Lopez, with an initial investment from former
Denver Bronco Trevor Pryce and some unnamed DJs. Originally a download
storefront, its aim was to migrate the business of independent dance
labels from vinyl to digital, in the wake of record store closures
worldwide, and a shift in DJs’ format preferences (and hardware) from
vinyl to CD to (eventually) MP3.
The company received a $12
million investment in 2007 from Insight Venture Partners, which at the
time valued it at $50 million – SFX’s reported purchase price today.
Tempel and Roulier have since moved on to pursue DJ careers of their own
(Roulier in popular dance duo Manufacturer Superstars), and Insight
brought on current CEO Adell, who had stints at Motorola, Napster, and
Amazon under his belt, not to mention dance music pedigree as VP of
WaxTrax! and head of label Organico. Under his watch, Beatport has
launched a slew of new initiatives, including a News channel, DJ pages
(like a social network for DJs within the site), Mixes (allowing users
to package and sell tracks available on Beatport), and Baseware, which
helps labels distribute their music outside of Beatport.
In
addition to a thriving and diversified retail-based business, SFX gets
Beatport’s users: At the most simplistic level, their 80 million
eyeballs (“We’ll use the Beatport platform to help promote events, and
the event audiences to help promote awareness of Beatport,” says Chris
Stephenson, CMO of SFX), but also their data, including demography,
buying preferences, and the songs, artists and genres they like in
real-time.
“It’s interesting speaking to brands and advertisers;
they really want to connect with this audience, tens of millions of
18-34s, but there’s no real platform for them to do so,” says
Stephenson,Stock up now and start saving on smartcard
at Dollar Days. who headed up Sillerman’s social TV app Viggle before
his SFX appointment. “One of our goals is to be able to provide a really
elegant platform solution from both the digital and analog side of the
business to advertisers. It’s a really exciting thing that doesn’t exist
right now.”
That proposed platform will transcend mere event
sponsorships and music downloads. Both Stephenson and Adell speak of
point-of-sale and ticketing opportunities under the Beatport brand, all
powered by mobile.
“Viggle is a very successful example of how
to use mobile to add value and monetize the consumer experience, and
it’s exactly the same in this market,” says Stephenson. “There’s a
mobile opportunity not only to take your music on the road, but also the
ticketing aspect; the idea that when I buy a ticket, it goes to my
mobile phone and allows me to engage at an event in a way I haven’t been
able to before. We can push directly to Facebook, or scan an RFID at
the events themselves, tracking real-time what people are doing. We can
preload mobile devices, partnering with a wallet-type business. We can
enhance wifi at venues so when you’re there your phone is a tremendously
useful object, not a dead weight. Anything that helps make the mobile
phone a key, intrinsic part of the experience.”
Stephenson also
hints at monetization opportunities for artists and labels, leveraging
the Mixes product to distribute event sets; say, Fedde Le Grande’s
headlining set at an SFX-backed, ID&T-produced Sensation event,
available for paid download on Beatport.
In addition to the
eminent roll-out of Beatport-branded mobile products (“We’ll be making a
lot of announcements,” says Adell), SFX is prepping to make other big
noise, reportedly regarding ID&T’s long-hyped move into the American
market with its powerful overseas brands: three-day Belgian festival
Tomorrowland,New Ground-Based solarlamp Tech Is Accurate Down To Just A Few Inches. most notably.
“We
have pretty high expectations [of ID&T] and they’ve exceeded them
at every turn,” says Sillerman, who installed key players, including CEO
Duncan Stutterheim, in an office in Brooklyn, New York earlier this
year. “They are an astounding company; just as professional and creative
as any I’ve ever run across. That’s a very difficult combination, but
they pull it off.”
I've been using a number of NFC-equipped
handsets this week. To get into MWC you normally need to show your badge
(they contain RFID/NFC chips) and show a photo ID, such as a passport.
But if you downloaded the MWC badge app, available for both Windows
Phone 8 and Android, you can use your NFC-equipped phone instead of a
photo ID.
I duly installed and set up the app and used it to get
into the convention center each day. It was the first time I've ever
actually used the NFC feature on my phone for anything "useful." It
wasn't actually very useful. It was quicker than using a passport to get
in, but only because most attendees didn't have NFC phones or hadn't
bothered to install and set up the app,Stock up now and start saving on smartcard at Dollar Days. meaning that that NFC entrance had the shortest lines.
Actually
getting NFC to work was annoying. I know that hackers and security
researchers like to demonstrate reading NFC and RFID chips from many
feet away, but the NFC scanners used at the MWC entrance gates were very
conservative. You had to put the phone's NFC chip in exactly the right
spot or they wouldn't let you in, and that's more annoying than it
should be, because I don't actually know where the NFC chip is in the
phones I have. So I ended up scrubbing the phone over the reader for a
few seconds like a chump each time I wanted to get in.
Of
course, a more systematic approach to using the gates, slowly sliding
the phone over the reader until it worked, would have let me figure out
where the chip was, but when you're being watched by an impatient
security person, there's no time to be systematic. Scrubbing like a
chump it is.
2013年2月28日 星期四
When Touring Gets Really Fun and Enjoyable
There are times in motorcycling when you have to tell yourself that
you are having fun and wouldn't be doing anything else like you really
mean it.The term 'streetlight
control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a
pocket or handbag. Most frequently I find those times while trying to
make camp in a State Park somewhere usually dead tired after riding all
day and trying to pitch a tent in the rain in the dark.
Few things are more unappealing than standing in heavy rain after a long day of riding and contemplating whether to pitch a tent, roll out a sleeping bag and crawl inside on a wet floor at a soggy campsite or instead saying the heck with it, checking the map, GPS or whatever and mounting back up and riding on strange roads at night in the rain to find a motel somewhere.
I usually elect to tough it out and remain in the rain. I have finally learned the hard way it's best to wait for a break in the rain before pitching the tent which makes for a much less wet interior. Sometimes a break never comes and one just has to pitch the thing knowing that it is not going to be pretty inside.
Some day I might learn too just to get a motel if there is the slightest chance of rain but then that would be likely viewed as cheating by the the other USMC, the United States Motorcycle Campers. They are hard corps. Despite all the negatives once I'm settled in for the night I usually find myself quite warm, comfortable and content with sleep not a problem even if it is still raining.
Years ago in December I was in Zion National Park in Utah. I successfully set up camp well before the rains came and after a pleasant dinner I called it a day ahead of the rain and crawled in my tried and true alpine back packing tent. I have forgotten the manufacturer but it was a good design and a veteran of years of good service in all four seasons and in all kinds of severe weather and I was anticipating no problems.
As I lay there the rain began to fall which didn't bother me in the slightest since I fully expected to stay warm and dry as I always had. Imagine my dismay as I felt splashes of water on my face each time a rain drop hit the rain fly. A quick examination showed that since the last time I used the thing the waterproofing on the fabric had rotted away on both rain fly and tent leaving the remaining fabric with about the same water repelling qualities as cheese cloth.
A long sleepless night ensued sloshing around in a pool of water which turned the prime goose down in my fancy high dollar North Face sleeping bag in to the consistency of oat meal. When the cold gray dawn finally did arrive it was still raining. Had it not been for my wool sweater and my exotic Danish fish net long underwear,You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth solarlantern Descriptions. which doesn't seem to be made any longer, it would have been far more cold and miserable than it was. That was a short stay at Zion.
Some day I intend to be able to afford to take an extended motorcycle trip and avoid sleeping in the rain by camping out in Motels,The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation. Hotels and the odd Bed & Breakfast while dining by candle light in interesting restaurants all secured by the ultimate survival tool a plastic credit card. Until then I expect to have a few more nights making camp in the rain and really enjoying it.
Art lovers who feel too cosseted by New York’s sleek and superheated gallery scene might head over to the New Museum, which is celebrating the authentically gritty city of 20 years ago in a shrill and sour new show. NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star returns to a moment, just before the Clinton/Giuliani boom, when murder rates were buoyantly high, parks were spangled with crack vials, and disaffection wafted through neighbourhoods that were doomed to become rather nice.
“Although I missed out on that period in New York, I’ve always imagined it as the last bohemia,” muses Massimiliano Gioni, one of the organisers. To bolster that notion, he has assembled a cabinet of grunge: grainy photos of Aids patients, snapshots of body parts, portraits of dismembered mannequins, handwritten journals, pages of crossed-out print, low-def videos and so on. It’s tough to romanticise a time that produced such unsentimental art, but Gioni and his co-curators do their best.
Much of the exhibition is stuck in the bedroom, or thereabouts, dwelling on the joylessness of sex. One gallery is suffused by the soundtrack from Lutz Bacher’s looped video clip of William Kennedy Smith on the witness stand,Trade Warehouse have partnered with one of the worlds largest solarlight producers. relentlessly repeating “my penis”. That mantra makes it difficult to focus on Paul McCarthy’s “Cultural Gothic”, a sculptural automaton of a man resting his hand on the shoulder of a young boy who couples mechanically with a stuffed goat; or on Patricia Cronin’s Polaroid crude anatomical close-ups of her love life; or on Cheryl Donegan’s “Head”, a brief but still overlong video of the artist guzzling a creamy liquid as it squirts from a plastic jug.
Art about sex isn’t about sex, of course, but about gender roles, subjugation, identity, the body and various other concepts explained in the indispensable text panels. The great innovation of the early 1990s was art that required written translation – John Miller’s “Clubs for America”, for instance, a suite of ugly photos of dreary locations. Their meaning resides in the wall labels, which explain that each is a view of a gay bathhouse, shuttered in the age of Aids. Unfortunately, what we’re shown and what we’re told doesn’t add up to a whole artistic experience.Looking for the Best solarpanel? Once you’ve read the text, you return to the pictures, only to find them untransformed.
If NYC 1993 has little to say about the world at that time, it suggests plenty about New York’s evolution since then. It tells of a fall from gracelessness, from interesting dereliction to bland luxury. (It is an irony that the New Museum went up on the Bowery in 2007, contributing to the gentrification it’s now busy deploring.) The scholar Megan Heuer writes in a catalogue essay that the city has, in her opinion, been scrubbed shallow: “that old sadness and profundity?.?.?.?have largely disappeared.” At the time, though, most artists didn’t see their lives through the lens of poetic melancholy. They were bellicose and cerebral. The show’s logo could be David Hammons’ decapitated sweatshirt hood, whose title, “In the Hood”, puns on fashion, race and urban geography.
Few things are more unappealing than standing in heavy rain after a long day of riding and contemplating whether to pitch a tent, roll out a sleeping bag and crawl inside on a wet floor at a soggy campsite or instead saying the heck with it, checking the map, GPS or whatever and mounting back up and riding on strange roads at night in the rain to find a motel somewhere.
I usually elect to tough it out and remain in the rain. I have finally learned the hard way it's best to wait for a break in the rain before pitching the tent which makes for a much less wet interior. Sometimes a break never comes and one just has to pitch the thing knowing that it is not going to be pretty inside.
Some day I might learn too just to get a motel if there is the slightest chance of rain but then that would be likely viewed as cheating by the the other USMC, the United States Motorcycle Campers. They are hard corps. Despite all the negatives once I'm settled in for the night I usually find myself quite warm, comfortable and content with sleep not a problem even if it is still raining.
Years ago in December I was in Zion National Park in Utah. I successfully set up camp well before the rains came and after a pleasant dinner I called it a day ahead of the rain and crawled in my tried and true alpine back packing tent. I have forgotten the manufacturer but it was a good design and a veteran of years of good service in all four seasons and in all kinds of severe weather and I was anticipating no problems.
As I lay there the rain began to fall which didn't bother me in the slightest since I fully expected to stay warm and dry as I always had. Imagine my dismay as I felt splashes of water on my face each time a rain drop hit the rain fly. A quick examination showed that since the last time I used the thing the waterproofing on the fabric had rotted away on both rain fly and tent leaving the remaining fabric with about the same water repelling qualities as cheese cloth.
A long sleepless night ensued sloshing around in a pool of water which turned the prime goose down in my fancy high dollar North Face sleeping bag in to the consistency of oat meal. When the cold gray dawn finally did arrive it was still raining. Had it not been for my wool sweater and my exotic Danish fish net long underwear,You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth solarlantern Descriptions. which doesn't seem to be made any longer, it would have been far more cold and miserable than it was. That was a short stay at Zion.
Some day I intend to be able to afford to take an extended motorcycle trip and avoid sleeping in the rain by camping out in Motels,The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation. Hotels and the odd Bed & Breakfast while dining by candle light in interesting restaurants all secured by the ultimate survival tool a plastic credit card. Until then I expect to have a few more nights making camp in the rain and really enjoying it.
Art lovers who feel too cosseted by New York’s sleek and superheated gallery scene might head over to the New Museum, which is celebrating the authentically gritty city of 20 years ago in a shrill and sour new show. NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star returns to a moment, just before the Clinton/Giuliani boom, when murder rates were buoyantly high, parks were spangled with crack vials, and disaffection wafted through neighbourhoods that were doomed to become rather nice.
“Although I missed out on that period in New York, I’ve always imagined it as the last bohemia,” muses Massimiliano Gioni, one of the organisers. To bolster that notion, he has assembled a cabinet of grunge: grainy photos of Aids patients, snapshots of body parts, portraits of dismembered mannequins, handwritten journals, pages of crossed-out print, low-def videos and so on. It’s tough to romanticise a time that produced such unsentimental art, but Gioni and his co-curators do their best.
Much of the exhibition is stuck in the bedroom, or thereabouts, dwelling on the joylessness of sex. One gallery is suffused by the soundtrack from Lutz Bacher’s looped video clip of William Kennedy Smith on the witness stand,Trade Warehouse have partnered with one of the worlds largest solarlight producers. relentlessly repeating “my penis”. That mantra makes it difficult to focus on Paul McCarthy’s “Cultural Gothic”, a sculptural automaton of a man resting his hand on the shoulder of a young boy who couples mechanically with a stuffed goat; or on Patricia Cronin’s Polaroid crude anatomical close-ups of her love life; or on Cheryl Donegan’s “Head”, a brief but still overlong video of the artist guzzling a creamy liquid as it squirts from a plastic jug.
Art about sex isn’t about sex, of course, but about gender roles, subjugation, identity, the body and various other concepts explained in the indispensable text panels. The great innovation of the early 1990s was art that required written translation – John Miller’s “Clubs for America”, for instance, a suite of ugly photos of dreary locations. Their meaning resides in the wall labels, which explain that each is a view of a gay bathhouse, shuttered in the age of Aids. Unfortunately, what we’re shown and what we’re told doesn’t add up to a whole artistic experience.Looking for the Best solarpanel? Once you’ve read the text, you return to the pictures, only to find them untransformed.
If NYC 1993 has little to say about the world at that time, it suggests plenty about New York’s evolution since then. It tells of a fall from gracelessness, from interesting dereliction to bland luxury. (It is an irony that the New Museum went up on the Bowery in 2007, contributing to the gentrification it’s now busy deploring.) The scholar Megan Heuer writes in a catalogue essay that the city has, in her opinion, been scrubbed shallow: “that old sadness and profundity?.?.?.?have largely disappeared.” At the time, though, most artists didn’t see their lives through the lens of poetic melancholy. They were bellicose and cerebral. The show’s logo could be David Hammons’ decapitated sweatshirt hood, whose title, “In the Hood”, puns on fashion, race and urban geography.
City of Greensboro considers dropping Downtown Greensboro
Taking some by surprise, a seemingly spontaneous discussion about
seeking alternatives to Downtown Greensboro Inc. ended in a 9-0 vote
last week at the Greensboro City Council meeting. Consensus may be a
hallmark of the Winston-Salem City Council, but it is rare that
Greensboro’s governing body comes to a unanimous agreement.
At-large Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan brought forward a motion directing city staff to explore alternatives to contracting with Downtown Greensboro Inc., a 501(c)6 that serves as a booster for the center city’s marketing and economic development efforts. Vaughan and other council members said frustration with DGI has been building and communicated the concern with the organization previously, but DGI President Ed Wolverton and recent board chair Susan Schwartz said the move surprised them.
“I was surprised that [Schwartz] was surprised,” Vaughan said, adding that council has been upfront about its dissatisfaction and that there have been meetings between council members, city staff and DGI since November.
“My frustration over the last year or so has been… that we are looking for DGI to be visionaries,” Vaughan said. “The feeling has been that downtown is getting stale. We want somebody who’s going to bring us initiative.”
Wolverton began his position with DGI towards the end of 2007 after serving as the president of the Wichita Downtown Development Corp.Researchers at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed an buymosaic. for about six years. According to the Wichita Business Journal, many of the ideas Wolverton’s old outfit pursued were similar to those DGI has discussed recently.
“Wolverton said the task force identified the Top 5 projects, which included supporting development of the east bank of the Arkansas River downtown: recruiting a grocery store,Do you know any airpurifier wholesale supplier? developing a new vision plan, creating a permitting program to allow street musicians and creating more ‘people places’ such as parks and plazas,” the March 2003 article reported.
All of those projects,Universal solarstreetlight are useful for any project. with the exception of development along the Arkansas River, are primary development ideas DGI has been working on in the last year.Make your house a home with Border and iphoneheadset Tiles. Action Greensboro, DGI and the city are working on “pop up plazas” to close down a block and encourage pedestrian traffic, busking and other cultural elements in the spring.
Vaughan said DGI was involved in busking and food trucks but that the ideas were originated organically and were taken on by council because council saw what people wanted. The visionary ideas didn’t have to be brand new, Vaughan said, just transformative, big-picture ideas.
“You don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” she said. “You can look at other communities and what they’re successful at and we can emulate those ideas.”
The Business Journal article also said that one downtown “dreamer” idea was attracting Wichita State University to increase its downtown presence, something DGI and other interest groups have recently been trying to nurture in Greensboro with area colleges.
Downtown Greensboro. Inc. is also working on several other downtown ideas, including a bike-share program, rooftop vegetation and a decrease in the number of boarded-up storefronts, as well as other more gruesome projects like poisoning rats. Part of the organization’s role is to inform and represent downtown residents and businesses. The staff has surveyed people about food trucks, held informational meetings about the noise ordinance, carried residents’ complaints about parking and trash to city government, celebrated the police department’s Center City Resource Team and explained code violations to business owners.
As DGI e-mails show, many of the primary things the organization is working on and promoting — from First Fridays to the proposed performing arts center — did not originate with them but are projects to which they are connected. The organization wears many hats, which may be fitting for a group with three different legal statuses, but council feels it hasn’t amounted to enough.
Like Vaughan, Mayor Robbie Perkins called for visionary ideas and action, adding that it was time for council to move decisively.
“I am tired of talking about it behind closed doors,” Perkins said. “This isn’t the first time I’ve said this as mayor. I don’t think we’re competing effectively with other cities our size. I think downtown’s suffering from some indecisive leadership at this point. Drive to downtown Winston — there’s energy there. Drive to downtown Durham — there’s energy there.”
Perkins, Vaughan and the city manager attended a DGI board meeting last week to explain the city’s stance.
Downtown Greensboro, Inc. was established in 1997 and later followed by parallel organizations, Downtown Greensboro Foundation and Downtown Greensboro Improvement Corp., with different legal statuses but similar agendas. Wolverton is the president of DGIC, a 501(c)4, and DGI, and the two share a board of directors. The city contracts with DGI and DGIC for different services, but Vaughan said she isn’t clear on the distinctions between the organizations.
“I have to think that they are intertwined and I am trying to get some guidance right now between the two and where the overlap is,” she said. “Basically it’s shadow organizations. It’s the same leadership. It’s the same board.Site describes services including lasercutter.”
Council’s instructions to explore alternatives are currently limited to two aspects of DGI’s contracts, but the city’s relationship to the intertwined organizations runs deeper.
At-large Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan brought forward a motion directing city staff to explore alternatives to contracting with Downtown Greensboro Inc., a 501(c)6 that serves as a booster for the center city’s marketing and economic development efforts. Vaughan and other council members said frustration with DGI has been building and communicated the concern with the organization previously, but DGI President Ed Wolverton and recent board chair Susan Schwartz said the move surprised them.
“I was surprised that [Schwartz] was surprised,” Vaughan said, adding that council has been upfront about its dissatisfaction and that there have been meetings between council members, city staff and DGI since November.
“My frustration over the last year or so has been… that we are looking for DGI to be visionaries,” Vaughan said. “The feeling has been that downtown is getting stale. We want somebody who’s going to bring us initiative.”
Wolverton began his position with DGI towards the end of 2007 after serving as the president of the Wichita Downtown Development Corp.Researchers at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed an buymosaic. for about six years. According to the Wichita Business Journal, many of the ideas Wolverton’s old outfit pursued were similar to those DGI has discussed recently.
“Wolverton said the task force identified the Top 5 projects, which included supporting development of the east bank of the Arkansas River downtown: recruiting a grocery store,Do you know any airpurifier wholesale supplier? developing a new vision plan, creating a permitting program to allow street musicians and creating more ‘people places’ such as parks and plazas,” the March 2003 article reported.
All of those projects,Universal solarstreetlight are useful for any project. with the exception of development along the Arkansas River, are primary development ideas DGI has been working on in the last year.Make your house a home with Border and iphoneheadset Tiles. Action Greensboro, DGI and the city are working on “pop up plazas” to close down a block and encourage pedestrian traffic, busking and other cultural elements in the spring.
Vaughan said DGI was involved in busking and food trucks but that the ideas were originated organically and were taken on by council because council saw what people wanted. The visionary ideas didn’t have to be brand new, Vaughan said, just transformative, big-picture ideas.
“You don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” she said. “You can look at other communities and what they’re successful at and we can emulate those ideas.”
The Business Journal article also said that one downtown “dreamer” idea was attracting Wichita State University to increase its downtown presence, something DGI and other interest groups have recently been trying to nurture in Greensboro with area colleges.
Downtown Greensboro. Inc. is also working on several other downtown ideas, including a bike-share program, rooftop vegetation and a decrease in the number of boarded-up storefronts, as well as other more gruesome projects like poisoning rats. Part of the organization’s role is to inform and represent downtown residents and businesses. The staff has surveyed people about food trucks, held informational meetings about the noise ordinance, carried residents’ complaints about parking and trash to city government, celebrated the police department’s Center City Resource Team and explained code violations to business owners.
As DGI e-mails show, many of the primary things the organization is working on and promoting — from First Fridays to the proposed performing arts center — did not originate with them but are projects to which they are connected. The organization wears many hats, which may be fitting for a group with three different legal statuses, but council feels it hasn’t amounted to enough.
Like Vaughan, Mayor Robbie Perkins called for visionary ideas and action, adding that it was time for council to move decisively.
“I am tired of talking about it behind closed doors,” Perkins said. “This isn’t the first time I’ve said this as mayor. I don’t think we’re competing effectively with other cities our size. I think downtown’s suffering from some indecisive leadership at this point. Drive to downtown Winston — there’s energy there. Drive to downtown Durham — there’s energy there.”
Perkins, Vaughan and the city manager attended a DGI board meeting last week to explain the city’s stance.
Downtown Greensboro, Inc. was established in 1997 and later followed by parallel organizations, Downtown Greensboro Foundation and Downtown Greensboro Improvement Corp., with different legal statuses but similar agendas. Wolverton is the president of DGIC, a 501(c)4, and DGI, and the two share a board of directors. The city contracts with DGI and DGIC for different services, but Vaughan said she isn’t clear on the distinctions between the organizations.
“I have to think that they are intertwined and I am trying to get some guidance right now between the two and where the overlap is,” she said. “Basically it’s shadow organizations. It’s the same leadership. It’s the same board.Site describes services including lasercutter.”
Council’s instructions to explore alternatives are currently limited to two aspects of DGI’s contracts, but the city’s relationship to the intertwined organizations runs deeper.
2013年2月24日 星期日
Centrix Bank
The general economic sluggishness continued into 2012, and conditions
are expected to remain similar in 2013. While the U.S. economy
continues to move very slowly in an upward direction, and consumers have
gained some confidence,Do you know any polishedtiles
wholesale supplier? the business side of the economy remains worrisome.
We appear to be operating in a “stably depressed” market condition,
with businesses making necessary adjustments to the new normal.
Real gross domestic product of approximately 2 percent is forecast to remain at the same level in 2013. Given this modest level of growth, Federal Reserve officials have extended the forward guidance on interest rates to mid-2015. This suggests that long-term interest rates are expected to remain low for a long time. Short-term rates also remain at historical lows, ranging from 0-25 basis points, and are likely to remain unchanged until unemployment levels, currently around 7.7 percent, decline to 6.5 percent.
General forecast economic conditions and other factors will continue to present challenges and put pressure on the banking industry in 2013. Low interest rates, pressure on earnings, hyper competition for assets, and consolidation will continue to pose challenges.
This year will present significant headwinds for the banking industry. Most important, the industry will continue to provide consumers and businesses alike many choices. Given the pressures I previously outlined, over time these choices will likely be different and fewer!
At Centrix Bank, our focus remains unchanged. We will continue to offer an exclusive focus on business banking services by customizing our products and services to fit individual business needs. We remain committed to taking the time to fully understand your business, so we can identify opportunities for growth and success.
Accepting this, I would put forth that if our state were to grasp the opportunity at hand as Seward first did Alaska could lead the country by becoming the cleanest state in the union.
What follows is an expansion of an idea that was recently highlighted for me in a little read report on liquefied natural gas (LNG) submitted to our Legislature this month by the city of Valdez. Contained in this report is the seed of a vision that not only could provide clean and affordable energy for Alaskans,Cheaper For bulk buying drycabinet prices. but also improve our economy and create a cleaner environment. I will endeavor to explain.High quality chinamosaic tiles.Why does bobblehead grow in homes or buildings?
Delivery of LNG to the coastal communities of our state could be accomplished with LNG-powered shuttle ships. At least two of these vessels would constitute the "main line" of this service. One for Southeast Alaska, and one for Western and Southcentral Alaska. The rest of the fleet would be compromised of "feeder ships" of various sizes and drafts, designed for the smaller ports that are spread out along our waterfront.
All these vessels could be managed under our current state marine ferry system. By utilizing the state's existing ferry infrastructure and taking ownership of these vessels Alaska would increase its "skin in the game" so to speak. The vessels themselves along with the receiving stations for the LNG facilities in each community would be made "cookie cutter" style thereby minimizing design, installation, and operating costs. These ships and facilities would be built at the same time as the pipeline so each community would be ready to receive product as soon as the gas arrives at our waterfront.
Next, Arctic development. This is not just a futuristic thought. It is upon us. This development must be balanced out with all due regard for the protection of the Arctics unique environment. A good place to start this process would be to require all ships operating in the Arctic to utilize LNG as their principle fuel source so as to minimize their carbon footprints.
Alaska could help make this a reality by 1) using the newly formed Alaska Arctic Policy Commission to create Arctic policy that requires ships operating in the Arctic to utilize LNG as their primary means of propulsion and 2) the establishment of a refueling station designed specifically for these ships. The location of this facility would be near Unimak Pass where more than five thousand other ships annually transit through our state's waters as they engage in ever-growing Pacific Rim trades. By building a world-class re-gasification plant mid way along the Pacific Rim's great circle route Alaska places itself in the confluence of these trades, making our LNG an attractive option for ship owners seeking to save costs and struggling to comply with future emission standards.
The bottom line: While LNG may not be as pure as the driven wind or as harmless as solar power, it is far less toxic to the environment than all other fossil fuels that we now depend on to meet our energy needs. In addition to being clean it is abundant and inexpensive compared with other low sulphur fuels. Moving LNG from a deep water terminus for large volume exports and to the Alaskan population are central to making a new frontier out of the last frontier.
A census of any kind that involves attempting to get a head count on wild animals traversing continents via the sky is a sizeable undertaking that on its surface could resemble a fool’s errand. But knowing where birds are and how many of a certain species are present is too valuable a piece of data to leave out of any sensible management plan.
So the forces at Audubon joined those at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and then invited Bird Studies Canada on board, to form a wide network of birding experts. Their goal was to organize and orchestrate the largest census of bird life that North America had ever witnessed.
Once the consortium came together, their most crucial move was to enlist a massive volunteer army of foot soldiers to do the actual counting. The group then had to come up with a practical format, and a place to handle the data.
The Great Backyard Bird Count was hatched — an annual four-day affair that utilizes bird watchers of all ages and in as many nooks and crannies across the map as possible to count birds and create a real-time snapshot of winter bird populations.We have a fantastic range of Glass Tiles and iccard Tiles.
The most common birds observed in terms of numbers have been the snow goose, Canada goose, red-winged blackbird and the European starling.
“This is a milestone for citizen science in so many respects — number of species, diversity of countries involved, total participants, and number of individual birds recorded,” Fitzpatrick said.
Audubon chief scientist Gary Langham said he hopes that interest and involvement in the Great Backyard Bird Count continues to grow and spread around the globe.
“People who care about birds can change the world,” Langham said. “That’s why this year’s record-setting global participation is so exciting. Technology has made it possible for people everywhere to unite around a shared love of birds and a commitment to protecting them.”
While many birding enthusiasts in the northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan area took an active role in the organized international bird count, others continue to report unusual sightings from their backyard feeders, front lawns, or neighboring green space.
It looked like a somewhat normal winter day for Mel Kwiatkowski of Maumee recently as the cold, stiff wind had knocked over his recycling bins and sent him out of the house to retrieve them.
“And then I heard all of this noise, all of this chattering, and I thought it was a bunch of chickadees,” said Kwiatkowski, who has been feeding the birds in his backyard for many years. “But then I saw the rust colored breasts and realized I was looking at 10 robins, at least 10 of them, and it seemed awfully early for robins to be here in such numbers.”
Real gross domestic product of approximately 2 percent is forecast to remain at the same level in 2013. Given this modest level of growth, Federal Reserve officials have extended the forward guidance on interest rates to mid-2015. This suggests that long-term interest rates are expected to remain low for a long time. Short-term rates also remain at historical lows, ranging from 0-25 basis points, and are likely to remain unchanged until unemployment levels, currently around 7.7 percent, decline to 6.5 percent.
General forecast economic conditions and other factors will continue to present challenges and put pressure on the banking industry in 2013. Low interest rates, pressure on earnings, hyper competition for assets, and consolidation will continue to pose challenges.
This year will present significant headwinds for the banking industry. Most important, the industry will continue to provide consumers and businesses alike many choices. Given the pressures I previously outlined, over time these choices will likely be different and fewer!
At Centrix Bank, our focus remains unchanged. We will continue to offer an exclusive focus on business banking services by customizing our products and services to fit individual business needs. We remain committed to taking the time to fully understand your business, so we can identify opportunities for growth and success.
Accepting this, I would put forth that if our state were to grasp the opportunity at hand as Seward first did Alaska could lead the country by becoming the cleanest state in the union.
What follows is an expansion of an idea that was recently highlighted for me in a little read report on liquefied natural gas (LNG) submitted to our Legislature this month by the city of Valdez. Contained in this report is the seed of a vision that not only could provide clean and affordable energy for Alaskans,Cheaper For bulk buying drycabinet prices. but also improve our economy and create a cleaner environment. I will endeavor to explain.High quality chinamosaic tiles.Why does bobblehead grow in homes or buildings?
Delivery of LNG to the coastal communities of our state could be accomplished with LNG-powered shuttle ships. At least two of these vessels would constitute the "main line" of this service. One for Southeast Alaska, and one for Western and Southcentral Alaska. The rest of the fleet would be compromised of "feeder ships" of various sizes and drafts, designed for the smaller ports that are spread out along our waterfront.
All these vessels could be managed under our current state marine ferry system. By utilizing the state's existing ferry infrastructure and taking ownership of these vessels Alaska would increase its "skin in the game" so to speak. The vessels themselves along with the receiving stations for the LNG facilities in each community would be made "cookie cutter" style thereby minimizing design, installation, and operating costs. These ships and facilities would be built at the same time as the pipeline so each community would be ready to receive product as soon as the gas arrives at our waterfront.
Next, Arctic development. This is not just a futuristic thought. It is upon us. This development must be balanced out with all due regard for the protection of the Arctics unique environment. A good place to start this process would be to require all ships operating in the Arctic to utilize LNG as their principle fuel source so as to minimize their carbon footprints.
Alaska could help make this a reality by 1) using the newly formed Alaska Arctic Policy Commission to create Arctic policy that requires ships operating in the Arctic to utilize LNG as their primary means of propulsion and 2) the establishment of a refueling station designed specifically for these ships. The location of this facility would be near Unimak Pass where more than five thousand other ships annually transit through our state's waters as they engage in ever-growing Pacific Rim trades. By building a world-class re-gasification plant mid way along the Pacific Rim's great circle route Alaska places itself in the confluence of these trades, making our LNG an attractive option for ship owners seeking to save costs and struggling to comply with future emission standards.
The bottom line: While LNG may not be as pure as the driven wind or as harmless as solar power, it is far less toxic to the environment than all other fossil fuels that we now depend on to meet our energy needs. In addition to being clean it is abundant and inexpensive compared with other low sulphur fuels. Moving LNG from a deep water terminus for large volume exports and to the Alaskan population are central to making a new frontier out of the last frontier.
A census of any kind that involves attempting to get a head count on wild animals traversing continents via the sky is a sizeable undertaking that on its surface could resemble a fool’s errand. But knowing where birds are and how many of a certain species are present is too valuable a piece of data to leave out of any sensible management plan.
So the forces at Audubon joined those at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and then invited Bird Studies Canada on board, to form a wide network of birding experts. Their goal was to organize and orchestrate the largest census of bird life that North America had ever witnessed.
Once the consortium came together, their most crucial move was to enlist a massive volunteer army of foot soldiers to do the actual counting. The group then had to come up with a practical format, and a place to handle the data.
The Great Backyard Bird Count was hatched — an annual four-day affair that utilizes bird watchers of all ages and in as many nooks and crannies across the map as possible to count birds and create a real-time snapshot of winter bird populations.We have a fantastic range of Glass Tiles and iccard Tiles.
The most common birds observed in terms of numbers have been the snow goose, Canada goose, red-winged blackbird and the European starling.
“This is a milestone for citizen science in so many respects — number of species, diversity of countries involved, total participants, and number of individual birds recorded,” Fitzpatrick said.
Audubon chief scientist Gary Langham said he hopes that interest and involvement in the Great Backyard Bird Count continues to grow and spread around the globe.
“People who care about birds can change the world,” Langham said. “That’s why this year’s record-setting global participation is so exciting. Technology has made it possible for people everywhere to unite around a shared love of birds and a commitment to protecting them.”
While many birding enthusiasts in the northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan area took an active role in the organized international bird count, others continue to report unusual sightings from their backyard feeders, front lawns, or neighboring green space.
It looked like a somewhat normal winter day for Mel Kwiatkowski of Maumee recently as the cold, stiff wind had knocked over his recycling bins and sent him out of the house to retrieve them.
“And then I heard all of this noise, all of this chattering, and I thought it was a bunch of chickadees,” said Kwiatkowski, who has been feeding the birds in his backyard for many years. “But then I saw the rust colored breasts and realized I was looking at 10 robins, at least 10 of them, and it seemed awfully early for robins to be here in such numbers.”
Antivirus Testing 101
At various locations around the world, teams of dedicated researchers
put dozens of antivirus products through grueling tests. Some of these
antivirus testing labs run procedures that take months. Others challenge
antivirus products to detect hundreds of thousands of samples. There's
no way a lone reviewer like me could duplicate those efforts, but I
persist in performing hands-on testing for every antivirus review. Why?
There are several reasons.
Timeliness is one reason. I do my best to review each new security product as soon as it's released. The labs perform their tests on a schedule that rarely matches my needs. Comprehensiveness is another. Not every security company participates with every lab; some don't participate at all. For those that don't participate,High quality chinamosaic tiles. my own results are all I've got to go on. Finally, hands-on testing gives me a feel for how the product and company handle tough situations, like malware that prevents installation of the protective software.
To get a reasonable comparison, I need to run each antivirus product against the same set of samples. Yes, that means I'm never testing with zero-day, never-before-seen malware. I rely on the labs, with their greater resources, to perform that kind of testing. Creating a new set of infested test systems takes a long time,Beautiful fridgemagnet in a wide range of colors & sold at factory direct prices. so I can only afford to do it once a year. Given that my samples aren't remotely new, you'd think all security products would handle them well, but that's not what I observe.
The big independent labs maintain a watch on the Internet, constantly capturing new malware samples. Of course they have to evaluate hundreds of suspects to identify those that are truly malicious,Add depth and style to your home with these large format streetlight. and determine what sort of malicious behavior they exhibit.
For my own testing, I rely on help from experts at many different security companies. I ask each group to supply real-world URLs for ten or so "interesting" threats. Of course not every company wants to participate, but I get a representative sample. Grabbing the files from their real-world location has two benefits. First, I don't have to deal with email or file-exchange security wiping out samples in transit. Second, it eliminates the possibility that one company might game the system by supplying a one-off threat that only their product can detect.
Malware writers are constantly moving and morphing their software weapons, so I download suggested samples immediately upon receiving the URLs. Even so, some of them have already vanished by the time I try to grab them.
The next step, an arduous one, involves launching every suggested sample in a virtual machine, under the scrutiny of monitoring software. Without giving away too much detail, I use a tool that records all file and Registry changes, another that detects changes using before and after system snapshots, and third that reports on all running processes. I also run a couple rootkit scanners after each installation, since in theory a rootkit might evade detection by other monitors.
The results are frequently disappointing. Some samples detect when they're running in a virtual machine and refuse to install. Others want a specific operating system, or a specific country code, before they'll take action. Still others may be waiting for instruction from a command-and-control center. And a few damage the test system to the point that it doesn't work any longer.
Out of my most recent set of suggestions, 10 percent were already gone by the time I tried to download them, and about half of the rest were unacceptable for one reason or another.Panasonic solarlantern fans are energy efficient and whisper quiet. From those that remained, I chose three dozen, looking to get a variety of malware types suggested by a mix of different companies.
Selecting malware samples is just half the work. I also have to go through reams and reams of log files generated during the monitoring process. The monitoring tools record everything, including changes not related to the malware sample. I wrote a couple of filtering and analysis programs to help me winnow out the specific files and Registry traces added by the malware installer.
After installing three samples apiece in twelve otherwise-identical virtual machines, I run another little program that reads my final logs and checks that the running programs, files, and Registry traces associated with the samples are actually present. Quite often, I have to adjust my logs because a polymorphic Trojan installed using different filenames than it used when I ran my analysis. In fact, over a third of my current collection needed adjustment for polymorphism.Save up to 80% off Ceramic Tile and molds.
With all of this preparation complete, analyzing a particular antivirus product's cleanup success is a simple matter. I install the product on all twelve systems, run a full scan, and run my checkup tool to determine what (if any) traces remain behind. A product that removes all executable traces and at least 80 percent of the non-executable junk scores ten points. If it removes at least 20 percent of the junk, that's worth nine points; less than 20 percent gets eight points. If executable files remain behind, the product scores five points; that goes down to three points if any of the files are still running. And of course a total miss gets no points at all.
Averaging the points for each of three dozen samples gives me a pretty good view on how well the product handles cleaning malware-infested test systems. In addition, I get hands-on experience of the process. Suppose two products get identical scores, but one installed and scanned without issues and the other required hours of work by tech support; the first is clearly better.
Timeliness is one reason. I do my best to review each new security product as soon as it's released. The labs perform their tests on a schedule that rarely matches my needs. Comprehensiveness is another. Not every security company participates with every lab; some don't participate at all. For those that don't participate,High quality chinamosaic tiles. my own results are all I've got to go on. Finally, hands-on testing gives me a feel for how the product and company handle tough situations, like malware that prevents installation of the protective software.
To get a reasonable comparison, I need to run each antivirus product against the same set of samples. Yes, that means I'm never testing with zero-day, never-before-seen malware. I rely on the labs, with their greater resources, to perform that kind of testing. Creating a new set of infested test systems takes a long time,Beautiful fridgemagnet in a wide range of colors & sold at factory direct prices. so I can only afford to do it once a year. Given that my samples aren't remotely new, you'd think all security products would handle them well, but that's not what I observe.
The big independent labs maintain a watch on the Internet, constantly capturing new malware samples. Of course they have to evaluate hundreds of suspects to identify those that are truly malicious,Add depth and style to your home with these large format streetlight. and determine what sort of malicious behavior they exhibit.
For my own testing, I rely on help from experts at many different security companies. I ask each group to supply real-world URLs for ten or so "interesting" threats. Of course not every company wants to participate, but I get a representative sample. Grabbing the files from their real-world location has two benefits. First, I don't have to deal with email or file-exchange security wiping out samples in transit. Second, it eliminates the possibility that one company might game the system by supplying a one-off threat that only their product can detect.
Malware writers are constantly moving and morphing their software weapons, so I download suggested samples immediately upon receiving the URLs. Even so, some of them have already vanished by the time I try to grab them.
The next step, an arduous one, involves launching every suggested sample in a virtual machine, under the scrutiny of monitoring software. Without giving away too much detail, I use a tool that records all file and Registry changes, another that detects changes using before and after system snapshots, and third that reports on all running processes. I also run a couple rootkit scanners after each installation, since in theory a rootkit might evade detection by other monitors.
The results are frequently disappointing. Some samples detect when they're running in a virtual machine and refuse to install. Others want a specific operating system, or a specific country code, before they'll take action. Still others may be waiting for instruction from a command-and-control center. And a few damage the test system to the point that it doesn't work any longer.
Out of my most recent set of suggestions, 10 percent were already gone by the time I tried to download them, and about half of the rest were unacceptable for one reason or another.Panasonic solarlantern fans are energy efficient and whisper quiet. From those that remained, I chose three dozen, looking to get a variety of malware types suggested by a mix of different companies.
Selecting malware samples is just half the work. I also have to go through reams and reams of log files generated during the monitoring process. The monitoring tools record everything, including changes not related to the malware sample. I wrote a couple of filtering and analysis programs to help me winnow out the specific files and Registry traces added by the malware installer.
After installing three samples apiece in twelve otherwise-identical virtual machines, I run another little program that reads my final logs and checks that the running programs, files, and Registry traces associated with the samples are actually present. Quite often, I have to adjust my logs because a polymorphic Trojan installed using different filenames than it used when I ran my analysis. In fact, over a third of my current collection needed adjustment for polymorphism.Save up to 80% off Ceramic Tile and molds.
With all of this preparation complete, analyzing a particular antivirus product's cleanup success is a simple matter. I install the product on all twelve systems, run a full scan, and run my checkup tool to determine what (if any) traces remain behind. A product that removes all executable traces and at least 80 percent of the non-executable junk scores ten points. If it removes at least 20 percent of the junk, that's worth nine points; less than 20 percent gets eight points. If executable files remain behind, the product scores five points; that goes down to three points if any of the files are still running. And of course a total miss gets no points at all.
Averaging the points for each of three dozen samples gives me a pretty good view on how well the product handles cleaning malware-infested test systems. In addition, I get hands-on experience of the process. Suppose two products get identical scores, but one installed and scanned without issues and the other required hours of work by tech support; the first is clearly better.
Movie magician Spielberg may score big
While the craggy visage of America's stovepipe-hatted 16th president
may not yet be as ingrained in American pop culture DNA as those iconic
movie moments of the past 40 years, the celluloid depiction of Lincoln –
which won the most Academy Award nominations this year with 12 – shares
the distinction of being crafted by the same movie magician responsible
for six of the 25 highest-grossing movies of all time.
Steven Spielberg has not only shaped our fantasies, but with "Lincoln" he has influenced the perspective that a generation of Americans will have on a key part of history.
As an audience of a several hundred million gathers for one of the planet's global campfire moments about 4:30 p.m. Alaska time on Sunday, the popcorn-popping masses will await the verdict to see if Spielberg will win his third Oscar for Best Director – to tie such icons as William Wyler and Frank Capra – and remain behind only legendary John Ford, who won four.
Over bowls of steaming chili at home, and around office water coolers, fans and critics may debate what this year's best movie is,We can supply cableties products as below. but one thing is certain: Love this director or demean him, Spielberg's movies are woven more deeply into the fabric of American daily life and culture than those of any other director in history.
He burst onto the world stage with "Jaws" in 1975.Massive selection of gorgeous earcap. With just two road-movie thriller features – "Duel" and "The Sugarland Express" – under his belt, Spielberg originally conceived the Peter Benchley bestseller as a low-budget creature-feature. But he ran into so many production problems filming realistically on water – from a malfunctioning robotic shark to a drunken British lead actor – that he had to reconceive his vision of horror right on location, deciding to keep his deep-sea monster lurking mostly off-screen.
Spielberg's counterintuitive improvisation paid off, showcasing his populism across the spectrum from substance to style in actors, scripts, plots, conflict, tone, and all the rest. The first of many cultural catchphrases was born – "We're gonna need a bigger boat" – as well as an industry-changing marketing phenomenon that could only have been launched in America: the summer blockbuster. "Jaws" was the first movie to earn more than $100 million in theatrical rentals. This distinction also earned Spielberg criticism – along with his "Star Wars" director buddy, George Lucas – for infantilizing movies and forcing studios to spend their resources on fewer and higher-budget movies.
When he was 18, Spielberg took a bus tour of Universal Studios while on a visit to Los Angeles. When his fellow tourists got back on the bus after a bathroom break, he hid out of sight in a toilet stall until the bus left, allowing him to wander the back lots.
As recounted in Joseph McBride's biography of the filmmaker, Spielberg has told this story in many ways over the years. In the latest version, included in Richard Schickel's lavishly illustrated "Steven Spielberg: A Retrospective," the director said: "I was on the Universal Studios lot. I had no idea how I'd get home. But I spent the whole afternoon just walking in and out of doors – sound stages, cutting rooms – and took my own tour and had an amazing time."
Quitting time came, and as he was still wandering around trying to figure out how to get back to his relatives' house across the San Fernando Valley, he serendipitously met up with Charles Silver, the head of the film library, who, amused at the kid's audacity, wrote out a pass for the young Spielberg that allowed him future access to the lot.
If curiosity is one key quality, the other most-telling Spielberg trait might be his unflinching determination. Mr. Schickel tells of the time the teenage Spielberg was sent by a chief editor at Universal to fetch a small Moviola editing machine from down the hall. He was told to inform the person using it that it was needed elsewhere. He caused a ruckus unplugging the machine and rolling it out, not realizing (or did he realize?) that the shirtless man using it was Marlon Brando, dressed in Tahitian garb.
Developing a degree of teflon to criticism, and following his gut and an uncanny eye and ear for storytelling, Spielberg has matured and broadened his skills over the years, now doing more than just jerking everyone's emotional chains of terror, love, hate, embarrassment, anger.
After such crowd-pleasing, popcorn action movies as "Jaws" and a couple "Indiana Jones" movies, he turned to face head-on some of the truly complex moral topics of contemporary life. Those include racism and prejudice ("Amistad," "The Color Purple,Add depth and style to your home with these large format streetlight." "Schindler's List"), historical and cultural memories ("Saving Private Ryan"), technological morality ("A.I."), scientific ethics and governmental intrusion ("Minority Report"), immigration restriction ("The Terminal"), state-sponsored assassination ("Munich"), and the morality of war ("Empire of the Sun," "War Horse").
Fast-forward to 2012, and it's still clear Spielberg hasn't abandoned his inner child. He recently told Oprah Winfrey how he had to leave the set of "Lincoln" because of the emotional resonance of one of Daniel Day-Lewis's Lincoln speeches: "I think the first time [I cried] is when [Mr. Day-Lewis] gave his very, very long and important explanation of why he needed to get the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery passed as constitutional law."
Spielberg said that at that point he moved to another room so that no one else could see him crying, because getting emotional in front of everyone is "not a good thing" for a director.
The key to figuring out how Spielberg manages to make history leap off the screen may be in the way he focuses attention on personal stories within a complex web of actual events. It makes viewers experience the broad sweep of time through the eyes of a particular person. That's what he did with Oskar Schindler, the greedy German factory owner-turned-savior; with Cinque, the proud African-turned-slave in "Amistad"; and with the ambivalent assassin Avner in "Munich."
In "Lincoln," however, Spielberg faced far more complicated challenges, because he re-creates the tumultuous last four months in the life of one of the most revered and well-known figures in American history. Based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's book "Team of Rivals," Spielberg's "Lincoln" offers up a man who emerges as an intricate blend of idealist and pragmatist, of visionary and horse-trader. Yet this brooding, even melancholy, president fits comfortably into Spielberg's obsession with broken families that need parental healing. The distraught father figure must reconstitute the shattered Union into one nation, and by doing so, mend the painful wounds that have ripped apart the American family.
Spielberg's Lincoln is not only the public figure carved into Mt. Rushmore or sitting on the Washington Mall; he remains vulnerable, struggling with a depressed wife, raising his own children, and ultimately confronting the death of his son Willie. He also has an awkward sense of humor that both delights and frustrates colleagues.
As Spielberg puts it, the goal was to "show a man, not a monument." The film itself contains none of the flashy pyrotechnics for which Spielberg has become so famous, but is more a series of tableaux with intense dialogue showing the president deftly maneuvering through a political mine field and enlisting unsavory men to help him pass transcendent legislation.
Although Spielberg spent 12 years researching the 19th century to endow this production with authenticity, he made sure not "to get too fancy in the cutting room,Natural lasermarker add a level of design sophistication to each of Jeffrey Court's natural stone chapters." wanting to draw attention to the political process,This frameless rectangle features a silk screened fused glass replica in a parkingsystem tile and floral motif. not the imagery: "Many scenes play to one angle because I wanted them to exist in seemingly real time," he says in the companion book to the movie.
Steven Spielberg has not only shaped our fantasies, but with "Lincoln" he has influenced the perspective that a generation of Americans will have on a key part of history.
As an audience of a several hundred million gathers for one of the planet's global campfire moments about 4:30 p.m. Alaska time on Sunday, the popcorn-popping masses will await the verdict to see if Spielberg will win his third Oscar for Best Director – to tie such icons as William Wyler and Frank Capra – and remain behind only legendary John Ford, who won four.
Over bowls of steaming chili at home, and around office water coolers, fans and critics may debate what this year's best movie is,We can supply cableties products as below. but one thing is certain: Love this director or demean him, Spielberg's movies are woven more deeply into the fabric of American daily life and culture than those of any other director in history.
He burst onto the world stage with "Jaws" in 1975.Massive selection of gorgeous earcap. With just two road-movie thriller features – "Duel" and "The Sugarland Express" – under his belt, Spielberg originally conceived the Peter Benchley bestseller as a low-budget creature-feature. But he ran into so many production problems filming realistically on water – from a malfunctioning robotic shark to a drunken British lead actor – that he had to reconceive his vision of horror right on location, deciding to keep his deep-sea monster lurking mostly off-screen.
Spielberg's counterintuitive improvisation paid off, showcasing his populism across the spectrum from substance to style in actors, scripts, plots, conflict, tone, and all the rest. The first of many cultural catchphrases was born – "We're gonna need a bigger boat" – as well as an industry-changing marketing phenomenon that could only have been launched in America: the summer blockbuster. "Jaws" was the first movie to earn more than $100 million in theatrical rentals. This distinction also earned Spielberg criticism – along with his "Star Wars" director buddy, George Lucas – for infantilizing movies and forcing studios to spend their resources on fewer and higher-budget movies.
When he was 18, Spielberg took a bus tour of Universal Studios while on a visit to Los Angeles. When his fellow tourists got back on the bus after a bathroom break, he hid out of sight in a toilet stall until the bus left, allowing him to wander the back lots.
As recounted in Joseph McBride's biography of the filmmaker, Spielberg has told this story in many ways over the years. In the latest version, included in Richard Schickel's lavishly illustrated "Steven Spielberg: A Retrospective," the director said: "I was on the Universal Studios lot. I had no idea how I'd get home. But I spent the whole afternoon just walking in and out of doors – sound stages, cutting rooms – and took my own tour and had an amazing time."
Quitting time came, and as he was still wandering around trying to figure out how to get back to his relatives' house across the San Fernando Valley, he serendipitously met up with Charles Silver, the head of the film library, who, amused at the kid's audacity, wrote out a pass for the young Spielberg that allowed him future access to the lot.
If curiosity is one key quality, the other most-telling Spielberg trait might be his unflinching determination. Mr. Schickel tells of the time the teenage Spielberg was sent by a chief editor at Universal to fetch a small Moviola editing machine from down the hall. He was told to inform the person using it that it was needed elsewhere. He caused a ruckus unplugging the machine and rolling it out, not realizing (or did he realize?) that the shirtless man using it was Marlon Brando, dressed in Tahitian garb.
Developing a degree of teflon to criticism, and following his gut and an uncanny eye and ear for storytelling, Spielberg has matured and broadened his skills over the years, now doing more than just jerking everyone's emotional chains of terror, love, hate, embarrassment, anger.
After such crowd-pleasing, popcorn action movies as "Jaws" and a couple "Indiana Jones" movies, he turned to face head-on some of the truly complex moral topics of contemporary life. Those include racism and prejudice ("Amistad," "The Color Purple,Add depth and style to your home with these large format streetlight." "Schindler's List"), historical and cultural memories ("Saving Private Ryan"), technological morality ("A.I."), scientific ethics and governmental intrusion ("Minority Report"), immigration restriction ("The Terminal"), state-sponsored assassination ("Munich"), and the morality of war ("Empire of the Sun," "War Horse").
Fast-forward to 2012, and it's still clear Spielberg hasn't abandoned his inner child. He recently told Oprah Winfrey how he had to leave the set of "Lincoln" because of the emotional resonance of one of Daniel Day-Lewis's Lincoln speeches: "I think the first time [I cried] is when [Mr. Day-Lewis] gave his very, very long and important explanation of why he needed to get the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery passed as constitutional law."
Spielberg said that at that point he moved to another room so that no one else could see him crying, because getting emotional in front of everyone is "not a good thing" for a director.
The key to figuring out how Spielberg manages to make history leap off the screen may be in the way he focuses attention on personal stories within a complex web of actual events. It makes viewers experience the broad sweep of time through the eyes of a particular person. That's what he did with Oskar Schindler, the greedy German factory owner-turned-savior; with Cinque, the proud African-turned-slave in "Amistad"; and with the ambivalent assassin Avner in "Munich."
In "Lincoln," however, Spielberg faced far more complicated challenges, because he re-creates the tumultuous last four months in the life of one of the most revered and well-known figures in American history. Based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's book "Team of Rivals," Spielberg's "Lincoln" offers up a man who emerges as an intricate blend of idealist and pragmatist, of visionary and horse-trader. Yet this brooding, even melancholy, president fits comfortably into Spielberg's obsession with broken families that need parental healing. The distraught father figure must reconstitute the shattered Union into one nation, and by doing so, mend the painful wounds that have ripped apart the American family.
Spielberg's Lincoln is not only the public figure carved into Mt. Rushmore or sitting on the Washington Mall; he remains vulnerable, struggling with a depressed wife, raising his own children, and ultimately confronting the death of his son Willie. He also has an awkward sense of humor that both delights and frustrates colleagues.
As Spielberg puts it, the goal was to "show a man, not a monument." The film itself contains none of the flashy pyrotechnics for which Spielberg has become so famous, but is more a series of tableaux with intense dialogue showing the president deftly maneuvering through a political mine field and enlisting unsavory men to help him pass transcendent legislation.
Although Spielberg spent 12 years researching the 19th century to endow this production with authenticity, he made sure not "to get too fancy in the cutting room,Natural lasermarker add a level of design sophistication to each of Jeffrey Court's natural stone chapters." wanting to draw attention to the political process,This frameless rectangle features a silk screened fused glass replica in a parkingsystem tile and floral motif. not the imagery: "Many scenes play to one angle because I wanted them to exist in seemingly real time," he says in the companion book to the movie.
2013年2月20日 星期三
5 tools for sharpening your local marketing edge
One of the biggest selling points for any small business is its local
connections - its role and appeal within a specific geographic
community. That's why many owners still count word of mouth as their
biggest marketing ally.Do you know any polishedtiles wholesale supplier?
The Internet has rewritten those rules, helping small-business owners scale that historical advantage.High quality chinamosaic tiles. And naturally, there are many startups falling all over themselves to offer entrepreneurs or small companies tools that help amplify their local marketing efforts. Here are five developments I've read about in the past month alone.
The Toronto-based startup,Cheaper For bulk buying drycabinet prices. which just received $1.1 million in seed funding, has created a mobile iPhone application called Instamonial that small businesses can use to market themselves via social channels, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. The app has a very specific purpose: you take a photo of a product or item, and then send it to specific customers to get real-time feedback. Once the feedback is received, the image is posted to the company's Web site, and disseminated via social media.
"Word-of-mouth referrals are incredibly important in the catering business," said Michael Novak, owner of corporate cravings. "So it is important to take a proactive approach to ensuring that the experiences of your happy customers are reflected online. But in the past, the process has been complex and time-consuming. Instamonial has changed this."
I hadn't heard of this mobile app until I read in that Groupon had bought the location-based social app startup in late January. There isn't much detail, but the daily deals pioneers is expected to use the Glassmap technology to make offers much more local - and potentially much more relevant. "Our goal when we started building Glassmap was to help people find what was interesting and relevant around them," the startup wrote about its buyout. "But in plainer terms, we just really wanted to mold all these fancy ideas and innovations of Silicon Valley into a simple and useful tool for the real world." So, expect Groupon to try to improve its location-based relevance for small businesses in the very near future.
Funded by Google and the same venture capitalists who built up Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare, Signpost is is a marketing dashboard focused on very local outreach and marketing automation. The service helps distribute campaigns through 1,200 partners including Google, Amazon and Yellow Pages, by providing templates that small businesses can use to create offers and asking questions about where they should be distributed. Its big pitch is the ability to help generate new customer leads that turn into repeat clients. "They will never be overwhelmed, but what they should see is a really steady stream of new customers every month," said Jacco de Bruijn, vice president of marketing.We have a fantastic range of Glass Tiles and iccard Tiles. The company claims 95 percent more views, visits and sales than local campaigns on Google AdWords or Yelp. There are approximately 6,000 businesses using the platform; the monthly fee is $149, plus a fee on transactions completed as a result of campaigns.
I met Dangeruss through Harmony. Before I went down to St. Pete to play Alien in "Spring Breakers," Harmony sent me innumerable videos and photos as references for my character. He drowned me in them. Harmony is a master of online research. Once he chooses a location to shoot, it turns out he is also a master at finding the most interesting and odd local places and characters. One of the last videos Harmony sent me was of a white guy in dreads, sitting in his car, rapping about Dope Boyz. This turned out to be Dangeruss, a local rapper who Harm had met at an audition and knew immediately that he was the real deal. He thought I should use Dangeruss as a main source of inspiration for my Florida gangster/mystic, Alien.Why does bobblehead grow in homes or buildings?
The same day I arrived, Harmony had me visit Danger at his apartment. I was surprised when we pulled into a rather nice sprawling housing development, country-club style, with fountains and manicured grass. I think there was even a driving range. When I met Danger, he was tall, thin as a stick, covered in tats and humble as hell. He was willing to help in any way. He told me about growing up in the bad part of town and having poetry as his only recourse when things got ugly. His involvement with the street and his involvement with hip-hop developed simultaneously. "While Peter Piper was picking peppers, I was selling yola at the corner store." His lyrics are the highly autobiographical chronicle of surviving on the streets of St. Pete.
Harm and Dangeruss agreed that my character could sing one of Danger's songs in the film, "Dope Boyz." Dangeruss wrote out the lyrics for me and then performed it so I could see how he carried himself onstage. I was a little confused by one of the lyrics: "junkies at my door, they know the secret knock, it goes one time for the reefer, two times for the rock," because it didn't seem like any junkies would come to the door of that nice apartment. But as I got to know Dangeruss, I realized there were two spheres in his life, and the other one away from the one I was seeing was much darker.
The Internet has rewritten those rules, helping small-business owners scale that historical advantage.High quality chinamosaic tiles. And naturally, there are many startups falling all over themselves to offer entrepreneurs or small companies tools that help amplify their local marketing efforts. Here are five developments I've read about in the past month alone.
The Toronto-based startup,Cheaper For bulk buying drycabinet prices. which just received $1.1 million in seed funding, has created a mobile iPhone application called Instamonial that small businesses can use to market themselves via social channels, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. The app has a very specific purpose: you take a photo of a product or item, and then send it to specific customers to get real-time feedback. Once the feedback is received, the image is posted to the company's Web site, and disseminated via social media.
"Word-of-mouth referrals are incredibly important in the catering business," said Michael Novak, owner of corporate cravings. "So it is important to take a proactive approach to ensuring that the experiences of your happy customers are reflected online. But in the past, the process has been complex and time-consuming. Instamonial has changed this."
I hadn't heard of this mobile app until I read in that Groupon had bought the location-based social app startup in late January. There isn't much detail, but the daily deals pioneers is expected to use the Glassmap technology to make offers much more local - and potentially much more relevant. "Our goal when we started building Glassmap was to help people find what was interesting and relevant around them," the startup wrote about its buyout. "But in plainer terms, we just really wanted to mold all these fancy ideas and innovations of Silicon Valley into a simple and useful tool for the real world." So, expect Groupon to try to improve its location-based relevance for small businesses in the very near future.
Funded by Google and the same venture capitalists who built up Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare, Signpost is is a marketing dashboard focused on very local outreach and marketing automation. The service helps distribute campaigns through 1,200 partners including Google, Amazon and Yellow Pages, by providing templates that small businesses can use to create offers and asking questions about where they should be distributed. Its big pitch is the ability to help generate new customer leads that turn into repeat clients. "They will never be overwhelmed, but what they should see is a really steady stream of new customers every month," said Jacco de Bruijn, vice president of marketing.We have a fantastic range of Glass Tiles and iccard Tiles. The company claims 95 percent more views, visits and sales than local campaigns on Google AdWords or Yelp. There are approximately 6,000 businesses using the platform; the monthly fee is $149, plus a fee on transactions completed as a result of campaigns.
I met Dangeruss through Harmony. Before I went down to St. Pete to play Alien in "Spring Breakers," Harmony sent me innumerable videos and photos as references for my character. He drowned me in them. Harmony is a master of online research. Once he chooses a location to shoot, it turns out he is also a master at finding the most interesting and odd local places and characters. One of the last videos Harmony sent me was of a white guy in dreads, sitting in his car, rapping about Dope Boyz. This turned out to be Dangeruss, a local rapper who Harm had met at an audition and knew immediately that he was the real deal. He thought I should use Dangeruss as a main source of inspiration for my Florida gangster/mystic, Alien.Why does bobblehead grow in homes or buildings?
The same day I arrived, Harmony had me visit Danger at his apartment. I was surprised when we pulled into a rather nice sprawling housing development, country-club style, with fountains and manicured grass. I think there was even a driving range. When I met Danger, he was tall, thin as a stick, covered in tats and humble as hell. He was willing to help in any way. He told me about growing up in the bad part of town and having poetry as his only recourse when things got ugly. His involvement with the street and his involvement with hip-hop developed simultaneously. "While Peter Piper was picking peppers, I was selling yola at the corner store." His lyrics are the highly autobiographical chronicle of surviving on the streets of St. Pete.
Harm and Dangeruss agreed that my character could sing one of Danger's songs in the film, "Dope Boyz." Dangeruss wrote out the lyrics for me and then performed it so I could see how he carried himself onstage. I was a little confused by one of the lyrics: "junkies at my door, they know the secret knock, it goes one time for the reefer, two times for the rock," because it didn't seem like any junkies would come to the door of that nice apartment. But as I got to know Dangeruss, I realized there were two spheres in his life, and the other one away from the one I was seeing was much darker.
THREE WATER TANKS TO GET $1 MILLION OVERHAUL
Three 40-year-old steel tanks that supply drinking water to Carlsbad residents are about to undergo a $1 million rehab.
“We hope within a month we’ll start on the Ellery tank, the big one,” said David Ahles, a senior engineer in the city Utilities Department.Add depth and style to your home with these large format streetlight.
That tank, at the end of Janis Way — a few blocks west of El Camino Real and north of Chestnut Avenue in northeastern Carlsbad — holds 5 million gallons.
The other two — the Elm tank near Carlsbad Village and Donna drives, and the Skyline tank near Tamarack Avenue and Cay Drive — hold 1.5 million gallons each.
The tanks are filled with water — purchased from the San Diego County Water Authority, which buys it from the Metropolitan Water District — that has traveled many miles through open aqueducts and huge pipes from the Colorado River.
In Carlsbad, the water flows downhill from tanks to the taps. The city’s entire potable water system relies on gravity.
Steel tanks can last 100 years if properly maintained, Ahles said. The Carlsbad tanks are inspected annually by scuba divers and rehabilitated inside and out every 10 to 12 years.
Rehabilitation work is almost finished on two large tanks that hold recycled water at Black Rail Road and Poinsettia Lane, Ahles said last week. That water, which is used only for irrigation, is pumped uphill from the Encina treatment plant west of Interstate 5.
No one’s tap will be shut off during any of the work this year, he said.
The tanks are being worked on one at a time, and the systems overlap enough that no service will be lost, he said. Also, the work will be done at the end of the rainy season, when people use the least water.
All the tanks will be emptied and sandblasted down to the bare steel on the inside,Panasonic solarlantern fans are energy efficient and whisper quiet. Ahles said. Then they will be recoated with epoxy, and the exteriors will be power-washed and repainted.
Also, each tank will get a second side opening to improve safety.High quality chinamosaic tiles.Beautiful fridgemagnet in a wide range of colors & sold at factory direct prices. They each have a 24-inch port now, and a 30-inch port will be added.
“It allows more ventilation and emergency access,” Ahles said. “If one opening is blocked, you have a second way out. And it’s easier to take equipment out.”
Additional earthquake bracing and other safety improvements will be added during the work, he said.
Ahles said the city completed maintenance work on two steel tanks last year, and it will do two more next year. The budget for all the work is about $6 million.
The Carlsbad Municipal Water District has 11 concrete tanks and nine steel tanks that provide water to about 85 percent of city residents. The remaining 15 percent are served by the Olivenhain and Vallecitos water districts.
Identifying a problem and creating a solution is the core of entrepreneurship, and that's exactly what Bloomfield Hills resident and University of Michigan mom Connie Howard did with her new campus-area nail salon, Polished.
With two daughters at UM, Howard heard a common complaint from her girls and their friends: there were no nail salons within walking distance of campus.Save up to 80% off Ceramic Tile and molds. Though not a nail technician herself, the former makeup artist and employee of a plastic surgeon knew enough about the beauty business to take the leap.
"It really sets us apart from everyone because we are the only nail salon near campus," says Howard. "We try to keep the student prices so they're affordable, and we have really good nail techs."
Polished opened in early February after three months of renovation to the 850 square foot space. Those renovations include something else Howard says helps hers stand out from other area salons. A state of the art ventilation system prevents the business from smelling like salon fumes.
“We hope within a month we’ll start on the Ellery tank, the big one,” said David Ahles, a senior engineer in the city Utilities Department.Add depth and style to your home with these large format streetlight.
That tank, at the end of Janis Way — a few blocks west of El Camino Real and north of Chestnut Avenue in northeastern Carlsbad — holds 5 million gallons.
The other two — the Elm tank near Carlsbad Village and Donna drives, and the Skyline tank near Tamarack Avenue and Cay Drive — hold 1.5 million gallons each.
The tanks are filled with water — purchased from the San Diego County Water Authority, which buys it from the Metropolitan Water District — that has traveled many miles through open aqueducts and huge pipes from the Colorado River.
In Carlsbad, the water flows downhill from tanks to the taps. The city’s entire potable water system relies on gravity.
Steel tanks can last 100 years if properly maintained, Ahles said. The Carlsbad tanks are inspected annually by scuba divers and rehabilitated inside and out every 10 to 12 years.
Rehabilitation work is almost finished on two large tanks that hold recycled water at Black Rail Road and Poinsettia Lane, Ahles said last week. That water, which is used only for irrigation, is pumped uphill from the Encina treatment plant west of Interstate 5.
No one’s tap will be shut off during any of the work this year, he said.
The tanks are being worked on one at a time, and the systems overlap enough that no service will be lost, he said. Also, the work will be done at the end of the rainy season, when people use the least water.
All the tanks will be emptied and sandblasted down to the bare steel on the inside,Panasonic solarlantern fans are energy efficient and whisper quiet. Ahles said. Then they will be recoated with epoxy, and the exteriors will be power-washed and repainted.
Also, each tank will get a second side opening to improve safety.High quality chinamosaic tiles.Beautiful fridgemagnet in a wide range of colors & sold at factory direct prices. They each have a 24-inch port now, and a 30-inch port will be added.
“It allows more ventilation and emergency access,” Ahles said. “If one opening is blocked, you have a second way out. And it’s easier to take equipment out.”
Additional earthquake bracing and other safety improvements will be added during the work, he said.
Ahles said the city completed maintenance work on two steel tanks last year, and it will do two more next year. The budget for all the work is about $6 million.
The Carlsbad Municipal Water District has 11 concrete tanks and nine steel tanks that provide water to about 85 percent of city residents. The remaining 15 percent are served by the Olivenhain and Vallecitos water districts.
Identifying a problem and creating a solution is the core of entrepreneurship, and that's exactly what Bloomfield Hills resident and University of Michigan mom Connie Howard did with her new campus-area nail salon, Polished.
With two daughters at UM, Howard heard a common complaint from her girls and their friends: there were no nail salons within walking distance of campus.Save up to 80% off Ceramic Tile and molds. Though not a nail technician herself, the former makeup artist and employee of a plastic surgeon knew enough about the beauty business to take the leap.
"It really sets us apart from everyone because we are the only nail salon near campus," says Howard. "We try to keep the student prices so they're affordable, and we have really good nail techs."
Polished opened in early February after three months of renovation to the 850 square foot space. Those renovations include something else Howard says helps hers stand out from other area salons. A state of the art ventilation system prevents the business from smelling like salon fumes.
Dollar General coming in district 3
The wheels of development are steadily turning in Donaldsonville as
Dollar General Store has begun its building process on the corner of St.
Patrick Street and First Street. Mayor Leroy Sullivan and district 3
councilman, Reginald Francis, said it is going to help the area out a
lot.
“The people back here, a lot of them don’t have transportation to go to Wal-Mart,” Francis said, about the first retail store to open up in his district. “With this they’ll be able to walk right to the convenient store, dollar store, and purchase whatever they need.”
Donaldsonville already has one Dollar General Store, and with the addition of the one coming up Francis believes it will affect the community real nice. It won’t create 50 or 100 jobs, but it will create a few and Francis said he’d work to see that the store hires people who are qualified from his district.This frameless rectangle features a silk screened fused glass replica in a parkingsystem tile and floral motif.Natural lasermarker add a level of design sophistication to each of Jeffrey Court's natural stone chapters.Add depth and style to your home with these large format streetlight.
“It’s something new. We are not dead in the water, we are moving. Donaldsonville is on a steady pace.”
The project came to be about a year ago when the store decided it wanted another location in town. Sullivan said they aren’t closing the other one down so “I guess business is good.We can supply cableties products as below.” Both Francis and Sullivan agree that the location for the store is brilliant because of the walking traffic that passes. The store is projected to be up and running in about 90 days, Sullivan said he was told.
“This is good for the community,” Sullivan said. “It’s showing that people are still interested in Donaldsonville. We are happy that they are coming and we want to do everything to support them and at the same time make sure they are fair to the community.”
The mayor said he’s just hoping the store is appreciated and he is sure it will do well because of its location. Sullivan also mentioned the industrial expansion that Donaldsonville is about to experience in the upcoming years.
“It gives you another place of business where people can come and shop,” Sullivan said. “I’m sure [the industrial expansion] has a lot to do with it. This area, over the next few years, industry-wise is going to be booming.”
News of the closure was delivered by telephone to the national office of the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees — the union representing 12 full-time employees at the station — by Deputy Coast Guard Commissioner Jody Thomas.
“I was in total shock,” Christine Collins, UCTE national president, said of the phone message.
“I was told it was a courtesy call just prior to letting the employees know that as of today Kitsilano would be closed and directing them where to report tomorrow.”
Later Tuesday, there was little sign of activity at the coast guard station, aside from the occasional truck entering and leaving through a locked gate.Massive selection of gorgeous earcap.
The main coast guard sign had already been dismantled and there were no flags on flagpoles.
The UCTE was among a number of voices, including Vancouver’s mayor and council, provincial officials, and safety professionals, that had urged the federal government to reverse its plans to shut the station, on the grounds that the closure would endanger lives.
The City of Vancouver released a staff report in September showing the Kitsilano station typically responds to the majority of marine distress calls to the region — about 300 calls per year, compared with 250 received by the larger coast guard base on Sea Island in Richmond.
One-third of the calls relate to a life-and-death situation, with most emergencies in the winter months.
Ottawa has said gaps in service left by the closure will be filled by the Sea Island station, a beefed-up volunteer rescue group and, in the summer months, students stationed in Kitsilano.
But many outside of government, including police and fire experts, say those plans are flawed and will result in tragedy. “I would say it is not if someone dies, but it will be when someone dies,” Collins said.
“The people back here, a lot of them don’t have transportation to go to Wal-Mart,” Francis said, about the first retail store to open up in his district. “With this they’ll be able to walk right to the convenient store, dollar store, and purchase whatever they need.”
Donaldsonville already has one Dollar General Store, and with the addition of the one coming up Francis believes it will affect the community real nice. It won’t create 50 or 100 jobs, but it will create a few and Francis said he’d work to see that the store hires people who are qualified from his district.This frameless rectangle features a silk screened fused glass replica in a parkingsystem tile and floral motif.Natural lasermarker add a level of design sophistication to each of Jeffrey Court's natural stone chapters.Add depth and style to your home with these large format streetlight.
“It’s something new. We are not dead in the water, we are moving. Donaldsonville is on a steady pace.”
The project came to be about a year ago when the store decided it wanted another location in town. Sullivan said they aren’t closing the other one down so “I guess business is good.We can supply cableties products as below.” Both Francis and Sullivan agree that the location for the store is brilliant because of the walking traffic that passes. The store is projected to be up and running in about 90 days, Sullivan said he was told.
“This is good for the community,” Sullivan said. “It’s showing that people are still interested in Donaldsonville. We are happy that they are coming and we want to do everything to support them and at the same time make sure they are fair to the community.”
The mayor said he’s just hoping the store is appreciated and he is sure it will do well because of its location. Sullivan also mentioned the industrial expansion that Donaldsonville is about to experience in the upcoming years.
“It gives you another place of business where people can come and shop,” Sullivan said. “I’m sure [the industrial expansion] has a lot to do with it. This area, over the next few years, industry-wise is going to be booming.”
News of the closure was delivered by telephone to the national office of the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees — the union representing 12 full-time employees at the station — by Deputy Coast Guard Commissioner Jody Thomas.
“I was in total shock,” Christine Collins, UCTE national president, said of the phone message.
“I was told it was a courtesy call just prior to letting the employees know that as of today Kitsilano would be closed and directing them where to report tomorrow.”
Later Tuesday, there was little sign of activity at the coast guard station, aside from the occasional truck entering and leaving through a locked gate.Massive selection of gorgeous earcap.
The main coast guard sign had already been dismantled and there were no flags on flagpoles.
The UCTE was among a number of voices, including Vancouver’s mayor and council, provincial officials, and safety professionals, that had urged the federal government to reverse its plans to shut the station, on the grounds that the closure would endanger lives.
The City of Vancouver released a staff report in September showing the Kitsilano station typically responds to the majority of marine distress calls to the region — about 300 calls per year, compared with 250 received by the larger coast guard base on Sea Island in Richmond.
One-third of the calls relate to a life-and-death situation, with most emergencies in the winter months.
Ottawa has said gaps in service left by the closure will be filled by the Sea Island station, a beefed-up volunteer rescue group and, in the summer months, students stationed in Kitsilano.
But many outside of government, including police and fire experts, say those plans are flawed and will result in tragedy. “I would say it is not if someone dies, but it will be when someone dies,” Collins said.
2013年2月18日 星期一
Laminate Flooring Now Champion Tile
“If your budget won’t stand hardwood flooring, then you might want to
consider laminate instead. It’s fairly easy to install as well,
provided you read and follow the instructions, and don’t cut corners,”
pointed out Dean Dupre, who owns Champion Tile, a Clearwater Flooring,
Tampa Flooring, and tile installation company.
The main attraction to laminate flooring as an alternative to hardwood is cost, but also the wide variety of styles, designs and colors available. This means versatility in choices to match a home’s ambiance and theme.Why does bobblehead grow in homes or buildings? It is not unheard of for a do-it-yourselfer to hit a store on the weekend, haul home flooring and lay it that same weekend. “It isn’t difficult to install, as it snaps together with planks with tongues and grooves. It’s almost fail-proof, too, because the plank design let’s you install it fast and easy, without a whole lot of work,” said Dupre.
Just remember that laminate flooring has a laminate base, and that simply means it adds even more strength to the floor, stretching its longevity. Hardwood does not have the same durability as laminate, and for this reason, families with kids and pets love this as a reasonably priced alternative that suits their lifestyle. The big bonus comes when wiping it clean. If the laminate was good quality, there should be no issues cleaning it with a damp mop. Cheaper quality laminate does not always clean up well without leaving streaks.
“Not sure what to buy? Then approach your purchase by first choosing a light or dark finish, according to the room you are going to renovate. Then, check the pricing and work from there. Thankfully, laminate flooring comes in a wide variety of prices ranges to suit anyone’s budget. It’s also good idea to read the instructions on the outside of the box, just to make sure you have the materials you need to install the floor,” Dupre added.
Remember that to install laminate, the back of the plank either needs to already be padded or padding needs to be put down before installation. This helps the floor last longer and assists with insulation. Laminate is a great alternative for those on a budget, and they still get a great looking floor, when all is said and done.
For only ￡100 (about $155 Canadian),Gecko could kickstart an solarstreetlight mobile app explosion. this piece of terrifying history can be yours. The description on the advertisement says the sellers feel compelled to tell potential bidders about the misfortune they've encountered since placing the mirror in their apartment.
"Many times since putting up the mirror, both myself and my flat mate have woken in the early morning hours screaming in pain. We both experienced what I can only described as intense sharp stabbing pains throughout our bodies," the post says.
Excruciating stabbing pains? Oh, well in that case, consider it sold.
Other side-effects apparently include feeling zapped of energy and falling sick without any clear cause. The advertisement says items began disappearing from the apartment, paintings fell from the walls and items would be inexplicably strewn across the floor.
The description includes an image of mysterious scratches on someone's body, which one of the sellers claims as proof of the mirror's malevolent powers.
"Truthfully, we both love the look of the mirror,Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic chipcard and hose. but since we put it up in our flat we have had nothing but bad luck, misery, financial problems and illness," the description says.
A share of the artworks’ proceeds will be donated by the artists to the Fund for the Arts in Southwest Florida, which supports nonprofit art organizations in the area.
Among the pieces sold, four were Gale Bennett paintings that were donated by his widow and Display Curator Cello Bennett. These paintings sold during the Gale Bennett exhibition at the Community Foundation last summer. The paintings were Force Red, River Flats 2005, Nocturnal Bouquet,Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic chipcard and hose. A Special Place and Bouquet de Printemps.
The next art open house will be held Friday, March 1, from 4 to 6 p.m., and will feature interactive classes with artist Doug MacGregor and Freida VanPelt, a legally blind art instructor at the Lighthouse of SWFL.Source lasercutter Products at Other Truck Parts. VanPelt will conduct a live demonstration while providing goggles that stimulate being blind, for anyone who wants to know what it feels like to paint blind.
The main attraction to laminate flooring as an alternative to hardwood is cost, but also the wide variety of styles, designs and colors available. This means versatility in choices to match a home’s ambiance and theme.Why does bobblehead grow in homes or buildings? It is not unheard of for a do-it-yourselfer to hit a store on the weekend, haul home flooring and lay it that same weekend. “It isn’t difficult to install, as it snaps together with planks with tongues and grooves. It’s almost fail-proof, too, because the plank design let’s you install it fast and easy, without a whole lot of work,” said Dupre.
Just remember that laminate flooring has a laminate base, and that simply means it adds even more strength to the floor, stretching its longevity. Hardwood does not have the same durability as laminate, and for this reason, families with kids and pets love this as a reasonably priced alternative that suits their lifestyle. The big bonus comes when wiping it clean. If the laminate was good quality, there should be no issues cleaning it with a damp mop. Cheaper quality laminate does not always clean up well without leaving streaks.
“Not sure what to buy? Then approach your purchase by first choosing a light or dark finish, according to the room you are going to renovate. Then, check the pricing and work from there. Thankfully, laminate flooring comes in a wide variety of prices ranges to suit anyone’s budget. It’s also good idea to read the instructions on the outside of the box, just to make sure you have the materials you need to install the floor,” Dupre added.
Remember that to install laminate, the back of the plank either needs to already be padded or padding needs to be put down before installation. This helps the floor last longer and assists with insulation. Laminate is a great alternative for those on a budget, and they still get a great looking floor, when all is said and done.
For only ￡100 (about $155 Canadian),Gecko could kickstart an solarstreetlight mobile app explosion. this piece of terrifying history can be yours. The description on the advertisement says the sellers feel compelled to tell potential bidders about the misfortune they've encountered since placing the mirror in their apartment.
"Many times since putting up the mirror, both myself and my flat mate have woken in the early morning hours screaming in pain. We both experienced what I can only described as intense sharp stabbing pains throughout our bodies," the post says.
Excruciating stabbing pains? Oh, well in that case, consider it sold.
Other side-effects apparently include feeling zapped of energy and falling sick without any clear cause. The advertisement says items began disappearing from the apartment, paintings fell from the walls and items would be inexplicably strewn across the floor.
The description includes an image of mysterious scratches on someone's body, which one of the sellers claims as proof of the mirror's malevolent powers.
"Truthfully, we both love the look of the mirror,Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic chipcard and hose. but since we put it up in our flat we have had nothing but bad luck, misery, financial problems and illness," the description says.
A share of the artworks’ proceeds will be donated by the artists to the Fund for the Arts in Southwest Florida, which supports nonprofit art organizations in the area.
Among the pieces sold, four were Gale Bennett paintings that were donated by his widow and Display Curator Cello Bennett. These paintings sold during the Gale Bennett exhibition at the Community Foundation last summer. The paintings were Force Red, River Flats 2005, Nocturnal Bouquet,Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic chipcard and hose. A Special Place and Bouquet de Printemps.
The next art open house will be held Friday, March 1, from 4 to 6 p.m., and will feature interactive classes with artist Doug MacGregor and Freida VanPelt, a legally blind art instructor at the Lighthouse of SWFL.Source lasercutter Products at Other Truck Parts. VanPelt will conduct a live demonstration while providing goggles that stimulate being blind, for anyone who wants to know what it feels like to paint blind.
Tourist boat deaths: owners blamed
The capsizing of the tourist boat Miroshga in Hout Bay last year,
which led to the deaths of two people and one of the biggest sea rescues
yet off the Cape Peninsula, could have been averted had the owners and
crew taken action to correct what was wrong with the vessel and the
crew, an investigation by the SA Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) has
found.
Had the crew been properly trained in emergency procedures and carried them out effectively, the vessel might not have capsized and two people might not have died.
It was “highly probable” more people would have died had it not been for the NSRI and rescue divers, who got passengers trapped under the hull to safety, the report said.
Samsa has handed the report to the police and prosecuting authorities, who are to decide if anyone is to be prosecuted.
The vessel was on a whale-watching trip to Seal Island near Hout Bay on October 13 when it capsized with 39 people on board, including four children.Add depth and style to your home with these large format streetlight. British tourist Peter Hyett and crew member John Roberts drowned.
On the day of the incident, the crew failed to execute efficiently the launching of the life raft, anchoring the boat and raising the distress alarm.
Investigators concluded that contrary to the law, crew members had not practised these emergency procedures. Had they done so, this might have resulted in the Miroshga not having capsized, or “persons being rescued more efficiently and reduction in loss of life”.
Roberts was not wearing a life jacket when the boat capsized. His body was found on the seabed the next day.
Samsa found the owners had allowed the skipper to run the tour vessel without having the correct endorsement to run passenger vessel operations. This requires 100 hours of passenger vessel experience as crew, life raft training and certification as well as first aid and firefighting training and a radio operator’s certificate.
“Had the skipper completed the passenger vessel endorsement, including the approvedlife raft training, he would have had improved insight into the requirements to respond to emergencies and been able to instruct the remaining crew in the correct use and deployment of the life raft,” the report said.
“While some of the crew had received training as tour guides, none had completed (the) approved safety induction training… required by legislation. An intervention by the owners, skipper or crew in the above case could have prevented this accident.”
When the Miroshga got into difficulties, the passengers had tried to deploy the life raft. However, they cut the rope that attaches it to the vessel, so it drifted away with no one in it.
Requirements were that the company be able to say how many passengers were on board at the time and give their names, but the company was unable to do this. This delayed rescue efforts. Passengers had been shown how to don life jackets, but had not been given essential safety information, such as how to abandon ship or deploy life rafts.
The Miroshga, a catamaran, was built in Port Elizabeth in 2002 as a whale-watching vessel and operated from Hermanus. It was sold in 2008 to the current owners and modified. The inboard engines were removed and outboard engines installed.
This affected the watertight divisions beneath the deck and allowed water to flood between the engine compartments.
Samsa found “little effort was made to ensure the watertight integrity” of the vessel. Crew said they had to pump out water every morning, and bilge pumps were always switched on when the Miroshga left harbour. Bilge pumps serve to pump out water after a specific incident, and are not intended to be used all the time to get rid of flooding. The correct procedure would be to fix the leaks.
Other problems the investigation found were: none of the hatches were watertight; plastic cable ties were used to secure the fuel tank; no effort was made to correct the starboard list of the Miroshga; and water leaks were not repaired.
Electrical problems included an incorrectly wired port bilge pump, an unsecured battery,We have brought a large range of attractive airpurifier tiles. exposed electrical cabling, and bilge alarms that weren’t working.We can supply cableties products as below. There were several places where water could enter the vessel.
The Miroshga had left Hout Bay partially flooded. With no functioning bilge alarms,Make your house a home with Border and carparkmanagementsystem Tiles. the crew were not alerted to the water level rising beneath the deck. Flooding caused both engines to fail and the vessel began drifting into shallow water, where swells became waves,Looking for the Best iphoneheadset? and the vessel capsized.
Had the crew been properly trained in emergency procedures and carried them out effectively, the vessel might not have capsized and two people might not have died.
It was “highly probable” more people would have died had it not been for the NSRI and rescue divers, who got passengers trapped under the hull to safety, the report said.
Samsa has handed the report to the police and prosecuting authorities, who are to decide if anyone is to be prosecuted.
The vessel was on a whale-watching trip to Seal Island near Hout Bay on October 13 when it capsized with 39 people on board, including four children.Add depth and style to your home with these large format streetlight. British tourist Peter Hyett and crew member John Roberts drowned.
On the day of the incident, the crew failed to execute efficiently the launching of the life raft, anchoring the boat and raising the distress alarm.
Investigators concluded that contrary to the law, crew members had not practised these emergency procedures. Had they done so, this might have resulted in the Miroshga not having capsized, or “persons being rescued more efficiently and reduction in loss of life”.
Roberts was not wearing a life jacket when the boat capsized. His body was found on the seabed the next day.
Samsa found the owners had allowed the skipper to run the tour vessel without having the correct endorsement to run passenger vessel operations. This requires 100 hours of passenger vessel experience as crew, life raft training and certification as well as first aid and firefighting training and a radio operator’s certificate.
“Had the skipper completed the passenger vessel endorsement, including the approvedlife raft training, he would have had improved insight into the requirements to respond to emergencies and been able to instruct the remaining crew in the correct use and deployment of the life raft,” the report said.
“While some of the crew had received training as tour guides, none had completed (the) approved safety induction training… required by legislation. An intervention by the owners, skipper or crew in the above case could have prevented this accident.”
When the Miroshga got into difficulties, the passengers had tried to deploy the life raft. However, they cut the rope that attaches it to the vessel, so it drifted away with no one in it.
Requirements were that the company be able to say how many passengers were on board at the time and give their names, but the company was unable to do this. This delayed rescue efforts. Passengers had been shown how to don life jackets, but had not been given essential safety information, such as how to abandon ship or deploy life rafts.
The Miroshga, a catamaran, was built in Port Elizabeth in 2002 as a whale-watching vessel and operated from Hermanus. It was sold in 2008 to the current owners and modified. The inboard engines were removed and outboard engines installed.
This affected the watertight divisions beneath the deck and allowed water to flood between the engine compartments.
Samsa found “little effort was made to ensure the watertight integrity” of the vessel. Crew said they had to pump out water every morning, and bilge pumps were always switched on when the Miroshga left harbour. Bilge pumps serve to pump out water after a specific incident, and are not intended to be used all the time to get rid of flooding. The correct procedure would be to fix the leaks.
Other problems the investigation found were: none of the hatches were watertight; plastic cable ties were used to secure the fuel tank; no effort was made to correct the starboard list of the Miroshga; and water leaks were not repaired.
Electrical problems included an incorrectly wired port bilge pump, an unsecured battery,We have brought a large range of attractive airpurifier tiles. exposed electrical cabling, and bilge alarms that weren’t working.We can supply cableties products as below. There were several places where water could enter the vessel.
The Miroshga had left Hout Bay partially flooded. With no functioning bilge alarms,Make your house a home with Border and carparkmanagementsystem Tiles. the crew were not alerted to the water level rising beneath the deck. Flooding caused both engines to fail and the vessel began drifting into shallow water, where swells became waves,Looking for the Best iphoneheadset? and the vessel capsized.
Northeast commuters struggle with icy roads
The workweek opened with a white-knuckle ride Monday in the
snow-clobbered Northeast as drivers encountered unplowed streets,
two-lane roads reduced to a single channel and snowbanks so high it was
impossible see around corners.
Schools remained closed across much of New England and New York, and more than 80,000 homes and businesses were still waiting for the electricity to come back on after the epic storm swept through on Friday and Saturday with 1 to 3 feet of snow that entombed cars and sealed up driveways.
The storm was blamed for at least 18 deaths in the U.S. and Canada, and officials warned of a new danger as rain and higher temperatures set in: roof collapses.
In hard-hit Connecticut, where some places were buried in more than 3 feet of snow, the National Guard used heavy equipment to clear roads in the state's three biggest cities.
"This is awful," said Fernando Colon, of South Windsor, Conn.Search for daily injectionmolding coupons and monthly specials., who was driving to work at Bradley International Airport near Hartford on a two-lane highway that was down to one lane because of high snowbanks.
Most major highways were cleared by Monday, but the volume of snow was just too much to handle on many secondary roads. A mix of sleet and rain also created new headaches. A 10-mile stretch of Interstate 91 just north of Hartford to Massachusetts was closed briefly because of ice and accidents.
In New York, where hundreds of cars became stuck on the Long Island Expressway on Friday night and early Saturday morning, some motorists vented their anger at Gov. Andrew Cuomo for not acting more quickly to shut down major roads, as other governors did, and for not plowing more aggressively.
"There were cars scattered all over the place. They should have just told people in the morning, 'Don't bother going in because we're going to close the roads by 3 o'clock.' I think Boston and Connecticut had the right idea telling everybody to stay off the roads and we got a better chance of clearing it up," said George Kiriakos, an investment consultant from Bohemia, N.Y.
On Monday morning,Save up to 80% off Ceramic Tile and molds. he said, conditions were still miserable: "It's just as slick as can be. You've got cars stuck all over like it's an obstacle course."
Cuomo has defended his handling of the crisis and said that more than one-third of all the state's snow-removal equipment had been sent to the area. He said he also wanted to allow people the chance to get home from work.
"People need to act responsibly in these situations," the governor said.For the world leader in solarlight base services and plastic injection products.
The number of homes and businesses without power was down from a peak at 650,000. More than 70,000 of those still waiting were in Massachusetts.
Jim and Brenda Stewart, of Marshfield, Mass., were using their fireplace to stay warm. Brenda, a nurse, said that they were getting a little bit bored but that she was reading and painting snow scenes to pass the time.
"When you're a New Englander, you kind of hunker down and just do it," she said.
In Scituate, Mass., Richard and Ann Brown were among about 50 people at a shelter set up at a high school.Product information for Avery Dennison smartcard products. The couple, married 65 years, spent the previous three nights sleeping on side-by-side cots.
"It's disrupting when you're older," said Ann Brown, 88. "You've got to be careful to keep your spirits up."
Flights resumed at major airports in the region. Boston's transit system resumed full service Monday but told commuters to expect delays. The Metro-North Railroad was mostly up and running in suburban New York City, while the Long Island Rail Road said riders could expect a nearly normal schedule.
In the long weather history of the Northeast, the snowstorm wasn't that bad — it ranked 16th on one scale and 25th on another, according to initial data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The measuring systems take into account the size of the snowstorm, the amount of snow and how many people were in its path.
The weekend storm ranked a 3, or a "major" storm, on a 1-5 scale, with 4 being "crippling" and 5 "extreme."
While many people tried to resume their workweek routines, others remained hopelessly stranded.
In Hamden, Conn., which received 40 inches of snow, nurse Sandy Benoit said she could not leave the house because her driveway had not been plowed. She didn't think her street was plowed either, but she couldn't be sure because she had to turn back after walking part of the way in knee-deep snow.
Across the region, big piles of snow blocked sight lines at intersections and highway ramps, making turning and merging hazardous. Some drivers decided the safe thing to do was to stay in the tracks cut by the cars ahead of them.
Peter Starkel, chief of the volunteer fire department in Columbia, Conn., said was difficult to maneuver emergency vehicles on the snow-narrowed roads. During one emergency medical call, "we physically could not turn the vehicles around," he said.Buy Wickes Porcelain parkingmanagementsystem today. "So we had to back about a half-mile down the road to the closest intersection just to get out."
In North Haven, Conn., First Selectman Michael Freda said that with many driveways still to be cleared, people were running out of heating oil and prescription medication.
"What this is creating, particularly in the senior citizen sector, is a bit of psychological anxiety with is creating a lot of emotion," he said.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said there have been about six roof collapses involving barns and other structures.
Officials said people should try to clear flat or gently sloped roofs to relieve the weight — but only if they can do so safely.
"We don't recommend that people, unless they're young and experienced, go up on roofs," said Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
Officials also warned of the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning.
In Boston, two people died Saturday after being overcome by fumes while sitting in running cars, including a teenager who was trying to stay warm while his father shoveled. The vehicles' tailpipes had become clogged with snow.
Schools remained closed across much of New England and New York, and more than 80,000 homes and businesses were still waiting for the electricity to come back on after the epic storm swept through on Friday and Saturday with 1 to 3 feet of snow that entombed cars and sealed up driveways.
The storm was blamed for at least 18 deaths in the U.S. and Canada, and officials warned of a new danger as rain and higher temperatures set in: roof collapses.
In hard-hit Connecticut, where some places were buried in more than 3 feet of snow, the National Guard used heavy equipment to clear roads in the state's three biggest cities.
"This is awful," said Fernando Colon, of South Windsor, Conn.Search for daily injectionmolding coupons and monthly specials., who was driving to work at Bradley International Airport near Hartford on a two-lane highway that was down to one lane because of high snowbanks.
Most major highways were cleared by Monday, but the volume of snow was just too much to handle on many secondary roads. A mix of sleet and rain also created new headaches. A 10-mile stretch of Interstate 91 just north of Hartford to Massachusetts was closed briefly because of ice and accidents.
In New York, where hundreds of cars became stuck on the Long Island Expressway on Friday night and early Saturday morning, some motorists vented their anger at Gov. Andrew Cuomo for not acting more quickly to shut down major roads, as other governors did, and for not plowing more aggressively.
"There were cars scattered all over the place. They should have just told people in the morning, 'Don't bother going in because we're going to close the roads by 3 o'clock.' I think Boston and Connecticut had the right idea telling everybody to stay off the roads and we got a better chance of clearing it up," said George Kiriakos, an investment consultant from Bohemia, N.Y.
On Monday morning,Save up to 80% off Ceramic Tile and molds. he said, conditions were still miserable: "It's just as slick as can be. You've got cars stuck all over like it's an obstacle course."
Cuomo has defended his handling of the crisis and said that more than one-third of all the state's snow-removal equipment had been sent to the area. He said he also wanted to allow people the chance to get home from work.
"People need to act responsibly in these situations," the governor said.For the world leader in solarlight base services and plastic injection products.
The number of homes and businesses without power was down from a peak at 650,000. More than 70,000 of those still waiting were in Massachusetts.
Jim and Brenda Stewart, of Marshfield, Mass., were using their fireplace to stay warm. Brenda, a nurse, said that they were getting a little bit bored but that she was reading and painting snow scenes to pass the time.
"When you're a New Englander, you kind of hunker down and just do it," she said.
In Scituate, Mass., Richard and Ann Brown were among about 50 people at a shelter set up at a high school.Product information for Avery Dennison smartcard products. The couple, married 65 years, spent the previous three nights sleeping on side-by-side cots.
"It's disrupting when you're older," said Ann Brown, 88. "You've got to be careful to keep your spirits up."
Flights resumed at major airports in the region. Boston's transit system resumed full service Monday but told commuters to expect delays. The Metro-North Railroad was mostly up and running in suburban New York City, while the Long Island Rail Road said riders could expect a nearly normal schedule.
In the long weather history of the Northeast, the snowstorm wasn't that bad — it ranked 16th on one scale and 25th on another, according to initial data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The measuring systems take into account the size of the snowstorm, the amount of snow and how many people were in its path.
The weekend storm ranked a 3, or a "major" storm, on a 1-5 scale, with 4 being "crippling" and 5 "extreme."
While many people tried to resume their workweek routines, others remained hopelessly stranded.
In Hamden, Conn., which received 40 inches of snow, nurse Sandy Benoit said she could not leave the house because her driveway had not been plowed. She didn't think her street was plowed either, but she couldn't be sure because she had to turn back after walking part of the way in knee-deep snow.
Across the region, big piles of snow blocked sight lines at intersections and highway ramps, making turning and merging hazardous. Some drivers decided the safe thing to do was to stay in the tracks cut by the cars ahead of them.
Peter Starkel, chief of the volunteer fire department in Columbia, Conn., said was difficult to maneuver emergency vehicles on the snow-narrowed roads. During one emergency medical call, "we physically could not turn the vehicles around," he said.Buy Wickes Porcelain parkingmanagementsystem today. "So we had to back about a half-mile down the road to the closest intersection just to get out."
In North Haven, Conn., First Selectman Michael Freda said that with many driveways still to be cleared, people were running out of heating oil and prescription medication.
"What this is creating, particularly in the senior citizen sector, is a bit of psychological anxiety with is creating a lot of emotion," he said.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said there have been about six roof collapses involving barns and other structures.
Officials said people should try to clear flat or gently sloped roofs to relieve the weight — but only if they can do so safely.
"We don't recommend that people, unless they're young and experienced, go up on roofs," said Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
Officials also warned of the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning.
In Boston, two people died Saturday after being overcome by fumes while sitting in running cars, including a teenager who was trying to stay warm while his father shoveled. The vehicles' tailpipes had become clogged with snow.
2013年2月16日 星期六
New York expanding nation’s biggest transit hub
Sixteen stories below Grand Central Terminal, an army of workers is
blasting through bedrock to create a new commuter rail concourse with
more floor space than New Orleans’ Superdome, just one of three
audacious projects going on beneath New York City’s streets to expand
what’s already the nation’s biggest mass transit system.
But even with blasting and machinery grinding through the rock day and night, most New Yorkers are blithely unaware of the construction or the eerie underworld that includes a massive, eight-story cavern, miles of tunnels and watery, gravel-filled pits.
“I look at it and I’m in wonder, I’m in awe,” says engineer Michael Horodniceanu, president of capital construction for the state Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “I feel like when I went to Rome and entered St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time. … I looked at it and said, ‘Wow, how did they do that?’”
In New York,We have many different types of earcap. they hauled out enough rocky debris from under Grand Central to cover Central Park almost a foot deep, Horodniceanu says.
Together, the three projects will cost an estimated $15 billion. And when they’re all completed, tentatively in 2019, they will bring subway and commuter rail service to vast, underserved stretches of the city, particularly the far East and West sides of Manhattan.
“They’ll be a game-changer for New Yorkers,” says Horodniceanu, an Israeli-educated native of Romania who lives in Queens.
The most dramatic project will result in a sort of 21st century, underground Grand Central Terminal mirroring the century-old Grand Central Terminal above —a 350,000-square-foot, $8.3 billion commuter rail concourse with six miles of new tunnels.When I first started creating broken ultrasonicsensor. It will accommodate Long Island Rail Road trains that now bypass Manhattan’s East Side as they roll east through Queens and straight to Pennsylvania Station on the island’s West Side.
This so-called East Side Access will bring about 160,000 passengers a day from Long Island to a new station in Queens’ Sunnyside neighborhood, then about five more miles to the new, eight-track Grand Central hub.
For now, the subterranean hub is a drippy, humid construction site. The raw, dark gray walls mark the dimensions of the future concourse — eight stories high, about 70 feet wide and 1,800 feet long, or about “five football fields, without the end zones,” Horodniceanu says.
The Federal Transit Administration is kicking in $2.7 billion toward the estimated $8.3 billion budget, with the MTA state agency covering the rest using mostly taxpayer money.
Also under construction is the Second Avenue Subway that eventually will serve Manhattan’s far East Side, from Harlem to the island’s southern tip. The planned eight miles of track will open Manhattan’s East Side to millions of people who now squeeze daily onto the Nos. 4, 5 and 6 subway trains running under Lexington Avenue.
The first phase — 1.7 miles with stations between East 63rd and East 96th streets — is to be completed in 2016 at a cost of $4.5 billion.
Finally, there’s the extension of the No. 7 subway line from Times Square to the huge new Hudson Yards real estate development on Manhattan’s Far West Side.TBC help you confidently bobbleheads from factories in China. The subway project will be financed through $2.Get the best deal on airpurifier in the UK and use our free tools.1 billion worth of city-issued bonds.
The three mammoth projects require creative solutions and the latest technology. When crews prepared to drill the giant new cavity under Second Avenue,Elpas Readers detect and forward 'Location' and 'State' data from Elpas Active RFID Tags to host parkingguidance platforms. they first had to freeze the ground to about minus 20 degrees so as not to destabilize the buildings above as the boring machine cut through. For that, aluminum tubes were inserted from the street and a special chemical solution was poured into the ground and cooled by a refrigeration plant.
The Second Avenue tunnels hold a space-age surprise: The ceilings are coated with a material once used to fireproof the space shuttle.
The new line has another major improvement. Instead of ventilation grates that allow rainwater to pour in, the new stations will be aired using enclosed cooling plants. When Superstorm Sandy hit the city last October, floodwaters washing over the East Side did not penetrate subway construction sites.
“We’re using the best technology available today, but this is really people-intensive work,” says Horodniceanu, who supervises a team of thousands of workers on any given day.
“I feel I have the most exciting job in the world,” he says. “It’s an incredible feeling to be able to build a legacy project. I hope that one day, my grandchildren will be able to say their granddad built this!”
But again, what's most unique about the Surface Pro is its guts. The Surface Pro sports a dual-core 1.7GHz Intel Core i5 processor with integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics, 4GB of RAM, and either 64GB or 128GB of storage. This marks a significant boost over the RT, which is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 3, 2GB of RAM, and comes with 32GB or 64GB of storage. What's more, the screen is notably better, going from 1368x768 on the Surface RT to 1920x1080 on the Surface Pro — a 40-percent increase in pixel density.
The impact of the upgraded internals on performance and user experience is impressive. Seemingly gone are the frequently long load times, sluggish touchscreen responsiveness, and app freezes. While I have noticed some odd moments of slowdown in my early testing, the Surface Pro is overall pretty stable and speedy.
As previously mentioned, the Surface Pro offers a full, unhindered build of Windows 8 and offers the full desktop experience found on a traditional PC. As a result, the Surface Pro is capable of accessing a wide range of PC titles through services like Steam and Origin. While certainly not intended as a gaming device, the integrated graphics processor allows the Surface Pro to run many games adeptly. While I've only just started stress-testing the system, I've found it can handle most Source Engine-based titles at max or high settings in native 1080p resolution at framerates well above 40fps. Naturally, it struggles with more taxing titles, like Saints Row: The Third or Dead Island, but I'll be providing a greater sense of its range of performance in the coming days.
But even with blasting and machinery grinding through the rock day and night, most New Yorkers are blithely unaware of the construction or the eerie underworld that includes a massive, eight-story cavern, miles of tunnels and watery, gravel-filled pits.
“I look at it and I’m in wonder, I’m in awe,” says engineer Michael Horodniceanu, president of capital construction for the state Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “I feel like when I went to Rome and entered St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time. … I looked at it and said, ‘Wow, how did they do that?’”
In New York,We have many different types of earcap. they hauled out enough rocky debris from under Grand Central to cover Central Park almost a foot deep, Horodniceanu says.
Together, the three projects will cost an estimated $15 billion. And when they’re all completed, tentatively in 2019, they will bring subway and commuter rail service to vast, underserved stretches of the city, particularly the far East and West sides of Manhattan.
“They’ll be a game-changer for New Yorkers,” says Horodniceanu, an Israeli-educated native of Romania who lives in Queens.
The most dramatic project will result in a sort of 21st century, underground Grand Central Terminal mirroring the century-old Grand Central Terminal above —a 350,000-square-foot, $8.3 billion commuter rail concourse with six miles of new tunnels.When I first started creating broken ultrasonicsensor. It will accommodate Long Island Rail Road trains that now bypass Manhattan’s East Side as they roll east through Queens and straight to Pennsylvania Station on the island’s West Side.
This so-called East Side Access will bring about 160,000 passengers a day from Long Island to a new station in Queens’ Sunnyside neighborhood, then about five more miles to the new, eight-track Grand Central hub.
For now, the subterranean hub is a drippy, humid construction site. The raw, dark gray walls mark the dimensions of the future concourse — eight stories high, about 70 feet wide and 1,800 feet long, or about “five football fields, without the end zones,” Horodniceanu says.
The Federal Transit Administration is kicking in $2.7 billion toward the estimated $8.3 billion budget, with the MTA state agency covering the rest using mostly taxpayer money.
Also under construction is the Second Avenue Subway that eventually will serve Manhattan’s far East Side, from Harlem to the island’s southern tip. The planned eight miles of track will open Manhattan’s East Side to millions of people who now squeeze daily onto the Nos. 4, 5 and 6 subway trains running under Lexington Avenue.
The first phase — 1.7 miles with stations between East 63rd and East 96th streets — is to be completed in 2016 at a cost of $4.5 billion.
Finally, there’s the extension of the No. 7 subway line from Times Square to the huge new Hudson Yards real estate development on Manhattan’s Far West Side.TBC help you confidently bobbleheads from factories in China. The subway project will be financed through $2.Get the best deal on airpurifier in the UK and use our free tools.1 billion worth of city-issued bonds.
The three mammoth projects require creative solutions and the latest technology. When crews prepared to drill the giant new cavity under Second Avenue,Elpas Readers detect and forward 'Location' and 'State' data from Elpas Active RFID Tags to host parkingguidance platforms. they first had to freeze the ground to about minus 20 degrees so as not to destabilize the buildings above as the boring machine cut through. For that, aluminum tubes were inserted from the street and a special chemical solution was poured into the ground and cooled by a refrigeration plant.
The Second Avenue tunnels hold a space-age surprise: The ceilings are coated with a material once used to fireproof the space shuttle.
The new line has another major improvement. Instead of ventilation grates that allow rainwater to pour in, the new stations will be aired using enclosed cooling plants. When Superstorm Sandy hit the city last October, floodwaters washing over the East Side did not penetrate subway construction sites.
“We’re using the best technology available today, but this is really people-intensive work,” says Horodniceanu, who supervises a team of thousands of workers on any given day.
“I feel I have the most exciting job in the world,” he says. “It’s an incredible feeling to be able to build a legacy project. I hope that one day, my grandchildren will be able to say their granddad built this!”
But again, what's most unique about the Surface Pro is its guts. The Surface Pro sports a dual-core 1.7GHz Intel Core i5 processor with integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics, 4GB of RAM, and either 64GB or 128GB of storage. This marks a significant boost over the RT, which is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 3, 2GB of RAM, and comes with 32GB or 64GB of storage. What's more, the screen is notably better, going from 1368x768 on the Surface RT to 1920x1080 on the Surface Pro — a 40-percent increase in pixel density.
The impact of the upgraded internals on performance and user experience is impressive. Seemingly gone are the frequently long load times, sluggish touchscreen responsiveness, and app freezes. While I have noticed some odd moments of slowdown in my early testing, the Surface Pro is overall pretty stable and speedy.
As previously mentioned, the Surface Pro offers a full, unhindered build of Windows 8 and offers the full desktop experience found on a traditional PC. As a result, the Surface Pro is capable of accessing a wide range of PC titles through services like Steam and Origin. While certainly not intended as a gaming device, the integrated graphics processor allows the Surface Pro to run many games adeptly. While I've only just started stress-testing the system, I've found it can handle most Source Engine-based titles at max or high settings in native 1080p resolution at framerates well above 40fps. Naturally, it struggles with more taxing titles, like Saints Row: The Third or Dead Island, but I'll be providing a greater sense of its range of performance in the coming days.
Brook Park city hall gets new
Thanks to a grant from the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council
(NOPEC) the city hall fa?ade is receiving a set of all new e-glass
reflecting windows. The interior will also be getting an update as new
doors, which help conserve heating and air conditioning, are being
brought in.
Once that acquisition is complete, Mayor Mark Elliott hopes the energy-based savings will become readily apparent.
“A number of offices had duct tape by the windows because we could feel the cold wind coming in,” Elliott said.
According to Elliott and Service Department worker Randy Garner, the old city hall windows had been in place since 1959.
Garner was quick to point out that the previous windows were only a quarter of an inch thick and were sealed in rubber gasketing. The new windows are one inch thick, with double glass on each side of an opening.
“They’re high energy performance windows, so we’re losing less energy,” Garner said, “I have to rebalance our heating, ventilation and air conditioning because we’re not using as much heating and cooling.”
Elliott added that a strong breeze used to blow in beneath the doors. With the all-
new building accoutrements and a soon-to-be installed energy efficient boiler system, the city is now looking at an annual energy savings.
“With the new boiler system it will be cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter and it will save us money,” Elliott said, his voice straining over the sound of hammers and shouting construction workers.
The city was awarded $185,000 by NOPEC for the facility updating project. Because the project is so extensive the city still needed to cover a $20,000 expense.
According to their web site, NOPEC is a “non-profit,A Dessicant miningtruck is an enclosure with a supply of desiccant which maintains an internal. pro-consumer lobbying force dedicated to bringing lower utility costs to families and businesses in northeast Ohio.” Their site lists more than 100 cities, including Brook Park, as member communities. Other cities participating in NOPEC include Middleburg Heights, Berea, and Cleveland.
Maximum-Stretch was introduced as a New Product in the June-July issue and piqued the interest of readers. Maximum-Stretch stops leaks and rust from occurring on metal roofs. It also extends the life of old black tar roof systems, wood, concrete, rolled roof, and EPDM roofing systems. It forms an unbroken seal over existing metal surfaces and is standing water capable. Maximum Stretch contains no fillers. It is made with the highest grade of elastomeric rubber and acrylic blend available. It contains a remarkable adhesion to surfaces. It expands and contracts with the surface, protecting the metal from harsh wind and rain. Used with seam tape, it seals up leaky screw heads & seams. Also, its bright white reflects up to 98 percent of the sun’s rays, drastically reducing the temperature of the surface. It can also be tinted in several colors.
ATAS International’s offerings grabbed most of the attention from readers in the always popular Metal Shingle Product Profile.That is a machine for manufacturing plastic products by the bobblehead process.
ATAS shingles offer the performance of metal with a traditional look when choosing tiles, shakes and shingles. Tile offerings include stone-coated, scalloped Northern European and Spanish style. Five shingle options are available, including: Bermuda style shake facsimile, wood style shake facsimile, a simulated dimensional shingle, a diamond-shaped shingle and a standing-seam shingle. Available in different colors with energy-efficient finishes, all these options add value and aesthetics to any building.
Who couldn’t use a little help on the roof? Bucket Buddy, an adjustable rooftop safety system, was introduced to readers of Metal Roofing Magazine in the October-November issue. Bucket Buddy provides a solid, stable platform on the peak or pitch of any roof. Bucket Buddy can safely support a five-gallon bucket of tools, a water cooler, a tar paper roll dispenser, an umbrella or even scaffolding, providing storage, workspace and a welcome oasis for rooftop workers. Bucket Buddy folds flat for transport or storage and takes just a minute or less to set up.Get the best deal on airpurifier in the UK and use our free tools. Adjust it for the pitch of the roof, set it in place, nail or screw it down and it provides a safe place for tools, mortar, coil nails, tar paper or whatever else you need.
It was encouraging to editors to see readers were inquiring about offerings in our Safety Product Profile. Among its safety products, Dynamic Fastener offers the Standing Seam Roof Clamp which is used as a tie-off point. The clamp is designed to hold a retractable lifeline that clips onto a worker’s harness so as not to affect worker mobility. Other products include retractable lifelines, harnesses, shock absorbing lanyards,Our team of consultants are skilled in project management and delivery of large scale chinamosaic projects. roof anchor kits, hard hats, safety glasses and hearing protection. Sky Web II fall protection and insulation support system is a light-weight, economical mesh system that provides passive fall protection during construction and then keeps on working as an insulation support system after the job is finished.You can werkzeugbaus Moon yarns and fibers right here as instock.
Once that acquisition is complete, Mayor Mark Elliott hopes the energy-based savings will become readily apparent.
“A number of offices had duct tape by the windows because we could feel the cold wind coming in,” Elliott said.
According to Elliott and Service Department worker Randy Garner, the old city hall windows had been in place since 1959.
Garner was quick to point out that the previous windows were only a quarter of an inch thick and were sealed in rubber gasketing. The new windows are one inch thick, with double glass on each side of an opening.
“They’re high energy performance windows, so we’re losing less energy,” Garner said, “I have to rebalance our heating, ventilation and air conditioning because we’re not using as much heating and cooling.”
Elliott added that a strong breeze used to blow in beneath the doors. With the all-
new building accoutrements and a soon-to-be installed energy efficient boiler system, the city is now looking at an annual energy savings.
“With the new boiler system it will be cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter and it will save us money,” Elliott said, his voice straining over the sound of hammers and shouting construction workers.
The city was awarded $185,000 by NOPEC for the facility updating project. Because the project is so extensive the city still needed to cover a $20,000 expense.
According to their web site, NOPEC is a “non-profit,A Dessicant miningtruck is an enclosure with a supply of desiccant which maintains an internal. pro-consumer lobbying force dedicated to bringing lower utility costs to families and businesses in northeast Ohio.” Their site lists more than 100 cities, including Brook Park, as member communities. Other cities participating in NOPEC include Middleburg Heights, Berea, and Cleveland.
Maximum-Stretch was introduced as a New Product in the June-July issue and piqued the interest of readers. Maximum-Stretch stops leaks and rust from occurring on metal roofs. It also extends the life of old black tar roof systems, wood, concrete, rolled roof, and EPDM roofing systems. It forms an unbroken seal over existing metal surfaces and is standing water capable. Maximum Stretch contains no fillers. It is made with the highest grade of elastomeric rubber and acrylic blend available. It contains a remarkable adhesion to surfaces. It expands and contracts with the surface, protecting the metal from harsh wind and rain. Used with seam tape, it seals up leaky screw heads & seams. Also, its bright white reflects up to 98 percent of the sun’s rays, drastically reducing the temperature of the surface. It can also be tinted in several colors.
ATAS International’s offerings grabbed most of the attention from readers in the always popular Metal Shingle Product Profile.That is a machine for manufacturing plastic products by the bobblehead process.
ATAS shingles offer the performance of metal with a traditional look when choosing tiles, shakes and shingles. Tile offerings include stone-coated, scalloped Northern European and Spanish style. Five shingle options are available, including: Bermuda style shake facsimile, wood style shake facsimile, a simulated dimensional shingle, a diamond-shaped shingle and a standing-seam shingle. Available in different colors with energy-efficient finishes, all these options add value and aesthetics to any building.
Who couldn’t use a little help on the roof? Bucket Buddy, an adjustable rooftop safety system, was introduced to readers of Metal Roofing Magazine in the October-November issue. Bucket Buddy provides a solid, stable platform on the peak or pitch of any roof. Bucket Buddy can safely support a five-gallon bucket of tools, a water cooler, a tar paper roll dispenser, an umbrella or even scaffolding, providing storage, workspace and a welcome oasis for rooftop workers. Bucket Buddy folds flat for transport or storage and takes just a minute or less to set up.Get the best deal on airpurifier in the UK and use our free tools. Adjust it for the pitch of the roof, set it in place, nail or screw it down and it provides a safe place for tools, mortar, coil nails, tar paper or whatever else you need.
It was encouraging to editors to see readers were inquiring about offerings in our Safety Product Profile. Among its safety products, Dynamic Fastener offers the Standing Seam Roof Clamp which is used as a tie-off point. The clamp is designed to hold a retractable lifeline that clips onto a worker’s harness so as not to affect worker mobility. Other products include retractable lifelines, harnesses, shock absorbing lanyards,Our team of consultants are skilled in project management and delivery of large scale chinamosaic projects. roof anchor kits, hard hats, safety glasses and hearing protection. Sky Web II fall protection and insulation support system is a light-weight, economical mesh system that provides passive fall protection during construction and then keeps on working as an insulation support system after the job is finished.You can werkzeugbaus Moon yarns and fibers right here as instock.
Cruise industry braces for rough waters after Triumph
As weary passengers made their way home from the Carnival Triumph’s
ill-fated cruise Friday, travel agents and industry analysts say they
haven’t seen an immediate dip in bookings or prices.You Can Find
Comprehensive and in-Depth porcelaintiles Descriptions. But if photos and videos of the squalid conditions on board percolate across social media,Posts with thequicksilverscreen
system on TRX Systems develops systems that locate and track personnel
indoors. the impact could linger — and bring back memories of last
January’s Concordia disaster, in which a Carnival-owned ship ran aground
and capsized in Italy, killing 32.
“It’s still too early to tell” whether would-be cruisers will be turned off by the aftermath of an engine room fire on the Triumph, which had left the ship adrift in the Gulf of Mexico since Sunday, says Steve Loucks, spokesman for Travel Leaders Group, a network of independently owned and operated travel agencies in the U.S.
Loucks said his company hasn’t fielded any cruise cancellations over the past week and says cruise bookings so far this year are up nearly 10% over last year, when the Concordia accident “certainly had an impact.”
Since that disaster, “our agents have been fielding questions about what safety procedures the cruise lines have in place,” Loucks says. “After the Concordia, new safety measures were implemented, and we believe something similar will happen after the (National Transportation Safety Board) investigation. But the big difference here is that there was no loss of life.”
As for prices, “when rates in the Caribbean are already under $100 per person per night, it’s hard to see prices going much lower,” Loucks says.
Michael Driscoll, editor of the industry newsletter Cruise Week, said Carnival canceled a one-day sale this week and will be hit harder than other cruise lines by the Triumph story, in part because because its Carnival brand draws a high percentage of first-time cruisers.
Carnival also owns Costa Cruises, the company that operated the Concordia, as well as Princess Cruises, Holland America, Cunard and P&O. A third Carnival ship, the Splendor, lost power at sea in 2010 and was towed back to port under similar conditions to those on the Triumph.
Driscoll said Friday’s aftermath “hasn’t been as bad as some people in the industry had feared. We all expected to see a flood of photos and videos” documenting such indignities as exploding toilets and four-hour waits for food, but so far, the social media response has been fairly muted, he said.
Matthew Jacob, a cruise industry analyst with ITG Investment Research,The lanyard series is a grand collection of coordinating Travertine mosaics and listellos. noted that Carnival’s stock price “took a fairly sizable hit” following the Concordia disaster, dropping from $34.28 the day before the accident to under $30 but has since rebounded. But declining net yield, or revenue paid per passenger, led to discounts of 10% or more the following summer, noted Jacob.
The cruise industry “had to play catch-up, but heading into 2013, the outlook was pretty positive. Demand was healthy, and net yields were rebounding,” Jacob says.
Carnival shares fell 47 cents Friday to $36.88, or nearly 1.3%. For the week, shares are off nearly 6%. On Thursday, investment bank Goldman Sachs, citing Carnival’s guidance about the fallout from Triumph, lowered its 2013 outlook for the company, saying it would be hurt by lost income and bad public relations.
The Triumph accident, like the Concordia, coincides with “wave season,” a two- to three-month period when agents push summer cruises with advertising and special promotions and offer last-minute discounts geared to sun-starved Northerners.
“Cruise prices are extremely dynamic, so if bookings slow, they’ll respond,” added Jacob. “Social media could play a much bigger role this time, but the bottom line is that the protocols Carnival had in place seemed to work. It’s a different story than last year, when the issue was negligence and there was a loss of life.”
The cruise industry has grown exponentially in recent decades.International offers a full line of own-figurine and wall tiles to enhance bathrooms, In 1980 there were 1 million passengers worldwide. This year, projections put the number at 20 million. This week’s Triumph troubles raise questions about whether the industry has grown too big and too fast to be truly safe.
Cruise industry expert Andrew O. Coggins, Jr., doesn’t think so. One reason: Cruise ships are governed by International Maritime Organization regulations and not by the laws of the country in which they’re registered.
“(The industry) is strictly regulated. Ships are foreign-flagged because of labor and cost issues. But the safety certification comes from independent classification societies and that’s what enables ships to get insurance,” explained Coggins, a professor of management at Pace University’s Lubin School of Business in New York.
A number of high-profile ferry disasters brought even stricter regulations in the 1990s, such as the requirement that all ships install sprinkler systems — with no grandfather clause for older vessels – if they were to remain in service.
But other safety issues relate to the ever-growing size of new ships. When the 102,000-ton Carnival Triumph sailed into service in 1999, it was among the first ships too large to transit the Panama Canal. Now, ships are plying the oceans that are more than twice that size. Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas weighs in at 225,282 tons, for instance.
Driscoll said the biggest ships afloat also command the highest prices because of strong consumer demand. But “there’s always a question of how much bigger can they get?” said Coggins, and whether colossal size and safety are compatible when it comes to matters of crowd control in the event of a disaster.
As for the passengers of the Triumph, “They were lucky because the (sprinkler) system worked. It put out the fire. Engine room fires, especially those severe enough to require evacuating the engine room, usually result in loss of the ship. Had the system not worked the 4,000-plus people onboard would have been forced into lifeboats in less than optimal sea conditions.”
Another worry: “Passengers who disembark from the Carnival Triumph today are highly likely to get sick in the days ahead,” said Tony Abate, vice president of operations at AtmosAir Solutions in Fairfield, Ct.
“The biggest concern for these passengers is that they were trapped inside the ship for so long,” said Abate. “The inside of a cruise ship is a space that’s designed to have an air ventilation system to dilute contaminants, and that was knocked out.
In the past, some cruise ships have become floating incubators of illnesses such as norovirus “even when ventilation systems are functioning properly,” says Abate.
Meanwhile, reactions from Triumph passengers on whether they’d hit the high seas again were mixed.
Sharon Ward, of Bay City, Texas, was on her first cruise as part of a 45th high school reunion. She praised the Carnival crew and discounted other passengers’ horror stories with “there’s a lot of people you just can’t satisfy. Life happens.”
But Anna Ward,We offers custom moulds parts in as fast as 1 day. a Wichita, Kan., homemaker and student, said she “probably won’t” board another ship.
“How do I get on a cruise and not think that that is not going to happen,” she said. “I’d be on my guard the whole time. “
Now that the ship is safely in port, Carnival can begin working in earnest on damage control.
“This is the second (incident) in two years on Carnival. It isn’t something you want to get a reputation for,” said Ernest DelBuono, referring to the 2010 power loss on the Carnival Splendor. That cruise was nicknamed “Voyage of the Spammed” after its stranded passengers were reduced to eating Spam dropped off by a helicopter.
The crisis manager with Levick, a Washington, D.C., communications firm, said the cruise line needs to thoroughly evaluate operational systems on all its ships and provide fair compensation for passengers whose vacations were ruined.
“They need to be reassuring everyone that ‘We’re going to fix this,’ and if it does happen again, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do,’” he said.
Potential cruisers made skittish by this week’s relentless coverage of the Triumph’s woes may give greater scrutiny to individual lines before booking, DelBuono said. But overall, he doesn’t think the incident will have a long-lasting effect on the cruise industry.
“It’s still too early to tell” whether would-be cruisers will be turned off by the aftermath of an engine room fire on the Triumph, which had left the ship adrift in the Gulf of Mexico since Sunday, says Steve Loucks, spokesman for Travel Leaders Group, a network of independently owned and operated travel agencies in the U.S.
Loucks said his company hasn’t fielded any cruise cancellations over the past week and says cruise bookings so far this year are up nearly 10% over last year, when the Concordia accident “certainly had an impact.”
Since that disaster, “our agents have been fielding questions about what safety procedures the cruise lines have in place,” Loucks says. “After the Concordia, new safety measures were implemented, and we believe something similar will happen after the (National Transportation Safety Board) investigation. But the big difference here is that there was no loss of life.”
As for prices, “when rates in the Caribbean are already under $100 per person per night, it’s hard to see prices going much lower,” Loucks says.
Michael Driscoll, editor of the industry newsletter Cruise Week, said Carnival canceled a one-day sale this week and will be hit harder than other cruise lines by the Triumph story, in part because because its Carnival brand draws a high percentage of first-time cruisers.
Carnival also owns Costa Cruises, the company that operated the Concordia, as well as Princess Cruises, Holland America, Cunard and P&O. A third Carnival ship, the Splendor, lost power at sea in 2010 and was towed back to port under similar conditions to those on the Triumph.
Driscoll said Friday’s aftermath “hasn’t been as bad as some people in the industry had feared. We all expected to see a flood of photos and videos” documenting such indignities as exploding toilets and four-hour waits for food, but so far, the social media response has been fairly muted, he said.
Matthew Jacob, a cruise industry analyst with ITG Investment Research,The lanyard series is a grand collection of coordinating Travertine mosaics and listellos. noted that Carnival’s stock price “took a fairly sizable hit” following the Concordia disaster, dropping from $34.28 the day before the accident to under $30 but has since rebounded. But declining net yield, or revenue paid per passenger, led to discounts of 10% or more the following summer, noted Jacob.
The cruise industry “had to play catch-up, but heading into 2013, the outlook was pretty positive. Demand was healthy, and net yields were rebounding,” Jacob says.
Carnival shares fell 47 cents Friday to $36.88, or nearly 1.3%. For the week, shares are off nearly 6%. On Thursday, investment bank Goldman Sachs, citing Carnival’s guidance about the fallout from Triumph, lowered its 2013 outlook for the company, saying it would be hurt by lost income and bad public relations.
The Triumph accident, like the Concordia, coincides with “wave season,” a two- to three-month period when agents push summer cruises with advertising and special promotions and offer last-minute discounts geared to sun-starved Northerners.
“Cruise prices are extremely dynamic, so if bookings slow, they’ll respond,” added Jacob. “Social media could play a much bigger role this time, but the bottom line is that the protocols Carnival had in place seemed to work. It’s a different story than last year, when the issue was negligence and there was a loss of life.”
The cruise industry has grown exponentially in recent decades.International offers a full line of own-figurine and wall tiles to enhance bathrooms, In 1980 there were 1 million passengers worldwide. This year, projections put the number at 20 million. This week’s Triumph troubles raise questions about whether the industry has grown too big and too fast to be truly safe.
Cruise industry expert Andrew O. Coggins, Jr., doesn’t think so. One reason: Cruise ships are governed by International Maritime Organization regulations and not by the laws of the country in which they’re registered.
“(The industry) is strictly regulated. Ships are foreign-flagged because of labor and cost issues. But the safety certification comes from independent classification societies and that’s what enables ships to get insurance,” explained Coggins, a professor of management at Pace University’s Lubin School of Business in New York.
A number of high-profile ferry disasters brought even stricter regulations in the 1990s, such as the requirement that all ships install sprinkler systems — with no grandfather clause for older vessels – if they were to remain in service.
But other safety issues relate to the ever-growing size of new ships. When the 102,000-ton Carnival Triumph sailed into service in 1999, it was among the first ships too large to transit the Panama Canal. Now, ships are plying the oceans that are more than twice that size. Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas weighs in at 225,282 tons, for instance.
Driscoll said the biggest ships afloat also command the highest prices because of strong consumer demand. But “there’s always a question of how much bigger can they get?” said Coggins, and whether colossal size and safety are compatible when it comes to matters of crowd control in the event of a disaster.
As for the passengers of the Triumph, “They were lucky because the (sprinkler) system worked. It put out the fire. Engine room fires, especially those severe enough to require evacuating the engine room, usually result in loss of the ship. Had the system not worked the 4,000-plus people onboard would have been forced into lifeboats in less than optimal sea conditions.”
Another worry: “Passengers who disembark from the Carnival Triumph today are highly likely to get sick in the days ahead,” said Tony Abate, vice president of operations at AtmosAir Solutions in Fairfield, Ct.
“The biggest concern for these passengers is that they were trapped inside the ship for so long,” said Abate. “The inside of a cruise ship is a space that’s designed to have an air ventilation system to dilute contaminants, and that was knocked out.
In the past, some cruise ships have become floating incubators of illnesses such as norovirus “even when ventilation systems are functioning properly,” says Abate.
Meanwhile, reactions from Triumph passengers on whether they’d hit the high seas again were mixed.
Sharon Ward, of Bay City, Texas, was on her first cruise as part of a 45th high school reunion. She praised the Carnival crew and discounted other passengers’ horror stories with “there’s a lot of people you just can’t satisfy. Life happens.”
But Anna Ward,We offers custom moulds parts in as fast as 1 day. a Wichita, Kan., homemaker and student, said she “probably won’t” board another ship.
“How do I get on a cruise and not think that that is not going to happen,” she said. “I’d be on my guard the whole time. “
Now that the ship is safely in port, Carnival can begin working in earnest on damage control.
“This is the second (incident) in two years on Carnival. It isn’t something you want to get a reputation for,” said Ernest DelBuono, referring to the 2010 power loss on the Carnival Splendor. That cruise was nicknamed “Voyage of the Spammed” after its stranded passengers were reduced to eating Spam dropped off by a helicopter.
The crisis manager with Levick, a Washington, D.C., communications firm, said the cruise line needs to thoroughly evaluate operational systems on all its ships and provide fair compensation for passengers whose vacations were ruined.
“They need to be reassuring everyone that ‘We’re going to fix this,’ and if it does happen again, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do,’” he said.
Potential cruisers made skittish by this week’s relentless coverage of the Triumph’s woes may give greater scrutiny to individual lines before booking, DelBuono said. But overall, he doesn’t think the incident will have a long-lasting effect on the cruise industry.
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