Australians love online shopping. But with more users connecting to the internet to buy their goods and services, it could mean having to sign up or register with a number of websites, and entering or storing your credit card information with multiple vendors.While PayPal has provided an extra layer of security for online purchases, the truth is that digital wallet choices for Aussies are actually few and far between.
Today, however, Visa announced that its e-wallet solution V.me will head to Australia "just in time for Christmas".V.me, as described by Visa, will work just like a digitised version of your wallet, securely storing all personal details and major payment IC card information – which not only includes Visa debit and credit cards, but MasterCard and American Express cards as well.
Storey said that at least 33 per cent of smartphone users have shopped online using their phone, and Vipin Kalra, Visa's country manager for Australia said that research showed that 72 per cent of all Australians had shopped online at least once in the past 12 months.
But while these numbers have shown to be increasing, Kalra went on to add that research in the US showed that customers were most likely to abandon their purchase at the time of payment because the process required a lengthy form to be filled out."It addresses some consumer desires, which is for ease, convenience and simplicity when purchasing online," Storey said.
Similar to PayPal's solution, after storing all your cards and personal information in V.me, users will be able to make purchases by simply putting in a username and password, which will then let users choose a preselected "default" card or any other card.Visa has a number of merchants already on board, including JB Hi-Fi, Cotton On, City Beach and Lorna Jane, and is in talks with other merchants, including e-commerce and bricks and mortar stores, as well as for travel and bill payments.
Like PayPal, merchants will not be able to see all your details, nor will Visa be able to track your transactions. But unlike PayPal, users will not be able to store funds with V.me, just link credit and debit cards to the service.Payments will be made through the financial institutions involved with the transaction, with V.me acting simply as a gateway to your stored information.
Visa believes that consumers will feel confident of V.me as it has backing from over 40 financial institutions locally, with three of the four "big banks" named as partners. Though Commonwealth Bank was not named, it may be included by launch later this year.As only a username and password will be needed for most transactions, when asked further about the security of the service, Kalra said that Visa's many layers of encryption, "strong authentication" and device identification will be used to prevent fraud, as well as the ability to set transaction alerts for Visa cards.
Visa had a small launch for V.me in the US last year and began trialing the new service in Europe late last year. Currently, users in the US, UK, Canada, Spain and France can sign up for the service.Visa is hoping that as it rolls V.me to other regions, online shopping across countries will be made easier and secure as well."Our vision is to make it a global service… if the [US-based] merchant ships to Australia and if they're accepting V.me on their website, then there is no reason why an Australian consumer can't use their V.me wallet. Our goal is to create that experience for every other country," Kalra said.
"Any debit card that is accepted online, could be used in the V.me wallet… Merchants at the end have to decide which cards they accept," he added.From its launch date in Australia, Greg Storey said that users will be able to use V.me essentially straight away with any online stores that utilises Visa's service and ships to Australia.
Storey went on to say that with the emergence of e-commerce, V.me will be a platform that evolves with new technologies and consumer trends.One such trend, Kalra said, was that more and more Australians are moving away from cash. Visa sees a future where everyone instead uses NFC-enabled mobile devices for in-store payments through PayWave in conjunction with V.me.
"PayWave will move from a piece of plastic to your mobile device, and that's starting to happen already in Australia. At the same time, V.me will come from a PC world to a more mobile world," Kalra said.Storey said that one of the perks of V.me will be that users will still get the visual experience of using their card in this kind of setting, though it will just be in digital form on your mobile device. Loyalty cards and rewards will also be implemented in the future.
The suspect was first seen traveling 64 mph in a 50 mph zone and later crossed into an intersection at a red light before making a turn without signal as a trooper followed, authorities said.Mr. Brummell eventually stopped his Toyota Sedan on Rising Sun Road after police turned on patrol car lights and a siren, the arresting trooper said.After a second request to roll down his dark tinted driver side window, Mr. Brummell complied. He was identified by a Delaware identification card and could not provide a valid insurance card, records said.
Upon exiting the car, police said, Mr. Brummell had trouble keeping his balance and moved slowly while being told multiple times to do things. He failed the alphabet, counting, finger count, and Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test.Mr. Brummell told police he was taking pain medication beforehand, papers said, and a trooper then took him into custody without incident for suspicion of DUI.
During a pat down search, Mr. Brummell was found in possession with a combined four grams of cocaine (which police said tested positive with a narco kit) in two plastic bags, along with three pills each of Clonazepam and Alprazolam pills.
The W3 has an HD 300-nit brightness 1280 x 800 resolution LCD with multi-touch. The colors on the display are not great, in fact they are not even good. Most are very washed out, and blacks seem dark gray/brown while normally bright colors like green and yellow stay muted.
My biggest issue with the display was not even the colors, but the fact that the screen looks like it was sprayed with something that makes it appear smudged at all times. I don't know what it is but having a tablet that seems grainy and smudged at all times is not a good thing.
Brightness was good, as was touch response in my trials. Gestures worked as they should, although many will take some getting used to. While the touch screen was very responsive, I did have ongoing issues with what may have been glitches within the OS itself. There were more than a few times where there was a place to input text, but the keyboard did not automatically show up as you would expect it to. Instead, I had to hit the keyboard app in the taskbar to bring it up. There is zero reason that should be happening. Additionally, sometimes hitting the X to close out Chrome or other desktop apps was sometimes met with the need to hit it multiple times to confirm. Also, never should happen.
Read the full story at http://www.smartcardfactory.com/!
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Monday, July 8, 2013
The Real Story
The website WhatIs has a great definition: Content marketing is the publication of material designed to promote a brand, usually through a more oblique and subtle approach than that of traditional push advertising.About IC card in China used for paying transportation fares and for shopping. The essence of good content marketing is that it offers something the viewer wants, such as information or entertainment. Content marketing can take a lot of different forms, including YouTube videos, blog posts and articles. It shouldnt really seem like marketing in some cases, in fact, it should only be identifiable as marketing because the advertiser is identified as the content provider.
Advertisers and public relations pros have been peddling the soft sell for years. The Honus Wagner baseball card, famous for being the most valuable sports card in history with values approaching $3 million today, was a giveaway from the American Tobacco Company back in 1910.
Social marketing expert Andreas Ramos, author of the new tome, The Big Book of Content Marketing, votes for a fresh concept.
Its new, Ramos says. Two years ago, content marketing didnt exist. Some claim that it has been around since the 1920s. Yes, companies did indeed hand out comic books and magazines, etc., but the intention was to entertain, be a public service, etc. The fact that produced the move to content marketing is the collapse of advertising. Traditional media relied on a near-monopoly control of a market by controlling the expensive reproduction process and chain of distribution. But digitization and the web have undermined that. Anyone can create a document or video now and share it with (in theory) over a billion people at zero cost. Advertisement placement in traditional media is expensive. By using digital media, you cut your reproduction and distribution costs to zero. Ive sold over 2,000 copies of my book at zero distribution cost. Literally zero. Not even a single postage stamp.
Ramos included a short chapter about public relations in his book written by me (for which I was not paid). A quick example of content marketing using public relations would be mailing, posting or emailing a story about yourself or your brand that appeared in Forbes or the New York Times to broaden the reach of the article. Ramos claims the inter-connectedness of the web turbocharges the new content marketing.
People also discovered with search engines and social networks that they can ask each other. They trust each other more than they trust vendors. People shifted their attention away from radio, TV, and magazines and the authorities (journalists, editors, etc.) They now prefer the anarchy of home-made video on Youtube and the anything-goes situation at blogs, Facebook FB +1.4% and Twitter. This conjunction of forces digitization, social, search engines never existed before.
Eric Schwartzman, CEO of social media training provider Comply Socially, says content marketing changes the fundamental nature of public relations. Conventional PR is an interruption tactic, Schwartzman says. PR people are experts at breaking and making news. Content marketers, on the other hand, fulfill existing demand for information by staking out specific keyword queries, and creating content thats most likely to get found when people search those terms. If you compare the skills it takes to write and pitch a press release versus a search engine optimized product demo, theyre completely different skill sets. Just because you can write up and present impartial information to journalists to try and get them to write a story, doesnt mean you have the ability to actually write the story yourself. PR and content marketing are totally different. PR is an outbound, interruption tactic. Content marketing is an inbound tactic designed to get you found by people with a much higher purchase intent than those perusing a Twitter feed.
The goals of Content Marketing are to: Build relationships with existing clients, attract new customers, demonstrate benefits, tell interesting stories about your brand and to appear in search engines and increase web traffic.
Of course, content marketing, like a good Hollywood comedy, doesnt work without good writing. The secret? Tell a good story. Fellow Forbes Contributor Brandon Gutman referenced five companies that create unique content from how to guides to music videos to apps. They publish this unique content on their websites, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other platforms to engage the consumer. Some brands, like American Express AXP +0.96%, live stream concerts to their clientele.
A crude barricade across the wide avenue leading to Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque forces cars, buses, and lorries to turn sharply and either park or take a detour round this vast encampment where tens of thousands of supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi have assembled over the past 10 days.
In front of the barricade are several young men wearing hard hats and carrying staves to fend off any attacks. The guard at the opening where men are filing through directs me to the right where a head scarfed woman looks into my bag and another pats me down in a search for weapons.
She peers at my Cypriot press card, unable to read English or Greek. From where are you? Cyprus. Welcome, welcome, she smiles.
As in Tahrir Square, the cradle of the 2011 uprising appropriated by the secular camp, vendors have popped up everywhere, offering coffee and tea, chilled water, food, flags and second-hand clothes. The area is swept. Garbage is collected in blue plastic bags.
In tents and canvas shelters people lounge on mattresses and mats, watch passersby stroll toward the gleaming white mosque where on a stage,The smart card has a memory chip embedded in it that, draped in green, the favourite colour of the prophet Muhammad, a preacher is exhorting the crowd. Shoeless men are assembled in tidy lines, prayer carpets before them,You'll find a number of top quality China smart card suppliers. in preparation for the noon prayer.
His voice rises and falls, sobs and shouts, detailing the Muslim Brotherhoods version of clashes that killed 51 people at the nearby presidential guard headquarters at 4am.
Our innocent women and children were killed as they prayed, he proclaims. A boy in a green T- shirt covers his face with his hands and weeps as a girl in a white headscarf, bright blue shirt and tight jeans, lifts her pink mobile and snaps photographs.
The speakers voice sharpens as he calls for martyrdom, jihad an intifada an uprising, to oust the army blamed for the killings, the godless opponents of Morsi, whose bearded portrait hangs from tent polls, a slight smile on his lips. There are few smiles among the men as they wait for the formal noon communal service to begin, their hands cupped in the attitude prayer, heads slightly bowed. My driver, Said, from Aswan and I walk between the lines of the devout without remark or incident. The faithful bow and bend to their knees, touch foreheads to their carpets. Allahu Akhbar! God is Great! Here there is no separation between mosque and state.
A 20-minute drive but a world away through nearly empty streets, Tamarod (Rebel), the youth movement that launched the latest round of anti-Morsi demonstrations, is holding a press conference at a luxury Nile-side hotel. The air is chilled, the carpets are deep, filtered coffee is on offer. Half a dozen young men sit behind a bank of microphones on a long table, draped with a colourful cloth.
Advertisers and public relations pros have been peddling the soft sell for years. The Honus Wagner baseball card, famous for being the most valuable sports card in history with values approaching $3 million today, was a giveaway from the American Tobacco Company back in 1910.
Social marketing expert Andreas Ramos, author of the new tome, The Big Book of Content Marketing, votes for a fresh concept.
Its new, Ramos says. Two years ago, content marketing didnt exist. Some claim that it has been around since the 1920s. Yes, companies did indeed hand out comic books and magazines, etc., but the intention was to entertain, be a public service, etc. The fact that produced the move to content marketing is the collapse of advertising. Traditional media relied on a near-monopoly control of a market by controlling the expensive reproduction process and chain of distribution. But digitization and the web have undermined that. Anyone can create a document or video now and share it with (in theory) over a billion people at zero cost. Advertisement placement in traditional media is expensive. By using digital media, you cut your reproduction and distribution costs to zero. Ive sold over 2,000 copies of my book at zero distribution cost. Literally zero. Not even a single postage stamp.
Ramos included a short chapter about public relations in his book written by me (for which I was not paid). A quick example of content marketing using public relations would be mailing, posting or emailing a story about yourself or your brand that appeared in Forbes or the New York Times to broaden the reach of the article. Ramos claims the inter-connectedness of the web turbocharges the new content marketing.
People also discovered with search engines and social networks that they can ask each other. They trust each other more than they trust vendors. People shifted their attention away from radio, TV, and magazines and the authorities (journalists, editors, etc.) They now prefer the anarchy of home-made video on Youtube and the anything-goes situation at blogs, Facebook FB +1.4% and Twitter. This conjunction of forces digitization, social, search engines never existed before.
Eric Schwartzman, CEO of social media training provider Comply Socially, says content marketing changes the fundamental nature of public relations. Conventional PR is an interruption tactic, Schwartzman says. PR people are experts at breaking and making news. Content marketers, on the other hand, fulfill existing demand for information by staking out specific keyword queries, and creating content thats most likely to get found when people search those terms. If you compare the skills it takes to write and pitch a press release versus a search engine optimized product demo, theyre completely different skill sets. Just because you can write up and present impartial information to journalists to try and get them to write a story, doesnt mean you have the ability to actually write the story yourself. PR and content marketing are totally different. PR is an outbound, interruption tactic. Content marketing is an inbound tactic designed to get you found by people with a much higher purchase intent than those perusing a Twitter feed.
The goals of Content Marketing are to: Build relationships with existing clients, attract new customers, demonstrate benefits, tell interesting stories about your brand and to appear in search engines and increase web traffic.
Of course, content marketing, like a good Hollywood comedy, doesnt work without good writing. The secret? Tell a good story. Fellow Forbes Contributor Brandon Gutman referenced five companies that create unique content from how to guides to music videos to apps. They publish this unique content on their websites, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other platforms to engage the consumer. Some brands, like American Express AXP +0.96%, live stream concerts to their clientele.
A crude barricade across the wide avenue leading to Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque forces cars, buses, and lorries to turn sharply and either park or take a detour round this vast encampment where tens of thousands of supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi have assembled over the past 10 days.
In front of the barricade are several young men wearing hard hats and carrying staves to fend off any attacks. The guard at the opening where men are filing through directs me to the right where a head scarfed woman looks into my bag and another pats me down in a search for weapons.
She peers at my Cypriot press card, unable to read English or Greek. From where are you? Cyprus. Welcome, welcome, she smiles.
As in Tahrir Square, the cradle of the 2011 uprising appropriated by the secular camp, vendors have popped up everywhere, offering coffee and tea, chilled water, food, flags and second-hand clothes. The area is swept. Garbage is collected in blue plastic bags.
In tents and canvas shelters people lounge on mattresses and mats, watch passersby stroll toward the gleaming white mosque where on a stage,The smart card has a memory chip embedded in it that, draped in green, the favourite colour of the prophet Muhammad, a preacher is exhorting the crowd. Shoeless men are assembled in tidy lines, prayer carpets before them,You'll find a number of top quality China smart card suppliers. in preparation for the noon prayer.
His voice rises and falls, sobs and shouts, detailing the Muslim Brotherhoods version of clashes that killed 51 people at the nearby presidential guard headquarters at 4am.
Our innocent women and children were killed as they prayed, he proclaims. A boy in a green T- shirt covers his face with his hands and weeps as a girl in a white headscarf, bright blue shirt and tight jeans, lifts her pink mobile and snaps photographs.
The speakers voice sharpens as he calls for martyrdom, jihad an intifada an uprising, to oust the army blamed for the killings, the godless opponents of Morsi, whose bearded portrait hangs from tent polls, a slight smile on his lips. There are few smiles among the men as they wait for the formal noon communal service to begin, their hands cupped in the attitude prayer, heads slightly bowed. My driver, Said, from Aswan and I walk between the lines of the devout without remark or incident. The faithful bow and bend to their knees, touch foreheads to their carpets. Allahu Akhbar! God is Great! Here there is no separation between mosque and state.
A 20-minute drive but a world away through nearly empty streets, Tamarod (Rebel), the youth movement that launched the latest round of anti-Morsi demonstrations, is holding a press conference at a luxury Nile-side hotel. The air is chilled, the carpets are deep, filtered coffee is on offer. Half a dozen young men sit behind a bank of microphones on a long table, draped with a colourful cloth.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
How to Turn on Two-Factor Authentication
Think about how much information about yourself you have saved in your email account. We sign up for bank accounts, buy things online, and communicate with others using our email addresses.
Is your password is strong enough to keep the bad guys out from grabbing all this sensitive information? I like to think mine is, but I also know that if someone really wants to, that person can use cracking tools and other tricks to break in.
With two-factor authentication, at least, the attackers need more than just my password to get in. Username and passwords are "what you know." Two-factor authentication requires something else, such as a mobile device, hardware token, or a smart card for "something you have." Biometric data, such as fingerprints, for "something you are," is also an option.
Basically, if the attacker tries to log in to your account with your password from an unknown device or browser, that person would also need your mobile device or your fingerprints to succeed.Google and Yahoo offer two-factor authentication for their web-based email services. If you use Yahoo Mail or Gmail, here is how to turn on this security feature.
If you have a Google account, then login to your account and click on your name in the upper right corner of the screen. In the resulting menu dropdown, you can click on Account to access the account settings page. Under Security, there is an option for two-step verification. Click on Edit to start the sign-up process.
You follow the step-by-step process to associate a mobile number to your account. Whenever someone logs into your account from an unknown browser or device, Google sends a challenge code via SMS message to your mobile device. Without that code, Google will block the login attempt. If you have an Android or iOS device, you can generate your own codes using the Google Authenticator app instead of waiting for the SMS message.
Speaking to The Associated Press ahead of the Global Intelligence Forum starting Monday in Ireland, Freeh said hackers seeking to take control of, or take down, key pieces of U.S. infrastructure could do more damage than the attackers of 9/11. He said computer systems controlling power plants, the navigation of aircraft and ships, and even the switching of street lights could be hijacked to gridlock societies and kill large groups of people.
"People traditionally think of this threat as somebody stealing their identity or their credit card number, or making it inconvenient to go to the ATM (cash machine). That's a very benign view of the potential for what cyber terrorism really is," Freeh said.
"You could manipulate transportation systems, aviation guidance systems, highway safety systems, maritime operations systems. You could shut down an energy system in the northeast U.S. in the middle of winter. The potential for mass destruction in terms of life and property is really only limited by (the attackers') access and success in penetrating and hijacking these networks," he said.
Freeh said people shouldn't be lulled into complacency just because hackers' attacks on government and business targets to date hadn't directly killed anybody.
"There's a lot of technology and a lot of ability out there, particularly with state actors," he said, referring to other governments' cyber-spying operations including in China, which U.S. authorities previously have blamed for stealing American corporate trade secrets. "We went through the Cold War without anybody using a nuclear bomb, but that didn't mean the capability and threat weren't there."
Freeh, 63, directed the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1993 to 2001, leaving just before the al-Qaida attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. In the years since he's become a top private investigator, most recently publishing the report into the cover-up of child abuse in the Penn State University football program. Last week he was appointed to oversee a probe into alleged corruption and malpractice in the payouts of billions in compensation from BP's 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of smart card.
He said his keynote speech Monday to an annual seminar organized by Mercyhurst University's Institute for Intelligence Studies would focus on how intelligence and law-enforcement agencies need to use the internet to identify threats — and keep their own secrets secure. The four-day conference brings together intelligence officials worldwide, with a focus this year on combating internet-based crime.
It takes place against the backdrop of continuing revelations from former U.S. National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden, who is believed still to be holed up in Moscow's airport three weeks after the U.S. Justice Department charged him with espionage and theft of government property.
Freeh questioned Snowden's description as a whistleblower — and why the NSA ever gave Snowden such access to its secrets without effective supervision.
He said Snowden should "come to a forum or an arena where he can raise his whistleblower defense." He said the NSA, like other U.S. government agencies, has an internal reporting process for whistleblowers alleging wrongdoing but Snowden appears not to have used this.
"He's said publicly that he was witnessing and participating at least indirectly in what he thought was a mass violation of U.S. rights, constitutional rights, human rights, and so was forced to publicly disclose this. It's just not accurate. It's Hollywood-esque and may be romantic for somebody to think: My God, this guy had no choice. But the reality is he had plenty of options and choices," Freeh said.
Read the full story at http://www.smartcardfactory.com/!
Is your password is strong enough to keep the bad guys out from grabbing all this sensitive information? I like to think mine is, but I also know that if someone really wants to, that person can use cracking tools and other tricks to break in.
With two-factor authentication, at least, the attackers need more than just my password to get in. Username and passwords are "what you know." Two-factor authentication requires something else, such as a mobile device, hardware token, or a smart card for "something you have." Biometric data, such as fingerprints, for "something you are," is also an option.
Basically, if the attacker tries to log in to your account with your password from an unknown device or browser, that person would also need your mobile device or your fingerprints to succeed.Google and Yahoo offer two-factor authentication for their web-based email services. If you use Yahoo Mail or Gmail, here is how to turn on this security feature.
If you have a Google account, then login to your account and click on your name in the upper right corner of the screen. In the resulting menu dropdown, you can click on Account to access the account settings page. Under Security, there is an option for two-step verification. Click on Edit to start the sign-up process.
You follow the step-by-step process to associate a mobile number to your account. Whenever someone logs into your account from an unknown browser or device, Google sends a challenge code via SMS message to your mobile device. Without that code, Google will block the login attempt. If you have an Android or iOS device, you can generate your own codes using the Google Authenticator app instead of waiting for the SMS message.
Speaking to The Associated Press ahead of the Global Intelligence Forum starting Monday in Ireland, Freeh said hackers seeking to take control of, or take down, key pieces of U.S. infrastructure could do more damage than the attackers of 9/11. He said computer systems controlling power plants, the navigation of aircraft and ships, and even the switching of street lights could be hijacked to gridlock societies and kill large groups of people.
"People traditionally think of this threat as somebody stealing their identity or their credit card number, or making it inconvenient to go to the ATM (cash machine). That's a very benign view of the potential for what cyber terrorism really is," Freeh said.
"You could manipulate transportation systems, aviation guidance systems, highway safety systems, maritime operations systems. You could shut down an energy system in the northeast U.S. in the middle of winter. The potential for mass destruction in terms of life and property is really only limited by (the attackers') access and success in penetrating and hijacking these networks," he said.
Freeh said people shouldn't be lulled into complacency just because hackers' attacks on government and business targets to date hadn't directly killed anybody.
"There's a lot of technology and a lot of ability out there, particularly with state actors," he said, referring to other governments' cyber-spying operations including in China, which U.S. authorities previously have blamed for stealing American corporate trade secrets. "We went through the Cold War without anybody using a nuclear bomb, but that didn't mean the capability and threat weren't there."
Freeh, 63, directed the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1993 to 2001, leaving just before the al-Qaida attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. In the years since he's become a top private investigator, most recently publishing the report into the cover-up of child abuse in the Penn State University football program. Last week he was appointed to oversee a probe into alleged corruption and malpractice in the payouts of billions in compensation from BP's 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of smart card.
He said his keynote speech Monday to an annual seminar organized by Mercyhurst University's Institute for Intelligence Studies would focus on how intelligence and law-enforcement agencies need to use the internet to identify threats — and keep their own secrets secure. The four-day conference brings together intelligence officials worldwide, with a focus this year on combating internet-based crime.
It takes place against the backdrop of continuing revelations from former U.S. National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden, who is believed still to be holed up in Moscow's airport three weeks after the U.S. Justice Department charged him with espionage and theft of government property.
Freeh questioned Snowden's description as a whistleblower — and why the NSA ever gave Snowden such access to its secrets without effective supervision.
He said Snowden should "come to a forum or an arena where he can raise his whistleblower defense." He said the NSA, like other U.S. government agencies, has an internal reporting process for whistleblowers alleging wrongdoing but Snowden appears not to have used this.
"He's said publicly that he was witnessing and participating at least indirectly in what he thought was a mass violation of U.S. rights, constitutional rights, human rights, and so was forced to publicly disclose this. It's just not accurate. It's Hollywood-esque and may be romantic for somebody to think: My God, this guy had no choice. But the reality is he had plenty of options and choices," Freeh said.
Read the full story at http://www.smartcardfactory.com/!
Thursday, July 4, 2013
‘Cooking Matters’ in shopping
Are you prone to impulse buys at the grocery store? Want to stretch your grocery budget?Cooking Matters is here to help. They offer advice for low-income families in Montezuma and La Plata counties on how to shop, prepare and eat healthy, affordable foods.
“We teach how to get the best out your dollar, and show people a lot of tricks on smart shopping and meal preparation,” explained organizer Katie Dittelberger.The educational program offers grocery tours and classes for low-income families led by expert culinary and nutrition volunteers. Since 1993, Cooking Matters has grown to serve 10,000 families each year across the country, helping learn to eat better on a budget.
“A lot of people don’t realize how much money they can save by cooking whole foods at home, and it’s healthier,” Dittelberger said.At the Cortez Wal-Mart store employee. Cas Osantowski gave shopper Meggie Curtis an informative tour through the maze of grocery opportunities.
“It seemed interesting, and I got a $10 gift card,” Curtis said. “I’ve learned a lot about chip card.”For example, many products are the same, but one costs more because it’s a more well known brand.
“Learning to look at labels; you realize you’er just paying more for packaging,” Curtis said.Another tip: Try and shop along the perimeter of the store. That is usually where the whole foods, meats and fresh produce are displayed.
“Once you dive into the middle aisles, there is a lot more processed foods, chips, and sugary-type snack stuff,” Osantowski said.Shopping in season is another good tip. With food now shipped from all over the world to local stores, it is easy to forget that different foods grow in different seasons.
While shoppers may see strawberries in January or winter squash in July, they will pay a higher price because of the transportation costs. Food grown locally and bought in season is fresher and tastes better, too.“Understanding the unit price is also a key to getting the best deal,” Dittelberger explains. “It takes some practice.”
Unit prices are found on the small tag on the shelf under the grocery item. The tag shows the cost of an ounce, a pint, a pound, or other amount. Check to see whether the bulk size costs less per unit than smaller sizes.Beware of fancy-sounding names as well, she said. Breads labeled multi-grain, seven grain, stone-ground, or bran are often not whole grains. If a whole grain os listed after the first ingredient, it could mean it is a small part of the food.
Participants in Cooking Matter programs learn how to read food labels and stretch ingredients, receive tips on stocking the pantry and learn healthy recipes.
I used to carry an organ donation card in my wallet. In the event of my death, I would be overjoyed at the thought of my organs giving someone else a chance of life. That is a choice for me to make; it is my decision and my gift. It is my liberty, and the liberty of my loved ones, to decide what happens to my body. The idea that the government should presume to harvest my organs - without my express permission - is a dangerous one. It crosses a big red line. The government doesn't own you, your spouse, or your child - whether living or dead.
The Welsh Assembly has just voted in favour of presumed consent for organ donation. Yes, you can opt out if you wish (although if the opt out systems for email lists are anything to go by...). Yes, if your wishes are unclear, your relatives can have a say (but not the final say). Yes, I believe it will increase the number of organs available for transplant. Yes, organ transplantation does save lives and I have no objection to the principle of transplanting an organ (I have some big worries about the practice, but I'll come back to that in a moment). Nevertheless, despite these concessions, a great deal of power has just been given to the government in Wales to do as they wish with the bodies of its citizens.
If you live in Wales, the government has just nationalised your body. Unless you opt out, your organs belong to them now. How long before the state imposes quality control on your lifestyle? After all, a poor diet and not enough exercise could damage your organs; that won't help the nationalised organ transplant programme. I'm tempted to list some of the ways that the state could coerce you to live a healthier lifestyle - but they're already very familiar to us all.
Aside from the principles of individual liberty, I have a much more practical concern. It is this: organs are being harvested from patients who are not dead yet. Let me explain. To ensure the best chance of a successful organ transplant, it is important that organs are harvested while they're fresh. Doctors are keen to take organs from a body with a beating heart because the removal of the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas and kidneys must be done before they begin to deteriorate due to the cessation of blood circulation. In Britain two doctors must agree that a patient is 'brain dead', though their heart continues to beat, before organs can be removed.
Some 'brain dead' organ donors are given a general anaesthetic before their organs are removed to suppress the body reacting to the physical distress of being cut into. Ever heard of a dead body being given anaesthetic? Secular ethicist Professor Peter Singer of Princeton University has said of these patients: "Defining such people as dead was a convenient way around the problems of making their organs available for transplantation, and withdrawing treatment from them." Medical ethicist, Michael Potts, has said: "Since the patient is not truly dead until his or her organs are removed, it is the process of organ donation itself that causes the donor's death."
There have been several cases of patients reviving just as the surgeon is about to plunge in with a scalpel to harvest organs. In November 2007, Zach Dunlap was pronounced brain dead by doctors at a hospital in Texas. He was scheduled to have his organs harvested when he began showing signs of life by moving his hand and foot. He then reacted to a pocket knife scraped across his foot and pressure being applied under his fingernail. After 48 days recovering in hospital he was allowed home.
Click on their website http://www.smartcardfactory.com/ for more information.
“We teach how to get the best out your dollar, and show people a lot of tricks on smart shopping and meal preparation,” explained organizer Katie Dittelberger.The educational program offers grocery tours and classes for low-income families led by expert culinary and nutrition volunteers. Since 1993, Cooking Matters has grown to serve 10,000 families each year across the country, helping learn to eat better on a budget.
“A lot of people don’t realize how much money they can save by cooking whole foods at home, and it’s healthier,” Dittelberger said.At the Cortez Wal-Mart store employee. Cas Osantowski gave shopper Meggie Curtis an informative tour through the maze of grocery opportunities.
“It seemed interesting, and I got a $10 gift card,” Curtis said. “I’ve learned a lot about chip card.”For example, many products are the same, but one costs more because it’s a more well known brand.
“Learning to look at labels; you realize you’er just paying more for packaging,” Curtis said.Another tip: Try and shop along the perimeter of the store. That is usually where the whole foods, meats and fresh produce are displayed.
“Once you dive into the middle aisles, there is a lot more processed foods, chips, and sugary-type snack stuff,” Osantowski said.Shopping in season is another good tip. With food now shipped from all over the world to local stores, it is easy to forget that different foods grow in different seasons.
While shoppers may see strawberries in January or winter squash in July, they will pay a higher price because of the transportation costs. Food grown locally and bought in season is fresher and tastes better, too.“Understanding the unit price is also a key to getting the best deal,” Dittelberger explains. “It takes some practice.”
Unit prices are found on the small tag on the shelf under the grocery item. The tag shows the cost of an ounce, a pint, a pound, or other amount. Check to see whether the bulk size costs less per unit than smaller sizes.Beware of fancy-sounding names as well, she said. Breads labeled multi-grain, seven grain, stone-ground, or bran are often not whole grains. If a whole grain os listed after the first ingredient, it could mean it is a small part of the food.
Participants in Cooking Matter programs learn how to read food labels and stretch ingredients, receive tips on stocking the pantry and learn healthy recipes.
I used to carry an organ donation card in my wallet. In the event of my death, I would be overjoyed at the thought of my organs giving someone else a chance of life. That is a choice for me to make; it is my decision and my gift. It is my liberty, and the liberty of my loved ones, to decide what happens to my body. The idea that the government should presume to harvest my organs - without my express permission - is a dangerous one. It crosses a big red line. The government doesn't own you, your spouse, or your child - whether living or dead.
The Welsh Assembly has just voted in favour of presumed consent for organ donation. Yes, you can opt out if you wish (although if the opt out systems for email lists are anything to go by...). Yes, if your wishes are unclear, your relatives can have a say (but not the final say). Yes, I believe it will increase the number of organs available for transplant. Yes, organ transplantation does save lives and I have no objection to the principle of transplanting an organ (I have some big worries about the practice, but I'll come back to that in a moment). Nevertheless, despite these concessions, a great deal of power has just been given to the government in Wales to do as they wish with the bodies of its citizens.
If you live in Wales, the government has just nationalised your body. Unless you opt out, your organs belong to them now. How long before the state imposes quality control on your lifestyle? After all, a poor diet and not enough exercise could damage your organs; that won't help the nationalised organ transplant programme. I'm tempted to list some of the ways that the state could coerce you to live a healthier lifestyle - but they're already very familiar to us all.
Aside from the principles of individual liberty, I have a much more practical concern. It is this: organs are being harvested from patients who are not dead yet. Let me explain. To ensure the best chance of a successful organ transplant, it is important that organs are harvested while they're fresh. Doctors are keen to take organs from a body with a beating heart because the removal of the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas and kidneys must be done before they begin to deteriorate due to the cessation of blood circulation. In Britain two doctors must agree that a patient is 'brain dead', though their heart continues to beat, before organs can be removed.
Some 'brain dead' organ donors are given a general anaesthetic before their organs are removed to suppress the body reacting to the physical distress of being cut into. Ever heard of a dead body being given anaesthetic? Secular ethicist Professor Peter Singer of Princeton University has said of these patients: "Defining such people as dead was a convenient way around the problems of making their organs available for transplantation, and withdrawing treatment from them." Medical ethicist, Michael Potts, has said: "Since the patient is not truly dead until his or her organs are removed, it is the process of organ donation itself that causes the donor's death."
There have been several cases of patients reviving just as the surgeon is about to plunge in with a scalpel to harvest organs. In November 2007, Zach Dunlap was pronounced brain dead by doctors at a hospital in Texas. He was scheduled to have his organs harvested when he began showing signs of life by moving his hand and foot. He then reacted to a pocket knife scraped across his foot and pressure being applied under his fingernail. After 48 days recovering in hospital he was allowed home.
Click on their website http://www.smartcardfactory.com/ for more information.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
The iPhone and Android alternatives to consider
The evolution of the Windows operating system for phones has been a long and painful one, as Microsoft has struggled to adapt its desktop-centric OS for the smaller screen. With Windows Phone 8, it has a system that combines simplicity with speed and flexibility, and even if its app store has a long way to go to catch up with the behemoths of Apple and Google, it's making steady progress, with 140,000 apps and counting, including many big names.
Windows 8 mostly means Nokia, though HTC, Samsung and others have dabbled with it. If you want the very best Windows smartphone, go for the one with the biggest spec. But there are horses for smart card, and for considerably less cash, you can get some very good devices without too much compromise on capability and performance.
The latest big beast in Nokia's formidable army of Lumia handsets packs in just about every trick that both Nokia and Windows can throw at it, putting it in direct competition with the likes of the iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S4.
It has a thinner, lighter casing than its predecessor the 920, despite a move from plastic to aluminium. The 4.5-inch PureMotion HD+ Amoled touchscreen offers a beautifully sharp resolution of 1,280x768 pixels and offers strikingly vivid colours supported by deeply contrasting blacks.
It has a dual-core 1.5GHz processor rather than the quad-core type modelled by some of the more advanced Google smartphones, but it operates with an impressive smoothness, due in part to the streamlined OS which has so far resisted customisation from manufacturers. Apps open with impressive speed and web browsing is almost as fast as thought.
The camera has been beefed up with an 8.7-megapixel PureView model. It has the biggest arsenal of extras of any Nokia phone, including City Lens, which allows you to view the scene around you augmented with business and tourist information.
The 2,000mAh battery held up very well too delivering a good day and a half of regular use, better than we've come to expect from most high-end smartphones.
As with other Nokia Windows phones you get 7GB of free cloud storage via SkyDrive and a range of extras including HERE Maps and satnav, as well as Nokia Music which offers free downloadable playlists of tunes. Unfortunately, you're stuck with the 16GB onboard memory as there's no option to expand it via microSD card.
The dual-core 1.5GHz processor is nippy enough (all these Windows phones seem fast in comparison with similarly specced Androids) but like most Windows phones, there's no option to expand the 16GB memory via microSD card.
As usual with HTC, the camera is a bit of a let-down. It has eight megapixels and includes autofocus and an LED flash as well as a wide-angle lens option, but doesn't deliver the same basic pic quality as any of its Nokia rivals. There's also a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls -- Skype and other video calling apps are now available from the Marketplace.
Coming in below the 925 in the Lumia hierarchy, the 820 knocks a couple of hundred quid off the price while still maintaining a very good set of features.
It has a similarly robust build and shape (all-plastic this time though, with changeable back covers) as its pricier cousin but the display reveals its midrange ambitions. With a sub-HD 800x480 pixel resolution it's noticeably less sharp, though it still looks vibrant and dynamic.
It's still a very fast handset too, with its dual-core 1.5GHz processor backed by a full 1GB RAM -- the same as you get on the 925. Unless you're used to the highest-end Androids, this is one of the key features of Windows phones -- you just don't have the same amount of hanging around waiting for apps to open.
The eight-megapixel camera is a step down from the 925's 8.7-megapixel model but it's certainly no slouch, delivering sharp and detailed pics on its automatic settings, plus there are plenty of extras to play with as well as the ever-growing list of Windows 'Lenses' which add extra functionality.
Unlike the 925 however, the 820 allows you to expand its 8GB of onboard memory by up to 64GB via microSD card. If you're fond of your HD videos and hi-res audio this is a major consideration for Windows phones, many of which don't offer memory expansion.
Battery-wise the 820's 1,650mAh power pack didn't distinguish itself, though you should be able to rely on a good day of regular use without having to worry.
Skipping out the next-in-line 720, the Lumia 620 offers a competitive spec and a considerably lower price without compromising too much on the features.
Something you can't do with the pricier Lumias is open the case. With the 620 you can and there is a range of bright colours to choose from to match your personal style -- green, yellow, pink and blue, as well as standard black or white.
The dual-core processor is clocked at 1.5GHz but while it's noticeably a little slower than its more expensive cousins, it's very smooth and slick in operation so that you barely notice the very slight delay while apps open.
It has most of the Nokia extras you'll find on more expensive handsets, including HERE Maps and satnav and Nokia Music, though it doesn't have the City Lens augmented reality feature for the camera.
The five-megapixel camera may not match more expensive Nokias but it still has a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and outperforms many similarly specced Android cameras.
Read the full story at www.smartcardfactory.com!
Windows 8 mostly means Nokia, though HTC, Samsung and others have dabbled with it. If you want the very best Windows smartphone, go for the one with the biggest spec. But there are horses for smart card, and for considerably less cash, you can get some very good devices without too much compromise on capability and performance.
The latest big beast in Nokia's formidable army of Lumia handsets packs in just about every trick that both Nokia and Windows can throw at it, putting it in direct competition with the likes of the iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S4.
It has a thinner, lighter casing than its predecessor the 920, despite a move from plastic to aluminium. The 4.5-inch PureMotion HD+ Amoled touchscreen offers a beautifully sharp resolution of 1,280x768 pixels and offers strikingly vivid colours supported by deeply contrasting blacks.
It has a dual-core 1.5GHz processor rather than the quad-core type modelled by some of the more advanced Google smartphones, but it operates with an impressive smoothness, due in part to the streamlined OS which has so far resisted customisation from manufacturers. Apps open with impressive speed and web browsing is almost as fast as thought.
The camera has been beefed up with an 8.7-megapixel PureView model. It has the biggest arsenal of extras of any Nokia phone, including City Lens, which allows you to view the scene around you augmented with business and tourist information.
The 2,000mAh battery held up very well too delivering a good day and a half of regular use, better than we've come to expect from most high-end smartphones.
As with other Nokia Windows phones you get 7GB of free cloud storage via SkyDrive and a range of extras including HERE Maps and satnav, as well as Nokia Music which offers free downloadable playlists of tunes. Unfortunately, you're stuck with the 16GB onboard memory as there's no option to expand it via microSD card.
The dual-core 1.5GHz processor is nippy enough (all these Windows phones seem fast in comparison with similarly specced Androids) but like most Windows phones, there's no option to expand the 16GB memory via microSD card.
As usual with HTC, the camera is a bit of a let-down. It has eight megapixels and includes autofocus and an LED flash as well as a wide-angle lens option, but doesn't deliver the same basic pic quality as any of its Nokia rivals. There's also a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls -- Skype and other video calling apps are now available from the Marketplace.
Coming in below the 925 in the Lumia hierarchy, the 820 knocks a couple of hundred quid off the price while still maintaining a very good set of features.
It has a similarly robust build and shape (all-plastic this time though, with changeable back covers) as its pricier cousin but the display reveals its midrange ambitions. With a sub-HD 800x480 pixel resolution it's noticeably less sharp, though it still looks vibrant and dynamic.
It's still a very fast handset too, with its dual-core 1.5GHz processor backed by a full 1GB RAM -- the same as you get on the 925. Unless you're used to the highest-end Androids, this is one of the key features of Windows phones -- you just don't have the same amount of hanging around waiting for apps to open.
The eight-megapixel camera is a step down from the 925's 8.7-megapixel model but it's certainly no slouch, delivering sharp and detailed pics on its automatic settings, plus there are plenty of extras to play with as well as the ever-growing list of Windows 'Lenses' which add extra functionality.
Unlike the 925 however, the 820 allows you to expand its 8GB of onboard memory by up to 64GB via microSD card. If you're fond of your HD videos and hi-res audio this is a major consideration for Windows phones, many of which don't offer memory expansion.
Battery-wise the 820's 1,650mAh power pack didn't distinguish itself, though you should be able to rely on a good day of regular use without having to worry.
Skipping out the next-in-line 720, the Lumia 620 offers a competitive spec and a considerably lower price without compromising too much on the features.
Something you can't do with the pricier Lumias is open the case. With the 620 you can and there is a range of bright colours to choose from to match your personal style -- green, yellow, pink and blue, as well as standard black or white.
The dual-core processor is clocked at 1.5GHz but while it's noticeably a little slower than its more expensive cousins, it's very smooth and slick in operation so that you barely notice the very slight delay while apps open.
It has most of the Nokia extras you'll find on more expensive handsets, including HERE Maps and satnav and Nokia Music, though it doesn't have the City Lens augmented reality feature for the camera.
The five-megapixel camera may not match more expensive Nokias but it still has a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and outperforms many similarly specced Android cameras.
Read the full story at www.smartcardfactory.com!
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Public should worry when journalists are arrested
Government surveillance of news media operations ranging from The Associated Press to Fox News has made national headlines for more than month now.
But there’s an ongoing government-press conflict that also is important in its effect on journalists’ ability to gather news and report to the rest of us, and to the proper role of a free press under the First Amendment.
Journalists – reporters and photographers – are being arrested while reporting on public demonstrations or police activity on matters of public interest. In a latest example, Charlotte Observer religion reporter Tim Funk was arrested June 10 at the General Assembly building in Raleigh, N.C., while interviewing local clergy involved in legislative protests.
As seen in a video of the arrest posted on Facebook, Funk, a veteran reporter, was interviewing members of the protest group while wearing a Charlotte Observer identification chip card on a lanyard around his neck. He continued to do interviews with several protesters after police ordered the group to disperse. He is standing in front of, not among, the group.
Funk first is grabbed by the arm and then handcuffed with a plastic tie. Later, the reporter was escorted away by three uniform officers. An Observer news story said Funk “was taken along with the arrested protesters to the Wake County magistrate’s office to be arraigned on misdemeanor charges of trespassing and failure to disperse.”
“We believe there was no reason to detain him,” Cheryl Carpenter, the newspaper’s managing editor said in an Observer story about Funk’s arrest. “He wasn’t there to do anything but report the story, to talk to Charlotte clergy. He was doing his job in a public place.”
Gathering news – and in the process, performing the Constitutional duty as a “watchdog on government” that the nation’s founders envisioned for a free press – requires more than getting a few facts from official sources. It means being at the scene, talking with those involved, observing the news firsthand.
If Funk’s arrest were a single incident, it still would be of concern. But, according to a Web site set up to track arrests of journalists in recent years who were reporting on the Occupy movement, in the year ending in September 2012, “more than 90 journalists have been arrested in 12 cities around the United States while covering Occupy protests and civil unrest.”
Add in a sizeable number of arrests in recent years of photographers for taking pictures at the scene of police actions and traffic incidents, and also those swept up in mass arrests of protesters at national and international conferences in the last decade, and there’s more reason to worry.
Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), said he deals with such arrest issues involving photojournalists “every day, all across the nation.” He works with police departments to educate officers on the rights of journalists – and the public – to take photos. He said catch and release police actions have no legal foundation, and that the increase in arrests might stem from a “perfect storm” of more cell phone cameras, and easier distribution and more visibility because of the Web.
Certainly, there are times when situations are chaotic and police must act to protect public safety. In such instances, it might be impossible to sort out the protester from the person reporting on the protest. But in Funk’s case, for example, there was no chaos and he visibly – with ID on and notebook in hand – was working as a reporter.
The rights to assemble, peaceably petition the government for change, and to raise one’s voice in doing so, are all protected freedoms under the First Amendment – along with the right of a free press to gather and report the news without government sanction or disruption.
If police are arresting demonstrators for what they say and do out of legitimate concerns for public safety or for trespassing or such, having an independent news media there to accurately observe and report is a plus for officials and for our society.
It’s not much of a trip for Gerry du Plessis to get to his summer cottage. Doc, as he’s known in the Little Italy neighbourhood where he’s lived for the past 33 years, simply goes out the back door of his home, walks a few steps to the end of his driveway, and he’s there.
Inside the Garage Mahal, as he calls it (also “the gazebo”) is a junk collector’s dream: lamps, road signs, hats, a chair that incorporates moose antlers, old Ottawa Music Festival trophies, slide rules, plastic angels, a print that once hung on the walls of the Chateau Lafayette, miniature Stanley Cups, inflatable dirigibles, a globe, handcuffs, old licence plates, dolls, puffer fish and shark jaws, hot-pepper patio lights, musical instruments, an old goalie mask, a typewriter, a sign from the Rotters Club, a Russian flag, numerous framed photos of Nana Mouskouri, a sled, a bubble gum dispenser, sea shells, a paper model of a DC-3 airplane.
It began one night about 20 years ago when Doc, now 68 and long retired from the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, had three friends over for a barbecue and drinks. The three were all confined to wheelchairs and, when it started to rain and it became clear there was no way to get all the guests into the house, the host decided to simply pull his car out of the garage and replace it with the barbecue and a card table. From there, the social club grew, as friends and neighbours, and even some passing strangers, became accustomed to dropping by for a cold one and the odd illegal smile. A beer fridge sits in one corner, alongside a working console stereo, while a bathtub in another corner overflows with two decades’ worth of beer caps, testament to the popularity of this urban cottage.
“We’ve always wanted to count them to see how many there are,” says Doc, but one senses that will never happen; the work required simply outweighs the purpose of the cottage.
Click on their website www.smartcardfactory.com for more information.
But there’s an ongoing government-press conflict that also is important in its effect on journalists’ ability to gather news and report to the rest of us, and to the proper role of a free press under the First Amendment.
Journalists – reporters and photographers – are being arrested while reporting on public demonstrations or police activity on matters of public interest. In a latest example, Charlotte Observer religion reporter Tim Funk was arrested June 10 at the General Assembly building in Raleigh, N.C., while interviewing local clergy involved in legislative protests.
As seen in a video of the arrest posted on Facebook, Funk, a veteran reporter, was interviewing members of the protest group while wearing a Charlotte Observer identification chip card on a lanyard around his neck. He continued to do interviews with several protesters after police ordered the group to disperse. He is standing in front of, not among, the group.
Funk first is grabbed by the arm and then handcuffed with a plastic tie. Later, the reporter was escorted away by three uniform officers. An Observer news story said Funk “was taken along with the arrested protesters to the Wake County magistrate’s office to be arraigned on misdemeanor charges of trespassing and failure to disperse.”
“We believe there was no reason to detain him,” Cheryl Carpenter, the newspaper’s managing editor said in an Observer story about Funk’s arrest. “He wasn’t there to do anything but report the story, to talk to Charlotte clergy. He was doing his job in a public place.”
Gathering news – and in the process, performing the Constitutional duty as a “watchdog on government” that the nation’s founders envisioned for a free press – requires more than getting a few facts from official sources. It means being at the scene, talking with those involved, observing the news firsthand.
If Funk’s arrest were a single incident, it still would be of concern. But, according to a Web site set up to track arrests of journalists in recent years who were reporting on the Occupy movement, in the year ending in September 2012, “more than 90 journalists have been arrested in 12 cities around the United States while covering Occupy protests and civil unrest.”
Add in a sizeable number of arrests in recent years of photographers for taking pictures at the scene of police actions and traffic incidents, and also those swept up in mass arrests of protesters at national and international conferences in the last decade, and there’s more reason to worry.
Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), said he deals with such arrest issues involving photojournalists “every day, all across the nation.” He works with police departments to educate officers on the rights of journalists – and the public – to take photos. He said catch and release police actions have no legal foundation, and that the increase in arrests might stem from a “perfect storm” of more cell phone cameras, and easier distribution and more visibility because of the Web.
Certainly, there are times when situations are chaotic and police must act to protect public safety. In such instances, it might be impossible to sort out the protester from the person reporting on the protest. But in Funk’s case, for example, there was no chaos and he visibly – with ID on and notebook in hand – was working as a reporter.
The rights to assemble, peaceably petition the government for change, and to raise one’s voice in doing so, are all protected freedoms under the First Amendment – along with the right of a free press to gather and report the news without government sanction or disruption.
If police are arresting demonstrators for what they say and do out of legitimate concerns for public safety or for trespassing or such, having an independent news media there to accurately observe and report is a plus for officials and for our society.
It’s not much of a trip for Gerry du Plessis to get to his summer cottage. Doc, as he’s known in the Little Italy neighbourhood where he’s lived for the past 33 years, simply goes out the back door of his home, walks a few steps to the end of his driveway, and he’s there.
Inside the Garage Mahal, as he calls it (also “the gazebo”) is a junk collector’s dream: lamps, road signs, hats, a chair that incorporates moose antlers, old Ottawa Music Festival trophies, slide rules, plastic angels, a print that once hung on the walls of the Chateau Lafayette, miniature Stanley Cups, inflatable dirigibles, a globe, handcuffs, old licence plates, dolls, puffer fish and shark jaws, hot-pepper patio lights, musical instruments, an old goalie mask, a typewriter, a sign from the Rotters Club, a Russian flag, numerous framed photos of Nana Mouskouri, a sled, a bubble gum dispenser, sea shells, a paper model of a DC-3 airplane.
It began one night about 20 years ago when Doc, now 68 and long retired from the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, had three friends over for a barbecue and drinks. The three were all confined to wheelchairs and, when it started to rain and it became clear there was no way to get all the guests into the house, the host decided to simply pull his car out of the garage and replace it with the barbecue and a card table. From there, the social club grew, as friends and neighbours, and even some passing strangers, became accustomed to dropping by for a cold one and the odd illegal smile. A beer fridge sits in one corner, alongside a working console stereo, while a bathtub in another corner overflows with two decades’ worth of beer caps, testament to the popularity of this urban cottage.
“We’ve always wanted to count them to see how many there are,” says Doc, but one senses that will never happen; the work required simply outweighs the purpose of the cottage.
Click on their website www.smartcardfactory.com for more information.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Osborne has turned an omni-shambles
Last week George Osborne converted omni-shambles into omni-rout. The Chancellor, whose ill-devised Budget a year ago left him looking cack-handed, vanquished his political enemies and snookered his Coalition partners with a sure-footed statement on public spending. In the process he cemented the Tories’ victory in the battle of ideas, and opened a new political era.
Even the prospect of the statement set Labour’s Ed Miliband and Ed Balls vigorously waving the white flag of surrender.
For three years their argument has been that with interest rates so low, Britain should borrow and spend more. Yes, the Britain which has the highest annual budget deficit in the EU, and which (as Labour likes to remind us) is adding to the national debt hundreds of billions of pounds on top of what Osborne originally planned.
Labour’s dreamy answer to the country’s debt problem goes down well with trade union leaders but to the public it now seems ridiculous. Families struggling with the mortgage, choking on yesteryear’s easy credit and drowning in plastic card interest payments cannot see how additional borrowing can make any more sense for government than it would for chip card.
Oppositions usually say ridiculous things and must embarrassingly then ditch untenable positions. Labour is right to do so now, to give it a chance of looking sane at the General Election.
Still, these have been hellish weeks for the shadow team. The Labour view of the world is falling apart. They’ve pretty much accepted the Government’s policy on schools (even though Michael Gove’s cunning plot spells the end of local government control and presages the destruction of trade union power).
Worse still for Labour, in a few months the reputation of the National Health Service has crashed. At last, it can be seen for what it is: a final surviving nationalised industry. Like telephones, gas and electricity before privatisation, many of its employees are indifferent to their customers (in this case sick people). The organisation has suffered producer capture, the point where it is run for employees not patients.
Most devastatingly, Labour set up a supervisory body charged by Ministers with covering up every outrage to protect the NHS’s reputation (or rather the Government’s). Anyone who squawked about dying patients was bought off with money that might otherwise have helped dying patients. This ultimate example of Labour spin must have left the NHS’s founder Aneurin Bevan gyrating in his tomb. Labour has nursed the NHS from cradle to grave: once its midwife, it’s now killed it off.
Little wonder that Labour’s not complaining about how little money the Chancellor is giving to health. With increasing numbers of elderly patients, and with new and expensive treatments emerging every day, the squeeze on the NHS would now be horrendous, if we didn’t all know that it had been given money to burn, certainly to waste and misuse, during Gordon Brown’s baleful reign.
Labour’s not squealing much about slashed police budgets either. How can it, when we know of the service’s scandals from sick pay to early retirement, from Hillsborough to Stephen Lawrence? What’s more, another ten per cent has gone from local authority budgets with hardly a whimper from Balls, because only waste has poured out of the town halls as they’ve passed through Osborne’s wringer.
The Government is shrinking the client state: that over-sized group who work for the state, are housed by the state, or live off the state, and who on polling day vote to expand the state.
Without the Cabinet’s hatchet work, the private sector could never recover, crowded out by vested interests and excessive taxation. Nor, indeed, could the Conservatives hope to win another Election.
This all sounds revolutionary, and it is. Britain is being turned around. In the least promising of circumstances – with a listless economy and soaring public debt – the Government is radically reforming schools, universities, health, policing and welfare. It has piled in where Thatcher feared to tread.
Tory backwoodsmen whinge that they have been held back by their Lib Dem partners. The opposite is true. The Coalition has been ‘given permission’ for much more radical policies than would have been tolerated from a Tory government, whether minority or majority. The BBC has felt neither compelled nor authorised to wage savage war against it, as it did against Thatcher. What right would it have to hound a Coalition that represents 60 per cent of electors at the last Election?
If the Tories and Lib Dems fought together they’d keep their ministerial offices and limousines, and continue to do the right things for the UK. But too many backbenchers in both parties yearn for Opposition, preferring hallucinogenic ideological purity and political irrelevance to the mucky reality of governing.
The Lib Dems are going to look mighty silly at the Election. ‘Which bit of what the Government has done do you disagree with?’, they’ll be asked. There’s no good answer. If they give examples, they’ll be asked why they went along with them. If there are no examples, how do they account for ditching their partner and their achievement?
But the Conservatives know that outside the Coalition they stand a poor chance of winning. There’s scarcely any precedent for a governing party increasing its share of the vote.
Thus Labour, the guilty party whose world has collapsed and whose henchmen are being unmasked with each new public sector scandal, may be rewarded by being returned to office.
So why does Osborne’s statement mark an historic moment? He’s abandoning the key flaw in democracy: that it sets politicians in competition with each other to promise too much. They’re then forced to borrow, passing the bill on to the future. That’s how we have a massive debt, and how a generation that had free university tuition, were home-owners and who could expect a comfortable pension, has given way to one that owes money for its fees, pays rent and has no savings.
Click on their website www.smartcardfactory.com for more information.
Even the prospect of the statement set Labour’s Ed Miliband and Ed Balls vigorously waving the white flag of surrender.
For three years their argument has been that with interest rates so low, Britain should borrow and spend more. Yes, the Britain which has the highest annual budget deficit in the EU, and which (as Labour likes to remind us) is adding to the national debt hundreds of billions of pounds on top of what Osborne originally planned.
Labour’s dreamy answer to the country’s debt problem goes down well with trade union leaders but to the public it now seems ridiculous. Families struggling with the mortgage, choking on yesteryear’s easy credit and drowning in plastic card interest payments cannot see how additional borrowing can make any more sense for government than it would for chip card.
Oppositions usually say ridiculous things and must embarrassingly then ditch untenable positions. Labour is right to do so now, to give it a chance of looking sane at the General Election.
Still, these have been hellish weeks for the shadow team. The Labour view of the world is falling apart. They’ve pretty much accepted the Government’s policy on schools (even though Michael Gove’s cunning plot spells the end of local government control and presages the destruction of trade union power).
Worse still for Labour, in a few months the reputation of the National Health Service has crashed. At last, it can be seen for what it is: a final surviving nationalised industry. Like telephones, gas and electricity before privatisation, many of its employees are indifferent to their customers (in this case sick people). The organisation has suffered producer capture, the point where it is run for employees not patients.
Most devastatingly, Labour set up a supervisory body charged by Ministers with covering up every outrage to protect the NHS’s reputation (or rather the Government’s). Anyone who squawked about dying patients was bought off with money that might otherwise have helped dying patients. This ultimate example of Labour spin must have left the NHS’s founder Aneurin Bevan gyrating in his tomb. Labour has nursed the NHS from cradle to grave: once its midwife, it’s now killed it off.
Little wonder that Labour’s not complaining about how little money the Chancellor is giving to health. With increasing numbers of elderly patients, and with new and expensive treatments emerging every day, the squeeze on the NHS would now be horrendous, if we didn’t all know that it had been given money to burn, certainly to waste and misuse, during Gordon Brown’s baleful reign.
Labour’s not squealing much about slashed police budgets either. How can it, when we know of the service’s scandals from sick pay to early retirement, from Hillsborough to Stephen Lawrence? What’s more, another ten per cent has gone from local authority budgets with hardly a whimper from Balls, because only waste has poured out of the town halls as they’ve passed through Osborne’s wringer.
The Government is shrinking the client state: that over-sized group who work for the state, are housed by the state, or live off the state, and who on polling day vote to expand the state.
Without the Cabinet’s hatchet work, the private sector could never recover, crowded out by vested interests and excessive taxation. Nor, indeed, could the Conservatives hope to win another Election.
This all sounds revolutionary, and it is. Britain is being turned around. In the least promising of circumstances – with a listless economy and soaring public debt – the Government is radically reforming schools, universities, health, policing and welfare. It has piled in where Thatcher feared to tread.
Tory backwoodsmen whinge that they have been held back by their Lib Dem partners. The opposite is true. The Coalition has been ‘given permission’ for much more radical policies than would have been tolerated from a Tory government, whether minority or majority. The BBC has felt neither compelled nor authorised to wage savage war against it, as it did against Thatcher. What right would it have to hound a Coalition that represents 60 per cent of electors at the last Election?
If the Tories and Lib Dems fought together they’d keep their ministerial offices and limousines, and continue to do the right things for the UK. But too many backbenchers in both parties yearn for Opposition, preferring hallucinogenic ideological purity and political irrelevance to the mucky reality of governing.
The Lib Dems are going to look mighty silly at the Election. ‘Which bit of what the Government has done do you disagree with?’, they’ll be asked. There’s no good answer. If they give examples, they’ll be asked why they went along with them. If there are no examples, how do they account for ditching their partner and their achievement?
But the Conservatives know that outside the Coalition they stand a poor chance of winning. There’s scarcely any precedent for a governing party increasing its share of the vote.
Thus Labour, the guilty party whose world has collapsed and whose henchmen are being unmasked with each new public sector scandal, may be rewarded by being returned to office.
So why does Osborne’s statement mark an historic moment? He’s abandoning the key flaw in democracy: that it sets politicians in competition with each other to promise too much. They’re then forced to borrow, passing the bill on to the future. That’s how we have a massive debt, and how a generation that had free university tuition, were home-owners and who could expect a comfortable pension, has given way to one that owes money for its fees, pays rent and has no savings.
Click on their website www.smartcardfactory.com for more information.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)