Air travel has become so common that traversing miles of air distance hardly evokes the awe and wonder of a previous age. I remember getting into Seoul's Gimpo (formerly Kimpo) Airport long ago when the place invariably and without apology exuded the spicy aroma of kim chee land. Less obtrusive but also assertive of its local uniqueness was Haneda in Tokyo, and Hongqiao in Shanghai. Now, Seoul international is in Incheon, Tokyo's is in Narita, and Shanghai's is in Pudong.
Incheon's global ambience has become so blandly unobtrusive that the only whiff of kim chee one gasps is in what emanates from the kim chee plate at the kiosk, its scent sucked quickly into the ventilation system that drives the distinctive aroma away from those who take offense from the odiferous offering!
In 1965, we sailed from Manila to San Francisco in one of the President Lines' ships and the voyage took 20 days. It took only 10 actual flying time to travel from Shenyang to Honolulu via Incheon. When we sailed, the diversity in the passenger manifest showed American students who came to Asia for summer, while the Asian students were heading to schools and universities for the fall. Being the last voyage before the fall semester, the sea lanes heard many student songs.
The polyglot at the airports was just as noticeable even in the regional hub of Shenyang. Ethnic diversity among flyers is a reality in all of the hubs with the only difference being the ethnicity of the terminal's vendors who tend to be predominantly local. Waiting for my connecting flight in Incheon, the family on my left spoke various shades of Pinoy while the African couple on my right spoke French. Directly in front were sub-Asians of Urdu and Tamil tongues, and the ones behind spoke Arabic. My plane seatmates onward to Honolulu claimed to speak primarily Guangdonghua!
Unless one takes the mid-Pacific route to America via Guam, Saipan passengers connect through Incheon or Narita for the arctic route to the continent. We had a few Chamorro hafa tots running around our terminal wing.
On board Korean Air, stewards and stewardesses clothed their service with hospitable and gracious smiles, in stark contrast to the cold precision of disciplined efficiency often cadenced on airlines of our familiarity from the West. Korean Air prepared us for the Aloha ways of the land of the rainbow connection in Hawaii. The Hangguel saram (Koreans) constitute a substantial portion of the Hawaiian population, and they no longer need to have a visa before alighting on a flight to the United States.
The fast track down O'ahu way is a bit schizoid, following the demand of punctuality that contemporary Western commercial style requires in time and attire with the laidback coconut time of the islands that tend to wait for the fruit to ripen before it falls. The image of tranquility in paradise after all is that of a surfer on firm foothold in the hollow of a wave as it crashes on the beach and the surfer avoids tumbling into the shore. Tranquility in the Pacific is hardly without tension. It is rather about standing at the pivot point of the yin-yang while it swirls to balance life's natural contradictions.
In a nation that had turned Reagan's lighthearted “trust and verify” advice to the solemn and serious “suspect, defend, and verify” of current DHS culture, the Hawaii of our familiar has become a state under siege by phantom elements that people official (a close associate works for Corrections and his eyes blazes with suspicion) and fear brainwashed citizens' imagination. It is well for the visitor to decide when it is appropriate to follow which style. Many a Hawaiian vacation hinges on this awareness.
We are on the hula palm sway to visit 92-year-old mother convalescing at a nursing home after a fall in the fall. Having caught a cough in the prolonged cold of winter up Dong Bei (Manchuria) way whose carbon-laden skies had seen blue only twice in the last 30 days, we self-quarantined ourselves from visiting the nursing home so as not to expose the residents to additional possible intruders now that the flu has been seen to be rampant across the country. Mother's attending physician exuded gratitude upon learning of our intermediate decision.
Mother Nature is not as tranquil. The overcast sky above the famed Ala Moana skyline (taken from the Pagoda Hotel where CNMI medical referrals are usually billeted) has yet to clear since we arrived. Hearing of the tornado watches and path wreckages in the Midwest, along with the rain undrained in unabated floods elsewhere, and the droughts where a drop of rain could sustain life heading toward oblivion, makes us wonder if Gaia has reached her nerves' end.
On two occasions, tornadoes have ripped through the Daiki Corp. steel manufacturing plant that employs more than 90 people in this small community. Both times, everyone inside escaped serious injury.
The sprawling facility won't be reopening anytime soon after the storm that hit Wednesday, however: Most of it has been reduced to a pile of rubble, little more than mangled beams and twisted steel. The first time, in 2002, a tornado tossed the roof into the parking lot. Ventilation fans, ductwork and wiring were torn away.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
The Hershey Management Discusses
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to The Hershey Company's Fourth Quarter 2012 Conference Call. J.P. Bilbrey, President and CEO; Bert Alfonso, Senior Vice President and CFO; and I will represent Hershey on this morning's call. We also welcome those of you listening in on the webcast.
Let me remind everyone listening that today's conference call may contain statements, which are forward-looking. These statements are based on current expectations, which are subject to risk and uncertainty. Actual results may vary materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements because of factors such as those listed in this morning's press release and in our 10-K for 2011 filed with the SEC. If you have not seen the press release, a copy is posted on our corporate website in the Investor Relations section. Included in the press release is a consolidated balance sheet and a summary of consolidated statements of income prepared in accordance with GAAP.
Within the Notes section of the press release, we have provided adjusted pro forma reconciliations of select income statement line items quantitatively reconciled to GAAP. The company uses these non-GAAP measures as key metrics for evaluating performance internally. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to replace the presentation of financial results in accordance with GAAP, rather the company believes the presentation of earnings, excluding certain items, provides additional information to investors to facilitate the comparison of past and present operations.
Thanks, Mark, and good morning to everyone on the phone and webcast. I'm pleased with Hershey's fourth quarter and full year financial and marketplace results, which represent a solid end to another good year. We accomplished our 2012 objectives while growing adjusted EPS 14.5%, our fourth consecutive year of double-digit percentage increases. We continue to build and execute our consumer-centric business model and are creating a virtuous cycle that is delivering predictable, profitable and sustainable results. We've accelerated profitable organic sales growth, increased our leadership position in the U.S. marketplace, boosted margins and returns and delivered record profitability. Outside of the U.S. and Canada our businesses continue to grow and, barring any dramatic changes related to foreign currency, we're on a path to achieve net sales of $1 billion in these markets by the end of 2014. We're operating from a position of strength. We believe there are far more opportunities ahead than successes behind us because at The Hershey Company, the future is not where we're headed but what we're creating.
Now for an overview of the U.S. candy, mint and gum category. Growth was solid in 2012 and within the 3% to 4% historical growth rate. As has been the case for the last few years, the gum category has been challenged. Excluding a decline of minus 5.5% for the gum category this year, chocolate, sweets and refreshment grew a combined 5.2% in 2012. This increase outpaced other snack alternatives such as salty snacks, cookies and crackers.
Promoters of the $38 billion Severn Barrage tidal energy project in the UK are ramping up their lobbying for the scheme, saying it would require smaller subsidies than those afforded to wind energy, and probably around the same level as nuclear, Bloomberg reports. Gregory Shenkman, chairman of Hafren Power, told a hearing in the House of Commons in London that the project – which involves a dam-like structure spanning the 18km width of the Severn River and 1,026 turbines – would be economically viable. “We plan to finance this project entirely from private sources, and it’s taken five to six years to get here so far, said Shenkman.
However, he said the project would need 30 years of support through subsidies. Across its 120 year life span, the project could produce power at about $70/MWh, nearly half the cost of nuclear. Bloomberg said the project has yet to have an environmental impact assessment. An earlier tender for a Severn power plant was ditched in 2010 because the governments said it would rely too heavily on public funds. It is estimated that it could provide 5 per cent of the UK’s energy requirements.
Meanwhile, French energy supply giant Alstom has completed the acquisition of ocean turbine maker Tidal Generation for around $78 million. The deal gives Alstom access to a 1MW turbine installed this month at the European Marine Energy Center in the Orkney Islands. Alstom says the machine has a rotor diameter of 18m, a 22m metres long nacelle and weighs 150 tonnes. It has three pitchable blades, and operates at a water depth of 40 meters, by rotating to face the incoming tide at an optimal angle, to extract the maximum energy potential.
Last week, French engineering group DCNS paid $176 million for majority stake in OpenHydro. Alstom also bought 40 percent of AWS Ocean Energy in 2011 and is working with UK utility SSE to use wave-power systems at a 200MW project off northern Scotland. Alstom also makes turbines for offshore wind farms, Bloomberg reports.
Let me remind everyone listening that today's conference call may contain statements, which are forward-looking. These statements are based on current expectations, which are subject to risk and uncertainty. Actual results may vary materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements because of factors such as those listed in this morning's press release and in our 10-K for 2011 filed with the SEC. If you have not seen the press release, a copy is posted on our corporate website in the Investor Relations section. Included in the press release is a consolidated balance sheet and a summary of consolidated statements of income prepared in accordance with GAAP.
Within the Notes section of the press release, we have provided adjusted pro forma reconciliations of select income statement line items quantitatively reconciled to GAAP. The company uses these non-GAAP measures as key metrics for evaluating performance internally. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to replace the presentation of financial results in accordance with GAAP, rather the company believes the presentation of earnings, excluding certain items, provides additional information to investors to facilitate the comparison of past and present operations.
Thanks, Mark, and good morning to everyone on the phone and webcast. I'm pleased with Hershey's fourth quarter and full year financial and marketplace results, which represent a solid end to another good year. We accomplished our 2012 objectives while growing adjusted EPS 14.5%, our fourth consecutive year of double-digit percentage increases. We continue to build and execute our consumer-centric business model and are creating a virtuous cycle that is delivering predictable, profitable and sustainable results. We've accelerated profitable organic sales growth, increased our leadership position in the U.S. marketplace, boosted margins and returns and delivered record profitability. Outside of the U.S. and Canada our businesses continue to grow and, barring any dramatic changes related to foreign currency, we're on a path to achieve net sales of $1 billion in these markets by the end of 2014. We're operating from a position of strength. We believe there are far more opportunities ahead than successes behind us because at The Hershey Company, the future is not where we're headed but what we're creating.
Now for an overview of the U.S. candy, mint and gum category. Growth was solid in 2012 and within the 3% to 4% historical growth rate. As has been the case for the last few years, the gum category has been challenged. Excluding a decline of minus 5.5% for the gum category this year, chocolate, sweets and refreshment grew a combined 5.2% in 2012. This increase outpaced other snack alternatives such as salty snacks, cookies and crackers.
Promoters of the $38 billion Severn Barrage tidal energy project in the UK are ramping up their lobbying for the scheme, saying it would require smaller subsidies than those afforded to wind energy, and probably around the same level as nuclear, Bloomberg reports. Gregory Shenkman, chairman of Hafren Power, told a hearing in the House of Commons in London that the project – which involves a dam-like structure spanning the 18km width of the Severn River and 1,026 turbines – would be economically viable. “We plan to finance this project entirely from private sources, and it’s taken five to six years to get here so far, said Shenkman.
However, he said the project would need 30 years of support through subsidies. Across its 120 year life span, the project could produce power at about $70/MWh, nearly half the cost of nuclear. Bloomberg said the project has yet to have an environmental impact assessment. An earlier tender for a Severn power plant was ditched in 2010 because the governments said it would rely too heavily on public funds. It is estimated that it could provide 5 per cent of the UK’s energy requirements.
Meanwhile, French energy supply giant Alstom has completed the acquisition of ocean turbine maker Tidal Generation for around $78 million. The deal gives Alstom access to a 1MW turbine installed this month at the European Marine Energy Center in the Orkney Islands. Alstom says the machine has a rotor diameter of 18m, a 22m metres long nacelle and weighs 150 tonnes. It has three pitchable blades, and operates at a water depth of 40 meters, by rotating to face the incoming tide at an optimal angle, to extract the maximum energy potential.
Last week, French engineering group DCNS paid $176 million for majority stake in OpenHydro. Alstom also bought 40 percent of AWS Ocean Energy in 2011 and is working with UK utility SSE to use wave-power systems at a 200MW project off northern Scotland. Alstom also makes turbines for offshore wind farms, Bloomberg reports.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Obama's Climate Push to Benefit Energy-Saving Companies
President Barack Obama's promise to attack climate change is likely to light a fire under federal agencies slow to comply with a mandate to cut energy use - which could be very good news for companies that specialize in systems that save power.
Waiting in the wings are the likes of Honeywell International Inc, Johnson Controls Inc and Ameresco Inc that are ready to carry out heating and cooling system upgrades, lighting retrofits and similar projects in some of the government's 500,000 buildings.
Efficiency projects, according to many, are a key way the government can reduce its own energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions without seeking additional funds from Congress.
Many of these projects are implemented under so-called energy savings performance contracts in which a company develops, installs and arranges financing for improvements to boost energy efficiency and lower costs. The energy service company guarantees the project's energy savings and services are repaid through those savings.
In late 2009, Obama mandated that federal agencies make significant reductions in energy consumption. The aim was for the government to "lead by example" by upgrading many of its facilities. Two years later, the administration tried to jumpstart that work by setting a goal for federal agencies to enter into at least $2 billion of energy efficiency projects within two years.
"There is a lot more potential in the program than what's been done today," said Adam Procell, executive vice president at Lime Energy Co, which works with larger companies such as Johnson Controls to design and install energy efficiency projects for federal customers.
With Obama renewing his commitment to combat climate change in his second inaugural address this week, some expect to see more pressure on agencies to get going on those projects.
"If President Obama was to let all of his administrators know that this was an important priority of his, you could see reacceleration of this market in a relatively short period of time," said Wedbush Securities analyst Craig Irwin, who follows energy efficiency companies.
With less than a year left to reach the $2 billion goal, major efficiency companies have been working to develop project proposals and expect a string of contracts to be awarded this year.
"In the last six months, federal government activity has heated up," Paul Orzeske, president of Honeywell Building Solutions, said in an interview. "That's going to step up as the year goes on."
In October, Honeywell won an $80.6 million project to improve energy efficiency at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, the largest such project ever awarded by the federal government, according to Orzeske. Most such projects are in the $10 million to $15 million range, he added.
The upgrades are expected to save more than $170 million over 20 years, guaranteed by Honeywell through the contract.
Other energy service companies poised to benefit from federal project awards include Ameresco and United Technologies Corp's Noresco unit, both of which have been active in the federal market in recent years. Other companies that have done federal projects in the past include Clark Energy Group LLC, Siemens AG and Schneider Electric SA.
The U.S. market for energy efficiency and services topped $5.1 billion in 2011, according to Pike Research, and is expected to reach $16 billion in sales by 2020. The market is dominated by municipal, university, school and hospital projects, but demand from federal agencies has increased because of the Obama administration's mandate and economic stimulus programs, the report said.
Johnson Controls Building Efficiency's vice president of government relations, Mark Wagner, said the government has not yet addressed what will happen once it meets its $2 billion goal, but he was encouraged by Obama's renewed pledge to address climate change.
"The budget is going to be tight in the federal government for the foreseeable future," Wagner said. "If government agencies want to make their facilities more efficient, performance contracting is the way to address their needs and to address climate change."
Johnson Controls won a $16 million contract in late 2011 to put in a solar energy installation and make other efficiency improvements at Fort Bliss, the nation's largest military installation.
Smaller companies that supply equipment or software to the project developers could also see a boost from federal projects, according to Aditya Ranade, who leads the sustainable building materials team at technology research firm Lux Research.
Specifically, Ranade called out LED and lighting systems companies Acuity Brands Inc and Digital Lumens and Optimum Energy LLC, which uses software and cloud computing to optimize heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, as companies that could see a boost in orders from federal contracts.
Waiting in the wings are the likes of Honeywell International Inc, Johnson Controls Inc and Ameresco Inc that are ready to carry out heating and cooling system upgrades, lighting retrofits and similar projects in some of the government's 500,000 buildings.
Efficiency projects, according to many, are a key way the government can reduce its own energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions without seeking additional funds from Congress.
Many of these projects are implemented under so-called energy savings performance contracts in which a company develops, installs and arranges financing for improvements to boost energy efficiency and lower costs. The energy service company guarantees the project's energy savings and services are repaid through those savings.
In late 2009, Obama mandated that federal agencies make significant reductions in energy consumption. The aim was for the government to "lead by example" by upgrading many of its facilities. Two years later, the administration tried to jumpstart that work by setting a goal for federal agencies to enter into at least $2 billion of energy efficiency projects within two years.
"There is a lot more potential in the program than what's been done today," said Adam Procell, executive vice president at Lime Energy Co, which works with larger companies such as Johnson Controls to design and install energy efficiency projects for federal customers.
With Obama renewing his commitment to combat climate change in his second inaugural address this week, some expect to see more pressure on agencies to get going on those projects.
"If President Obama was to let all of his administrators know that this was an important priority of his, you could see reacceleration of this market in a relatively short period of time," said Wedbush Securities analyst Craig Irwin, who follows energy efficiency companies.
With less than a year left to reach the $2 billion goal, major efficiency companies have been working to develop project proposals and expect a string of contracts to be awarded this year.
"In the last six months, federal government activity has heated up," Paul Orzeske, president of Honeywell Building Solutions, said in an interview. "That's going to step up as the year goes on."
In October, Honeywell won an $80.6 million project to improve energy efficiency at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, the largest such project ever awarded by the federal government, according to Orzeske. Most such projects are in the $10 million to $15 million range, he added.
The upgrades are expected to save more than $170 million over 20 years, guaranteed by Honeywell through the contract.
Other energy service companies poised to benefit from federal project awards include Ameresco and United Technologies Corp's Noresco unit, both of which have been active in the federal market in recent years. Other companies that have done federal projects in the past include Clark Energy Group LLC, Siemens AG and Schneider Electric SA.
The U.S. market for energy efficiency and services topped $5.1 billion in 2011, according to Pike Research, and is expected to reach $16 billion in sales by 2020. The market is dominated by municipal, university, school and hospital projects, but demand from federal agencies has increased because of the Obama administration's mandate and economic stimulus programs, the report said.
Johnson Controls Building Efficiency's vice president of government relations, Mark Wagner, said the government has not yet addressed what will happen once it meets its $2 billion goal, but he was encouraged by Obama's renewed pledge to address climate change.
"The budget is going to be tight in the federal government for the foreseeable future," Wagner said. "If government agencies want to make their facilities more efficient, performance contracting is the way to address their needs and to address climate change."
Johnson Controls won a $16 million contract in late 2011 to put in a solar energy installation and make other efficiency improvements at Fort Bliss, the nation's largest military installation.
Smaller companies that supply equipment or software to the project developers could also see a boost from federal projects, according to Aditya Ranade, who leads the sustainable building materials team at technology research firm Lux Research.
Specifically, Ranade called out LED and lighting systems companies Acuity Brands Inc and Digital Lumens and Optimum Energy LLC, which uses software and cloud computing to optimize heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, as companies that could see a boost in orders from federal contracts.
Mint Announces Signing of Agreement with Arab Link Money Transfer
Arab Link provides a comprehensive range of currency exchange and money transfer services for individuals and businesses. A formal Remittance Product Agreement ("RPA") will be developed and executed over the next 30 days. Mint and Arab Link will then begin to offer Money Transfer services to Mint's payroll cardholder base in UAE for sending money home.
Mint payroll cardholders will be able to access money remittance services through Mint ATMs, Mint POS machines, mobile remittance and directly through Arab Link. Beneficiaries of funds will be able to receive funds as cash over-the-counter, credit to their bank account and door-to-door delivery where available.
Nabil Bader, Mint CEO, said today, "Mint recently announced a change of course in respect to our money remittance delivery strategy. This is a very fast moving business with new technologies and service providers entering the space all the time. Mint is a very large customer for any of these providers. Our partnership with Arab Link is a low risk, lower reward strategy than the previously announced acquisition but one we are now more comfortable with following completion of the Arab Link negotiations. Mint and Arab Link have agreed a revenue share arrangement on a per transaction basis."
Chris Hogg, Mint Executive Chairman, said today, "Changing course is part of building a dynamic business model in a very fast growing market. We have to be ready to respond. We are delighted with the potential of this new relationship with Arab Link which enables us to now complete our value added services offering in addition to our existing mobile top up and micro finance business units."
"The UAE remittance market continues to grow and our partnership with Mint is aimed at capturing a sizable share of this market, whilst simplifying the money transfer process, making it more convenient, quicker and less costly for customers," said Rob Groombridge, CEO of Arab Link.
Certain statements in this news release constitute "forward-looking" statements. These statements relate to future events or our future performance. All such statements involve substantial known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results to vary from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including the risk that the Company may not receive all necessary approvals to proceed with those transactions. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, they should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and they will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of Mint believes are reasonable assumptions on the date of this news release, Mint cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and Mint disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities regulations.
Yesterday, Travis reported on Baltimore Ravens safety Bernard Pollard’s prediction that in 30 years, the National Football League will die because making necessary changes to improve the safety of the game will produce a sport that no one wants to watch. I think both that scenario and the one that Travis himself lays out are not unrealistic. But it’s also worth remembering that the NFL’s life or death won’t happen in a closed surgical theater. There are people other than the players and owners, and in college, the athletics programs and fundraising departments, with a vested interest in keeping football alive and immensely popular.
Significant among those interests? Broadcast television and ESPN. In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, the League is touting the performance of football on television. 55 percent of the television broadcasts since September 1, 2010, that averaged at least 20 million viewers were of NFL football games, or 135 out of 247 broadcasts. The next-closest program? American Idol, with 39 broadcasts, followed by the London Olympics, with 18. The first scripted program on the list is NCIS, with 11 broadcasts that hit 20 million. There’s no wonder broadcast nets pay big for the games they air: Sunday Night Football is part of what’s helped NBC rebound from fourth place to first in the ratings.
Some of that’s an indication of the increasing weakness of broadcast television, which has had a tremendously difficult time launching scripted programming that finds an audience anywhere near that large, and which has seen the numbers on big reality programs, like Idol and Dancing With The Stars decline. But that weakness means the value of football is two-fold. Football broadcasts prop up television’s advertising revenue model. And they provide a potential launching platform for new programming. That’s one of the reasons the Super Bowl rotates from network to network every year: it’s such a critically important platform for showcasing existing programming to one of the largest audiences that assembles in front of the television anymore.
And that’s just on broadcast: football’s even more important to both cable networks and the cable business model. People who oppose cable bundling frequently complain about the price of sports channels, but access to lots and lots of football is one of the reasons sports make cable seem like a good deal for the more than 100 million American households who subscribe to it. The death of football through formal dismantlement or a rising disinterest and distaste would make bundled cable television seem less valuable.
Television, in other words, badly needs the NFL to stay healthy. What that means the industry can, and will, do remains an open question. But football and television’s futures are deeply intertwined, and at a time when the content television is creating for itself is having trouble finding an audience, those ties are tighter than ever.
Mint payroll cardholders will be able to access money remittance services through Mint ATMs, Mint POS machines, mobile remittance and directly through Arab Link. Beneficiaries of funds will be able to receive funds as cash over-the-counter, credit to their bank account and door-to-door delivery where available.
Nabil Bader, Mint CEO, said today, "Mint recently announced a change of course in respect to our money remittance delivery strategy. This is a very fast moving business with new technologies and service providers entering the space all the time. Mint is a very large customer for any of these providers. Our partnership with Arab Link is a low risk, lower reward strategy than the previously announced acquisition but one we are now more comfortable with following completion of the Arab Link negotiations. Mint and Arab Link have agreed a revenue share arrangement on a per transaction basis."
Chris Hogg, Mint Executive Chairman, said today, "Changing course is part of building a dynamic business model in a very fast growing market. We have to be ready to respond. We are delighted with the potential of this new relationship with Arab Link which enables us to now complete our value added services offering in addition to our existing mobile top up and micro finance business units."
"The UAE remittance market continues to grow and our partnership with Mint is aimed at capturing a sizable share of this market, whilst simplifying the money transfer process, making it more convenient, quicker and less costly for customers," said Rob Groombridge, CEO of Arab Link.
Certain statements in this news release constitute "forward-looking" statements. These statements relate to future events or our future performance. All such statements involve substantial known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results to vary from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including the risk that the Company may not receive all necessary approvals to proceed with those transactions. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, they should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and they will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of Mint believes are reasonable assumptions on the date of this news release, Mint cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and Mint disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities regulations.
Yesterday, Travis reported on Baltimore Ravens safety Bernard Pollard’s prediction that in 30 years, the National Football League will die because making necessary changes to improve the safety of the game will produce a sport that no one wants to watch. I think both that scenario and the one that Travis himself lays out are not unrealistic. But it’s also worth remembering that the NFL’s life or death won’t happen in a closed surgical theater. There are people other than the players and owners, and in college, the athletics programs and fundraising departments, with a vested interest in keeping football alive and immensely popular.
Significant among those interests? Broadcast television and ESPN. In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, the League is touting the performance of football on television. 55 percent of the television broadcasts since September 1, 2010, that averaged at least 20 million viewers were of NFL football games, or 135 out of 247 broadcasts. The next-closest program? American Idol, with 39 broadcasts, followed by the London Olympics, with 18. The first scripted program on the list is NCIS, with 11 broadcasts that hit 20 million. There’s no wonder broadcast nets pay big for the games they air: Sunday Night Football is part of what’s helped NBC rebound from fourth place to first in the ratings.
Some of that’s an indication of the increasing weakness of broadcast television, which has had a tremendously difficult time launching scripted programming that finds an audience anywhere near that large, and which has seen the numbers on big reality programs, like Idol and Dancing With The Stars decline. But that weakness means the value of football is two-fold. Football broadcasts prop up television’s advertising revenue model. And they provide a potential launching platform for new programming. That’s one of the reasons the Super Bowl rotates from network to network every year: it’s such a critically important platform for showcasing existing programming to one of the largest audiences that assembles in front of the television anymore.
And that’s just on broadcast: football’s even more important to both cable networks and the cable business model. People who oppose cable bundling frequently complain about the price of sports channels, but access to lots and lots of football is one of the reasons sports make cable seem like a good deal for the more than 100 million American households who subscribe to it. The death of football through formal dismantlement or a rising disinterest and distaste would make bundled cable television seem less valuable.
Television, in other words, badly needs the NFL to stay healthy. What that means the industry can, and will, do remains an open question. But football and television’s futures are deeply intertwined, and at a time when the content television is creating for itself is having trouble finding an audience, those ties are tighter than ever.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
‘We didn’t throw things at each other…’
Writing about a writer is difficult, and writing about the author of a book that changed the literary landscape forever is nothing short of terrifying. Happily, Salman Rushdie is remarkably easy to talk to and extremely matter-of-fact about the alchemy that creates those dizzying staircases of words on which he takes the reader on magic, swirling trips.
So there we were on blistery, bright afternoon in Bangalore with actor Shriya Saran, director Deepa Mehta and super-articulate Salman talking about the film version of his adamantly unfilmable baap of Bookers, Midnight’s Children.
“Really easy, I just took out chunks,” Salman says with a laugh. “The script began at more than double the length. The first version was 250 pages, which was obviously ridiculous. It would have been a four-and-a-half-hour film! It was just a process of finding what was essential and what was not. The novel is deliberately digressional. I think some of the stories are quite interesting, but in a movie you have to find that true line that will grab you at the beginning,” he says.
About the collaboration, Salman says with a laugh, “We didn’t throw things at each other; it is difficult to throw things from New York to Toronto! It was oddly civilised. We would disagree, but then we would just argue it out.” “It was always about the film,” adds Deepa. “It wasn’t about the ego.”
Salman admits to the challenge of presenting magic realism on screen. “In a film that basically looks naturalistic, how do you integrate magic into the real world without it looking stupid? The effects were some of the hardest things to get right.”
A case of the book being the canvas of the mind while a film is on a canvas of celluloid. “Film, in general, has a problem with interiority,” Salman says. “Film is all ‘do’. You have to understand the interior life through exterior action. Here is something that is happening inside the character’s head. How do you represent that?”
The film has done the festival circuit, and Salman talks of “two of the funniest comments we heard. There was this person who said, ‘it is like Forrest Gump with brown people! I wanted to say this book was written a long time before Forrest Gump, so maybe Forrest Gump is like Midnight’s Children with white people! And someone else compared it to X-Men — you know people with magical powers!”
The author admits to enjoying his new space — promoting a film rather than a novel. “The fun thing is other people can do some of the talking! I spent most of my life sitting in a room with myself, scribbling. Suddenly to be working with other people was a very new and nice thing for me. After all these years of writing novels, I have been working on three projects, and none of them has been a novel — my book which is non-fiction, the screen play, and I am in the relatively early stage of developing a TV series. I am now sort of itching to get back into the room by myself.”
About the TV series he is working on, Salman says: “It is a bit of science fiction and a bit of politics and very, very weird. Weird is what does best in cable television drama. Nobody wants another police detective story. But a detective who is a serial killer in his spare time is good. I guess they came to me because they thought here is somebody who can do weird!”
The film has several languages, including “Kashmiri, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, some Hindi and some English”, says Salman. “There is a scene at the end of the Bangladesh war where the Pakistani general has to surrender to his Indian counterpart. In that generation, they’d all have gone to Sandhurst, and would be whiskey-soda guys, speaking whiskey-soda English—‘bad show old sport’ kind of thing. While the film is primarily in English, it is adulterated with other languages.”
Subtitles, Salman says “are not a problem anymore, thanks to Slumdog Millionaire. It showed the American distributors that subtitles don’t matter. Where possible, the subtitles are very close, if not exactly like the dialogue in the novel. So it was another way of having the flavour of the novel in writing on screen. When the Kashmiri boatman says ‘that is a nose to start a family on’, he is saying it in Kashmiri, but the subtitles use the actual line from the book.”
Harper's government claims the revamped law will enhance property ownership and economic growth in designated Aboriginal lands that are hurting economically. Of course, the methods they want to employ are based on the same philosophy that has oppressed native people since Europeans first arrived on American shores and First Nations people have not been consulted with in the whole ramming through of Bill C-45 in the Canadian Parliament.
They want to ease federal regulations to make it easier for big corporations and (compliant?) Canadian provincial governments to promote economic growth, but based on rules that pay no attention to sustainability, that trample native fishing rights, and that are based on artificial map boundaries that bear no relation to the fragile reality of ecosystems.
What's also so disturbing about what's happening in Canada is that those in power are, once again, pitting native Aboriginal groups against each other in the quest to achieve goals that most certainly are not focused on the welfare of those First Nations people. Of course, this tried and true strategy has worked throughout the ages when the powerful seek to take from the less powerful. Keep them impoverished, then promise them good-paying jobs and thriving, rich communities if they just...allow a corporation to come in and rape the landscape. Be really nice to the tribal people based upstream and "share" the riches from the minerals or oil extracted there, but ignore those that are downstream and who will be (literally) pissed on when polluted waters kill their fish and destroy their drinking water.
And that brings us to another typical aspect of this proposal in Ottawa. It's one that is very familiar here in the U.S. Neoliberal policies are completely wedded to, and happily ever after with, the practice of displacement of costs.
The Harper government wants to give more power to Provincial governments by weakening federal environmental regulations, which is the same game that's been played for decades by right-wingers here in the United States. Promise the high-paying jobs in one community and to hell with the town...or province...or other country...and any ecosystems that are downstream. Play them off against each other and laugh all the way to the bank while the planet dies and those that you exploit are fighting amongst themselves. All the while, get the compliant, mainstream media to play your tune to the masses and keep them ill-informed, distracted, and divided.
The divide and conquer approach by the powers-that-be has been applied repeatedly throughout the world so corporate interests benefit economically at the expense of the environment and poorer people (the 99%, in their world view). Here in the U.S., this strategy is currently in overdrive with the Keystone pipeline issue, pitting small farmers, environmentalists, tribal people, and others against labor unions. It's also happening with mountaintop removal in West Virginia and other states, and with the proposed "coal trains" that are intended to ship mountains of coal to China by ferrying the material across the west- and Pacific-coast states to various ports. Locals who are desperate for work in an economy that is being held hostage by corporate interests and their puppets in the U.S. government are pitted against others who are adversely affected by that economic development that benefits the first group.
As Idle No More and other grassroots movements such as Occupy Wall Street emphasize again, it's all about an economic/political system with "values" that do not focus on the future or the common good, but only on short-term gain (for a few). These movements remind that if those in power prioritized sustainability and renewable energy resources, for instance, that we would all benefit. The planet can be protected and sustainable jobs created as well. But the few who benefit massively from the predominant, neoliberal model would be deprived of their massive, short-term profits, especially those in the extraction industries.
Therefore, in the instance of Bill C-45 and the native people in Canada, the latter must be forced to speak the English of that economic system, ostensibly for their own good. It's just another example of the same old arrogance and paternalism of the western European model that's always been shoved down the throats of native people.
The Idle No More effort is also a stark reminder that no country is immune from the ravages of the neoliberal, corporate global rule model. For many progressives in the United States, for instance, Canada has been perceived as the "kinder, gentler" nation, where the common good has always been recognized as an essential part of the culture. This is the land where draft evaders could flee the U.S. during the Vietnam War and many fantasized about moving to during years of the far-right swing under George W. Bush.
Apparently, that's no longer the case, under Harper. This became clear when Canada began shipping back Iraq war evaders and is more apparent now with the Harper government's policies that display contempt for anything "environmental."
Maybe that's a good thing. So now the global emperor is even more without clothes and a wake-up call has been issued to us all. While the powers-that-be want to tear down boundary lines for the purposes of their making big profits, such as through "free" trade deals, they don't want to extend that philosophy to the 99% if it means environmental protections or labor rights. And they most certainly don't want movements such as Idle No More to begin transcending the boundaries that they have established to keep us all divided and conquered.
So there we were on blistery, bright afternoon in Bangalore with actor Shriya Saran, director Deepa Mehta and super-articulate Salman talking about the film version of his adamantly unfilmable baap of Bookers, Midnight’s Children.
“Really easy, I just took out chunks,” Salman says with a laugh. “The script began at more than double the length. The first version was 250 pages, which was obviously ridiculous. It would have been a four-and-a-half-hour film! It was just a process of finding what was essential and what was not. The novel is deliberately digressional. I think some of the stories are quite interesting, but in a movie you have to find that true line that will grab you at the beginning,” he says.
About the collaboration, Salman says with a laugh, “We didn’t throw things at each other; it is difficult to throw things from New York to Toronto! It was oddly civilised. We would disagree, but then we would just argue it out.” “It was always about the film,” adds Deepa. “It wasn’t about the ego.”
Salman admits to the challenge of presenting magic realism on screen. “In a film that basically looks naturalistic, how do you integrate magic into the real world without it looking stupid? The effects were some of the hardest things to get right.”
A case of the book being the canvas of the mind while a film is on a canvas of celluloid. “Film, in general, has a problem with interiority,” Salman says. “Film is all ‘do’. You have to understand the interior life through exterior action. Here is something that is happening inside the character’s head. How do you represent that?”
The film has done the festival circuit, and Salman talks of “two of the funniest comments we heard. There was this person who said, ‘it is like Forrest Gump with brown people! I wanted to say this book was written a long time before Forrest Gump, so maybe Forrest Gump is like Midnight’s Children with white people! And someone else compared it to X-Men — you know people with magical powers!”
The author admits to enjoying his new space — promoting a film rather than a novel. “The fun thing is other people can do some of the talking! I spent most of my life sitting in a room with myself, scribbling. Suddenly to be working with other people was a very new and nice thing for me. After all these years of writing novels, I have been working on three projects, and none of them has been a novel — my book which is non-fiction, the screen play, and I am in the relatively early stage of developing a TV series. I am now sort of itching to get back into the room by myself.”
About the TV series he is working on, Salman says: “It is a bit of science fiction and a bit of politics and very, very weird. Weird is what does best in cable television drama. Nobody wants another police detective story. But a detective who is a serial killer in his spare time is good. I guess they came to me because they thought here is somebody who can do weird!”
The film has several languages, including “Kashmiri, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, some Hindi and some English”, says Salman. “There is a scene at the end of the Bangladesh war where the Pakistani general has to surrender to his Indian counterpart. In that generation, they’d all have gone to Sandhurst, and would be whiskey-soda guys, speaking whiskey-soda English—‘bad show old sport’ kind of thing. While the film is primarily in English, it is adulterated with other languages.”
Subtitles, Salman says “are not a problem anymore, thanks to Slumdog Millionaire. It showed the American distributors that subtitles don’t matter. Where possible, the subtitles are very close, if not exactly like the dialogue in the novel. So it was another way of having the flavour of the novel in writing on screen. When the Kashmiri boatman says ‘that is a nose to start a family on’, he is saying it in Kashmiri, but the subtitles use the actual line from the book.”
Harper's government claims the revamped law will enhance property ownership and economic growth in designated Aboriginal lands that are hurting economically. Of course, the methods they want to employ are based on the same philosophy that has oppressed native people since Europeans first arrived on American shores and First Nations people have not been consulted with in the whole ramming through of Bill C-45 in the Canadian Parliament.
They want to ease federal regulations to make it easier for big corporations and (compliant?) Canadian provincial governments to promote economic growth, but based on rules that pay no attention to sustainability, that trample native fishing rights, and that are based on artificial map boundaries that bear no relation to the fragile reality of ecosystems.
What's also so disturbing about what's happening in Canada is that those in power are, once again, pitting native Aboriginal groups against each other in the quest to achieve goals that most certainly are not focused on the welfare of those First Nations people. Of course, this tried and true strategy has worked throughout the ages when the powerful seek to take from the less powerful. Keep them impoverished, then promise them good-paying jobs and thriving, rich communities if they just...allow a corporation to come in and rape the landscape. Be really nice to the tribal people based upstream and "share" the riches from the minerals or oil extracted there, but ignore those that are downstream and who will be (literally) pissed on when polluted waters kill their fish and destroy their drinking water.
And that brings us to another typical aspect of this proposal in Ottawa. It's one that is very familiar here in the U.S. Neoliberal policies are completely wedded to, and happily ever after with, the practice of displacement of costs.
The Harper government wants to give more power to Provincial governments by weakening federal environmental regulations, which is the same game that's been played for decades by right-wingers here in the United States. Promise the high-paying jobs in one community and to hell with the town...or province...or other country...and any ecosystems that are downstream. Play them off against each other and laugh all the way to the bank while the planet dies and those that you exploit are fighting amongst themselves. All the while, get the compliant, mainstream media to play your tune to the masses and keep them ill-informed, distracted, and divided.
The divide and conquer approach by the powers-that-be has been applied repeatedly throughout the world so corporate interests benefit economically at the expense of the environment and poorer people (the 99%, in their world view). Here in the U.S., this strategy is currently in overdrive with the Keystone pipeline issue, pitting small farmers, environmentalists, tribal people, and others against labor unions. It's also happening with mountaintop removal in West Virginia and other states, and with the proposed "coal trains" that are intended to ship mountains of coal to China by ferrying the material across the west- and Pacific-coast states to various ports. Locals who are desperate for work in an economy that is being held hostage by corporate interests and their puppets in the U.S. government are pitted against others who are adversely affected by that economic development that benefits the first group.
As Idle No More and other grassroots movements such as Occupy Wall Street emphasize again, it's all about an economic/political system with "values" that do not focus on the future or the common good, but only on short-term gain (for a few). These movements remind that if those in power prioritized sustainability and renewable energy resources, for instance, that we would all benefit. The planet can be protected and sustainable jobs created as well. But the few who benefit massively from the predominant, neoliberal model would be deprived of their massive, short-term profits, especially those in the extraction industries.
Therefore, in the instance of Bill C-45 and the native people in Canada, the latter must be forced to speak the English of that economic system, ostensibly for their own good. It's just another example of the same old arrogance and paternalism of the western European model that's always been shoved down the throats of native people.
The Idle No More effort is also a stark reminder that no country is immune from the ravages of the neoliberal, corporate global rule model. For many progressives in the United States, for instance, Canada has been perceived as the "kinder, gentler" nation, where the common good has always been recognized as an essential part of the culture. This is the land where draft evaders could flee the U.S. during the Vietnam War and many fantasized about moving to during years of the far-right swing under George W. Bush.
Apparently, that's no longer the case, under Harper. This became clear when Canada began shipping back Iraq war evaders and is more apparent now with the Harper government's policies that display contempt for anything "environmental."
Maybe that's a good thing. So now the global emperor is even more without clothes and a wake-up call has been issued to us all. While the powers-that-be want to tear down boundary lines for the purposes of their making big profits, such as through "free" trade deals, they don't want to extend that philosophy to the 99% if it means environmental protections or labor rights. And they most certainly don't want movements such as Idle No More to begin transcending the boundaries that they have established to keep us all divided and conquered.
William Scott Retrospective Opens At Tate St Ives
Scott moved effortlessly between abstraction still-life and figuration with equal confidence creating works of an international standard. Born in 1913 in a career spanning six decades, Scott produced an extraordinary body of work that has secured his reputation as one of the leading forces in British painting from the 1950's right through to the 1970's. Exhibiting in America and Europe from the early 1950s, Scott is renowned for his powerful handling of paint, his exploration of colour and the unstable boundaries between subjective form and abstraction. This exhibition is the first major showing of the artist in the UK for over 20 years.
In 1953 whilst in New York William Scott met Mark Rothko, the first British artist to do so. They became close friends and when Rothko came to Britain in 1959 he stayed with William Scott's family in their cottage in Somerset. Photographs taken by James Scott during this stay and letters between William Scott and Mark Rothko held at the William Scott foundation shed light on the profound influence Rothko had on Scotts mature paintings.
To mark the achievements of this internationally acclaimed modern painter, Tate St Ives, in association with Hepworth Wakefield and Ulster Museum, Belfast, are showcasing an important retrospective exhibition. Beginning at Tate St Ives 26 January with a series of thematic rooms the exhibition will evolve as it travels to Hepworth Wakefield, before expanding into a survey exhibition at Ulster Museum, Belfast. In collaboration with the William Scott Estate, which is currently finalising a catalogue raisonné of the artist’s paintings, the works will be drawn from major collections across the UK and Ireland.
Working across the genres of still life, landscape and the nude, Scott developed a unique language that pushed the boundaries of abstraction and figuration, leaving an influential legacy of work which mediates important developments in mid-twentieth century European and American painting. His work is often charged with a sensuality emanating from his dynamic compositions as well as the vitality of his paint surfaces. Consequently the works have an enduring human quality that continues to be as fresh and relevant today as it was over fifty years ago.
The project is led by Sara Matson, Curator at Tate St Ives with Chris Stephens, Lead Curator of Modern British Art at Tate Britain, Frances Guy, Head of Exhibitions at Hepworth Wakefield and Anne Stewart, Curator of Fine art at the Ulster Museum.
A new book on William Scott by Sarah Whitfield will be published by Tate to mark the centenary and exhibition. This will be followed by a catalogue of the exhibition produced in collaboration with the William Scott Foundation, encapsulating the tour, in its final manifestation in Belfast.
For most of the five-hour trek, I’m followed by stalker hawkers. That’s what I call them. Locals wearing casual attire and flimsy slippers, and each hefting a heavy bag loaded with bottled water, souvenir books, postcards, and T-shirts and hats emblazoned with such mottos as: “It takes a great man to climb the Great Wall.” n I try to ignore the first woman who matches my pace, stopping, resting, slowing down and speeding up for great distances. I hope she’ll tire — no chance. Then I hope that once I stop for lunch in one of the myriad watchtowers, she’ll become bored and move on. Instead, she pulls out her lunch box and sits nearby. Finally, I’m resigned and end up buying a T-shirt.
By the time she and several others over the course of the rigorous route follow and eventually take leave of me, my backpack is stuffed with bottles of water, half a dozen postcards and a couple of T-shirts. My take-away lesson from hiking the Great Wall turns out to be one of patience and acceptance.
My hike is a steep scramble on all fours, up and down the dilapidated, narrow stone path where weeds poke through and shrubs grow. The brick stairs that rise and fall are loose or missing, with gaping holes in places. Even when they’re functional, the risers stand a couple of feet high and can barely accommodate the length of a human foot. Resorting to crawling becomes the routine.
Whenever I stop — which is often — and gaze about, the sweeping vistas resemble a virtual Chinese brush painting: misty forested hills and lush valleys, and the ever-present serpentine wall, dotted with towers, winding in both directions over the undulating peaks. It’s these views that make the effort worth every step.
Following China’s rugged Great Wall from Jinshanling to Simatai is like a test of endurance at times. I’m either climbing up or down the symbolic dragon’s back, carefully watching each step for fear that a misplaced foot will mean falling into a hole or careening off the Great Wall itself that perches over a precipitous landscape.
On this eastward seven-some-mile trek, the first and last parts are restored sections, where I can easily enter one of the multistoried watchtowers and imagine the soldiers scanning the broad landscape, sending black smoke signals or lighting fires to alert others to an impending attack.
Severing the alliance reflects the initiative of the museum’s newly hired executive director, Malcolm Warner, who is pushing the museum to add breadth to its California art focus by paying attention to other nature-based art.
“We’re not turning our back on celebrating landscape plein air painters; we want to open up to a celebration of art that engages natures,” said Warner, who sketched out a still evolving plan to replace the invitational with a conference or festival that involves scientists, environmentalists and artists that work with natural phenomenon. Hosting LPAPA’s fall invitational was “too much effort in support of one genre,” said Warner, whose decision was endorsed by the museum’s board on Jan. 8.
The museum, of course, owes its founding to the town’s early Impressionist landscape artists, such as Anna Hills and Edgar Payne. Even so, the Plein Air Painters Association intends to carry on that legacy independently and in a permanent venue that will display its members works, long-term goals of the art organization founded in 1996 by local landscape artists. Previously, the group held temporary exhibitions at various galleries.
Carrying out the upcoming 15th invitational, where 40 painters from across the country are invited for a week-long on-location painting competition, will be a challenge, said Greg Vail, the group’s president. “I’m hoping supporters will help us,” he said, figuring catering, prize money, accounting, credit card processing and other miscellany at about $160,000. Previously, revenue from paintings sold at the contest was divvied up, with most going to the artist and the remainder between LPAPA and the museum, which provided support staff and the venue. “Now we will be sharing equally with the artist,” said Vail, who was promised use of the venue for the invitational without cost.
“It’s an ideal solution for LPAPA; they’ve done something impossible up to now,” said Jean Stern, executive director of the Irvine Museum, referring to the organization’s lack of a physical home. Though the event will lose some of its historical luster by decamping from its ancestral home, it continues to reinforce Laguna’s legacy as a city founded by artists, said Stern, who served as judge of LPAPA’s last invitational, a task he’s performed at similar events around the country.
“They see a real strategic value in having Laguna’s cultural legacy in their midst,” Vail said of the expected new owners of the 85-acre nine-hole golf course and 62 aging suites. He described a hand-shake deal with one of the principals involved in the pending transaction with Aliso Creek Properties LLC, which also owns the nearby Montage resort. Joan Gladstone, a spokeswoman for the owners, said she could not provide any projection as to when the sale will close.
The principal, who Vail declined to identify, described informal plans for updating and expanding the venue’s meeting space. “There’s a strong business case for doing this,” said Vail, who for two years previously worked for the Inn’s current owners on a redevelopment plan that was ultimately shelved.
In 1953 whilst in New York William Scott met Mark Rothko, the first British artist to do so. They became close friends and when Rothko came to Britain in 1959 he stayed with William Scott's family in their cottage in Somerset. Photographs taken by James Scott during this stay and letters between William Scott and Mark Rothko held at the William Scott foundation shed light on the profound influence Rothko had on Scotts mature paintings.
To mark the achievements of this internationally acclaimed modern painter, Tate St Ives, in association with Hepworth Wakefield and Ulster Museum, Belfast, are showcasing an important retrospective exhibition. Beginning at Tate St Ives 26 January with a series of thematic rooms the exhibition will evolve as it travels to Hepworth Wakefield, before expanding into a survey exhibition at Ulster Museum, Belfast. In collaboration with the William Scott Estate, which is currently finalising a catalogue raisonné of the artist’s paintings, the works will be drawn from major collections across the UK and Ireland.
Working across the genres of still life, landscape and the nude, Scott developed a unique language that pushed the boundaries of abstraction and figuration, leaving an influential legacy of work which mediates important developments in mid-twentieth century European and American painting. His work is often charged with a sensuality emanating from his dynamic compositions as well as the vitality of his paint surfaces. Consequently the works have an enduring human quality that continues to be as fresh and relevant today as it was over fifty years ago.
The project is led by Sara Matson, Curator at Tate St Ives with Chris Stephens, Lead Curator of Modern British Art at Tate Britain, Frances Guy, Head of Exhibitions at Hepworth Wakefield and Anne Stewart, Curator of Fine art at the Ulster Museum.
A new book on William Scott by Sarah Whitfield will be published by Tate to mark the centenary and exhibition. This will be followed by a catalogue of the exhibition produced in collaboration with the William Scott Foundation, encapsulating the tour, in its final manifestation in Belfast.
For most of the five-hour trek, I’m followed by stalker hawkers. That’s what I call them. Locals wearing casual attire and flimsy slippers, and each hefting a heavy bag loaded with bottled water, souvenir books, postcards, and T-shirts and hats emblazoned with such mottos as: “It takes a great man to climb the Great Wall.” n I try to ignore the first woman who matches my pace, stopping, resting, slowing down and speeding up for great distances. I hope she’ll tire — no chance. Then I hope that once I stop for lunch in one of the myriad watchtowers, she’ll become bored and move on. Instead, she pulls out her lunch box and sits nearby. Finally, I’m resigned and end up buying a T-shirt.
By the time she and several others over the course of the rigorous route follow and eventually take leave of me, my backpack is stuffed with bottles of water, half a dozen postcards and a couple of T-shirts. My take-away lesson from hiking the Great Wall turns out to be one of patience and acceptance.
My hike is a steep scramble on all fours, up and down the dilapidated, narrow stone path where weeds poke through and shrubs grow. The brick stairs that rise and fall are loose or missing, with gaping holes in places. Even when they’re functional, the risers stand a couple of feet high and can barely accommodate the length of a human foot. Resorting to crawling becomes the routine.
Whenever I stop — which is often — and gaze about, the sweeping vistas resemble a virtual Chinese brush painting: misty forested hills and lush valleys, and the ever-present serpentine wall, dotted with towers, winding in both directions over the undulating peaks. It’s these views that make the effort worth every step.
Following China’s rugged Great Wall from Jinshanling to Simatai is like a test of endurance at times. I’m either climbing up or down the symbolic dragon’s back, carefully watching each step for fear that a misplaced foot will mean falling into a hole or careening off the Great Wall itself that perches over a precipitous landscape.
On this eastward seven-some-mile trek, the first and last parts are restored sections, where I can easily enter one of the multistoried watchtowers and imagine the soldiers scanning the broad landscape, sending black smoke signals or lighting fires to alert others to an impending attack.
Severing the alliance reflects the initiative of the museum’s newly hired executive director, Malcolm Warner, who is pushing the museum to add breadth to its California art focus by paying attention to other nature-based art.
“We’re not turning our back on celebrating landscape plein air painters; we want to open up to a celebration of art that engages natures,” said Warner, who sketched out a still evolving plan to replace the invitational with a conference or festival that involves scientists, environmentalists and artists that work with natural phenomenon. Hosting LPAPA’s fall invitational was “too much effort in support of one genre,” said Warner, whose decision was endorsed by the museum’s board on Jan. 8.
The museum, of course, owes its founding to the town’s early Impressionist landscape artists, such as Anna Hills and Edgar Payne. Even so, the Plein Air Painters Association intends to carry on that legacy independently and in a permanent venue that will display its members works, long-term goals of the art organization founded in 1996 by local landscape artists. Previously, the group held temporary exhibitions at various galleries.
Carrying out the upcoming 15th invitational, where 40 painters from across the country are invited for a week-long on-location painting competition, will be a challenge, said Greg Vail, the group’s president. “I’m hoping supporters will help us,” he said, figuring catering, prize money, accounting, credit card processing and other miscellany at about $160,000. Previously, revenue from paintings sold at the contest was divvied up, with most going to the artist and the remainder between LPAPA and the museum, which provided support staff and the venue. “Now we will be sharing equally with the artist,” said Vail, who was promised use of the venue for the invitational without cost.
“It’s an ideal solution for LPAPA; they’ve done something impossible up to now,” said Jean Stern, executive director of the Irvine Museum, referring to the organization’s lack of a physical home. Though the event will lose some of its historical luster by decamping from its ancestral home, it continues to reinforce Laguna’s legacy as a city founded by artists, said Stern, who served as judge of LPAPA’s last invitational, a task he’s performed at similar events around the country.
“They see a real strategic value in having Laguna’s cultural legacy in their midst,” Vail said of the expected new owners of the 85-acre nine-hole golf course and 62 aging suites. He described a hand-shake deal with one of the principals involved in the pending transaction with Aliso Creek Properties LLC, which also owns the nearby Montage resort. Joan Gladstone, a spokeswoman for the owners, said she could not provide any projection as to when the sale will close.
The principal, who Vail declined to identify, described informal plans for updating and expanding the venue’s meeting space. “There’s a strong business case for doing this,” said Vail, who for two years previously worked for the Inn’s current owners on a redevelopment plan that was ultimately shelved.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Honeywell Introduce New Pressure Switches
The HPS Series are durable, reliable electromechanical gauge pressure on/off switches that are available with either single pole single throw (SPST) normally open or normally closed circuitry, or single pole double throw (SPDT) circuitry. They are designed for use in rugged transportation and industrial applications that require the making or breaking of an electrical connection in response to a pressure change of the system media., configurable pressure switch
“The High Pressure Premium is the first in a new portfolio of configurable pressure switches that are designed utilizing a building block approach that enables easy, rapid assembly,” said Wade Tollison, senior global product marketing manager for Honeywell Sensing and Control. “This method allows Honeywell to quickly provide sample and production units to our customers, meet our customers’ design requirements without incremental tooling charges, reduce our customers’ production costs, and reduce design and implementation costs of our customers’ end product. Additionally, the HPS Series’ reliability and durability allow our customers to increase productivity while reducing field failures and service costs.”
Potential transportation applications include heavy duty construction machinery, agricultural machinery, and material handling machinery. Potential industrial applications include CNC machines, compressors, boilers, fracking equipment, mud pumps, presses, punches, pressure washers, trash compactors, water jet cutting machines, and any machinery that use high pressure hydraulic fluids.
The HPS Series switches feature a switching point accuracy of up to ±2%, providing efficient operation of equipment. Their switching capability of 5 mA to 5 A allows for potential use in a wide range of applications, from heavy loads to those connected to an electronic control unit. Additionally, Honeywell’s global presence offers customers immediate product and application support throughout the development cycle, from design to global manufacturing.
Honeywell International is a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes and industry; automotive products; turbochargers; and specialty materials. Based in Morris Township, N.J., Honeywell’s shares are traded on the New York, London, and Chicago Stock Exchanges.
This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements, other than statements of fact, that address activities, events or developments that we or our management intend, expect, project, believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on management’s assumptions and assessments in light of past experience and trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other relevant factors. They are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results, developments and business decisions may differ from those envisaged by our forward-looking statements.
In September, Tubb was chosen to be plastered and cast for a new statue which will be debuted this weekend at Arlington National Cemetery. The statue of Tubb's likeness will represent one of ANC's most recognizable figures -- a service member blowing taps. That life-sized likeness of Tubb will be officially unveiled Jan. 20, during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery visitor's center.
Tubb traveled to New York City four months ago for the casting session, which lasted between two and a half and three hours.
"I took the train up at 5 a.m. in the morning, did the casting and was back home by 6 p.m.," Tubb remembered of the trip to cast the statue. "They cast me in three sections. They did my head first, and they completely encase it. It took about 15 minutes. Then they did the lower body and the upper body.
"It was pretty cool," Tubb said of the initial process. "When the head was done, [there] was complete sensory deprivation. They cleared away two little spots for the nose [to breathe] and that's all I had. They put this seaweed composite material [on me], and then it got wrapped in plaster strips."
A support team of 15 to 20 workers coached and encouraged Tubb through the claustrophobic steps toward making a mold for the statue.
As for his feeling of being chosen to represent one of ANC's most iconic figures, Tubb mentioned that piece of information needed some time to be mentally absorbed.
"It took a while to sink in," Tubb admitted. "At first, I thought this will just be a cool little statue down there. But then I found out this will be in the center of the visitors center. When people walk in, it will be the first thing they see."
The staff sergeant's extended family from Ohio will be by his side for the unveiling. Before that, Tubb will have the opportunity to inspect the finished project. He also noted the statue is to be encased -- humorously mentioning he is relieved the figure will be surrounded by a protective cover.
“The High Pressure Premium is the first in a new portfolio of configurable pressure switches that are designed utilizing a building block approach that enables easy, rapid assembly,” said Wade Tollison, senior global product marketing manager for Honeywell Sensing and Control. “This method allows Honeywell to quickly provide sample and production units to our customers, meet our customers’ design requirements without incremental tooling charges, reduce our customers’ production costs, and reduce design and implementation costs of our customers’ end product. Additionally, the HPS Series’ reliability and durability allow our customers to increase productivity while reducing field failures and service costs.”
Potential transportation applications include heavy duty construction machinery, agricultural machinery, and material handling machinery. Potential industrial applications include CNC machines, compressors, boilers, fracking equipment, mud pumps, presses, punches, pressure washers, trash compactors, water jet cutting machines, and any machinery that use high pressure hydraulic fluids.
The HPS Series switches feature a switching point accuracy of up to ±2%, providing efficient operation of equipment. Their switching capability of 5 mA to 5 A allows for potential use in a wide range of applications, from heavy loads to those connected to an electronic control unit. Additionally, Honeywell’s global presence offers customers immediate product and application support throughout the development cycle, from design to global manufacturing.
Honeywell International is a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes and industry; automotive products; turbochargers; and specialty materials. Based in Morris Township, N.J., Honeywell’s shares are traded on the New York, London, and Chicago Stock Exchanges.
This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements, other than statements of fact, that address activities, events or developments that we or our management intend, expect, project, believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on management’s assumptions and assessments in light of past experience and trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other relevant factors. They are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results, developments and business decisions may differ from those envisaged by our forward-looking statements.
In September, Tubb was chosen to be plastered and cast for a new statue which will be debuted this weekend at Arlington National Cemetery. The statue of Tubb's likeness will represent one of ANC's most recognizable figures -- a service member blowing taps. That life-sized likeness of Tubb will be officially unveiled Jan. 20, during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery visitor's center.
Tubb traveled to New York City four months ago for the casting session, which lasted between two and a half and three hours.
"I took the train up at 5 a.m. in the morning, did the casting and was back home by 6 p.m.," Tubb remembered of the trip to cast the statue. "They cast me in three sections. They did my head first, and they completely encase it. It took about 15 minutes. Then they did the lower body and the upper body.
"It was pretty cool," Tubb said of the initial process. "When the head was done, [there] was complete sensory deprivation. They cleared away two little spots for the nose [to breathe] and that's all I had. They put this seaweed composite material [on me], and then it got wrapped in plaster strips."
A support team of 15 to 20 workers coached and encouraged Tubb through the claustrophobic steps toward making a mold for the statue.
As for his feeling of being chosen to represent one of ANC's most iconic figures, Tubb mentioned that piece of information needed some time to be mentally absorbed.
"It took a while to sink in," Tubb admitted. "At first, I thought this will just be a cool little statue down there. But then I found out this will be in the center of the visitors center. When people walk in, it will be the first thing they see."
The staff sergeant's extended family from Ohio will be by his side for the unveiling. Before that, Tubb will have the opportunity to inspect the finished project. He also noted the statue is to be encased -- humorously mentioning he is relieved the figure will be surrounded by a protective cover.
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