text: Turtle Wax Introduces Rinse Free Wash & Wax at the 2013 Chicago Auto Show February 7, 2013 03:40 PM MEDIA INFORMATION Contact: Mark Bilek Director of Communications and Technology Chicago Automobile Trade Association Office: (630) 424-6082 Cell: (847) 652-0632 Email: email@example.com Contact: Jennifer Morand Senior Public Relations and Social Media Manager Chicago Automobile Trade Association Office: (630) 424-6084 Cell: (630) 391-1986 Email: email@example.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TURTLE WAX INTRODUCES RINSE FREE WASH & WAX AT THE 2013 CHICAGO AUTO SHOW CHICAGO (February 7, 2013) - Turtle Wax presents the Rinse Free Wash & Wax car appearance care product at the 2013 Chicago Auto Show Media Preview. Turtle Wax claims the innovation will provide consumers with a time, money and water saving method to ensure clean and shiny vehicles. Turtle Wax - the official "Car Appearance Care Company" of the 2013 Chicago Auto Show - said the Rinse Free Wash & Wax will change the mindset of consumers as it introduces a new way to wash cars. "Turtle Wax Rinse Free Wash & Wax is one of our most exciting innovations to date, completely reinventing the way we wash cars, saving the consumer time while having a positive effect on the environment. Turtle Wax is proud to lead the way," said Mike Schultz, senior vice president of product development for Turtle Wax. "This product uses special polymers that surround the dirt so you can simply wipe it away without rinsing." The all-in-one formula can clean a variety of exterior surfaces - from plastic and rubber to paint and glass - without the need of a hose or rinse. The innovative biodegradable technology traps and lifts dirt from the vehicle's surface, scratch-free. Turtle Wax touts an environmentally-friendly message as less water is needed in the vehicle cleaning: only one bucket is needed per wash. Turtle Wax Rinse Free Wash & Wax will be available in stores beginning in February for a suggested retail price of $7.99. To watch the 2013 Chicago Auto Show Media Preview press conferences, please visit http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chicago-auto-show-2011. For more information about the Chicago Auto Show, please visit www.chicagoautoshow.com. ### About the Chicago Auto Show The Chicago Auto Show is the largest on the continent, spanning more than 1 million square feet of production, concept, and exotic vehicle exhibit space. In addition to hosting multiple world and North American vehicle debuts, the Chicago Auto Show's First Look for Charity raises more than $2 million annually for 18 worthy Chicago organizations in a single night. The 2013 public show will be February 9-18. For more information please visit ChicagoAutoShow.com or Facebook.com/ChicagoAutoShow. About The Chicago Automobile Trade Association Founded in 1904, the Chicago Automobile Trade Association is the nation's oldest and largest metropolitan dealer organization. It is comprised of about 400 franchised new-car dealers and an additional 150 allied members. The group's dealer members employ about 19,000 people in the metropolitan area. The association has produced the world famous Chicago Auto Show since 1935. For more information please visit CATA.info. The 2013 Chicago Auto Show is officially sanctioned by the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers. Founded in Paris in 1919, it is known as the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles. Back to News


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Left Venice early this afternoon for a vacation in Spain and France, but before I go off the clock, I thought I would give you some short takes on some of the notable movies I saw at the festival. All of these should be coming to a theater near you. None of the opinions (half formed) are set in stone. I saw lots without really applying much actual thought to the specific movies I saw, beyond the usual spontaneous liking, sort of liking, loving or disliking.
ZERO THEOREM is the latest from Terry Gilliam, set in the future, centering on a solitary man (Christoph Waltz) who would prefer never to leave his house. When he does, you see why. The outside world is a perfect articulation of our current nightmare of the future. While 50 and 60 years ago, we feared totalitarian government, today we fear the dictatorship of big business, a world of wall to wall advertising, a constant barrage of happy noise, trying to get you to buy, upload, visit, patronize. It is awful, the internet come to life in three dimensions, busy and relentless, eye catching and soul killing.
LOCKE is an interesting experiment, with Tom Hardy, who is the only character with a speaking role to appear on camera, as a guy whose life implodes over the course of a ninety minute evening drive. The dialogue consists of a series of conversations he has over the telephone.
A PROMISE is an English language film from the French director Patrice Leconte, based on a Stefan Zweig novel , with Alan Rickman as an ailing business tycoon, Rebecca Hall as his young wife and Richard Madden as the young assistant who comes to live with them . . . with the usual results. I found the movie enjoyable in an old fashioned sort of way, intensely emotional (sometimes more for the characters than for the audience). Some in the Sala Grande audience started cackling during some of the more overwrought scenes, which was a little embarrassing, as Hall, Rickman, Madden and Leconte were sitting there watching it, too.
By the way, we see red carpet openings as shown on TV and they look like very glamorous affairs – some of them are. But most of the time red carpet scenes at a film festival are quite tepid – at a film festival, they are mostly just forlorn photo ops, with the stars walking out and going through a regimented series of moves and gestures, usually for benefit of the press photographers. Then they turn their attention to the fans and sign a few autographs, but unless it is a major star (e.g. Clooney), the fans and the actors are often just going through the motions. The people standing there watching are not necessarily fans who have lined up and waited but rather people who walked up, saw there was a movie premiere and stood there to see who happened to show up.
But anyway. Whenever you go to any of these things, there are always films you wish you saw that you didn't. My wife, Amy, went to one movie without me and says that it's the best thing she saw at the festival, a French film from the director Robin Campillo, called "Eastern Boys." So very soon I am going to try to get a copy of EASTERN BOYS. Anyway, she came back raving about the actor in the movie — she didn't know his name. But she described him as French and looking a little like Kevin Spacey. I got out the computer and got Olivier Rabourdin's face on the screen, and yes, that was him. Excellent actor, good in everything, from playing a monk in OF GODS AND MEN to playing the judge in CRIME D'AMOUR, but probably best known in the US for his small roles in TAKEN and TAKEN 2, of all things.
Anyway, how's this for a coincidence. This morning we shared a water taxi back to the airport with one other person — and guess who it was? Olivier Rabourdin. But because I had not seen EASTERN BOYS, I didn't feel comfortable introducing myself.
Actually, I probably wouldn't have anyway. You have to know when to leave people alone.

subset: commoncrawl


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Prince William Thanked by Russians for Rescuing Lost Sailors
The royal receives word on his "selfless effort" after the sinking of the Swanland
Russia has expressed its heartfelt thanks to Prince William for helping to rescue two shipwrecked sailors from the sunken Swanland vessel in the Irish Sea, as the search continued Monday for five shipmates who are still missing.
"We know that you took an active part in the rescue and the two seamen were saved thanks to your selfless effort under the bad weather conditions," the Russian ambassador to the U.K., Alexander Yakovenko, wrote in a letter to the Duke of Cambridge posted on Russian Embassy's website.
Yakovenko added: Let me express to you and your colleagues my deepest gratitude for saving the lives of the Russian citizens."
William, 29, was a co-pilot in a four-man helicopter crew that responded to a mayday call early Sunday morning. His crew was the first to arrive at the scene, airlifting two Russians to safety and taking them to William's base at RAF Valley on the island of Anglesey in Wales.
"It was very windy, with very heavy seas," an RAF Valley source tells PEOPLE.
The body of one dead sailor was also recovered. Five sailors are still missing.


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The New Age of OutsourcingBy Guest Author
The New Age of Outsourcing
By Edward Gardner and Joe Hogan
The biggest business driver of outsourcing has always been cost savings. And while cost continues to influence decision-making in the IT and business process outsourcing markets, increasing and expanding demands on IT organizations are compelling them to seek more from their service providers.
As mature enterprises enter into the next generation of outsourcing deals, they are embracing new—and sometimes risky—models to achieve more than the old-fashioned "your mess for less" value proposition.
"Certainly, there is an evolution under way," says Arno Franz, a partner with outsourcing consultancy Information Services Group (ISG). "Buyers have matured to such an extent that they are looking for something quite different in the marketplace."
To get an industry-wide perspective on how practices continue to evolve, we spoke with five of the outsourcing industry's most respected consultants. We asked them about emerging trends they're seeing and the impact these changes will have on both buyers and service providers. Here's what we learned from these conversations.
1. The Rise of Managed Services
Mature buyers of IT services are opting for managed services deals over staff augmentation arrangements, thus moving from input-based to output-based pricing. But while the potential benefits of the model, such as increased value and flexibility, are clear, the approach requires significant behavior changes from both the provider and the customer.
"In a staff augmentation deal, the client knows the people and they're used to working that way," says Ralph Schonenbach, CEO of Trestle Group. "When you take that away, it's a big cultural change. It requires a higher degree of trust, because you are allowing the supplier to take over operations to run as they see fit." Suppliers likewise may not be used to taking such a proactive role. "They need to be much more innovative in reorganizing the way people work," he says.
These managed services deals are significant in size, ranging from $100 million to $500 million, according to Schonenbach, and the customers that pursue them are looking to cut costs by at least 20 percent to 30 percent. "It's an easy number to communicate to the market, but what comes with that is risk because you don't own the process anymore," Schonenbach says.
Clients who pursue the managed services model must spend more time upfront, mapping out the scope of the deal and the desired outcomes in the contract. Some "are going through them too fast, which creates a lot of ambiguity," says Schonenbach. "You need to spend enough time together to create a mutual understanding."
The biggest risk, however, is that the client will continue to treat a managed services arrangement like a staff augmentation project, failing to give the supplier the flexibility required to deliver the promised savings. These relationships also require strong senior management support in the initial phases. "It can't be a bottom-up type of engagement, because there's too much resistance to this kind of change," says Schonenbach.
Managed services make most sense in operational areas, like application maintenance. Application development, however, may not be a good fit, because these are often one-off projects rather than ongoing processes.
While still in the early days, there have been a number of large deals in this space in Europe, says Schonenbach. "Everyone is looking to see how effective managed services will be for both parties."
2. Betting on Business Outcomes
When it comes to outcome-based pricing, outsourcing customers are increasingly interested in business—rather than basic technology—results. "It gives everyone a chance to benefit from that linkage of the value of what's paid to the vendor to the value that the client receives," says Ben Trowbridge, the founder and chairman of outsourcing consultancy Alsbridge. "If you can get those two to sync up, it's just wonderful."
It's a challenge for both the buyer and seller to define what those outcomes are prior to signing the contract, but early adopters and business process outsourcing (BPO) providers are hard at work in this area.
Providers who already have a business processing auto claims, for example, have a distinct measure of what it takes to process an insurance claim. "They've got a situation where they control the outcomes and it's easier for them to control the prices," says Trowbridge. "And everyone understands the metrics and pricing structures."
The New Age of Outsourcing
However, that's not often the case. In an environment where clients want to move the procurement process along as fast as possible, some are reluctant to give bidding vendors the time to figure out individual business outcome-based pricing. And a vendor with 100 customers may not want to take the time to develop distinct outcome-based pricing for each business.
"It takes a sophisticated seller and buyer to understand the outcomes," says Trowbridge. "Both have to want to do it, and both have to want to devote the time to do it." The client needs to take the time to make sure it wants to move in this direction; the provider needs time to get the metrics and pricing right. "Sometimes the desire is there, but the metrics just aren't available," says Trowbridge. Other times, business-outcome-based pricing doesn't make sense if, say, you're buying 100 images of server capacity.
3. Turning the RFP on Its Head
Historically, the outsourcing request-for-proposal (RFP) process was a highly prescriptive affair. Buyers would describe, in great detail, what they wanted and how they wanted it. The similarly detailed service provider responses enabled buyers to make a clear apples-to-apples comparison, based largely on cost. It was a fairly risk-averse approach, says ISG's Franz, with the solution determined from the start by the buyers—for better or for worse.
But what if it was the wrong solution? Time and again, buyers found that "they got the solution they asked for, but it may not have been right for the environment," says Franz.
That's beginning to change. While outsourcing clients are still looking to control costs, they are also interested in taking advantage of the latest and greatest technology advancements like mobility, cloud computing and big data analytics. Also, they don't know what they don't know. Therefore, some are turning to a much less prescriptive RFP process. "Clients are looking for something, but they're not quite sure what the answer is," says Franz. "So they are better off describing their environment and the problem and asking suppliers for their solutions."
It's a welcome change for service providers. With the traditional approach, "they end up having to artificially construct a solution that's not differentiating for them and ultimately costs them and the buyer more," says Franz. "The less prescriptive approach enables them to do something in their sweet spot."
For clients, it's quicker and less costly than the customary process. They spend a week or two drafting an engagement document versus three months on an RFP. The approach also narrows the field of competing vendors significantly, says Franz.
It requires a more mature and trusting client, he says. "[Buyer and supplier] are going on a journey together versus buying a bunch of widgets." Governance, likewise, has to be taken up a notch. "It's much more evolved and really requires strong engagement on both the service provider's and the buyer's behalf," says Franz. While there are still traditional KPIs, everything from the procurement process through delivery is much more collaborative. That change requires more frequent meetings to test the solution and make changes as needed, says Franz. And the governance process must be stipulated in the contract, including who is involved, what the guiding principles are and the methods of escalation. "All of those have to be front and center," Franz says. While it's unlikely to take hold in the government sector, this less prescriptive procurement process could become the norm in industry. "There's so much new technology available," says Franz. "And clients want to adopt and adapt to that technology in their sourcing."
4. Commercialization to Fund Innovation
Cost containment is still top of mind for CIOs, so some are getting creative about how they fund their transformational work. One option is the commercialization of the outsourcing relationship. That is, they are bundling and marketing systems and processes that an IT service provider initially develops for one client. Some clients see an opportunity in selling their assets to their service provider in order to finance other projects in the near term and potentially generate a revenue stream in the long term.
A bank, for example, may outsource the development of its reconciliation system to an IT service provider. The service provider develops a system for the bank, buys the rights to the system from that customer, and then modifies or enhances the system for marketing to other companies. If those companies sign on, both the outsourcing provider and the original customer share in the profit.
The New Age of Outsourcing
The key word is "if": There have yet to be any high-profile examples of vendors able to take these commercialized systems to market in a meaningful way, says Trestle Group's Schonenbach. "The model itself is a nice idea, but commercialization is not the core competency of either party," he says. "That's where it runs into challenges."
Customers also need to consider what the exit strategy might be if the arrangement doesn't work. "If you're not able to take it to market successfully, then what happens?" asks Schonenbach. "Do you have an agreement to bring it back in-house? What about your loss of key resources?"
But there are benefits beyond additional revenue to outsourcing customers' taking a chance on commercialization. They rid themselves of the legacy system burden, which presumably has been upgraded and is now managed by a third party. And, as other clients come on to the system, they benefit from the larger investment in system enhancements over the long haul.
"People within IT find it exciting—developing an application and selling it to the market," says Schonenbach. "The go-to-market strategy doesn't happen in your typical outsourcing arrangement." It requires customers to be much more involved and visible in the marketing and sales of the product. And the IT service provider needs the sales capabilities to succeed.
Initially, tier two providers were most likely to enter into such commercialization arrangements, but interest has been increasing among big players as well. "There needs to be an appetite to do it," Schonenbach says. "The more entrepreneurial suppliers are moving faster in this direction."
5. The Increased Significance of Service Integration
The single-sourced mega-outsourcing deal—the shifting of the majority of an organization's IT or business process work to a single provider—is dead. In recent years, the market has seen a significant move toward multisourcing, which can provide the flexibility, cost competition and access to skills that enterprises need. "If you get the right service providers with overlapping capabilities, it creates a natural tension and competition," says Lee Ayling, head of KPMG's technology sourcing practice in the U.K. If there's a service failure, the customer can take that percentage of their wallet share and give it to another provider. Service providers are getting used to that fact. "They don't have a choice," says Ayling. "If it's a global [customer], the deals are so big anyway, it's in the service providers' best interest."
For buyers, the effective management of that multiprovider environment has become increasingly important—and increasingly complex. "If you have three providers looking after your IT, there's quite a lot that the buyer needs to do to integrate those services," Ayling says. "The more strategic parts of service integration are being brought in-house."
The goal of service integration is to manage providers in a way that accommodates business demands. Third parties—from consultants to the service providers themselves—have offered this service to clients. But, says Ayling, "historically that hasn't worked," and increasingly, organizations see the benefit in doing it themselves.
Setting up a service integration shop from scratch isn't easy. Buyers have to find the 20 or 30 professionals with the right skills and often must work in conjunction with their service providers to develop the appropriate capabilities.
6. Re-examining the Big Picture
Over the years, clients have outsourced various components of organizations to various vendors in various countries for various reasons. This silo-by-silo approach to building up a sourcing portfolio did not necessarily translate to the best delivery strategy. Today "clients want to take a look at all the different pieces," says J. Marc Mancher, the head of Deloitte Consulting's insourcing and outsourcing advisory services in the U.S. "They've got four vendors in three locations and then another five locations where they do the work themselves, and they want to figure out whether or not they put the pieces together right."
The New Age of Outsourcing
Buyers on their second- or third-generation deals want to figure out if the Philippines was the best source for that call center, whether they should narrow their vendor portfolio from four down to two, or if they should bring some towers back in-house. "That initial gap of labor arbitrage has been captured, and now they want to look at the overall operating model and do a global reset before heading into the next generation," says Mancher. "We stop, look at all the pieces within the operating model for IT and business processes, and see if it makes sense." Those pieces include not just IT work but also business process outsourcing and shared services operations. "It has to be a holistic look," Mancher says.
Sometimes that reassessment leads to big changes; other times, it may make more sense to stay the course. A customer might find that achieving more efficiency in a certain area would cost more money and take two years that they don't have. "It all depends on the case for change," says Mancher.
However, the case for exploring new outsourcing models—whether introducing managed services or service integration, managing by business outcomes, rethinking the RFP, inventing new ways to fund innovation, or taking a more holistic approach—is clear. IT services customers who want more from their next-generation outsourcing relationships should step out of their comfort zones and explore new approaches.
About the Authors
Edward Gardner is senior director, Global Advisory Services, and Joe Hogan is vice president, Global Advisory Services, at HCL Technologies.


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Burnaby-Lougheed NDP candidate Jane Shin has apologized for a derogatory remark she made on a gaming website in 2002 against Chinese-Canadians.
"Earlier today, I was reminded of a term I used in an online gaming forum 11 years ago when I was 21 years old," said Shin, a Korean-Canadian, in a statement released Monday of remarks initially reported in a Sing Tao Daily story.
"That term was inappropriate," she added. "I offer my sincere apologies for any offence that it may have caused."
On the website, themachine.org, a user going by the name Kirst commented on July 21, 2002 about the University of B.C. plan to close her lab that September, and that while she could transfer her lab to another department, a change of schools might be appropriate, possibly the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
"it'd be heartbreaking leaving behind all the close circles of friends and networks in Vancouver to be some new kid in Edmonton, but it's lookin a bit better with few faces i've gotten to know," Shin, who admitted to being the author, wrote on the website.
Then she added: "ps. … and i wasn't jokin when i said i'm fed up with the chinkasauruses roaming abouts in vancouver."
NDP media relations spokesman Michael Gardiner said Monday that leadership candidate Adrian Dix would be unavailable to comment on Shin's remarks until after Monday night's leadership debate.
Shin was also not available for comment on the matter, and the B.C. Liberal Party didn't respond Monday by press deadline to requests for comment.
However, Jenny Kwan, a Chinese-Canadian and the NDP candidate for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, said that because she has known Shin for a year-and-a-half, she doesn't take offence to a comment made over a decade ago.
"I know her values and I know she's a person of high integrity and doesn't harbour negative feelings toward any community group," said Kwan. "I don't believe it's a reflection of who she is today at all. I think she'll be a great MLA.
"People make mistakes," Kwan added. "She was young, 21, and she's absolutely matured since then. She is a genuine, down-to-earth person and her heart is in the right place.
"I accept her apology."
Meanwhile, the B.C. Liberal Party is also calling for Shin's resignation if she doesn't clear the air for allegedly misleading people about her educational credentials and work experience, including her work as a physician.
According to a release from the Liberals, over the past several days a number of biographies of Shin have been altered, "calling into question whether or not she has been truthful about her education and work experience."
As an example, the statement cited an April 4 interview with blogger jonleeblog.blogspot.ca, in which Shin "claims to be a medical doctor who attended the University of Florida.
"An article in the Korea Times stated she graduated from UBC medical school. However, Dr. Shin's BCIT page on April 25th was silent on where she actually attended medical school. It did however list a number of schools that she claimed to have 'trained at' including Oxford University.
"Her BCIT biography has been altered and no longer mentions that she studied at Oxford."
According to her website, Shin immigrated to Canada when she was 11 years old and was educated in genetics and cell biology.
It said she received her medical doctorate in 2007 at the Spartan Health Sciences University in St. Lucia, and trained at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Dalhousie University in Halifax, and John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital in United States, as part of her comprehensive medical education.
Of the B.C. Liberal Party allegations, the NDP issued a statement Monday saying that the Liberals "are attacking this young woman personally to distract attention from their record, and the lack of credibility of their plan."
The NDP added in the statement: "Jane Shin completed her Doctor of Medicine at Spartan Health Sciences University, an institution recognized by the Medical Council of Canada. She completed her clinical rotations, almost entirely with honours, at a variety of hospitals in the United Kingdom and in Chicago. Following completion of her Medical Doctorate, she moved to Vancouver, where she has served as a respected instructor at Vancouver Community College and BCIT."


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For some children, even trace amounts of peanuts can be deadly. But so far, kids suffering from peanut allergies have no treatment options other than avoiding the legumes completely. The results of a new clinical trial may change that. Scientists have found that feeding allergic children small amounts of peanut protein every day, an approach known as oral immunotherapy, can help them lead a normal life.
"This is a very important first step," says Gideon Lack, a pediatric allergist at King's College London, who was not involved in the work. "But I don't think it is ready to go into clinical practice."
About 1% of children in high-income countries like the United States and the United Kingdom suffer from a peanut allergy. Their immune system reacts to proteins found in the nuts and in severe cases that reaction can cut off breathing or lead to a sudden drop in blood pressure, starving the organs of oxygen. The condition puts a lot of stress on families, because even children who have reacted mildly to peanuts in the past can suddenly have a life-threatening incident, says Andrew Clark, a pediatric allergist at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom and one of the researchers involved in the trial. Some studies have shown that exposing children to increasing doses of peanuts can desensitize them, but few big trials have been done. Some studies in the 1990s tried injecting the antigen into the skin. But side effects were severe and in one study a patient died because of a dosing error. "Because of that, people haven't touched this for 10, 20 years and are only now approaching it again," Clark says.
Clark and colleagues started with 49 allergic children aged 7 to 16 years. The kids' meals included a small amount of peanut flour, with the dose slowly increasing from 2 milligrams to 800 milligrams (equivalent to about five peanuts). A control group of 46 children who had a peanut allergy avoided the nuts altogether. After 6 months, 24 out of the 39 children in the treatment group who completed the study could tolerate 1400 mg of peanut protein without showing a reaction, but no one in the control group could, the authors report today in The Lancet. Many children suffered from nausea or vomiting, but in general these side effects were mild and occurred only in the first days after an increase in the dose. "We feel we've found a regime that works very well," says Clark, who hopes to offer the treatment as part of a "named patient program" within a year. Such programs allow doctors to use therapies that are not approved on individual patients if no other treatment exists. "I feel we have an obligation to act on our results," he says.
A group led by Kirsten Beyer, a pediatrician at the Charité University Medicine Berlin, recently finished a similar trial and is analyzing the results. Beyer criticizes the study for not using a placebo treatment in the control group. "But it is a big step in the right direction," she says. "We urgently need more studies on treating peanut allergy."
Lack also praises the study for being larger and more rigorously conducted than previous trials. But the benefits of the treatment are likely to be short term, he warns. "If you stop eating the peanuts for a few weeks or even a few days and you are reexposed, you may have a severe allergic reaction." Because of this danger, avoiding peanuts may still be the better option, he argues. But Clark says that participants seemed to tolerate short gaps, and he hopes to change some of the kids who have now been in treatment for 2 years to a weekly dose.
Hugh Sampson, an allergy researcher at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, says that more studies are needed to address unanswered questions. For instance, what the optimal dose is, whether there are chemicals that can make the therapy safer, and whether there are long-term adverse consequences of the therapy. "While this study adds to the growing data on the potential utility of oral immunotherapy for treating food allergy," he writes in an e-mail, "I am not sure that this study brings us closer to the answers."


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At Glamdeva we understand how important it is to look your best - and how difficult it can be choosing bespoke beauty services in your own home. So, we've developed an innovative system that's helping women across Shoeburyness look fabulous without the fuss. Interested? All you need to do is visit our website or download our app, tell us what you're looking for, and that's it! We'll connect you with a network of talented Mobile party makeup Artist in your area.
The way it works is simple! We pair savvy customers with experienced professionals who are looking to fill their diaries by booking in-home appointments. And because all of our members are thoroughly vetted and reviewed, you can relax knowing that you're in good hands. In fact, we're confident that we can connect you with the best Wedding Hair & Makeup Artists (HMUA & MUA) in Essex and beyond - helping you feel pampered and beautiful for less.
At Glamdeva we're committed to providing you with the best MUA in Shoeburyness - so get in touch to find out more.


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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is expected to announce a revamped bond-buying plan Wednesday to maintain its support for the U.S. economy.
The Fed's goal would be to keep downward pressure on long-term interest rates and encourage individuals and companies to borrow and spend. If it succeeds, the Fed might at least soften the blow from tax increases and spending cuts that will kick in in January if Congress can't reach a budget deal.
But its actions wouldn't rescue the economy. Chairman Ben Bernanke warned last month that if the economy fell off a "broad fiscal cliff," the Fed probably couldn't offset the shock.
Fears of the cliff have led some U.S. companies to delay expanding, investing and hiring. Manufacturing has slumped. Consumers have cut back on spending. Unemployment remains a still-high 7.7 percent. If higher taxes and government spending cuts lasted for much of 2013, most experts say the economy would sink into another recession.
On Tuesday, the Fed began a two-day meeting, which will end Wednesday afternoon with a statement announcing its policy decisions. Afterward, the Fed will update its forecasts for the economy, and Chairman Ben Bernanke will hold a news conference.
The expectation is that the Fed will unveil a program to buy $45 billion a month in long-term Treasurys. This would replace an expiring program called Operation Twist. With Twist, the Fed sold $45 billion a month in short-term Treasurys and used the proceeds to buy the same amount in longer-term Treasurys.
Twist didn't expand the Fed's investment portfolio; it just reshuffled the holdings. But the Fed has run out of short-term securities to sell. So to maintain its pace of long-term Treasury purchases and help keep long-term rates low, it must spend more and increase its portfolio.
The new bond purchase plan would join a program announced in September. Under that program, the Fed is buying $40 billion a month in mortgage bonds to try to force already record-low home-loan rates lower to encourage home buying. The total Fed bond purchases from the two programs would remain $85 billion.
"The Fed really has only one key decision at the meeting, and that is how much of the current program will they replace," said David Jones, chief economist at DMJ Advisors.
If, on the other hand, the Fed chooses not to replace Twist with a new bond-buying program, the value of its long-term Treasury purchases will decline by half. Long-term borrowing rates might rise as a result.
When the Fed pumps more money into the financial system and adds to its portfolio, it's called quantitative easing, or QE. Critics argue that QE risks escalating inflation later. The Fed's portfolio totals nearly $2.9 trillion — more than three times its size before the 2008 financial crisis.
The Fed has launched three rounds of QE since the financial crisis hit. In announcing QE3 in September, the Fed said it would keep buying mortgage bonds until the job market improved substantially. It also extended its plan to keep its benchmark short-term rate near zero through at least mid-2015. And it raised the possibility of taking other steps.
Skeptics note that rates on mortgages and many other loans are already at or near all-time lows. So any further declines in rates engineered by the Fed might offer little economic benefit.
But besides seeking to spur lending, the Fed's drive to cut rates has another goal: to induce investors to shift money out of low-yielding bonds and into stocks, which could lift stock prices. Stock gains boost wealth and typically lead individuals and businesses to spend and invest more. The economy would benefit.
Inside and outside the Fed, a debate has raged over whether the Fed's actions have helped support the economy over the past four years, whether they will ignite inflation later and whether they should be extended. At this week's meeting, some regional Fed bank presidents will likely express concern that more bond buying will further flood the financial system with money and eventually send prices soaring.
One such critic, Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, has cast a lone dissenting vote at all seven Fed policy meetings this year. Lacker has said he thinks the job market is being slowed by factors beyond the Fed's control. And he says further bond purchases risk worsening future inflation.
Others, like John Williams, president of the San Francisco Fed, have said they think the Fed's bond purchases must continue because the job market and other components of the economy are improving only gradually.
The Fed is also expected this week to resume discussions on how to signal future policy moves to the public more clearly. Since August 2011, the Fed has identified a target date to try to reassure markets that it doesn't plan to raise short-term rates soon.
Some Fed officials, however, oppose using a target period to signal the earliest when it might start raising rates. They've been urging that future interest-rate moves be linked to how the economy is faring as measured by unemployment and inflation.
Chicago Fed President Charles Evans, a proponent of this change, would set the unemployment target at 6.5 percent and the inflation target at 2.5 percent. If those targets were adopted, the Fed would say it didn't plan to raise rates until unemployment drops below 6.5 percent — as long as the Fed's inflation gauge is no more than 2.5 percent. The Fed's inflation measure over the past 12 months has risen just 1.7 percent, signaling that inflation pressures are well-contained.
Many private economists expect no change in the Fed's communications strategy this week. They think officials are far from a consensus on how to adopt numerical targets for any interest-rate move. But a change could come next year.
By contrast, there's widespread expectation that the Fed will announce a program to replace Operation Twist. If it didn't, the Fed's support for the economy would be reduced at a time when growth is weak and unemployment still high.
"They can't have the current level of bond buying come to an end with all the uncertainty of the fiscal cliff just around the corner," said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com.
The Fed's meeting coincides with negotiations between Congress and President Barack Obama over a budget deal to avert the fiscal cliff. The talks are focused on Obama's push to raise tax rates for the top 2 percent of income earners. Most Republicans are resisting such a move.
Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Gordon College, says he thinks Fed officials this week might discuss what further action they could take if Congress and the administration fail to reach a deal before January and the tax increases and spending cuts take effect.
"We are in unusual times, and that may require an unusual amount of Fed policy actions," Bethune said.
See also:
Bernanke wants you to buy stocks, but risk is high


text:
Tiles have revolutionized the idea of web mapping and has given us fast and easy access to large datasets. Tiling schemes divide the world into small tiles (typically 256 x 256 pixels) for each zoom level and pre-render datasets to these tiles. This way only a small fraction of a large dataset is served to the user at any given time - resulting in a map that can be zoomed or panned with ease over the internet. There are many methods to create tiles from GIS datasets. One easy way to create tiles from your QGIS project is a plugin called QTiles. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create PNG tiles from any set of layers loaded in QGIS and create a basemap to be used in a web mapping project.
We will create tiles from the Natural Earth raster covering the entire planet.
We will use the Natural Earth 2 dataset from Natural Earth.
Download the medium-size Natural Earth II with Shaded Relief, Water, and Drainages zip file.
Data Source [NATURALEARTH]
NE2_LR_LC_SR_W.zip file to a folder on your
computer. Open QGIS and go to
. Browse to the location of the
extracted files and select
NE2_LR_LC_SR_W.tif. Click OK.
QTiles plugin by going to . Note that the plugin is currently marked experimental,
so you will need to check Show also experimental plugins in
Plugin Settings. (See Menggunakan Plugins for more details on installing
plugins in QGIS). Once the plugin is installed, go to
NE2_LR_LC_SR_W layer as the extent of the tiles. Set the
Maximum Zoom to
6. Expand the Parameters section
and check the Write Leaflet-based viewer. Click Run
to start the process of rendering the tiles.
The number of tiles increase 4 times for every additional zoom level and since our layer has an extend of the entire world - there will be millions of tiles at higher zoom levels.
QTiles.html file. This is a simple viewer to explore the tiles using the
Leaflet web mapping library.
QTiles.html to open it in a web browser. You can zoom
and pan around to see the tiles seamlessly form the original raster layer.
OSM B & W base layer is defined.
new ol.layer.Tile({
'title': 'Natural Earth 2',
'type': 'base',
source: new ol.source.XYZ({
url: 'C://Users/Ujaval/Desktop/QTiles/{z}/{x}/{y}.png',
attributions: [new ol.Attribution({html: 'Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com.'})]
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License


text:
LITTLE ROCK — People should base their decision on whether to support Medicaid expansion in Arkansas on economics, not politics or personal feelings about the president's health care reforms, Gov. Mike Beebe said Thursday.
Speaking to delegates at the annual meeting of the Arkansas Hospital Association, Beebe said hospitals in particular would benefit from Medicaid expansion by a reduction in the amount of money they spend on uncompensated care, which he said would lower hospital costs and insurance rates.
He also said the expansion would help keep the doors open at many struggling smaller hospitals, especially in rural areas.
But every hospital in the state would benefit financially, he said, specifically mentioning that the University of Arkansas for Medical Science would see an annual net gain of about $28 million.
"The economic argument, if you don't want to listen to any other argument, is a persuasive thing," he said. "How many of our communities could make it without their hospitals?"
Beebe, who wants to expand the program under the health care reform law, told a crowd of more than 300 health care industry officials that the Legislature will have the final say in next year's regular session.
Republicans are making a push in the November general election to win majorities in the state House and Senate for the first time since Reconstruction.
Beebe said expects the general election to produce a slim majority either way, and he said Medicaid expansion won't happen without bipartisan support because of the three-fourths vote required to appropriate funding.
"We're not going to do this … if Republicans and Democrats don't agree," the governor said. In that case, he said, "the other states will do what they want to do … money will be expended and we will be left out, and our hospitals will be left out, and our people will be left out and our tax papers will be left out."
Beebe then appeared to take a swipe at vocal Republican opponents of Medicaid expansion.
"We've got a bunch of people running around here now beating their chests, political, that need to keep their mouth shut, get the facts and then vote their conscience on what is in the best interest of their constituents and their people," he said.
The governor added that some opponents "are painting themselves into one heck of a corner right now because they're either going to be put in a posture where they're going to leave Arkansas out next January, or they are going to have to go backwards from what they're telling the voters while they are running for office, and neither one of those things … seems to be a good option."
Rep. John Burris, R-Harrison, said any attempt by the governor to the use the Medicaid expansion debate for political purposes is "irresponsible."
"I don't think anyone is beating their chest. We're trying to take our time to get important information," he said, noting that the state faces up to a $400 million Medicaid shortfall at the end of the next fiscal year, and that there are many concerns about the management and sustainability of Medicaid.
"What we should be talking about is how we can come together in a bipartisan way and find a solution to keep providing the care for the people who are already promised care to, and that is the debate we should be having as we head into the session," Burris said.
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the federal health care law but said the federal government cannot coerce states into expanding their Medicaid programs by threatening to cut off Medicaid funding. That leaves it up to states to decide whether to expand the health care program for the poor, elderly and the disabled to include people earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.
For those that do, the federal government will pick up the entire cost for three years, then gradually lower its contributions until the states eventually pay 10 percent.
State officials say the expansion would add about 250,000 people to the Medicaid program in Arkansas.
Beebe said he has received word from the federal government that Arkansas can opt out of the expansion if the state suffers a budget shortfall. The state is already paying the taxes, so opting out would mean Arkansas taxpayers' money would go to other states that do expand their program, he said.
The governor urged delegates, many of them members of hospital auxillary programs, to go back home and tell candidates for the Legislature about the importance of Medicaid expansion to local hospitals.
"I'm not telling you who to vote for," he said. "You are smart enough to figure that out. But, whoever you vote for you ought to ask them about this issue."


text:
Productivity Apps 83 Apps found. category: Productivity ×
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Manage Brand Products, Search Brand Wise Product App, Filter Product By Brand, Select Brand Product Module, Group By Product Brands, Choose Brand Product, Get Particular Brand Product, Assign Products Brand Odoo
Product Brand Management
Fixed Left and top Pivot Columns(Sticky). For Odoo Enterprise & Community.
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1 click customize odoo, reset data. For quick develop. Set brand, boost, reset data, debug. Language Switcher. Easy Delete data.reset account chart. customize my odoo.
odoo 14,13 Customize OEM(Boost, Data reset)
Open PDF Reports and PDF Attachments in Browser
Open PDF Reports and PDF Attachments in Browser
shows a modal window with options for printing, downloading or opening pdf reports
Pdf report options
If you live most of your day in Outlook, then you need our Outlook Add-In for Odoo ERP. Living as a 'side bar' within your Outlook client, our add-in lets you interface with the most-needed functions of Odoo.
Microsoft Office 365 Add-In for Outlook
Customize 'from' and 'reply-to' addresses for email messages sent from Odoo


text:
The Senate Budget and Evaluation Office (SBEO) was created during the 2003 Session and legislation formally creating the office was passed in 2008. The purpose of the office is to give the Senate the independent capacity to develop the annual budget for the State of Georgia and to evaluate the programs comprising the state budget.
The mission of SBEO is to support an informed, policy-driven budget process.
The office is committed to producing an accurate and transparent budget document and to the development of accurate, objective, timely, non-partisan, and thorough budget and policy analysis for the Georgia State Senate.
Requests for information from Senators, the Lt. Governor, or Senate staff can be initiated by telephone, email, or written correspondence.
Paul D. Coverdell Legislative Office Building, Suite 20818 Capitol SquareAtlanta, Georgia 30334(404) 463-1970(404) 463-0346 FAXe-mail


text:
Make no mistake: the game has changed and if you're not on board the ultra engagement bus, then you'll be yesterday before it's tomorrow.
That's the astounding message from a video designed to attract world-weary media types to the Creative Fuel Conference, set to redefine paradigms in Sydney on 28 July.
Doubtless corpora callosi interconnects across Oz will light up cerebral hemispheres in awe at the "Crowdsourced 3D-Printed QR Code Live Streamed Via GoPro To A Smart Phone Or Tablet Device Drone Delivery Ticket System". As one video contributor succinctly puts it: "Who needs a fucking idea these days when you've got an awesome piece of tech?"
Awesome indeed. Now, if they can just nano that technology ... ®
The game-changing quadchopper in question is an adapted TBS Discovery Pro running APM, and created by Ian Lyons.


text:
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Feel free to contact us to ask for an individual quotation.PERFORMANCE QUOTE
A major multinational company that manufactures air handlers was awarded a contract for work at Barcelona airport. The company approached Radiadores Cerezo to select, design and manufacture the required equipment in record time.
In the wake of Fukushima, a major initiative was planned to improve cooling systems and prevent the electrical failure of reactors.
Design of a system to prevent freezing at the inlet of gas electricity turbines at a plant in Russia.
A highly efficient cooling system design, optimal and resistant, for a high-pressure autoclave.
Custom manufacture of a large number of exchangers for the air conditioning at factories of car manufacturers including Seat (Martorell, Spain), Volkswagen (Puebla, Mexico) and Ford (Almussafes, Spain).
Manufacture and supply of around 960 exchangers a year (averaging 4.1 per working day) for a major air curtain manufacturer. The challenge in this project is the continuous satisfaction of the customer.
Urgent manufacture of 48 units with a length of 9,400 mm and a height of 1,980 mm, with the challenge of maintaining Radiadores Cerezo's hallmark quality finishes and precision.


text:
'Assassin's Creed III': A Critical Success, and a Cultural Milestone
Indian Country Today
Assassin's Creed III (AC III), the latest installment of the Assassin's Creed series by video game maker Ubi Soft, was released today. This time around, the game is set during the American Revolutionary War, and the hero is a half-Mohawk, half-British assassin. His name is Connor Kenway, but he was raised in a Mohawk village by his birth name of Ratonhnhaké:ton.
The planned midnight release in GameStop stores in the northeast was scuttled by Hurricane Sandy, and Ubi Soft has already had to release a massive patch to fix its bugs, but the game is out for XBox 360 and PlayStation 3, kinks be damned, and the reviews are coming in.
It's one thing to be the most anticipated title in Indian country in recent years, but what's most important to AC III's success is how it plays for gamers of all backgrounds. Greg Tito of The Escapist writes that the game "succeeds on nearly every level with nimble combat, fun diversions and the chance to captain your own ship. Connor might not be an altogether likeable hero, but the New World he's fighting to protect is one you won't forget." He concludes that AC III "feels like four independently excellent games rolled into one." Matt Miller of Game Informer writes that "Assassin's Creed III delivers everything the series has promised, and throws in a little more for good measure." He praises a "staggering scope and breadth" that "makes a convincing case for the freedom and storytelling potential inherent to games over other mediums."
Those are just a couple of the generally-glowing notices the game is getting. Even the less enthusiastic reviewers are granting that the game is very good. "There's so much good in Assassin's Creed 3, it's so ambitious, so singular, that I can't stop thinking about it," writes Arthur Gies of Polygon. "Even knowing that I'll encounter issues that make the game occasionally infuriating, I want to go back. And that, despite Assassin's Creed 3's flaws, is more than I can say for most games." Gies gives the game eight stars out of ten.
In one of the more critical reviews, Conrad Zimmerman of Destructoid.com finds that Connor "is almost annoying in his blind, obstinate adherence to the idea of all mankind desiring and having a right to freedom" and concludes that "when it comes right down to it, cohesion (or lack thereof) is the main issue with Assassin's Creed III." Zimmerman did find many things to like about the game, though, and his verdict of 7.5 stars out of 10 is still quite positive.
James "DexX" Dominguez, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, shed light on Ubi Soft's approach to the Native elements AC III. "The game's creators consulted with the tribes depicted in the game, ensuring they made the language, clothing, weapons, and dwellings as authentic as possible. While it may bug some players, I was pleased to see that the tribespeople speak in their native language and have English subtitles."
"We really wanted to have a real, authentic showcase of Native American culture," Julien Laferrière, an associate producer at Ubi Soft, told Dominguez. "We wanted to move as far away as possible from the stereotypes."
Numerous articles about the development of the game refer to a dread felt by the rest of the world regarding AC III's setting — gamers in Europe and elsewhere were presumably worried that AC III would have to be a flag-waving farce in order to appeal to the American audience. Writing in Slate, Erik Sofge tackles the issue, and reports that AC III's story does not try to glorify the United States, and rather displays "the desire to defend those original Americans, specifically the Mohawks and Iriquois in the Northeast, who watch this white man's conflict unfold."
"Inhabiting [Conor's] point of view allows you to watch long-standing, formalized tribal alliances shatter as groups align with the Brits and the colonists," Sofge continues. "But whoever wins, it's clear—the Native Americans are going to lose, and lose everything." Sofge goes on to describe the importance of Thomas Deer, the cultural liaison for the Kanien'kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center, who worked with Ubi Soft to bring a level of accuracy to the game far beyond what the average gamer might have required. For instance, when Ubi Soft sound engineers wanted to add Native-language background chatter into a scene, Deer had them record Mohawk children playing on a playground.
The payoff of Ubi Soft's efforts, Sofge writes, is something that stands out among not just games but also movies and TV as "possibly the first mainstream look at Native American history that isn't pandering or offensive."
The high marks for the game, both as a game and as a window onto history, make clear what many Native gamers and moviegoers have thought all along: That it's possible to make good entertainment without dragging out the same tired stereotypes.
And perhaps abandoning those stereotypes is one of the touches that is the difference between a good game and a great one.
Could we see more game manufacturers looking to explore producing Indian titles with an authentic feel? Todd Martens thinks so—as he writes in his review for the L.A. Times, "this game makes it clear that there's plenty of rich Native American gaming story lines yet to create."


text:
Metal gods to bless Soundwave stage
AMERICAN metal gods Metallica will headline the 2013 Soundwave music festival.
The headliners were unveiled this morning along with 50 other acts including Linkin Park, Anthrax, Garbage, Paramore, A Perfect Circle, Flogging Molly and Sum 41.
Reunited punk rockers Blink 182, The Offspring, Of Mice and Men, Cancer Bats and Stone Sour have already been confirmed for the 2013 line-up in recent weeks.
Soundwave boss AJ Maddah is clearly confident in the line-up, reportedly tweeted last night that he would be amazed if the Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne shows "did not sell out instantly".
Tickets for the 2013 festival will be $187 and inclusive of all fees and postage.
The Sydney and Perth shows will include a $2 levy for transport.
Pre-sale tickets go on sale on Wednesday, August 15, and there will be a four-ticket maximum per person.
General public tickets go on sale on Thursday, August 23.
Soundwave plays Brisbane on February 23, Sydney on February 24, Melbourne on March 1, Adelaide on March 2 and Perth on March 4.
To see the full first line-up announcement go to the Soundwave website.


text:
Seven night Pilgrimage
This pilgrimage gives you the opportunity for a 7 night stay in Lourdes. During your stay you will follow a full spiritual programme including Mass, a walking tour of Lourdes and some time for quiet personal reflection.
We recommend booking early as these short pilgrimages are always very popular. The price includes flight from London Stansted direct to Lourdes and return to London Southend, airport transfers and 7 nights full board accommodation, sharing a room.
Prices & How to Book
Itinerary - to be confirmed
Each day you will have a full spiritual programme organised by our Lourdes staff.
The itinerary will contain the following:
- Daily Mass
- Walking tour of the Domain and the places associated with the life and times of Bernadette
- Stations of the Cross
- Blessed Sacrament procession
- Rosary and Marion torchlight procession
- Free time to visit the baths
Pleas note that this itinerary may be subject to change at times.
Travel Information
Outbound flights from London Stansted- 28th August
Inbound flights to London Southend- 4th September
Other Hotels Available
Included - What is included in your pilgrimage
- 7 night full-board accomodation
- Flights from London Stansted and return to London Southend
- Spiritual Leader/Local guide
- Full pilgrimage programme
Special Offers


text:
The online world is abuzz with the news of an Internet browser tool that lets even the most technologically inept snoop on their neighbours over Wi-Fi networks.
But the real story is that it has taken this Wi-Fi snooping-for-dummies tool to draw attention to gaping security holes that can leave your online interactions about as private as a postcard.
And in what is beginning to look like a grassroots campaign, the release of the snooping tool that works with the Firefox browser has since been joined by another aimed at warning Twitter users that their insecure surfing leaves their accounts open to hijacking.
Yet computer users are still blithely signing on to Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites while they sit in their local coffee shop, either not knowing or not caring that their latte-sipping neighbour may be hacking into their personal networks.
Kris Constable, director of the Victoria-based PrivaSecTech, which specializes in information security and privacy technology, said the release of the Firefox extension Firesheep is both good and bad in that it draws attention to security issues, but also people could be using it to become online snoops.
"There is nothing technically new with this," he said. "The only thing this has done has made it prettier and more accessible. And the media attention has made it more known."
Eric Butler, the Seattle freelance software developer who released the extension for Firefox, did so to highlight the security issues and put pressure on websites to use end-to-end encryption, which shows up in a web address as https.
In just over a day after its release, Firesheep was downloaded 129,000 times.
"The real story here is not the success of Firesheep, but the fact that something like that is even possible," Butler wrote in his blog codebutler.
Having such downloads on your computer isn't illegal, but using them could put you on the wrong side of the law, said Peter Roberts, a lawyer with Lawson Lundell LLP.
"Providing you have the right licences there is nothing wrong with buying a firearm," he said. "It is what you do with it."
It also depends on the nature of the information.
"If you are intercepting publicly available information on publicly available websites there is nothing wrong with that," said Roberts. "It is when you start intercepting private information."
Accessing and downloading someone's private information could potentially be considered theft, a criminal offence, Roberts warned, and it could give rise to a civil claim of breaching privacy.
Victims may find it difficult to go after their online attackers.
"There are two problems, how do you figure out who they are and can they pay at the end of the day," Roberts explained.
The victim of a Wi-Fi snoop could also be potentially liable for exposing information if he or she is using data that would be covered by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Firesheep focuses on the "cookies" that are used for authentication by websites while you are logged in for a session. For many websites, the information in those cookies isn't encrypted. In the case of social networking sites like Facebook, that can allow an electronic eavesdropper to get into your social networking profile, post messages, change your password or otherwise create havoc.
Constable points out there is other easily obtainable software that can give electronic eavesdroppers access to every bit of unencrypted Internet data you are sending and receiving, not just your social networking activities.
"If you're at a coffee shop now and running Wireshark [a network protocol analyzer] you can see every e-mail, every MSN conversation, anything that is not encrypted," said Constable.
A network analyzer (also known as a packet sniffer) doesn't have to be on your network to see what you're doing.
"If I'm sniffing packets, all I'm doing is watching what is going over the air on my [computer] antenna," said Constable. "I don't need to connect to your network."
Read Gillian Shaw's blog at vancouversun.com/digitallife
Five tips to safeguard against Wi-Fi snoops
1. Don't use open Wi-Fi networks. If you must, when signing into Facebook, Twitter, your e-mail or other websites that require user authentication, make sure the Web address starts with https. Some sites, like your bank or gmail, automatically default to https. Others like Facebook and Twitter don't, but you can choose that option.
2. To switch to a secure connection, you can go to the address bar and add an "s" to http; for example, if you do that with Facebook, you'll find yourself at https://www.facebook.com. When you bookmark sites, make sure you bookmark the ones starting with https.
3. Use the Firefox plug-in Force-TLS to force sites to use https, a move that makes any data transferred between your computer and the website it is reaching unreadable to snoops. You can search for Force-TLS at https://addons.mozilla.org. There's a similar one on Firefox called HTTPS Everywhere, still in beta. Once Force-TLS is added, you'll get an option in the drop-down Tools menu to "ForceTLS Configuration." You have to add in all the networks you want to sign into only with https. If the website doesn't have the option of a secure connection, it won't work.
4. When you're signing into any networks that require authentication in a new wireless location — say you've gone out for coffee and taken your netbook along without signing out — make sure you have closed any online accounts before you log onto the network. Then sign in again, making sure it's over a https connection.
5. Use your company VPN (Virtual Private Network) or set up your own VPN, although that is an option more complicated than the casual computer user would want to undertake.
Gillian Shaw, Vancouver Sun


text:
Best known for the novels Little Women and Little Men, Louisa May Alcott brought the story of her feisty protagonist Jo and the adventures and misadventures of the March family to an entertaining, surprising, and bittersweet conclusion in Jo?s Boys.
Louisa May Alcott, born in 1832, was the second child of Bronson Alcott of Concord, Massachusetts, a self-taught philosopher, school reformer, and utopian who was much too immersed in the world of ideas to ever succeed in supporting his family. That task fell to his wife and later to his enterprising daughter Louisa May. While her father lectured, wrote, and conversed with such famous friends as Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau, Louisa taught school, worked as a seamstress and nurse, took in laundry, and even hired herself out as a domestic servant at age nineteen. The small sums she earned often kept the family from complete destitution, but it was through her writing that she finally brought them financial independence. "I will make a battering-ram of my head," she wrote in her journal, "and make a way through this rough-and-tumble world."An enthusiastic participant in amateur theatricals since age ten, she wrote her first melodrama at age fifteen and began publishing poems and sketches at twenty-one. Her brief service as a Civil War nurse resulted in Hospital Sketches (1863), but she earned more from the lurid thrillers she began writing in 1861 under the pseudonym of A.M. Barnard. These tales, with titles like "Pauline?s Passion and Punishment," featured strong-willed and flamboyant heroines but were not identified as Alcott?s work until the 1940s.Fame and success came unexpectedly in 1868. When a publisher suggested she write a "girl?s book," she drew on her memories of her childhood and wrote Little Women, depicting herself as Jo March, while her sisters Anna, Abby May, and Elizabeth became Meg, Amy, and Beth. She re-created the high spirits of the Alcott girls and took many incidents from life but made the March family financially comfortable as the Alcotts never had been. Little Women, to its author?s surprise, struck a cord an America?s largely female reading public and became a huge success. Louisa was prevailed upon to continue the story, which she did in Little Men (1871) and Jo?s Boys (1886.) In 1873 she published Work- A Story of Experience, an autobiography in fictional disguise with an all too appropriate title.Now a famous writer, she continued to turn out novels and stories and to work for the women?s suffrage and temperance movements, as her father had worked for the abolitionists. Bronson Alcott and Louisa May Alcott both died in Boston in the same month, March of 1888.


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When NPR first announced their "This I Believe" series, I jumped at the chance to show the world why an early introduction to science fiction was essential to my creative development. My essay wasn't picked for broadcast, but it is archived on their site, along with all the others that didn't make the cut.
With the passing today of Ray Bradbury, I've decided to reprint that essay on my website, because Bradbury and Heinlein were my primary introductions to science fiction. Bradbury was especially important to me because my favorite form of writing is the short story, and he was a master of that form.
I don't remember which one I saw first. It was either Bradbury's R is for Rocket or Heinlein's Red Planet, but the sequence doesn't really matter. What matters is that I took them both home from the public library and read them, sitting on my brown beanbag throne, flanked by tidy bookshelves like Centurion guards. In that space I discovered the alternate worlds of "A Sound of Thunder", "The Foghorn" and Willis, the Martian roundhead, and I was hooked on science fiction.
Later, I stalked the arid dunes of Arrakis with blue-eyed Paul Atreides and cried when I learned that Ellison's Jeffty was still five, and had never lost his Captain Midnight Decoder Ring. Science fiction crossed over into fantasy and I found myself lost in Mordor with Frodo and Sam, then combing the treasure room of Atuan with Ged, seeking to restore the ring of Erreth-Akbe, and with it, worldly balance. And Thomas Covenant, unwilling tutor that he was, reminded me that the real world was of prime importance, and that I was lucky to be in it.
When Dungeons and Dragons came along in the late 1970s, my friends and I were naturally hooked, and spent every Sunday afternoon in the library's basement conference room, crawling through each other's imaginations, solving puzzles and laughing at our own absurdity, bundles of creativity wrapped in cloaks of innocence.
Now, I'm nearing middle age. The marathon D&D sessions have morphed into occasional afternoon strategy games with the same lifelong friends. Books (when they aren't in boxes) don't come off the shelves nearly enough, and I seem to need more sleep than I ever did when I was younger. But the sparks of creativity and imagination that burst into life with Bradbury's Rocket still smolder. Occasionally one will ignite and float skyward with the completion of a poem or short story. A flurry might crackle and spit into being while I play guitar with my band. More sparks glow when I read a sonnet to the woman I love, asking her to marry me beside a high country lake.
I believe that creativity is vital to the soul. It connects us to others in ways we don't expect or understand. It builds self-confidence and teaches us to find solutions to problems no one can predict. It helps us to explore other worlds, mindsets, and cultural ideas. And in the visual and musical arts, creativity helps us express that which has no words.
If not for the sparks of wonder that I found in the Bradburys and Heinleins of the world, I might never have known what it's like to feel the joys of creativity and imagination. I might have never learned to play guitar, or to appreciate the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. I might have never gazed at the Milky Way above timberline and wondered who else was Out There.
And, worst of all, I might never have known the importance of Captain Midnight Decoder Rings.
Originally appeared on NPR's "This I Believe" website, dated June 14, 2005
Godspeed, Ray Bradbury. Enjoy your train ride to the afterlife, because I know you won't take a plane.


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Things are heating up in Washington. Of course, we're not referring to the ongoing negotiations over the debt ceiling, or even the 100-degree temperatures expected later this week. We're talking about spectrum policy.
Last week, Republican and Democrat leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee introduced discussion drafts of legislation that would allow the FCC to hold "voluntary incentive auctions" for rights to use electromagnetic spectrum—the airwaves. The draft bills follow bipartisan legislation passed by the Senate Commerce Committee last month.
Never mind the heat—it's wonky talk like this that keeps people away from Washington in the summer (or all year round, for that matter). But actually, a very simple and powerful idea animates the proposed legislation.
Gordon Crovitz of the Wall Street Journal explained it lucidly in his column yesterday.
One of the FCC's main responsibilities is to grant licenses to use spectrum. For many years, the agency determined the "best" licensee through an administrative process. In 1993, Congress granted the FCC authority to hold spectrum auctions. Nearly two decades later, FCC auctions have spurred hundreds of billions of dollars of private investment in wireless networks and generated over $50 billion in proceeds for the Treasury.
Now, as America faces a spectrum crunch driven by the spectacular growth of mobile broadband, we need to take the next step.
Using incentive auctions, we can facilitate the voluntary transfer of licenses from old uses to more valuable new uses; from willing sellers to willing buyers. The increase in spectrum value gets split among the buyers, the sellers, and the American taxpayer. But the public actually receives a double dividend. The new spectrum fuels ever-faster, ever-cheaper wireless networks and the incredible devices and apps that use them.
The time is right for incentive auctions. Compelling public benefits have generated true bipartisan support. Now that's a hot idea.


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Events Calendar
Dancing with the Fisher Stars
America's favorite dance competition comes to Fisher!
Date: December 6, 2019 - December 6, 2019
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Campus Center Mainstage
Hosted by Fisher Dance Club
This fun, friendly competition showcases duos of Fisher students and Dance Club members performing short routines. The duos compete against each other in elimination rounds to become the champion and win the coveted Mirrorball trophy.


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The Director-General Opens World Water Week in Stockholm
UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, will be in Stockholm on 2-3 September to take part in World Water Week 2013.
The event, held as part of the International Year of Water Cooperation led by UNESCO, will bring together over 200 collaborating organizations to explore the theme "Water Cooperation – Building Partnerships". The Director-General will participate in the opening ceremony and in a High Level Panel entitled "Building Partnerships on Water Cooperation for Future Oriented Decisions and Forcing Implementation". Panellists will include Mr. Angel Gurría, General Secretary of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Mr. Peter Bakker, President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Ms. Yolanda Kakabadse, President of the World Wide Fund for Nature International and Dr. Ursula Schaefer-Preuss, Chair of the Global Water Partnership.
While in Stockholm, the Director-General will meet with several government officials.
<- Back to: Natural Sciences


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OTTAWA - Former cabinet minister Martin Cauchon is making a late entry into the already crowded federal Liberal leadership race.
Cauchon submitted his nomination papers and $75,000 entry fee just hours before the party's registration deadline of midnight Sunday.
Assuming everything is in order and is verified by the party in the next day or two, Cauchon will become the ninth candidate seeking to lead the once-mighty party out of the political wilderness.
He is expected to officially launch his campaign later in the week, just in time for Sunday's first leadership debate in Vancouver.
Cauchon, who as justice minister spearheaded the move to decriminalize marijuana and legalize same-sex marriage, will likely position himself as a champion of progressive Liberalism amid a leadership field that has so far shown a pronounced rightward tilt.
He waded into the fray before Christmas, blasting front-runner Justin Trudeau for calling the Chretien-era long-gun registry a failure and urging leadership contenders to have the "backbone" to stick with traditional Liberal principles.
Cauchon retired from politics in 2004; his attempt at a comeback in 2011 in his old Montreal riding of Outremont was thwarted by Tom Mulcair, now NDP leader.
He will be the third candidate from Quebec in the current contest, along with Trudeau and fellow Montreal MP Marc Garneau, Canada's first astronaut.
The other candidates who've been officially confirmed by the party are: Vancouver MP Joyce Murray, former Toronto MP Martha Hall Findlay, Toronto lawyers George Takach and Deborah Coyne, retired Canadian Forces officer Karen McCrimmon and Ottawa lawyer David Bertschi.
Cauchon's last-minute entry could prove problematic. Trudeau, who launched his campaign in early October, is widely perceived to have a huge head start, both in terms of fundraising and recruiting supporters. The others have been stumping the country, drumming up support, since at least November.
Murray, who advocates one-time electoral co-operation with the NDP and Greens, has already established herself as the lone left-wing voice and has garnered support from some prominent progressive Liberals, such as former cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy.
However, Cauchon is a respected figure in the party, particularly among Chretien loyalists, and still has time to make his mark during five crucial debates.
The contest will culminate with the election of a new leader on April 14.


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The power of a brand to turn us into puppets.
I am a staunch individualist! I have never been one to follow trends, the crowd, or allow myself to be brainwashed by advertising. At least that's how I see myself. This makes the following story all that more interesting.
One morning in the recent past, I was to meet a friend for coffee early at Pete's Coffee. I got there a bit before my friend and was eager to get some strong coffee in me. We have a toddler and an infant at home and the lack of sleep has turned my wife and I into zombies who function on strong coffee. I approached the counter and ordered a tall latte with an extra shot of espresso. The barista looked funny at me and repeated my order back to me – "a medium latte with extra shot." I repeated back to him – "yes … a tall latte" He corrected me again, "you mean MEDIUM."
At this point my mind cleared up a bit and I realized, much to my amazement, that I was not at Starbucks but at Pete's. It must have felt insulting to the Pete's barista that I was confusing their establishment with the competition. I was slightly embarrassed and motivated to figure out what had just gone on.
The Psychologist in me figured things out. You see, extensive research in Behavioral Science has shown that many times we move around the world on auto pilot, driven by habit. For example, have you ever headed for place A, fell deep in thought about something, and ended up at place B, just because place B is the one you usually go to? A recent study reported by David Rock, shows that "humans are on autopilot nearly half of the time."
What had happened to me was that during one of my (sleep deprived) autopilot mode episodes, I was under the influence of a powerful brand – Starbucks. I had used the Starbucks lingo at Pete's Coffee! Moreover, this was the lingo that I had stubbornly refused to use during my first visits to Starbucks!
To me, that is an excellent example of how effective brands get under our skin – they pull he strings while we are asleep at the wheel … Scary?


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He may have been making TV appearances almost daily but BJP's Lok Sabha member from Amritsar Navjot Singh Sidhu was "missing" from his constituency for nearly eight months. Wednesday, he returned.
Wife Navjot Kaur and some party leaders received Sidhu at the Amritsar international airport.
Sidhu kept away from the constituency owing to serious differences with the Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership. He was also upset as BJP president Rajnath Singh sidelined him at the national level.
The cricketer-turned-politician continued to appear on television channels as a cricket expert and even in laughter shows. He participated in TV reality show "Big Boss" last year.
A non-governmental organisation had, earlier this month, put up posters around Amritsar declaring Sidhu a "missing person" and even announcing a reward to anyone bringing him back.
Sidhu's wife, Navjot Kaur, a chief parliamentary secretary in the Punjab government, had recently tried to defend Sidhu's absence. She even met senior BJP leaders and ministers to clear misunderstandings on behalf of her husband.
Sidhu, considered close to previous BJP president Nitin Gadkari, was a national secretary of the party during Gadkari's tenure. He was miffed with the party after Rajnath Singh did not name him in the new BJP team.
Sidhu did not attend the Sankalp Rally of the BJP's new strongman, Narendra Modi, near Pathankot June 23. He even skipped a July state party executive meeting held in Amritsar.
Earlier in 2009, upset with BJP leaders, he vanished from his constituency for three months.
Sidhu won the Amritsar seat thrice - in 2004, 2006 (by-election) and 2009. From a victory margin of over 110,000 votes in 2004, Sidhu managed to win the seat by just over 7,500 votes in May 2009.
'Missing' Navjot Sidhu in Amritsar after eight months
He may have been making TV appearances almost daily but BJP's Lok Sabha member from Amritsar Navjot Singh Sidhu was "missing" from his constituency for nearly eight months. Wednesday, he returned.


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SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- A South Korean fishing boat and its four crew members were heading home Saturday after being held for a month in North Korea, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
South Korean fishing boats anchored at Geojin port, Goseong, South Korea, August 1.
The Yeonan-ho and its crew were handed over to a South Korean patrol boat waiting at the sea border Saturday evening, Yonhap reported, citing South Korean maritime police.
North Korean officials captured the vessel and its crew July 30 after the boat strayed deep into North Korean territorial waters, North's Korean Central News Agency reported at the time.
South Korea's Defense and Unification Ministry said the 29-ton vessel had been returning from its fishing operations and mistakenly crossed seven miles into North Korean waters in the process, according to Yonhap.
South and North Korea have remained in conflict since the conclusion of the Korean War in 1953. The war ended in a truce but no formal peace treaty was ever signed.
Rapprochement talks between the two sides hit a wall after conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in early 2008. He had a tougher stance toward the North than his liberal predecessor, Roh Moo-Hyun.
Tensions between the two were heightened in July when North Korea launched seven short-range missiles toward the Sea of Japan. The launches came after North Korea conducted a nuclear test on May 25 and threatened the United States and South Korean ships near its territorial waters.
Several steps in the past week have hinted at a thaw in relations, however. Last week, the two sides had the first high-level, cross-border contact in nearly two years.
On Friday, the countries reached an agreement on future reunions for families separated for decades by the Korean War.
The agreement on reunions came after three days of talks between the two sides, mediated by the Red Cross, in North Korea, Yonhap reported.
Reunions will be held from September 26 to October 1 at Mt. Keumgang, Yonhap reported.
All About North Korea • South Korea • Lee Myung-bak • Kim Jong Il


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So we tuck this gaudy fortnight away in the chamber of memories, bleary-eyed after two weeks' worth of Iranian weightlifters, Malaysian badminton stars and a bronzed Canadian Olympics that will go down in history for causing the home folks heartburn, if nothing else.
Wuz we robbed? Of course "we" wuz. What happened to our women's soccer team should never happen to any team competing on the grand stage of the Olympic Games. Norwegian referee Christina Pedersen — incompetent, corrupt, intimidated, or some combination of all three — handed the bully-girl Americans a victory they did not deserve after the Canadian women played a match for the ages.
Throw in a bizarre disqualification at the equestrian team jumping event and a foot that stepped on the line and cost Canada what should have been a brilliant bronze medal in the men's 4x100 relay and it was Chowderhead Officials 3, Canada 0.
Ironically, this women's soccer team is more celebrated than it would have been had it defeated the U.S. and lost the gold-medal match to Japan. After defeating France in a game Canada probably did not deserve to win (after being outshot 25-4 and relying on goaltender Erin McLeod to carry the burden), the towering Olympic performance of Christine Sinclair & Co. are being celebrated from coast to coast and Sinclair is an Olympic star to match Clara Hughes.
We'll never know for sure, but there's a good argument that the grave injustice done by Pedersen did more to make this team a legend than anything else. (Pedersen, I think, was not corrupt but heavily intimidated by the IOC, FIFA, NBC and Abby Wambach running up to count seconds in her ear as McLeod held the ball, a singular act of bad sportsmanship for which Wambach should have received a yellow card.)
Canadian coach John Herdman was understandably livid with Pedersen — but Herdman has to go down as the coach of the Games after turning this team around from its World Cup disaster to Olympic triumph.
There is little doubt that the women's soccer team, like the men's hockey team in Vancouver, provided the enduring image of the London Olympics for Canadians.
Pity it took an inept referee to bring this team the attention it deserved.
Watching the Games: There is good news for all of you who want to puncture your eardrums after listening to the Jay Onrait-Dan O'Toole gong show, or hearing Barney Williams out at rowing showing the world that there is no such thing as a race so long that you can't talk through every instant from start to finish.
The Canadian broadcast rights for the Olympic Games will be back where they belong for Sochi in 2014 and Rio in 2016, with the significantly more competent CBC.
Onrait and O'Toole will have to confine their high-school yuks to the nightly hockey roundup, their presence on TSN the best of all possible reasons to watch Sportsnet.
You knew there would be some dumbing down of the coverage from London, with CTV taking over after the CBC broadcast the Beijing Olympics. It started about 10 seconds into the coverage of the opening ceremony, when James Duthie quoted the famously eloquent 19th century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli on the subject of London — then informed us that Disraeli was "bang on."
The most grating performances from London, however, came from the former athletes called upon to provide live analysis of the events. The problem for Barney Williams, Blythe Hartley, Michael Smith and virtually all the rest was the same: they talked too much. They couldn't leave one instant of dead air alone. For that, blame the producers. These athletes are (presumably) not completely stupid. They aren't professional broadcasters, so they need to get some guidance from allegedly professional producers — guidance that was plainly missing.
CTV and TSN had the most difficulty when it became necessary to cover an actual story during the Olympics, as opposed to merely asking vapid questions of bronze-medal athletes. TSN, for instance, was caught with the egregiously awful Sheri Forde covering the soccer controversy.
It will be different next time — partly because the CBC actually pays attention to amateur sport between Olympic years and is thus more ready to cover the event itself, partly because the way we see these events is changing at light speed.
My own Olympic experience changed considerably after reader Martin Wolgemuth mentioned that he had a CTV app that made it possible to watch cycling with just the noise of the crowd and without the incessant babble of the broadcast crew. I don't have an iPad, but I was able to watch live events and event replays on the TSN website, which made it possible to see events the broadcasters wouldn't normally carry for a Canadian audience.
With media platforms multiplying by the day, the viewing experience from Sochi and Rio should change radically. At the very least, we'll be spared Onrait and O'Toole — which means that my HDTV just might survive to 2016 and beyond.
And the Olympic gold for sourpussing goes to: Jacques Rogge. For the life of us, we can't imagine what madness impelled Rogge to declare that Usain Bolt's Olympic performances don't make him a legend because he has to do it in three Olympic Games, not two.
This may come as a shock to Rogge, but billions of people tune in the Olympics not for Rogge's sour glower, but because they want to see the greatest of athletes — especially the joyous Bolt. Bolt has furnished the last two summer Games with two of the most exalting performances in Olympic history. Rogge should be grateful: Without Bolt, the IOC would have been stuck with Yohan Blake's silly beast act and drug cheat Justin Gatlin starring in the signature event of the Games.
The people of the world have already made Usain Bolt a legend. Even Jacques Rogge (with a foot-in-mouth assist from Carl Lewis) can't take that away.
Heroes: Christine Sinclair, Melissa Tancredi, Diana Matheson, Sophie Schmidt, Jonelle Filigno, Erin McLeod, John Herdman, Adam van Koeverden, Tonya Verbeek, Jessica Zelinka, Richard Weinberger, Clara Hughes, Alexandre Despatie, Simon Whitfield, Carol Huynh, Mark Oldershaw, Derek Drouin, David Rudisha, Mo Farah, Oscar Pistorius, the men's 4x400 relay team from the Bahamas and last but not least, the immortal Usain Bolt.
Zeros: Christiana Pedersen, Abby Wambach, Hope Solo, Heather O'Reilly, FIFA, NBC, Lolo Jones, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Serena Williams, Jay Onrait, Dan O'Toole, Sheri Forde, Barney Williams, David Samson, Jeffrey Loria, Tim Thomas, Chad Johnson, Tiger Woods, Carl Lewis and last but not least, that old sourpuss Jacques Rogge, who can't leave the Olympic stage soon enough.


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How 'The Help' solidifies a new summer tradition
LOS ANGELES — For all the cliches about chick flicks, the form has actually taken some interesting turns in recent years. This weekend it took the latest, with the Viola Davis-starring "The Help" telling a story about friendship and loyalty against the backdrop of racism in the 1960s-era South.
Over the past few years, it's become practically a ritual that a star-driven movie about female-friendship and -empowerment come out every summer, usually in August, and usually based on a book-club favorite. Last year it was "Eat, Pray, Love;" the summer before it was "Julie & Julia." "The Devil Wears Prada" (which was released over the July 4 weekend) served the genre in 2006.
Whatever these movies' differences in tone and subject matter, they have several important things in common. They all traffic in themes about female identity. And they're all solidly, sometimes even wildly, successful.
There are a lot of reasons why these movies have performed as well as they have, and Taylor Tate's "The Help," which has taken in a resounding $35.4 million since opening last Wednesday, is no different. The beloved book title gave it a running start, and critics then fanned that enthusiasm with strong reviews. "The Help's" ability to tackle serious themes about changing the status quo in a familiar cinematic context about friendship and comedy provided that holy grail: slick entertainment that's also a little good for you (much like "Prada's look at post-college identity in the glittery fashion world).
But there's another factor that may be playing into the success of all these releases. When the movie summer started getting more action-oriented and muscular, first in 1996 with "Independence Day" and more recently and robustly, with "Transformers" and a hail of superhero movies, it also blasted open a space on the other side.
After all, the people who like seeing movies about something other than explosions were still around, and they had the desire, possibly even more than ever, to see a movie aimed at them. Hollywood calls it counterprogramming, but really that's just a jargony way of saying that if there's too much of one thing, it reminds a whole group of people that they want the other.
The subject of women at the box office has been a hot one this summer, what with "Bridesmaids" and "Bad Teacher" putting women front-and-center in a potty-mouthed comedy. With those films, pundits said that Hollywood was serving or even creating a new audience: women who wanted their movies as bawdy and escapist as men. But with the release of a film that was comedic in a far gentler way, the most recent weekend proved that the old audience hasn't really gone anywhere.