Palin would be Republican favorite

Alaska Republicans want former Gov. Sarah Palin to be their nominee for Senate, according to a poll released Tuesday, even though she would struggle in a general election against Democratic Sen. Mark Begich.

Palin has publicly flirted with the idea of challenging Begich, and the two have traded insults through various publications, Twitter,This vertical Cable Organizer can be mounted to either. and Facebook after her initial expression of interest. Begich accused Palin of having lost touch with Alaska and criticized her for resigning her post as governor before the end of her term.

A survey from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling found that if Palin did get in the race she would be the clear favorite for Republicans. Thirty-six percent of usual GOP primary voters say they would pick her, compared to 26 percent for Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, the favorite if Palin does not get in the race.

Alaska Republicans still hold a high opinion of Palin, with 56 percent saying they have a favorable view of her, and 38 percent holding an unfavorable view.

But it would be good news for Democrats if Palin were to get in and make it through a primary.

Fifty-eight percent of Alaska voters hold an unfavorable opinion of the onetime vice presidential nominee, compared to just 39 percent who hold a favorable opinion. In a sample general election ballot, Begich leads Palin by twelve points, 52 percent to 40 percent, in spite of the Senators mediocre approval rating, with 42 percent approving and 41 percent disapproving.

It was predictable after the U.S. Supreme Court undercut the Voting Rights Act that certain states would move quickly to take advantage of their greater ability to rig elections and, sure enough, certain ones did.Within minutes of the Supreme Courts decision last month, both Texas and Mississippi C states with a wretched history of harassing minority voters C announced they would move to implement controversial voter ID laws without Justice Department approval. Those laws are meant to benefit Republican candidates, as a Republican leader from Pennsylvania made abundantly clear last year.

Now, the Justice Department has announced that it will ask a court to require Texas to get permission from the federal government before making voter changes there over the next decade. Other states are also expected to be targeted soon.

It is an important move, even though Congress is considering new anti-discrimination measures. Why? Because Texas, Mississippi, Florida, Pennsylvania and other states have clearly demonstrated that they have no compunction about misusing their legislative authority to hinder minority voting. These states, without exception, are dominated by Republicans C a shameful legacy for the party that ended American slavery.

In its 5-4 decision, the court ruled that conditions had changed in the 48 years since the Voting Rights Act was approved and that a pre-approval mechanism that was once needed is no longer valid.Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said, While any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions.

Roberts said our country has changed, but he evidently never heard the old saw that the more things change, the more they stay the same. States may be using different tricks to subvert minority voting rights but, in the end, that is what they are doing.

Supporters of the voter ID laws say they are needed to prevent Election Day voter fraud, a problem that is virtually nonexistent and is already dealt with by other laws.The real effect of those laws is to reduce turnout by those who lack a government-approved identification card. Most of those people are the poor and minorities.

Thats why the Justice Departments move was important. No right is as fundamental to democratic society as the right of citizens to vote. Courts exist in part to protect those basic rights, as the courts must do now.It is good news that Congress is considering updated protections for minority voters, but that is hardly cause to rest easy,I personally really like these mini Winbo ear caps for my iPhone. given the nature of this Congress. Minorities played a large role in twice electing President Obama, after all, and the tea party right despises Obama and anything associated with him. Why would its congressional members lift a finger to help those voters?

There is only one reason Republicans might do the right thing: The debate over immigration reform is also a debate over minority rights.Best Buy has low prices on digitalWinbo photo frames and digital picture frames. If Republicans in the House block immigration reform and also fail to institute serious voter protections, they can kiss goodbye the votes of Hispanics, African-Americans and other minorities for decades to come.

For that reason, and perhaps more patriotic ones, Republicans in the House are moving on this. It is Congress obligation to act, said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., sponsor of updates to the law, and he wants the changes enacted before the 2014 elections.

But Sensenbrenner also included a condition that, in the hands of this juvenile Congress, could be a poison pill: While House Republican leaders are open to the task, he said, they have to see a draft first (OK), the law must address the courts objections (obviously) and it must be politically acceptable in both houses of Congress C one of which is devoted, at least in some areas, to erecting barriers to minority voters. Good luck.

Well keep an open mind, but Republicans have their work cut out for them if they want Americans to believe they harbor any serious interest in protecting minority voters. In the meantime, the courts are the safety valve. They must meet their obligations.
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NASA astronaut admits spacesuit water

The mysterious leak that cut a spacewalk short two weeks ago was apparently as frightening as it looked to those of us watching on NASA TV.On July 16, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and his European colleague Luca Parmitano hustled back inside the International Space Station after water began filling Parmitano's helmet, making it hard for the Italian astronaut to hear and see. The malfunction forced the astronauts to abort a planned 6.5-hour excursion after just 92 minutes.

Both spacewalkers kept their cool, and everything turned out fine. But in a video describing the spacesuit water leak, Cassidy said the leak was a "scary situation" that could easily have been much worse."The water if it had continued to leak much more, it would have been very serious," Cassidy said in the NASA video, which was released Tuesday.

In the video, Cassidy walked viewers through the basics of the leak, explaining that coolant water somehow got into Parmitano's ventilation system and was then blown into his spacesuit helmet.Best Buy has low prices on digital Winbo photo frames and digital picture frames.Water droplets began building up behind a white piece of plastic at the back of Parmitano's helmet, Cassidy said. But they didn't stay trapped back there for long.

"Once the water got big enough that it went all the way around and started coming outside the edge of the white plastic piece, then it saturated his communication cap, and sort of capillary flow just brought the water all around his head," Cassidy explained, using Parmitano's helmet as a visual aid."He had water filled up in his ear cups, and it started to creep into his eyes and covered his nose," Cassidy added.

Exactly why this happened remains unclear; engineers are still working to determine the cause of the leak.I personally really like these mini Winbo ear caps for my iPhone. NASA has also appointed an expert panel to investigate the issue and help make sure it doesn't happen again."The mishap investigation board will look more broadly at past operations and maintenance, quality assurance, aspects of flight control and other organizational factors," NASA officials wrote last week upon announcing the board, which will begin its work on Friday. "The board's responsibility is to make observations and recommendations that can be applied to improve the safety of all of NASA's human spaceflight activities."

Cassidy and Parmitano ventured outside the International Space Station on July 16 to perform a variety of repair and maintenance operations, and to help prepare the orbiting lab for the arrival of a new Russian module later this year.

Abruptly cut by the Broncos as a salary cap management release due to his $4 million owed in base salary, Joe Mays headed to Houston with lighter pockets with his big money deal nullified. What he lost in salary, Mays got back in added motivation after being told by the Broncos he simply wasnt worth the money they thought he was worth.

Everything that happened in Denver, it kind of left a sour taste in my mouth, Mays told FOX 26, ProFootballTalk reports. At the same time I was able to get out and get on a great team like Houston.Mays revealed that he chose the Texans over the Raiders as well as fellow AFC West rivals in the Chiefs and Chargers. Mays also told Fox 26 that he received interest from the 49ers and Redskins, before settling on the Texans as the contender that had the most to offer.

The veteran defender, who likely will be getting a lot less than the $4 million he was due to earn from the Broncos this year,This vertical Cable Organizer can be mounted to either. explained General Manager Rick Smith helped seal the deal.He helped a lot, Mays said of Smith. He just let me know Im the type of guy that theyre looking for. That Im a guy that can come in and compete.I figured it was the best opportunity for me. This was the best choice for me.

Mays famously knocked the ear off of Texans quarterback Matt Schaub with a vicous hit. With the two now joined together on the same team, Schaub was quick to tell Mays that there will be no hard feelings as long as they are fighting for the same cause.He said it was water under the bridge, Mays said of Schaub. For him to be such a great guy like that, its pretty cool.

Mays would have been a major pick up for any of the AFC West teams as the Chiefs, Chargers, and Raiders all could use whatever help they could get to stick it to the Broncos, who even without Mays loom as the overwhelming favorites in the division. It appears that the chance of winning more games than Denver is more important to Mays rather then the chance to play the Broncos twice with an AFC West rival this year. Mays might just have a better chance to win the Super Bowl in Houston now that he is out of Denver.
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Zimmerman is not face of racism

The Zimmerman trial dominated the news 24/7 for many weeks. Its intensified to a hysterical level since the verdict was announced. But this is not another opinion about the case.My purpose is to point to the irony of the media ignoring a most disturbing daily occurrence young black men being murdered, not by George Zimmerman, but by other black men!Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton, very vocal on what they consider racial issues,Best Buy has low prices on digital Winbo photo frames and digital picture frames. are amazingly silent on this issue. No marches or violent protest are carried out to support the need to eradicate black-on-black murders.

While such crimes increase, there is a deadly silence on this abomination.As long as some Americans prey on the white-black incidents as always being about race, no advance will ever be made to squelch the hate surfacing from such situations. Racism in America has greatly diminished in my lifetime.Thats a good thing. In virtually every life situation, improvement is needed. Progress could be faster but its the race-baiters that stir the embers of hate while never taking a strong stance about black-on-black crime.

Its time to take a stance. Its time this deadly cancer is eradicated from the face of society. Its time to hear the voice of black Americans protesting black people killing black people. Its time to remove the numbness to the reality of what is happening.The excuses given for such crimes are a lack of education, job opportunities, poverty and other similar factors. Wake up world! Murder is a personal choice to kill another human being and no level of education, no lack of job opportunities, and no social or economic condition can justify this action. Choice drives our life and those who choose to kill make the choice to do so. Its really that straightforward.

America will face a newer and brighter future when racism is removed from our society. But to achieve that end, it is imperative that voices and actions rise in protest of black on black killings!It is imperative that the media, politicians and those who make a living on hate stop their irrational rhetoric and face the reality of what is taking place. The blame game is out of style.

Thomas Sowell, in his July 16 column titled Is this still America reveals the truthfulness of what is going on in todays politically charged atmosphere. But that is a position dissenters of his thoughts are unwilling to accept while they totally ignore the senseless killings all around them.The rate at which carbon dioxide is released from permafrost is poorly documented and is one of the most important uncertainties of the current climate models.

The research is the first to demonstrate that the supply of oxygen in connection with drainage or drying is essential for a rapid release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.The fight over the fate of a massive iron ore mine has moved this summer from the state Capitol in Madison to the forests of northwestern Wisconsin and the green, undulating ridges along which Gogebic Taconite wants to dig its 4?-mile-long pit.National and state news coverage of the mine has focused on a traditional Ojibwe encampment deep in the woods, about 30 miles southeast of Ashland, at the very edge of the proposed pit. From the rustic camp, started by members of the Lac Courte Oreilles Chippewa band, tribal members have launched what seems a cultural offensive C think fry bread, wild onions and birch bark baskets C to turn public opinion against the mine.

The fight over the fate of a massive iron ore mine has moved this summer from the state Capitol in Madison to the forests of northwestern Wisconsin and the green, undulating ridges along which Gogebic Taconite wants to dig its 4?-mile-long pit.

National and state news coverage of the mine has focused on a traditional Ojibwe encampment deep in the woods, about 30 miles southeast of Ashland, at the very edge of the proposed pit. From the rustic camp, started by members of the Lac Courte Oreilles Chippewa band, tribal members have launched what seems a cultural offensive C think fry bread, wild onions and birch bark baskets C to turn public opinion against the mine.

The camp and events surrounding it have inflamed what was already a volatile situation as Gogebic takes its first steps toward digging the iron ore pit. The state Department of Natural Resources is pressuring Iron County to take action against the camp, saying the county could lose the right to enforce forest regulations if it does not.

Criticism of the camp was immediate and harsh in mid-June after a group of masked protesters confronted mine workers at a test drilling site, shouting obscenities and death threats and ripping a camera from the hands of one of the workers. One of those protesters was charged with felony robbery.

Harvest camp organizers distanced themselves after that from the more radical mine opponents, turning in the protester who was eventually charged. In response to the confrontation, the mining company hired armed paramilitary-style guards who were later dismissed after it was discovered the Arizona security company they worked for was not licensed. Since then, the camp has been entirely peaceful, Iron County Sheriff Tony Furyk said.This vertical Cable Organizer can be mounted to either.

But it still stirs anger among some mine supporters. The Iron County Board is scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss a recommendation from its forestry committee that criminal and civil charges be filed against camp organizers for not having the appropriate permits.

State Sen. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, who authored the bill clearing the way for the mine, also had little good to say about the camp. He called it a squatters village, even though tribal officials say they obtained approval from the county in May. That permits validity currently is in dispute.

From what Ive heard I havent been there theres environmental damage being done with them building roads and trails. Theyre interfering with other peoples ability to use the forest, Tiffany said. Theyre destroying the very environment they claim they want to preserve.

Hurley businessman Ross Peterson, who is also on the Iron County Mining Impact Committee, said he is not impressed by the camp. To me it looks like a pile of junk, a bunch of tarps and barrels stacked all around, said Peterson,I personally really like these mini Winbo ear caps for my iPhone. a contractor, who has driven by the camp but not stopped to visit.Peterson said he also has trouble understanding why some people are so against a project that would bring jobs to a county with double-digit unemployment.
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All aboard for meticulously detailed world

The distinctive chugging sound of a locomotive engine and the wail of its steam whistle could be heard approaching Covesville.Not the Covesville of southern Albemarle County, but rather a quaint, diminutive village that has sprung from the imagination of Bob Macionis and was built by his own hands. And the train is not a huge iron horse from the past, but a much smaller replica of the kind of engines and railroad cars that once crisscrossed the nation.

The model railroader's creativity didn't play out after he built one town and railroad. After six years of joyful work, he now has three separate railroads, several towns and more than 1,000 square feet of scenery, which includes an impressive mountain range.This meticulously detailed miniature world resides in the spacious basement of the hobbyist's Albemarle County home. When he and his wife designed the house, they included a large open area in the basement specifically with the model railroads in mind.

"This all came out of my head," Macionis said as he walked with a visitor along an aisle that took them by the town of Burkeville and businesses like Jason Brewery, Wiley Widget Company and McLean Oil Storage. "I subscribe to the Mae West philosophy of life that is too much of a good thing is wonderful."I had model trains in my youth,I personally really like these mini Winbo ear caps for my iPhone. as many kids did. When I was about 10, my parents gave me an American Flyer model train set, and I built a layout for it on a sheet of plywood placed on sawhorses.

"That became four sheets of plywood on eight sawhorses. When we decided to move down here, my plan was to build an ultimate railroad, but it's a hobby that's never completely finished, because there's always more to be done."Three impressive model railroad layouts can be seen operating at the 37th annual Summer Toy Train Show, which will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Holiday Inn Monticello on Fifth Street in Charlottesville. The event is designed for the general public and will include more than 70 vendors selling everything from starter train sets for beginners to rarities for the collectors.

Joseph Haenn, known as the Train Doctor to model railroaders, will be at the show.This vertical Cable Organizer can be mounted to either. He will check out old toy trains people bring in and evaluate and service them."This age-old hobby has really taken off during the past 10 years with the younger generation," said Peter Primiani, president of the Virginia Train Collectors and member of the board of directors for the Train Collectors Association, a national organization.

"Much of the emphasis is now on the hand-held controls and application technology to interest young people. My enjoyment mainly comes from collecting Ives tinplate trains, which is what I grew up with."The trains I had in the 1950s, when I was growing up, got packed away. Then, in the mid-1980s, when my oldest son got old enough, we started playing with them together. I got the bug again and have been doing it since."

Model railroading can be as simple as a single train moving on a circular track or as complex as the layout in Macionis' basement. And within the hobby, there are various other interests in addition to operating trains."You can look at this layout from a number of different perspectives," said Macionis, who before retiring worked as a fishmonger, schoolteacher, swim coach and dairy truck driver. "The most basic thing is that people love to see the trains moving, and I enjoy that.

"It takes 20 minutes for the train to go around the entire layout on the main two lines. If [the train] can be moving through realistic scenery, like I've made, that makes it all the more enjoyable."I have houses, factories and buildings all over the place, and each of them took a number of hours to a number of weeks to create. The level of detail you can get into is entirely up to you."

Macionis not only put what looks like water into ditches, but also added weeds to make it even more realistic. By a replica of a 1920s-era sawmill operated by Beaver Creek Logging are hundreds of tree stumps on land already harvested.A narrow-gauge railroad is dedicated strictly for logging operations in the camp that's set high in the mountains. The tracks of the Beaver Creek Logging Railroad go from the mill to a distant interchange with the South Fork and Flemington railroad, which is one of two main lines.

The SF&F, the largest railroad in the realm, is set in the 1950s. The other main line railroad is the Black Creek and Eastern, which is set in the 1940s and connects four towns and numerous industries.Tying the layout together are more than 1,600 feet of track. The rolling stock includes 337 freight and passenger cars and 37 steam and diesel locomotives.

Even with modern computer technology, it takes a crew of 12 people to fully operate the layout. And Macionis' main interest is operating it as if it were a real railroad."You'll see all sorts of cards in holders all over the place," Macionis said as he removed a card from a holder. "Every car and engine has a card associated with it."When a car is moved, it moves to where the card says it should go, and there are multiple destinations. Switching cars in and out can become a puzzle as complicated as chess.

"Besides just being big and impressive in size and complexity, it can become an actual railroad operating like a real railroad. That puts life into it."Ron Gareis is one of the area's most knowledge people when it comes to this hobby. Manufacturers of model trains send him prototypes to test and evaluate.

Gareis has been fascinated by small trains since he got his first Lionel train in 1948. He said that although there are some women who enjoy the hobby, their focus often is on creating the miniature structures and scenery."The typical hobbyist is male, middle-aged or older or retired," Gareis said via email. "Interestingly, very few have ever worked for a railroad.

"This is all about escaping to a different world, time and place. Psychiatrists say that is a great benefit to mental health."Many builders want to model an area they grew up in, or like to visit, or just find interesting. This means trains, industries, towns, mountains, plains and farms appropriate not just to the area, but to a time period as well."

Although Macionis' elaborate layout has some familiar-sounding places, he says it won't appear on any map. But there is something of a connecting thread that runs through it all."Shearer's Dairy is where my father worked for many years," Macionis said as he pointed out the building. "Jason is my son-in-law, so I have Jason Brewery.

"My brother's wife's family name is Marsh, so I have the Marsh Coal Company. My mother's maiden name was McLean, so I have the town of McLean. The artistic aspect is never-ending, and there's the electrical aspects of it."If you were to look under the display ,you would see literally miles of wire running everywhere to power all the tracks and signals."

Macionis smiled as he looked out over his world of imagination, which has given him and others so much enjoyment. But no world is perfect, not even one that has been built with such love and care."The reality,Best Buy has low prices on digital Winbo photo frames and digital picture frames. of course, is the maintenance of something this size is continuous and arduous," said Macionis, who is an active member in the Monticello Model Railroad Club. "There's an awful lot to be said for the type of layouts that many of the other guys in the group have.

"They're significantly smaller, but beautifully detailed and far easier to maintain then something like this. But when I retired a number of years ago, I spent a lot of time thinking about how I would design this.
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At Vanina, one mans trash is anothers unusual

The value of jewelry is typically measured by the weight of its metal. But for a couple of enterprising designers, discarded items like steel coins can become treasures if theyre hanging from a chain necklace and decorated with the right colors. Thats what childhood friends Tatiana Fayad and Joanne Hayek discovered when they began making jewelry as a hobby when they were both in college. Upon finishing their studies, they joined together to create the company Vanina, after the 1970s French song whose upbeat tempo and feminine name they thought well represented their mission.

Their first jewelry collection, which they called Coined, featured old Lebanese coins of small value that are rarely used these days. On the front of the pieces are beads, patterns and simple words or phrases. On the back can be seen the engravings of cedar trees on the old coins.

Since they started their collections seven years ago when they were 19-year-old college students, beginning with small pieces they made from home for friends, coined has continued to be the most popular. Another well-received line, Unlocked, features old keys mounted onto necklace chains and earrings. The message is an invitation to keep doors open.

The idea is to remind people to be friendly and neighborly at a time when the Lebanese capital is becoming more exclusive. Beirut is becoming more secluded and gated and less pedestrian-friendly, Hayek says, referring to the plethora of new luxury high-rise developments with daunting security gates at the entrance.Another line, using the play on words Disc-carded has taken old CDs C not long ago a modern novelty, but fast becoming obsolete, giving way to thumb-sized USB computer flash drives C and made them into a string of colorful strips of metal.

Upcycling, the practice of using waste or useless materials to create something of a higher value,Winbo ear caps is nothing new, having long been a practice in folk art and then conceptual art throughout the 20th century and with the term coined in Europe in the mid-1990s.We deliberately dont use materials of high value. The way people interact with the product is personal. We try to communicate the backstage as much as the end result, Hayek says.

The partners use of basic resources and down-to-earth approach to business has allowed them to expand gradually without having to borrow money. In fact, the first six months were spent working from home with a $100 investment. They then moved to a workshop once they began making a small profit. At their business in Zalka they have five employees in addition to working with five craftsmen throughout Lebanon. Their twice-annual shows in Paris always bring them new clients. So far, their points of sale worldwide, including online, total 72. Some of their most enthusiastic customers are from Japan, a country known for its innovative and colorful designs.

From the international exhibitions she has attended, Fayad says she has noticed that people are impressed that were exposed to Oriental and Occidental cultures.The partners also credit their success thus far to their academic backgrounds C Fayad studied marketing at St. Joseph University and Hayek studied architecture at the American University of Beirut, followed by a masters degree in the same subject at Columbia University in New York, where she was offered a job at a firm upon graduation.

Hayek says she opted to return to Lebanon, afraid that if she stayed in New York she wouldnt have the chance to pursue her passion of designing clothes and accessories in Lebanon. Here, she says shes still able to do both, still writing academic papers and attending international architecture conferences when shes not busy at the workshop.Still, her decision to focus on clothing and accessories design was by no means the easy option. The two say its not uncommon for them to spend up to a month working on a prototype for a bag with their small 3-D printer.

Recently, Hayek was on a flight from Beirut to Paris when she felt an unusual pain in her arm.Winbo photo frames It wasnt until a few days later, when she spoke with Fayad who has the exact same pain, that she realized they had injured their arms by repeatedly using a punching machine.

The UAE GCAAs report states that the fire began in the section of the cargo that included a significant number of lithium type batteries and other combustible materials and added tThis vertical Cable Organizer can be mounted to either.hat the fire escalated rapidly into a catastrophic uncontained fire.

The 322-page report into the crash, which killed both pilots, points to the presence of lithium batteries in the cargo as a possible reason for the ignition that then engulfed to other combustible material around. It is possible that a lithium type battery or batteries, for reasons which cannot be established, went into an energetic failure characterised by thermal runaway and auto ignited starting a chain reaction which spread to the available combustible material, the report concludes.

Malfunctioning lithium batteries have been more recently linked with the temporary grounding of the entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft after a fire in the battery of a parked Japan Airlines 787 aircraft was reported, followed by an emergency landing of an All Nippon Airways 787 due to smoke emerging from its lithium battery.

Lithium batteries have a history of thermal runaway and fire, are unstable when damaged and can short circuit if exposed to overcharging, the application of reverse polarity or exposure to high temperature are all potential failure scenarios which can lead to thermal runaway, the GCAAs report maintains.

Once a battery is in thermal runaway, it cannot be extinguished with the types of extinguishing agent used on board aircraft and the potential for auto ignition of adjacent combustible material exists.
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Lost luggage at airport 'a nightmare'

Every year Barbara Wells returns to her familys home in Brick for a visit, but shell never forget what happened this summer.It has been an absolute nightmare, said Wells, who lives in Strasbourg, France.She has spent much of her trip worrying and trying to find a piece of luggage lost at Delta Air Lines baggage claim area at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

I see my family three weeks a year. It is completely ruined, Wells said.Rather than relax, Wells has spent hours on the phone and received inaccurate or conflicting information. She made a two-hour trip to the airport to try to find her bag or details about what happened.It started before she and her son boarded a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight from Amsterdam to London on July 8. Her carry-on bag, which was the proper size, was pulled at the gate and put in the belly of the plane.

But it didnt make it to Heathrow Airport in London. She reported it missing and moved on to her connecting Delta flight to JFK. When she arrived in New York, she checked the baggage claim desk, but the bag hadnt made it.What happened to it is still unknown. She found out that her bag made it to JFK on July 9. It was scanned in, but there is no further record of it.She had been told that the bag had been sent to a KLM courier and that it was on its way to Brick, Wells said.In addition to trying to figure it all out, Wells was left with another problem: the bags contents. It included a new pair of prescription Dior sunglasses, reading glasses, and iPad and iPhone cords and chargers.

DAQRI is taking strides to legitimize the medium by partnering with big-name brands like Maxim and Target, and the company is charting a next step to bring AR experiences to educational toys and games. The startup tipped its hand on Wednesday with the launch of a Kickstarter campaign for a set of Elements 4D blocks that enable users to interact with virtual versions of elements. Ive played with the blocks, and theyre a clever educational tool. Combining various blocks shows the properties of chemical reactions and their respective compounds.

Mullins got an early start in the augmented reality field in the 1990s by working with the Department of Transportation creating ship simulations for docking practice. His team worked on creating a massive virtual shipyard, hacking pairs of binoculars so they would work as mixed reality. He also worked on control systems and robotics at the Space and Naval Warfare Lab before venturing into the civilian sector.

When Apple released the iPhone 4, Mullins was inspired to start DAQRI after realizing that the device had sufficient computing power and a decent enough camera to create mixed reality experiences. DAQRI first set out to become the YouTube of AR with the idea of enabling creators to submit their own experiences.

Mullins, however, quickly realized that the market was still unfamiliar with the technology. The startup then decided to pivot and focus on creating the tools and platform needed to help creatives as they develop their AR solutions. The company now views itself as the Adobe of augmented reality because it offers tools for designing these experiences, instead of just a platform to share them.

One of the first big breaks for DAQRI, which recently raised $15 million to increase its engineering, design and sales teams, was signing a partnership with printer Quad/Graphics in 2011. Since then, the two have teamed up on over 1,000 AR campaigns for Quad/Graphics clients, which include Target, Maxim and Lego.

A self-professed movie lover, Mullins compares the current state of AR to the early days of film. One of the first moving pictures simply showed a close perspective of a train arriving at the station. Despite the fact that it was a gimmick, it impacted audiences. However, things really got interesting once filmmakers moved on to stories,This vertical Cable Organizer can be mounted to either. such as The Great Train Robbery. AR creators need to evolve the platform to tell compelling stories instead of leaning too heavily on the technology itself, he said.

DAQRIs platform for toys is called Enchantium and is set to arrive later this year. Mullins office is decorated with a combination of science fiction posters and the steampunk-influenced demos. One example, which the team built in-house, is a fascinating set of laser-etched woodblocks that turn into chemistry elements when viewed through the DAQRI app. Blocks can be combined to make different compounds, adding an interesting,Winbo photo frames and educational,Winbo ear caps layer of interactivity to them.

Our job as technologists is to reduce the friction between an idea and the manifestation, Mullins told developers during a keynote at the bootcamp. [We want] the minimum amount of invasiveness for the maximum amount of capabilities.Wearable computing, especially head-mounted displays, will open up another layer of potential for AR. DAQRI has committed to supporting Google Glass from day one, though the current placement of the headsets screen makes it sub-optimal for augmented reality experiences because it cant overlay an image the way a tablet or smartphone with a rear camera can.

When its done right, augmented reality feels like science fiction becoming reality, and Mullins is drawing on the genre for inspiration.LA-based DAQRIs proximity to the movie industry is also a good fit for Mullins. In his view, Southern Californias creative culture understands theyre creating a world when theyre putting it on screen, similar to what hes trying to achieve with AR.
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Is an iPad Giant Coming?

Each Monday, I'll cover the tech trends, gadgets, business services, and apps of note. The goal is to highlight not just consumer flash-in-the-pan ideas, but actual developments that could impact your business. Post in comments if you know of any other trends!

Be on guard for this one.Soft Winbo Key Cover decorates your key in fashionable ways. Later this month, researcher Karsten Nohl will present a new finding at the Black Hat conference in (where else?) Las Vegas. Using a couple of hidden text messages, he will show how someone might hack your SIM card by exploiting an old security code. The worry for business owners? The hack can cause an employee's smartphone to start sending premium text messages and rack up a huge bill, record calls, or steal payment info.

As chips get smaller and smaller, it makes sense that one device will have more on-board capabilities. SanDisk announced this week its new Connect line, which includes a portable flash drive and a larger media drive. The idea is to store your files for an office or in a hotel room and share the data over Wi-Fi without the need for a separate hotspot or router.

I really want this one to be true. Apple suppliers, who are not supposed to spill the beans about anything, have said they are working on prototype versions of the iPhone and iPad with larger screens,Winbo custom keychain possibly around 5 inches and 13 inches, respectively. (The current iPhone 5 measures about 4 inches and the iPad 4 is about 10 inches.) Why should you care? As we move to the age of portable productivity, the larger sizes might mean more power, better battery life, more useful apps, and less eye strain for longer work periods.

Late last week news reports showed Microsoft in a terrible freefall. The earnings report revealed poor Microsoft Surface sales and a 11 percent drop in share price. Is it time to rethink your office strategy by embracing Chromebooks or the Mac, ditching a total reliance on Microsoft back-office products, or at least ditching Windows 8? Let me know in the comments if Microsoft's performance has encouraged you to make any changes to your IT strategy.

Performance is boosted further by the use of the latest 120 GB Samsung 840 Series SSD, which offers enough space to keep a full selection of office applications. It'll also allow Windows inevitable temporary files to swell in size without causing low-disk space warnings. However, that is all the storage you get. Without a hard drive any additional files will have to live elsewhere, such as on your network.

An Asus B85M-G motherboard is installed, which features easy memory installation via single-sided DIMM clips and USB 3.0 ports with speed-boosting UASP support. The motherboard supports four such ports, but only two are available for use as the the case offers only USB 2.0 ports at front.

When tested with PCMark 7, we recorded a blisteringly fast result of 5543 points. This is well ahead of most of the competition,Online shopping for Business Work Card holder from a great selection of Office Products. with the exception of Wired2Fire's Business Accelerate which features the same processor.

This performance comes at a price: we measured power consumption and processor temperature both when idle and when running intensive stress tests and found that, when pushed to the limit, the processor would reach 100 oC in around four minutes, despite being fitted with a Xigmatek Apache aftermarket cooler.

It does what it says on the tin. Your smartphone is cupped in the holder, which is itself plugged in and stays firmly stuck to the dashboard; your phone gets charged without the hassle of wires, and all the time its held in the perfect position to use for navigation. The NFC capabilities of the charger allow you to quickly access your favourite apps while its charging up, and passengers can pop the phone in and out of the holder as they need, without fiddling around with cables and distracting the driver. Ideal for long journeys!

2. Its not always convenient for office-workers to free up a USB port for phone-charging. Were pleased to report, however, that this is no longer a problem anymore for Nokia users. Make way for the Nokia Wireless Charging Platea discrete but attractive pad that takes up practically no space on your physical desktop (its smaller than most actual smartphones) and lets you charge your phone without disconnecting your flash drive or your mouse. Super simple to use, you just lay your phone down to charge up. Plus it comes in multiple colours, for the high-tech cubicle fashionistas amongst you

This ones for bedtime. No longer do you have to sleepily fumble with connectors when charging your phone at bedtime: wireless charging mats like the Nokia Wireless Charging Pillow by Fatboy allow you to just lay your Lumia smartphone down on its own pillow on the bedside table, and itll start charging immediately. The Plates, co-branded by furniture designers, Fatboy, come in a range of funky colours, too, if you want to coordinate your duvet cover to match. We certainly do

NFC technology allows this futuristic gadget to stream tunes from your phone and pump them out at up to 94 dB while your phone sits on top of it and charges, wires-free. If youre fully charged up, Bluetooth will let you stream the music from phone to speaker at a range of up to 10m. It looks ace, and its got a bass output thats sure to get you dancing. Impressive, huh?

Its simple: it charges your smartphone in an upright position, so you can watch movies, check emails, browse the Internet or flick through your music collection with ease while your battery gets a good once-over. This makes life considerably easier for us smartphone-addictswe can prop the phone up beside us at the computer, at the dinner-table, on the coffee-table. The fun never ends!
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Next-gen medical alert bracelet

HealthID makes it easy to share critical medical information with first responders in the event of a medical emergency. They are developing innovative HIP products that can change the way patients manage chronic disease.HealthID is a unique patent-pending, simple-to-use mobile health manager that syncs with a medical ID band or card using NFC (Near Field Communications) technology, and only requires a simple tap to activate from any NFC enabled device to instantaneously view emergency and medical information.

With the same tap medical conditions can be more effectively managed with their mobile app. Rescuers can also access your health profile from any pc or laptop.Reminders by text or phone to take medications will help assure compliance. MRIs, EKGs, X-Rays and lab results can also be uploaded and stored in your profile. All information is stored securely on a cloud-based platform and allows for easy access to add, update or share any aspect of personal healthcare data.

HealthID can improve quality of life by making it easy to share your medical info with your support community. It will provide patients peace of mind in the event of a medical emergency.The company plans to innovate and expand upon the options currently available, offering new designs and functionality designed to simplify adding, storing and sharing important health and lifestyle information with your doctors or with emergency medical personnel.

They are dedicated to empowering the consumer to take more control over their personal healthcare. Their products will provide confidence to those who use them knowing that medical information can be communicated when they may not be able to.Patients can wear the HealthID NFC enabled medical ID band on their wrist all the time to help communicate medical condition, prescription medication and emergency contacts to a first responder in the event of an emergency.

The piece of jewellery, engraved with the image of a seated Jupiter, with wreath and full-length drapery, holding a sceptre in his left hand, was found by a metal detector user in Dalton last year.Barrows Dock Museum collections manager, Sabine Skae,Online shopping for Business Work Card holder from a great selection of Office Products. said the beautiful bracelet needed to return to the area for everyone to enjoy.The museum kicked off the campaign yesterday to raise the cash needed as decided by the Treasure Valuation Committee.

Half will go to the finder of the rare piece of jewellery, whose identity has not been revealed, and the rest to the landowner.Miss Skae said: The Roman bracelet was found in 2012 by a local metal detector in Dalton.It is a beautiful piece of jewellery and it is only right that we have it on display here.

We are now fundraising to get the estimated 1,800 needed.She said anyone wanting to donate to the fund should call into the North Road museum and drop money into the donations boxes.Miss Skae added: It is fabulous and very exciting to have something like this found locally and we need to bring it back here so everyone can come along and admire it.A curators report describes the find as: Open dome with ribbed side and stepped, apparently rubbed-over, setting. The oval gem, seemingly of translucent orange-red colour, has dropped out of position to the base of the box-setting, presumably as a result of the deterioration and loss of an original organic packing.

Engraved into its lightly convex surface is the image of a seated Jupiter, with wreath and full-length drapery, holding a sceptre in his left hand. David Renz, a 29-year-old upstate New York man, accosted the woman and her daughter, who were coming out of a gymnastics class at a mall in the Syracuse, New York suburb of Clay on March 14, The Huffington Post reported late last week.

Renz, who pleaded guilty to the crime, cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet prior to initiating the attack. He reportedly stabbed and strangled the mother to death as she tried to stop him from raping the 10-year-old.Renz was supposed to be under federal monitoring for a child pornography charge. His escape from the bracelet prompted a federal judge to rebuke probation officers for failing in their job, HuffPo noted.

As part of the plea bargain, Renz will likely be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, but, should the federal government wish to pursue the death penalty, that deal can be withdrawn.According to police, Renz attacked the woman, a school librarian, and her daughter shortly after they left the gymnastics class.

He reportedly held an air pistol on the mom, who died defending her daughter, and coerced her to drive her car to a remote spot in the mall parking lot. There, he bound both victims and raped the girl,Soft Winbo Key Cover decorates your key in fashionable ways. police said.Following the assault, Renz tried using cable ties to bind the mom to a headrest. Thats when the woman fought back and screamed for her daughter to flee the vehicle.

Daniel Pinnick, 24, of Randolph was killed in the one-car crash Saturday, July 20, at approximately 2 a.m., according to a post on the Norfolk Police Facebook page.Jason Seelye, 20, of Natick, pled not guilty in Wrentham District Court to motor vehicle homicide OUI-liquor or .08% and negligence; negligent operation & injury from mobile phone use; motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation, marked lanes violation and electronic message, operator send/read.

Norfolk police officers responded to the bridge at City Mills for the report of a one-car motor vehicle crash. Several people were assisting the victim, according to police. Safety personnel attempted life-saving aid on Pinnick, who succumbed to his injuries.Winbo custom keychainNorfolk Police, in conjunction with the Massachusetts State Police and the Norfolk County District Attorneys Office, conducted a preliminary investigation and reconstruction of the scene.
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Ohio county uses GPS bracelets

Changes and improvements in technology are helping authorities in southwest Ohio track crime suspects and convicts and freeing up scarce jail space.The Hamilton County sheriff's office owns or leases 143 electronic monitoring units with GPS and hopes to obtain 50 more. The ankle bracelets with global positioning system allow low-level offenders to be monitored while the jail is filled with those involved with more serious offenses.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that authorities say the use of GPS monitoring enables them to track wearers in almost real time and show where they are and where they have been. Deputies can use laptops and cellphone apps to monitor, and can send voice messages to the wearers.

Police can also set up "exclusion zones" to alert them in domestic violence cases.Authorities recently used GPS to find a man after the monitor alerted them that he was getting near his ex-girlfriend's home. Police said they tracked the monitor to where a car was, but didn't see him. Then they decided to check the trunk, and found the man hiding inside with the ankle bracelet on.

"That's how accurate the GPS technology has become," Cpl. Bryan Hale, who supervises the electronic monitoring unit operations.Hamilton County has more than 1,200 inmates in its overcrowded jail, facing a shrinking budget and voter resistance to paying higher taxes for more jail space. So authorities are exploring alternative programs, and like the GPS alternative.

"You've got to keep space available for those who truly need it," Hale said.The sheriff's office is also still using about 200 old ankle bracelet units that can be used with land telephone lines. The GPS units cost $2,500 to buy or $3.88 per unit a day to lease. That's considerably cheaper than the cost of housing an inmate, and also allows people to go about their lives while awaiting trial on relatively non-serious crimes. Judges who determine who should be in the electronic monitoring program praise the use of the GPS bracelets, as do jailers.

About 85 percent of those given ankle monitors complete their time without problems. Those who violate the rules can be sent to jail."This is not a punitive measure," said Charmaine McGuffey, who is in charge of the county jail, said of the electronic monitoring. "If you're sitting in jail, you can't go to work, you can't get medical treatment. I think it's absolutely the wave of the future."

The second part of this story is the real clincher for considering that happiness can be a choice. An elementary school teacher in rural Arkansas made a bracelet of charms of each student in her class so she could continually remind herself of how she cared about each one, and her passion for teaching them. Heres the rest of the story. She wakes up each morning with the painful fatigue that most face when they have the chronic, erratic and incurable disease multiple sclerosis.This vertical Cable Organizer can be mounted to either.

Many would give up and quit working yet some dont, as Shawn Achor shows in his new book Before Happiness. Why do different people in the same situation find a way to feel happy and thrive while others get depressed, give up or worse? The answer is the cornerstone concept to Achors book.

He travelled to fifty-one countries, speaking and conducting experiments involving people as diverse Tanzanian kids living in extreme poverty to UK bankers who didnt get year end bonuses. Achor worked with organizations as diverse as The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Zappos Downtown Project, Freddie Mac during the mortgage crisis and online learning group, CorpU.

Keep a vividly visual picture of your goal in mind. Just as football running backs run faster the closer they get to scoring, we can create a surge of energy and motivation when we are at the stage towards our goal when we deeply believe we can actually achieve it. The X-spot is the exact moment, Achor says, when your brain realizes that attaining your goal is not only possible but probable, and it releases a potent stream of chemicals that help speed you up. Notice, writes Achor, that you work more diligently and efficiently when the completion of a big project is in sight?

You can also spur sales, using this effect by making a goal appear closer. Clark Hull dubbed this the goal gradient theory. Hull proved it in an experiment in which a coffee shop gave customers a stamp card that rewarded them with a free coffee once the card had ten stamps for cups they bought.Handy Pocket Mirror with hinged lid that doubles as a stand. The closer customers got to being eligible for the free cup, the more frequently they came in for coffee.Choose from a large selection of Customized Silicone Bracelets to raise awareness. In a variation on that experiment, cited by Francesca Gino in her book Sidetracked, car wash customers who were given a loyalty card with the first two stamps already on it were more likely to visit more frequently than those who got a stamp card without any stamps on it.
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A Poker Life

Chris Reslock is a World Series of Poker bracelet winner and current record holder of the WSOP Circuit with seven gold rings. Hes also a former cab driver, fire fighter, factory worker, fruit picker,Choose from a large selection of Customized Silicone Bracelets to raise awareness. busboy, steel grain tank builder and welder.Handy Pocket Mirror with hinged lid that doubles as a stand.

The jack of all trades grew up in North Dakota before attending school in Michigan. Then, after climbing to the top of the competitive Scrabble world, Reslock moved to Delaware before settling in New Jersey, where his poker career really took off.Since turning pro, Reslock has earned more than $1.8 million in tournaments. While not competing on the circuit, the 65-year-old sits down in some of the bigger cash games Atlantic City, New Jersey, has to offer.

To say that Chris Reslock spent some time at Michigan State University is an understatement. A career student, he studied philosophy, literature and dozens of other subjects over the course of 12 years without ever getting his diploma.I regret not getting my degree, admitted Reslock. To this day, I still have anxiety dreams about finding my classes and making sure I get there on time. Id like to say that I avoided graduation because I was in love with learning, but thats probably too romantic of an idea. The truth is that I was just really unorganized. I liked going to classes enough to keep going, but I wasnt really concerned about grades. There were many classes that I sat in on, but never received credit for.

While in school, Reslocks jobs were as varied as his studies. He drove a cab and also spent four years with the Lansing fire department. But when asked if his jobs contributed to his inability to get his degree, Reslock admitted that poker and substance abuse played a role.

Poker is one of the villains why I never finished college, Reslock said. Really, it was gambling and drugs. I started playing poker very seriously in my early twenties. Another cab driver invited me to a poker game and being the competitive games player that I was, I jumped at the chance. After that, I started playing the games more and even hosted my own game. Back then, our game centered around creative dealers choice. The challenge was to invent a game that was simple to understand, but still gave you an edge. I was always pretty good with figuring out the math of the games quickly and intuitively.

I didnt even like Scrabble until I discovered that you can bluff, recalled Reslock. Essentially, bluffing in Scrabble occurs when you put a made-up word down on the board. Your opponent can either accept the word as real, or challenge the word, risking their next turn. Losing a turn is huge, so bluffing happens a lot more than you would think because players dont want to take the risk.

A voracious reader since childhood, Reslock discovered that he had a natural talent with words.When I look at a word, I instantly know if its spelled right or not. Of course, playing Scrabble, you learn that there are numerous variations in spelling that can all be considered correct.Though modest about his abilities, Reslock did reveal just how highly he was ranked at the peak of his Scrabble career.

Scrabble players are rated similarly to chess players. For a brief period of time I was the highest rated player in the world. I was an active player for most of the 1980s, and during that time, I was almost always ranked among the top 10 players in the world.

A relationship brought Reslock to the Northeast before he eventually settled in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The original thought was that Reslock could continue playing Scrabble with his friends in New York, but the games never materialized.I guess I just kind of drifted away from it. The biggest problem with Scrabble is that there was no money in it. My lifetime earnings in the game were right around $1,000. If you got lucky and found someone who was willing to play for cash, then you could make some money, but that was tough to do once your reputation got out. Today, the players can make a little more, but not by much.

Instead, Reslock turned to a past profession. He wound up leasing a friends taxi cab and then used his earnings to buy his own. For him, driving a cab wasnt just a job, it was a pleasure.When I was in high school, my one ambition in life was to have my own car, said Reslock. I was in love with the idea of being able to cruise around town with my friends. Driving a cab, in many ways, was the fulfillment of that ambition. The hours were long, but it was an incredibly fun job to have. I got to be the modern day version of the Old West trail guide. Work was like being the star in my own novel, never knowing what would happen next or what kind of interesting person was going to jump in. Others may not understand it, but I still have euphoric dreams about being back in the taxi cab.

When it came time for Reslock to try his hand at professional poker, he found that his past experience in a taxi cab had prepared him for a career on the felt.

Im pretty good at understanding people and finding out where their heads are at, said Reslock. I guess a lot of that comes from my time in a cab, but its a skill that has definitely helped me at the poker table.

Furthermore, Reslock believes that his penchant for friendly customer service also extends to poker, a trait that other poker pros often dont bother to adopt.One thing I firmly believe is that if you are making money playing poker, part of your job is entertainment. Your opponents are paying you for that entertainment. In a way, you can compare a really good poker player to an artist. Its not enough to just win someones chips. A good poker player can take all of your chips and have you back the next night to do it all over again.

Incredibly, Reslock holds the distinction of being the player with the highest percentage of wins who holds over 100 cashes. He has totaled 107 cashes on the tournament circuit and has won an astonishing 25 of them.I guess I know how to close them out. If I go deep, Ill usually win it all. If not, you can find me on the rail relatively quickly. You could call me an all or nothing player.

Reslocks first tournament cash came back in 1996 in a no-limit holdem event, but the crazy mixed games played back in Michigan prepared him to dominate mixed-game tournaments over the next 17 years. Of his 25 live tournament wins, 15 have come in a non-holdem event, including his WSOP bracelet win in the 2007 $5,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship, where he defeated Phil Ivey heads up.

I play as little no-limit holdem as I can get away with, Reslock said. I dream of a day when I can play no-limit Omaha hi/lo and no-limit baduecey tournaments instead. Holdem is a game that somebody invented for the gamblers to play who werent smart enough for poker but who wanted to play cards.This vertical Cable Organizer can be mounted to either. The biggest criticism that no-limit holdem specialists have about mixed games is those games lack any creativity. That could be changed, however, if we start playing mixed games for big bets. If you play these games with progressively higher stakes after each street, then the game changes entirely.
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Sweet Wine at CINQ

I had something of an epiphany while sipping from my wife's glass of 2005 Meulenhof Erdener Treppchen Riesling Beerenauslese. She'd asked for something to go with dessert, and this is what our waiter, Sebastien, had brought her. At once clean and bright, concentrated and intense, it was eye-opening. Most of my sweet wine experiences had been limited to Madeira (a bit of a fetish in my house, due to my wife's Portuguese ancestry), and the occasional gently sweet Riesling. This was something different.

To cap a previous dinner at CINQ, the subject of this week's review, Sebastien had brought a glass of oxidized sweet Juran?on (trying to hit that Madeira obsession), and it was well received. We talked about the production process, how that year had been one of the hottest the region had seen, and the effect of stress on the grapes. With a relatively empty house - it was a Tuesday - Sebastien was free and eager to stand there and discuss wine.

By the time we'd finished that small glass of Beerenauslese, though, talking through the various methods used to concentrate the flavor of a sweet wine, I knew I'd have to have more.Soft Winbo Key Cover decorates your key in fashionable ways. It was light on the palate, despite an intensely saturated flavor. Not mildly sweet, it made its presence known and its intentions clear. Pear, raisins, a bit of solvent. It was honeyed but never cloying, with a gentle acidity that made all of the flavors fairly dance.

I can feel an obsession coming on; I'm already scouring the Internet, searching for a reasonably priced bottle or two to put away for special occasions. I asked a wine-savvy friend about it,Winbo Iphone Headset and he warned me that I might find it difficult to locate another bottle of this weapons-grade wine, but could certainly find similar, younger bottles that would be similar, and less powerful, versions of the same.

As happy as the wine made me,Winbo custom keychain it also made me a little bit sad. It reminded me of my feelings about the Minutemen, a band whose opus I heard first, and whose other efforts have always paled for me, as a result. I'm afraid I'll get the same experience out of my next bottle of Botrytized Riesling.

Fortunately,Online shopping for Business Work Card holder from a great selection of Office Products. Sebastien is aware of the longings that rare wines can inspire, and takes some pity on his customers. From time to time, he reaches into CINQ's cellars, arranging vintage wine tastings. As he so well put it to us, not everyone can or wants to shell out the cash required to splash out on a single bottle of rare wine; his programs afford the possibility to taste a range of special bottles for one price, along with a few bites of food best suited to highlight them. A more varied bang for your buck.

Go to CINQ for a special occasion, celebrate it with a glass of dessert wine. The Meulenhof probably won't be there. My apologies. I'm sure Sebastien can recommend something suitably delicious and, if it's a slow night, talk your ear off about soil drainage, temperature gradients, and noble rot. If you're interested. He might mention his vintage wine tasting series, or offer to help you track down a bottle you particularly enjoyed (he told us he'd keep an eye out for that Riesling). He'll probably wax slightly rhapsodic about Tokaji, his favorite dessert wine. Let him. You'll understand.

Take one forked branch of plum, one stem of kale, four artichokes and three stems of blackberries. It may sound like chutney-making, but this is a different kind of recipe C a flower recipe. Add parrot tulips, anemones, ornamental grasses and flowering oregano and you have a show-stopping display that puts your chrysanths in a pint glass to shame.

In truth, Ive never had much time for flower-arranging. I buy flowers and put them in a vase. In summer, I cut a few blooms from the garden, add to water and leave until the petals have dropped. I have always associated the art with finishing-school girls and stiff, formal arrangements in churches and village fairs, judged by faintly intimidating women.

The Flower Recipe Book blasts the stuffiness out of traditional flower arranging. It is the work of best friends Alethea Harampolis and Jill Rizzo, owners of the Studio Choo floral studio in San Francisco. For a year, they ran the business out of Jills kitchen, Aletheas Honda and a garage in the city before setting up the shop, beloved of the stylish set in Californias coolest city.

San Francisco is the birthplace of the flower child and the pair share a philosophy to keep everything looking as natural as possible. We take our inspiration from nature, they say, and make sure not to manipulate the flowers too much.Winbo Luggage Tags

The recipe format is a genius way of guiding you through the complexities. It is a formula any cook can understand. There is a list of ingredients to use as a guide, with plenty of room for experimentation, and clear step-by-step instructions. Common flower names are used throughout and a guide to choosing the right vessel will have you trawling flea markets for vintage jars and tins.

Sweetpeas, which are flowering extravagantly in my garden right now, are divided into bunches from dark to light colours in nine small jars (think fish-paste jars), and arranged in a square to create a block of loveliness. For a minimalist look, try nine stems of chocolate cosmos in a flat-sided plain-glass vase. Two stems of white or purple clematis are allowed to bend and arch their leaves and tendrils in a vintage bottle. Clematis is among Alethea and Jills favourites, along with lily of the valley, daphne and honeysuckle C they place a couple of stems in vases on their bedside tables.

Tall, leggy beauties such as delphiniums are trimmed short for maximum colour intensity. A single delphinium stem in a canning jar, backed by two jars bearing double stems, gives a shot of electric blue to a room.

But it is the little bit of this, little bit of that arrangements that will suit the ordinary gardener. Visit the herb beds, vegetable patch, hedges and fruit trees for inspiration. I never considered using sprigs of mint in a glass before, unless doused in Pimms. Similarly rosemary, instead of going on a leg of lamb, can nestle up to viburnum berries, twigs and red-and-white amaryllis in a vintage metal flour tin. Purple sage marries beautifully with different types of lavender.

The end result is often a snapshot of the season. A prickly arm of not-quite-ripe blackberries or dark-pink plums announce late summer. The branches of apricot and oranges, which line the roads in California, will be hard to come by, but its an idea. Try rosy-red crab apple in August instead.
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Dexter Highlights Its DexTemp 1000 IR Temperature Monitor

Finding an accurate thermometer that can measure temperature at a distance is hard to come by, especially if you dont have the pockets to shell out thousands of dollars for military-grade sensors (the kind usually installed in fighter jets).Some users of IR temperature sensors may not need that level of accuracy but are looking for something more affordable as well as smaller that has incredible accuracy in its own right. This is where Dexter Research Center shines, as the company released its DexTemp 1000 Non-Contact IR Temperature Monitor last month.

The sensor is roughly the size of a Flash drive and projects an infrared beam that monitors the radiation emitted from the surface of an object at a distance. Dexter designed the sensor around a thermopile detector it developed that converts thermal energy into electrical energy by the temperature differences (gradient) between both sides of the device.

The voltage produced by the DexTemp 1000 due to the temperature gradient taken by the IR beam is then translated into a real-time graph that allows the user to monitor and record said object's radiation temperature. The sensor is connected to a PC through a USB connection, which is used in conjunction with Dexter Research Centers software on Windows-based systems.

Those who think Dexters temperature sensor is still too large for application purposes may want to take a look at Thermodo -- an ultra-small electric thermometer capable of taking the ambient temperature readings in your immediate area. The thermometer, designed by Robocat, uses a plug-in temperature sensor (coupled with a convenient carrying key ring for portability) that connects to your mobile devices headphone jack. Once connected, the device automatically starts to monitor the temperature in your area and can be monitored on your mobile device using an app that displays real-time temperature information in a graph form. This allows the users to garner temperature information in their local areas instead of using weather reports from local stations located miles away.

Robocat successfully funded Thermodo on Kickstarter, surpassing its initial goal of US$35,Choose from a large selection of Customized Silicone Bracelets to raise awareness.000 with more than $330,000 in pledges. Prices start at $19 for the Black Edition all the way up to $2,999, which nets you a personalized Anodized Aluminum Edition (multiple colors will be available) with your name engraved on it, as well as becoming a consultant of sorts for the Robocat team in refining the Thermodo. At that price level,Winbo photo frames backers also receive a tour of Copenhagen (where the Robocat office is located), ending with dinner with the design team. The estimated release date for those who have backed the project is sometime in August of this year, with no word yet when it will become available to the public.

Based on the peer-to-peer bittorrent protocol, it consisted of a Firefox browser plugin that offered a dead-simple way for users to share files on their computer with anybody else in their AllPeers buddy list. Sadly, however, the startup was arguably ahead of its time and deadpooled in 2008.

(When I met the defunct companys co-founder and serial entrepreneur Cedric Maloux in 2011,Handy Pocket Mirror with hinged lid that doubles as a stand. I excitedly uttered the words, you were like Dropbox before Dropbox. He gave me a look in return that only those who have failed startup scars can truly appreciate.)Of course, it could be argued that in the time thats passed, the one-to-one and one-to-many file sharing problem has largely been solved thanks to the cloud and a plethora of file sharing and cloud-storage services that ride its coattails. But still, I couldnt help have my interest piqued when hearing about French startup Infinit, which enters private Beta today with a new P2P file sharing service that is more than a little reminiscent of the simplicity of AllPeers.I was looking for an option to Customizable Ear Caps to wear with my half.

Shunning bittorrent for its own file sharing technology developed off the back of co-founder Julien Quintards PhD research on decentralized file systems while at the University of Cambridge the Mac OSX-only app sees Infinits service integrated directly with OSXs Finder, not dissimilar to Apples own AirDrop for local network file sharing.

Once installed, the Infinit icon shows up in the users Finder favourites, just like their own home folder or an attached USB drive, for example, whilst the Infinit interface consists of 8 avatars seven of your most shared with friends plus yourself and a search bar for finding and sharing with others, including based on their email address. File transfers are initiated via a simple drag and drop of the content you wish to share onto the avatar of the person you wish to share it with, and a menu item in the Finders menu bar keeps tabs on how file transfers are progressing, new file transfer requests, and access to other settings.

In terms of security, Infinit says it uses direct encryption for files transferred between a senders device and a recipients device, ensuring both security and privacy such that no third-party can ever interact with or access the exchanged data, including Infinit itself.

Pricing-wise, Infinit will offer a free option with a limit of 2GB for file sizes, and various paid plans where file size will be unlimited. In addition,This vertical Cable Organizer can be mounted to either. it says that anyone who downloads Infinit during its private Beta will get an unlimited version of the file transfer application for life.
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The Best Heel Turns in NHL History

Daniel Alfredssons decision to spurn the Ottawa Senators and sign with the Detroit Red Wings was a lot of things. A reminder that anything can happen in pro sports. A shift in the balance of power of one of the leagues toughest divisions. A cautionary tale of the dangers in a fan base placing too much faith in one player. 

And heres one more: It was a damn near perfect pro wrestlingCstyle heel turn.Winbo photo framesIt had all the elements. There was the subtle shift in personality that turned out to be ironic foreshadowing. Then came the sudden, devastating blindside that his adoring fans never saw coming. And he followed it up with a classic post-turn explanation, twisting the knife even further with quotes like It pretty much came down to a selfish decision and Im not worried about my legacy in Ottawa. 

He hasnt even bothered to take out the now-obligatory good-bye/thank you ad in local papers.Choose from a large selection of Customized Silicone Bracelets to raise awareness. Alfredsson couldnt have turned heel any more brilliantly if hed paused to spray-paint DRW on Spartacats back.NHL history is filled with villains who are hated across the league but loved (or at least tolerated) by the home crowd. But Alfredsson was a reminder that every now and then, we get treated to something far more entertaining the hometown hero who dramatically turns his back on the fans. 

This list will be filled with deserters those who abandoned a team and a fan base that wanted them around. Sundin somehow pulled off the opposite. He blindsided a franchise by refusing to leave. 

Well, its not quite that simple, so lets set the scene. The 2007-08 Maple Leafs were a mess. They were headed to a third straight season of missing the playoffs, a first in franchise history. The GM had just been fired. The coach was clearly going next. And fans and media alike were demanding that the team blow up its roster of high-priced veterans and finally embark on a desperately needed rebuild. 

It was the right call, and there was reason to believe that trading away players like Sundin, Tomas Kaberle, Bryan McCabe, and Darcy Tucker could land the team the sort of blue-chip building blocks it would need to someday reemerge as a contender. In Toronto,Handy Pocket Mirror with hinged lid that doubles as a stand. that mere possibility was enough to create some long-absent optimism. 

There was only one problem: Sundin & Friends all had no-trade clauses. And days before the trade deadline, the captain made his decision: He wasnt going anywhere. Predictably, the rest of the veterans quickly fell in line and also refused to waive their clauses, and the Leafs golden opportunity was lost. 

Sundins decision was frustrating but understandable, and if the story had ended there then it wouldnt be on this list. But after announcing it, Sundin went on to offer up a bizarre explanation that included his desire to finish his career with the Maple Leafs and his adamant belief that the opportunity to chase a Stanley Cup would only be meaningful if he was on a team from October through June. 

Jagrs relationship with the city of Pittsburgh was always complicated. He spent the first 11 seasons of his career as a Penguin, establishing himself as one of the leagues best players and setting several franchise records. But his contract demands (and a burgeoning reputation as a diva) paved the way for his eventual exit in a 2001 trade with Washington. When he made his emotional return to Pittsburgh as a member of the Capitals, Penguin fans gave him a standing ovation but also booed him every time he touched the puck. Like I said, it was complicated. 

After almost three mostly disappointing seasons in Washington, Jagr appeared to end his NHL career as a Ranger before leaving for the KHL in 2008 at the age of 36. But after three seasons overseas, he announced his intention to return to North America. And almost immediately,This vertical Cable Organizer can be mounted to either. it became clear that there was only one logical destination: Jagr would go back to Pittsburgh, chasing one final Stanley Cup alongside Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin while making peace with the fans who were more than ready to welcome him back with open arms. 

Or not. After a bizarre few days filled with offers, counter-offers, rampant speculation, rumors of Jagr being spotted on a flight to Pittsburgh, and an airport turtle invasion (dont ask), the Penguins declared that they were dropping out of the bidding. Nobody believed them by this point, Jagr to Pittsburgh had just become too irresistible. 

Gretzky worked hard to maintain a squeaky-clean image throughout his NHL career, and with a handful of exceptions he was successful. His dominant play on the ice combined with a quiet, uncontroversial personality off of it helped him become one of North Americas most beloved athletes. By the time his playing career was over and hed moved into coaching and management roles, it was probably fair to say that nobody in the hockey world disliked Wayne Gretzky. 

Thats why it was so shocking to see Gretzky break out one of the sports most memorable rants at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games. After watching his handpicked Team Canada struggle through its opening three games, Gretzky took to the lectern to deliver an epic and (he claims) unscripted us against the world speech. 

He called out dirty play by European teams and accused referees of having a double standard against Canadian players.I was looking for an option to Customizable Ear Caps to wear with my half. He even went all PG-13 on us by referring to the officiating as a pile of crap. But he saved most of his venom for the United States, singling out U.S. fans for rooting against Canada and complaining that his team was being targeted by American propaganda." 

Gretzky had managed to go full heel on the United States while remaining a hero in Canada (a page straight out of the playbook of Canadas other most-decorated athlete). More importantly, he successfully made himself the story, relieving the crushing pressure that was being felt by the players.

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Weaving loyalty cards into phones

Why? Because the loyalty card is broken, according to CEO David Sear. ‘We think there’s a problem with loyalty,’ he says. ‘One; nobody is loyal. Two; even if they are, there’s a high potential for them to have left their card at home. Three; people really don’t use rewards. Maybe that’s good for retailers as they never have to redeem them but it doesn’t create the kind of loyalty that they are striving for. Four; the technology for doing retail is different at every retailer, so how can it work?’

The solution is in a smartphone. While stressing the tests are at an early stage, Sear says the plan is to place all of a customer’s loyalty cards into one app. ‘How much better would it be if you had one simple container and not a dumb piece of plastic?’ he says. One app would mean you could still get Tesco points when you inevitably forget your Clubcard, for example.  Points would be earned and redeemed by using NFC and by placing all of the loyalty schemes into one place, it would remove the need to sift through pages of apps at the tillpoint.

But wouldn’t retailers object to having their rivals’ loyalty cards in the same place? ‘We need to put loyalty through a common interface. That’s the big sell of it. The very best loyalty programmes can only hit around 40% penetration. A lot of them do a lot less.’

Sear argues greater convenience will make loyalty RFID tag an easier sell, with retailers still having access to the same data they historically did. ‘It wouldn’t change the way you shop. They keep their data and it runs on their rails. The data is protected between competitors and it replicates the way consumers operate.’

As things stand, it is only mobile marketing that is happening in earnest at Weve. The company is on the verge of launching its 350th campaign. Referring to it as ‘narrowcasting’, Sear says mobile has an advantage over television because you are guaranteed what market you are advertising to – while data is anonymised, the more information a consumer allows its operator to access, the better the advertising they will get.

Sear says fast moving consumer goods from companies such as Unilever and Proctor and Gamble have used mobile marketing for consumer awareness purposes. Handset manufacturers have also got into the game and Tesco has geofenced certain stores, targeting people outside those areas with vouchers if they spend a minimum amount. Sear claims out of the top 250 brands, Weve is working with 175 of them. He says: ‘It’s companies who are coming to us and surprising with ideas that is piquing our interest. They are thinking about this capability and the kind of data that we hold that is relevant to their business. The companies that will make the biggest impact are the ones who figure out how it will work with their business model.’

Weve’s CEO is an enthusiastic cheerleader for the possibilities of mobile to change the retail experience. After years of being decimated by internet competition, it could be devices connected to the web that could bring people back to shops. He says: ‘We want to streamline the customer experience to make them much happier to be in shops. This could be the saviour of the high street. If retailers want people to do more physical browsing, what better way than to use the messages they have got and send them to mobiles?’

Major General Jihad al-Jabiri, head of the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior’s bomb squad, held a press conference at the ministry officer’s club in Baghdad. Car bomb attacks in the city had killed 127 people and wounded at least 400 more the previous day, and al-Jabiri had come to answer criticism of the explosives-detection devices deployed at the city’s 1,400 checkpoints. To prove the effectiveness of the equipment, known as the ADE 651, al-Jabiri had arranged a live demonstration before the world’s TV cameras. Standing with him at a lectern bristling with microphones was Pierre Georgiou, the retired Lebanese general who had helped bring the device to Iraq. Alongside stood the manufacturer, a portly Englishman. His name was James McCormick.

Arranged on a table nearby were examples of household items Iraqi citizens often complained had set off the bomb detectors: bottles of shampoo and hot sauce; a plastic jar of pickles; two tubs of cream; and a box of tissues. A uniformed member of al-Jabiri’s bomb squad walked slowly forward, holding in his hand an ADE 651—a swiveling telescopic antenna mounted on a black plastic pistol grip and connected by a cable to a pouch on his belt. As he passed the table once, the antenna continued to point straight ahead. But after two hand grenades had been placed on the table, the bomb technician made a second pass, and the antenna slowly turned left and pointed directly at the explosives. Afterward, al-Jabiri assured the press that the ADE 651 had similarly located “hundreds of roadside bombs and car bombs.” McCormick dismissed U.S. military assertions that the detectors were worthless. “We’ve created a product that fits a demand here in Iraq,” he explained. “Just not necessarily in all countries.”

What McCormick failed to mention was that the device was not, strictly speaking, his own invention, or that he knew very well it wouldn’t detect explosives. The ADE 651 was modeled on a novelty trinket conceived decades before by a former used-car salesman from South Carolina, which was purported to detect golf balls. It wasn’t even good at that.

The ADE 651, and similar devices sold by McCormick over the decade or so he spent in the explosives-detection business, owe their existence to Wade Quattlebaum, president of Quadro in Harleyville, S.C. At the beginning of the 1990s, Quattlebaum—a sometime car dealer, commercial diver, and treasure hunter whose formal education ended in high school—began promoting a new detection technology he called the Quadro Tracker Positive Molecular Locator, which he claimed could help law enforcement agencies find everything from contraband to missing persons. Quattlebaum said he originally invented the device to find lost balls on the golf course but had since refined it to locate marijuana, cocaine, heroin, gunpowder, and dynamite by detecting the individual “molecular frequency” of each substance.

The Tracker consisted of a handheld unit, with an antenna mounted on a plastic handgrip, and a belt-mounted box slightly smaller than a VHS cassette, built to contain “carbo-crystallized” software cards programmed, Quattlebaum said, with the specific frequency of whatever the user wished to find. No batteries were necessary. The Tracker was powered by the static electricity created by the operator’s own body; when it found what it was looking for, the antenna automatically turned to point at its quarry. Prices for the device varied from $395 for a basic model to $8,000 for one capable of locating individual human beings, which required a Polaroid photograph of the person to be loaded into the programming box.

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Credit check

There's been a lot of weirdness around credit cards as of late. I've found that out purely by coincidence, both personally and professionally. Take my TD Bank debit card (Go ahead! There's not much in the account anyway). Not only do I never leave home without it,some foreign customers think China plastic card quality is very poor. but I often find myself returning home without it as well. Rivaled only by my cellphone in the, "stuff that gets left behind no matter where I go" category, my name embossed plastic has taken its rightful place in several stacks of missing cards, well secured by rubber bands in safes, behind the bar, and in the offices of restaurants all over town. 

That is typically discovered while reaching for it the next day when my car is well below the empty mark at the automated gas station with no attendant taking cash (think BJ's or Sam's Club), or after I've shopped for two hours at Shaw's.Luckily, the latter still takes paper checks and I still write them, but on a side note, Shaw's is on to the pain and agony of the whole plastic card thing. They have recently done away with the Rewards Card program and my snazzy wallet looks drab without their bright orange card peeking out from behind the place where my debit card is supposed to be. 

Additionally, I am suspicious as to how certain items can still cost less than anywhere else. Like other Shaw's faithful, I am trained and conditioned to religiously utilize the formerly well-promoted and seemingly necessary money saving tool. What's next? My CVS key chaincard? Intellectually, I always knew it was a marketing ploy, but I still feel a little deceived and cheated. It will take a while for them to regain my trust. 

Shaw's and CVS aside,High quality plastic card printing for business cards, if the night my debit card was "misplaced" was a straight line from point A to point B, retrieving it is nothing more than a mildly embarrassing moment where a quick phone call is in order. If the evening consisted of hopping about with another person or two and we took turns buying, it requires a bit more sleuthing to locate it. There have even been moments when thinking the card was lost forever, I replaced it at my local branch, only to have a server say, "Hey! I think we have your card from the last time you were here in the register drawer." The initial reaction is, "Why didn't you guys call me, or email me or something and let me know it was here?" But let's face it, leaving it behind was my oversight and restaurants have enough to do without managing the "Land of the Lost." 

Professionally, credit card stuff can turn ugly when mistakes (by both the guest and the server/bartender) are made. Here's a list of some of the more common, yet serious offenses that occur in the hospitality industry:Servers changing the charge tip that was written in because the sale amount, the tip and the bottom line addition doesn't add up favorably. The bottom line is the bottom line, and that's what the customer signed off on. One of my favorite servers was recently fired from his full time job for this very thing.Guests changing the charge tip that was written in when an automatic gratuity for a large party was previously acknowledged and agreed upon.Servers collecting two or more checks at once and processing the wrong credit card for the wrong check. Not only is that time consuming to correct, but banks don't rush making those adjustments. It ends up holding up the customer's cash and looks as if the establishment has erred again.Clubs and bars charging a "Closing Out Fee" when a card is left behind by mistake. Because tabs must be closed out to process (batch) the credit card sales for the day, college towns have been known to charge a fee of 10 to 20 percent to do so. That is obviously in lieu of the tip, and I doubt it's legal without a signature. 

Servers who lift credit card numbers and actually steal from guests via loosely secured Internet purchases. That happened a few years back at a great little place in Falmouth and while they bounced back from that nightmare, it's the first thing that crosses my mind when I go there. That is indeed a rare event, and could have happened in any industry.Equally as unthinkable is the person who writes, "cash" in the tip line but doesn't really leave any cash on the table. Yes, that really happens and while it may not be a credit card offense per se, it is an intentional act of seriously bad karma. 

Credit and debit cards are a way of life, especially in the hospitality industry and fortunately, I am more careful with other people's plastic than my own. Like my cellphone, which now has an iPhone tracking app, I am considering putting velcro on my debit card and stashing a $20 bill in a secret place for those rare moment when I pull into the full service Big Apple. 

The Down Low: In our crazy business, despite front-and-back-of-the-house employee squabbles and seniority/newbie backstabbing, we usually have a great deal of respect for each other. Many places wisely show the love by offering special late night (post shift) happy hour prices and food discounts for fellow hospitality workers. In addition to pumping up revenue for the house during slow periods, the staff is ecstatic because no one, and I mean no one, tips in cash more lavishly than a kindred spirit with sore feet. 
Every place that holds a hospitality night it is swell in my book, but few top Otto's Pizza who has rack cards saying, "Please join us in good faith for a bona fide "Industry Night" for food and beverage service workers." They host that to-do the Monday after each first Friday and not much makes me feel better about making $3.75 an hour than a free slice of Otto's Pizza. 

On an incremental basis, nearly 25% of HDFC Bank's credit cards are now sourced from rural and semi-urban markets even as 40% of Indian population is believed to be in want of a bank account.About IC card in China used for paying transportation fares and for shopping. The bank has started setting up point-of-sale (POS) terminals across merchant establishments in these geographies to encourage customers in using credit cards. 

"The potential for growth is significantly high in smaller markets since the penetration of credit cards in these areas is relatively low. In the last couple of years, we have increased our investments on the acquisition side and expanding the number of POS terminals in rural and semi-urban locations," Parag Rao, senior executive vice president and business head for credit cards and merchant acquiring services at HDFC Bank, told Business Standard. 

He added that HDFC Bank is now offering credit cards along with other retail banking products across most of its branches in rural and semi-urban centres. "We aim to cover all the locations where we have branches. All our rural and semi-urban branches, barring a few that have started functioning recently, are offering credit cards to the bank's customers," Rao said. 

The bank currently has more than half of its 3,062 branches in rural and semi-urban markets. The private lender opened 518 branches in 2012-13 of which 459 were in these markets. HDFC Bank is currently the largest issuer of credit cards in the country with a portfolio of 6.53 million cards. On an average, it issues around 70,000 cards every month.