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Noida, India (PressExposure) July 08, 2011 -- China has observed rapid growth in its smart card market during the recent past. Several industrial sectors that have shown incredible growth in the smart card adoption include telecom, banking, national ID, public utilities, social welfares, and tourism. Furthermore, multipurpose cards are becoming a significant development direction of smart cards in the country. Consequently, it is expected that, the Chinese smart card market will grow at a CAGR of around 16% during 2011-2013, says our new research report "Smart Card Market Forecast to 2012".
Our team of experts has found that, the country has been attracting huge investments in the smart card market from both public and private sector. For instance, the Ministry of Education has recently taken an initiative of issuing unified student ID card and campus all-in-one-card. In line with this, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security's have decided to implement medical-insurance-cards nationwide. Besides, various other factors, such as accelerated mobile payments in the country, roll out of urban transport card etc. will continue to fuel the industry's growth in near future.
We have segmented the smart card market on the basis of technology into microprocessor, memory and contactless smart card. Additionally, we have segmented the smart card market on the basis of application area into telecom, transport, public sector and financial services. Most importantly, we also provided country level analysis of several countries, such as the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, India, China, South Korea, etc.
"Smart Card Market Forecast to 2012" provides thorough research and rational analysis along with reliable statistics of the global smart card industry. The report also provides extensive information on the traditional markets as well as on the emerging technologies. Besides, an insight of trends prevailing in the regional smart card market across the globe has been covered in the report. Analysis and statistics regarding market size, growth, share, segmentation, and geographic distribution have been thoroughly studied in the report to present a comprehensive view of the global smart card market. The report has thoroughly examined current market trends; industrial developments and competitive landscape to enable clients understand the market structure and its progress in coming years.
For FREE SAMPLE of this report visit: [http://www.rncos.com/Report/IM007.htm]
Check DISCOUNTED REPORTS on: http://www.rncos.com/promotion.htm

subset: commoncrawl


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Rosie Napravnik guides favored Untapable to victory in Kentucky Oaks
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - For the second time in three years, Rosie got the lilies.
Rosie Napravnik and heavy favorite Untapable dominated the $1 million Kentucky Oaks by 4 1/2 lengths over My Miss Sophia Friday before a crowd of 113,071 at cool, overcast Churchill Downs. In 2012, Napravnik became the first woman rider to take the fillies' Derby. The year before, she was second.
Before the Oaks, she said, "I own this race," and she did despite breaking from the outside in a field of 12 and being wide throughout."I wasn't worried about the post like some other people were," she said. "She gives me the ear twitch when she wants to go. She's maturing and she's magnificent."
It was the second Oaks win for trainer Steve Asmussen, the target of allegations by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) that he mistreated horses in his care.
"Under the circumstances, it couldn't be bigger," he said, after yelling "C'mon, baby girl!" as Untapable drew clear. He expressed his gratitude to owner Ron Winchell for sticking with him and "seeing this through."
Asmussen won the 2009 Preakness with the filly Rachel Alexandra and raised the possibility of running Untapable against the boys May 17 at Pimlico, especially if Winchell's colt Tapiture, also trained by Asmussen, doesn't run well Saturday in the Derby. "I think Tapiture would have to speed up to catch her," the trainer said.
Untapable paid $4 for her third consecutive win after running 11/8 miles in 1:48.68.Empress of Midway was scratched after losing her balance in the gate. Veterinarian Dr. Larry Bramlage said there was "nothing obviously wrong with her" but that she would be re-examined.


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With federal spending expanding 9 percent in 2006 alone, lawmakers are finally taking up the government waste commission bills (H.R. 5766 and H.R. 3282) authored by Reps. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) and Kevin Brady (R-TX). Both lawmakers should be commended for taking aim at the outdated, failed, and duplicative programs that have been layered on top of one another for decades. To be effective, a government waste commission must be specifically designed to overcome the special interest logrolling that has protected wasteful spending for years. The proven model for doing this is the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission, which has been used to close obsolete military bases since the 1980s. Unfortunately, neither the Tiahrt nor the Brady bill includes the components that made BRAC so successful. Lawmakers seeking budget savings should strengthen these bills.
Why Wasteful Programs Persist
Public choice economists, such as Nobel laureate James Buchanan, blame reelection politics for the persistence of outdated federal programs. Imagine that the federal government ran a $300 million program that pays 1,000 people large sums of money for no legitimate purpose. This program, despite its wastefulness, will be defended to the death by its small cadre of recipients and supporters. The rest of the country may consider the program useless and yet not invest time and energy to fight the program because it costs just $1 per American. When the program's funding comes up, only its supporters will lobby Congress. Even lawmakers who do not have any beneficiaries in their district may support this program in return for other lawmakers' support of their own projects (in other words, logrolling). Multiply this phenomenon by thousands of federal grants and programs, and it becomes clear why Congress fails to eliminate duplicative, wasteful, outdated, and failed programs -and why Washington now spends $23,760 per household annually.[1]
Why BRAC Works
The BRAC model has proven to be the most effective way to eliminate special interest spending. In creating BRAC, lawmakers formed a commission of nonpartisan experts to recommend a large package of base closures across the country. These recommendations were then sent to the House and Senate floors, where lawmakers wererequired to approve or disapprove the entire package without amendment. This solved the public choice puzzle for two reasons. First, it diminished special-interest opposition because lawmakers no longer felt that a single base was being unfairly singled out. And even if lawmakers did feel targeted, the amendment restriction meant that saving their military base required voting down the entire savings package. Second, the merging of so many base closings into one package resulted in large savings-large enough to motivate taxpayers into matching the intensity of military base supporters. Lawmakers could tell local residents that they opposed closing the local base but that the taxpayer savings from all the other closed military bases were large enough to make up for the loss.
Four Elements of a Successful Commission
A government waste commission based on the BRAC model can overcome the logrolling that currently protects wasteful spending. A successful commission must have four key elements:
Element #1: A Bipartisan Commission. The commission mustinclude Republicans, Democrats, independents, and non-member experts in order to allow for bipartisan acceptance of the recommendations.
Element #2: Examine All Agencies and Programs. The commission must be allowed to examine all federal agencies and programs,from defense to entitlements to domestic discretionary programs.
Element #3: Clear and Concise Criteria. The commission must rely on a short and targeted list of criteria to evaluate programs in order to allow a commission to be quick yet scientific in its analysis.
Element #4: Expedited Legislative Action, Without Amendments. Most importantly, the commission must require Congress to vote up-or-down on the entire package of recommendations without any amendments.
Evaluating the Tiahrt Commission Bill
Rep. Tiahrt recently offered the Government Efficiency Act of 2006 (GEA) as a compromise between his more promising bill (H.R. 2470, known as CARFA) and Rep. Brady's commission bill. GEA does include all agencies and programs. However, it could be improved relative to the other three elements:
A Bipartisan Commission. Allowing the president to appoint all seven members (even while requiring consultation with both parties in Congress) may be seen as overly partisan and therefore decrease the likelihood that the final savings package would be approved. Concerns that some lawmakers may sabotage a commission by appointing staunch opponents of reform are legitimate. Therefore, it may be better for the legislation to specify the appointment of several non-partisan experts from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Government Accountability Office (GAO), and similar agencies.
Clear and Concise Criteria. GEA's criteria focus broadly on effectiveness, efficiency, and duplication. However, the commission would be allowed to recommend not only reorganizations, consolidations, abolitions, and transfers, but also expansions of existing federal programs. Lawmakers may have intended this provision to allow the merging of duplicative programs into one larger program. If that is the case, they may wish to replace "expand" with "merge." Otherwise, this provision would allow the commission to recommend large program expansions that are counter to the objective of this legislation.
Expedited Legislative Action Without Amendments. The single biggest weakness of the GEA proposal is that it allows lawmakers to amend the package in committee and on the floor. The single most effective element of the BRAC model is that it disallows amendments, which prevents the special-interest logrolling that currently keeps each wasteful program alive, one by one. Forbidding amendments equalizes lawmaker sacrifice and, by forcing lawmakers to vote for all other wasteful spending just to protect their own, raises the political price of protecting one's own favored program.
The GEA's permitting lawmakers to amend out their own pet projects would likely lead to an endless series of special-interest votes to protect each program until the entire package unravels. Unless lawmakers bar amendments, the savings package put forth by the commission will have very little chance of passing without being substantially diluted.
Evaluating the Brady Commission Bill
Rep. Brady's commission bill is more of a sunset bill than a BRAC-based waste commission. The bill requires that the programs included in the commission's recommendations be abolished unless specifically reauthorized by Congress. Consequently, the programs ultimately targeted under this legislation could be protected by the same special-interest logrolling that currently keeps these programs alive each year. The same congressional majority that funds each program could also reauthorize them one at a time, with no BRAC-style mechanism to change the political dynamic by forcing a vote on a single large reform package. Yet because it is a sunset bill, including a new provision that would merge the entire reauthorization package into a single up-or-down vote may not be within the spirit of the legislation. Therefore, bill improvements can focus on three other aspects of the bill:
A Bipartisan Commission. The Brady commission bill would allow all twelve commission members to be appointed by the majority party in the House and Senate (with consent from minority lawmakers). This virtually guarantees nearly unanimous minority opposition to whatever package the commission creates. This legislation should add non-partisan representatives from CBO and GAO and strive to allow more minority input in composing the commission.
Clear and Concise Criteria. The Brady commission bill's 19 broad criteria for judging each program risks bogging down the commission. The criteria list should be as short and measurable as possible to keep the commission moving briskly. One worthwhile suggestion would limit the program evaluation to four criteria: 1) inefficient; 2) duplicative; 3) outdated; and 4) failed.
Examine All Agencies and Programs. While Rep. Brady's commission would subject all programs to review, the bill's author reportedly told lawmakers that he plans to amend the bill to exempt certain high-priority programs.[2] Yet all programs can benefit from basic accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness standards. Any program worth having is worth holding accountable.
Representatives Brady and Tiahrt should be commended for authoring bills to address government waste. Congress should make the necessary amendments to both bills in order to increase the likelihood that, if enacted, these commissions would have a significant impact on reducing federal spending. A government waste commission can provide substantial taxpayer savings when the successful elements of the BRAC commission are effectively utilized. With a bolder vision and some changes to the current legislation, Congress has the potential to pass legislation that actually delivers results on spending.
Brian Riedl is Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs, and Michelle Muccio is a Research Assistant, in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.


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Wessex FM News
Appeal After Burglary In Weymouth
8:44am 7th February 2013
Burglars who attempted to steal items from a garage in Weymouth have left empty handed.
The incident on Oakbury Drive in Preston happened sometime overnight sometime on Saturday 26th January.
Police Constable Tom Legg, of Weymouth police, said: "I believe that the offenders were disturbed and nothing was taken.
"A man's white Giant branded mountain bike in excellent condition was left behind at the scene, in a parking area in front of the garages.
"This bike does not belong to the victim and nobody has come forward to report a theft of such a mountain bike.
"I am appealing for anyone who witnessed this incident, recalls any suspicious activity in the area at the time and anyone with any information about those responsible to contact me as soon as possible.
"I also urge anyone who is missing a bike of this description to report this to Dorset Police.
"All calls will be treated in the strictest of confidence."
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Hai Hospitality came to life to be the umbrella to the following restaurants: Uchi, Uchiko, and Top Knot. "Hai" is a Japanese word that means more than just "yes." It means, "I get you" and, "You are heard." It's an acknowledgement of respect and support
Service: Branding and Design
Frontera Fest is a five week fringe theater festival in Austin, TX.
Service: Design & Illustration
The award winning Uchi, which translated from Japanese means "house", is located in a refurbished old home in South Austin. Since opening in 2003, Cole's signature non-traditional take on Japanese cuisine has been warmly received by Austin's diverse dining crowd, as well as visitors from across the country and around the globe.
Service: Web and Print design
A cookbook created for Ambrosia's Organic Kitchen, a personal chef delivery and small-scale, boutique catering service located in Naples, Florida.
Services: Creative Direction, Design & Lettering/Illustrations
A marketing brochure for Springdale General a development designed by Michael Hsu to keep the creative class in Austin by building a campus of affordable maker studios, creative office space, test kitchens, and workshops in East Austin.
Service: Design
Top Knot is a modern American restaurant with Asian roots. The menu features shareable plates from Southeast Asia, Latin America and Japan. The restaurant is located above Uchi Dallas in a vibrant and bright second floor perch with a friendly vibe.
Service: Web Design
Uchiko is a sister restaurant to Tyson Cole's original Uchi. The new menu was designed to show the Japanese farmhouse aesthetic and highlight Chef Sterling Ridings brand new selection of dishes.
Service: Art Direction, Design, Illustration
Flux yoga's grounding mat prevents bunching or sliding during your practice. The branding for Flux was to convey a sporty but simple, modern look.
Services: Creative Direction, Identity, Naming, Packaging
Poster for Artis Naples to advertise Miami City Ballet's performance of Tchaikovsky's Pas de Deux.
Service: Design
Artis—Naples is a center for the performing and visual arts in Southwest Florida. The organization hosts more than 300 concerts, performances, exhibitions and educational events for children and adults per year. With the new brand guidelines I created this mock up to show how the website could showcase the difference performances.
Wild Heritage Farm is located on the cusp of the Everglades in Naples, Florida. The manager of the farm wanted the branding to convey his Seminole roots as well as the two major tribes from the area, Calusa & Tequesta.
Services: Creative Direction, Identity, Naming, Interactive, Branding
Lookbook for ELOI
Art Direction: Paige RusselPhotography: Logan CrableService: Design
Self-propelled lettering project
Poster for Tiny Mozart's concert at Artis—Naples.
Service: Illustration / Design
Selected logos I have created.


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A WARNING TO HINDU & SIKH GIRLS! The Muslims won't rest until they convert you to Islam. $15,000 rewards are being given to Muslim youths by Islamic organizations in the UK to any Muslim boy who can convert any gullible Hindu or Sikh girl. BEWARE!
Times of India — A day after UKs' former home secretary Jack Straw blamed some Pakistani Muslim men for targeting "vulnerable" white girls whom they call "easy meat" sexually, UK's Hindu and Sikh organizations also publicly accused Muslim groups of the same offense.
Feeling emboldened by Straw's statement, UK's Hindu and Sikh organizations have also come in open and accused some Pakistani men of specifically targeting Hindu and Sikh girls. "This has been a serious concern for the last decade," said Hardeep Singh of Network of Sikh Organizations (NSO) while talking to TOI on Monday.
Sikhs and Hindus are annoyed that Straw had shown concern for White girls and not the Hindu and the Sikh teenage girls who have been coaxed by some Pakistani men for sex and religious conversion.
"Straw does other communities a disservice by suggesting that only white girls were targets of this predatory behaviour. We raised the issue of our girls with the previous government and the police on several occasions over the last decade. This phenomenon has been there because a minority of Islamic extremists view all 'non believers' as legitimate targets," said director NSO Inderjit Singh.
Targeted sexual offences and forced conversions of Hindu and Sikh girls was not a new phenomenon in the UK, said Ashish Joshio from Media Monitoring group. "This has been going on for decades in the UK . Young Muslim men have been boasting about seducing the Kaffir (unbeliever) women. The Hindu and the Sikh communities must be commended for showing both restraint and maturity under such provocation," he added.
Hardeep said that in 2007, The Hindu Forum of Britain claimed that hundreds of Hindu and Sikh girls had been first romantically coaxed and later intimidated and converted by Muslim men.
Inderjit said," We are heartened by the swift condemnation of this behaviour by the Prime Minister David Cameron and his government. However, we urge the government to be firm in dealing with this criminal behaviour to protect the vulnerable girls, and, importantly protect the good name of the majority law abiding members of the Muslim community."
A young British Punjabi non-practicing Sikh girl talks about her experience of being befriended, sexually harressed, her faith abused and finally pressured into converting to Islam, being blackmailed because her boyfriend at the time had taken intimate photos of her and had threatened to show them to her parents if she had did not leave home and convert.