Dehydration is unimaginable when you have easy access to water, like contemplating starvation after stuffing your face at a banquet. Comforted by the modern convenience of taps, for example, medical symptoms such as headaches, dizziness and irrational behaviour have the insubstantial reality of a rumour.
Concentrate on your lips and you can begin to gain a sense of how it might feel, though. Lips are a focal point for what happens to the whole body when it begins to dry out: this tiny patch of skin turns to dust, a sandstone cleft leading into a desert cave.
I am standing in Solitaire, a small junction in the middle of the Khomas Region of central Namibia, home to innumerable cactuses, stripped cars, and a sad-looking petrol pump. Something has gone terribly wrong. At Windhoek Airport I discovered that my Mastercard didn't work, the ATMs siding exclusively with Visa. No matter, I figured, there would be other opportunities, but it didn't really pan out that way. Now I'm on the edge of a seemingly infinite desert, with little more than a cracked tongue, half a litre of water, and the fluttery beginnings of a shoplifting fantasy.
Dust flavours the air here and coats everything in a patina of grime. Cars shudder along unsealed roads and leave a trail of smoke as though they're on fire or disintegrating before your very eyes. The landscape is wide swatches of single colours - blue, yellow, red - that destroy all sense of distances and time, so you are driving and going nowhere, or merely slouching into oblivion. I have come here to camp, which feels appropriately transient for a place in endless states of erasure. But first: that question of water. The machine beeps, regurgitating paper. The woman narrows her eyes. Then she hands over a pen with an impatient wave of the hand: sign here, stupid man. With a valuable lesson learnt, I've been granted the liquid means to stave off death for another few days.
Even then, water is rarely far from my mind. The Tsauchab River, beginning in the southern Naukluft Mountains, is what is known as an "ephemeral stream", meaning it exists only in the rare instances of desert rain. While the Tsauchab may be an elusive sight, its effects have become legend: the ghostly salt pan of Sossusvlei, which fills up as a desert lake; Sesriem Canyon, carved by the river over centuries; and Deadvlei, strangest of all with its black, twisted trees and surrounding walls of sand. Devoid of moisture, this place is defined by it anyway.
The next day I wake at 4am, already coated in dust from evening winds blowing through the tent flaps. Within an hour I'm in a traffic queue at Sesriem gate, waiting for the Namib-Naukluft Park to open. Rounding out the trifecta of challenges here is the heat; it has become something of a rite of passage for visitors to climb Dune 45 before the sun turns the sand into a shimmering hotplate.
The Namib-Naukluft Park features some of the tallest dunes in the world, including the 325-metre Big Daddy. As sand blows east from the Atlantic Ocean, it collects in graceful mounds, the iron content oxidising and turning everything a rich apricot. Dune 45 is, unsurprisingly, 45 kilometres from the Sesriem gate, and when I reach it a horde of people is already climbing its 170-metre spine to watch the sunrise. It's a little incongruous to be confronted by so many visitors this early in the morning; pushing further on and facing away into the dunes restores a sense of solitude. The light rolls over the plains and shadows stretch to breaking point, fading on the ground like patches of plastic card.
Within hours temperatures have soared, but I am adamant about walking to the Tsauchab's most famous creation, the "dead marsh", or Deadvlei. Unlike Sossusvlei, which attracts flamingos when filled with water, this salt pan has long since declined as a place of refuge in the desert. Hundreds of years ago the river flooded the area, allowing camel thorn trees to take root in the sand. When it stopped flowing, however, the ground cracked into dramatic white plates and the trees seared black beneath the unrelenting sun. The result is something like an abstract painting, other-worldly and baffling. In The Cell, Hollywood used Deadvlei to represent the mental landscape of a serial killer. Jennifer Lopez wandered around it in a daze. Walking into the gnarled grove, I find myself doing something similar. All signs of life quickly fall away: the springboks, the hardy shrubs, the beetles with legs long enough to hoist their abdomens above the roasting sand. All that remains is silence and a pervasive sense of dread that has me clutching my water bottle like a crucifix.
Indeed, one small mistake is all it would take to send a person to their death here. The dunes surrounding Deadvlei are a moving maze. Earlier, I passed a car that had become hopelessly bogged in the sand, resisting the exertions of a team of sweat-drenched volunteers. Even balloon expeditions, floating high overhead in the early morning, are careful not to tempt fate by drifting too far into the desert. Human interaction is the equivalent of people on a beach, enjoying the ocean without paddling any further than the shallowest surf. Except everything here is reversed - the ocean is sand, and the beach is the precious domain of water. After fitful sleep through the hottest hours, I re-emerge in the late afternoon for a final foray to Sesriem Canyon, a short distance from my campsite near Sesriem gate. From above it looks like a jagged slash in the desert floor, nearly a kilometre long and between 20 metres and 50 metres deep.
Carved by the Tsauchab River millions of years ago, this odd formation was once the key to survival by local inhabitants and passing travellers. Sesriem means "six ropes": since a rope was originally made from the hide of an oryx, it took six, tied end to end, to reach the canyon floor where water could be retrieved for the pack animals using buckets.
My tent hits 46 degrees. Naturally occurring water seems as unlikely here as dehydration in a monsoon. But I descend into the shadow of the canyon, where birds have scratched nests into pockets of soft stone. And appreciating this respite from the sun, I spy a tepid pool alive with catfish. Truth be told, had my Mastercard not come through at Solitaire, I would, at this moment, jump fully clothed into the pool and refuse to move until the rains return.
One of Gild’s customers is Square, a San Francisco-based mobile payment system. Like many other high-tech companies, Square is aggressively hiring, and it’s finding the competition for great talent as intense as it was during the dot-com boom, according to Bryan Power, the company’s director of talent and a Silicon Valley veteran. Mr. Power says Gild offers a potential leg up in finding programmers who aren’t the obvious catches.
“Getting out of Stanford or Google is a very good proxy” for talent, Mr. Power said. “They have reputations for a reason.” But those prospects have many choices, and they might not choose Square. “We need more pools to draw from,” he said, “and that’s what Gild represents.”
Gild’s technology has turned up some prospects for Square, but hasn’t led directly to a hire. Mr. Power says the Gild algorithm provides a generalized programming score that is not as specific as Square needs for its job slots. “Gild has an opinion of who is good but it’s not that simple,” he said, adding that Square was talking to Gild about refining the model.
Despite the limited usefulness thus far, Mr. Power says that what Gild is doing is the start of something powerful. Today’s young engineers are posting much more of their work online, and doing open-source work, providing more data to mine in search of the diamonds. “It’s all about finding unrecognized talent,” he said.
MR. DOMINGUEZ has worked at Gild for eight months and has proved himself a talented programmer, Mr. Desai said. But he also said that Mr. Dominguez “sometimes struggles to work in a structured environment.” His co-workers try not to bug him when he’s sitting at his computer, locked into that work zone.
In meetings, Mr. Dominguez speaks his mind. He’s happier, he said, “as long as I can have a say in how the system is built,” or it’s just another system he would have to conform to. He bristles slightly at the growth of the company, which has expanded to 40 people from 10 in the last six months, adding layers of management and bureaucracy.
“The truth is that’s in my nature to do stuff in my own way; inevitably I want to start my own company,” he said, but he’s quick to add: “I do appreciate and the respect the opportunity the company’s given me because I think it’s very clear they hired me on merit. I will always appreciate that.”
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Friday, April 26, 2013
Maika Monroe co-stars with Zac Efron in 'At Any Price'
As a kid, Maika Monroe watched all the “High School Musical” films, swooning over blue-eyed hunk Zac Efron like most other red-blooded American females. She never imagined a career as an actress, let alone starring in a movie opposite Efron, playing his girlfriend. And yet, that is exactly what happened to Monroe, a tall blond beauty from Santa Barbara.
At 19, Monroe makes her feature film debut in “At Any Price,” in which she plays Cadence, a country girl who is dating Dean (Efron), an aspiring stock car racer. With no real family to call her own, Cadence hangs out a lot at Dean’s family 3,000-acre farm, which as it turns out is not in as great financial shape as it appears to be. Dean’s father, Henry (Dennis Quaid), a third-generation farmer, is quietly trying to dig his way out of debt by whatever means necessary, including selling patented genetically modified seeds to his neighbors. Even that isn’t an easy task as there are legal restrictions and other competing salesmen. His favored older son, who was supposed take over the farm, has left the country to pursue his dreams of adventure in South America, so he is stuck trying to interest his rebellious younger son in learning the family business porcelain tile.
Surprisingly, it’s Cadence who ends up taking an interest in the farm and selling seed. With Dean preoccupied preparing for an upcoming stock car race, she joins Henry as he makes his sales pitches to neighboring farmers, and demonstrates a genuine aptitude for the job.
Monroe grew up in the coastal California town of Santa Barbara, where her father works in the construction industry and her mother is a sign language teacher. Though she recalls enjoying watching movies, she had no aspirations of becoming an actress. A natural athlete, she was more interested in dance and kiteboarding as she entered her teens.
While at dance school one day, she saw a notice calling for students who wanted to appear as extras in a short film so she signed up. Her first day on the set was an eye-opener, she recalls.
“I remember just being in awe of it,” the blond beauty says. “ I was just blown away by every aspect of it: the director working with the actors, the camera and just everything about it. That’s where I fell in love with it. I got to know the director really well on that set because even when I didn’t have to be there, I would want to watch and be behind the camera.”
Impressed with her enthusiasm, the director wrote a small speaking part for her, which made her eligible for a Screen Actors Guild card. She subsequently landed small parts in short films and on TV.
Her mother shuttled her back and forth between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles (some 90 miles apart) for Monroe to audition for parts, sometimes as often as four times a week.
“I’m lucky to have a mom like I do because I wouldn’t be where I am right now,” she humbly says. “If it wasn’t for her, I couldn’t have done it. She had no interest in it, but it’s what I wanted. I knew this is what I wanted to do.”
After several years of plugging along in the finicky world of show business, Monroe was ready to give it up in favor of pursuing her other passion: kiteboarding.
She had started playing the physically demanding outdoor sport around the same time she started acting, and had gotten pretty good at it. Actually, she had gotten very good at it, to the point where she was involved in professional competitions. It was while she was contending at the Red Bull Big Air Competition in the Dominican Republic that she had to make one of the most important decisions of her life. She sat down and wrote out the pros and cons of acting versus professional kiteboarding.
“I knew if I trained, I could be the best kiteboarder in the world,” she says, without a hint of vanity. “ With acting, the decision is always in someone else’s hands. It requires talent, but it’s also luck .I had no idea what could happen. So I really had to think about it. Every part of my body wanted (to act) so bad it almost could have started being a negative.”
After coming in second at the competition, she thought she’d made up her mind to go the professional kiteboarding route. But just then, she got a phone call from her agent asking if she was interested in auditioning for the role of Cadence in “At Any Price.”
Without hesitation, Monroe and her mother put together an audition tape and sent it in. Within days, she got a callback. The youngster decided then and there to return to LA, where she was up against four other young actresses for the coveted part. She met with director Ramin Bahrani, who also co-wrote and produced the drama, and landed the role.
Soon afterward, she found herself on location in DeKalb, Illinois, in the middle of America’s farm belt, playing sexy and smart Cadence. Meeting Efron was both exciting and scary, she recalls.
“There was no chemistry read or anything,” she says in her enthusiastic way. “So the first time I met him was in DeKalb, where everyone came out two or three weeks before we started filming. I didn’t know what to expect because, you know, he’s kind of huge! But when I met him, it was clear that he is so down to earth and so easy to talk with and connect with. That helped very much and so the acting came off very naturally. I was very blown away by him. It was fun working with him.”
Monroe says she initially was a little more intimidated by Quaid, the veteran star of films including “Great Balls of Fire,” “Far From Heaven” and “The Rookie.”
“I’m usually not star struck but he is a legend,” she says, smiling. “This role for him is very different from the things he’s done in other films and also from who he is as a person. Watching him transform into Henry—his whole body transformed—was incredible.”
The teenager admits she knew little about the controversy surround genetically modified seeds, which serves as a backdrop for the central story about the complexities of family relationships and the changing nature of the farming industry.
“I didn’t know much about it at all,” she says of the genetically modified corn, which out-produces conventional seed suppliers and has muscled many smaller farms out of business. “But that’s what I love about my job. Never in a million years would I have gone to DeKalb, nor would I have known anything about this. Plus, you don’t see that many films about this topic. Yet there’s such a cool story around these characters with such depth. It frames an interesting movie.”
Monroe credits “At Any Price” for propelling her career forward. She subsequently has landed roles in two other Hollywood films: the upcoming drama, “The Bling Ring,” directed by Sofia Coppola and Jason Reitman’s “Labor Day,” in which she co-stars opposite Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin.
All three roles are each quite different from one another, and also quite different from the perky and grounded Monroe herself.
“I would describe her as my polar opposite,” she says of playing the layered and complex character Mandy. “ I remember getting the script and thinking, ‘There is absolutely no way I can pull this off.’ I initially saw her as this evil girl with no redeeming qualities. So I worked with an acting coach on it and sent the audition tape to Jason (Reitman) in New York, and he said he wanted to meet with him. Then I started falling in love with this character after talking to him. I began to see more sides to this girl—where she comes from and why she does the things she does. She became fascinating to me. It was a huge challenge but I loved it. And it takes place in the ‘60s, so I have this cool hair and makeup that transformed me.”
Monroe says her role in “The Bling Ring,” based on a true story about star struck suburban teens who go on a robbery spree of Hollywood homes of their celebrity idols, and until they get caught, is a smaller one, though it afforded her the opportunity to work with one of her directing idols, Sofia Coppola, and “Harry Potter” star Emma Watson.
“It’s kind of been blown out of proportion on the Internet that I play this bigger role than I do,” she admits. “But I really appreciated the opportunity to do it and I’m excited to see the final film.”
She is set to start another movie project soon but cannot say what it is yet. She still enjoys kiteboarding in her free time, but has decided not to pursue it as a professional career anymore.
Her plans to attend college to study graphic design and web design also are on hold as she continues to build her resume with acting credits.
“This past year, I’ve been basically working nonstop—in a very good way,” she says, smiling. “But I definitely want to go to college. As of now, I may have to take classes online. It’s important to me but things just need to calm down before I can focus on that.”
At 19, Monroe makes her feature film debut in “At Any Price,” in which she plays Cadence, a country girl who is dating Dean (Efron), an aspiring stock car racer. With no real family to call her own, Cadence hangs out a lot at Dean’s family 3,000-acre farm, which as it turns out is not in as great financial shape as it appears to be. Dean’s father, Henry (Dennis Quaid), a third-generation farmer, is quietly trying to dig his way out of debt by whatever means necessary, including selling patented genetically modified seeds to his neighbors. Even that isn’t an easy task as there are legal restrictions and other competing salesmen. His favored older son, who was supposed take over the farm, has left the country to pursue his dreams of adventure in South America, so he is stuck trying to interest his rebellious younger son in learning the family business porcelain tile.
Surprisingly, it’s Cadence who ends up taking an interest in the farm and selling seed. With Dean preoccupied preparing for an upcoming stock car race, she joins Henry as he makes his sales pitches to neighboring farmers, and demonstrates a genuine aptitude for the job.
Monroe grew up in the coastal California town of Santa Barbara, where her father works in the construction industry and her mother is a sign language teacher. Though she recalls enjoying watching movies, she had no aspirations of becoming an actress. A natural athlete, she was more interested in dance and kiteboarding as she entered her teens.
While at dance school one day, she saw a notice calling for students who wanted to appear as extras in a short film so she signed up. Her first day on the set was an eye-opener, she recalls.
“I remember just being in awe of it,” the blond beauty says. “ I was just blown away by every aspect of it: the director working with the actors, the camera and just everything about it. That’s where I fell in love with it. I got to know the director really well on that set because even when I didn’t have to be there, I would want to watch and be behind the camera.”
Impressed with her enthusiasm, the director wrote a small speaking part for her, which made her eligible for a Screen Actors Guild card. She subsequently landed small parts in short films and on TV.
Her mother shuttled her back and forth between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles (some 90 miles apart) for Monroe to audition for parts, sometimes as often as four times a week.
“I’m lucky to have a mom like I do because I wouldn’t be where I am right now,” she humbly says. “If it wasn’t for her, I couldn’t have done it. She had no interest in it, but it’s what I wanted. I knew this is what I wanted to do.”
After several years of plugging along in the finicky world of show business, Monroe was ready to give it up in favor of pursuing her other passion: kiteboarding.
She had started playing the physically demanding outdoor sport around the same time she started acting, and had gotten pretty good at it. Actually, she had gotten very good at it, to the point where she was involved in professional competitions. It was while she was contending at the Red Bull Big Air Competition in the Dominican Republic that she had to make one of the most important decisions of her life. She sat down and wrote out the pros and cons of acting versus professional kiteboarding.
“I knew if I trained, I could be the best kiteboarder in the world,” she says, without a hint of vanity. “ With acting, the decision is always in someone else’s hands. It requires talent, but it’s also luck .I had no idea what could happen. So I really had to think about it. Every part of my body wanted (to act) so bad it almost could have started being a negative.”
After coming in second at the competition, she thought she’d made up her mind to go the professional kiteboarding route. But just then, she got a phone call from her agent asking if she was interested in auditioning for the role of Cadence in “At Any Price.”
Without hesitation, Monroe and her mother put together an audition tape and sent it in. Within days, she got a callback. The youngster decided then and there to return to LA, where she was up against four other young actresses for the coveted part. She met with director Ramin Bahrani, who also co-wrote and produced the drama, and landed the role.
Soon afterward, she found herself on location in DeKalb, Illinois, in the middle of America’s farm belt, playing sexy and smart Cadence. Meeting Efron was both exciting and scary, she recalls.
“There was no chemistry read or anything,” she says in her enthusiastic way. “So the first time I met him was in DeKalb, where everyone came out two or three weeks before we started filming. I didn’t know what to expect because, you know, he’s kind of huge! But when I met him, it was clear that he is so down to earth and so easy to talk with and connect with. That helped very much and so the acting came off very naturally. I was very blown away by him. It was fun working with him.”
Monroe says she initially was a little more intimidated by Quaid, the veteran star of films including “Great Balls of Fire,” “Far From Heaven” and “The Rookie.”
“I’m usually not star struck but he is a legend,” she says, smiling. “This role for him is very different from the things he’s done in other films and also from who he is as a person. Watching him transform into Henry—his whole body transformed—was incredible.”
The teenager admits she knew little about the controversy surround genetically modified seeds, which serves as a backdrop for the central story about the complexities of family relationships and the changing nature of the farming industry.
“I didn’t know much about it at all,” she says of the genetically modified corn, which out-produces conventional seed suppliers and has muscled many smaller farms out of business. “But that’s what I love about my job. Never in a million years would I have gone to DeKalb, nor would I have known anything about this. Plus, you don’t see that many films about this topic. Yet there’s such a cool story around these characters with such depth. It frames an interesting movie.”
Monroe credits “At Any Price” for propelling her career forward. She subsequently has landed roles in two other Hollywood films: the upcoming drama, “The Bling Ring,” directed by Sofia Coppola and Jason Reitman’s “Labor Day,” in which she co-stars opposite Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin.
All three roles are each quite different from one another, and also quite different from the perky and grounded Monroe herself.
“I would describe her as my polar opposite,” she says of playing the layered and complex character Mandy. “ I remember getting the script and thinking, ‘There is absolutely no way I can pull this off.’ I initially saw her as this evil girl with no redeeming qualities. So I worked with an acting coach on it and sent the audition tape to Jason (Reitman) in New York, and he said he wanted to meet with him. Then I started falling in love with this character after talking to him. I began to see more sides to this girl—where she comes from and why she does the things she does. She became fascinating to me. It was a huge challenge but I loved it. And it takes place in the ‘60s, so I have this cool hair and makeup that transformed me.”
Monroe says her role in “The Bling Ring,” based on a true story about star struck suburban teens who go on a robbery spree of Hollywood homes of their celebrity idols, and until they get caught, is a smaller one, though it afforded her the opportunity to work with one of her directing idols, Sofia Coppola, and “Harry Potter” star Emma Watson.
“It’s kind of been blown out of proportion on the Internet that I play this bigger role than I do,” she admits. “But I really appreciated the opportunity to do it and I’m excited to see the final film.”
She is set to start another movie project soon but cannot say what it is yet. She still enjoys kiteboarding in her free time, but has decided not to pursue it as a professional career anymore.
Her plans to attend college to study graphic design and web design also are on hold as she continues to build her resume with acting credits.
“This past year, I’ve been basically working nonstop—in a very good way,” she says, smiling. “But I definitely want to go to college. As of now, I may have to take classes online. It’s important to me but things just need to calm down before I can focus on that.”
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Nitish Kumar aims to transform jails into reform centres
At a function held at the CM secretariat, Nitish, who has a first-hand experience of life behind the bars, having undergone imprisonment in Ara, Buxar, Gaya and Bhagalpur jails during Emergency period in the seventies, said, "Rich prisoners avail all facilities while there is nobody to look after the poor prisoners. The condition has changed a little but more has to be done."
He also released the English and Hindi versions of Bihar Prison Manual 2012, which came into effect from December 12 last year, replacing the jail manual of 1945.
The CM inaugurated the visitors' complex and visitor management system at Beur model prison. The visitor management system will be computerized, including the storage of photograph, fingerprint and ID proof of each visitor. Nitish also laid the foundation of such visitors' complex in 21 prisons. A canteen for Beur jail inmates was also inaugurated, where the inmates will be able to purchase snacks and other items of daily use. IG (prisons) Anand Kishore announced that such canteens will be opened in all the 56 prisons in three months.
The most important scheme launched by the CM was the introduction of e-prison multipurpose smart cards, a first in the country, and establishment of information kiosks through which the prisoners, by inserting the card can seek details about status of their court cases, date of appearance, remission and wages. This card can be used for purchase of goods from the canteen in cashless transaction and also as a health card. On a pilot basis, this scheme has been launched in Beur prison. The smart card can be recharged by either payment by the inmate's relatives or through wages earned by the prisoners.
I’ll never get tired of advertising cards. If you’ve never held one they are like holding a thin slice of history. They were a RFID tag, a premium, sometimes left on a counter or near the cash register as token of appreciation for patronage.
Why so precious, these cards that were just advertisements? In the mid to late 19th century they were likely as fascinating as the screens on the first smart phones. Whether you felt you wanted one or not, color printing was new and they would have been a true novelty. Being free, unlike smart phones, they became popular and collectible.
The samples in the images gallery came from a Norwalk sale I visited in 2012 and wrote about here. In the last minutes of the sale I purchased of a box of odds and ends, which included these cards.
It is a somewhat random selection of cards, but I was lucky enough to see among them one from Norwich, CT. The Wauregan House Pharmacy run by B.A. Herrick was solid establishment begun in 1893. I managed to find a write up on it in a book titled “The Leading Businessmen of Norwich, CT.” In it a glowing review of Mr. Herrick’s business practices are reported. You can see the whole book online here.
The most ornate card is the Honest Long Cut Tobacco card featuring the “Modern Ocean Greyhound,” a three-masted steamship. There was likely a collection of numerous ships sold with packages of tobacco.
My favorite card is the one announcing “French Dress Plaiting!” and the offer of “Every plait basted in place.” You’d earn my eternal respect if you knew what this was. It took me several attempts before I surmised that plaits are another name for hair braids. The business’ address on Bleecker Street has a long entry in Wikipedia and has been mentioned in many songs, movies and TV programs and is a famous location for the art and club scene in Manhattan.
As a new assistant professor, I had teaching experience but remember the challenge of translating complex doctoral coursework to a level appropriate for undergraduate students. My goal was to help students enjoy learning and become independent learners and critical thinkers.
Over the years, there have been many changes in the way that we facilitate student learning. Now, there is a strong emphasis on student engagement and involvement and less on the talking head at the front of the room. Teaching methods and support systems have moved from blackboard to white board and back to something called “Blackboard” with a capital B – the teaching platform that provides online support for classes. We have switched from overhead projectors using transparencies to computer projectors and smart boards.
On the research side, I began using the SPSS statistical package when data and programs were entered using punched cards. The cards were fed into a card reader and analysis run on NIU’s mainframe computer – which occupied several rooms. The process was slow and I remember the frustration of waiting for the printed output only to find an error. This meant that I had to re-punch some cards, resubmit the job, and wait in hopes that I had caught all of the errors. Analysis later moved to dumb terminals with the jobs still run on the mainframe. Now, we use PC versions of statistical packages that complete the analysis in a matter of a few seconds on computers in our offices. We can print the output on local printers or store it electronically and convert the results to tables for research reports.
He also released the English and Hindi versions of Bihar Prison Manual 2012, which came into effect from December 12 last year, replacing the jail manual of 1945.
The CM inaugurated the visitors' complex and visitor management system at Beur model prison. The visitor management system will be computerized, including the storage of photograph, fingerprint and ID proof of each visitor. Nitish also laid the foundation of such visitors' complex in 21 prisons. A canteen for Beur jail inmates was also inaugurated, where the inmates will be able to purchase snacks and other items of daily use. IG (prisons) Anand Kishore announced that such canteens will be opened in all the 56 prisons in three months.
The most important scheme launched by the CM was the introduction of e-prison multipurpose smart cards, a first in the country, and establishment of information kiosks through which the prisoners, by inserting the card can seek details about status of their court cases, date of appearance, remission and wages. This card can be used for purchase of goods from the canteen in cashless transaction and also as a health card. On a pilot basis, this scheme has been launched in Beur prison. The smart card can be recharged by either payment by the inmate's relatives or through wages earned by the prisoners.
I’ll never get tired of advertising cards. If you’ve never held one they are like holding a thin slice of history. They were a RFID tag, a premium, sometimes left on a counter or near the cash register as token of appreciation for patronage.
Why so precious, these cards that were just advertisements? In the mid to late 19th century they were likely as fascinating as the screens on the first smart phones. Whether you felt you wanted one or not, color printing was new and they would have been a true novelty. Being free, unlike smart phones, they became popular and collectible.
The samples in the images gallery came from a Norwalk sale I visited in 2012 and wrote about here. In the last minutes of the sale I purchased of a box of odds and ends, which included these cards.
It is a somewhat random selection of cards, but I was lucky enough to see among them one from Norwich, CT. The Wauregan House Pharmacy run by B.A. Herrick was solid establishment begun in 1893. I managed to find a write up on it in a book titled “The Leading Businessmen of Norwich, CT.” In it a glowing review of Mr. Herrick’s business practices are reported. You can see the whole book online here.
The most ornate card is the Honest Long Cut Tobacco card featuring the “Modern Ocean Greyhound,” a three-masted steamship. There was likely a collection of numerous ships sold with packages of tobacco.
My favorite card is the one announcing “French Dress Plaiting!” and the offer of “Every plait basted in place.” You’d earn my eternal respect if you knew what this was. It took me several attempts before I surmised that plaits are another name for hair braids. The business’ address on Bleecker Street has a long entry in Wikipedia and has been mentioned in many songs, movies and TV programs and is a famous location for the art and club scene in Manhattan.
As a new assistant professor, I had teaching experience but remember the challenge of translating complex doctoral coursework to a level appropriate for undergraduate students. My goal was to help students enjoy learning and become independent learners and critical thinkers.
Over the years, there have been many changes in the way that we facilitate student learning. Now, there is a strong emphasis on student engagement and involvement and less on the talking head at the front of the room. Teaching methods and support systems have moved from blackboard to white board and back to something called “Blackboard” with a capital B – the teaching platform that provides online support for classes. We have switched from overhead projectors using transparencies to computer projectors and smart boards.
On the research side, I began using the SPSS statistical package when data and programs were entered using punched cards. The cards were fed into a card reader and analysis run on NIU’s mainframe computer – which occupied several rooms. The process was slow and I remember the frustration of waiting for the printed output only to find an error. This meant that I had to re-punch some cards, resubmit the job, and wait in hopes that I had caught all of the errors. Analysis later moved to dumb terminals with the jobs still run on the mainframe. Now, we use PC versions of statistical packages that complete the analysis in a matter of a few seconds on computers in our offices. We can print the output on local printers or store it electronically and convert the results to tables for research reports.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Audi R8 V10 plus
Audi India officials often go gaga about how some of the buyers of the R8 drive the super sports car around the most crowded, narrow streets of many Indian cities. That’s not too surprising given how easy to drive and comfortable this car can be even on bad roads.
But, put it on the track and it behaves like a completely different cat, one with remarkable agility and great grip. Though, even as it looks perfectly at home on the race track, the R8 doesn’t seem to be intimidating to drive. Instead, place the Lamborghini Gallardo 560-4 – other super sports car that shares the same engine, the same underpinnings and many of the cabin parts – and the intimidation level goes up considerably.
Essentially a boosted, face lifted version of the R8 V10, the new version has some key modifications to mark its higher performance capabilities. On the outside, what strikes you is the increased use of CFRP – an abbreviation that is all over the diagram of the new R8 V10 plus that Audi officials put up as part of the presentation.
Essentially, carbon-fibre reinforced plastic has now been used for more parts. So you get exterior mirror housings, the famous and R8 trademark side blades, the engine cover, the rear diffuser and the front spoiler all made out of this material. There is more in the cabin too. Another R8 trademark – the Audi Singleframe side air intakes at the front and rear bumpers – get a new configuration and are coloured in matt Titanium Gray.
The new Audi R8 V10 plus Coupé is powered by the same 5.2-litre, V10 engine that the current R8 model sports. The difference is in the boost to its state of tune, essentially matching that of the Gallardo 550-2’s performance. The V10 FSI engine with its – up to 8,700 rpm – high-revving concept now manages 404 kW or 550 bhp of peak power at 8,000 rpm. Peak torque is delivered lower down the rpm range at 6,500 and that is also about 10 Nm more at 540 Nm (compared the current V10 variant). The engine is paired with the 7-speed S tronic transmission that is also now offered with larger manual shift paddles behind the steering wheel.
On the race track, the new R8 V10 plus Coupé comes across as being more comfortable to drive thanks to Audi’s Quattro permanent all-wheel drive system. The positive impact of the Quattro system and the difference it makes to on-track confidence was felt even more because it was just a few weeks earlier that I had driven the Lamborghini Gallardo 550-2 on the same loop.
As part of the inauguration of the second edition of its Audi sportscar experience, the company had organised the test runs of the new R8 V10 plus and the course included high speeds laps, slalom sections and a brake test section. With its light and extremely stiff aluminium space frame body and the new sportier suspension the coupe feels more agile on the track. As you throw the car into the corners, the sporty new bucket seats hold nicely allowing the driver to point the steering better at the apex of every turn on the track.
The suspension has seen adjustments to the springs and damper tuning and there have been modifications to the camber values at the front axle for improved dynamics. The wave design brake discs with standard ceramic brakes make sure that all that additional power and agility is not at the cost of safety.
With an impish smile, his face betraying his knowledge about the Mahindra E2O, the driver of the other car was still expecting a sincere answer. And his face was still writ with genuine curiosity about the latest all-electric car from the makers of the Reva.
The E2O is a big leap from the Reva. Not so much in terms of its earth-saving concept, but in terms of it finally being a desirable electric car. It is a transformation which announces that electrics have moved into the realm of the possible, even in India, and that you can look cool while saving the planet.
Except for its final model name, the E2O (E for electric, O for Oxygen….it is not E Twenty) has been in the news for a while now. The concept NXR on which it is based, has been spotted in Motor Shows and been seen testing on the roads. So, the model’s design and most of its specifications had long been frozen. The battery-powered car was originally due to be launched in 2011. What caused much of the delay in rolling out the car was apparently caused by the Government’s dithering in deciding whether to extend a subsidy or not.
But, despite all that familiarity, the E2O still surprises me with its packaging when I first step into it. At the parking lot set next to a yellow Tata Nano and a beige Hyundai i10 Automatic, the E2O seems to blend right in like it is a new, regular compact hatch in the market. There is none of its predecessor’s ungainly, bug-eyed, and strangely arcane looks. Instead, the E2O sports a conventional tall-boy design, clean modern design lines, tight shut lines between its ABS body panels and just a touch of quirkiness.
The unique headlamps, the cab-forward design, the bonnet grille and the muscular wheel arches add to the overall feel of the E2O being a regular car. But, each one of these features hides parts of the electric reality behind them. The stubby, clamshell bonnet from the cab-forward design for example doesn’t lid an engine, instead all that is underneath is the spare wheel and the air-conditioner compressor. Behind the grille is a radiator, but one which runs cooling lines to the heat exchanger and the battery pack instead of an engine.
The wheel arches look over-sized and the puny 13-inch rims don’t provide that much of visual strength, but the tyres shod on the alloys are low-resistance tyres that have been specially developed with a compound that has higher silica content.
The E2O’s chassis is a tubular space frame and the car is built by bolting on the motor, controller, battery pack and the other suspension and seating parts. All the body panels are colour impregnated and dent resistant plastic. These panels made from specially developed base polymer are then simply bonded onto the frame using special adhesives.
Mahindra Reva officials say that the India-spec E2O has no airbags or other electronic braking or stability aids, but it still meets collision safety norms thanks to the space frame’s rigidity and the three crumple zones at the front that disperse the impact of a collision. The European-spec E2O which is currently under development will have the entire complement of safety features including stability management and am guessing that it will have to pass the Euro NCAP tests.
But, put it on the track and it behaves like a completely different cat, one with remarkable agility and great grip. Though, even as it looks perfectly at home on the race track, the R8 doesn’t seem to be intimidating to drive. Instead, place the Lamborghini Gallardo 560-4 – other super sports car that shares the same engine, the same underpinnings and many of the cabin parts – and the intimidation level goes up considerably.
Essentially a boosted, face lifted version of the R8 V10, the new version has some key modifications to mark its higher performance capabilities. On the outside, what strikes you is the increased use of CFRP – an abbreviation that is all over the diagram of the new R8 V10 plus that Audi officials put up as part of the presentation.
Essentially, carbon-fibre reinforced plastic has now been used for more parts. So you get exterior mirror housings, the famous and R8 trademark side blades, the engine cover, the rear diffuser and the front spoiler all made out of this material. There is more in the cabin too. Another R8 trademark – the Audi Singleframe side air intakes at the front and rear bumpers – get a new configuration and are coloured in matt Titanium Gray.
The new Audi R8 V10 plus Coupé is powered by the same 5.2-litre, V10 engine that the current R8 model sports. The difference is in the boost to its state of tune, essentially matching that of the Gallardo 550-2’s performance. The V10 FSI engine with its – up to 8,700 rpm – high-revving concept now manages 404 kW or 550 bhp of peak power at 8,000 rpm. Peak torque is delivered lower down the rpm range at 6,500 and that is also about 10 Nm more at 540 Nm (compared the current V10 variant). The engine is paired with the 7-speed S tronic transmission that is also now offered with larger manual shift paddles behind the steering wheel.
On the race track, the new R8 V10 plus Coupé comes across as being more comfortable to drive thanks to Audi’s Quattro permanent all-wheel drive system. The positive impact of the Quattro system and the difference it makes to on-track confidence was felt even more because it was just a few weeks earlier that I had driven the Lamborghini Gallardo 550-2 on the same loop.
As part of the inauguration of the second edition of its Audi sportscar experience, the company had organised the test runs of the new R8 V10 plus and the course included high speeds laps, slalom sections and a brake test section. With its light and extremely stiff aluminium space frame body and the new sportier suspension the coupe feels more agile on the track. As you throw the car into the corners, the sporty new bucket seats hold nicely allowing the driver to point the steering better at the apex of every turn on the track.
The suspension has seen adjustments to the springs and damper tuning and there have been modifications to the camber values at the front axle for improved dynamics. The wave design brake discs with standard ceramic brakes make sure that all that additional power and agility is not at the cost of safety.
With an impish smile, his face betraying his knowledge about the Mahindra E2O, the driver of the other car was still expecting a sincere answer. And his face was still writ with genuine curiosity about the latest all-electric car from the makers of the Reva.
The E2O is a big leap from the Reva. Not so much in terms of its earth-saving concept, but in terms of it finally being a desirable electric car. It is a transformation which announces that electrics have moved into the realm of the possible, even in India, and that you can look cool while saving the planet.
Except for its final model name, the E2O (E for electric, O for Oxygen….it is not E Twenty) has been in the news for a while now. The concept NXR on which it is based, has been spotted in Motor Shows and been seen testing on the roads. So, the model’s design and most of its specifications had long been frozen. The battery-powered car was originally due to be launched in 2011. What caused much of the delay in rolling out the car was apparently caused by the Government’s dithering in deciding whether to extend a subsidy or not.
But, despite all that familiarity, the E2O still surprises me with its packaging when I first step into it. At the parking lot set next to a yellow Tata Nano and a beige Hyundai i10 Automatic, the E2O seems to blend right in like it is a new, regular compact hatch in the market. There is none of its predecessor’s ungainly, bug-eyed, and strangely arcane looks. Instead, the E2O sports a conventional tall-boy design, clean modern design lines, tight shut lines between its ABS body panels and just a touch of quirkiness.
The unique headlamps, the cab-forward design, the bonnet grille and the muscular wheel arches add to the overall feel of the E2O being a regular car. But, each one of these features hides parts of the electric reality behind them. The stubby, clamshell bonnet from the cab-forward design for example doesn’t lid an engine, instead all that is underneath is the spare wheel and the air-conditioner compressor. Behind the grille is a radiator, but one which runs cooling lines to the heat exchanger and the battery pack instead of an engine.
The wheel arches look over-sized and the puny 13-inch rims don’t provide that much of visual strength, but the tyres shod on the alloys are low-resistance tyres that have been specially developed with a compound that has higher silica content.
The E2O’s chassis is a tubular space frame and the car is built by bolting on the motor, controller, battery pack and the other suspension and seating parts. All the body panels are colour impregnated and dent resistant plastic. These panels made from specially developed base polymer are then simply bonded onto the frame using special adhesives.
Mahindra Reva officials say that the India-spec E2O has no airbags or other electronic braking or stability aids, but it still meets collision safety norms thanks to the space frame’s rigidity and the three crumple zones at the front that disperse the impact of a collision. The European-spec E2O which is currently under development will have the entire complement of safety features including stability management and am guessing that it will have to pass the Euro NCAP tests.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
GLOBAL ENERGY NETWORK INSTITUTE
“By structuring a universal rate plan that controls the allocation of energy to each household, the behavior wherein society lives can be radically altered.”
“I am also involved in a program called the Global Energy Network Institute (GENI). According to the Dymaxion Map’s illustration of the Smart Grid viewed from the North Pole, the global energy grid is interconnected throughout every continent. The only portion of the planet untouched by the Smart Grid is the uninhabited Antarctica.
“The GENI is the distributor of energy throughout the world; its distribution process has changed how the world uses, exchanges and transforms energy around the planet. We are now in the process of writing a program capable of distributing blocks of energy to individual countries. The United Nations will then be able to manage each country through its specific allocation of energy.
“Based upon each country’s population, its production and its performance will determine the amount of Carbon Credits or energy it can afford to purchase. That calculated block of energy, and no more, will be allocated to each individual country for an entire year. Each country will use this same format of population, production and performance to allocate energy to cities, towns, businesses and households. By structuring a universal rate plan that controls the allocation of energy to each household, the behavior wherein society lives can be radically altered.
“The Smart Meters, along with transmitting every bit of information to GENTI through the local energy companies, also regulates every Smart Appliance at each location. It then provides the designated amount of energy for each specific device or appliance. If a device is defective and draws more power than required, the Smart Meter will automatically discontinue power to that device. If an appliance stops working or is replaced, that information is also logged under the occupant at that location. This information will be instantly accessible through the occupants Biochip. If the occupant depletes their designated kilowatts of energy before their allocation date, power is automatically discontinued.”
“Look, Lance, in order to eliminate waste, they have to know where every kilowatt of power is being utilized at every instant, and to do so they have to implement regulations to alter the wasteful behavior of society.”
“Monique, I interjected, ignoring her frivolous explanation for micromanaging people’s lives, “I read another article that said the State, under what they termed the Global Commons, was issuing a Biochip with the same information contained on the Smart Card. Everyone's personal records, along with an access number, would be programmed onto their personal Biochip. Each microscopic Biochip contains the person's DNA code, a digitized photo, social security number, bank transactions, various consumer profiles, credit history and profile, tax returns, employment records, home ownership and personal property records from every transaction made, marital status, children, divorce records, medical and prescription records, car ownership and DMV driving records, arrest and warrant records, and religious affiliation for each person in the world.”
“Yes, Lance,” Monique replied enthusiastically. “That’s the project we’ll be working on next. The Biochip is injected under the skin at two of the easiest scanable locations on the body, either on the back of the hand or the forehead. Following normal government protocol before dispensing a technological device upon the public, enlisted servicemen were required to take the mark as identification purposes. Apparently, it proved successful, since this technology is now being provided to the public.”
“It seems that there are always two conflicting studies,” I interjected, “one from independent sources and the other from their own internal sources, which are usually the only reports presented to the public. The independent study is clear; this biochip has a tendency to leak, and may cause cancer or other chronic diseases.”
“Well, this ceremony will initiate the biggest international event known to mankind. The whole world will simultaneously pledge their allegiance, not only to a New World Order, which will supersede the United Nations and usher in an international peace and security for the first time in the history of the world, but also, the whole world will be pledging their allegiance to the New World Leader, the only one capable of providing and maintaining world peace and security. By everyone in the world ceremoniously taking the mark, will permanently unite everyone under the New World Order and the New World Leader; they will dedicate their lives to the Order and the Leader as world citizens, forever.”
Why? First, with legal status undocumented immigrants have legal protections that the rest of us take for granted. They can fight for higher wages and better working conditions and not fear being fired. With citizenship, workers leave all fears of deportation behind and can deepen their connection to their work and lives in the United States.
Second, immigrants with legal status invest in their English-language skills and in other forms of education and training that raise their productivity. These investments in turn lead to higher wages and permit them to access a broader range of higher-paying jobs. The quicker they become citizens, the sooner they can apply for jobs requiring U.S. citizenship. In addition, workers with legal status are free to be mobile and seek jobs that best suit their skill and education levels, thereby improving efficiency in the labor market.
Again, citizenship broadens the pool of available jobs and opportunities for these workers. Finally, legal status and citizenship facilitate entrepreneurship by providing access to licenses, permits, insurance and credit to start businesses and create jobs. A quicker path to citizenship hastens the opportunity as investors and banks recognize the roots the entrepreneur is putting into his or her business.
By contrast, keeping unauthorized immigrants on a 10-year-plus path to citizenship would bring slighter gains in economic growth, tax revenue and job creation. Skeptics of the political viability of a shorter path should note that a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 51% of Americans believed that legalized immigrants should be able to gain citizenship after five years.
“I am also involved in a program called the Global Energy Network Institute (GENI). According to the Dymaxion Map’s illustration of the Smart Grid viewed from the North Pole, the global energy grid is interconnected throughout every continent. The only portion of the planet untouched by the Smart Grid is the uninhabited Antarctica.
“The GENI is the distributor of energy throughout the world; its distribution process has changed how the world uses, exchanges and transforms energy around the planet. We are now in the process of writing a program capable of distributing blocks of energy to individual countries. The United Nations will then be able to manage each country through its specific allocation of energy.
“Based upon each country’s population, its production and its performance will determine the amount of Carbon Credits or energy it can afford to purchase. That calculated block of energy, and no more, will be allocated to each individual country for an entire year. Each country will use this same format of population, production and performance to allocate energy to cities, towns, businesses and households. By structuring a universal rate plan that controls the allocation of energy to each household, the behavior wherein society lives can be radically altered.
“The Smart Meters, along with transmitting every bit of information to GENTI through the local energy companies, also regulates every Smart Appliance at each location. It then provides the designated amount of energy for each specific device or appliance. If a device is defective and draws more power than required, the Smart Meter will automatically discontinue power to that device. If an appliance stops working or is replaced, that information is also logged under the occupant at that location. This information will be instantly accessible through the occupants Biochip. If the occupant depletes their designated kilowatts of energy before their allocation date, power is automatically discontinued.”
“Look, Lance, in order to eliminate waste, they have to know where every kilowatt of power is being utilized at every instant, and to do so they have to implement regulations to alter the wasteful behavior of society.”
“Monique, I interjected, ignoring her frivolous explanation for micromanaging people’s lives, “I read another article that said the State, under what they termed the Global Commons, was issuing a Biochip with the same information contained on the Smart Card. Everyone's personal records, along with an access number, would be programmed onto their personal Biochip. Each microscopic Biochip contains the person's DNA code, a digitized photo, social security number, bank transactions, various consumer profiles, credit history and profile, tax returns, employment records, home ownership and personal property records from every transaction made, marital status, children, divorce records, medical and prescription records, car ownership and DMV driving records, arrest and warrant records, and religious affiliation for each person in the world.”
“Yes, Lance,” Monique replied enthusiastically. “That’s the project we’ll be working on next. The Biochip is injected under the skin at two of the easiest scanable locations on the body, either on the back of the hand or the forehead. Following normal government protocol before dispensing a technological device upon the public, enlisted servicemen were required to take the mark as identification purposes. Apparently, it proved successful, since this technology is now being provided to the public.”
“It seems that there are always two conflicting studies,” I interjected, “one from independent sources and the other from their own internal sources, which are usually the only reports presented to the public. The independent study is clear; this biochip has a tendency to leak, and may cause cancer or other chronic diseases.”
“Well, this ceremony will initiate the biggest international event known to mankind. The whole world will simultaneously pledge their allegiance, not only to a New World Order, which will supersede the United Nations and usher in an international peace and security for the first time in the history of the world, but also, the whole world will be pledging their allegiance to the New World Leader, the only one capable of providing and maintaining world peace and security. By everyone in the world ceremoniously taking the mark, will permanently unite everyone under the New World Order and the New World Leader; they will dedicate their lives to the Order and the Leader as world citizens, forever.”
Why? First, with legal status undocumented immigrants have legal protections that the rest of us take for granted. They can fight for higher wages and better working conditions and not fear being fired. With citizenship, workers leave all fears of deportation behind and can deepen their connection to their work and lives in the United States.
Second, immigrants with legal status invest in their English-language skills and in other forms of education and training that raise their productivity. These investments in turn lead to higher wages and permit them to access a broader range of higher-paying jobs. The quicker they become citizens, the sooner they can apply for jobs requiring U.S. citizenship. In addition, workers with legal status are free to be mobile and seek jobs that best suit their skill and education levels, thereby improving efficiency in the labor market.
Again, citizenship broadens the pool of available jobs and opportunities for these workers. Finally, legal status and citizenship facilitate entrepreneurship by providing access to licenses, permits, insurance and credit to start businesses and create jobs. A quicker path to citizenship hastens the opportunity as investors and banks recognize the roots the entrepreneur is putting into his or her business.
By contrast, keeping unauthorized immigrants on a 10-year-plus path to citizenship would bring slighter gains in economic growth, tax revenue and job creation. Skeptics of the political viability of a shorter path should note that a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 51% of Americans believed that legalized immigrants should be able to gain citizenship after five years.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Colleges Save Millions By Embracing Policies to Reduce Driving
Jeffrey Tumlin was managing transportation programs at Stanford in the mid-1990s, when he made an important finding: It was cheaper for the university to pay people not to drive than to build new parking structures.
Offering employees just $90 a year not to drive to campus was enough to entice many of them to use transit, carpools, or bicycles. Meanwhile, the annualized cost of each parking space can range from about $650 for surface spots in suburban locations to over $4,000 for structured spaces in cities, according to the Victoria Transport Policy Institute.
Stanford offered further incentive by raising parking prices 15 percent. Then, it invested $4 million in bicycle facilities, including turning a main road through campus into a bike and transit mall. This $4 million enticed 900 people out of their cars and onto bicycles, according to a case study in Transportation & Sustainable Campus Communities, by Will Toor and Spenser Havlick. Building parking facilities to accommodate those 900 people would have cost $18 million.
What Stanford had discovered was “transportation demand management,” or strategies to minimize transportation costs by reducing driving. Today almost every college and university in the country employs some form of TDM, whether it’s providing discounted transit passes for students or offering special parking rates to carpoolers.
In Stanford’s case, a combination of these programs allowed the school to increase its campus size 20 percent without increasing traffic — a stipulation that Santa Clara County insisted on. Since the early 2000s, single-occupancy car commuting among Stanford employees and students has held roughly steady, despite the university’s rapid growth. “We would probably have had to build another 3,000 parking spaces on campus,” reports Brodie Hamilton, director of parking and transportation services. “Stanford, most of its parking structures right now are going underground. Those cost about $45,000 per space to put them underground. We’ve probably saved close to $100 million in costs avoided.”
Places like Stanford and MIT — elite colleges in expensive housing markets — have been leading the way on TDM, motivated in large part by financial necessity, says Tumlin. High land costs and the lack of undeveloped land nearby make reserving large parts of campus for car storage cost-prohibitive.
Larry Brutti, operations manager at MIT’s Parking and Operations Office, said adding a single parking space on MIT’s campus costs the university about $100,000. The institution is focused, instead, on promoting biking and transit for its faculty and staff.
In addition to the high cost, at a land-constrained campus, preserving space for parking means less space to advance learning, like additional research and instruction facilities.
Right now, as schools struggle with declining public funding, more colleges and universities than ever are embracing the cost-saving approach of TDM. The times simply demand innovation, says Tumlin.
“Particularly now that resources are scarcer, it’s forcing universities to sharpen their pencils,” he said. “The evidence is so overwhelming that it doesn’t make sense to just throw capital money at our problems to make them go away.”
What separates colleges that succeed at reducing costs from those that continue to throw away money on parking? One important factor, says Tumlin, is simply the presence of someone on staff with the technical expertise to rigorously compare investing in capital — like parking garages — with investing in programs — like variable parking rates.
Hagan is nearing the end of his second term as alderman for Ward VI. He has been employed in public service within Jackson County since 1998, beginning with the Ocean Springs Police Department and most recently as a Building Official for the City of Moss Point.
He holds an Associate's degree in Criminal Justice and is scheduled to earn his Bachelor's degree in August. He and his wife, Kim, are the parent of three children. Kim is an assistant teacher at Ocean Springs High School, working with special needs children.
"Ward 6 is the largest and fastest growing ward in Ocean Springs," Hagan said. "It is extremely important that this growth be controlled so that our way of life is not negatively affected. One of the largest issues facing our ward has been the overwhelming desire and push to build large multifamily apartment complexes. Fortunately we have been able to limit these large complexes which would be a drain on our city services as well as our school system, and not to mention the change in dynamics to the adjoining neighborhoods."
East is a graduate of Pascagoula High School and earned a degree in Education from Mississippi State University and a Master of Divinity from the Memphis Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tenn.
He is a retired United Methodist minister, having served as pastor for several churches in Mississippi. He led the building committee during construction of the East Campus of St. Paul United Methodist Church on U.S. 90. He served on the Mississippi Home Corporation Board, the Federal Home Loan Bank Advisory Board in Dallas, representing Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana, and was elected to various boards and agencies of the United Methodist Church.
"My life of service to people with various needs has created a skill set including building consensus, mediation, problem solving, listening and most importantly focusing like a laser on important issues. This opportunity to be an Alderman will allow me to "Give back" in a direct manner rather than just being a bystander to the day to day process."
Offering employees just $90 a year not to drive to campus was enough to entice many of them to use transit, carpools, or bicycles. Meanwhile, the annualized cost of each parking space can range from about $650 for surface spots in suburban locations to over $4,000 for structured spaces in cities, according to the Victoria Transport Policy Institute.
Stanford offered further incentive by raising parking prices 15 percent. Then, it invested $4 million in bicycle facilities, including turning a main road through campus into a bike and transit mall. This $4 million enticed 900 people out of their cars and onto bicycles, according to a case study in Transportation & Sustainable Campus Communities, by Will Toor and Spenser Havlick. Building parking facilities to accommodate those 900 people would have cost $18 million.
What Stanford had discovered was “transportation demand management,” or strategies to minimize transportation costs by reducing driving. Today almost every college and university in the country employs some form of TDM, whether it’s providing discounted transit passes for students or offering special parking rates to carpoolers.
In Stanford’s case, a combination of these programs allowed the school to increase its campus size 20 percent without increasing traffic — a stipulation that Santa Clara County insisted on. Since the early 2000s, single-occupancy car commuting among Stanford employees and students has held roughly steady, despite the university’s rapid growth. “We would probably have had to build another 3,000 parking spaces on campus,” reports Brodie Hamilton, director of parking and transportation services. “Stanford, most of its parking structures right now are going underground. Those cost about $45,000 per space to put them underground. We’ve probably saved close to $100 million in costs avoided.”
Places like Stanford and MIT — elite colleges in expensive housing markets — have been leading the way on TDM, motivated in large part by financial necessity, says Tumlin. High land costs and the lack of undeveloped land nearby make reserving large parts of campus for car storage cost-prohibitive.
Larry Brutti, operations manager at MIT’s Parking and Operations Office, said adding a single parking space on MIT’s campus costs the university about $100,000. The institution is focused, instead, on promoting biking and transit for its faculty and staff.
In addition to the high cost, at a land-constrained campus, preserving space for parking means less space to advance learning, like additional research and instruction facilities.
Right now, as schools struggle with declining public funding, more colleges and universities than ever are embracing the cost-saving approach of TDM. The times simply demand innovation, says Tumlin.
“Particularly now that resources are scarcer, it’s forcing universities to sharpen their pencils,” he said. “The evidence is so overwhelming that it doesn’t make sense to just throw capital money at our problems to make them go away.”
What separates colleges that succeed at reducing costs from those that continue to throw away money on parking? One important factor, says Tumlin, is simply the presence of someone on staff with the technical expertise to rigorously compare investing in capital — like parking garages — with investing in programs — like variable parking rates.
Hagan is nearing the end of his second term as alderman for Ward VI. He has been employed in public service within Jackson County since 1998, beginning with the Ocean Springs Police Department and most recently as a Building Official for the City of Moss Point.
He holds an Associate's degree in Criminal Justice and is scheduled to earn his Bachelor's degree in August. He and his wife, Kim, are the parent of three children. Kim is an assistant teacher at Ocean Springs High School, working with special needs children.
"Ward 6 is the largest and fastest growing ward in Ocean Springs," Hagan said. "It is extremely important that this growth be controlled so that our way of life is not negatively affected. One of the largest issues facing our ward has been the overwhelming desire and push to build large multifamily apartment complexes. Fortunately we have been able to limit these large complexes which would be a drain on our city services as well as our school system, and not to mention the change in dynamics to the adjoining neighborhoods."
East is a graduate of Pascagoula High School and earned a degree in Education from Mississippi State University and a Master of Divinity from the Memphis Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tenn.
He is a retired United Methodist minister, having served as pastor for several churches in Mississippi. He led the building committee during construction of the East Campus of St. Paul United Methodist Church on U.S. 90. He served on the Mississippi Home Corporation Board, the Federal Home Loan Bank Advisory Board in Dallas, representing Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana, and was elected to various boards and agencies of the United Methodist Church.
"My life of service to people with various needs has created a skill set including building consensus, mediation, problem solving, listening and most importantly focusing like a laser on important issues. This opportunity to be an Alderman will allow me to "Give back" in a direct manner rather than just being a bystander to the day to day process."
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Home insulation – an affordable option for all homeowners
A warm and healthy home is at last an agreed upon prerequisite this winter -- thanks to a government insulation grant being offered to home owners. The programme is called Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart and the primary goal is straight forward – to financially assist home owners to bring their homes up to modern insulation standards. Simply put, if you own a house that was built before the year 2000, you can receive a $1,300 (or 33%) contribution towards the cost of ceiling and under floor insulation and its installation. The conditions for the insulation grant are that both ceiling and under floor spaces are insulated at the same time and that the material used is approved by Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart. Approved insulation materials include wool, polyester, fibreglass mineral fibre and polystyrene products.
To qualify for a government contribution you will need an approved assessor to give you an insulation quote. The work then needs to be carried out by an approved insulation installer. Harrisons Home Energy Solutions, a Kiwi owned family business that has been in operation since 1962 are approved insulation installers and are looking forward to providing New Zealand home owners with quality insulation that is guaranteed to keep homes warmer and drier and bills significantly smaller this winter.
If you have inadequate insulation, take heart in knowing you are not alone – nearly 60% of all New Zealand homes have inadequate insulation. Around 35% of the energy used in an average New Zealand household goes on heating your home – that’s a lot of wasted heat for homes with inadequate insulation! A BRANZ study found that adding insulation increased temperatures by 1.4 degrees in winter and reduced energy use by 300-400 KWH. Another study by the University of Otago showed that electricity consumption was reduced by up to 9% during winter in homes retro-fitted with RFID tag.
Governments the world over regularly revise budgets and it is exactly these kinds of areas that will get cut when times are tight, so it’s best to grab this opportunity now. The good news is that the Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart programme is not the only source of potential funding for your insulation. There are a number of generous grants and smart finance options available, some of which include a council grant (for insulation in Auckland and Wellington). There are of course conditions attached to these grants, and a reputable insulation company such as Harrisons Home Energy Solutions can help you find out if your house meets the council’s criteria. Interest-free finance is another avenue to explore for approved insulation products. In the case of Harrisons Home Energy Solutions, there are Q Card, Gem Visa and GE CreditLine options available. Then finally, extending your mortgage is another possibility and certain banks may advance the money to install or upgrade your home’s insulation as they see it as a worthwhile investment.
Adonis’ North East Independent Economic Review, which began work six months ago, says that the combined authority "has a leading role to play in a number of areas including housing and place making, tourism and the new economy".
One of the key recommendations is that a new transport delivery agency called ‘Transport North East’ should be set up with "responsibility for the strategic planning of transport", serving the combined authority.
The report states: "The agency should be tasked with developing and implementing a transport strategy to serve the overall economic and spatial development strategy of the combined authority, and a prioritised transport investment programme."
Adonis said the agency would manage government funding for major transport schemes, which the Department for Transport is devolving to local areas. It would replace the existing Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority, the report adds.
The report goes on to say that the North East "needs a considerable increase in new housing" which should be "developed in sustainable locations, close to employment centres and with easy access to public transport networks".
But it notes: "Developers in the region and property professionals are of the strong view that both land supply and the planning process is hindering new development."
It goes on to say that developers "believe there are too few easy to develop sites in attractive locations to meet demand" and that "many brownfield sites are unlikely to be developed until a healthy market is well established".
The report recommends that the proposed combined authority should "help stimulate the market" by working with developers and using funding from government housing quango the Homes & Communities Agency to bring forward new housing. It also says "innovative" market products should be created to make it easier for families buy homes.
The report further calls for the LEP and local authorities to work with the government to make sure there is comprehensive superfast broadband connectivity across rural areas by 2016.
The report was welcomed by Greg Clark, financial secretary to the Treasury, and former Conservative Party chairman Lord Heseltine, whose own economic growth report was published last autumn.
For better or worse — and playwright Samuel D. Hunter is smart enough to see it's probably very much for the better — the play titled "The Whale" has become known in theater circles as the play about the really fat guy stuck on a couch.
Every new drama penned in a crowded marketplace needs a calling card, and the opening image of Hunter's "The Whale," which will open Monday in Chicago at the Biograph Theatre after drawing much attention at New York's Playwrights Horizons last fall, is a doozy: As the curtain rises, you discover a man who weighs 600 pounds blinking back at you.
Aside from allowing an audience to marvel at the miracles of fat suits (Dale Calandra, who plays the obese Charlie at Victory Gardens, is nowhere close to that weight), there is the sheer force of an image wherein the main character of a play seems to wear his neuroses right on his body.
You wouldn't say that "The Whale" was the breakthrough play for Hunter, who is just 31, hails from Idaho and studied at the University of Iowa. That title rightly belongs to his "A Bright New Boise."
But there is no question that the New York success of "The Whale" has, well, supersized Hunter's career.
He says he didn't start out writing "The Whale" as a play about a really fat guy. "I did not think that the main character would be 600 pounds," Hunter said in an interview this week.
Rather, he said, he wanted to pen something about empathy and honesty, after musing on such matters while teaching writing at Rutgers University. But such qualities can be ephemeral and, well, "The Whale" has stuck.
And he's fine with the notion that this is the play about the really fat guy on the couch, stuck like a Beckettian hero of his own tragedy. Mostly fine, anyway.
"Well, it does rub me the wrong way sometimes," Hunter said. "But if people come into this play thinking it is about a fat guy, then maybe the journey for them is a bit more surprising."
One interesting question is how much of a role Chicago will play in Hunter's exploding career. Hunter is, for the record, a prolific playwright. "The Whale" (directed at Victory Gardens by Joanie Schultz) is not his only play in Chicago at present: LiveWire Chicago is staging his 2011 work, "A Permanent Image," at the Storefront Theatre. It is a moving piece about a family in crisis, and it sits on my list of recommended shows.
But the main Chicago connection for Hunter is to be Victory Gardens, which just announced him as a new ensemble member. Given all the changes at that theater company, which is still reeling from the force of the transition to new artistic leadership under Chay Yew, Hunter is treading carefully in Chicago.
"It is important," he said, "for me not to waltz into Chicago as a new ensemble playwright and assume Chicago loves me. If they like my work, then I very much want to become part of this incredible community. I am thinking of this as my introduction."
To qualify for a government contribution you will need an approved assessor to give you an insulation quote. The work then needs to be carried out by an approved insulation installer. Harrisons Home Energy Solutions, a Kiwi owned family business that has been in operation since 1962 are approved insulation installers and are looking forward to providing New Zealand home owners with quality insulation that is guaranteed to keep homes warmer and drier and bills significantly smaller this winter.
If you have inadequate insulation, take heart in knowing you are not alone – nearly 60% of all New Zealand homes have inadequate insulation. Around 35% of the energy used in an average New Zealand household goes on heating your home – that’s a lot of wasted heat for homes with inadequate insulation! A BRANZ study found that adding insulation increased temperatures by 1.4 degrees in winter and reduced energy use by 300-400 KWH. Another study by the University of Otago showed that electricity consumption was reduced by up to 9% during winter in homes retro-fitted with RFID tag.
Governments the world over regularly revise budgets and it is exactly these kinds of areas that will get cut when times are tight, so it’s best to grab this opportunity now. The good news is that the Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart programme is not the only source of potential funding for your insulation. There are a number of generous grants and smart finance options available, some of which include a council grant (for insulation in Auckland and Wellington). There are of course conditions attached to these grants, and a reputable insulation company such as Harrisons Home Energy Solutions can help you find out if your house meets the council’s criteria. Interest-free finance is another avenue to explore for approved insulation products. In the case of Harrisons Home Energy Solutions, there are Q Card, Gem Visa and GE CreditLine options available. Then finally, extending your mortgage is another possibility and certain banks may advance the money to install or upgrade your home’s insulation as they see it as a worthwhile investment.
Adonis’ North East Independent Economic Review, which began work six months ago, says that the combined authority "has a leading role to play in a number of areas including housing and place making, tourism and the new economy".
One of the key recommendations is that a new transport delivery agency called ‘Transport North East’ should be set up with "responsibility for the strategic planning of transport", serving the combined authority.
The report states: "The agency should be tasked with developing and implementing a transport strategy to serve the overall economic and spatial development strategy of the combined authority, and a prioritised transport investment programme."
Adonis said the agency would manage government funding for major transport schemes, which the Department for Transport is devolving to local areas. It would replace the existing Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority, the report adds.
The report goes on to say that the North East "needs a considerable increase in new housing" which should be "developed in sustainable locations, close to employment centres and with easy access to public transport networks".
But it notes: "Developers in the region and property professionals are of the strong view that both land supply and the planning process is hindering new development."
It goes on to say that developers "believe there are too few easy to develop sites in attractive locations to meet demand" and that "many brownfield sites are unlikely to be developed until a healthy market is well established".
The report recommends that the proposed combined authority should "help stimulate the market" by working with developers and using funding from government housing quango the Homes & Communities Agency to bring forward new housing. It also says "innovative" market products should be created to make it easier for families buy homes.
The report further calls for the LEP and local authorities to work with the government to make sure there is comprehensive superfast broadband connectivity across rural areas by 2016.
The report was welcomed by Greg Clark, financial secretary to the Treasury, and former Conservative Party chairman Lord Heseltine, whose own economic growth report was published last autumn.
For better or worse — and playwright Samuel D. Hunter is smart enough to see it's probably very much for the better — the play titled "The Whale" has become known in theater circles as the play about the really fat guy stuck on a couch.
Every new drama penned in a crowded marketplace needs a calling card, and the opening image of Hunter's "The Whale," which will open Monday in Chicago at the Biograph Theatre after drawing much attention at New York's Playwrights Horizons last fall, is a doozy: As the curtain rises, you discover a man who weighs 600 pounds blinking back at you.
Aside from allowing an audience to marvel at the miracles of fat suits (Dale Calandra, who plays the obese Charlie at Victory Gardens, is nowhere close to that weight), there is the sheer force of an image wherein the main character of a play seems to wear his neuroses right on his body.
You wouldn't say that "The Whale" was the breakthrough play for Hunter, who is just 31, hails from Idaho and studied at the University of Iowa. That title rightly belongs to his "A Bright New Boise."
But there is no question that the New York success of "The Whale" has, well, supersized Hunter's career.
He says he didn't start out writing "The Whale" as a play about a really fat guy. "I did not think that the main character would be 600 pounds," Hunter said in an interview this week.
Rather, he said, he wanted to pen something about empathy and honesty, after musing on such matters while teaching writing at Rutgers University. But such qualities can be ephemeral and, well, "The Whale" has stuck.
And he's fine with the notion that this is the play about the really fat guy on the couch, stuck like a Beckettian hero of his own tragedy. Mostly fine, anyway.
"Well, it does rub me the wrong way sometimes," Hunter said. "But if people come into this play thinking it is about a fat guy, then maybe the journey for them is a bit more surprising."
One interesting question is how much of a role Chicago will play in Hunter's exploding career. Hunter is, for the record, a prolific playwright. "The Whale" (directed at Victory Gardens by Joanie Schultz) is not his only play in Chicago at present: LiveWire Chicago is staging his 2011 work, "A Permanent Image," at the Storefront Theatre. It is a moving piece about a family in crisis, and it sits on my list of recommended shows.
But the main Chicago connection for Hunter is to be Victory Gardens, which just announced him as a new ensemble member. Given all the changes at that theater company, which is still reeling from the force of the transition to new artistic leadership under Chay Yew, Hunter is treading carefully in Chicago.
"It is important," he said, "for me not to waltz into Chicago as a new ensemble playwright and assume Chicago loves me. If they like my work, then I very much want to become part of this incredible community. I am thinking of this as my introduction."
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
How the smartphone is changing how you pay for stuff
Calgary food truck owner Cosmo Spina used to watch potential customers walk away hungry because he couldn't accept their credit cards and they didn't have any cash.
"I found that as I got busier and got to more places and more people, a lot of people just don't carry cash anymore, not even $10," Spina said in an interview outside the Husky building.
Now, after adopting e-payment technology from one of the many players jockeying for position in this new market, both Spina and the customers who want to use credit cards at his Italian pasta truck are much happier.
Late last year, Spina signed up for Square, the tiny credit card reader that attaches to a smartphone and was the brainchild of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and his vision of making commerce "easy for everyone."
Square joins other companies like Interac and Rogers, all trying to eke out a position in the highly competitive — but still nascent — mobile payment marketplace.
Interac recently announced the first NFC (near-field communication) debit transaction via a smartphone in Canada, and hopes to roll out the service for consumers later this year.
Rogers says it is expanding its "suretap" service for mobile payment to more smartphones.
"To continue driving adoption and growth of mobile payments in Canada, it is essential that a strong ecosystem is established to include multiple devices, operating systems and payment networks," Jeppe Dorff, Rogers' vice-president of transaction services, said in a recent release.
Spina estimates that one in every five of his customers looking for his gnocchi bolognese or bacon carbonara pays by a credit card run through his iPhone — a marked change from the days when perhaps one in 10 potential customers left empty-handed because he wasn't accepting plastic.
Spina is the kind of merchant Dorsey and his Square co-founder Jim McKelvey were hoping would sign up after the card reader arrived in Canada — its first stop outside the U.S. — five months ago.
Square isn't releasing specific data on the uptake in Canada, but Dorsey says "it's been amazing to watch" how adoption of the reader and its accompanying Square Register app have taken off.
"In the United States, we saw a lot of food trucks and food carts signing up immediately, but when we launched in Canada, we launched in a cold time so we didn't see a lot of that type of merchant. But we expect that to change as we go into spring and summer, and go into all the festivals that places like Montreal have for instance."
As much as Square has opened up retail potential for merchants such as Spina, it has limitations — no debit capability, no chip-and-pin technology, no capability on BlackBerry smartphones — which reflect how tricky and fragmented the Canadian mobile payment system is.
"We think we've done a great thing in making commerce easy for people, and easy to start and easy to run and easy to grow your business, but we think we can do a lot more and we continue to evolve and build."
A partnership involving McDonald's Restaurants, RBC Royal Bank, Moneris Solutions and BlackBerry will give some customers the chance to buy smaller-value items such as Big Macs and McMuffins by debit with the wave of a smartphone at an Interac Flash terminal.
"Generally, younger people like to use debit," says Chidambaram, who notes that 56 per cent of all point-of-sale transactions through Interac's network are debit.
Unlike Square, Interac's technology is built around chip-and-pin, something Chidambaram says has been responsible for a reduction in card fraud.
"We've been very careful in developing this technology and ensuring we're leveraging a lot of the security features and capabilities that we've already put into our network and our products."
Still, for any mobile payment system to take off, it has to resonate with someone who wants to use a smartphone for a transaction.
And for that to happen, says Doug Macdonald, a senior manager at consulting firm Deloitte in Toronto, it has to be as easy as using a plastic card, and give a person more benefits.
For all the action taking place in the mobile payment market, however, widespread adoption and usage of phones for payment is still sometime down the road.
"We're still very much in the early days," says Macdonald. "The first generation of NFC wallets that's coming out right now are very much just replicating what a physical card does, and then linking it into the mobile banking experience of that particular bank.
"The path to one wallet, one application on your phone that holds all of your receipts and keeps track of your spending and helps you make payment from whatever card you want, is still going to be a couple of iterations away."
Macdonald says there is pent-up demand in Canada for a service such as Square and similar products, such as Moneris's PAYD.
"I think this trend towards using consumer devices to accept payments has the potential to really shake up both the payments industry and the way that consumers pay."
"I found that as I got busier and got to more places and more people, a lot of people just don't carry cash anymore, not even $10," Spina said in an interview outside the Husky building.
Now, after adopting e-payment technology from one of the many players jockeying for position in this new market, both Spina and the customers who want to use credit cards at his Italian pasta truck are much happier.
Late last year, Spina signed up for Square, the tiny credit card reader that attaches to a smartphone and was the brainchild of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and his vision of making commerce "easy for everyone."
Square joins other companies like Interac and Rogers, all trying to eke out a position in the highly competitive — but still nascent — mobile payment marketplace.
Interac recently announced the first NFC (near-field communication) debit transaction via a smartphone in Canada, and hopes to roll out the service for consumers later this year.
Rogers says it is expanding its "suretap" service for mobile payment to more smartphones.
"To continue driving adoption and growth of mobile payments in Canada, it is essential that a strong ecosystem is established to include multiple devices, operating systems and payment networks," Jeppe Dorff, Rogers' vice-president of transaction services, said in a recent release.
Spina estimates that one in every five of his customers looking for his gnocchi bolognese or bacon carbonara pays by a credit card run through his iPhone — a marked change from the days when perhaps one in 10 potential customers left empty-handed because he wasn't accepting plastic.
Spina is the kind of merchant Dorsey and his Square co-founder Jim McKelvey were hoping would sign up after the card reader arrived in Canada — its first stop outside the U.S. — five months ago.
Square isn't releasing specific data on the uptake in Canada, but Dorsey says "it's been amazing to watch" how adoption of the reader and its accompanying Square Register app have taken off.
"In the United States, we saw a lot of food trucks and food carts signing up immediately, but when we launched in Canada, we launched in a cold time so we didn't see a lot of that type of merchant. But we expect that to change as we go into spring and summer, and go into all the festivals that places like Montreal have for instance."
As much as Square has opened up retail potential for merchants such as Spina, it has limitations — no debit capability, no chip-and-pin technology, no capability on BlackBerry smartphones — which reflect how tricky and fragmented the Canadian mobile payment system is.
"We think we've done a great thing in making commerce easy for people, and easy to start and easy to run and easy to grow your business, but we think we can do a lot more and we continue to evolve and build."
A partnership involving McDonald's Restaurants, RBC Royal Bank, Moneris Solutions and BlackBerry will give some customers the chance to buy smaller-value items such as Big Macs and McMuffins by debit with the wave of a smartphone at an Interac Flash terminal.
"Generally, younger people like to use debit," says Chidambaram, who notes that 56 per cent of all point-of-sale transactions through Interac's network are debit.
Unlike Square, Interac's technology is built around chip-and-pin, something Chidambaram says has been responsible for a reduction in card fraud.
"We've been very careful in developing this technology and ensuring we're leveraging a lot of the security features and capabilities that we've already put into our network and our products."
Still, for any mobile payment system to take off, it has to resonate with someone who wants to use a smartphone for a transaction.
And for that to happen, says Doug Macdonald, a senior manager at consulting firm Deloitte in Toronto, it has to be as easy as using a plastic card, and give a person more benefits.
For all the action taking place in the mobile payment market, however, widespread adoption and usage of phones for payment is still sometime down the road.
"We're still very much in the early days," says Macdonald. "The first generation of NFC wallets that's coming out right now are very much just replicating what a physical card does, and then linking it into the mobile banking experience of that particular bank.
"The path to one wallet, one application on your phone that holds all of your receipts and keeps track of your spending and helps you make payment from whatever card you want, is still going to be a couple of iterations away."
Macdonald says there is pent-up demand in Canada for a service such as Square and similar products, such as Moneris's PAYD.
"I think this trend towards using consumer devices to accept payments has the potential to really shake up both the payments industry and the way that consumers pay."
Sunday, April 7, 2013
New Ball State coach waited for right - and great - opportunity
James Whitford has been in this position before, prior to where he found himself Saturday morning. He had had earlier opportunities to become a head basketball coach, but this was different. He was being offered the chance to lead the Ball State men's basketball program and Whitford couldn't say no. And he would have been foolish to have done so.
“This isn't my first head coaching opportunity,” Whitford explained. “This isn't my second. I've had a number of schools come my way in the past few years. I've been aggressively patient in seeking the right one.”
When you've served as the “right-hand man” to Arizona coach Sean Miller for eight seasons (four at Xavier and four more with the Wildcats), you will have suitors. Miller is not only a highly-successful coach; he's a very bright man.
Miller had advised Whitford to seek a good job, not the first job. Ball State is a great job and Whitford understood IC card.
“There are a lot of good coaches that go to programs that have a history of not having much success,” Whitford said. “The coaches then fight an uphill battle.”
That won't be the case for Whitford. He'll win in Muncie. Miller wouldn't have relied heavily on someone that wasn't an incredibly knowledgeable coach.
Cynics can throw all the numbers from the past 11 years of Ball State mediocrity at me that they wish, I just know what I know, after following this program since the Jim Holstein-era as a card-carrying member of the Cardinal Knot-Hole Club.
I know a great basketball job when I see one and Ball State is a great opportunity. Whitford walks into a program that has many of the correct pieces already in place due to his predecessor, Billy Taylor.
“I know where the program was when Billy got there and I know where it is now,” Whitford said. “It's in a lot better shape. I know myself, like all of the people at Ball State, have great respect for Billy and appreciate the work that he's done.”
Taylor did everything well, with the exception of leading this program to its potential. Having gone 15-15 each of the past two seasons, given the resources of this program, simply wasn't acceptable.
“I've coached against some of the real good Ball State teams,” Whitford said. “When I was recruiting for Miami (Ohio) and Ball State got involved, that was a real scary sight for us.”
Many of the younger Cardinal fans don't know Billy Butts from their own, but Worthen Arena is as beautiful of a facility as the Mid-American Conference has. The state of Indiana produces an abundance of talent capable of filling a good portion of the Cardinal roster, and the Ball State campus is a fun place to be nine months out of the year (I grew up five minutes away, you'll have to trust me on that).
Throw in the fact that five of the Cardinals' top six scorers return next season, and it won't be long until Whitford has this program competing with the best in the MAC.
Cardinal Nation shouldn't be skeptical of Ball State athletic director Bill Scholl bringing in a guy from Arizona. Whitford has coached a pair of Indiana Mr. Basketball's (Ben Davis' Damon Frierson and Pike's Justin Cage) while he was an assistant at Miami and Xavier, respectively. He knows the difference between Lawrence North and Lawrence Central.
The murders of Sgt. Mark Renninger and Officers Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens and Greg Richards in a Parkland coffee shop on Nov. 29, 2009, sent shock waves around Pierce County and across the country. Hearts were opened to the grieving families – and so were wallets.
People handed $20 bills to Lakewood officers responding to service calls. Children emptied piggy banks and slid bills and coins under the front-desk glass at police headquarters. The donation box near the front of the building had to be emptied every hour or two.
Wurts, the guild president, was the public face of the grieving officers, representing the guild and seeking donations for the officers’ families. Manos, the guild treasurer, worked behind the scenes with others managing the donations.
The two friends have emerged as key figures in the story of how the Lakewood Police Department’s biggest tragedy led to its biggest scandal.
Manos, 36, was sentenced to 33 months in prison last year after confessing to bilking a combined total of more than $150,000 from the guild and the charity. He spent it on auto parts, outdoors gear, household items, a Las Vegas vacation, gambling and even to pay guild tax penalties.
Wurts, 38, was fired Dec. 28 after an internal investigation determined he prevented earlier detection of Manos’ theft by letting their friendship cloud his judgment.
Documents paint a picture of a guild president who enabled his friend’s personal indiscretions, turned a blind eye to missing checks and inquiries about guild finances, thwarted another officer’s attempt to remove Manos from the treasurer post and found himself in the middle of a forgery investigation.
“This isn't my first head coaching opportunity,” Whitford explained. “This isn't my second. I've had a number of schools come my way in the past few years. I've been aggressively patient in seeking the right one.”
When you've served as the “right-hand man” to Arizona coach Sean Miller for eight seasons (four at Xavier and four more with the Wildcats), you will have suitors. Miller is not only a highly-successful coach; he's a very bright man.
Miller had advised Whitford to seek a good job, not the first job. Ball State is a great job and Whitford understood IC card.
“There are a lot of good coaches that go to programs that have a history of not having much success,” Whitford said. “The coaches then fight an uphill battle.”
That won't be the case for Whitford. He'll win in Muncie. Miller wouldn't have relied heavily on someone that wasn't an incredibly knowledgeable coach.
Cynics can throw all the numbers from the past 11 years of Ball State mediocrity at me that they wish, I just know what I know, after following this program since the Jim Holstein-era as a card-carrying member of the Cardinal Knot-Hole Club.
I know a great basketball job when I see one and Ball State is a great opportunity. Whitford walks into a program that has many of the correct pieces already in place due to his predecessor, Billy Taylor.
“I know where the program was when Billy got there and I know where it is now,” Whitford said. “It's in a lot better shape. I know myself, like all of the people at Ball State, have great respect for Billy and appreciate the work that he's done.”
Taylor did everything well, with the exception of leading this program to its potential. Having gone 15-15 each of the past two seasons, given the resources of this program, simply wasn't acceptable.
“I've coached against some of the real good Ball State teams,” Whitford said. “When I was recruiting for Miami (Ohio) and Ball State got involved, that was a real scary sight for us.”
Many of the younger Cardinal fans don't know Billy Butts from their own, but Worthen Arena is as beautiful of a facility as the Mid-American Conference has. The state of Indiana produces an abundance of talent capable of filling a good portion of the Cardinal roster, and the Ball State campus is a fun place to be nine months out of the year (I grew up five minutes away, you'll have to trust me on that).
Throw in the fact that five of the Cardinals' top six scorers return next season, and it won't be long until Whitford has this program competing with the best in the MAC.
Cardinal Nation shouldn't be skeptical of Ball State athletic director Bill Scholl bringing in a guy from Arizona. Whitford has coached a pair of Indiana Mr. Basketball's (Ben Davis' Damon Frierson and Pike's Justin Cage) while he was an assistant at Miami and Xavier, respectively. He knows the difference between Lawrence North and Lawrence Central.
The murders of Sgt. Mark Renninger and Officers Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens and Greg Richards in a Parkland coffee shop on Nov. 29, 2009, sent shock waves around Pierce County and across the country. Hearts were opened to the grieving families – and so were wallets.
People handed $20 bills to Lakewood officers responding to service calls. Children emptied piggy banks and slid bills and coins under the front-desk glass at police headquarters. The donation box near the front of the building had to be emptied every hour or two.
Wurts, the guild president, was the public face of the grieving officers, representing the guild and seeking donations for the officers’ families. Manos, the guild treasurer, worked behind the scenes with others managing the donations.
The two friends have emerged as key figures in the story of how the Lakewood Police Department’s biggest tragedy led to its biggest scandal.
Manos, 36, was sentenced to 33 months in prison last year after confessing to bilking a combined total of more than $150,000 from the guild and the charity. He spent it on auto parts, outdoors gear, household items, a Las Vegas vacation, gambling and even to pay guild tax penalties.
Wurts, 38, was fired Dec. 28 after an internal investigation determined he prevented earlier detection of Manos’ theft by letting their friendship cloud his judgment.
Documents paint a picture of a guild president who enabled his friend’s personal indiscretions, turned a blind eye to missing checks and inquiries about guild finances, thwarted another officer’s attempt to remove Manos from the treasurer post and found himself in the middle of a forgery investigation.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Just the way the Red Sox drew it up
Three walks, two runs scored, a RBI, and a superb catch in a suspenseless 8-2 victory? A heck of first (regular-season) impression, especially for a kid making his big league debut on the Bronx stage. If he can make it there ... well, you know.
Whether you believe he should have started the season with the team or gone to Triple A for nine games and an extra year of team control is irrelevant now. The hope here is that he spends the entire season in Boston. If he's sent down later in the season, it will likely be for one of two reasons: He's struggled, or it's strictly for financial plastic card.
His performance Monday was particularly encouraging because he made a huge contribution without delivering a hit, something that will be necessary as he adjusts to the difference between Double A and Major League pitching.
The office got quiet Monday every time he came to the plate -- his debut after his sizzling spring was must-see TV. The expectations are immense for this extremely likable kid, and while he can probably handle them, please know that he's not going to be Mike Trout or Bryce Harper. His peak will be closer to Ken Griffey Sr.'s peak numbers than Ken Griffey Jr's.
Which, by the way, is an excellent player. That might have been the best thing about his debut -- his contributions were all tied to his strengths. He made an outstanding catch in left field, and I suspect he could field a live grenade better than Jonny Gomes fields a line-drive single.
His first plate appearance, in which he worked a walk after Sabathia got ahead 0-2, was the best indication we could ask for that his patience (he has a .423 on-base percentage in the minors) might translate immediately to the big leagues. And that indication was bolstered by two more walks. He saw 27 pitches in his four at-bats, which is downright remarkable for a kid making his big league debut.
I'm still not sure he'll hit immediately. But he sure knows a ball from a strike, and that discerning ability paired with his golden glove should make him an asset long beyond Monday after noon. No, this won't be the last time early in this new season that we'll use remarkable to describe Bradley's contribution.
Big data is a paradigm shift in the way businesses view and use data. For a long time, businesses focused on people, process and technology; data was considered a pain rather than an asset or an opportunity. Companies need to innovate and can no longer do so with the old approach. The new triangle is people, process and data, with technology as a substratum enabling all of those.
The first step to using big data is to look at what business outcomes are desired, then work backward and determine what data needs to be captured to glean those insights. A lot of that data might be internal, but business is not conducted in a vacuum — it needs to be understood in the context of markets, customers and suppliers. So there may be a need to gather external data to be correlated with the internal data. People have conceptions that big data initiatives have to necessarily use outside data, or that it’s only about outside data such as social media. It’s really more about what is done with the data than the source.
There are opportunities to collect data through various applications and sensors. Historically, it was a problem to collect data because it wasn’t readily available. For example, surveys were the main mechanism for collecting market data; you would need to approach 100 people to get 10 to respond. Now, people are volunteering information through mobile platforms and social media. Data is also being collected through instruments such as sensors on cars. Technology has made it cheaper to collect and store data, but businesses still have to take another step and leverage that data.
The applications are everywhere, even though the most frequent uses are seen in marketing. Understanding customers better leads to improved relationships and more cross-selling and upselling. But big data insights can also improve operational efficiencies. For example, supply chain decisions about what products to stock in the warehouse can be influenced by big data. Insights could also lead to entering into new lines of business that weren’t considered. Further, a consumer using his or her credit card at a large retailer might be sent an alert offering a coupon for lunch at a partnering restaurant. The credit card company knows from its data that the customer eats lunch at this time and one of its restaurant partners is nearby, so it tries to predict behavior in real time. When the person uses the coupon, the credit card company gets a share. That’s a new line of business based on information the company had and was not utilizing.
That’s an issue companies are struggling with. A data governance strategy is needed to deal with the amount of data that is received. You have to understand what is coming in and how it can be used. The most important step is to realize that big data is not just a technology issue, which can be a difficult task internally. Big data requires the business and IT sides to work together more closely than in the past. If big data is approached as an IT issue, its full benefit will not be realized. If it’s a business process and IT is involved only in terms of what storage to buy or application to install, companies may not quite understand what is RFID tag.
Big data is changing the way businesses approach the fundamental need to innovate and create differentiation. For the past 20 years, innovation was about streamlining processes such as supply chains. Big data provides a new field for innovation by providing insights quickly and in more creative ways. Eventually, businesses will not have a choice; they will have to deal with big data in order to innovate and survive.
Whether you believe he should have started the season with the team or gone to Triple A for nine games and an extra year of team control is irrelevant now. The hope here is that he spends the entire season in Boston. If he's sent down later in the season, it will likely be for one of two reasons: He's struggled, or it's strictly for financial plastic card.
His performance Monday was particularly encouraging because he made a huge contribution without delivering a hit, something that will be necessary as he adjusts to the difference between Double A and Major League pitching.
The office got quiet Monday every time he came to the plate -- his debut after his sizzling spring was must-see TV. The expectations are immense for this extremely likable kid, and while he can probably handle them, please know that he's not going to be Mike Trout or Bryce Harper. His peak will be closer to Ken Griffey Sr.'s peak numbers than Ken Griffey Jr's.
Which, by the way, is an excellent player. That might have been the best thing about his debut -- his contributions were all tied to his strengths. He made an outstanding catch in left field, and I suspect he could field a live grenade better than Jonny Gomes fields a line-drive single.
His first plate appearance, in which he worked a walk after Sabathia got ahead 0-2, was the best indication we could ask for that his patience (he has a .423 on-base percentage in the minors) might translate immediately to the big leagues. And that indication was bolstered by two more walks. He saw 27 pitches in his four at-bats, which is downright remarkable for a kid making his big league debut.
I'm still not sure he'll hit immediately. But he sure knows a ball from a strike, and that discerning ability paired with his golden glove should make him an asset long beyond Monday after noon. No, this won't be the last time early in this new season that we'll use remarkable to describe Bradley's contribution.
Big data is a paradigm shift in the way businesses view and use data. For a long time, businesses focused on people, process and technology; data was considered a pain rather than an asset or an opportunity. Companies need to innovate and can no longer do so with the old approach. The new triangle is people, process and data, with technology as a substratum enabling all of those.
The first step to using big data is to look at what business outcomes are desired, then work backward and determine what data needs to be captured to glean those insights. A lot of that data might be internal, but business is not conducted in a vacuum — it needs to be understood in the context of markets, customers and suppliers. So there may be a need to gather external data to be correlated with the internal data. People have conceptions that big data initiatives have to necessarily use outside data, or that it’s only about outside data such as social media. It’s really more about what is done with the data than the source.
There are opportunities to collect data through various applications and sensors. Historically, it was a problem to collect data because it wasn’t readily available. For example, surveys were the main mechanism for collecting market data; you would need to approach 100 people to get 10 to respond. Now, people are volunteering information through mobile platforms and social media. Data is also being collected through instruments such as sensors on cars. Technology has made it cheaper to collect and store data, but businesses still have to take another step and leverage that data.
The applications are everywhere, even though the most frequent uses are seen in marketing. Understanding customers better leads to improved relationships and more cross-selling and upselling. But big data insights can also improve operational efficiencies. For example, supply chain decisions about what products to stock in the warehouse can be influenced by big data. Insights could also lead to entering into new lines of business that weren’t considered. Further, a consumer using his or her credit card at a large retailer might be sent an alert offering a coupon for lunch at a partnering restaurant. The credit card company knows from its data that the customer eats lunch at this time and one of its restaurant partners is nearby, so it tries to predict behavior in real time. When the person uses the coupon, the credit card company gets a share. That’s a new line of business based on information the company had and was not utilizing.
That’s an issue companies are struggling with. A data governance strategy is needed to deal with the amount of data that is received. You have to understand what is coming in and how it can be used. The most important step is to realize that big data is not just a technology issue, which can be a difficult task internally. Big data requires the business and IT sides to work together more closely than in the past. If big data is approached as an IT issue, its full benefit will not be realized. If it’s a business process and IT is involved only in terms of what storage to buy or application to install, companies may not quite understand what is RFID tag.
Big data is changing the way businesses approach the fundamental need to innovate and create differentiation. For the past 20 years, innovation was about streamlining processes such as supply chains. Big data provides a new field for innovation by providing insights quickly and in more creative ways. Eventually, businesses will not have a choice; they will have to deal with big data in order to innovate and survive.
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