How does someone turn Settlers of Catan, the legendary German board game, into Star Trek? It’s very easy. Just change some names, have planets instead of natural resources tiles, and presto, Star Trek Catan, the game where the roads are paved with starships.
Literally. Hundreds of little plastic USS Enterprises that replace the road pieces in Settlers of Catan, creating highways of spaceships. In a strange way, it makes sense. Where roads connect towns and resources on a planet, starships that ply the space lanes fill the same role in connecting multiple planets.
Star Trek Catan has many planet tiles that are functionally the same as the resource tiles that make up Settlers. Instead of brick and wool resources, you have tritanium, dilithium, oxygen, water and food planets. Towns and cities are now outposts and starbases. And the robber? It’s now a Klingon battlecruiser that denies resources and steals resource cards from a player’s hand. One wonders whether Mr. Worf might use his bat’leth sword at seeing his Empire represented as thieves.
While the Trek theme is superficial, it is represented in the game through character cards, all from Original Trek, including Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Mr. Scott, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov, Nurse Chapel, Yeoman Rand and Sarek. Each character provides special bonuses, such as Kirk protecting the player from the effects of the robber, or Spock providing an automatic resource card when a player fails to get any resources on a regular dice roll. There is no particular connection between a character’s Star Trek role and his special abilities, but it’s an interesting touch, especially because every player starts with a character card that they can use twice before having to trade it in for another character of their choice. This tends to circulate the characters around the table.
In the end, the question most players will ask is not whether Star Trek Catan is sufficiently Trek-ish, but whether it’s fun. The answer is yes. Our group, all of whom had played so much Catan that they had become somewhat jaded, really enjoyed the Star Trek version. The Trek character cards added a fresh touch, and the rows of starships looping around the map is visually striking. Catan fans will enjoy the new character cards, and Trek fans who are interested in learning about Catan will find this a good place to start.
He wore jeans and a ballcap with a green shamrock on it, and if it weren’t for his gun and bullet-proof vest, you might not even know he was a cop. But he’s heading up a special team of Cook County Sheriff’s officers whose job it is to go out a couple of times a week just to seize FOID cards from people who have had them revoked.
If this seems like overkill - three guys with guns and Kevlar going to get a plastic identification card - Imhof says there’s a reason for the precautions.
In Illinois, somebody trying to buy a gun with a revoked card at a local gun shop - where a background check is required - would likely get caught. But Imhof says there’s still a lot you can get away with in Illinois without somebody checking whether a FOID is actually valid.
“They can get ammunition and they can also get the weapons on a private deal if somebody doesn’t check to see if, uh, he’s revoked. So, I mean it’s important to grab ‘em,” he said.
So Imhof and his team are going door to door in the suburbs, trying to track down the nearly 3,000 revoked FOID cards that are still floating around Cook County - and, more importantly – to ask people to hand over their guns.
One of Imhof’s partners squawks him over the radio to say that the man at the first stop is recorded as having bought a shotgun within the state of Illinois.
“There’s still a potential that he has a gun, he has his card,” Imhof said. “We won’t really know until we actually have contact with him.”
We roll down a tree-lined street in suburban Melrose Park, and pull up to a white house with a chainlink fence. I stay in the car while the three officers walk past a row of bushy green hostas and knock on the front door.
After a few minutes of knocking, there’s still no answer. So they leave a note telling the person with the revoked card to give them a call.
If this all seems a little polite for police work, it’s because local law enforcement in Illinois don’t actually have the legal authority to seize this person’s gun - even if they had their FOID revoked for beating their spouse or being mentally ill.Read the full story at www.smartcardfactory.com!
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Fish are hard to figure
If you spend a lot of time studying nature, you find that fish are harder to figure out than birds and mammals. That stands to reason. They live in a different world… under water. I study fish a lot with my rod and reel, and occasionally look into them with my filet knife. I recently studied crappie for several evenings in mid-May, only to be fascinated by the fact that they were pretty much behaving as they were in mid-February, out in deep water, close to trees and stumps and poles that were sticking up out of the lake. Except now, instead of being close to those stick-ups and twenty feet deep as they were then, they are close to those stick-ups and about six feet down. The banks close by were steep, and the crappie were all full of eggs and still not even interested in spawning. How can that be, the dogwoods quit blooming long ago, and last year in that same area spawning had been going on for three weeks.
Fish spawn according to water temperature and lengthening daylight. Since the lake is reasonably murky this year it could be that the crappie can’t see when the sun comes up and when it goes down. And doubtless, the water is cooler, what with it snowing recently. The lake is dropping, and that may have something to do with it too. Members of the sunfish family, which includes bass and crappie, do not spawn well under rapidly fluctuating water conditions. If they do, the eggs they lay might end up out of the water.
It is likely that somewhere in a lake the size of the one I was fishing, crappie living miles away are doing things differently. It could be that in another lake, they have already spawned. But there are three things all crappie fishermen hope for each spring… a really good spawn, lots of big hungry crappie, and crappie coming into shallow water which are easy to catch.
I am just aching to go to Canada, knowing that the ice will be out in a few days and fish will active. They are so happy to see ice gone that everyone you catch has a smile on his smartcardfactory, and with the warming sun shining down into clear water, they feed voraciously. There are several lakes I know of in that Lake of the Woods region where huge smallmouth bass begin to spawn right around the first of June, and they just tear up topwater lures. I particularly like to catch them then on buzz-baits, and there are plenty of four- to five- pound smallmouth to be caught.
It is the same in Canada lakes with largemouth bass, and you can easily catch a seven-pounder this time of year on topwater lures. But you’ll seldom see a Canadian largemouth much bigger than that because they just don’t get bigger in Canada. One thing you have to do if you fish in June for bass with topwater lures, you have to use an 8- to 12-inch steel leader. There are just too many northern pike there, and sometimes huge muskies. The teeth of both, and the razor sharp gill covers, can easily cut your line unless you use steel leaders.
Anyone can go to Canada and fish, even if you have never been there before. My advice is, take two of your fishing buddies along and split the cost Take your own boat. Take groceries, and several plastic tanks of gas. Gas is always twice as high in that country than it is here. So are groceries. In fact, so is darn near everything else. You do not want to have any motor trouble there, as it will cost you dearly to have any kind of work done. Before you leave, make sure the motor is in tip-top shape and your trailer bearings are greased well and you have two spare tires for the boat trailer. Use your seat belts, because they love to nail Americans up there, and the fine for a seat belt infraction is 300 dollars to us.
If you are someone who likes the idea of saving fifteen cents per gallon on gas, go to the computer and find out how many Murphy gas stations there are along your route between here and Canada. Those stations, which are affiliated with Wal-Mart stores and sit in front of many of them, offer a fifteen-cent discount to those who buy gas with a Wal-Mart credit card. In fact, if you go into the store and purchase a gift card, that card can be used until at least mid-July to save you ten cents per gallon. When you combine that with the fact that those Murphy stations are usually already ten cents cheaper than all other gas stations, you might save as much as twenty cents a gallon.
We traveled to Canada to fish last fall, and before I went I had a computer expert who works for me find all the Murphy gas stations on the way, and determine the price per gallon of each one. There were about a dozen between here and Canada, and by using a pre-paid Wal-Mart gift card, I saved from 20 to 35 cents per gallon each time I needed gas. By the time I returned home, we had saved 120 dollars by buying gas at no other stations. In the Ozarks, these stations can be found at Ava, Mt. Grove, Joplin, Ozark, Springfield, Harrisonville, Houston and Flippin, Arkansas, just to name a few. Find the rest on the computer by just entering Wal-Mart gas or Murphy gas. I have no affiliation with them and I am not advertising for them, I am just trying to save Ozark folks some money.
Recently I made a trip where gasoline at a Murphy station in Mt. Grove Missouri was thirty cents cheaper than it was at other stations in Springfield or here in my area at Bolivar. That is a heck of a difference. If you take a few plastic gas tanks to such a place, you can return home and fill your boat motor tank with much more economical gas. But here is a word to the wise, you need to treat all gas going in ANY outboard motor with an ounce or so of the gas treatment, Sea Foam, to protect your motor. All outboard mechanics are advising that now, and you can by a bottle of Sea Foam economically about anywhere. And again, I have no stock in that company either!
Fish spawn according to water temperature and lengthening daylight. Since the lake is reasonably murky this year it could be that the crappie can’t see when the sun comes up and when it goes down. And doubtless, the water is cooler, what with it snowing recently. The lake is dropping, and that may have something to do with it too. Members of the sunfish family, which includes bass and crappie, do not spawn well under rapidly fluctuating water conditions. If they do, the eggs they lay might end up out of the water.
It is likely that somewhere in a lake the size of the one I was fishing, crappie living miles away are doing things differently. It could be that in another lake, they have already spawned. But there are three things all crappie fishermen hope for each spring… a really good spawn, lots of big hungry crappie, and crappie coming into shallow water which are easy to catch.
I am just aching to go to Canada, knowing that the ice will be out in a few days and fish will active. They are so happy to see ice gone that everyone you catch has a smile on his smartcardfactory, and with the warming sun shining down into clear water, they feed voraciously. There are several lakes I know of in that Lake of the Woods region where huge smallmouth bass begin to spawn right around the first of June, and they just tear up topwater lures. I particularly like to catch them then on buzz-baits, and there are plenty of four- to five- pound smallmouth to be caught.
It is the same in Canada lakes with largemouth bass, and you can easily catch a seven-pounder this time of year on topwater lures. But you’ll seldom see a Canadian largemouth much bigger than that because they just don’t get bigger in Canada. One thing you have to do if you fish in June for bass with topwater lures, you have to use an 8- to 12-inch steel leader. There are just too many northern pike there, and sometimes huge muskies. The teeth of both, and the razor sharp gill covers, can easily cut your line unless you use steel leaders.
Anyone can go to Canada and fish, even if you have never been there before. My advice is, take two of your fishing buddies along and split the cost Take your own boat. Take groceries, and several plastic tanks of gas. Gas is always twice as high in that country than it is here. So are groceries. In fact, so is darn near everything else. You do not want to have any motor trouble there, as it will cost you dearly to have any kind of work done. Before you leave, make sure the motor is in tip-top shape and your trailer bearings are greased well and you have two spare tires for the boat trailer. Use your seat belts, because they love to nail Americans up there, and the fine for a seat belt infraction is 300 dollars to us.
If you are someone who likes the idea of saving fifteen cents per gallon on gas, go to the computer and find out how many Murphy gas stations there are along your route between here and Canada. Those stations, which are affiliated with Wal-Mart stores and sit in front of many of them, offer a fifteen-cent discount to those who buy gas with a Wal-Mart credit card. In fact, if you go into the store and purchase a gift card, that card can be used until at least mid-July to save you ten cents per gallon. When you combine that with the fact that those Murphy stations are usually already ten cents cheaper than all other gas stations, you might save as much as twenty cents a gallon.
We traveled to Canada to fish last fall, and before I went I had a computer expert who works for me find all the Murphy gas stations on the way, and determine the price per gallon of each one. There were about a dozen between here and Canada, and by using a pre-paid Wal-Mart gift card, I saved from 20 to 35 cents per gallon each time I needed gas. By the time I returned home, we had saved 120 dollars by buying gas at no other stations. In the Ozarks, these stations can be found at Ava, Mt. Grove, Joplin, Ozark, Springfield, Harrisonville, Houston and Flippin, Arkansas, just to name a few. Find the rest on the computer by just entering Wal-Mart gas or Murphy gas. I have no affiliation with them and I am not advertising for them, I am just trying to save Ozark folks some money.
Recently I made a trip where gasoline at a Murphy station in Mt. Grove Missouri was thirty cents cheaper than it was at other stations in Springfield or here in my area at Bolivar. That is a heck of a difference. If you take a few plastic gas tanks to such a place, you can return home and fill your boat motor tank with much more economical gas. But here is a word to the wise, you need to treat all gas going in ANY outboard motor with an ounce or so of the gas treatment, Sea Foam, to protect your motor. All outboard mechanics are advising that now, and you can by a bottle of Sea Foam economically about anywhere. And again, I have no stock in that company either!
One Bucket List Item Down …
The northbound Coast Starlight arrives in Redding around 3 a.m., and it's recommended passengers be at the station 20 - 30 minutes early, so I stayed up rather than go to bed, fight sleep, fall asleep and then risk missing the alarm. Besides, I could sleep on the train. After all, the train ride was more than 12 hours long. Clearly, this kind of travel is ideal for the unhurried, or the self-employed, unemployed, retired or airline phobic. But it's also perfect for train-lovers, which I am. I've often said I would vote for almost anyone who'd make high-speed rail a priority in the U.S.
A $5 cab fare delivered me to the downtown Redding station where I was surprised to see so many others waiting as if it were the most natural thing in the world to be awake and waiting for anything at 3 a.m. The most practically dressed woman wore pajamas, and brought her own pillow.
My seat was upstairs, but when I got there I discovered it was occupied by a snoring, splayed-out woman, mouth agape - across her seat and mine. When I tapped her shoulder and pointed to my seat, she shifted most of her lower half from it and fell back to sleep, one hip still on my smartcardfactory.
I tried to sleep and finally gave up and took a walk. I explored the train and found the best place was the Observation Car, surrounded by windows and topped by skylights. This car - also called the "Parlor Car" - had tables and swivel chairs that faced views (at daylight) on both sides of the train.
Later in the morning, after sunrise at Klamath Falls, a pair of Trails and Rails docents boarded who acted as train travel guides. They pointed out nesting eagles and red-winged blackbirds and mountains and lakes and Oregon lore. Very interesting.
There was the Coast Starlight's sleeper car, which is notoriously expensive, but enticing. The Superliner Bedroom sleeps three and has a bathroom and shower. Meals are included. And it costs $772 per night. The Superliner Roomette has no bathroom, but it sleeps one or two people. It costs $346 per night.
I found an empty mini car downstairs designated just for passengers for disabilities. Also downstairs was a very tiny little “café” and a space filled with all kinds of snacks and drinks.
Upstairs was the dining car, classed-up with white tablecloths and flowers, where reservations-only breakfast, lunch and dinner were served, prepared by chefs. I got a peek at the menu and saw that prices ranged from $7.50 for scrambled eggs and $10.75 for a soup and salad combo, to $25.75 for the Amtrak Signature Steak.
There's a lever on the armrest that operates a fairly large (but mostly hidden) flipper-foot rest that can be pulled up and extended so you can stretch out. If you're lucky enough to have an empty seat next to you, you can have a spacious enough surface to actually sleep in relative comfort. On my trip, the train was packed coming and going, so spare seats were rare.
The train porters and servers were kind and accommodating. Let's say you’re stuck with a seat mate who smells strongly of cigarettes and alcohol, whose body is draped across your seat. Just quietly explain the situation to a train employee and chances are good that you’ll be moved to a better place.
If your seat is upstairs, before you take the trek up the narrow, steep metal staircase, first take advantage of storing your suitcase on the racks downstairs by the exits, unless you need your luggage nearby during the trip.
Search for the least-visited bathroom, because it will be in the best (relative) condition. In the case of the Coast Starlight’s train 14, that would be the bathroom tucked away near the café tables.
Speaking of bathrooms, they are small – like a commercial airline's, but not as luxurious. And the bathrooms can look as if someone were jostled mid-stream, so about the only advice I can offer is to go easy on the liquids, use lots of seat covers and bring hand sanitizer.
Bring a travel pillow, because the available ones loaned out by Amtrak are those papery little disposable numbers. Reused by passengers. You might also bring a shawl to serve as a blanket, because it can get chilly on the train. And then warm. And then chilly.
If you don't feeling like talking, you can just observe the scenery and watch your fellow passengers. There was the long-haired guy who set out a spread of bagels and a-nearly-empty jar of peanut butter on his seat tray. There was woman and a man who seemed to strike up a romance just outside Portland. By Albany they weren't speaking.
Bring something to pass the time. Many passengers read, slept, talked, played cards, listened to music via earbuds, watched movies on laptops, worked on laptops, ate, knitted, did crosswords, or just stared out the windows. I read an entire book on the return trip ("Those Who Save Us" by Jenna Blum - thumbs up).
On the trip to Portland I wrote. Trains are perfect for writers. You’re captive, you’re not home. You can’t procrastinate and start a load of laundry or yard work or decide to make nut bread or run to the store for something. You’re stuck on a train. You may as well write.
A $5 cab fare delivered me to the downtown Redding station where I was surprised to see so many others waiting as if it were the most natural thing in the world to be awake and waiting for anything at 3 a.m. The most practically dressed woman wore pajamas, and brought her own pillow.
My seat was upstairs, but when I got there I discovered it was occupied by a snoring, splayed-out woman, mouth agape - across her seat and mine. When I tapped her shoulder and pointed to my seat, she shifted most of her lower half from it and fell back to sleep, one hip still on my smartcardfactory.
I tried to sleep and finally gave up and took a walk. I explored the train and found the best place was the Observation Car, surrounded by windows and topped by skylights. This car - also called the "Parlor Car" - had tables and swivel chairs that faced views (at daylight) on both sides of the train.
Later in the morning, after sunrise at Klamath Falls, a pair of Trails and Rails docents boarded who acted as train travel guides. They pointed out nesting eagles and red-winged blackbirds and mountains and lakes and Oregon lore. Very interesting.
There was the Coast Starlight's sleeper car, which is notoriously expensive, but enticing. The Superliner Bedroom sleeps three and has a bathroom and shower. Meals are included. And it costs $772 per night. The Superliner Roomette has no bathroom, but it sleeps one or two people. It costs $346 per night.
I found an empty mini car downstairs designated just for passengers for disabilities. Also downstairs was a very tiny little “café” and a space filled with all kinds of snacks and drinks.
Upstairs was the dining car, classed-up with white tablecloths and flowers, where reservations-only breakfast, lunch and dinner were served, prepared by chefs. I got a peek at the menu and saw that prices ranged from $7.50 for scrambled eggs and $10.75 for a soup and salad combo, to $25.75 for the Amtrak Signature Steak.
There's a lever on the armrest that operates a fairly large (but mostly hidden) flipper-foot rest that can be pulled up and extended so you can stretch out. If you're lucky enough to have an empty seat next to you, you can have a spacious enough surface to actually sleep in relative comfort. On my trip, the train was packed coming and going, so spare seats were rare.
The train porters and servers were kind and accommodating. Let's say you’re stuck with a seat mate who smells strongly of cigarettes and alcohol, whose body is draped across your seat. Just quietly explain the situation to a train employee and chances are good that you’ll be moved to a better place.
If your seat is upstairs, before you take the trek up the narrow, steep metal staircase, first take advantage of storing your suitcase on the racks downstairs by the exits, unless you need your luggage nearby during the trip.
Search for the least-visited bathroom, because it will be in the best (relative) condition. In the case of the Coast Starlight’s train 14, that would be the bathroom tucked away near the café tables.
Speaking of bathrooms, they are small – like a commercial airline's, but not as luxurious. And the bathrooms can look as if someone were jostled mid-stream, so about the only advice I can offer is to go easy on the liquids, use lots of seat covers and bring hand sanitizer.
Bring a travel pillow, because the available ones loaned out by Amtrak are those papery little disposable numbers. Reused by passengers. You might also bring a shawl to serve as a blanket, because it can get chilly on the train. And then warm. And then chilly.
If you don't feeling like talking, you can just observe the scenery and watch your fellow passengers. There was the long-haired guy who set out a spread of bagels and a-nearly-empty jar of peanut butter on his seat tray. There was woman and a man who seemed to strike up a romance just outside Portland. By Albany they weren't speaking.
Bring something to pass the time. Many passengers read, slept, talked, played cards, listened to music via earbuds, watched movies on laptops, worked on laptops, ate, knitted, did crosswords, or just stared out the windows. I read an entire book on the return trip ("Those Who Save Us" by Jenna Blum - thumbs up).
On the trip to Portland I wrote. Trains are perfect for writers. You’re captive, you’re not home. You can’t procrastinate and start a load of laundry or yard work or decide to make nut bread or run to the store for something. You’re stuck on a train. You may as well write.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
How Silicon Valley Irked Unions And Lobbied Its Way
More than any other group, the high-tech industry got big wins in an immigration bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, thanks to a concerted lobbying effort, an ideally positioned Senate ally and relatively weak opposition.
The result amounted to a bonanza for the smart card: unlimited green cards for foreigners with certain advanced U.S. degrees and a huge increase in visas for highly skilled foreign workers.
And thanks to the intervention of Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the industry succeeded in greatly curtailing controls sought by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., aimed at protecting U.S. workers.
In exchange, Hatch voted for the bill when it passed the committee, helping boost its bipartisan momentum as it heads to the Senate floor next month. For Durbin and his allies in organized labor, winning Hatch's support was a bitter victory.
"There was an agreement with the tech industry and Sen. Hatch said he wanted more, and that was what it took to get his vote," Durbin said in an interview.
The tech industry "really used Senator Hatch's vote to improve their position in the bill. I understand that," Durbin said. "But I think in fairness now, I hope the industry is satisfied and they will not push this any further."
Hatch countered: "Look, these are companies looking to contribute to the American economy in a way that benefits American workers and American-trained foreign workers."
Even before the Judiciary Committee took up the bill, industry had seen key pieces of its wish list granted. The legislation written by four Democratic and four Republican senators awards a permanent resident green card to any foreigner with a job offer in the U.S. and an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering or math from a U.S. school. It also raised the limit on the H-1B visas that go to highly skilled immigrants from 65,000 a year to as many as 180,000.
But the increase in H-1B visas was accompanied by new requirements aimed at ensuring American workers get the first shot at jobs. High-tech industry leaders say they never agreed to those provisions; Durbin insists they did.
Once the bill language became public last month and tech industry officials began absorbing the details, they turned their attention to the next front in the battle: the Senate Judiciary Committee.
They found their champion in Hatch, whose state is an increasingly significant high-tech employer. Fortuitously, he had maximum leverage. Viewed as the one Republican swing vote on the committee, he was courted by the senators who wrote it, Durbin and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., among them.
Even as the tech industry remained largely supportive of the legislation in public, its lobbyists began working behind the scenes with Hatch's office on a series of amendments he would introduce in the committee to undo key provisions Durbin had pressed for.
The industry objected to using the unemployment rate in determining how much the number of H-1B visas could increase. One Hatch amendment would have taken the joblesss rate out of the IC card.
A provision that required tech companies to offer a job to an equally qualified U.S. citizen over an H-1B holder was seen as unworkable by the industry. Hatch sought to limit that requirement to companies most dependent on H-1B visas, thereby excluding many major U.S. companies.
The bill sought to bar companies from displacing a U.S. worker within 90 days of filing an application for an H-1B visa. Hatch also sought to limit that requirement to heavy H-1B hirers.
Durbin objected to the changes. Unions, which had been largely quiet on high-tech issues while focusing on other priorities including a pathway to citizenship and a separate visa program allowing lower-skilled workers into the U.S., also spoke up in opposition.
But the AFL-CIO's opposition never was seen as a serious concern by senators or aides involved. They were confident that labor would not pull its support for a bill offering citizenship to millions over a provision affecting relatively few union workers.
Ana Avendano, assistant to the AFL-CIO president for immigration and community action, acknowledged that the union's strong support for a path to citizenship hampered its leverage on other issues.
"We have not veered from our commitment to the path to citizenship. But we are equally committed to other parts of this bill, and it makes our fight for our priorities more difficult," she said. "Tech was extremely fortunate that they found an ally on the committee that could open up a deal that had been sealed."
There was little opposition from other fronts. The companies that are the heaviest H-1B users — and would therefore face the brunt of the restrictions under Hatch's proposals — include technology companies based in India that have scant lobbying presence or constituency in Congress. An organization representing U.S. engineers and tech workers, IEEE-USA, has little clout compared with companies like Microsoft and Facebook.
As the Judiciary Committee began wading through amendments to the bill, Hatch was negotiating with Schumer over his amendments. Schumer wanted Hatch's vote for the bill without alienating Durbin.
The result amounted to a bonanza for the smart card: unlimited green cards for foreigners with certain advanced U.S. degrees and a huge increase in visas for highly skilled foreign workers.
And thanks to the intervention of Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the industry succeeded in greatly curtailing controls sought by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., aimed at protecting U.S. workers.
In exchange, Hatch voted for the bill when it passed the committee, helping boost its bipartisan momentum as it heads to the Senate floor next month. For Durbin and his allies in organized labor, winning Hatch's support was a bitter victory.
"There was an agreement with the tech industry and Sen. Hatch said he wanted more, and that was what it took to get his vote," Durbin said in an interview.
The tech industry "really used Senator Hatch's vote to improve their position in the bill. I understand that," Durbin said. "But I think in fairness now, I hope the industry is satisfied and they will not push this any further."
Hatch countered: "Look, these are companies looking to contribute to the American economy in a way that benefits American workers and American-trained foreign workers."
Even before the Judiciary Committee took up the bill, industry had seen key pieces of its wish list granted. The legislation written by four Democratic and four Republican senators awards a permanent resident green card to any foreigner with a job offer in the U.S. and an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering or math from a U.S. school. It also raised the limit on the H-1B visas that go to highly skilled immigrants from 65,000 a year to as many as 180,000.
But the increase in H-1B visas was accompanied by new requirements aimed at ensuring American workers get the first shot at jobs. High-tech industry leaders say they never agreed to those provisions; Durbin insists they did.
Once the bill language became public last month and tech industry officials began absorbing the details, they turned their attention to the next front in the battle: the Senate Judiciary Committee.
They found their champion in Hatch, whose state is an increasingly significant high-tech employer. Fortuitously, he had maximum leverage. Viewed as the one Republican swing vote on the committee, he was courted by the senators who wrote it, Durbin and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., among them.
Even as the tech industry remained largely supportive of the legislation in public, its lobbyists began working behind the scenes with Hatch's office on a series of amendments he would introduce in the committee to undo key provisions Durbin had pressed for.
The industry objected to using the unemployment rate in determining how much the number of H-1B visas could increase. One Hatch amendment would have taken the joblesss rate out of the IC card.
A provision that required tech companies to offer a job to an equally qualified U.S. citizen over an H-1B holder was seen as unworkable by the industry. Hatch sought to limit that requirement to companies most dependent on H-1B visas, thereby excluding many major U.S. companies.
The bill sought to bar companies from displacing a U.S. worker within 90 days of filing an application for an H-1B visa. Hatch also sought to limit that requirement to heavy H-1B hirers.
Durbin objected to the changes. Unions, which had been largely quiet on high-tech issues while focusing on other priorities including a pathway to citizenship and a separate visa program allowing lower-skilled workers into the U.S., also spoke up in opposition.
But the AFL-CIO's opposition never was seen as a serious concern by senators or aides involved. They were confident that labor would not pull its support for a bill offering citizenship to millions over a provision affecting relatively few union workers.
Ana Avendano, assistant to the AFL-CIO president for immigration and community action, acknowledged that the union's strong support for a path to citizenship hampered its leverage on other issues.
"We have not veered from our commitment to the path to citizenship. But we are equally committed to other parts of this bill, and it makes our fight for our priorities more difficult," she said. "Tech was extremely fortunate that they found an ally on the committee that could open up a deal that had been sealed."
There was little opposition from other fronts. The companies that are the heaviest H-1B users — and would therefore face the brunt of the restrictions under Hatch's proposals — include technology companies based in India that have scant lobbying presence or constituency in Congress. An organization representing U.S. engineers and tech workers, IEEE-USA, has little clout compared with companies like Microsoft and Facebook.
As the Judiciary Committee began wading through amendments to the bill, Hatch was negotiating with Schumer over his amendments. Schumer wanted Hatch's vote for the bill without alienating Durbin.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
The only way in Wessex
A clean, green journey around the mightiest power points in Hampshire and Dorset: that was the plan. I wanted to plug into a new and blissfully simple electric-vehicle hire scheme. The only question: what to call this electrical excursion?
The New Forest's easy accessibility is both a blessing to the millions who can reach its ancient landscapes in an hour or two, and a curse because of the congestion and pollution they bring along. To avoid adding to emissions, you can now step off an electric train at Brockenhurst station, show a driving licence and a credit card, and step into the car of the future. Sort of.
"Think of it as a quad bike with a roof," advised Stephen Vine, boss of New Forest Environmental, as he showed me the controls for the Renault Twizy. This was not a protracted process. On the spectrum of transportational complexity, the French designed/Spanish built car is at the milk-float extreme rather than the Boeing 787 Dreamliner end. Switch on, press D to go forward, then press the accelerator (in the Twizy, not the 787). Getting into the thing proved more complicated, especially since my wife had kindly agreed to come along for the ride.
Two seats is, well, pushing it. The driver sits recumbent on a hard smart card seat astride what, in a real car, would be the transmission tunnel, knees pointing at jaunty angles towards the plastic windows. The passenger slots into a space between the back of the seat and the motor – a "seat pitch" uncomfortably close to zero.
Hythe, just beyond the eastern edge of the New Forest boundary, is the place to start a high-energy day. In the Thirties, this Hampshire village was Britain's long-haul hub. Imperial Airways' flying boats started their puddle-hopping adventures here, connecting the Mediterranean at Marseille, the Nile and Lake Victoria en route to the ends of the Empire. The upper reaches of Southampton Water still constitute a gateway to the world (in the shape of the cruise terminal) and Wight (the Red Funnel ferry to Cowes). Presiding over it all: the world's oldest pier railway, still taking commuters to work and home.
There is nothing restored or self-consciously retro about the Hythe Pier Railway. Every half-hour it rattles between the sweet little station at the landward end – all timeworn wood beneath a gloss of forest green – and the end of the pier, where the ferry shuttles to Southampton. The electric locomotives began life 96 years ago in, of all places, a mustard-gas factory, before starting a peace-time career that has endured for nearly a century. The line is also the shortest commercial link in Britain, but it allows passengers to cover the distance between Hythe and Southampton in less than 20 minutes – quicker and cleaner than the circuitous road journey.
The pier also provides a platform for a 180-degree swivel around British power: north-west, an early form of sustainable energy is still in use at Eling Tide Mill; south-east, the forest of gaunt towers that comprise Fawley oil refinery.
With Mrs Calder compressed into the back "seat", we climbed from sea level through the village of Dibden Purlieu (surely named after some long-forgotten rep actor?) to the frontier between the prosaic present and the poetic past. The entrance to the New Forest National Park is marked by a cattle grid, over which the Twizy bounced noisily in the manner of a biscuit tin.
Then, silence – and the chance to appreciate southern England's improbably expansive wilderness. The greater part of the New Forest is heath, not woodland, created as a royal hunting ground in 1079 by William the Conqueror and untainted by time. Breezing along at about 120 feet above the Solent, you glimpse the Isle of Wight beyond the gaunt steelwork of Fawley. The sky goes wide-screen, revealing a westward bluster of cloud.
The 21st-century car purred past grizzled old shrubs sprouting from tough heathland, enlivened by flashes of gorse. The Twizy's 17 electric horsepower hurried past ponies snuffling around their bleak pasture, while the caws of stern crows penetrated the vehicle's flimsy superstructure.
Beaulieu Heath descends to Beaulieu village, the domain of the Montagu family for five centuries and now the home of the National Motor Museum. Battery-powered visitors get preferential treatment here. You can park close to the entrance, plug in the car to recharge and go in search of the only electric vehicle on show.
The high and handsome 1901 Columbia Electric Runabout was, well, the original electric runabout. At the start of the 20th century, the owner of this extravagantly engineered vehicle was Queen Alexandra, who used it in the grounds of Sandringham.
"She had a habit of running gardeners over with it, because it was so quiet," reported Ian Stansfield, senior workshop engineer at the museum – who has driven it. "There's not a lot to it: forwards and backwards". In 1904, this was the highest-selling car worldwide, but limited range and speed curtailed the appeal. Ian is unconvinced that the electric car's day has yet come: "For distance work, they've got a long way to go." And so had my now strangely crumpled wife and I.
West Dorset is a beautifully under-rated part of England, where the hills step up a gear from rolling to rugged. The Twizy is designed to re-charge itself on descents, but not by enough to make up for the watt-sapping climbs. Which is why the gentlemen in the workshop behind the Texaco garage in the town of Wool earned a surprise visit from the Calders. They agreed to plug us in, so to speak, while I found a taxi to complete the journey. Say what you like about French car makers, but they can get it right. As Jonathan Gepheart of Cross-Country Cars drove us past Giddy Green, I revelled in the luxury of his Citro?n Xsara Picasso 1.6, which can achieve 50mph in less than a week. In 10 minutes flat, we reached Dorset's Chernobyl.
Winfrith Heath is a long way from the nuclear wastelands of north-west Ukraine. The parts to which the public are allowed access comprise a picture of serenity: swaying trees, populated by songbirds, over a carpet of wildflowers. But to switch from rural idyll to nuclear nostalgia, you need an appointment. Handily, Andy Philps, decommissioning project manager for Research Sites Restoration Limited, had agreed to show us around the strangest building in Britain.
The Dragon nuclear reactor seemed like a good idea at the time, the time being the 1950s. The UK was facing an energy crunch as coal production fell and the bright hope for the future was nuclear power. Winfrith Heath in Dorset is just four miles as the neutron flies from the unlimited water supply in the Channel at Lulworth Cove. The main railway line through Wessex passes just to the north, and the military are close by – which provided useful protection for the nine reactors. Most of them never generated a single volt for the plugged-in public, but Winfrith was the frontier of scientific research.
The cooling towers, and much else, have been demolished. But Dragon remains as a tower of former power. This giant cylinder, wrapped around a radioactive core, and equipped with clunky controls, reveals how the future looked to scientists a half-lifetime ago. The nuclear dream turned nightmarish when it became clear that shutting down a reactor is much trickier than starting one up. Andy Philps described the robotic arm his team is working on. "It will reach down into the reactor to remove all the radioactive materials from the core, package it into boxes, which are fit for safe storage for thousands of years." Few holidaymakers whizzing west or lulling in Lulworth Cove have any notion of the drastic damage limitation taking place: "We get all this radioactive waste out, then we demolish the building, ultimately turning this site into the heathland that it was prior to the late 1950s."
The tour ended with a radiation test. Handily, no-one had turned Giddy or Green. "If we stood here all day we'd probably pick up a lot less than if we stood out in the sunshine," said Andy. "Certainly compared to going to Cornwall on holiday."
Cornwall: now there's a thought. But my wife was already studying the rail timetable to escape a vehicle that shares much of its mechanical DNA with a lawnmower. Yet for Wessex wanderers of modest ambition, the Twizy provides a fresh dimension. What to call the concept? Unlike silly PR inventions such as "staycation", this trip can be summed up in a real word: electrification.
The New Forest's easy accessibility is both a blessing to the millions who can reach its ancient landscapes in an hour or two, and a curse because of the congestion and pollution they bring along. To avoid adding to emissions, you can now step off an electric train at Brockenhurst station, show a driving licence and a credit card, and step into the car of the future. Sort of.
"Think of it as a quad bike with a roof," advised Stephen Vine, boss of New Forest Environmental, as he showed me the controls for the Renault Twizy. This was not a protracted process. On the spectrum of transportational complexity, the French designed/Spanish built car is at the milk-float extreme rather than the Boeing 787 Dreamliner end. Switch on, press D to go forward, then press the accelerator (in the Twizy, not the 787). Getting into the thing proved more complicated, especially since my wife had kindly agreed to come along for the ride.
Two seats is, well, pushing it. The driver sits recumbent on a hard smart card seat astride what, in a real car, would be the transmission tunnel, knees pointing at jaunty angles towards the plastic windows. The passenger slots into a space between the back of the seat and the motor – a "seat pitch" uncomfortably close to zero.
Hythe, just beyond the eastern edge of the New Forest boundary, is the place to start a high-energy day. In the Thirties, this Hampshire village was Britain's long-haul hub. Imperial Airways' flying boats started their puddle-hopping adventures here, connecting the Mediterranean at Marseille, the Nile and Lake Victoria en route to the ends of the Empire. The upper reaches of Southampton Water still constitute a gateway to the world (in the shape of the cruise terminal) and Wight (the Red Funnel ferry to Cowes). Presiding over it all: the world's oldest pier railway, still taking commuters to work and home.
There is nothing restored or self-consciously retro about the Hythe Pier Railway. Every half-hour it rattles between the sweet little station at the landward end – all timeworn wood beneath a gloss of forest green – and the end of the pier, where the ferry shuttles to Southampton. The electric locomotives began life 96 years ago in, of all places, a mustard-gas factory, before starting a peace-time career that has endured for nearly a century. The line is also the shortest commercial link in Britain, but it allows passengers to cover the distance between Hythe and Southampton in less than 20 minutes – quicker and cleaner than the circuitous road journey.
The pier also provides a platform for a 180-degree swivel around British power: north-west, an early form of sustainable energy is still in use at Eling Tide Mill; south-east, the forest of gaunt towers that comprise Fawley oil refinery.
With Mrs Calder compressed into the back "seat", we climbed from sea level through the village of Dibden Purlieu (surely named after some long-forgotten rep actor?) to the frontier between the prosaic present and the poetic past. The entrance to the New Forest National Park is marked by a cattle grid, over which the Twizy bounced noisily in the manner of a biscuit tin.
Then, silence – and the chance to appreciate southern England's improbably expansive wilderness. The greater part of the New Forest is heath, not woodland, created as a royal hunting ground in 1079 by William the Conqueror and untainted by time. Breezing along at about 120 feet above the Solent, you glimpse the Isle of Wight beyond the gaunt steelwork of Fawley. The sky goes wide-screen, revealing a westward bluster of cloud.
The 21st-century car purred past grizzled old shrubs sprouting from tough heathland, enlivened by flashes of gorse. The Twizy's 17 electric horsepower hurried past ponies snuffling around their bleak pasture, while the caws of stern crows penetrated the vehicle's flimsy superstructure.
Beaulieu Heath descends to Beaulieu village, the domain of the Montagu family for five centuries and now the home of the National Motor Museum. Battery-powered visitors get preferential treatment here. You can park close to the entrance, plug in the car to recharge and go in search of the only electric vehicle on show.
The high and handsome 1901 Columbia Electric Runabout was, well, the original electric runabout. At the start of the 20th century, the owner of this extravagantly engineered vehicle was Queen Alexandra, who used it in the grounds of Sandringham.
"She had a habit of running gardeners over with it, because it was so quiet," reported Ian Stansfield, senior workshop engineer at the museum – who has driven it. "There's not a lot to it: forwards and backwards". In 1904, this was the highest-selling car worldwide, but limited range and speed curtailed the appeal. Ian is unconvinced that the electric car's day has yet come: "For distance work, they've got a long way to go." And so had my now strangely crumpled wife and I.
West Dorset is a beautifully under-rated part of England, where the hills step up a gear from rolling to rugged. The Twizy is designed to re-charge itself on descents, but not by enough to make up for the watt-sapping climbs. Which is why the gentlemen in the workshop behind the Texaco garage in the town of Wool earned a surprise visit from the Calders. They agreed to plug us in, so to speak, while I found a taxi to complete the journey. Say what you like about French car makers, but they can get it right. As Jonathan Gepheart of Cross-Country Cars drove us past Giddy Green, I revelled in the luxury of his Citro?n Xsara Picasso 1.6, which can achieve 50mph in less than a week. In 10 minutes flat, we reached Dorset's Chernobyl.
Winfrith Heath is a long way from the nuclear wastelands of north-west Ukraine. The parts to which the public are allowed access comprise a picture of serenity: swaying trees, populated by songbirds, over a carpet of wildflowers. But to switch from rural idyll to nuclear nostalgia, you need an appointment. Handily, Andy Philps, decommissioning project manager for Research Sites Restoration Limited, had agreed to show us around the strangest building in Britain.
The Dragon nuclear reactor seemed like a good idea at the time, the time being the 1950s. The UK was facing an energy crunch as coal production fell and the bright hope for the future was nuclear power. Winfrith Heath in Dorset is just four miles as the neutron flies from the unlimited water supply in the Channel at Lulworth Cove. The main railway line through Wessex passes just to the north, and the military are close by – which provided useful protection for the nine reactors. Most of them never generated a single volt for the plugged-in public, but Winfrith was the frontier of scientific research.
The cooling towers, and much else, have been demolished. But Dragon remains as a tower of former power. This giant cylinder, wrapped around a radioactive core, and equipped with clunky controls, reveals how the future looked to scientists a half-lifetime ago. The nuclear dream turned nightmarish when it became clear that shutting down a reactor is much trickier than starting one up. Andy Philps described the robotic arm his team is working on. "It will reach down into the reactor to remove all the radioactive materials from the core, package it into boxes, which are fit for safe storage for thousands of years." Few holidaymakers whizzing west or lulling in Lulworth Cove have any notion of the drastic damage limitation taking place: "We get all this radioactive waste out, then we demolish the building, ultimately turning this site into the heathland that it was prior to the late 1950s."
The tour ended with a radiation test. Handily, no-one had turned Giddy or Green. "If we stood here all day we'd probably pick up a lot less than if we stood out in the sunshine," said Andy. "Certainly compared to going to Cornwall on holiday."
Cornwall: now there's a thought. But my wife was already studying the rail timetable to escape a vehicle that shares much of its mechanical DNA with a lawnmower. Yet for Wessex wanderers of modest ambition, the Twizy provides a fresh dimension. What to call the concept? Unlike silly PR inventions such as "staycation", this trip can be summed up in a real word: electrification.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Telecoms giants data expansion hopes
The linking together of industrial machines and consumer products C via sensors that use wired and wireless connections C will generate huge volumes of data. The hope is that this information will help businesses, organisations and governments C with the aid of powerful analytic tools C to improve their efficiency.
This technology, called machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, will provide the infrastructural underpinnings to power the next wave in internets evolution, which is known as the internet of things.
By analysing information from machine-to-machine sources, businesses can improve both efficiency and costs on a huge scale by looking at historical data, live information and predictive analysis, says Subu Goparaju, head of Infosys Labs, part of the technology consultancy.
It is in the area of predictive analysis that there could be some of the most impactful applications, such as preventing leaks in pipes or spotting fatigue in suspension bridges.
The building of this infrastructure is providing chipmakers,Our industry leading consumer and business IC card products offer competitive pricing combined. modem module manufacturers, SIM card providers, telecoms companies and software application developers with huge opportunities.
It is also driving a wave of mergers and acquisitions activity as mobile operators position themselves to be able to offer a broader array of such services to their customers. For example, telecoms companies AT&T, Verizon and Telefnica have each made recent acquisitions in the machine-to-machine market C Xanboo, Hughes Telematics and Masternaut respectively.
As the scale of this market increases, component and modem module prices are also plunging, fuelling further financial growth. Now it is possible to install a 3G modem module for less than $40 dollars, making it possible to tag and monitor a much broader range of items.
In Brazil, for example, a module is being used to track trees in an effort to thwart illegal logging in the Amazon. In Charlotte, North Carolina, a sustainability initiative called Envision Charlotte uses Verizons 4G LTE network to send water usage data from a network of devices enabling building occupants to track city conservation efforts.
In Germany, more than 100m vending machines, vehicles, smoke alarms, and other devices are sharing information automatically as part of initiatives launched last year by operators including Deutsche Telekom. The initiative included the creation of the M2M Marketplace for buyers and sellers of related products, as well as an online community to support product developers and users.
Like any new technology trend, M2M has its share of challenges, says Jerome Buvat, global head of research at Capgemini Consulting. They include lack of standards, interoperable networks and high initial costs.
He adds: We believe governments will play a critical role in helping address these challenges. They will play a key role in explaining benefits to consumers, to justify the initial high investments. If necessary, they should provide upfront subsidies to the customers to implement these solutions.
He says government regulations will provide greater scope for the technologys use.This is a basic RFID tag used for presence sensing. For instance, the EU has mandated the inclusion of automated emergency and breakdown C so-called eCall and bCall C safety systems in new cars, which can send messages for assistance in the event of accidents. It has also called for a smart energy meter penetration level of 80 per cent by 2020.
Mr Buvat adds that telecom operators have a big role to play. They can help solve the interoperability and revenue share issues by championing M2M partner networks, he says. He believes their experience in operating networks that can be used by many types of devices, and of handling of billing and data security, gives them the chance to be the public face of these services.
There are already moves in this direction. For instance, Verizon created an open device initiative C one without licensing restrictions C to draw up technical specifications for, and test devices fit to operate on, its network. Similarly, Telefnica Digital launched a smart city initiative, an open system in which councils, service providers and entrepreneurs can integrate technology and applications.
Although machine-to-machine traffic typically generates relatively low monthly revenues, it can often run over older, slower, networks and could be an important revenue stream for large operators as voice and data markets become saturated.
By 2020, the GSMA, the global wireless industry trade group, estimates the number of connected devices in the world will almost triple from more than 9bn today to 25bn in 2020, and that at least 12bn of these devices will be connected by mobile technology.
Machina Research estimates that the market is experiencing compound growth of 23 per cent a year and could reach $948bn by 2020. But, as the GSMA notes, while the financial impact for many industries is huge, its the overall impact and benefits to society that are immeasurable.
This technology, called machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, will provide the infrastructural underpinnings to power the next wave in internets evolution, which is known as the internet of things.
By analysing information from machine-to-machine sources, businesses can improve both efficiency and costs on a huge scale by looking at historical data, live information and predictive analysis, says Subu Goparaju, head of Infosys Labs, part of the technology consultancy.
It is in the area of predictive analysis that there could be some of the most impactful applications, such as preventing leaks in pipes or spotting fatigue in suspension bridges.
The building of this infrastructure is providing chipmakers,Our industry leading consumer and business IC card products offer competitive pricing combined. modem module manufacturers, SIM card providers, telecoms companies and software application developers with huge opportunities.
It is also driving a wave of mergers and acquisitions activity as mobile operators position themselves to be able to offer a broader array of such services to their customers. For example, telecoms companies AT&T, Verizon and Telefnica have each made recent acquisitions in the machine-to-machine market C Xanboo, Hughes Telematics and Masternaut respectively.
As the scale of this market increases, component and modem module prices are also plunging, fuelling further financial growth. Now it is possible to install a 3G modem module for less than $40 dollars, making it possible to tag and monitor a much broader range of items.
In Brazil, for example, a module is being used to track trees in an effort to thwart illegal logging in the Amazon. In Charlotte, North Carolina, a sustainability initiative called Envision Charlotte uses Verizons 4G LTE network to send water usage data from a network of devices enabling building occupants to track city conservation efforts.
In Germany, more than 100m vending machines, vehicles, smoke alarms, and other devices are sharing information automatically as part of initiatives launched last year by operators including Deutsche Telekom. The initiative included the creation of the M2M Marketplace for buyers and sellers of related products, as well as an online community to support product developers and users.
Like any new technology trend, M2M has its share of challenges, says Jerome Buvat, global head of research at Capgemini Consulting. They include lack of standards, interoperable networks and high initial costs.
He adds: We believe governments will play a critical role in helping address these challenges. They will play a key role in explaining benefits to consumers, to justify the initial high investments. If necessary, they should provide upfront subsidies to the customers to implement these solutions.
He says government regulations will provide greater scope for the technologys use.This is a basic RFID tag used for presence sensing. For instance, the EU has mandated the inclusion of automated emergency and breakdown C so-called eCall and bCall C safety systems in new cars, which can send messages for assistance in the event of accidents. It has also called for a smart energy meter penetration level of 80 per cent by 2020.
Mr Buvat adds that telecom operators have a big role to play. They can help solve the interoperability and revenue share issues by championing M2M partner networks, he says. He believes their experience in operating networks that can be used by many types of devices, and of handling of billing and data security, gives them the chance to be the public face of these services.
There are already moves in this direction. For instance, Verizon created an open device initiative C one without licensing restrictions C to draw up technical specifications for, and test devices fit to operate on, its network. Similarly, Telefnica Digital launched a smart city initiative, an open system in which councils, service providers and entrepreneurs can integrate technology and applications.
Although machine-to-machine traffic typically generates relatively low monthly revenues, it can often run over older, slower, networks and could be an important revenue stream for large operators as voice and data markets become saturated.
By 2020, the GSMA, the global wireless industry trade group, estimates the number of connected devices in the world will almost triple from more than 9bn today to 25bn in 2020, and that at least 12bn of these devices will be connected by mobile technology.
Machina Research estimates that the market is experiencing compound growth of 23 per cent a year and could reach $948bn by 2020. But, as the GSMA notes, while the financial impact for many industries is huge, its the overall impact and benefits to society that are immeasurable.
Monday, May 20, 2013
The E Fun Trendy 8
US company E Fun has launched its new eight-inch tablet the nextbook Trendy 8 a low cost device thats good enough to watch video, listen to music, surf the Internet or read an e-book.
The tablet runs on the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system and is powered by a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 1.5GHz processor. They should have used the latest Jelly Bean as Android 4.2 is faster and simpler.
The Trendy has 1GB RAM and 8GB internal memory, with the option of increasing it to 32GB using the extendable micro-SD Card slot. The display has a resolution of 1024 x768 pixels and a screen ratio of 4:3.
The Trendy is made of a thick plastic. Held in landscape, all the buttons mini-USB port, HDMI port, micro-SD slot, headphone jack and charger are on the left of the tablet. It has a built-in 0.3MP front camera and 2MP rear camera.
Pictures taken with the rear camera are grainy and colours faded due to its low resolution and night shots are ruled out due to the lack of LED flash. Only the white balance and exposure settings can be adjusted, but panorama shots can be taken and saved in less than three seconds. E Fun must be trying to cut costs and, in any event, many people prefer to take pictures and videos with a smartphone.
Another disadvantage is that while holding the tablet in landscape mode to take pictures, it is easy to block the lens with your fingers. There is no dedicated button for taking pictures and videos and this needs to be done from the screen.
The tablet supports full HD playback but the single speaker does not have much volume and can be blocked when the tablet is held in landscape mode. You have to use the headphones if you want to enjoy audio. But, the Trendy comfortably handled playing 2D and 3D games like Drag Racing 3D.
The Trendy can connect to other devices and the Internet with Bluetooth and WiFi. Loading pages and pinch and zoom was fast, but placing too many widgets on the home screen will cause a delay when rotating the tablet. The company has preloaded 25 books on the e-book reader and given 5GB of free cloud storage on SugarSync and OfficeSuite, apart from a bundle of software.
The battery has an average life when compared to other tablets. It lasted around eight hours when used to listen to music,A chip card is a plastic card that has a computer chip implanted into it that enables the card to perform certain. watch videos, surf the Internet and email with WiFi. It is priced at Dh649.
As the blue Ford Escort sits in his garage, un-driven, gathering rust and dust, Perz has taken to the internet to tell his story. A video detailing his legal fight has raked in more than 280,000 views on YouTube, and Perz has attracted the attention of consumer advocates across the nation.
Richard J. Ritchie, who represents Mossy, said none of Perzs claims about the car, or the way he has been treated by the dealership, are true.
He said the car was mechanically sound when Perz bought it, and said any claim that it was submerged in water is completely false. Mossy Toyota even tracked down the previous owner of the car, who stated in a deposition that it was in good shape when the dealership took ownership of it and had never sustained water damage, Ritchie said.
Mossy would love to have the case heard as soon as possible, he said, but Perz has spent the last six years coming up with excuses to keep the matter out of a hearing.
Ritchie said Perz has turned his fight into a crusade against the arbitration industry as a whole. Perzs argument would quickly evaporate if he were to ever have his case examined on its merits, he said.
Its almost impossible to live in modern America without regularly signing away ones constitutional right to a jury trial or even access to small claims court.
Those multi-page contracts you sign or click through online without reading invariably contain mandatory arbitration clauses that bar you from taking disputes to court.
The clauses are ever-present in contracts for medical procedures, car rentals and countless other services. Manufacturers have even begun placing mandatory arbitration clauses inside the plastic wrap on their products. The moment you unwrap the plastic on some new electronic products, youve lost your chance to take the company to court.
When you pay your utility bills,A smart card resembles a credit card in size and shape. you consent to arbitration. When you pay your credit card bills, you consent to arbitration, when you buy a house, you consent to arbitration, said Hal Rosner, a local plaintiffs attorney. Theres nothing youre doing anymore that isnt consent.
Arbitration is supposed to provide a cheaper and quicker way to settle legal disputes than the court system. But academics, attorneys, plaintiffs and even an independent arbitrator contacted for this story described arbitration as an uneven playing field, with consumers facing an uphill battle from the start.
The tablet runs on the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system and is powered by a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 1.5GHz processor. They should have used the latest Jelly Bean as Android 4.2 is faster and simpler.
The Trendy has 1GB RAM and 8GB internal memory, with the option of increasing it to 32GB using the extendable micro-SD Card slot. The display has a resolution of 1024 x768 pixels and a screen ratio of 4:3.
The Trendy is made of a thick plastic. Held in landscape, all the buttons mini-USB port, HDMI port, micro-SD slot, headphone jack and charger are on the left of the tablet. It has a built-in 0.3MP front camera and 2MP rear camera.
Pictures taken with the rear camera are grainy and colours faded due to its low resolution and night shots are ruled out due to the lack of LED flash. Only the white balance and exposure settings can be adjusted, but panorama shots can be taken and saved in less than three seconds. E Fun must be trying to cut costs and, in any event, many people prefer to take pictures and videos with a smartphone.
Another disadvantage is that while holding the tablet in landscape mode to take pictures, it is easy to block the lens with your fingers. There is no dedicated button for taking pictures and videos and this needs to be done from the screen.
The tablet supports full HD playback but the single speaker does not have much volume and can be blocked when the tablet is held in landscape mode. You have to use the headphones if you want to enjoy audio. But, the Trendy comfortably handled playing 2D and 3D games like Drag Racing 3D.
The Trendy can connect to other devices and the Internet with Bluetooth and WiFi. Loading pages and pinch and zoom was fast, but placing too many widgets on the home screen will cause a delay when rotating the tablet. The company has preloaded 25 books on the e-book reader and given 5GB of free cloud storage on SugarSync and OfficeSuite, apart from a bundle of software.
The battery has an average life when compared to other tablets. It lasted around eight hours when used to listen to music,A chip card is a plastic card that has a computer chip implanted into it that enables the card to perform certain. watch videos, surf the Internet and email with WiFi. It is priced at Dh649.
As the blue Ford Escort sits in his garage, un-driven, gathering rust and dust, Perz has taken to the internet to tell his story. A video detailing his legal fight has raked in more than 280,000 views on YouTube, and Perz has attracted the attention of consumer advocates across the nation.
Richard J. Ritchie, who represents Mossy, said none of Perzs claims about the car, or the way he has been treated by the dealership, are true.
He said the car was mechanically sound when Perz bought it, and said any claim that it was submerged in water is completely false. Mossy Toyota even tracked down the previous owner of the car, who stated in a deposition that it was in good shape when the dealership took ownership of it and had never sustained water damage, Ritchie said.
Mossy would love to have the case heard as soon as possible, he said, but Perz has spent the last six years coming up with excuses to keep the matter out of a hearing.
Ritchie said Perz has turned his fight into a crusade against the arbitration industry as a whole. Perzs argument would quickly evaporate if he were to ever have his case examined on its merits, he said.
Its almost impossible to live in modern America without regularly signing away ones constitutional right to a jury trial or even access to small claims court.
Those multi-page contracts you sign or click through online without reading invariably contain mandatory arbitration clauses that bar you from taking disputes to court.
The clauses are ever-present in contracts for medical procedures, car rentals and countless other services. Manufacturers have even begun placing mandatory arbitration clauses inside the plastic wrap on their products. The moment you unwrap the plastic on some new electronic products, youve lost your chance to take the company to court.
When you pay your utility bills,A smart card resembles a credit card in size and shape. you consent to arbitration. When you pay your credit card bills, you consent to arbitration, when you buy a house, you consent to arbitration, said Hal Rosner, a local plaintiffs attorney. Theres nothing youre doing anymore that isnt consent.
Arbitration is supposed to provide a cheaper and quicker way to settle legal disputes than the court system. But academics, attorneys, plaintiffs and even an independent arbitrator contacted for this story described arbitration as an uneven playing field, with consumers facing an uphill battle from the start.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Racking up miles on plastic
Air miles are a big part of credit card incentive schemes. People get points for spending, and if they manage their spending and pay their credit card bills each month, they can score a free trip to Thailand.
But credit card plans are complicated - one might think deliberately so, as it prevents comparison with other plans. To shed a little light on this opaque matter, we will break down the local RFID tag promotion plans on the specific reward scheme of Asia Miles, the frequent flyer programme used by Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Air China and others.
Many cards will grant Asia Miles as an incentive to use their credit cards. You can redeem the points for flights or to pay for hotels or meals at restaurants.
Frequent flyers with Cathay Pacific should check out the American Express Cathay Pacific Card. Besides having one of the best spending-to-air-mile ratios, you also get one Asia Mile for every HK$4 you spend on a Cathay ticket. This scheme allows you to accumulate a substantial amount of points if you fly regularly with the airline.
Standard Chartered and HSBC cards do not offer specific promotions for Asia Miles. HSBC, however, does have a mileage programme available to most of their cards that allows HSBC reward points to be converted to Asia Miles at an annual fee of HK$300. Standard Chartered cards have a system of multiplying reward points that differs depending on which card you use.
But perhaps the pick of the bunch is the DBS Black Card. The card offers the best spending ratio with only HK$6 needed to be spent to redeem one Asia Mile. The card will grant up to 32,000 Asia Miles on signing, provided you spend enough (HK$120,000), and it has one of the lowest income thresholds for application to the card.
We asked Mike Posey, the termite guy out for a consultation the other day, and he discovered that although our ancient house is fine, our stately garage — circa 1957 — is in some peril. In fact, it seems to be at the epicenter of a termite revival.
Termites are the most industrious of creatures and would teach us a lot about work ethic provided we could digest cellulose. Posey showed me some hiding beneath a scrap of newspaper — a favored snack — just outside the garage. They are tiny things, and exemplify the definition of teamwork. There are worker termites, soldier termites and, of course, the queen termite — all headquartered some 20 feet underground with nary a union card or labor song to be found among them. I, M. Kinsler, who never suffered from overwork, would be a thoroughly unsuitable termite candidate unless there was an opening for interested observer termite. The insects work 24/7, building fantastic tunnels up to the surface and beyond.
Termites feed upon the wood of deceased trees, including those which happen to constitute our garage. They certainly don’t mean to be destructive, having been assigned the job of preventing earth’s surface from turning into a global logjam. In chewing up dead underbrush, they return nutrients to the soil.
Nevertheless, we treasure our house and our garage — so the little beasts must be encouraged to dine elsewhere. The house inspector who was here in 2000 said our house and those of our neighbors had all been dinner guests in years past: In each case, the termites were eliminated and old tunneled-through joists reinforced by new wood laid alongside.
Termite defense is primarily chemical in nature, involving a barrier of insecticide injected between the termites’ subterranean nests and the house. Repeat treatments are necessary, for the chemicals last a long time but not forever. When the last molecules decompose, the insects will again tread the paths of evil, skyward into the golden oak flooring.
And so Posey went to work on our garage. He is a naturalist, enthusiastically explaining termite life and habits while pursuing his prey. Probing with shovel and screwdriver, he discovered several lively termite condominiums in and around the building — at one point unearthing a young queen termite and gleefully popping her into a plastic container for his private wildlife collection, a collection apparently tolerated with good grace by the heroic Mrs. Posey.
The Nexus 4 (8GB for $299 or 16GB for $349, contract-free) manufactured by LG, is the current official Google phone, and the flagship of the Nexus program. It's available contract-free directly from Google (or from T-Mobile in the US, if you want to buy it through a carrier) so you can pick and choose the carrier you use it with (including pre-paid options), which was a remarkable departure for Nexus phones compared to the previous models. Availability of the device has smoothed out over the past few months, and Google's order page now says a new Nexus 4 can ship to you in 1-2 business days.
The Nexus 4 is a 3G/HSPA+ device, and garnered some criticism for not ticking off the 4G/LTE box in its spec sheet. Regardless, that hasn't stopped the phone from being wildly popular, packing stock Android 4.2 Jelly Bean under the hood, a beautiful 8MP camera on the back (and a 1.3MP camera on the front), a nicely sized 4.7" HD display that protected by Corning's Gorilla Glass 2, and is powered by 2GB of RAM and a Qualcomm quad-core Snapdragon processor. It's a killer device, but it's not perfect: the Nexus 4 eschewed a replaceable battery (although it does have a 2100 mAh battery) and expansion slot for a slim and trim design, so if you need either of those things, it might be a tough sell. Still, it does pack perks like NFC and wireless charging, and it is a Nexus device, so you can trust you'll get timely Android releases, always be up to date, and even if Google falters there's a massive development community working with the phone at all times.
But credit card plans are complicated - one might think deliberately so, as it prevents comparison with other plans. To shed a little light on this opaque matter, we will break down the local RFID tag promotion plans on the specific reward scheme of Asia Miles, the frequent flyer programme used by Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Air China and others.
Many cards will grant Asia Miles as an incentive to use their credit cards. You can redeem the points for flights or to pay for hotels or meals at restaurants.
Frequent flyers with Cathay Pacific should check out the American Express Cathay Pacific Card. Besides having one of the best spending-to-air-mile ratios, you also get one Asia Mile for every HK$4 you spend on a Cathay ticket. This scheme allows you to accumulate a substantial amount of points if you fly regularly with the airline.
Standard Chartered and HSBC cards do not offer specific promotions for Asia Miles. HSBC, however, does have a mileage programme available to most of their cards that allows HSBC reward points to be converted to Asia Miles at an annual fee of HK$300. Standard Chartered cards have a system of multiplying reward points that differs depending on which card you use.
But perhaps the pick of the bunch is the DBS Black Card. The card offers the best spending ratio with only HK$6 needed to be spent to redeem one Asia Mile. The card will grant up to 32,000 Asia Miles on signing, provided you spend enough (HK$120,000), and it has one of the lowest income thresholds for application to the card.
We asked Mike Posey, the termite guy out for a consultation the other day, and he discovered that although our ancient house is fine, our stately garage — circa 1957 — is in some peril. In fact, it seems to be at the epicenter of a termite revival.
Termites are the most industrious of creatures and would teach us a lot about work ethic provided we could digest cellulose. Posey showed me some hiding beneath a scrap of newspaper — a favored snack — just outside the garage. They are tiny things, and exemplify the definition of teamwork. There are worker termites, soldier termites and, of course, the queen termite — all headquartered some 20 feet underground with nary a union card or labor song to be found among them. I, M. Kinsler, who never suffered from overwork, would be a thoroughly unsuitable termite candidate unless there was an opening for interested observer termite. The insects work 24/7, building fantastic tunnels up to the surface and beyond.
Termites feed upon the wood of deceased trees, including those which happen to constitute our garage. They certainly don’t mean to be destructive, having been assigned the job of preventing earth’s surface from turning into a global logjam. In chewing up dead underbrush, they return nutrients to the soil.
Nevertheless, we treasure our house and our garage — so the little beasts must be encouraged to dine elsewhere. The house inspector who was here in 2000 said our house and those of our neighbors had all been dinner guests in years past: In each case, the termites were eliminated and old tunneled-through joists reinforced by new wood laid alongside.
Termite defense is primarily chemical in nature, involving a barrier of insecticide injected between the termites’ subterranean nests and the house. Repeat treatments are necessary, for the chemicals last a long time but not forever. When the last molecules decompose, the insects will again tread the paths of evil, skyward into the golden oak flooring.
And so Posey went to work on our garage. He is a naturalist, enthusiastically explaining termite life and habits while pursuing his prey. Probing with shovel and screwdriver, he discovered several lively termite condominiums in and around the building — at one point unearthing a young queen termite and gleefully popping her into a plastic container for his private wildlife collection, a collection apparently tolerated with good grace by the heroic Mrs. Posey.
The Nexus 4 (8GB for $299 or 16GB for $349, contract-free) manufactured by LG, is the current official Google phone, and the flagship of the Nexus program. It's available contract-free directly from Google (or from T-Mobile in the US, if you want to buy it through a carrier) so you can pick and choose the carrier you use it with (including pre-paid options), which was a remarkable departure for Nexus phones compared to the previous models. Availability of the device has smoothed out over the past few months, and Google's order page now says a new Nexus 4 can ship to you in 1-2 business days.
The Nexus 4 is a 3G/HSPA+ device, and garnered some criticism for not ticking off the 4G/LTE box in its spec sheet. Regardless, that hasn't stopped the phone from being wildly popular, packing stock Android 4.2 Jelly Bean under the hood, a beautiful 8MP camera on the back (and a 1.3MP camera on the front), a nicely sized 4.7" HD display that protected by Corning's Gorilla Glass 2, and is powered by 2GB of RAM and a Qualcomm quad-core Snapdragon processor. It's a killer device, but it's not perfect: the Nexus 4 eschewed a replaceable battery (although it does have a 2100 mAh battery) and expansion slot for a slim and trim design, so if you need either of those things, it might be a tough sell. Still, it does pack perks like NFC and wireless charging, and it is a Nexus device, so you can trust you'll get timely Android releases, always be up to date, and even if Google falters there's a massive development community working with the phone at all times.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Street Pastors founder coming to Perth
Perhaps best known for the number of flip-flops they distribute to barefoot revellers, there are now more than 400 fully trained Street Pastors operating in Scotland, with new groups emerging regularly.
The visit by the Rev Les Isaac is seen as an endorsement of the work done in Scotland and his seven-day whistlestop tour of all 17 Scottish projects will mark the fifth anniversary of the street-based aid organisation north of the border and its 10th anniversary worldwide.
The Perth project was launched in 2008 and now has more than 30 Street Pastors working between 10pm and 3am on Thursday and Saturday nights.
Local management group chairman Michael Archibald said: “The five years that we have been out in Perth has been life changing — for the environment, for those we meet, and for ourselves. We don’t speak about our faith until those we meet ask, and they do — frequently.”
Mr Isaac will visit Perth on Saturday June 1 and will attend a breakfast event in the Salutation Hotel, where he will meet local Street Pastors and will commission three new smart card.
Looking forward to his first tour of Scotland, he said he hoped his visits would encourage and re-enthuse the growing body of Street Pastors.
“The growth of Street Pastors in Scotland has been phenomenal and we are currently in talks to look at setting up projects in at least a further five towns,” he said.
“The work these projects do has been well received and the Street Pastors have become a welcome sight in Scottish town and city centres.
“My wife Louise and I are looking forward to meeting as many people involved with the Scottish projects as possible and seeing the work they carry out right across the country.”
Sandy Scrimgeour, chairman of the Street Pastors’ umbrella body — the Ascension Trust (Scotland) — said it was a “real coup” to host Mr Isaac on his first ever nationwide tour.
“Reverend Isaac has never made a tour like this before and we’re delighted that he’s agreed to undertake this demanding schedule to mark the fifth anniversary of Street Pastors in Scotland,” he said.
“We want him to witness the amazing work his vision has fostered in Scotland. Street Pastors is not only sustainable but also has the potential to expand into Scotland’s daytime economy, with projects being looked at involving schools and shopping centres.
“I believe we could see the number of projects double in Scotland in the next few years.”
Based on a model launched by Mr Isaac in Lambeth and Hackney in London in 2003, Street Pastor projects across Scotland have already earned widespread acclaim and Mr Scrimgeour is in no doubt that they are saving lives.
He said: “It’s not just about handing out flip-flops. Street Pastors offer a raft of practical help as well as a non-judgmental ear, and often the calm comfort of a member of our team can defuse high-tension, aggressive situations — thereby preventing injury or arrest — or even act in a suicide intervention role, averting tragedy. Nationally, it has been proven that street crime drops in areas where Street Pastors operate and they are seen as a much more approachable presence by all ages.
This is the point where I should stress that I'm not some Trek purist with a serious investment in seeing Gene Roddenberry's creation preserved in amber, unchanged since its maiden voyage in 1966. I've always been a casual Star Trek fan at best, and even then mostly of the movies rather than any of its various TV incarnations. (I've probably seen The Wrath of Khan and The Voyage Home more times than I've seen episodes of the Original Series.) Furthermore, I thoroughly enjoyed Abrams's first mission aboard the Enterprise, which lent the film series a sense of blockbuster spectacle it had always strived to achieve... but too often fell short. The '09 reboot also made some bold creative moves (killing off Kirk's father, blowing up Vulcan) that freshened up the franchise while still managing to capture the spirit of what had come before. At that point, of course, Trek neophyte Abrams still felt some sense of responsibility to the core fanbase and, if anything, bent over backwards to make sure they felt respected. (The entire storyline with Leonard Nimoy's Spock, for example, was a calculated and really pretty ingenious act of fan service, letting serious Trekkies know that the new movies would be taking place in a pocket universe, thus preserving the integrity -- and continuity -- of the timeline they knew and loved.)
More than $250 million in domestic box office returns later, though, and Abrams is suddenly a lot less concerned about keeping in tune with the franchise's past. Armed with a higher budget and flashier effects (including IMAX cameras and the now-ubiquitous 3D conversion), Into Darkness fully embraces the excess that the previous film warped in and out of. The tone for this outing is set in the pre-credits sequence, which finds the dynamic duo of Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) on an alien planet that they've been sent to monitor in secret, so as not to violate the ol' Prime Directive, which essentially translates as "Don't stick your nose in another culture's business." But that rule goes out the window when an erupting volcano threatens to decimate the planet's indigenous population, a fate that Spock seeks to prevent by beaming directly into the volcano with a device that will calm its fury.
Meanwhile, a disguised Kirk has nabbed an artifact from an indigenous temple and is scampering Temple Run-style across this alien landscape until he arrives at the Enterprise's hiding place... beneath the ocean waves. How exactly can a starship function underwater? Who cares! Wouldn't Spock's internal logic detector inform him that beaming directly into an erupting volcano is a highly illogical idea? Doesn't matter! Abrams and his writing team wanted a splashy way to open the movie and ran with both of these scenarios for their cool factor rather than internal consistency. For a series that has so often prided itself on infusing its grand adventures with grand ideas, Into Darkness repeatedly and unapologetically sacrifices science-fiction thoughtfulness on the altar of blockbuster "Wow."
To be fair, a number of those "Wow" moments do deliver big-time, because Abrams is nothing if not a supremely confident showman. And as that opening sequence makes clear, his primary goal with Into Darkness is to use the Enterprise and its crew in ways that no one had thought to use them before, physics be damned. That's how we end up with such visually spectacular (and fundamentally absurd) set-pieces as a warp-speed drag race that ends with one ship knocking the other clear out of the warp gulf-stream or a scene where Kirk blasts himself out of the Enterprise airlock for a zero gravity flight between spaceships. But underpinning all these feats is the very real sense that Abrams and Co. aren't interested in anything but playing with their very expensive toys.
The visit by the Rev Les Isaac is seen as an endorsement of the work done in Scotland and his seven-day whistlestop tour of all 17 Scottish projects will mark the fifth anniversary of the street-based aid organisation north of the border and its 10th anniversary worldwide.
The Perth project was launched in 2008 and now has more than 30 Street Pastors working between 10pm and 3am on Thursday and Saturday nights.
Local management group chairman Michael Archibald said: “The five years that we have been out in Perth has been life changing — for the environment, for those we meet, and for ourselves. We don’t speak about our faith until those we meet ask, and they do — frequently.”
Mr Isaac will visit Perth on Saturday June 1 and will attend a breakfast event in the Salutation Hotel, where he will meet local Street Pastors and will commission three new smart card.
Looking forward to his first tour of Scotland, he said he hoped his visits would encourage and re-enthuse the growing body of Street Pastors.
“The growth of Street Pastors in Scotland has been phenomenal and we are currently in talks to look at setting up projects in at least a further five towns,” he said.
“The work these projects do has been well received and the Street Pastors have become a welcome sight in Scottish town and city centres.
“My wife Louise and I are looking forward to meeting as many people involved with the Scottish projects as possible and seeing the work they carry out right across the country.”
Sandy Scrimgeour, chairman of the Street Pastors’ umbrella body — the Ascension Trust (Scotland) — said it was a “real coup” to host Mr Isaac on his first ever nationwide tour.
“Reverend Isaac has never made a tour like this before and we’re delighted that he’s agreed to undertake this demanding schedule to mark the fifth anniversary of Street Pastors in Scotland,” he said.
“We want him to witness the amazing work his vision has fostered in Scotland. Street Pastors is not only sustainable but also has the potential to expand into Scotland’s daytime economy, with projects being looked at involving schools and shopping centres.
“I believe we could see the number of projects double in Scotland in the next few years.”
Based on a model launched by Mr Isaac in Lambeth and Hackney in London in 2003, Street Pastor projects across Scotland have already earned widespread acclaim and Mr Scrimgeour is in no doubt that they are saving lives.
He said: “It’s not just about handing out flip-flops. Street Pastors offer a raft of practical help as well as a non-judgmental ear, and often the calm comfort of a member of our team can defuse high-tension, aggressive situations — thereby preventing injury or arrest — or even act in a suicide intervention role, averting tragedy. Nationally, it has been proven that street crime drops in areas where Street Pastors operate and they are seen as a much more approachable presence by all ages.
This is the point where I should stress that I'm not some Trek purist with a serious investment in seeing Gene Roddenberry's creation preserved in amber, unchanged since its maiden voyage in 1966. I've always been a casual Star Trek fan at best, and even then mostly of the movies rather than any of its various TV incarnations. (I've probably seen The Wrath of Khan and The Voyage Home more times than I've seen episodes of the Original Series.) Furthermore, I thoroughly enjoyed Abrams's first mission aboard the Enterprise, which lent the film series a sense of blockbuster spectacle it had always strived to achieve... but too often fell short. The '09 reboot also made some bold creative moves (killing off Kirk's father, blowing up Vulcan) that freshened up the franchise while still managing to capture the spirit of what had come before. At that point, of course, Trek neophyte Abrams still felt some sense of responsibility to the core fanbase and, if anything, bent over backwards to make sure they felt respected. (The entire storyline with Leonard Nimoy's Spock, for example, was a calculated and really pretty ingenious act of fan service, letting serious Trekkies know that the new movies would be taking place in a pocket universe, thus preserving the integrity -- and continuity -- of the timeline they knew and loved.)
More than $250 million in domestic box office returns later, though, and Abrams is suddenly a lot less concerned about keeping in tune with the franchise's past. Armed with a higher budget and flashier effects (including IMAX cameras and the now-ubiquitous 3D conversion), Into Darkness fully embraces the excess that the previous film warped in and out of. The tone for this outing is set in the pre-credits sequence, which finds the dynamic duo of Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) on an alien planet that they've been sent to monitor in secret, so as not to violate the ol' Prime Directive, which essentially translates as "Don't stick your nose in another culture's business." But that rule goes out the window when an erupting volcano threatens to decimate the planet's indigenous population, a fate that Spock seeks to prevent by beaming directly into the volcano with a device that will calm its fury.
Meanwhile, a disguised Kirk has nabbed an artifact from an indigenous temple and is scampering Temple Run-style across this alien landscape until he arrives at the Enterprise's hiding place... beneath the ocean waves. How exactly can a starship function underwater? Who cares! Wouldn't Spock's internal logic detector inform him that beaming directly into an erupting volcano is a highly illogical idea? Doesn't matter! Abrams and his writing team wanted a splashy way to open the movie and ran with both of these scenarios for their cool factor rather than internal consistency. For a series that has so often prided itself on infusing its grand adventures with grand ideas, Into Darkness repeatedly and unapologetically sacrifices science-fiction thoughtfulness on the altar of blockbuster "Wow."
To be fair, a number of those "Wow" moments do deliver big-time, because Abrams is nothing if not a supremely confident showman. And as that opening sequence makes clear, his primary goal with Into Darkness is to use the Enterprise and its crew in ways that no one had thought to use them before, physics be damned. That's how we end up with such visually spectacular (and fundamentally absurd) set-pieces as a warp-speed drag race that ends with one ship knocking the other clear out of the warp gulf-stream or a scene where Kirk blasts himself out of the Enterprise airlock for a zero gravity flight between spaceships. But underpinning all these feats is the very real sense that Abrams and Co. aren't interested in anything but playing with their very expensive toys.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Cream of mushroom soup, from scratch, has uncanny taste
Some foods just naturally go together. And one of the most heavenly combinations, one of the purest expressions of goodness and hope for nature and mankind, is the magic that happens when mushrooms come together with cream.
The richness of the cream coats the umami earthiness of the mushrooms, giving this pairing a subtle power, an irresistible force that demands to be served in crepes, alongside chicken or meat, or especially as a soup.
Because cream of mushroom soup has such a pure flavor, I decided it would be best to keep things simple when making it. But only up to a point. The basics were easy enough -- mushrooms,chip card, butter, stock, and cream -- but I wanted it to have a heightened mushroom taste. So I used a multiplicity of mushrooms.
The only kinds of fresh mushrooms at my local store were regular button mushrooms, shiitakes and cremini, which are also called baby portobellos. I had to improvise, which means I headed for the dried mushrooms and picked up plastic containers of black trumpets, oysters and morels.
Morels are awfully expensive (my packet was $14.99 for one-half ounce), so feel free to leave them out. And pick any other dried mushrooms; you are limited only by what the store sells.
The waiter at Jean-Robert's Table explained that the restaurant makes its soup from a puree of mushrooms, so I decided to do that. But I wondered what it would be like if I first simmered the mushrooms in stock and then pureed that, too. This method would let me make the stock doubly rich by simmering carrots and celery along with the mushrooms. Then I thought better of adding the other ingredients, reasoning that I did not want the additional flavors to detract from the pure mushroom goodness.
At any rate, I made the soup both ways, adding more liquid by necessity to the version in which I first simmered the mushrooms before pureeing them. As a result, this batch was a tad thinner, but every bit as good.
For a heartier texture, you could thicken either one with a teaspoon or more of cornstarch dissolved in cold water, but I would recommend against it. These soups derive much of their elegance from their light texture.
In light of recent events in political correctness, maybe it is time to look at some of society’s definitions. Since we may redefine marriage as something more than a man and woman (recall Genesis 2:24 “…a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife…”), I would like to take this opportunity to redefine other traditions.
Please, God, continue to bless this nation during these challenging times. I assume we forgot why You leveled Sodom and Gomorrah and fear this country may be heading down the same path.
Happy Birthday. The redefinition will be Happy Birth Date Anniversary because it is self-explanatory that you only have one birthday. But this greeting should only be used in an email or a card. No more spontaneous birthday greetings because anybody within ear shot who is also celebrating their Happy Birth Date Anniversary will feel excluded and hurt because you did not include them.
Hence the term “Happy Birthday” will slowly die like “Merry Christmas.” Exactly like Christmas party turns to holiday party turns to winter party turns to We’re Not Celebrating Anymore because some people are non-believers and they feel they don’t fit in.
Water. It’s about time hydrogen and oxygen get the recognition they deserve. From now on, water will be redefined as dihydrogen oxide plus whatever leachable you are drinking from the glass or plastic bottle. It will also carry a warning label because this dihydrogen oxide plus whatever leachable you are drinking from the glass or plastic bottle causes erosion. And too much of it is toxic.
Stricter car laws. Guns are taking a bad rap here and the cars are laughing all the way to Petro Mart. Hence, any car found with a drunk driver is immediately impounded and sold for scrap. These cars are killing people and we need to get them off the road. Also, list the year, make and model of the guilty car so we can ooh and ahh when we read about them in the Journal.
Pi. This number will finally end. No more infinite decimal places. I mean, Pi isn’t Buzz Lightyear, hence it will be redefined. The last number for Pi will be the last digit of the day of the month. Hence, if it’s the 12th of whatever month, Pi will end in a ‘2.’ If it’s the 27th, Pi will end in a ‘7.’ Yes, February gets ripped off as it loses a 9 and 0 and the months with 31 days will get an advantage, but we’ll settle this in court.
0 and 1. These are the two extreme numbers and all numbers should have the same opportunity. Anything multiplied by 0 is 0 and we can’t divide by 0. Hence, 0 is way too powerful. On the other hand, anything multiplied by 1 is the same. Go figure. I propose we eliminate 0 and anything multiplied by itself will be the number Pi with the appropriate ending decimal place.
Police were called to neighborhood at 1:47 a.m. Sunday after a resident was awoken by his barking dog, according to Hingham Police Sgt. Steven Dearth. When the resident looked outside he spotted Graney, who fled the area, Dearth said.
Three of the vehicles near his home had their driver’s door open with their glove compartment and center consoles open and the interior lights on.
When police arrived on the scene they spotted Melissa Wolfe, 26, of Quincy sitting inside a vehicle. Wolfe claimed she was coming from a party and waiting for her boyfriend, who had walked off to go to the bathroom in the woods.
Police noticed two white plastic bags, several car charges and a GPS inside the vehicle, which she claimed belonged to her boyfriend’s mom.
When police spotted Graney on Lincoln Street, he had a small silver claddagh ring and $24 cash inside his pocket, Dearth said. Graney claimed the ring was a childhood ring of his grandfather.
But when victims spoke to police they had identified the ring, the GPS unit the plastic bags, and other valuables as their own. One victim also was able to match the last 4 digits of his credit card, with what was found on a receipt in Graney’s vehicle.
The richness of the cream coats the umami earthiness of the mushrooms, giving this pairing a subtle power, an irresistible force that demands to be served in crepes, alongside chicken or meat, or especially as a soup.
Because cream of mushroom soup has such a pure flavor, I decided it would be best to keep things simple when making it. But only up to a point. The basics were easy enough -- mushrooms,chip card, butter, stock, and cream -- but I wanted it to have a heightened mushroom taste. So I used a multiplicity of mushrooms.
The only kinds of fresh mushrooms at my local store were regular button mushrooms, shiitakes and cremini, which are also called baby portobellos. I had to improvise, which means I headed for the dried mushrooms and picked up plastic containers of black trumpets, oysters and morels.
Morels are awfully expensive (my packet was $14.99 for one-half ounce), so feel free to leave them out. And pick any other dried mushrooms; you are limited only by what the store sells.
The waiter at Jean-Robert's Table explained that the restaurant makes its soup from a puree of mushrooms, so I decided to do that. But I wondered what it would be like if I first simmered the mushrooms in stock and then pureed that, too. This method would let me make the stock doubly rich by simmering carrots and celery along with the mushrooms. Then I thought better of adding the other ingredients, reasoning that I did not want the additional flavors to detract from the pure mushroom goodness.
At any rate, I made the soup both ways, adding more liquid by necessity to the version in which I first simmered the mushrooms before pureeing them. As a result, this batch was a tad thinner, but every bit as good.
For a heartier texture, you could thicken either one with a teaspoon or more of cornstarch dissolved in cold water, but I would recommend against it. These soups derive much of their elegance from their light texture.
In light of recent events in political correctness, maybe it is time to look at some of society’s definitions. Since we may redefine marriage as something more than a man and woman (recall Genesis 2:24 “…a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife…”), I would like to take this opportunity to redefine other traditions.
Please, God, continue to bless this nation during these challenging times. I assume we forgot why You leveled Sodom and Gomorrah and fear this country may be heading down the same path.
Happy Birthday. The redefinition will be Happy Birth Date Anniversary because it is self-explanatory that you only have one birthday. But this greeting should only be used in an email or a card. No more spontaneous birthday greetings because anybody within ear shot who is also celebrating their Happy Birth Date Anniversary will feel excluded and hurt because you did not include them.
Hence the term “Happy Birthday” will slowly die like “Merry Christmas.” Exactly like Christmas party turns to holiday party turns to winter party turns to We’re Not Celebrating Anymore because some people are non-believers and they feel they don’t fit in.
Water. It’s about time hydrogen and oxygen get the recognition they deserve. From now on, water will be redefined as dihydrogen oxide plus whatever leachable you are drinking from the glass or plastic bottle. It will also carry a warning label because this dihydrogen oxide plus whatever leachable you are drinking from the glass or plastic bottle causes erosion. And too much of it is toxic.
Stricter car laws. Guns are taking a bad rap here and the cars are laughing all the way to Petro Mart. Hence, any car found with a drunk driver is immediately impounded and sold for scrap. These cars are killing people and we need to get them off the road. Also, list the year, make and model of the guilty car so we can ooh and ahh when we read about them in the Journal.
Pi. This number will finally end. No more infinite decimal places. I mean, Pi isn’t Buzz Lightyear, hence it will be redefined. The last number for Pi will be the last digit of the day of the month. Hence, if it’s the 12th of whatever month, Pi will end in a ‘2.’ If it’s the 27th, Pi will end in a ‘7.’ Yes, February gets ripped off as it loses a 9 and 0 and the months with 31 days will get an advantage, but we’ll settle this in court.
0 and 1. These are the two extreme numbers and all numbers should have the same opportunity. Anything multiplied by 0 is 0 and we can’t divide by 0. Hence, 0 is way too powerful. On the other hand, anything multiplied by 1 is the same. Go figure. I propose we eliminate 0 and anything multiplied by itself will be the number Pi with the appropriate ending decimal place.
Police were called to neighborhood at 1:47 a.m. Sunday after a resident was awoken by his barking dog, according to Hingham Police Sgt. Steven Dearth. When the resident looked outside he spotted Graney, who fled the area, Dearth said.
Three of the vehicles near his home had their driver’s door open with their glove compartment and center consoles open and the interior lights on.
When police arrived on the scene they spotted Melissa Wolfe, 26, of Quincy sitting inside a vehicle. Wolfe claimed she was coming from a party and waiting for her boyfriend, who had walked off to go to the bathroom in the woods.
Police noticed two white plastic bags, several car charges and a GPS inside the vehicle, which she claimed belonged to her boyfriend’s mom.
When police spotted Graney on Lincoln Street, he had a small silver claddagh ring and $24 cash inside his pocket, Dearth said. Graney claimed the ring was a childhood ring of his grandfather.
But when victims spoke to police they had identified the ring, the GPS unit the plastic bags, and other valuables as their own. One victim also was able to match the last 4 digits of his credit card, with what was found on a receipt in Graney’s vehicle.
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