The payments network Visa has said that the UAE's card fraud
prevention mechanisms required greater urgency and authorities should
"fast-track" the implementation of the chip and pin system, which banks
postponed at the end of last year.
The Central Bank is expected
to discuss the security breach, one of the biggest to hit the Middle
East's financial system, at its monthly meeting with the banking sector.
The
incident had underscored the need for better data security standards
and real-time fraud detection systems to notify banks of fraudulent
transactions as soon as they happen, said Neil Fernandes, the head of
country risk management for the Middle East, North Africa, India and
South Asia at Visa.
As the weeks of throwing footballs against a
defense made up of Lennay Kekua and 10 of her family members yields to
throwing footballs with a red no-touchy jersey against a bunch of other
rookies and assorted slappies to throwing footballs with a red no-touchy
jersey against veterans, rookies, and assorted slappies, were no closer
to knowing whether any of the rookie quarterbacks can play effectively
at the NFL level.
That point was reinforced last night upon
tripping over the excellent NFL Films documentary regarding The Brady 6
the six quarterbacks drafted in 2000 before the Pats scrawled Tom Bradys
name onto the 199th card submitted.An handsfreeaccess is a network of devices used to wirelessly locate objects or people inside a building.
The
chip that blossomed on Bradys shoulder was nurtured in part by
underwhelming performances at Michigan, which opened the door for Drew
Henson to take reps during Bradys senior season, and pre-draft workouts
from a slow, ungainly athlete who did nothing to stand out. But when it
was time to play against live NFL competition, as the calm eye in a
storm of bodies and movement and drawn-up plays that disintegrate when
exposed to a full-speed defense,Choose from the largest selection of indoortracking in the world. Brady didnt simply survive but thrived.
Others
couldnt. The much-hyped Giovanni Carmazzi, taken by the favorite team
of Bradys boyhood, flamed out for the 49ers. Former coach Steve Mariucci
attributed the failure to Carmazzis first NFL appearance,
coincidentally against the Patriots in the Hall of Fame game, as
planting the doubt that resulted in Carmazzi never playing in a
regular-season game.
"I think the more comfortable you get
winning tournaments -- I've now got five wins, and I'd like to continue
that going," said the 34-year-old Kuchar,Choose from the largest
selection of indoortracking in
the world. who is playing this week in the HP Byron Nelson Championship
after a disappointing tie for 48th in his title defense at the Players
Championship. "Majors are certainly on my radar. I think all of us try
to peak for major championships. Everybody wants to get their game in
the best shape possible for majors. ...
"I would like to kind of
be 'on' with regularity and play well week in and week out, and I felt
like that was the best preparation and just continue playing well and
let that carry into major championships and just keep the good play
going."
"I've always thought you were supposed to take the
appropriate steps to get to the next level," said Kuchar, whose
brilliant amateur career included a victory in the 1997 United States
Amateur. "I've always thought that like in school, you kind of graduate
elementary school, get to middle school, you graduate middle school and
get to high school and then college, and those are the steps you
take.Compare prices and buy all brands of earcap for
home power systems and by the pallet. You don't jump straight into
college, and you don't jump straight into advanced-placement courses.
You kind of take these little steps to get there.
"I thought the
same was applicable with golf. I felt like you kind of start playing
well, you start top-10ing, you start having a lot of chances, and then
you win a tournament. Then you start doing the same in bigger
tournaments. You start having better and better results, and you take
those steps and feel more and more comfortable in the big tournaments,
majors included, and I feel like I've made the right progressions.
Transeos
Bather falls into the former camp, explaining that as well as providing
the customer with a highly functional photo product creation and
ordering platform, a software package such as Taopix also has some
workflow functionalities built in. "Taopix provides a fair amount of
workflow out of the box. The majority of our UK clients use the workflow
built into Taopix," he says, adding that a successful solution employed
by many others, is hooking Taopix up to another workflow software
package. "Some customers use additional tools like Enfocus Switch to
route the jobs through the factory," he says.
Such a system is
employed by River Digital, which uses Taopix to handle the creation of
files for submission into its workflow via hot folders,Learn how an
embedded microprocessor in a iccard can
authenticate your computer usage and data. where the firms Xerox
Freeflow Process Manager software takes over handling the routing of the
jobs to the appropriate machine, applying colour management settings
and selecting paper from the right input tray.
Renshaw explains
that it is having this B2C-specific front-end that is the important bit.
He points out that products are built, ordered and paid for online and
so it is this part of the workflow process that simplifies or completely
removes many of the factors that complicate the conventional print
workflow. Print-ready PDFs are produced by software such as PixFizz or
Taopix, he explains, so they are not subject to the vagaries of the
customers level of expertise.
This B2C front-end also apparently
takes care of making customer service a tracked part of the overall
workflow. The live chat helpdesk that River Digital offers consumers is
integrated into the client-facing product portal, explains Renshaw:
"Having a single centrally administered system that tracks all
interactions is key," he says.
2013年5月13日 星期一
2012年7月16日 星期一
Preservation accumulation exhumes celebrated NY abundance town
A canning accumulation
is abating a 19th-century rock adamant works at the headwaters of the Hudson
River in the Adirondack High Peaks, as able-bodied as the adjacent abode breadth
Teddy Roosevelt was blockage afore his affecting midnight ride to the
presidency.Browse the Best Selection of chickencoop and Accessories with FREE
Gifts.
The buildings, listed on the accompaniment and federal registers of celebrated places, are allotment of the 10,000-acre Tahawus Amplitude acquired by the Open Space Convention from Houston-based National Lead Industries in 2003. The accompaniment bought a lot of of the amplitude from the accumulation in 2008 and added it to the Adirondack Backwoods Preserve, but the accumulation retained the debris of the adamant works and the annoyed barrio of the mining boondocks of Adirondac.
This summer, analytic panels will be installed at the website 100 afar arctic of Albany as trails and examination areas abreast completion, said Katie Stone, acreage activity administrator for the Manhattan-based Open Space Institute.
"This is the world's best archetype of a 19th-century adamant ore furnace," Rock said on a contempo appointment to the 258-acre website that includes the vestiges of the Adirondack Adamant and Animate Company.
The 50-foot-tall bang boiler resembles a behemothic rock chimney. Adirondack historian Philip Terrie says it was congenital amid 1849 and 1853 with ample blocks of bounded rock able with adamant tie rods and anchors. Crushed ore was loaded in from the top forth with charcoal and adhesive and fired, with the calefaction bolstered to 2,500 degrees by blasts of air from a wheelhouse powered by the Hudson River. Molten adamant ran out the basal into beach molds to anatomy confined -- alleged pigs -- that were loaded assimilate boats, destined for the company's animate works in New Jersey.
The avant-garde charcoal-burning boiler represented an important anniversary in American automated technology, Terrie said.Wireless Sensor Networks & rtls.
The boiler was allotment of a ample circuitous that included a pit mine, charcoal manufacturing, two dams on the Hudson River, sawmills and a village. The operation shut down in 1855 because of the adversity alteration adamant from such a limited abundance location, as able-bodied as algae in the ore.
The birthmark angry out to be titanium, which National Lead extracted from the abundance from World War II until the 1970s and alien out via a abuse band congenital by the government,Learn about the beauty of porcelaintiles. which acclimated the titanium for aggressive purposes.
In the added than 150 years afterwards the adamant admixture operation was abandoned, abundant backwoods swallowed up the bang boiler and added structures. Backpackers branch to adjacent trails to Mount Marcy, the state's accomplished peak, and added accepted destinations could see the mossy, awkward rock belfry if they looked anxiously in dupe forth the road.
Now the backwoods and underbrush accept been austere and a handicapped-accessible aisle congenital from a new parking breadth down to the adamant works site.
Down the alley is the chicken board abode accepted as the McNaughton House, which originally was a coffer in the mining apple and after was acclimated by a hunting club alleged the Tahawus Club.Browse the Best Selection of chickencoop and Accessories with FREE Gifts. In 1901, Vice Admiral Teddy Roosevelt was blockage there and had climbed Mount Marcy with a affair of 10 if a adviser brought him a buzzer adage Admiral William McKinley was dying from an assassin's ammo wound.
Roosevelt hiked added than three hours down the abundance and sped off on his acclaimed caliginosity horse-and-wagon ride forth blurred Adirondack clay anchorage to the Arctic Creek Station, breadth he abstruse McKinley was asleep and he was now president. Roosevelt took a alternation to Buffalo to yield the adjuration of office.
It amount $800,000 just to bank up the McNaughton House, which was aptitude at a 45-degree bend and in crisis of annoyed if the convention acquired the site, Rock said. The copse bank roof has been replaced and the abode repainted in the aboriginal yellow.
The 1854 architecture may be acclimated as a forester beginning as able-bodied as a celebrated site, Rock said. Added board barrio from the alone apple are falling afar beside the road. The convention hasn't absitively what to do with them, if anything.Bliss Glass and stonemosaic.
The buildings, listed on the accompaniment and federal registers of celebrated places, are allotment of the 10,000-acre Tahawus Amplitude acquired by the Open Space Convention from Houston-based National Lead Industries in 2003. The accompaniment bought a lot of of the amplitude from the accumulation in 2008 and added it to the Adirondack Backwoods Preserve, but the accumulation retained the debris of the adamant works and the annoyed barrio of the mining boondocks of Adirondac.
This summer, analytic panels will be installed at the website 100 afar arctic of Albany as trails and examination areas abreast completion, said Katie Stone, acreage activity administrator for the Manhattan-based Open Space Institute.
"This is the world's best archetype of a 19th-century adamant ore furnace," Rock said on a contempo appointment to the 258-acre website that includes the vestiges of the Adirondack Adamant and Animate Company.
The 50-foot-tall bang boiler resembles a behemothic rock chimney. Adirondack historian Philip Terrie says it was congenital amid 1849 and 1853 with ample blocks of bounded rock able with adamant tie rods and anchors. Crushed ore was loaded in from the top forth with charcoal and adhesive and fired, with the calefaction bolstered to 2,500 degrees by blasts of air from a wheelhouse powered by the Hudson River. Molten adamant ran out the basal into beach molds to anatomy confined -- alleged pigs -- that were loaded assimilate boats, destined for the company's animate works in New Jersey.
The avant-garde charcoal-burning boiler represented an important anniversary in American automated technology, Terrie said.Wireless Sensor Networks & rtls.
The boiler was allotment of a ample circuitous that included a pit mine, charcoal manufacturing, two dams on the Hudson River, sawmills and a village. The operation shut down in 1855 because of the adversity alteration adamant from such a limited abundance location, as able-bodied as algae in the ore.
The birthmark angry out to be titanium, which National Lead extracted from the abundance from World War II until the 1970s and alien out via a abuse band congenital by the government,Learn about the beauty of porcelaintiles. which acclimated the titanium for aggressive purposes.
In the added than 150 years afterwards the adamant admixture operation was abandoned, abundant backwoods swallowed up the bang boiler and added structures. Backpackers branch to adjacent trails to Mount Marcy, the state's accomplished peak, and added accepted destinations could see the mossy, awkward rock belfry if they looked anxiously in dupe forth the road.
Now the backwoods and underbrush accept been austere and a handicapped-accessible aisle congenital from a new parking breadth down to the adamant works site.
Down the alley is the chicken board abode accepted as the McNaughton House, which originally was a coffer in the mining apple and after was acclimated by a hunting club alleged the Tahawus Club.Browse the Best Selection of chickencoop and Accessories with FREE Gifts. In 1901, Vice Admiral Teddy Roosevelt was blockage there and had climbed Mount Marcy with a affair of 10 if a adviser brought him a buzzer adage Admiral William McKinley was dying from an assassin's ammo wound.
Roosevelt hiked added than three hours down the abundance and sped off on his acclaimed caliginosity horse-and-wagon ride forth blurred Adirondack clay anchorage to the Arctic Creek Station, breadth he abstruse McKinley was asleep and he was now president. Roosevelt took a alternation to Buffalo to yield the adjuration of office.
It amount $800,000 just to bank up the McNaughton House, which was aptitude at a 45-degree bend and in crisis of annoyed if the convention acquired the site, Rock said. The copse bank roof has been replaced and the abode repainted in the aboriginal yellow.
The 1854 architecture may be acclimated as a forester beginning as able-bodied as a celebrated site, Rock said. Added board barrio from the alone apple are falling afar beside the road. The convention hasn't absitively what to do with them, if anything.Bliss Glass and stonemosaic.
2012年3月31日 星期六
Alcoa officials: too early to determine impact of Thursday’s fire
A day removed from a fire that caused extensive damage to a building at Alcoa’s West plant,What is a real time Location system ? company officials said it’s too early to tell what kind of effect the fire will have on operations.What is the top Hemorrhoids treatment?
While the cast house was closed Friday, Alcoa spokeswoman Laurie A. Marr said, it was business as usual for the rest of the plant.
“No pots are idled and smelting production is operating normally at West and East,” Ms. Marr said.
She said at this point it’s impossible to tell how long the cast house will be idle, although she did say preliminary surveys indicated the building is structurally sound.
“This allowed state fire investigators to begin their investigation,” she said in a statement released Friday evening.
“They are still putting out hot spots of fire, so we haven’t been able to get into the building and assess any damage yet, so it’s much too early to predict any impacts,” she said.
She said that after departments that responded to the scene were sent home early Friday, Alcoa’s in-house fire department remained on the scene fighting hot spots into early Friday afternoon.
Ms.Wireless Indoor Positioning System have become very popular in the system. Marr said that same statement held true for whether there was a potential for either short-term or long-term job loss. She also said she was unsure how the incident would affect the company’s plans for modernization at the unaffected East Plant.
Chris W. Baldwin, president of U.S. Steelworkers Local 420-A, said he hoped that layoffs, even for the short term,All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats, can be avoided.
“Our main goal right now, after not having anyone injured, is keeping everyone gainfully employed here in Massena,” he said. “We told (the company) that whatever we have to do in cooperation with the company to keep people working we’re willing to do it.”
Ms. Marr said that while company officials weren’t allowed back into the cast house until late Friday afternoon, they were able to remove several “pig molds” from the building Thursday night.
“The molds were located at the far end of the building and not in the fire zone,” she said. “We were able to get them out under the direction and with the guidance of the fire department.”
Ms. Marr said the molds, which are used to make 1,500-pound aluminum bricks, commonly known as pigs or sows, were moved into the smelter building, allowing continued aluminum manufacturing while machines in the cast house were out of commission.
She said the cast house contained four casting complexes, but it was still unknown Friday evening whether just one or all four of the machines are damaged.
Massena Fire Chief Thomas C. Miller said firefighters from Massena, Helena, Brasher-Winthrop, Norfolk, Hogansburg-Akwesasne, Potsdam, Waddington, Bombay, Malone, Bangor, Westville and Fort Covington responded to the scene.
Volunteers from Louisville, West Potsdam and Norwood were on standby throughout the evening.
Mr. Miller said that several area businesses made donations to the effort, which helped keep firefighters nourished throughout the battle.
The fire started about 3:10 p.m. Thursday following a malfunction in a chip melter at the cast house. While Ms. Marr said the fire has been traced to a chip melter, the cause remained unknown Friday evening.
“We are in the early stages of investigating this incident, and teams from Alcoa and local and state authorities are on the scene to help with the assessments,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising,” she said in Friday evening’s statement. “It is unknown how long the investigation process will take.”
While the cast house was closed Friday, Alcoa spokeswoman Laurie A. Marr said, it was business as usual for the rest of the plant.
“No pots are idled and smelting production is operating normally at West and East,” Ms. Marr said.
She said at this point it’s impossible to tell how long the cast house will be idle, although she did say preliminary surveys indicated the building is structurally sound.
“This allowed state fire investigators to begin their investigation,” she said in a statement released Friday evening.
“They are still putting out hot spots of fire, so we haven’t been able to get into the building and assess any damage yet, so it’s much too early to predict any impacts,” she said.
She said that after departments that responded to the scene were sent home early Friday, Alcoa’s in-house fire department remained on the scene fighting hot spots into early Friday afternoon.
Ms.Wireless Indoor Positioning System have become very popular in the system. Marr said that same statement held true for whether there was a potential for either short-term or long-term job loss. She also said she was unsure how the incident would affect the company’s plans for modernization at the unaffected East Plant.
Chris W. Baldwin, president of U.S. Steelworkers Local 420-A, said he hoped that layoffs, even for the short term,All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats, can be avoided.
“Our main goal right now, after not having anyone injured, is keeping everyone gainfully employed here in Massena,” he said. “We told (the company) that whatever we have to do in cooperation with the company to keep people working we’re willing to do it.”
Ms. Marr said that while company officials weren’t allowed back into the cast house until late Friday afternoon, they were able to remove several “pig molds” from the building Thursday night.
“The molds were located at the far end of the building and not in the fire zone,” she said. “We were able to get them out under the direction and with the guidance of the fire department.”
Ms. Marr said the molds, which are used to make 1,500-pound aluminum bricks, commonly known as pigs or sows, were moved into the smelter building, allowing continued aluminum manufacturing while machines in the cast house were out of commission.
She said the cast house contained four casting complexes, but it was still unknown Friday evening whether just one or all four of the machines are damaged.
Massena Fire Chief Thomas C. Miller said firefighters from Massena, Helena, Brasher-Winthrop, Norfolk, Hogansburg-Akwesasne, Potsdam, Waddington, Bombay, Malone, Bangor, Westville and Fort Covington responded to the scene.
Volunteers from Louisville, West Potsdam and Norwood were on standby throughout the evening.
Mr. Miller said that several area businesses made donations to the effort, which helped keep firefighters nourished throughout the battle.
The fire started about 3:10 p.m. Thursday following a malfunction in a chip melter at the cast house. While Ms. Marr said the fire has been traced to a chip melter, the cause remained unknown Friday evening.
“We are in the early stages of investigating this incident, and teams from Alcoa and local and state authorities are on the scene to help with the assessments,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising,” she said in Friday evening’s statement. “It is unknown how long the investigation process will take.”
2012年3月28日 星期三
Panasonic Introduces 'Superior Reality' Image Processing
Panasonic introduces new analog video surveillance cameras, including new pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) dome cameras that incorporate Panasonic's new Superior Reality (SR) analog unified image processor for more realistic images and accurate depiction of the full range of natural colors. SR includes the new Super Dynamic SD6 and enhanced adaptive black stretch (ABS) image processing. Advanced features include intelligent resolution, superior color reproduction, lens distortion compensation, scene change detection and auto image stabilization.
"Panasonic has a global reputation for engineering the most advanced imaging solutions available for video surveillance applications.What is a real time Location system ? Our Superior Reality technology takes our imaging performance to another level by producing images with incredible realism,Museum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas." said Greg Peratt, National Sales Director, Video Solutions Integration, Panasonic. "When combined with intelligent functions such as video motion detection and analytics this new generation of cameras redefines the operational capabilities for analog cameras and system users."
Targeting higher-end applications such as casinos, airports and transit, Panasonic's WV-CW594 is an outdoor weather-resistant PTZ dome analog camera powered by the SD6 and the SR processor and incorporating a 36x optical zoom lens. The outdoor camera is IP66 rated for dust and water resistance. A built-in fan/heater enables operation in ambient temperatures from -58 degrees F to 122 degrees F. The new WV-CS584 is the indoor version. Both cameras provide horizontal resolution of 650 TV lines, proactive 2D/3D digital noise reduction (DNR), light sensitivity of 0.04 lux at F1.4 and an on-screen display menu. Scene Change Detection alarms when the lens is covered, spray painted, removed or defocused. Auto tracking enables the camera to follow the largest movement in the image automatically; the camera will pan and tilt to keep the subject in the center of the image. The 256 preset positions can be activated from the system controller with a switcher or recorder.
Also new to the Panasonic analog camera line at this year's International Security Conference & Exposition (ISC West) are the WV-CP314 and WV-CP304 standard box cameras with enhanced adaptive black stretch (ABS) technology. Features include 650 TV lines of resolution and lens distortion compensation, which provides a natural image without distortion when viewed through a wide angle lens.Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings, WV-CP314 provides high sensitivity with day/night function using an IR cut filter that switches on/off to enhance sensitivity. Light sensitivity is 0.08 lux (color) and 0.008 lux (B/W) at F1.4. WV-CP304 uses electrical day/night function for 0.08 lux (color) and 0.05 lux (B/W) sensitivity at F1.4. The WV-CP300 (with electrical day/night) and WV-CP310 (with IR day/night) network cameras have similar specifications but are powered by 120vAC instead of 12vDC/24vAC.
For applications requiring an indoor analog fixed dome, the Panasonic WV-CF344 provides similar features to the WV-CP304 box camera (with electrical day/night), and the Panasonic WV-CF354 fixed dome incorporates Auto Back Focus (ABF) to ensure easy installation.The TagMaster Long Range Hands free access is truly built for any parking facility.The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services,
Focus assist ensures easy installation of Panasonic's analog cameras, and there are a variety of other adjustments such as BLC (Back-Light Compensation), ATW (Auto Tracing White Balance) and ALC (Automatic Light Control). A 16-axis matrix color compensation function enables a wider range of natural color adjustment, and integration of 2D-DNR and 3D-DNR ensures noise reduction in various conditions.
"Panasonic has a global reputation for engineering the most advanced imaging solutions available for video surveillance applications.What is a real time Location system ? Our Superior Reality technology takes our imaging performance to another level by producing images with incredible realism,Museum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas." said Greg Peratt, National Sales Director, Video Solutions Integration, Panasonic. "When combined with intelligent functions such as video motion detection and analytics this new generation of cameras redefines the operational capabilities for analog cameras and system users."
Targeting higher-end applications such as casinos, airports and transit, Panasonic's WV-CW594 is an outdoor weather-resistant PTZ dome analog camera powered by the SD6 and the SR processor and incorporating a 36x optical zoom lens. The outdoor camera is IP66 rated for dust and water resistance. A built-in fan/heater enables operation in ambient temperatures from -58 degrees F to 122 degrees F. The new WV-CS584 is the indoor version. Both cameras provide horizontal resolution of 650 TV lines, proactive 2D/3D digital noise reduction (DNR), light sensitivity of 0.04 lux at F1.4 and an on-screen display menu. Scene Change Detection alarms when the lens is covered, spray painted, removed or defocused. Auto tracking enables the camera to follow the largest movement in the image automatically; the camera will pan and tilt to keep the subject in the center of the image. The 256 preset positions can be activated from the system controller with a switcher or recorder.
Also new to the Panasonic analog camera line at this year's International Security Conference & Exposition (ISC West) are the WV-CP314 and WV-CP304 standard box cameras with enhanced adaptive black stretch (ABS) technology. Features include 650 TV lines of resolution and lens distortion compensation, which provides a natural image without distortion when viewed through a wide angle lens.Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings, WV-CP314 provides high sensitivity with day/night function using an IR cut filter that switches on/off to enhance sensitivity. Light sensitivity is 0.08 lux (color) and 0.008 lux (B/W) at F1.4. WV-CP304 uses electrical day/night function for 0.08 lux (color) and 0.05 lux (B/W) sensitivity at F1.4. The WV-CP300 (with electrical day/night) and WV-CP310 (with IR day/night) network cameras have similar specifications but are powered by 120vAC instead of 12vDC/24vAC.
For applications requiring an indoor analog fixed dome, the Panasonic WV-CF344 provides similar features to the WV-CP304 box camera (with electrical day/night), and the Panasonic WV-CF354 fixed dome incorporates Auto Back Focus (ABF) to ensure easy installation.The TagMaster Long Range Hands free access is truly built for any parking facility.The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services,
Focus assist ensures easy installation of Panasonic's analog cameras, and there are a variety of other adjustments such as BLC (Back-Light Compensation), ATW (Auto Tracing White Balance) and ALC (Automatic Light Control). A 16-axis matrix color compensation function enables a wider range of natural color adjustment, and integration of 2D-DNR and 3D-DNR ensures noise reduction in various conditions.
2012年1月30日 星期一
Warning over coffee husks as bedding
Coffee husks, often recycled into animal bedding, should not be used with horses because of the risk of poisoning, researchers warn.
In Brazil, coffee husks are an abundant by-product of the coffee industry and often recycled as animal bedding.
Research carried out by Diego José Delfiol and colleagues has found that coffee husks pose a risk of poisoning when used as bedding or as feed for horses.
The work, carried out at the of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science - Univ Estadual Paulista (UNESP), at Botucatu, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was prompted by reports that horses had become intoxicated after eating coffee husks used as bedding.
Six clinically normal quarter horse mares were recruited to the study.
They were observed continually, and examined clinically every 12 hours. They were kept in individual stalls and fed a diet of free-access hay.
Each horse was offered two kilograms of coffee husks. Every 12 hours any remaining husks were taken away and weighed and fresh husks were given. This continued until the horses started to show signs of toxicity, at which stage no further husks were given.
The researchers noted that the horses were not very interested in eating coffee husks during the first hours after they were supplied. However, after ingesting the husks for the first time, the animals generally preferred them to hay.
The study, published in BMC Veterinary Research, lists the most evident toxic signs as excitability, restlessness, involuntary muscle tremors, chewing movements and constant tremors of the lips and tongue, excessive sweating and increased respiration and heart rates.
The authors report that, on average, toxic signs appeared 56 hours after exposure to the coffee husks. However, heart rates and respiratory rates rose 36 hours after access to husks, and only returned to normal 60 hours after removal of the husks.
All six horses showed signs of toxicity. The signs resolved once the coffee husks were removed, taking 12 to 40 hours to wear off. No treatment was necessary.
The researchers excluded other possible causes of toxicity by checking there were no insecticides or fungal toxins in the husks. Analysis of samples of coffee husk found the concentration of caffeine concentration to be 0.9%.
They compared blood and urine taken from the horses before, and 56 hours after, exposure to the husks.
They found significant differences between the before and after samples in the concentrations of caffeine in both urine and blood. Caffeine levels found 56 hours later, when clinical signs appeared, were, on average, 3966 times greater in the plasma and 1300 times greater in the urine.
The researchers concluded that the high concentration of caffeine in the coffee husks make them toxic to horses. They warn that coffee husks should not be used as food or bedding material for horses.
In Brazil, coffee husks are an abundant by-product of the coffee industry and often recycled as animal bedding.
Research carried out by Diego José Delfiol and colleagues has found that coffee husks pose a risk of poisoning when used as bedding or as feed for horses.
The work, carried out at the of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science - Univ Estadual Paulista (UNESP), at Botucatu, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was prompted by reports that horses had become intoxicated after eating coffee husks used as bedding.
Six clinically normal quarter horse mares were recruited to the study.
They were observed continually, and examined clinically every 12 hours. They were kept in individual stalls and fed a diet of free-access hay.
Each horse was offered two kilograms of coffee husks. Every 12 hours any remaining husks were taken away and weighed and fresh husks were given. This continued until the horses started to show signs of toxicity, at which stage no further husks were given.
The researchers noted that the horses were not very interested in eating coffee husks during the first hours after they were supplied. However, after ingesting the husks for the first time, the animals generally preferred them to hay.
The study, published in BMC Veterinary Research, lists the most evident toxic signs as excitability, restlessness, involuntary muscle tremors, chewing movements and constant tremors of the lips and tongue, excessive sweating and increased respiration and heart rates.
The authors report that, on average, toxic signs appeared 56 hours after exposure to the coffee husks. However, heart rates and respiratory rates rose 36 hours after access to husks, and only returned to normal 60 hours after removal of the husks.
All six horses showed signs of toxicity. The signs resolved once the coffee husks were removed, taking 12 to 40 hours to wear off. No treatment was necessary.
The researchers excluded other possible causes of toxicity by checking there were no insecticides or fungal toxins in the husks. Analysis of samples of coffee husk found the concentration of caffeine concentration to be 0.9%.
They compared blood and urine taken from the horses before, and 56 hours after, exposure to the husks.
They found significant differences between the before and after samples in the concentrations of caffeine in both urine and blood. Caffeine levels found 56 hours later, when clinical signs appeared, were, on average, 3966 times greater in the plasma and 1300 times greater in the urine.
The researchers concluded that the high concentration of caffeine in the coffee husks make them toxic to horses. They warn that coffee husks should not be used as food or bedding material for horses.
2012年1月10日 星期二
Recycled manure solids for cow bedding can succeed
Stall bedding materials for cows have become increasingly expensive and difficult to find. This situation has prompted many dairy producers to search for more feasible alternatives, such as sand and recycled manure solids.
Although sand can be considered the ideal bedding source for dairy cows, not all producers are willing and able to convert to sand bedding because it presents some manure-management challenges. So, what about recycled manure solids? Is anyone making it work in the Midwest?
Adam Husfeldt (University of Minnesota graduate student) and I conducted an observational study on 38 dairy farms in Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and Iowa that were using solids for bedding freestalls. We wanted to find out what management practices and bedding characteristics were associated with bulk tank somatic cell count (SCC) and evaluate animal welfare in these operations.
We documented various aspects of herd management, including how solids were obtained and managed, their bedding practices, etc. Bedding, milk and feed samples were collected. Cows were scored for hygiene, hock lesions and locomotion, and milking prep procedures were recorded.
Our goal was to collect as much information as possible during the farm visits and from records throughout the year. In the end, 23 variables were used for our analysis of their association with bulk tank SCC.
We concluded that excellent cow preparation at milking time, sanitation of milking equipment, cow hygiene, adequate dry cow housing and bedding/stall management appear to be critical in maintaining a low SCC while successfully using manure solids for bedding. Type of manure solids used—digested, raw or composted—had no association with SCC.
Moisture is one of several factors necessary for bacterial growth in bedding materials. Therefore, it is important to keep stall bedding as dry as possible to minimize exposure to environmental mastitis pathogens. Additional methods to help dry stall bedding (use of a blower, good barn ventilation, adding equipment to remove moisture after separation) could help reduce bedding moisture.
We also learned that lameness prevalence was similar, hock lesion prevalence was slightly higher and cow hygiene was better than in herds using sand for bedding.
Although sand can be considered the ideal bedding source for dairy cows, not all producers are willing and able to convert to sand bedding because it presents some manure-management challenges. So, what about recycled manure solids? Is anyone making it work in the Midwest?
Adam Husfeldt (University of Minnesota graduate student) and I conducted an observational study on 38 dairy farms in Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and Iowa that were using solids for bedding freestalls. We wanted to find out what management practices and bedding characteristics were associated with bulk tank somatic cell count (SCC) and evaluate animal welfare in these operations.
We documented various aspects of herd management, including how solids were obtained and managed, their bedding practices, etc. Bedding, milk and feed samples were collected. Cows were scored for hygiene, hock lesions and locomotion, and milking prep procedures were recorded.
Our goal was to collect as much information as possible during the farm visits and from records throughout the year. In the end, 23 variables were used for our analysis of their association with bulk tank SCC.
We concluded that excellent cow preparation at milking time, sanitation of milking equipment, cow hygiene, adequate dry cow housing and bedding/stall management appear to be critical in maintaining a low SCC while successfully using manure solids for bedding. Type of manure solids used—digested, raw or composted—had no association with SCC.
Moisture is one of several factors necessary for bacterial growth in bedding materials. Therefore, it is important to keep stall bedding as dry as possible to minimize exposure to environmental mastitis pathogens. Additional methods to help dry stall bedding (use of a blower, good barn ventilation, adding equipment to remove moisture after separation) could help reduce bedding moisture.
We also learned that lameness prevalence was similar, hock lesion prevalence was slightly higher and cow hygiene was better than in herds using sand for bedding.
2011年12月25日 星期日
'Boyd's Hill' depicts a world of work in 1892 Pittsburgh
Boyd's Hill is one of those old Pittsburgh names that has fallen by the wayside, ever ready to trip up even native Pittsburghers. Ask for directions to Boyd's Hill and we'll merely gape at you, something our ancestors never would have done.
"Boyd's Hill" is the name of Martin B. Leisser's small painting of the rocky promontory we call the Bluff. The son of a South Side immigrant glass factory worker who became the dean of Pittsburgh painters, Leisser was 46 when he painted it on Jan. 4, 1892. It was among the first works he produced here after more than five years of living and working in Europe, most recently in Munich, where he had studied two decades earlier.
For the sixth consecutive year, the Post-Gazette features a winter-scene painting on the cover of the Christmas Day newspaper. This year's painting was selected by PG publisher John Robinson Block and executive editor David Shribman during a recent visit to the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg.
In the painting, a woman -- or is she still a girl? -- pours a bucket of coal ashes onto the snow, maintaining a path to the row house. A man, hunched against the cold, carries firewood, perhaps, next to the horse-drawn wagon. Because this is Pittsburgh before the turn of the last century, the domestic tableau is set against the industrial architecture, dramatic topography and smoky atmospherics that so captivated and inspired the city's artists. This is no winter wonderland. "Boyd's Hill" is a painting about work.
Almost 120 years later, it's also a painting about evolution and loss. Everything we see in "Boyd's Hill" has vanished, save for the land in the foreground.
The Bluff was first known to settlers as Ayres' Hill, named for a British engineer who promoted the idea of building a fort there, after the demise of Fort Duquesne,This is interesting cube puzzle and logical game. because of its commanding views. But when John Boyd took his own life on the hill,I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered China Porcelain tile. he unwittingly gave his name to it.
Henry Brackenridge, lawyer and Pittsburgh Gazette co-founder, had enticed Boyd to come to Pittsburgh from Philadelphia in 1786 to assist Brackenridge's struggling partner, John Scull. During his time at the paper, Boyd also tried to establish Pittsburgh's first lending library, but the project was dropped for lack of interest.
Ella Chalfant, who wrote about Boyd's intestate passing in her 1955 book on early wills in Allegheny County, suggests that Brackenridge oversold Pittsburgh and that the reality of life in a small frontier town didn't measure up to his descriptions.
We may never know what motivated young Boyd. Inscrutably -- he gave no reason -- John Boyd left his Water Street office one day in the summer of 1788 and climbed Ayres' Hill to hang himself.
The painting isn't easy to read, either. At first glance it seems to show, at the top of the hill in the background, Duquesne University's Old Main administration building, which for many years had a cupola. But that interpretation collapsed under research. The cupola in the painting didn't match Old Main's, and Old Main stood taller and more solitary on the Bluff in those days. Comparisons of early maps and photographs on the Historic Pittsburgh website indicated the hilltop background building more likely would be a school or other institution in the Lower Hill. If Boyd's Hill was the foreground, as increasingly seemed to be the case, the logical terminal view was the nearest hillock, on the undulating Lower Hill.
"Boyd's Hill" is a small painting, about 10 by 13 inches. While he painted the foreground with precision, recording even the standing seams of the row houses' metal roofs, Leisser defines the background hillside buildings by their snow-covered roofs with a flurry of loose brush strokes. Yet the schoolhouse cupola stands out, and Pittsburghers of 1892 would have recognized the building by its profile. We, however, are left to play detective.
Possible candidates gleaned from maps were compared with photographs of historic school buildings. Franklin School at FranklThe company pioneered the manufacture of Coated Abrasives,in and Logan streets was a massive Richardsonian Romanesque castle with two round corner towers flanking two tall square towers -- the sort Andrew Carnegie called "donkey ears" on the Carnegie Institute building in Oakland, and ordered them removed as part of its expansion. Scratch Franklin; it was nothing like the school in the painting.
Moorhead School -- also known as the Eleventh Ward Public School -- seemed a possibility. The school was at the corner of Enoch and Granville streets and next to St. Bridget's Church. In the painting, the cupola-topped building is close to a building with spires or turrets.This page contains information about molds, But in a 1931 aerial photograph of the Lower Hill from the roof of the Grant Building, Moorhead and St. Bridget's, seen faintly in the distance, don't seem to match the buildings in the painting.
Historic photographs of Hancock School, an 1874 Italianate building at Seventh and Webster avenues on the fringe of Downtown, reveal it had the distinctive cupola and deep cornice of the building in the painting, and there was a Roman Catholic church and school complex a few doors away. Both were located on Grant's Hill, the beloved promenade and picnic spot that, as the city grew, devolved into the topographical inconvenience known as the hump. Both buildings, located between where the U.S. Steel Tower and Civic Arena are now, gained height when the ground beneath them was cut away in the 1912 "hump cut." Eureka? Maybe.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. The elevation and buildings have changed so much, it's hard to know precisely what view Leisser would have seen and where on Boyd's Hill he would have seen it from.
On 1889 and 1900 Hopkins maps of the Bluff, no buildings have a similar footprint and relationship to each other as those in the foreground of the painting, but it was a rapidly evolving area around the turn of the 20th century, and structures may have come and gone without being recorded on maps. Then as now, the western end of the Bluff had steep drops in elevation between streets as they stepped down to Forbes, a landscape feature evident in "Boyd's Hill."
"Boyd's Hill" is the name of Martin B. Leisser's small painting of the rocky promontory we call the Bluff. The son of a South Side immigrant glass factory worker who became the dean of Pittsburgh painters, Leisser was 46 when he painted it on Jan. 4, 1892. It was among the first works he produced here after more than five years of living and working in Europe, most recently in Munich, where he had studied two decades earlier.
For the sixth consecutive year, the Post-Gazette features a winter-scene painting on the cover of the Christmas Day newspaper. This year's painting was selected by PG publisher John Robinson Block and executive editor David Shribman during a recent visit to the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg.
In the painting, a woman -- or is she still a girl? -- pours a bucket of coal ashes onto the snow, maintaining a path to the row house. A man, hunched against the cold, carries firewood, perhaps, next to the horse-drawn wagon. Because this is Pittsburgh before the turn of the last century, the domestic tableau is set against the industrial architecture, dramatic topography and smoky atmospherics that so captivated and inspired the city's artists. This is no winter wonderland. "Boyd's Hill" is a painting about work.
Almost 120 years later, it's also a painting about evolution and loss. Everything we see in "Boyd's Hill" has vanished, save for the land in the foreground.
The Bluff was first known to settlers as Ayres' Hill, named for a British engineer who promoted the idea of building a fort there, after the demise of Fort Duquesne,This is interesting cube puzzle and logical game. because of its commanding views. But when John Boyd took his own life on the hill,I have just spent two weeks shopping for tile and have discovered China Porcelain tile. he unwittingly gave his name to it.
Henry Brackenridge, lawyer and Pittsburgh Gazette co-founder, had enticed Boyd to come to Pittsburgh from Philadelphia in 1786 to assist Brackenridge's struggling partner, John Scull. During his time at the paper, Boyd also tried to establish Pittsburgh's first lending library, but the project was dropped for lack of interest.
Ella Chalfant, who wrote about Boyd's intestate passing in her 1955 book on early wills in Allegheny County, suggests that Brackenridge oversold Pittsburgh and that the reality of life in a small frontier town didn't measure up to his descriptions.
We may never know what motivated young Boyd. Inscrutably -- he gave no reason -- John Boyd left his Water Street office one day in the summer of 1788 and climbed Ayres' Hill to hang himself.
The painting isn't easy to read, either. At first glance it seems to show, at the top of the hill in the background, Duquesne University's Old Main administration building, which for many years had a cupola. But that interpretation collapsed under research. The cupola in the painting didn't match Old Main's, and Old Main stood taller and more solitary on the Bluff in those days. Comparisons of early maps and photographs on the Historic Pittsburgh website indicated the hilltop background building more likely would be a school or other institution in the Lower Hill. If Boyd's Hill was the foreground, as increasingly seemed to be the case, the logical terminal view was the nearest hillock, on the undulating Lower Hill.
"Boyd's Hill" is a small painting, about 10 by 13 inches. While he painted the foreground with precision, recording even the standing seams of the row houses' metal roofs, Leisser defines the background hillside buildings by their snow-covered roofs with a flurry of loose brush strokes. Yet the schoolhouse cupola stands out, and Pittsburghers of 1892 would have recognized the building by its profile. We, however, are left to play detective.
Possible candidates gleaned from maps were compared with photographs of historic school buildings. Franklin School at FranklThe company pioneered the manufacture of Coated Abrasives,in and Logan streets was a massive Richardsonian Romanesque castle with two round corner towers flanking two tall square towers -- the sort Andrew Carnegie called "donkey ears" on the Carnegie Institute building in Oakland, and ordered them removed as part of its expansion. Scratch Franklin; it was nothing like the school in the painting.
Moorhead School -- also known as the Eleventh Ward Public School -- seemed a possibility. The school was at the corner of Enoch and Granville streets and next to St. Bridget's Church. In the painting, the cupola-topped building is close to a building with spires or turrets.This page contains information about molds, But in a 1931 aerial photograph of the Lower Hill from the roof of the Grant Building, Moorhead and St. Bridget's, seen faintly in the distance, don't seem to match the buildings in the painting.
Historic photographs of Hancock School, an 1874 Italianate building at Seventh and Webster avenues on the fringe of Downtown, reveal it had the distinctive cupola and deep cornice of the building in the painting, and there was a Roman Catholic church and school complex a few doors away. Both were located on Grant's Hill, the beloved promenade and picnic spot that, as the city grew, devolved into the topographical inconvenience known as the hump. Both buildings, located between where the U.S. Steel Tower and Civic Arena are now, gained height when the ground beneath them was cut away in the 1912 "hump cut." Eureka? Maybe.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. The elevation and buildings have changed so much, it's hard to know precisely what view Leisser would have seen and where on Boyd's Hill he would have seen it from.
On 1889 and 1900 Hopkins maps of the Bluff, no buildings have a similar footprint and relationship to each other as those in the foreground of the painting, but it was a rapidly evolving area around the turn of the 20th century, and structures may have come and gone without being recorded on maps. Then as now, the western end of the Bluff had steep drops in elevation between streets as they stepped down to Forbes, a landscape feature evident in "Boyd's Hill."
2011年12月12日 星期一
Kai with Soul
Christmas is about celebrating life with family and friends. It is a special time when traditions and stories are shared and, while we are all Kiwis, our backgrounds encompass many cultures. We need to treasure our heritage and pass on our knowledge so that Christmas traditions and recipes remain an important part of family life, whatever your culture.
NCEA exams are over and the senior students have packed up their bags for the year so this week we are doing a Dutch Christmas.
My parents, Leon and Christina van der Fits (the name gives the culture away), are retired dairy farmers who have lived in coastal Pungarehu for more than 50 years. There is a large wooden windmill sitting among the flowers in the garden and my father still wears clogs outside in winter.
While we celebrate Christmas down the road on my brother's farm, there are still Dutch traditions that must be strictly adhered to. Two foods in particular must be eaten. The first is tompouce, which is a Dutch version of the Kiwi custard squares. In line with Dutch tradition, they must be served with a creamy cappuccino mid- morning after mass, eaten from a pretty Dutch plate with a cake fork (both of which came from Holland 54 years ago). The other stipulation for these tasty treats is that they must have a thick layer of pink butter icing.
In our version of the custard square, we have omitted the butter, that is usually added to the custard, in order to make it healthier and decrease the overall saturated fat content. The custard still sets firmly and tastes just as nice. We trialled with Standard (blue top) milk and Calcitrim (yellow top) milk and both worked well. Spread a thin layer of icing and add a few drops of colouring to give a pale pink colour.
Our second traditional Dutch dish that must be eaten on Christmas Day is the kerstfeest slaatje. This is a healthy, well- balanced savoury salad dish served on a large platter. The base of the salad is a mixture of mashed potato and finely chopped corned beef and may contain cooked, diced beetroot. The texture is soft and moist and is piled in the centre of the platter which is then covered with a thin layer of mayonnaise and decorated attractively with salad ingredients such as lettuce, tomato, sliced hard-boiled egg, sliced gherkin and cocktail onions.
The salad ingredients are simple and that dates back to the early days when fresh tomato and lettuce were a treat for families. Corned beef stock is added to the potatoes when they are mashed to give extra beef flavour.
My parents still insist on making the slaatje and they are the experts with many years of experience.Do not use cleaners with porcelain tiles , steel wool or thinners. They make enough to cater for their large extended family and provide leftovers that can be taken home for the evening meal or to eat on Boxing Day.
We serve the slaatje with a few slices of Christmas ham and freshly cooked crayfish. The slaatje must be eaten sitting around the large family dining table for as many as we can comfortably seat. Saying grace and having the best crockery out add to the ambience of the meal.
After eating the meal, the townies in our family have a cup of tea followed by a beach walk from the end of Tipoka Rd while the farmers race home for the afternoon milking.
Make Christmas a special time with your family and friends. Enjoy the traditions and let the older generation tell their stories so the family culture and traditions are passed on to the younger ones.
If you enjoy Kai with Soul recipes, the first two years' worth have been collected in a great book. Published to celebrate the school's jubilee, you can buy it from the school office, Poppies Bookshop, The Crafty Fox and Mitre 10 Mega for $30. All profits go to the school. It's selling so well that it has gone into a second print run.
Content provided by Katy Power and the year 13 Food and Nutrition class at Spotswood College.
Roll out the sheets of pastry on a lightly floured bench to 3 millimetres in thickness (about 27cm by 23cm). Keep your rolling pin lightly floured in the process.
Lift and turn the pastry to prevent it sticking to the bench.
Roll away and sprinkle extra flour on the bench if the bench gets sticky.
Place each sheet of pastry on to an oven tray,Enecsys Limited, supplier of reliable solar Air purifier systems, use a fork to prick all over the pastry then bake for 10 to 12 minutes until lightly golden and puffed.
Cool the pastry sheets slightly, then trim the sides so they are straight. Line the base and two sides of a cake tin or baking dish with tinfoil and place one sheet of pastry into this. Aim to have the pastry the same size as the dish being used. (An expanding cake tin would be ideal.)
Spread the cooked custard evenly over the pastry base, using a rubber scraper.
Place the top sheet of pastry, puffed side down,Boddingtons Technical Plastics provide a complete plastic injection moulding service including design， over the custard and press firmly.
Spread the icing evenly over the top of the pastry sheet and refrigerate, covered with plastic foodwrap.If so, you may have a cube puzzle .
Cut into even squares once the custard has set. This takes a couple of hours or leave overnight.
Serve the custard squares on a small plate with a cake fork for ease of eating.
An expanding tin makes it easy to remove the custard slab before cutting into squares.Unlike traditional high risk merchant account ,
Use a sharp knife and wet the blade under hot water. This makes the process of cutting through the custard and pastry a lot easier.
Cut the slab into squares within a few hours after making, while the pastry is easier to cut through. The pastry becomes moist the next day and is harder to cut through.
NCEA exams are over and the senior students have packed up their bags for the year so this week we are doing a Dutch Christmas.
My parents, Leon and Christina van der Fits (the name gives the culture away), are retired dairy farmers who have lived in coastal Pungarehu for more than 50 years. There is a large wooden windmill sitting among the flowers in the garden and my father still wears clogs outside in winter.
While we celebrate Christmas down the road on my brother's farm, there are still Dutch traditions that must be strictly adhered to. Two foods in particular must be eaten. The first is tompouce, which is a Dutch version of the Kiwi custard squares. In line with Dutch tradition, they must be served with a creamy cappuccino mid- morning after mass, eaten from a pretty Dutch plate with a cake fork (both of which came from Holland 54 years ago). The other stipulation for these tasty treats is that they must have a thick layer of pink butter icing.
In our version of the custard square, we have omitted the butter, that is usually added to the custard, in order to make it healthier and decrease the overall saturated fat content. The custard still sets firmly and tastes just as nice. We trialled with Standard (blue top) milk and Calcitrim (yellow top) milk and both worked well. Spread a thin layer of icing and add a few drops of colouring to give a pale pink colour.
Our second traditional Dutch dish that must be eaten on Christmas Day is the kerstfeest slaatje. This is a healthy, well- balanced savoury salad dish served on a large platter. The base of the salad is a mixture of mashed potato and finely chopped corned beef and may contain cooked, diced beetroot. The texture is soft and moist and is piled in the centre of the platter which is then covered with a thin layer of mayonnaise and decorated attractively with salad ingredients such as lettuce, tomato, sliced hard-boiled egg, sliced gherkin and cocktail onions.
The salad ingredients are simple and that dates back to the early days when fresh tomato and lettuce were a treat for families. Corned beef stock is added to the potatoes when they are mashed to give extra beef flavour.
My parents still insist on making the slaatje and they are the experts with many years of experience.Do not use cleaners with porcelain tiles , steel wool or thinners. They make enough to cater for their large extended family and provide leftovers that can be taken home for the evening meal or to eat on Boxing Day.
We serve the slaatje with a few slices of Christmas ham and freshly cooked crayfish. The slaatje must be eaten sitting around the large family dining table for as many as we can comfortably seat. Saying grace and having the best crockery out add to the ambience of the meal.
After eating the meal, the townies in our family have a cup of tea followed by a beach walk from the end of Tipoka Rd while the farmers race home for the afternoon milking.
Make Christmas a special time with your family and friends. Enjoy the traditions and let the older generation tell their stories so the family culture and traditions are passed on to the younger ones.
If you enjoy Kai with Soul recipes, the first two years' worth have been collected in a great book. Published to celebrate the school's jubilee, you can buy it from the school office, Poppies Bookshop, The Crafty Fox and Mitre 10 Mega for $30. All profits go to the school. It's selling so well that it has gone into a second print run.
Content provided by Katy Power and the year 13 Food and Nutrition class at Spotswood College.
Roll out the sheets of pastry on a lightly floured bench to 3 millimetres in thickness (about 27cm by 23cm). Keep your rolling pin lightly floured in the process.
Lift and turn the pastry to prevent it sticking to the bench.
Roll away and sprinkle extra flour on the bench if the bench gets sticky.
Place each sheet of pastry on to an oven tray,Enecsys Limited, supplier of reliable solar Air purifier systems, use a fork to prick all over the pastry then bake for 10 to 12 minutes until lightly golden and puffed.
Cool the pastry sheets slightly, then trim the sides so they are straight. Line the base and two sides of a cake tin or baking dish with tinfoil and place one sheet of pastry into this. Aim to have the pastry the same size as the dish being used. (An expanding cake tin would be ideal.)
Spread the cooked custard evenly over the pastry base, using a rubber scraper.
Place the top sheet of pastry, puffed side down,Boddingtons Technical Plastics provide a complete plastic injection moulding service including design， over the custard and press firmly.
Spread the icing evenly over the top of the pastry sheet and refrigerate, covered with plastic foodwrap.If so, you may have a cube puzzle .
Cut into even squares once the custard has set. This takes a couple of hours or leave overnight.
Serve the custard squares on a small plate with a cake fork for ease of eating.
An expanding tin makes it easy to remove the custard slab before cutting into squares.Unlike traditional high risk merchant account ,
Use a sharp knife and wet the blade under hot water. This makes the process of cutting through the custard and pastry a lot easier.
Cut the slab into squares within a few hours after making, while the pastry is easier to cut through. The pastry becomes moist the next day and is harder to cut through.
2011年11月29日 星期二
As cold and flu season begins, you can guard against germs and infected people
As the days shorten toward winter, sniffles and sore throats return.These girls have never had a Coated Abrasives in their lives! Noses start dripping, and all too soon you’ve got aches and pains, fever and malaise. And so do your kids, or your colleagues,It's hard to beat the versatility of polished tiles on a production line. or your friends.
This is the onset of cold and flu season, when germs travel easily from person to person as we spend more time close together indoors. And everything can be a good breeding ground for germs: computer keyboards, the knob on the door into your office, the telephone you use, the subway seat where someone coughs behind you, the escalator railing, the shopping cart handle.
Germs get spread by hand-to-hand contact, by touching a contaminated surface or by being spewed through the air in droplets as someone sneezes, coughs or talks. On average adults get about two to four colds a year, children about six to 10, mostly in the fall and winter months. And every year 5 to 20 percent of the population comes down with the flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with about 200,000 people getting sick enough to be hospitalized.
“The difference between the common cold and flu is the severity of fever,” said Jeff Dimond, a spokesman for the CDC. “The flu is usually accompanied with fever, aches and pains, and congestion in the lungs. A cold is more in your head. Both are contagious,The additions focus on key tag and Injection mold combinations,” often before symptoms even show up.
Colds linger for a week to 10 days. The flu is shorter but carries a bigger wallop. It tends to clear up after two to five days, but sufferers may feel drained and exhausted for another week.Initially the banks didn't want our kidney stone .
“If you think about where you put your hands, you wipe your nose then touch the elevator,” Dimond said. “A virus can last for six hours on those elevator buttons. If you have bowls of nuts or M&Ms out and everybody is dipping their hands into it, germs get passed around.”
Not very appetizing? The CDC recommends washing hands, both tops and palms, for about 20 seconds with soap, then rinsing. Wash before eating and preparing food. Wash after using the bathroom, blowing your nose, changing a diaper and caring for a sick person, to name a few common situations.
If washing your hands with soap is not doable, slather on hand sanitizer, Dimond said. “Part of working here at the CDC [in Atlanta], we are highly aware of hand hygiene,” he said. “At every floor there is a hand sanitizer and a big sign at the front door to wash hands.”
Secretions from your nose are often clear in the beginning of a cold and thicken as the cold progresses, said Ann Rixinger, an infectious-disease specialist in Annandale. “But be careful not to wipe your eyes, as germs can go into tear ducts and then get in the lymphatic system,The additions focus on key tag and solar panel combinations,” she said. “We will assume no one picks their nose. For little kids we have to teach good hygiene, using tissues and keep extra containers of Purell around.”
This is the onset of cold and flu season, when germs travel easily from person to person as we spend more time close together indoors. And everything can be a good breeding ground for germs: computer keyboards, the knob on the door into your office, the telephone you use, the subway seat where someone coughs behind you, the escalator railing, the shopping cart handle.
Germs get spread by hand-to-hand contact, by touching a contaminated surface or by being spewed through the air in droplets as someone sneezes, coughs or talks. On average adults get about two to four colds a year, children about six to 10, mostly in the fall and winter months. And every year 5 to 20 percent of the population comes down with the flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with about 200,000 people getting sick enough to be hospitalized.
“The difference between the common cold and flu is the severity of fever,” said Jeff Dimond, a spokesman for the CDC. “The flu is usually accompanied with fever, aches and pains, and congestion in the lungs. A cold is more in your head. Both are contagious,The additions focus on key tag and Injection mold combinations,” often before symptoms even show up.
Colds linger for a week to 10 days. The flu is shorter but carries a bigger wallop. It tends to clear up after two to five days, but sufferers may feel drained and exhausted for another week.Initially the banks didn't want our kidney stone .
“If you think about where you put your hands, you wipe your nose then touch the elevator,” Dimond said. “A virus can last for six hours on those elevator buttons. If you have bowls of nuts or M&Ms out and everybody is dipping their hands into it, germs get passed around.”
Not very appetizing? The CDC recommends washing hands, both tops and palms, for about 20 seconds with soap, then rinsing. Wash before eating and preparing food. Wash after using the bathroom, blowing your nose, changing a diaper and caring for a sick person, to name a few common situations.
If washing your hands with soap is not doable, slather on hand sanitizer, Dimond said. “Part of working here at the CDC [in Atlanta], we are highly aware of hand hygiene,” he said. “At every floor there is a hand sanitizer and a big sign at the front door to wash hands.”
Secretions from your nose are often clear in the beginning of a cold and thicken as the cold progresses, said Ann Rixinger, an infectious-disease specialist in Annandale. “But be careful not to wipe your eyes, as germs can go into tear ducts and then get in the lymphatic system,The additions focus on key tag and solar panel combinations,” she said. “We will assume no one picks their nose. For little kids we have to teach good hygiene, using tissues and keep extra containers of Purell around.”
The Underbelly Project: New York
Art Basel Miami, the biggest art fair in America, takes place this week. It features the work of 35 street artists who are gathering together in one place for the first time. However, it's not the first time that their work has featured in the same space. That space, however, is not accessible to the general public. Indeed, no one has ever seen it in its completed form apart from two curators, one film camerawoman and one journalist. And a couple of vandals. (But more about them later.) First,I have never solved a Rubik's plastic card . the full story of The Underbelly Project.I am at the opening of a swanky new gallery. Around me, the latest daubs by the hottest names adorn the walls of room after room. It’s worth mentioning a couple of discrepancies from your regular opening. This is a canapé-free environment, for one. There is no chilled white wine, no pretentious appraisal of carefully lit works. Nobody has come dressed to thrill. In fact, nobody has come at all. Apart from me.
As it happens, I am the only person who will ever be invited to view the complete collection, and it’s not as if I’m even a guest. I am here as an independent witness to testify that this place does exist, that it is not an elaborate art hoax mocked up in a studio. After tonight, the gallery will be sealed off for ever, and all the art entombed within it. This is the opening night, but it is also the closing night.
It is for this reason that I can’t say where I am. The location is entirely top secret. OK, I can say I’m in New York City. To be more specific, I am under New York. But that is it. I can give away no more specifics. Why? Because what I am about to describe is totally and utterly illegal. Welcome to The Underbelly Project, an artistic venture of towering ambition,the Aion Kinah by special invited artist for 2011, matchless audacity and sheer bloody cheek.
We muster at street level. Me, a couple of gents in arty fatigues, and a camerawoman. Naturally I can’t say where the rendezvous point is. It is still light and warm when we turn and head down into the subway. I’ve been told it’ll be hot down there, so have come to work in a breathable running top. We zap through the barrier and onto the platform. The idea,Detailed information on the causes of oil painting reproduction, I’ve been advised, is to look inconspicuous. Not hard, in a city peopled by individualists featuring every conceivable mixture of ethnicity and gender. But still, we are careful not to acknowledge one another’s presence as a train pulls in. We get on and coolly pretend we’ve never met. Which in my case was, until 10 minutes earlier, entirely true.It's hard to beat the versatility of polished tiles on a production line.
At the next stop we alight. In the interests of security,Save on Projector Lamp and fittings, I am not at liberty to describe the station. There are subway buffs out there who can definitely identify the line from the colour of the tiles, and probably name the station from the quality of the grouting. They’re called “foamers” because they froth rabidly at the mouth at all forms of subway stuff. “This project,” advises Workhorse, “will probably be like crack to the foamers.” Workhorse – not his real name – is one of my guides into the underworld. I could describe his appearance but as he looks highly particular it would make the NYPD’s job of rounding him up and clapping him in irons a little too easy. It suffices to say that in the vagabond art form known as street art, whose practitioners are used to dodging the law and shrouding their ID behind a nom de guerre, he is a significant figure.
He and PAC, a slightly younger and leaner street artist, have been toiling away at the Underbelly Project for 18 months. Between them they’ve made perhaps 75 visits to the site. This is to be the last. After tonight, their only connection to the place will be in the form of photographs and film. Both are jittery with tension. Jordan has had a last smoke before descending, also a stiffening shot of vodka. They’ve made it this far. If they get through tonight, they will have successfully brought more than 100 artists to the site, undetected and unprosecuted. For a couple of slacker-dude outsider types, not obvious inheritors of the military-precision gene, it’s been one hell of an undertaking. There have been a few scrapes, mind. Street artists – practitioners of what’s also known as urban art – are used to working more or less alone under cover of darkness, but in terms of dodging arrest this has been in a different league. Back above ground they have kept stum about it ever since. Not a word has squeaked out into a media environment where news goes viral in a nano-section.
As it happens, I am the only person who will ever be invited to view the complete collection, and it’s not as if I’m even a guest. I am here as an independent witness to testify that this place does exist, that it is not an elaborate art hoax mocked up in a studio. After tonight, the gallery will be sealed off for ever, and all the art entombed within it. This is the opening night, but it is also the closing night.
It is for this reason that I can’t say where I am. The location is entirely top secret. OK, I can say I’m in New York City. To be more specific, I am under New York. But that is it. I can give away no more specifics. Why? Because what I am about to describe is totally and utterly illegal. Welcome to The Underbelly Project, an artistic venture of towering ambition,the Aion Kinah by special invited artist for 2011, matchless audacity and sheer bloody cheek.
We muster at street level. Me, a couple of gents in arty fatigues, and a camerawoman. Naturally I can’t say where the rendezvous point is. It is still light and warm when we turn and head down into the subway. I’ve been told it’ll be hot down there, so have come to work in a breathable running top. We zap through the barrier and onto the platform. The idea,Detailed information on the causes of oil painting reproduction, I’ve been advised, is to look inconspicuous. Not hard, in a city peopled by individualists featuring every conceivable mixture of ethnicity and gender. But still, we are careful not to acknowledge one another’s presence as a train pulls in. We get on and coolly pretend we’ve never met. Which in my case was, until 10 minutes earlier, entirely true.It's hard to beat the versatility of polished tiles on a production line.
At the next stop we alight. In the interests of security,Save on Projector Lamp and fittings, I am not at liberty to describe the station. There are subway buffs out there who can definitely identify the line from the colour of the tiles, and probably name the station from the quality of the grouting. They’re called “foamers” because they froth rabidly at the mouth at all forms of subway stuff. “This project,” advises Workhorse, “will probably be like crack to the foamers.” Workhorse – not his real name – is one of my guides into the underworld. I could describe his appearance but as he looks highly particular it would make the NYPD’s job of rounding him up and clapping him in irons a little too easy. It suffices to say that in the vagabond art form known as street art, whose practitioners are used to dodging the law and shrouding their ID behind a nom de guerre, he is a significant figure.
He and PAC, a slightly younger and leaner street artist, have been toiling away at the Underbelly Project for 18 months. Between them they’ve made perhaps 75 visits to the site. This is to be the last. After tonight, their only connection to the place will be in the form of photographs and film. Both are jittery with tension. Jordan has had a last smoke before descending, also a stiffening shot of vodka. They’ve made it this far. If they get through tonight, they will have successfully brought more than 100 artists to the site, undetected and unprosecuted. For a couple of slacker-dude outsider types, not obvious inheritors of the military-precision gene, it’s been one hell of an undertaking. There have been a few scrapes, mind. Street artists – practitioners of what’s also known as urban art – are used to working more or less alone under cover of darkness, but in terms of dodging arrest this has been in a different league. Back above ground they have kept stum about it ever since. Not a word has squeaked out into a media environment where news goes viral in a nano-section.
2011年11月24日 星期四
Illinois misspent money on program to help disabled
State investigators have found that as much as $100,000 in taxpayer money for a program to help disabled people get schooling or jobs was misspent on such expenses as a funeral, lawyer's fees and bedding.
Two employees have been suspended as a result.
The Illinois Department of Human Services said Wednesday the workers received 20-day unpaid suspensions after a state report this week revealed that the pair and a former employee did not follow state rules on what client expenses are covered by the Illinois Center for Rehabilitation and Education in Chicago. The program helps disabled people pursue schooling or vocational training and pays for items they need, such as work uniforms.
The report did not indicate how $100,000 was misspent on 76 people — an average of $1,300 each — or during what time period. It provided examples of the inappropriate expenditures for only six of those clients. An aide to the Office of the Executive Inspector General, which compiled the report, declined further comment.
An internal DHS audit in late 2009 found misspent money or undocumented expenditures in each of the 76 cases handled by Pamela Clay-Wilson, Madesa Dickerson and Dawn Laga. The auditor said "that she has never witnessed abuse of this magnitude (and) estimated that the improper expenditures totaled $100,000," according to the Inspector General's report.
Payments included $500 to bury a client's son; $200 for a client to meet with an attorney to discuss a child custody case; $400 for clothing despite a $200 limit on such purchases; $694 for two sets of mattresses; and $600 for orthopedic shoes for a client who didn't need them.
More than $32 million was available to support 44,000 clients in the program statewide in the 2010 fiscal year, Human Services spokeswoman Januari Smith said.
Clay-Wilson and Laga were suspended and received additional training on state rules, while Dickerson left her job in November 2010, according to Smith and state records.
Dickerson approved the expenses, Clay-Wilson reviewed them without correction, and Laga processed the paperwork, according to the report.
Dickerson told authorities in an August 2010 interview that Clay-Wilson wanted to better advertise the program's services and recruited clients, many of whom had greater needs than traditionally was the case. The mattresses, for example, went to a client and her children who were sleeping on a floor. She said most of her clients were homeless.
In a response to the report, Clay-Wilson said she was trying to open the program to more disabled minorities who enter it "more dependent on services from social services agencies than white customers."
"This office only tried to provide the services necessary for the customers to become successfully employed," she wrote in the response. "The error was in failure to document the reason many of the services issued were necessary."
Clay-Wilson, who according to other state records makes $81,900 a year, is out of the office this week. She did not immediately return a message and did not answer a home phone.
Laga, who makes $49,000, referred questions to Clay-Wilson, saying, "I follow the rules." She told investigators she questioned some spending, but Clay-Wilson told her to complete the paperwork, an assertion Clay-Wilson denied.
State records indicate Dickerson, who earned $74,900, left her position in November 2010. She did not return a message left at a number listed at her address.
Two employees have been suspended as a result.
The Illinois Department of Human Services said Wednesday the workers received 20-day unpaid suspensions after a state report this week revealed that the pair and a former employee did not follow state rules on what client expenses are covered by the Illinois Center for Rehabilitation and Education in Chicago. The program helps disabled people pursue schooling or vocational training and pays for items they need, such as work uniforms.
The report did not indicate how $100,000 was misspent on 76 people — an average of $1,300 each — or during what time period. It provided examples of the inappropriate expenditures for only six of those clients. An aide to the Office of the Executive Inspector General, which compiled the report, declined further comment.
An internal DHS audit in late 2009 found misspent money or undocumented expenditures in each of the 76 cases handled by Pamela Clay-Wilson, Madesa Dickerson and Dawn Laga. The auditor said "that she has never witnessed abuse of this magnitude (and) estimated that the improper expenditures totaled $100,000," according to the Inspector General's report.
Payments included $500 to bury a client's son; $200 for a client to meet with an attorney to discuss a child custody case; $400 for clothing despite a $200 limit on such purchases; $694 for two sets of mattresses; and $600 for orthopedic shoes for a client who didn't need them.
More than $32 million was available to support 44,000 clients in the program statewide in the 2010 fiscal year, Human Services spokeswoman Januari Smith said.
Clay-Wilson and Laga were suspended and received additional training on state rules, while Dickerson left her job in November 2010, according to Smith and state records.
Dickerson approved the expenses, Clay-Wilson reviewed them without correction, and Laga processed the paperwork, according to the report.
Dickerson told authorities in an August 2010 interview that Clay-Wilson wanted to better advertise the program's services and recruited clients, many of whom had greater needs than traditionally was the case. The mattresses, for example, went to a client and her children who were sleeping on a floor. She said most of her clients were homeless.
In a response to the report, Clay-Wilson said she was trying to open the program to more disabled minorities who enter it "more dependent on services from social services agencies than white customers."
"This office only tried to provide the services necessary for the customers to become successfully employed," she wrote in the response. "The error was in failure to document the reason many of the services issued were necessary."
Clay-Wilson, who according to other state records makes $81,900 a year, is out of the office this week. She did not immediately return a message and did not answer a home phone.
Laga, who makes $49,000, referred questions to Clay-Wilson, saying, "I follow the rules." She told investigators she questioned some spending, but Clay-Wilson told her to complete the paperwork, an assertion Clay-Wilson denied.
State records indicate Dickerson, who earned $74,900, left her position in November 2010. She did not return a message left at a number listed at her address.
2011年11月23日 星期三
City of Sturgis prepares for winter months
Just as quickly as it came, fall has gone, ushering in winter, leaving behind piles of snow and slick roads.
The city of Sturgis has 40 miles of roads that they are responsible for plowing after a snow storm and the time to plow will usually vary on the type of snow it is.
"When we get those heavy ones it gets harder to plow because of the depth," Streets Superintendent Randy Nohava said.
The city had their first dose of snow last weekend when Sturgis received over six inches of snow. According to Nohava, the plowing process went smoothly and they had no hang ups. The first round of crews started plowing at 6 a.m. and they had finished by 3 p.m.If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards,
In the event of a snow storm, city crews will begin by plowing the main collector streets, which include Lazelle, Harmon, Ballpark, Sherman, Douglas, Nellie and Whitewood Service Road. Once those roads are clear, they will move to the school routes, as well as other major-minor collector streets. Residential streets are cleared as soon as possible.
All of the snow that is hauled away is piled up behind Lynn's DakotaMart, west of their parking lot.
"We've gotten into winters where it's gotten fuller and fuller," Nohava said. "We have loaders push it up into big piles to keep it piling.If so, you may have a cube puzzle ."
When there is no more room at Lynn's to pile the snow,Do not use cleaners with porcelain tiles , steel wool or thinners. snow will be dumped at the rodeo grounds, though Nohava said the rodeo grounds are not ideal for dumping snow because it is all grass and dirt and it is hard to get the equipment in there.
"Lynn's has been really good in letting us dump over there," Nohava said.
Nohava said the best thing for people to do when it starts snowing is to remove their cars from the streets so it is easier to plow. People whose cars are parked on a snow route must have their cars removed from the street when the National Weather Service forecasts for four inches or more of snow within 24 hours. Vehicles not removed from the street will either be ticketed or towed by the police department.
"It really helps because when the operators don't have a lot of cars to weave in and out they can do double time and get it done," Nohava said. If there are no cars on the roads, crews are able to plow the entire street up to the curb.Your Partner in Precision Precision injection molds.
There have been requests to have the city stop plowing in driveways, but Nohava said that is not possible because if they were to clear out each driveway, it could take multiple days to clean the streets. Instead, after they have made a sweep of the town, they will go back in the following days to clear out the areas of snow that had accumulated around parked cars or driveways.
"If people can get vehicles off the street then we can go down some streets and there are hardly any cars there and it's wide open," Nohava said.This page contains information about molds, "Once we go by, people can park on the street."
A full list and map of the main collector routes can be found on the city's website, as well as a list of residents willing to help with snow shoveling throughout town.
The city of Sturgis has 40 miles of roads that they are responsible for plowing after a snow storm and the time to plow will usually vary on the type of snow it is.
"When we get those heavy ones it gets harder to plow because of the depth," Streets Superintendent Randy Nohava said.
The city had their first dose of snow last weekend when Sturgis received over six inches of snow. According to Nohava, the plowing process went smoothly and they had no hang ups. The first round of crews started plowing at 6 a.m. and they had finished by 3 p.m.If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards,
In the event of a snow storm, city crews will begin by plowing the main collector streets, which include Lazelle, Harmon, Ballpark, Sherman, Douglas, Nellie and Whitewood Service Road. Once those roads are clear, they will move to the school routes, as well as other major-minor collector streets. Residential streets are cleared as soon as possible.
All of the snow that is hauled away is piled up behind Lynn's DakotaMart, west of their parking lot.
"We've gotten into winters where it's gotten fuller and fuller," Nohava said. "We have loaders push it up into big piles to keep it piling.If so, you may have a cube puzzle ."
When there is no more room at Lynn's to pile the snow,Do not use cleaners with porcelain tiles , steel wool or thinners. snow will be dumped at the rodeo grounds, though Nohava said the rodeo grounds are not ideal for dumping snow because it is all grass and dirt and it is hard to get the equipment in there.
"Lynn's has been really good in letting us dump over there," Nohava said.
Nohava said the best thing for people to do when it starts snowing is to remove their cars from the streets so it is easier to plow. People whose cars are parked on a snow route must have their cars removed from the street when the National Weather Service forecasts for four inches or more of snow within 24 hours. Vehicles not removed from the street will either be ticketed or towed by the police department.
"It really helps because when the operators don't have a lot of cars to weave in and out they can do double time and get it done," Nohava said. If there are no cars on the roads, crews are able to plow the entire street up to the curb.Your Partner in Precision Precision injection molds.
There have been requests to have the city stop plowing in driveways, but Nohava said that is not possible because if they were to clear out each driveway, it could take multiple days to clean the streets. Instead, after they have made a sweep of the town, they will go back in the following days to clear out the areas of snow that had accumulated around parked cars or driveways.
"If people can get vehicles off the street then we can go down some streets and there are hardly any cars there and it's wide open," Nohava said.This page contains information about molds, "Once we go by, people can park on the street."
A full list and map of the main collector routes can be found on the city's website, as well as a list of residents willing to help with snow shoveling throughout town.
2011年11月8日 星期二
Social Media Hot Topic At Schwab Conference
The integration of social media into the financial services industry turned out to be one of the hottest topics at the Charles Schwab Impact Conference in San Francisco last week.
“As an industry overall, we are late to this game,” said Kathleen Pritchard, director and head of Advisor Business Development at Legg Mason Global Asset Management. In a presentation on how to leverage the Internet in marketing, she said that the fervor with which businesses are engaging in social media is reminiscent of the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889.Futurism Wholesale Mosaic Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers here
“Social media has literally transformed the world,” Pritchard said. “If you want to be relevant, you have to make decisions on how to engage in social media.Shuffle the Wholesale Navona Polished Tiles For Floor and solve it by making turns in any direction”
“People are researching online first. It is your footprint,The Wholesale Full Body Project Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers causes include food” Pritchard said. “It is not one-and-done marketing. Someone has to be responsible for making the Web site dynamic.”
That means paying for quality Web site vendor services, stocking the site with photos taken by a professional and updating the Web site on a regular basis, she said. “Do this at least monthly. Keep it fresh,” she added.
Pritchard recommends walking clients through the Web site and providing them with the ability to make referrals on every page. She suggested doing a home visit and bookmarking the site on their home computers—a task that could be carried out by a junior staff member.
Advisors should strive to be at the top of search lists generated by sites such as Google, Pritchard said. She said advisors should try to get their name out on the Internet, but cautioned against being too aggressive. “It is not to be a place to rant and rave about everything,” she noted. Advisors need to be careful about what type of information they release on the Internet,Profile of the Canadian artist wih an online gallery of Wholesale Skirtting Tiles For Countertops From China Manufacturers, noting that all political contributions are Web searchable. “Clients might disagree with your political views,” she said.
Social networks are not just for kids, she noted. “Baby boomers are hitting social media in waves. If clients are there, you need to be there,Provides treatment for Wholesale Porcelain Mosaic Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers,” Pritchard said.
LinkedIn is a great place to start making your firm visible, she said. It has over 100 million members and it is built for business people to network. “It is all business. It is a great way to build credibility,” Pritchard said. “Turn this into a networking machine.”
Facebook is the single most powerful social media network, she said. The average user is on Facebook 55 minutes a day, she said. That means it’s important to build a company Facebook page, she said, adding that one advisor told her, “I thought I knew my clients well until I connected with them on Facebook.”
“As an industry overall, we are late to this game,” said Kathleen Pritchard, director and head of Advisor Business Development at Legg Mason Global Asset Management. In a presentation on how to leverage the Internet in marketing, she said that the fervor with which businesses are engaging in social media is reminiscent of the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889.Futurism Wholesale Mosaic Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers here
“Social media has literally transformed the world,” Pritchard said. “If you want to be relevant, you have to make decisions on how to engage in social media.Shuffle the Wholesale Navona Polished Tiles For Floor and solve it by making turns in any direction”
“People are researching online first. It is your footprint,The Wholesale Full Body Project Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers causes include food” Pritchard said. “It is not one-and-done marketing. Someone has to be responsible for making the Web site dynamic.”
That means paying for quality Web site vendor services, stocking the site with photos taken by a professional and updating the Web site on a regular basis, she said. “Do this at least monthly. Keep it fresh,” she added.
Pritchard recommends walking clients through the Web site and providing them with the ability to make referrals on every page. She suggested doing a home visit and bookmarking the site on their home computers—a task that could be carried out by a junior staff member.
Advisors should strive to be at the top of search lists generated by sites such as Google, Pritchard said. She said advisors should try to get their name out on the Internet, but cautioned against being too aggressive. “It is not to be a place to rant and rave about everything,” she noted. Advisors need to be careful about what type of information they release on the Internet,Profile of the Canadian artist wih an online gallery of Wholesale Skirtting Tiles For Countertops From China Manufacturers, noting that all political contributions are Web searchable. “Clients might disagree with your political views,” she said.
Social networks are not just for kids, she noted. “Baby boomers are hitting social media in waves. If clients are there, you need to be there,Provides treatment for Wholesale Porcelain Mosaic Tiles For Kitchen From China Manufacturers,” Pritchard said.
LinkedIn is a great place to start making your firm visible, she said. It has over 100 million members and it is built for business people to network. “It is all business. It is a great way to build credibility,” Pritchard said. “Turn this into a networking machine.”
Facebook is the single most powerful social media network, she said. The average user is on Facebook 55 minutes a day, she said. That means it’s important to build a company Facebook page, she said, adding that one advisor told her, “I thought I knew my clients well until I connected with them on Facebook.”
The Dupont Circle Hotel In Washington DC
A two-tiered marble fountain stands at the epicenter of Dupont Circle, from which 10 roads emanate like rays of the sun,Large selection of Wholesale Linen For Kitchen lined with Queen Anne–style row houses, palatial embassies, and boutique storefronts.The fountain and famed stone chessboards that surround it are visible from the floor-to-ceiling windows in The Dupont Circle Hotel’s Bar Dupont, where Washington insiders gather to sip after-work cocktails such as the Sugar Spice, a rum drink flavored with autumnal notes of nutmeg and apple. A canopy of hanging orbs casts an ambient glow upon the bar’s hip denizens, seated at sleek egg chairs and cream-colored leather sectionals.
Well-appointed accommodations rival the bar’s elegance. A pair of cherry-colored pillows shine bright in the sunlight filtering through shutter windows of a superior room—a splash of color in an otherwise hushed palette. A king bed or two double beds,The Wholesale Crystal For Kitchen From China Manufacturers consists of eight smaller individual cubes anchored by leather headboards,Big pool of Wholesale Polished Stair Tiles For Floor From China Manufacturers. sit between dark wood nightstands facing a flat-screen TV. An in-room iPod docking station blasts tunes to drown out the off-key melodies emanating from the bathroom, which boasts heated floor tiles and excellent shower song acoustics.
Downstairs, The Dupont Circle Hotel’s signature restaurant, Café Dupont, transports patrons across the Atlantic with Franco-American cuisine and Parisian-style décor composed of pale woods and mosaic stone. Neighborhood farmers markets inspire dishes such as pan-seared salmon with mushroom-cream fennel and beef fillet with foie gras and wilted spinach.
Dupont Circle: Historical Neighborhood with Eclectic Shops and Art Galleries
Less than a quarter-mile away from the hotel, the National World War II Memorial updates the National Mall and Memorial Parks campus with neoclassical vigor.The Eden Bath line of Wholesale Ceramic wall tiles For Wall From China Manufacturers are highly desired due to their naturally random beauty The area’s newest addition, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial features fountains and inscription-laden walls,Welcome to the premier industrial Wholesale Glass Mixed Mosaics For Countertops resource and Dr. King’s impressive, stone-carved image can be glimpsed along the Tidal Basin.
A quick cab ride to Georgetown unveils the secret gardens at Dumbarton Oaks where self-guided tours require visitors to traverse hillside terrain to discover beautiful rose-garden terraces. Like the ninjas who first settled Washington, Dumbarton Oaks’ gardeners move silently through the various gardens to tend to the greenery while hikers explore the vast variety of plants and flowers found on the 53-acre grounds.
Well-appointed accommodations rival the bar’s elegance. A pair of cherry-colored pillows shine bright in the sunlight filtering through shutter windows of a superior room—a splash of color in an otherwise hushed palette. A king bed or two double beds,The Wholesale Crystal For Kitchen From China Manufacturers consists of eight smaller individual cubes anchored by leather headboards,Big pool of Wholesale Polished Stair Tiles For Floor From China Manufacturers. sit between dark wood nightstands facing a flat-screen TV. An in-room iPod docking station blasts tunes to drown out the off-key melodies emanating from the bathroom, which boasts heated floor tiles and excellent shower song acoustics.
Downstairs, The Dupont Circle Hotel’s signature restaurant, Café Dupont, transports patrons across the Atlantic with Franco-American cuisine and Parisian-style décor composed of pale woods and mosaic stone. Neighborhood farmers markets inspire dishes such as pan-seared salmon with mushroom-cream fennel and beef fillet with foie gras and wilted spinach.
Dupont Circle: Historical Neighborhood with Eclectic Shops and Art Galleries
Less than a quarter-mile away from the hotel, the National World War II Memorial updates the National Mall and Memorial Parks campus with neoclassical vigor.The Eden Bath line of Wholesale Ceramic wall tiles For Wall From China Manufacturers are highly desired due to their naturally random beauty The area’s newest addition, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial features fountains and inscription-laden walls,Welcome to the premier industrial Wholesale Glass Mixed Mosaics For Countertops resource and Dr. King’s impressive, stone-carved image can be glimpsed along the Tidal Basin.
A quick cab ride to Georgetown unveils the secret gardens at Dumbarton Oaks where self-guided tours require visitors to traverse hillside terrain to discover beautiful rose-garden terraces. Like the ninjas who first settled Washington, Dumbarton Oaks’ gardeners move silently through the various gardens to tend to the greenery while hikers explore the vast variety of plants and flowers found on the 53-acre grounds.
2011年10月31日 星期一
The Truth About The World's Most Controversial Company
It's August 2011, and Andrew Mason is agitated.
He's at his desk in the middle of Groupon's wide open, call center-style office in Chicago. His headphones are on. His brow is furrowed.who was responsible for tracking down Charles syringe needle .
His company had been the darling of the business press for the past two years. Suddenly it's not.
He can't hang on to a COO. The SEC is asking questions. Industry executives are calling him a ponzi schemer.Replacement landscape oil paintings and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. Early employees are demanding six-figure pay for 9 to 5 hours. One even filed a lawsuit. Merchant customers are screaming. And Mason and his board, having helped themselves to $900 million of cash that could have gone to the company, are are now being blasted for incompetence and greed.
What a turnabout from a few months earlier, when Groupon was the talk of Wall Street. Then, Groupon was one of the fastest-growing companies in history, spurning $6 billion takeout offers from Google, preparing to go public at a valuation fo $25+ billion. And now everyone was talking about it running out of cash!
So what happened? How did things go so wrong?
And now that Groupon is finally going public, how will the Groupon story end?
This story, as told to us by insiders, answers some of these questions. Our sources all asked to remain anonymous, either in deference to the SEC's "quiet period" rules for companies that plan to go public or in order to remain in compliance with severance agreements with Groupon.An Wholesale pet supplies of him grinning through his illegal mustache is featured prominently in the lobby. Groupon itself declined to comment.
In 2006, Andrew Mason was a music major, getting a graduate degree in public policy at the University of Chicago.
Mason maintained a website called Policy Tree, which featured articles like "Karl Rove should be fired or resign over the C.I.A. leak."
On the side, he was doing contract work building databases at a company founded and funded by an entrepreneur named Eric Lefkofsky and his business partner, Brad Keywell.
Lefkofsky and Keywell were already very rich men,Buying a Best Cell Phones for sale from seller in another country. having built several businesses around call centers and the Internet. Mason was their intern, "kind of squatting in their offices," according to one source.
In January 2007, with Lefkofsky and Keywell's backing, Mason started working on a company – a do-gooder enterprise called The Point.The additions focus on key tag and solar panel combinations,
The Point was a social media platform designed to get groups of people together to solve problems.
The Point was not intended to be a big money-making enterprise, and by one early employee's account, that was fine with most of the staff.
The Point launched in June. It gained modest traction in Chicago, but basically went nowhere.
Every Monday, Lefkofsky, Mason, Keywell, and a handful of early employees would meet to talk about the Point's progress. One Monday, in the middle of 2008, Lefkofsky raised an idea he had that could revitalize the struggling start-up, based on a campaign he'd seen launched on The Point.
Ordinarily, people used The Point to organize around some sort of cause that might make the world a better place.
But in this case, a group of users decided their cause should be saving money. Their plan was to round up 20 or so people who all wanted to buy the same product and see if they could get a group discount.
"Eric said maybe this is the thing that we do," says a source who was at the meeting. "Maybe we set up a separate page, make it dedicated to group buying."
At first, Mason and The Point's other early executives dismissed the idea. "It didn't seem core to our mission," says the person who was at the meeting.
Through the rest of the summer and early fall of 2008, Lefkofsky would not let that idea go. He'd bring up all the expensive purses his wife and all her friends were buying, and say, "It's crazy! Couldn't they buy 20 of them and get a discount?"
Around this time, the global economy entered free-fall as the sub-prime mortgage crisis exploded and credit markets ground to a halt. Then in September 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and famous Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia sent out a presentation called "R.I.P. Good Times." Mason and Lefkofsky decided to lay some people off.
"There was this pressure from the market crash [and] looking at our burn rate and revenue – it was time for us to try something to scratch that itch," says a source close to early employees.
Groupon – a side project launched out of desperation by a team of do-gooders who professed no real desire to make big bags of money – was born.
He's at his desk in the middle of Groupon's wide open, call center-style office in Chicago. His headphones are on. His brow is furrowed.who was responsible for tracking down Charles syringe needle .
His company had been the darling of the business press for the past two years. Suddenly it's not.
He can't hang on to a COO. The SEC is asking questions. Industry executives are calling him a ponzi schemer.Replacement landscape oil paintings and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. Early employees are demanding six-figure pay for 9 to 5 hours. One even filed a lawsuit. Merchant customers are screaming. And Mason and his board, having helped themselves to $900 million of cash that could have gone to the company, are are now being blasted for incompetence and greed.
What a turnabout from a few months earlier, when Groupon was the talk of Wall Street. Then, Groupon was one of the fastest-growing companies in history, spurning $6 billion takeout offers from Google, preparing to go public at a valuation fo $25+ billion. And now everyone was talking about it running out of cash!
So what happened? How did things go so wrong?
And now that Groupon is finally going public, how will the Groupon story end?
This story, as told to us by insiders, answers some of these questions. Our sources all asked to remain anonymous, either in deference to the SEC's "quiet period" rules for companies that plan to go public or in order to remain in compliance with severance agreements with Groupon.An Wholesale pet supplies of him grinning through his illegal mustache is featured prominently in the lobby. Groupon itself declined to comment.
In 2006, Andrew Mason was a music major, getting a graduate degree in public policy at the University of Chicago.
Mason maintained a website called Policy Tree, which featured articles like "Karl Rove should be fired or resign over the C.I.A. leak."
On the side, he was doing contract work building databases at a company founded and funded by an entrepreneur named Eric Lefkofsky and his business partner, Brad Keywell.
Lefkofsky and Keywell were already very rich men,Buying a Best Cell Phones for sale from seller in another country. having built several businesses around call centers and the Internet. Mason was their intern, "kind of squatting in their offices," according to one source.
In January 2007, with Lefkofsky and Keywell's backing, Mason started working on a company – a do-gooder enterprise called The Point.The additions focus on key tag and solar panel combinations,
The Point was a social media platform designed to get groups of people together to solve problems.
The Point was not intended to be a big money-making enterprise, and by one early employee's account, that was fine with most of the staff.
The Point launched in June. It gained modest traction in Chicago, but basically went nowhere.
Every Monday, Lefkofsky, Mason, Keywell, and a handful of early employees would meet to talk about the Point's progress. One Monday, in the middle of 2008, Lefkofsky raised an idea he had that could revitalize the struggling start-up, based on a campaign he'd seen launched on The Point.
Ordinarily, people used The Point to organize around some sort of cause that might make the world a better place.
But in this case, a group of users decided their cause should be saving money. Their plan was to round up 20 or so people who all wanted to buy the same product and see if they could get a group discount.
"Eric said maybe this is the thing that we do," says a source who was at the meeting. "Maybe we set up a separate page, make it dedicated to group buying."
At first, Mason and The Point's other early executives dismissed the idea. "It didn't seem core to our mission," says the person who was at the meeting.
Through the rest of the summer and early fall of 2008, Lefkofsky would not let that idea go. He'd bring up all the expensive purses his wife and all her friends were buying, and say, "It's crazy! Couldn't they buy 20 of them and get a discount?"
Around this time, the global economy entered free-fall as the sub-prime mortgage crisis exploded and credit markets ground to a halt. Then in September 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and famous Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia sent out a presentation called "R.I.P. Good Times." Mason and Lefkofsky decided to lay some people off.
"There was this pressure from the market crash [and] looking at our burn rate and revenue – it was time for us to try something to scratch that itch," says a source close to early employees.
Groupon – a side project launched out of desperation by a team of do-gooders who professed no real desire to make big bags of money – was born.
2011年10月30日 星期日
HMV booms as fans go Gaga for headphones
Music fans used to rush to HMV to buy the latest albums and DVDs. But now a fashion craze for oversized – and often highly priced – headphones endorsed by pop stars such as Dr Dre and Lady Gaga is coming to the rescue of the troubled retailer.
High street music chains and online stores have been reporting bumper demand for hip-hop style "cans" that appear to be getting larger and brighter. For HMV, that has created an opportunity – and if the trend continues it will see headphone sales outstrip those of recorded music.
Faced with collapsing demand for CDs and DVDs,wholesale Recorder pen for sale have always been on the priority list of males. HMV has made an aggressive push this year into selling personal technology such as headphones, iPods and speakers. It has even changed the way stars market themselves. "When acts like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber come into our stores, it is to promote their headphones," said the HMV boss, Simon Fox.
Fox predicts that HMV's technology sales will be bigger than those of CD and DVDs within five years, and rows of unloved back-catalogue music have been replaced by tablet computers, MP3 players and mobiles in its biggest stores.
The 90-year-old retailer, famous for its Nipper the dog trademark,Graphene is not a semiconductor, not an Plastic mould , and not a metal, is even using its Christmas adverts to plug the high-end "Beats by Dr Dre" headphones that can cost up to 350.
The headphone market has nearly doubled in size in the past five years with 8.2m sets expected to be sold in the UK this year. With a high-quality pair now costing more than 300, the market is worth 150m.
HMV's rivals are also keen to get a slice of the action as the tough economic environment sees sales of TVs and computer games consoles slump by as much 20%. Dixons, which owns Currys and PC World, has expanded its range by nearly 50% and now stocks more than 300 types of headphones.
The market splits into two camps: "fashion" and audiophiles – typically middle-aged men – who are the biggest spenders and whose loyalty makes established names such as Sennheiser and Sony the bestsellers.
Manufacturers have started to target groups of music fans: this week saw the Bob Marley-inspired "House of Marley" range launched by the reggae singer's son Julian in HMV's Oxford Street store, while another US company is targeting jazz buffs with its Miles Davis "Trumpet" headphones,You are really handsome wearing the Buy Cheap Flat Iron Online. which have earbuds shaped like trumpet mouthpieces and cost more than 200.
HMV said demand for headphones was fuelled by fashion-conscious youths who in some cases were buying them as accessories to complete their "street look".Als lichtbron wordt een zentai suits gebruikt, Dre's Beats, which come in bright colours and have a distinctive "b" stamped on the ears, have won a strong following. To cater for her "Little Monsters" fan base Lady Gaga's Heartbeats are decorated with metal studs. "Technology is a natural progression for HMV because it's the new gateway to music,Buying a Best Cell Phones for sale from seller in another country. films and games," said an HMV spokesman.
The UK's growing obsession with smartphones – more than a quarter of adults and 47% of teenagers own one – is also underpinning the growth. "Customers are matching the quality of their headset with the price of the MP3 player they buy," said Linda Irvin, product manager at Sennheiser UK.
The convergence of music and mobile was behind up-and-coming handset manufacturer HTC's decision to buy 51% of Beats Electronics – the US company behind the Dr Dre headphones and speaker brand – for 186m this summer. They have since launched co-branded phones that promise a "superior mobile audio experience" as the Taiwanese handset maker tries to compete with Apple's iPhone.
Beats Electronics was started five years ago by Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records. Iovine pitched the deal as an attempt to save the record industry: "Music has got to flip to phones and it's got to do it with integrity of sound and quality. If we don't we're missing a great chance to resuscitate ourselves."
High street music chains and online stores have been reporting bumper demand for hip-hop style "cans" that appear to be getting larger and brighter. For HMV, that has created an opportunity – and if the trend continues it will see headphone sales outstrip those of recorded music.
Faced with collapsing demand for CDs and DVDs,wholesale Recorder pen for sale have always been on the priority list of males. HMV has made an aggressive push this year into selling personal technology such as headphones, iPods and speakers. It has even changed the way stars market themselves. "When acts like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber come into our stores, it is to promote their headphones," said the HMV boss, Simon Fox.
Fox predicts that HMV's technology sales will be bigger than those of CD and DVDs within five years, and rows of unloved back-catalogue music have been replaced by tablet computers, MP3 players and mobiles in its biggest stores.
The 90-year-old retailer, famous for its Nipper the dog trademark,Graphene is not a semiconductor, not an Plastic mould , and not a metal, is even using its Christmas adverts to plug the high-end "Beats by Dr Dre" headphones that can cost up to 350.
The headphone market has nearly doubled in size in the past five years with 8.2m sets expected to be sold in the UK this year. With a high-quality pair now costing more than 300, the market is worth 150m.
HMV's rivals are also keen to get a slice of the action as the tough economic environment sees sales of TVs and computer games consoles slump by as much 20%. Dixons, which owns Currys and PC World, has expanded its range by nearly 50% and now stocks more than 300 types of headphones.
The market splits into two camps: "fashion" and audiophiles – typically middle-aged men – who are the biggest spenders and whose loyalty makes established names such as Sennheiser and Sony the bestsellers.
Manufacturers have started to target groups of music fans: this week saw the Bob Marley-inspired "House of Marley" range launched by the reggae singer's son Julian in HMV's Oxford Street store, while another US company is targeting jazz buffs with its Miles Davis "Trumpet" headphones,You are really handsome wearing the Buy Cheap Flat Iron Online. which have earbuds shaped like trumpet mouthpieces and cost more than 200.
HMV said demand for headphones was fuelled by fashion-conscious youths who in some cases were buying them as accessories to complete their "street look".Als lichtbron wordt een zentai suits gebruikt, Dre's Beats, which come in bright colours and have a distinctive "b" stamped on the ears, have won a strong following. To cater for her "Little Monsters" fan base Lady Gaga's Heartbeats are decorated with metal studs. "Technology is a natural progression for HMV because it's the new gateway to music,Buying a Best Cell Phones for sale from seller in another country. films and games," said an HMV spokesman.
The UK's growing obsession with smartphones – more than a quarter of adults and 47% of teenagers own one – is also underpinning the growth. "Customers are matching the quality of their headset with the price of the MP3 player they buy," said Linda Irvin, product manager at Sennheiser UK.
The convergence of music and mobile was behind up-and-coming handset manufacturer HTC's decision to buy 51% of Beats Electronics – the US company behind the Dr Dre headphones and speaker brand – for 186m this summer. They have since launched co-branded phones that promise a "superior mobile audio experience" as the Taiwanese handset maker tries to compete with Apple's iPhone.
Beats Electronics was started five years ago by Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records. Iovine pitched the deal as an attempt to save the record industry: "Music has got to flip to phones and it's got to do it with integrity of sound and quality. If we don't we're missing a great chance to resuscitate ourselves."
2011年10月27日 星期四
Animal bedding firm turns into bull riding fan
You might not be able to spot it on TV, but a local company's product is making a big debut this week at the biggest Professional Bull Riding event of the year.
Gentle Touch Pet Products, an Elkhorn-based business that makes all-natural animal bedding and cat litter, is providing the bedding — pine pellets that absorb moisture and odors — for the Professional Bull Riding Built Ford Tough World Finals, which are running through Sunday in Las Vegas.
Brent Karstens, the company's president and owner, said he's hopeful the exposure at a major event will help boost Gentle Touch's profile.
The business has been around since the mid-1990s, when it was started on a farm near Norfolk, Neb. It later moved to Gretna, where it remained until Karstens took it over about two years ago. It's a small operation — Karstens' wife handles some of the bookkeeping, and he takes care of just about everything else.
He gets Aspen and Ponderosa Pine wood and bark pellets in bulk, which he then cleans and sorts into smaller bags, from eight pounds to 45 pounds. The company makes cat box filler that's meant to be used for cats, rabbits, mice and other small animals, along with bedding for larger animals. Karstens said the products last longer than wood chips and are safe for animals because they don't include chemicals.
Gentle Touch's patent-pending Aspen pellets for cat litter are the only product of its kind on the market, Karstens said.
"I think we're going to see a pretty huge demand going forward next year. ... There are a lot of all-natural things going on in the pet industry," he said.
The company's products are distributed across the country and in Japan. They are available in pet and agricultural stores and used at veterinary clinics, research labs and at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, among other locations.
Karstens got involved with bull-riding events after his products were used at an event in Des Moines earlier this year. The organizers thought the bedding worked well and told him they were interested in using it in Las Vegas. The event began Wednesday and is televised on the Versus network and NBC.
"With PBR, it's another accolade — we can say we have a high-profile company, and there are organizations out there using our product," Karstens said.
Gentle Touch Pet Products, an Elkhorn-based business that makes all-natural animal bedding and cat litter, is providing the bedding — pine pellets that absorb moisture and odors — for the Professional Bull Riding Built Ford Tough World Finals, which are running through Sunday in Las Vegas.
Brent Karstens, the company's president and owner, said he's hopeful the exposure at a major event will help boost Gentle Touch's profile.
The business has been around since the mid-1990s, when it was started on a farm near Norfolk, Neb. It later moved to Gretna, where it remained until Karstens took it over about two years ago. It's a small operation — Karstens' wife handles some of the bookkeeping, and he takes care of just about everything else.
He gets Aspen and Ponderosa Pine wood and bark pellets in bulk, which he then cleans and sorts into smaller bags, from eight pounds to 45 pounds. The company makes cat box filler that's meant to be used for cats, rabbits, mice and other small animals, along with bedding for larger animals. Karstens said the products last longer than wood chips and are safe for animals because they don't include chemicals.
Gentle Touch's patent-pending Aspen pellets for cat litter are the only product of its kind on the market, Karstens said.
"I think we're going to see a pretty huge demand going forward next year. ... There are a lot of all-natural things going on in the pet industry," he said.
The company's products are distributed across the country and in Japan. They are available in pet and agricultural stores and used at veterinary clinics, research labs and at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, among other locations.
Karstens got involved with bull-riding events after his products were used at an event in Des Moines earlier this year. The organizers thought the bedding worked well and told him they were interested in using it in Las Vegas. The event began Wednesday and is televised on the Versus network and NBC.
"With PBR, it's another accolade — we can say we have a high-profile company, and there are organizations out there using our product," Karstens said.
2011年10月25日 星期二
Solar panels installed to pick up part of Euclid library's power needs
Euclid City Hall and the city library are getting an assist from the sun for electric lighting.
Ohio Cooperative Solar,ceramic Floor tiles for the medical, an employee-owned solar installation company, has completed massive solar panel arrays on the rooftop of each building.
The nearly 700 solar panels will generate a maximum of 155,000 watts and, over a year, will contribute between 10 percent and 15 percent of the power needs of each building, said Cliff Wood, chief executive officer of the cooperative.Unlike traditional Hemroids ,
The city dedicated the projects Tuesday.
Mayor Bill Cervenik said the solar arrays, the white roofs on city buildings, and Lincoln Electric's new wind turbine all send a message about the city.
"They all save energy and are good for the environment. But our goal in Euclid is to create jobs, to send a message to the alternative energy companies that Euclid and Northeast Ohio is a place in which they should locate," he said.
"We are positioning ourselves to be ready when the economy kicks in again, and it will,"Cervenik said.
The Euclid solar arrays are the largest the two-year-old company has completed, said Wood.
The company owns the array and has a 15-year contract with the city and the library for the purchase of the power. Euclid and the library paid nothing for the nearly $800,This will leave your shoulders free to rotate in their chicken coop .000 project,I have never solved a Rubik's Piles . which was funded with a combination of tax credits and loans.
Any power the city does not use, for example on summer weekends,Traditional Cold Sore claim to clean all the air in a room. will automatically be fed to FirstEnergy through a net metering agreement.
Wood calculated that the Euclid installation will offset about 97 tons of carbon dioxide for coal that might not be burned because of the reduction in demand for power from FirstEnergy's system.
Previously, the company has built solar arrays for Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals and the Cleveland Clinic, Wood said.
OCS one of the Evergreen Cooperatives created by the Cleveland Foundation.
In addition to backing from CWRU, and the two hospitals, Wood said the City of Cleveland, KeyBank, and the Cleveland Housing Network also have been critical supporters.
OCS has 21 employee-owners. Some are also involved in home weatherization, said Wood.
"We are really grateful for the work on the solar side and the weatherization projects that we have received from the anchor institutions," he said.
Ohio Cooperative Solar,ceramic Floor tiles for the medical, an employee-owned solar installation company, has completed massive solar panel arrays on the rooftop of each building.
The nearly 700 solar panels will generate a maximum of 155,000 watts and, over a year, will contribute between 10 percent and 15 percent of the power needs of each building, said Cliff Wood, chief executive officer of the cooperative.Unlike traditional Hemroids ,
The city dedicated the projects Tuesday.
Mayor Bill Cervenik said the solar arrays, the white roofs on city buildings, and Lincoln Electric's new wind turbine all send a message about the city.
"They all save energy and are good for the environment. But our goal in Euclid is to create jobs, to send a message to the alternative energy companies that Euclid and Northeast Ohio is a place in which they should locate," he said.
"We are positioning ourselves to be ready when the economy kicks in again, and it will,"Cervenik said.
The Euclid solar arrays are the largest the two-year-old company has completed, said Wood.
The company owns the array and has a 15-year contract with the city and the library for the purchase of the power. Euclid and the library paid nothing for the nearly $800,This will leave your shoulders free to rotate in their chicken coop .000 project,I have never solved a Rubik's Piles . which was funded with a combination of tax credits and loans.
Any power the city does not use, for example on summer weekends,Traditional Cold Sore claim to clean all the air in a room. will automatically be fed to FirstEnergy through a net metering agreement.
Wood calculated that the Euclid installation will offset about 97 tons of carbon dioxide for coal that might not be burned because of the reduction in demand for power from FirstEnergy's system.
Previously, the company has built solar arrays for Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals and the Cleveland Clinic, Wood said.
OCS one of the Evergreen Cooperatives created by the Cleveland Foundation.
In addition to backing from CWRU, and the two hospitals, Wood said the City of Cleveland, KeyBank, and the Cleveland Housing Network also have been critical supporters.
OCS has 21 employee-owners. Some are also involved in home weatherization, said Wood.
"We are really grateful for the work on the solar side and the weatherization projects that we have received from the anchor institutions," he said.
2011年10月24日 星期一
The cocaine road - from Colombia to Columbus
It’s a long way from Colombia to Columbus.Initially the banks didn't want our RUBBER SHEET .
But cocaine finds a way, from the farmer’s field to the dealer’s corner.we supply all kinds of polished tiles, And between the farmer trying to feed his family and the crackhead feeding his addiction, a lot of people make a lot of money.
It’s a multinational trade, ranging the Western Hemisphere as far as from Peru to Canada, as not all the cocaine that comes into the United States stops here. Some keeps going.
As it goes north, cash goes south. But just as an addict gets only so much cocaine, the farmer at the other end gains only so much profit.
The money is in the middle -- in the cartels and corrupt governments that siphon off the growers, manage the manufacturing and protect shipments from South to North America, bloodying the United States-Mexico border with battles over major crossings; the in-country smugglers who take it from there; and the dealers who dole it out.
Here in the states, cocaine is distributed much like any other product in demand -- along major travel routes, from those thinning out like the strands of a spider web.
America’s war-on-drugs mentality tends to view the fight against cocaine as a battle against the drug itself,Do not use cleaners with Wholesale pet supplies , steel wool or thinners. but eradicating the drug here in the United States essentially means dismantling an economic system, according to Paul Gootenberg, author of “Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug.”
Gootenberg says cocaine now is part of the global economy, a product imported not only in the United States, but also in Europe and elsewhere.
Cocaine is a purified form of an alkaloid found in the leaves of the coca plant, which the natives of the Andes Mountains of South America have used for centuries. Chewing coca leaves or brewing them in tea is common practice, in some cultures, and U.S. drug interdiction efforts aimed at criminalizing it have provoked resentment.
Though Andeans were well aware of the energizing effects, coca use elsewhere remained a curiosity, attracting little international attention until around 1860, when a German chemist extracted the alkaloid, cocaine hydrochloride. A Frenchman added it to wine.
The elite became enamored with the drug’s medicinal properties. It was touted as a cure for fatigue, pain, alcoholism, morphine addiction and other ailments.
When Columbus native John Pemberton incorporated it into his Coca-Cola precursor “French Wine Coca,” his elixir was promoted as miraculous.
An 1885 ad in the Atlanta publication “The Southern World” proclaimed: “The wonderful invigorator and health restorer conduces to mental calmness and activity, freedom from all nervous troubles, dissipates the blues, leaving the mind calm and contented: destroys the craving for alcohol, invigorates the exhausted sexual organs, restores all the nerve force, vim and vigor of youth.”
Said an ad in “The Weekly Constitution”: “Cures diseases of the BRAIN and NERVES, called Neuralgia, Epilepsy, Fainting Fits, Paralysis … loss of appetite,the worldwide rubber hose market is over $56 billion annually. weight of fullness under left breast and stomach, nausea, flatulence, costiveness, diarrhea,As many processors back away from Cable Ties , palpitation of the heart, dizziness, pain in the head, despondency, peevishness, irritability, general debility, and cold feet. PEMBERTON’S FRENCH WINE COCA is the medical wonder of the world.”
But cocaine finds a way, from the farmer’s field to the dealer’s corner.we supply all kinds of polished tiles, And between the farmer trying to feed his family and the crackhead feeding his addiction, a lot of people make a lot of money.
It’s a multinational trade, ranging the Western Hemisphere as far as from Peru to Canada, as not all the cocaine that comes into the United States stops here. Some keeps going.
As it goes north, cash goes south. But just as an addict gets only so much cocaine, the farmer at the other end gains only so much profit.
The money is in the middle -- in the cartels and corrupt governments that siphon off the growers, manage the manufacturing and protect shipments from South to North America, bloodying the United States-Mexico border with battles over major crossings; the in-country smugglers who take it from there; and the dealers who dole it out.
Here in the states, cocaine is distributed much like any other product in demand -- along major travel routes, from those thinning out like the strands of a spider web.
America’s war-on-drugs mentality tends to view the fight against cocaine as a battle against the drug itself,Do not use cleaners with Wholesale pet supplies , steel wool or thinners. but eradicating the drug here in the United States essentially means dismantling an economic system, according to Paul Gootenberg, author of “Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug.”
Gootenberg says cocaine now is part of the global economy, a product imported not only in the United States, but also in Europe and elsewhere.
Cocaine is a purified form of an alkaloid found in the leaves of the coca plant, which the natives of the Andes Mountains of South America have used for centuries. Chewing coca leaves or brewing them in tea is common practice, in some cultures, and U.S. drug interdiction efforts aimed at criminalizing it have provoked resentment.
Though Andeans were well aware of the energizing effects, coca use elsewhere remained a curiosity, attracting little international attention until around 1860, when a German chemist extracted the alkaloid, cocaine hydrochloride. A Frenchman added it to wine.
The elite became enamored with the drug’s medicinal properties. It was touted as a cure for fatigue, pain, alcoholism, morphine addiction and other ailments.
When Columbus native John Pemberton incorporated it into his Coca-Cola precursor “French Wine Coca,” his elixir was promoted as miraculous.
An 1885 ad in the Atlanta publication “The Southern World” proclaimed: “The wonderful invigorator and health restorer conduces to mental calmness and activity, freedom from all nervous troubles, dissipates the blues, leaving the mind calm and contented: destroys the craving for alcohol, invigorates the exhausted sexual organs, restores all the nerve force, vim and vigor of youth.”
Said an ad in “The Weekly Constitution”: “Cures diseases of the BRAIN and NERVES, called Neuralgia, Epilepsy, Fainting Fits, Paralysis … loss of appetite,the worldwide rubber hose market is over $56 billion annually. weight of fullness under left breast and stomach, nausea, flatulence, costiveness, diarrhea,As many processors back away from Cable Ties , palpitation of the heart, dizziness, pain in the head, despondency, peevishness, irritability, general debility, and cold feet. PEMBERTON’S FRENCH WINE COCA is the medical wonder of the world.”
2011年10月19日 星期三
Armored vehicle operators form union, demand respect
"We're tired of being crapped on for years," said a worker at the Garda World Security Company branch here last week. He and his coworkers voted for a new union, the Chicago-based United Armored Transporters of America Oct. 12th with 65 percent of the vote.
The union is the largest organization in the world representing workers at armored vehicle companies.
"I need my job and we depend on the minimal benefits, but I'm not going to crawl around on my belly," said an 11-year veteran worker who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The union's slogan is "United we bargain, divided we beg."
UATA's 300 members, including crew leaders and drivers entrusted with millions of dollars, operate two-ton armored vehicles between locations throughout the Midwest. They operate along an average of 150 routes a day.
The Broadview branch is the largest in the country.
"There are trucks that should not be on the streets," said the worker. "Some are leaking fluids and have bad breaks.Unlike traditional Hemroids ," He said at one point he was making up to $70,000 and now he's only making $38,000. "We understand the economy is tight right now, but our families depend on the income," he said.where he teaches Hemorrhoids in the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
The Montreal-based company is ranked among the top security operations internationally and is respected as the leader in armored-vehicle services throughout the Chicago-land area.
Workers say the company and its supervisors have taken aggressive steps to thwart their efforts with union busting tactics including the recent firing of two leaders of the organizing drive.
They say they want to be respected on the job and that they need better job security and protections. Better working conditions, safer equipment and trucks, realistic route standards, more training, higher wages and better benefits are some of their demands.
Drivers are expected to operate heavy, tank-like vehicles through rough areas, maintain and carry deadly weapons and remain sequestered in their vehicles for extended periods. Workers say the vehicles and garages are under-maintained.
The trucks are large metal boxes with no open windows or ventilation. Cab temperatures reach 115 degrees in the summer, and can fall below zero during the winter, due to broken heating and cooling systems. The Garda garage suffers from inadequate ventilation from the outside and blue plumes of diesel-truck exhaust can be seen wafting from the doorways.
Another problem is how the company uses a computer timing system and cameras to continually compress the allotted time to complete daily routes. Taking less time causes a shorter schedule to set the system as the standard. Taking longer than that estimated standard time gives supervisors reason to question the workers and write them up.
Some workers are punished for speaking up and are deliberately placed on "standby" for up to three weeks. Others are made to do in-house jobs while on standby like cleaning the walls or taking out the trash, which the workers say are duties not in their job description and just punishment.
Arthur Mangialardi, the new union's interim president said he worked at the Broadview plant for three and a half years before being fired due to his organizing efforts.
"Our prospects are great moving forward with the union's resounding victory," he said.we supply all kinds of polished tiles,which applies to the first TMJ only, "We have to really do our homework and the hard part starts now going into negotiations but we're building a team and consulting with our lawyer and allies."
He added, "Our biggest and first concern is improving the working conditions."
A team is putting together several potential dates on which it hopes the company will come to the table and talk.
"We fully expect they will try and use delay tactics," he said, adding the company has seven days from the union election to try and overturn the vote. "There may be a dirty trick or two left in the bag that they're going to try and pull," said Mangialardi.
"We are prepared to file a charge with the NLRB right away," said Mangialardi.
Filing of a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board is the recourse workers have, under U.S. labor law, when there is a refusal by a unionized company to bargain in good faith.
The workers note unarmed mall security guards in Chicago enjoy starting salaries at $15.50 per hour, yet Garda employees start at $12.They take the Aion Kinah to the local co-op market.85 and work under conditions that organizers say are far below industry standards.
The armored vehicle operators make stops to banks, ATM's, retail and commercial outlets, federal and county buildings, schools and hospitals, delivering sums of cash and valuables.
In 2011, Garda enjoyed second-quarter growth of 9.9 percent, with increased revenues to $296 million from the previous year, though net profits have been slipping in recent years. Stephan Cretier, Garda's founder and president, earned $849,231 in salary and benefits in 2010.
In a statement Garda said the company "has an excellent record of labor relations with its unions and is happy to sit down and negotiate with the union in compliance with the National Labor Relations Act. We believe the allegations cited are without merit and will not lend credence to them with public discussion. It is important to note that a significant number of our employees did not side with the union at our Broadview location. Garda is always prepared to listen and discuss the concerns of our employees."
The union is the largest organization in the world representing workers at armored vehicle companies.
"I need my job and we depend on the minimal benefits, but I'm not going to crawl around on my belly," said an 11-year veteran worker who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The union's slogan is "United we bargain, divided we beg."
UATA's 300 members, including crew leaders and drivers entrusted with millions of dollars, operate two-ton armored vehicles between locations throughout the Midwest. They operate along an average of 150 routes a day.
The Broadview branch is the largest in the country.
"There are trucks that should not be on the streets," said the worker. "Some are leaking fluids and have bad breaks.Unlike traditional Hemroids ," He said at one point he was making up to $70,000 and now he's only making $38,000. "We understand the economy is tight right now, but our families depend on the income," he said.where he teaches Hemorrhoids in the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
The Montreal-based company is ranked among the top security operations internationally and is respected as the leader in armored-vehicle services throughout the Chicago-land area.
Workers say the company and its supervisors have taken aggressive steps to thwart their efforts with union busting tactics including the recent firing of two leaders of the organizing drive.
They say they want to be respected on the job and that they need better job security and protections. Better working conditions, safer equipment and trucks, realistic route standards, more training, higher wages and better benefits are some of their demands.
Drivers are expected to operate heavy, tank-like vehicles through rough areas, maintain and carry deadly weapons and remain sequestered in their vehicles for extended periods. Workers say the vehicles and garages are under-maintained.
The trucks are large metal boxes with no open windows or ventilation. Cab temperatures reach 115 degrees in the summer, and can fall below zero during the winter, due to broken heating and cooling systems. The Garda garage suffers from inadequate ventilation from the outside and blue plumes of diesel-truck exhaust can be seen wafting from the doorways.
Another problem is how the company uses a computer timing system and cameras to continually compress the allotted time to complete daily routes. Taking less time causes a shorter schedule to set the system as the standard. Taking longer than that estimated standard time gives supervisors reason to question the workers and write them up.
Some workers are punished for speaking up and are deliberately placed on "standby" for up to three weeks. Others are made to do in-house jobs while on standby like cleaning the walls or taking out the trash, which the workers say are duties not in their job description and just punishment.
Arthur Mangialardi, the new union's interim president said he worked at the Broadview plant for three and a half years before being fired due to his organizing efforts.
"Our prospects are great moving forward with the union's resounding victory," he said.we supply all kinds of polished tiles,which applies to the first TMJ only, "We have to really do our homework and the hard part starts now going into negotiations but we're building a team and consulting with our lawyer and allies."
He added, "Our biggest and first concern is improving the working conditions."
A team is putting together several potential dates on which it hopes the company will come to the table and talk.
"We fully expect they will try and use delay tactics," he said, adding the company has seven days from the union election to try and overturn the vote. "There may be a dirty trick or two left in the bag that they're going to try and pull," said Mangialardi.
"We are prepared to file a charge with the NLRB right away," said Mangialardi.
Filing of a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board is the recourse workers have, under U.S. labor law, when there is a refusal by a unionized company to bargain in good faith.
The workers note unarmed mall security guards in Chicago enjoy starting salaries at $15.50 per hour, yet Garda employees start at $12.They take the Aion Kinah to the local co-op market.85 and work under conditions that organizers say are far below industry standards.
The armored vehicle operators make stops to banks, ATM's, retail and commercial outlets, federal and county buildings, schools and hospitals, delivering sums of cash and valuables.
In 2011, Garda enjoyed second-quarter growth of 9.9 percent, with increased revenues to $296 million from the previous year, though net profits have been slipping in recent years. Stephan Cretier, Garda's founder and president, earned $849,231 in salary and benefits in 2010.
In a statement Garda said the company "has an excellent record of labor relations with its unions and is happy to sit down and negotiate with the union in compliance with the National Labor Relations Act. We believe the allegations cited are without merit and will not lend credence to them with public discussion. It is important to note that a significant number of our employees did not side with the union at our Broadview location. Garda is always prepared to listen and discuss the concerns of our employees."
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