2013年1月30日 星期三

Avalon Breads Rises To New Heights

Ann Perrault, co-owner and CEO of Avalon International Breads, never dreamed she would turn a dilapidated industrial building in Detroit into a state-of-the-art bakery to be called Avalon City Ovens.The lanyard series is a grand collection of coordinating Travertine mosaics and listellos.

"Not in a million years," she said when talking about the first phase of her $2.2 million expansion project. The new 50,000-square-foot production facility is scheduled to open this month at 6555 East Forrest. "But if you think about it and think about the resources in Detroit, and the large vacant buildings, it does make sense that this is the direction we took."

The warehouse was purchased at the 2010 Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction and is funded by a loan that closed in early October. "I never would have thought of doing this. It was an exciting process to actually go and do it," said Perrault, adding that a few of her customers turned her on to the idea. "I am getting the space for a lot less than what it's worth because the owner hasn't paid the taxes. That's kind of a hard situation. I got really lucky."

Avalon now employs more than 50 people. Perrault is in the process of hiring 100 additional bakers, drivers, sales and customer service workers to continue Avalon's growth in the heart of the city.

According to a recent press release, the project comes not long after Avalon opened its second retail location last summer known as the Eat Well, Do Good Cafe in the West Grand Boulevard building of Henry Ford Hospital. "The quick success of this store and growing demand for Avalon products in suburban Detroit and Ann Arbor prompted the expansion," she said.

"The Michigan Economic Development Corporation under Mike Finney wanted to jump start economic growth and support businesses dedicated to employing people, particularly from urban communities," said Don Snider, senior vice president, Urban Economic Development for MEDC. "Avalon is a great example of how our collaborative resources with local partners can lead to growth that benefits all of metropolitan Detroit."

The project involves a complicated partnership with Invest Detroit, Whole Foods, the Small Business Administration and Main Street Bank. "I asked them to be a part of the business in 2008. It was formally done in 2010. It came with a lot of negotiations around how that was going to happen. This was a good way to secure the wholesale end of the business," she said.

The new location will service the artisan bakery's growing wholesale and retail customers. Avalon breads can be purchased at grocery stores like Whole Foods, Holiday, and Plum markets. Restaurants that offer Avalon products are Small Plates in Detroit, Frittata in Clawson, Bastone in Royal Oak,Don't make another silicone mold without these invaluable stonemosaic supplies and accessories! and the Jolly Pumpkin in Ann Arbor, to name a few.

The original 2,000-square-foot production and retail flagship store was established in 1997 by Perrault with her partner, Jackie Victor. Located at 422 W. Willis in the Cass Corridor, Avalon became the biggest organic bread flour purchaser in Michigan, purchasing over 9,000 pounds of organic, milled grains weekly from hard-working, organic wheat farmers.

Many aspiring entrepreneurs seek advice and guidance from Perrault as a result of her success. At Avalon City Ovens,Our team of consultants are skilled in project management and delivery of large scale chinamosaic projects. Perrault will continue to offer her customers more of their local marketplace favorites from Garden Works in Ann Arbor, Apple Schram in Lansing, St. Laurent Bros Peanut Butter, Chartreuse Organic Herbal Tea in Trenton, and more. But she hopes to support some of the Detroit companies starting to spring up. "I'd like to help smaller,TBC help you confidently bobbleheads from factories in China. innovative companies to start up and do some things for them to boost them to the next level more quickly," she said.

Like 25-year-old Nailah Ellis, owner of the four-year-old beverage company Ellis Island Tea available for purchase at Avalon. The tea, which is sold in almost 20 grocery stores and restaurants throughout Southeastern Michigan, is made with a unique blend of herbs, 100 percent natural extracts,Elpas Readers detect and forward 'Location' and 'State' data from Elpas Active RFID Tags to host parkingguidance platforms. no high fructose corn syrup or yellow 5.

"Nobody wanted to be the first one to carry my product. Ann is very big on supporting local and was willing to take that risk. She gave me a shot and opened a lot of doors for me," said Ellis, who is looking to rent space at Avalon City Ovens. "She is an angel on earth and my business mentor. She is not one of those people who keeps her experience a secret. She shares everything, she is one of her word, she is knowledgeable, and the bakery thrives the way it does because of Ann. I name drop her anytime I'm trying to get a new account or close on a deal. Her name is golden."

Perhaps it's the advice Perrault provides. She tells them what Larkin told her. "Don't pay a rent that will make you stay up at night. Don't be open too much when you first start because you'll already be overwhelmed. Never grow more than 20 percent, which I take to heart. As you get larger, you have to be really careful. At any point, one section of business can decide they don't want to do business or want to do business with someone else," she said.

Perrault and her staff have been growing about 20 percent since 2003. "The biggest growth margin here has been the sweet department," she said. Her mother had a pie business when she was a kid. "I happen to have a mother who's one of the best bakers I know. Her chocolate cake, cheesecakes, fruit cakes, Yule logs, and so many more products we bake together will be introduced soon. We're gearing ourselves toward a 25 percent increase within the first year at the new place. As we very modestly move forward, we're taking on the true aspects of training individuals to grow at that rate and training to keep the hands in the mixing," she said.

Freescale Expands Data Center Focus

Underscoring its continued focus on the fast-growing data center market, Freescale Semiconductor introduces the C29x family of crypto coprocessors – a new lineup of security accelerators engineered to help the world’s top data center equipment manufacturers efficiently scale to handle dramatic increases in secure network traffic.

The new C29x crypto coprocessors enable multi-chip,Automate patient flow and quickly track hospital assets and people using howotipper. single PCI-E card solutions providing more than 120K RSA-2048 operations/second and delivering more than 3x the performance of more expensive PCI-E options currently available from today’s market share leader.A collection of natural parkingsensor offering polished or tumbled finishes and a choice of sizes.

“Internet traffic security requirements are increasingly stringent and complex, yet the security coprocessor market is currently served by very few vendors. Customers are asking us for high-performance, cost- and power-efficient choices for coprocessors,” said Tareq Bustami, vice president of Product Management for Freescale’s Digital Networking group. “Freescale has leveraged its communications processor leadership and 30 years of embedded security R&D investment to develop the new C29x crypto coprocessors, which offer the security and scalability data centers need to handle tremendous increases in data volume.”

“Freescale’s new C29x crypto coprocessor family provides OEMs with more choices and significantly lower costs at a time when network security has never been more important,” said Joseph Byrne, senior analyst with the Linley Group. “The security coprocessor space is a potentially high-margin market for Freescale’s Digital Networking business.”

Freescale’s C29x family offers scalability in both power and performance. The family is designed to accelerate RSA (up to 4k key sizes), Diffie Hellman, and Elliptical Curve Cryptography (ECC) algorithms, and integrates up to 10 Gbs of bulk encryption. Whether applied in a large data center blade or within a hardware security module, C29x crypto coprocessors consume minimal power for thermally constrained designs.Features useful information about ventilationsystem tiles. The products can be used in single- or multi-chip PCI-E end point card configurations, or can operate as standalone processors.

“Ensuring the security of enormous volumes of IP traffic is one of the most pressing issues facing our industry today,” said Darren Learmonth, chief technology officer, Thales e-Security. “Freescale’s C29x successfully addresses this issue with an extremely flexible, cost-efficient solution which should prove quite compelling to the marketplace.”

Freescale will discuss applications and features of the C29x family at the Linley Tech Data Center Conference planned for February 5 & 6 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Santa Clara, California. The company also plans to demonstrate C29x technology in San Francisco at the RSA 2013 event in booth numbers 3002 and 3004.

ESET began studying the Trojan at the beginning of 2012. However, due to its proactive generic detection of this threat, the users of ESET security solutions were protected against it already from December 2011. During the investigation ESET could not provide any details about this threat publicly.

The attacker used the malware to gain the user's FB login credentials, his/her score in the game, as well as information on the amount of credit cards stored in his/her Facebook settings and available to increase the credit in the game of poker. The game had a functionality that allowed replenishing the chip value using real money by inputting the credit card details or PayPal account. To gain the user's login credentials, an army of 800 of computers were used - all infected and controlled by the attacker. These machines were executing commands from the C&C (Command & Control) server. The creator of the threat has launched an attack using the login credentials of several FB accounts, which were gained ahead of time.

"To protect against attacks relying on social engineering methods, having a good security solution is not enough, users should be attentive to \any such ploys," says Róbert Lipovsky, ESET Security Intelligence Team Lead. He adds "The user could recognize the fake FB login page if he/she would check the site's URL."

The infected computers received a command to login into the user's FB accounts and to gain the user's Texas HoldEm score, as well as the amount of credit cards stored in his/her FB account. In case of a user without a credit card or low score,Product information for Avery Dennison customkeychain products. the infected computer received instructions to infect the victim's FB profile with a link to a phishing site. This site has acted to directly or indirectly lure the player's FB friends to a website resembling the FB homepage. In case the login credentials were input by them, they were also harvested by the attacker. While analyzing this botnet ESET estimates that the attacker could gain access to a total of 16,194 login credentials. ESET would like to caution that any other FB application could have been infected in this way,Want to find solarpanel? not just Texas HoldEm Poker.

The Nature of Things

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago is,Austrian hospital launches drycabinet solution to improve staff safety. arguably, the most intellectually accomplished bishop in the history of the American episcopate. Earlier this year,We have many different types of earcap. when the Illinois legislature began to consider changing state law to “accommodate those of the same sex who wish to ‘marry’ one another” (as the cardinal put it), Professor George gave the readers of his column in the Chicago archdiocesan newspaper a lesson in metaphysics—and, I suspect, a high-voltage intellectual jolt:

Sexual relations between a man and a woman are naturally and necessarily different from sexual relations between same-sex partners. This truth is part of the common sense of the human race. It was true before the existence of either Church or State, and it will continue to be true when there is no State of Illinois and no United States of America. A proposal to change this truth about marriage in civil law is less a threat to religion than it is an affront to human reason and the common good of society. It means we are all to pretend to accept something we know is physically impossible. The Legislature might just as well repeal the law of gravity.

The crucial term here is “naturally.” And if people were shocked by the cardinal’s suggestion that a same-sex “marriage” law would be as fatuous as a statute repealing the law of gravity, it’s because our philosophically challenged culture has lost any grip on what “nature” means, beyond that physical world we venerate through such civic rituals as recycling.

There is little sense of the givenness of things, in the twenty-first-century postmodern West. And where there is no culturally affirmed conviction that some realities simply are, there will be a parallel intuition that everything is fungible, plastic, malleable: anything can be changed by an act of will. The legal ne plus ultra of this cultural phenomenon came in 2007, when the Spanish government allowed Juan to become Juanita on his/her national identity card by simply declaring (absent any surgical alteration) that he was now she. Cardinal George was suggesting, correctly in my view, that same-sex marriage is the same, essentially incoherent denial of givenness manifest in Spain’s Gender Identity Law 3/2007.Researchers at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed an indoortracking.

In his Christmas address to the Roman Curia last December, Pope Benedict XVI raised similar issues. We deplore the “manipulation of nature” today “where our environment is concerned,” the pope noted; but when it comes to human affairs, human “nature” has become a matter of our “choice.We open source luggagetag system that was developed with the goal of providing at least room-level accuracy.” Which means that we no longer experience ourselves as unique composites of matter and spirit. The “matter” of our humanness is mere ephemera; we are merely, as Benedict put it, “spirit and will.”

Who are the big losers, the pope asked, when societies and cultures lose their grip on the reality that “man and women are complementary versions of what it means to be human”? The family is certainly a loser: for if there is no “duality of man and women” that is accepted as the Way Things Are, than “neither is the family any longer a reality” established by anything other than our willfulness.

The biggest losers, though, are children, the pope argued. If children are simply a lifestyle choice in a “family” that is nothing other than a willed arrangement for mutual convenience, children lose their rightful place and their rightful dignity. Citing the chief rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim, Benedict argued that children are, in this bizarre new world, no longer the subject of rights. Rather, “the child has become an object to which people have a right and which they have a right to obtain.” The freedom to be creative, which finds its most awesome expression in procreation, has been reduced to the freedom to create myself, however I imagine myself to be.

The marriage debate is thus about more than the legal definition of marriage, although that is serious enough. It’s a debate about whether there are any givens in the human condition, or whether willfulness and self-assertion trump reality at every point.We offer a wide variety of high-quality standard howotractor and controllers. If they do, what happens to democracies built on self-evident truths?

"ISU when collecting tuition, it's no different," said Dr. Robert Guell, a professor of economics at Indiana State University. "If you want to pay your tuition on a credit card, ISU will take the credit card but you'll pay that extra three percent as an extra cost."

While some businesses might not add the fee, Dr. Guell expects places to cover their overhead cost one way or another.

"Whether it shows up on the ticket or whether it doesn't show up on the ticket, Walmart is going to charge it's customers for it's cost, one of which is collecting money from the credit card companies," said Dr. Guell.

"If this means more small businesses are going to be able to offer credit card services than that's probably a boom for them because now i can shop there without having the hastle of going to get cash or getting my checkbook," said Justin.

2013年1月27日 星期日

Wylie's newest album Montana to the core

Wylie and the Wild West’s latest album provides a select compilation of previously recorded songs that illuminate Montana’s sense of place.

The 15 tracks of “Skytones: Songs of Montana” span more than a dozen albums dating back to 1997, according to Conrad contemporary cowboy songwriter Wylie Gustafson. The album includes “My Home’s in Montana,Find Complete Details about oilpaintingreproduction Truck.” voted among the top five Montana songs in a recent Tribune readers’ poll.

Gustafson’s brand of Western music is rooted in tradition yet embraces broader influences as well.

“I’ve made a concerted effort to bring cowboy music to a contemporary crowd,” he related in a recent phone interview.Want to find handbags? “That’s the great thing about American music. We have so many influences to draw from.”

“I think you develop an acute awareness for the outdoors and the beauty of the landscape just by bein’ a rancher,” Gustafson said. “It becomes this theme and this pulse of your life. The beauty really weaves itself into your psyche.”

Gustafson, raised on a cattle ranch near Conrad, noted the natural environment plays an active role in shaping the culture of the ranching and the agricultural community.Get the best deal on smartcard in the UK and use our free tools.

“Montanans are very unique, you know,” he said. “They’re very independent yet friendly with a sense of humor. You have to have a sense of humor equal to Mother Nature’s sense of humor. I think Mother Nature humbles you time and time again. You’re not in control.”

The driven rocker “Buck Up and Huck It” and the spirited “Hi-Line Polka” pay tribute to the hearty character of Hi-Line folks. Songs that clarify the spiritual power of landscapes include the serene “Grace,” which describes a mysterious connectedness to the land, and the reverent “I Get High,” which reveals sublime feelings inspired by Montana’s natural beauty.

“The Yodeling Fool” is an autobiographical account of a young Montana kid chasing perceived greener pastures outside the state. In “Montana Love Song,” Gustafson employs the metaphor of Montana as a lover. Gustafson described “Big Sky Lullaby,” a slow yodel, as “a sonic reflection of the beauty of Montana.”

“I tried to capture the loneliness and beauty of the landscape through just a melody,The term 'smartcardfactory control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag.” he explained further. “It’s just an emotion.”

Gustafson said the release of “Skytones” at this stage in his 40-year music career is a retrospective realization prompted by the return to his native state four years ago after an absence of 20 years.

“If you wanna figure out how much you love something, go away from it,” Gustafson mused. “Looking back, the theme of Montana is so prevalent and such a key part of the foundation of my songwriting. It’s all I care about in terms of place.”

Nowhere in the publicity did it say that Peter Jackson had entered a work in the Sculpture on the Gulf exhibition. But there it was, on the headland, a Hobbit building complete with squealing Hobbit children prancing around and playing on the swings which hung from the creaking construction, cobbled together from bits of timber.

But these heightened expectations were dashed when it was revealed that the work was actually by the mere mortal of an artist, Gregor Kregar who had created the Middle Earth structure.

Constructed out of eleven tonnes of recycled timber “Pavilion Structure” owes much to the traditional children’s tree house, the elegant European pavilion and the jerry built bachs of Waiheke.

The work has much in common with the artist’s previous work that sees him working within the area of the cultural landscape looking at architecture,Creative glass tile and cableties tile for your distinctive kitchen and bath. cultural symbols and emblems with an element of playfulness and wit, giving the everyday object a surreal and mythic quality.

What made the work successful was the presence of two grass skirted female musician/ dancers / singers who performed mid-twentieth songs of the Pacific accompanied by some hula dancing. This bit of Pacific on Waiheke was a clever and witty take on colonialism, cultural appropriation and exploitation.

The most successful work of this sort was “Field Notes” by Carolyn Williams. Dozens of delicate metal rods suspended between the bough of a tree and the ground with each rod having a metal shape representing a sound which the artist had transcribed from sounds she had recorded in the environment around the tree. These shapes hovered in the air, a physical representation of the sounds one could hear.

Her work had a companion piece in Sharonagh Montrose’s “A Weave of Words” which consisted of a small grove in the bush where which the artist had created a soundscape which could have been pre recorded or sounds picked up from elsewhere on the trail and fed back into the grove.

Several of the works were interactive with works such as Aaron McConchie’s "I Am Auckland" ($11,430) which initially looked like a giant scrum machine. The work consists of three large wooden paddles which can be manually manipulated by levers. The work is like a primitive form of semaphore, enabling participants to signal across the harbour to those on the mainland.

The most innovative of these notions about communication is Kazu Nakagawa’s “A Play – Catwalk” in which the artist has chosen two curators who in turn have designed costumes to perform on the large outdoor catwalk. The whole piece is a combination of fashion show and promenade with the audience as spectators, voyeurs and participants.

All at sea over fish and chips

A determined group of professional chefs wander down an fairly unconvincing alleyway and into an even less convincing locker room, the design of both illustrating unnerving similarities between big-budget reality television and low-budget erotica.

A montage of the preceding week follows, and we are reminded of Matt, the guy with the unsanitary hat who encouraged everyone to follow their dreams, and Anthony, the guy with the undignified exit who encouraged everyone to shut the hell up.Don't make another silicone mold without these invaluable injectionmold supplies and accessories!

Cassie tells us that when she puts on her chef whites she becomes a different person, and that's who she really is. In light of this identity crisis, we are all slightly confused as to who is speaking to us right now – is it Cassie the talented young chef, or is it Cassie the person in ordinary clothes who cannot cook at all?

The irrepressible force that is Marco Pierre White welcomes everyone to the kitchen in a syrupy baritone. Poetry flows from his mouth and a dangerous charisma radiates from his very core. The women of Australia wonder whether it's really all that healthy to be so attracted to someone who is almost certain at some stage to murder them horribly.

A brand new challenge awaits our chef-hopefuls – the "Reinvention Test". Each week the contestants must take a classic dish that is perfectly fine the way it is and artfully mold it into something that contains far more adjectives.

As the winner of the previous challenge, Akuc must pull a knife from a block to decide which dish all the contestants will tackle. A swift draw of steel later and we find out that it's that most classic of classics – fish and chips.

Marco describes his adolescent experiences by the seaside as “dreamy”, “magical” and “special” and it takes us all a moment to realise with horror that he is not actually talking about fish and chips AT ALL.

Akuc is despondent. Being from Sudan, she has never eaten fish and chips, let alone cooked them. In fact, she's never even seen a fish or been in the same room as a potato.

Cassie is in much higher spirits. She has the unique experience of growing up around fish and chips, so this challenge is one that plays right to her particular strength of having eaten ordinary foods.

Cooking commences, and after a false start and a stern word from Matt Preston, Rhett is struggling to come up with an inventive dish. This is surprising to everyone but most of all to Rhett, who by his own frank admission is so amazing that he should be finding this challenge a walk in the park.

Coop is crafting some ingeniously crispy parsnip chips into a collar, which will be filled with an aerated fish mousse. He's struggling with his mousse, but that difficulty is nothing compared to his struggles as a young father with a heart of gold, trying hard to get the best medical care for his sick daughter. As we are shown scenes of Coop playing with his young girl, we discover that Marco isn't the only one that's good at making people cry.

Akuc again reminds us that she's never eaten fish and chips before, and Rhett again reminds us that he is awesome; and for some reason, I don't think it's the last time we've heard either of these two pieces of information.

Chrissie tells us that she has to get her dish on the plate or she's going home. With this revelation it's reassuring to know that after nine separate series of MasterChef over the past five years, the importance of actually serving food to the judges is something we've been intuitive enough to correctly pick up on.

She's cooking her fish en papillote,Buy today and get your delivery for £25 on a range of plasticmoulds for your home. which is French for “incorrectly”, and Marco strolls over to advise her that she's doing pretty much everything wrong.

Rhys, having learned almost nothing from the five-course seafood tasting plate that sent Anthony home last week, is making five separate elements for his reinvented fish and chips. The major difference of course being that Rhys' dish involves beer and coconuts, so I have to confess that I'm a little excited.

Akuc now tells us that she's never made batter before, because that's another thing they don't have in Sudan. It would seem appropriate at this time to point out to Akuc that, rather than just the experiences of her early childhood in the Sudan, in this challenge she is also allowed to draw inspiration from her many years of training as a professional chef in some of Australia's best kitchens.

Marco approaches Akuc and tells her that her idea of frying fish in batter and serving it with fried potatoes sounds very original. Akuc thanks him, because apparently they don't have sarcasm in Sudan either.

Ninety minutes is almost up and Marco paces back and forth through the kitchen, repeatedly shouting the number “15”. We assume is the amount of time remaining, but before we can clarify he knocks 246 toothpicks onto the ground, reminds everyone that he is an excellent driver, and informs us that “Qantas never crashes.”

A few frantic moments later and the challenge is over. Rhett summons every ounce of modesty he has in his body to tell us that his dish is amazing and that it should be on the menu at his restaurant. And with that it's on to the tasting.

Coop is first up and his food is cooked impeccably, but Matt's seen it all before. He's disappointed that Coop hasn't used his time in this challenge to invent an entirely new method of cooking. In the interests of full-disclosure I should mention that I have worked with Coop before, and that this may be influencing my opinion that this criticism of Coop has exposed Matt as a heartless monster.

Akuc comes forward with a plate of battered fish and deep-fried potatoes, bringing the list of things we now know that are not present in Sudan to: fish, chips, batter, sarcasm, and the concept of “reinvention” itself.

Cameron has not actually cooked any food, but his impressively architectural diorama of a castle and a lighthouse wins him a gold star from the judges.

Rhett's crispy fried coral trout wings with taro chips and a chili-ginger sauce is a winner,Source drycabinets Products at Other Truck Parts. exciting both judges; and Rhys' five-element dish has succeeded where the now-eliminated chef-to-the-stars Anthony had failed.Features useful information about fridgemagnet tiles. We can only imagine what colour Anthony is turning at home as he watches this.

Chrissie has not fared so well and the judges are not impressed with her fish and chips that she has reinvented to, well, fish and chips. She bursts into tears and Marco puts his arm around her, whispering into her ear.

After months of advertisements espousing Marco's prowess at forcing people to cry, we are now expected to believe he is equally good at making them stop. Right now, I would not be at all surprised if back at home he had a large room just full of tiny vials of tears – all neatly labeled and catalogued by name, date and reason for issue. He just comes across like that kind of guy.

Cassie's deconstructed English classic is a hit with the judges, drawing praise for the little mound of malt vinaigrette foam that identifies this dish as “modern” and distinct from all the years that the human race stupidly ate food that hadn't been turned into gels or foams.

The top three dishes in this challenge belong to Rhett, Cassie and Rhys, and today Rhett has emerged victorious, despite his crippling lack of self-belief.

Akuc and Chrissie are the bottom two, and Marco tells us that in this competition a dish that is “good is not good enough”. Neither, apparently, is dish that is “not good” and Chrissie is told she's going home.

Chrissie cries. Bonny cries. Akuc cries. Some other people probably cried too but I couldn't see them because I think I was crying.Creative glass tile and cableties tile for your distinctive kitchen and bath.

We've often been told of Marco Pierre White's past success in making Gordon Ramsay cry, but what we weren't told is that, in fairness to Gordon, it would appear that Marco just makes everyone cry. Whether it is the intimidating projection of his iron will or an overwhelming personal odour of onions, we cannot know through the medium of traditional television.

Chrissie exits the MasterChef kitchen for the last time, disappointed with the fortunes of the day, but with her head held high in the knowledge that just last week she won praise from one of the world's best chefs and one of the world's best food critics for her berry and almond tart.

The Dream of the Peruvian

Mario Vargas Llosa must be one of the few great writers ever to have argued that society should place less trust in great writers. “The mandarin writer no longer has a place in today’s world,” he has observed. “Figures like Sartre in France or Ortega y Gasset and Unamuno in their time, or Octavio Paz, served as guides and teachers on all the important issues and filled a void that only the ‘great writer’ seemed capable of filling, whether because few others participated in public life, because democracy was nonexistent, or because literature had a mythical prestige.” But today, “in a free society, the influence that a writer exerts—sometimes profitably—over submissive societies is useless.”

The irony, of course, is that Vargas Llosa has had a higher public profile than almost any writer of his time.The term 'smartcardfactory control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. He has been famous ever since emerging in the 1960s as a leading figure of the movement called the Latin American Boom, and in 2010, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. At the same time, he has been a vocal participant in the politics of his native Peru, even mounting a serious campaign for president in 1990. Though he lost the second round of the election to the future dictator Alberto Fujimori, Vargas Llosa established himself as one of the world’s most eloquent spokesmen for democracy and free markets—a position that puts him directly at odds with most Latin American intellectuals of his generation, who are likelier to share the dogmatic leftism of his contemporary Gabriel García Márquez. Yet even as Vargas Llosa insists on the need for reason and freedom in politics, his fiction has continued to explore the imaginative realms of unreason and obsession, primitivism and violence.

These themes are on ample display in one of Vargas Llosa’s best books, The Storyteller (1987), in which he imagines his way out of modern Western civilization and into the mind of a nomadic Amazonian people, the Machiguenga. The novel’s narrator is a man who, in all outward respects, is Vargas Llosa himself—a Peruvian writer and expatriate who thinks back to his Latin American upbringing while living in Florence. As a university student, the narrator relates, he had a good friend, Saul Zuratas, who was doubly cut off from ordinary Peruvian society: he was a Jew,Creative glass tile and cableties tile for your distinctive kitchen and bath. and he was born with a disfiguring birthmark. To compensate for this otherness, Saul embraced the even greater otherness of the Machiguenga, becoming obsessed with this small, struggling people’s nomadic way of life and bizarre cosmology. Saul ultimately managed the impossible: he became a member of the tribe, and what’s more,The 3rd International Conference on howotipper and Indoor Navigation. a storyteller, or hablador, responsible for preserving and sharing the Machiguengas’ history. Alternating chapters of the novel are told in a voice that we gradually realize is Saul’s, as he coaxes the reader into an utterly alien worldview.

The Machiguengas call themselves “people who walk,” and the first premise of their metaphysics is that they must be constantly on the move. If they stop, disaster will befall them; in fact, the universe itself will die. They are kept to this principle by their memories of the darkest period in their history, “the time of the tree-bleeding.” This was the rubber boom of the late nineteenth century,Save up to 80% off Ceramic Tile and drycabinet. in which Peruvian speculators kidnapped large numbers of Indians and forced them to work on rubber plantations. Vargas Llosa imagines this period as a kind of Machiguenga holocaust, in which vast numbers of people died and the traditional culture was almost snuffed out. “Before, there were many men who walk; after, very few,” says the storyteller. “When things like that happen, they don’t disappear. . . .The term 'moulds control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. They linger on in one of the four worlds. . . . Those who see them come back heart-stricken, it seems, their teeth chattering with sickened disgust.”

In 1911, at the height of “the time of the tree-bleeding,” the world was awakened to the horrors going on in the Amazonian jungles of Peru by Sir Roger Casement, the greatest humanitarian investigator of his age. Casement, Irish Protestant by birth, was already world-famous, thanks to his scathing report on the abuses that King Leopold’s regime had committed in the Belgian Congo, where millions of people were killed and starved to death—again, in the pursuit of rubber. This made Casement a natural choice when the British government decided to investigate rumors of atrocities against Peru’s Putumayo Indians.

For many in Britain and around the world, Casement represented the best of Western civilization, just as King Leopold represented the worst. Indeed, Casement’s career brings into sharp focus the contradictions of European imperialism. On the one hand, it was the government of the British Empire that ordered Casement to explore the “heart of darkness” that was the Congo (indeed, Joseph Conrad was personally acquainted with and influenced by Casement). British public opinion, horrified by Casement’s revelations, drove an international movement that insisted on reforms in Africa and Peru. Yet it was the presence of Europeans in Africa, and of European capital in Peru, that unleashed those horrors in the first place. Which was the true face of Britain and the West: the exploiter or the humanitarian, Leopold or Casement?

To Casement himself, the answer finally became clear: Britain was a force for evil that one had to resist at any price. As an Irishman, he began to identify with the wretched of the earth, the victims of colonialism. Even as he became a British knight, he grew increasingly active in Irish nationalist and independence movements. At last, during World War I, he decided that the cause of Irish freedom even justified collaboration with Germany. He traveled to Germany to try to enlist Irish prisoners of war in an Irish legion to fight against Britain and also to procure German weapons for use in an Irish revolt. After being smuggled back to Ireland in a submarine in 1916, Casement was captured by the British and put on trial for treason.

But one more twist was in store for this already unlikely life. Eager to discredit a man with a worldwide reputation for probity, the British government circulated what it claimed to be Casement’s private diaries, full of graphic details of his homosexuality. The use of sex to discredit Irish leaders was an old tactic—a generation earlier, Charles Stewart Parnell had been exposed as an adulterer—and many people believed (as some still believe) that the “Black Diaries” purported to be Casement’s were frauds. Still, by the time Casement was hanged for treason in August 1916, his reputation was in ruins, and he became an untouchable figure in Irish politics for several generations.

There could hardly be a richer subject for a novelist than Casement, especially in the twenty-first century, when the attitudes of 100 years ago toward sex, race, and imperialism have changed so dramatically. Above all, Casement offers a perfect case study in the conflict between liberalism and radicalism. As a humanitarian and an anti-imperialist, Casement was a liberal hero, recalling Western civilization to its own highest ideals; as a revolutionary and nationalist, he was a radical, convinced that British ideals were a sham that had to be overthrown by violence. Which phase of Casement’s career ought we to admire, and which condemn? And if you had to name the novelist best equipped to explore just these problems, the answer would surely be Vargas Llosa. No one has written about the conflict between classical liberalism and radicalism, between freedom and utopianism, more fully than he has. He has lived that conflict himself, evolving from the conventional leftism of his Latin American generation into an exponent of political and economic freedom.

2013年1月23日 星期三

Marblehead Arts Association upcoming exhibit

The Marblehead Arts Association is proud to announce its upcoming exhibit, featuring work in mixed media of four local artists. From February 9 until March 10, the efforts of David Lieb, Leslie Fahn Rosenberg, Elizabeth Neville and Eva Hoffman will be displayed in the galleries of the Arts Association, 8 Hooper Street, Marblehead. The community is welcome to enjoy this outstanding show, which will feature an Artists’ Opening Reception on Sunday, March 10 from 2 to 4 pm.All smartcardfactory comes with 5 Years Local Agent Warranty !

As the work with collage has evolved, he has explored different adhesive methods from basic Elmer’s Glue to varied gel mediums, decoupage mediums and varnishes. The acrylic varnishes yield the most versatility as a decoupage medium and extender, allowing longer work with the acrylic paints.

Lieb says,We can supply howo truck products as below.We open source indoor tracking system that was developed with the goal of providing at least room-level accuracy. “I find the process of collage to be very intuitive. In my early works it was uncommon for me to start a new piece having a pre-conceived notion of what the work would be about or would become in its finished form. With age, over the last decade, has come more deliberate works as part of a more planned out process. This show chronicles life transitions, including loss, love, beginnings and endings.”

Women/Nature/Design are the common themes in this exhibit of portraits and mixed media collages entitled “Decorated Women.” The work is highly stylized, bold and graphic, infused with intense color and delicate line work.

The pieces are done “in series” or simultaneously, to maintain consistency and cohesiveness. Four or more rapid sketches (in magic marker) generally begin the process, followed by paint, collage (using advertising circulars that come in the mail), and finishing with hand drawn lines, dots and patterns.

Leslie Fahn Rosenberg is a full-time painter/sculptor. She works on paper sculptures, reverse paintings on plastic, layered pastels and embellished wood mounted paintings. Rosenberg participates regularly in juried, group and solo shows in galleries and unconventional venues, and she has curated and juried several exhibits. Rosenberg graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and studied at Carnegie Mellon University and Monserratt College of Art.

A Massachusetts native, Elizabeth Neville earned degrees in photography and graphic design. Currently she teaches these areas of expertise at Northeastern to both undergraduate and graduate students. She has also created a photography business connected to her main photographic interest, portraiture. Her work has been shown in many local, regional and national group shows; and she is involved in a number of artists’ associations.

Neville stated, “The images in the MAA show are based on the same criteria used in my portraiture. The expressions, inner beauty and strengths are what are deemed most important and hopefully inherent in each image. Drawn from the ideas of strength, rage, beauty and humanity that are in each of us and make us the people we are, may be also seen in nature. Each subject is defined by ever-changing moods, unique emotion,You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth howo tipper truck Descriptions. and its own style, grace and color. While they might not be perfect, the subtle qualities beneath the surface that shine through are what make each piece meaningful to me.”

Eva Hoffman earned a degree in architecture in Budapest, Hungary, followed by extensive training in figure and landscape drawing. She says that her paintings mirror her busy life all over the world. “I am so blessed to have the possibility to know different cultures, different people and many countries.Shop the web's best selection of precious gemstones and gemstone beads at wholesale prices.” Through the years, her art has continued to evolve as her emotional perceptions have changed. “My art, more and more, is a reflection of my emotions of the moment. My art has become less contrived and more in tune with my inner self.”

Painting and architecture are the obsession and passion of her lifetime; and each work is a new invention. “As I come to the completion of a painting I sense an original spirit infusing the composition. The many years of my work and study of fine art have served me well, and I feel my paintings show the result of intense private scrutiny and concentration.” Her talents have earned her numerous awards, group and solo shows and association memberships.

Hoffman believes seeking peace is the highest of priorities one should have within their life goals. “When I think of what I would most like you, the viewer, to come away from a work of mine with is a sense of enjoyment and a little more peaceful than when it first attracted your attention.”

A drawing was made on each day of the year. Although a few of the designs create organically shaped images, most are more structured geometric patterns. These drawings began with penciled grid lines and grew out with repetitive, pen-and-ink line work done freehand. The process is meditative in nature.

Miranda says “The purpose of making a drawing on every day of a year was two-fold. Firstly, it demanded structure and discipline for the practice of meditation in action. Secondly, it was a way to interact with the audience’s personal history. Seeing the dates on the finished pieces calls to mind any personal significance of that day for the viewer. I was actively doing something creative on each day and effectively commemorating the birthday of almost anyone.”

Public school division's facilities manager addresses

The trustees at the South East Cornerstone Public School Division conference table received a direct update on their schools from facilities manager Andy Dobson during their Jan. 16 regular open board meeting in Weyburn.

Dobson oversees the physical management of the division's 38 school buildings as well as their maintenance and office buildings. He also oversees properties belonging to the division but no longer used for educational purposes.

In fact he said two Cornerstone properties that are no longer in use were being inquired about in Tribune and Lake Alma with the Village of Tribune looking to purchase a former school parcel that still has a building on it while the Lake Alma property consists of a simple land base.

Dobson noted that four employees in the facilities department will be retiring this year and finding replacements will be a challenge as will the hiring of a journeyman plumber.

During his report, Dobson pointed out approvals have been gained for roof replacement work at the Estevan Comprehensive School with one phase already underway and nearing completion and the other scheduled to get underway a bit later.

Dobson also noted that the major capital works project, the addition to and refurbishment of the Weyburn Comprehensive School, hit some snags when it was revealed that the contractor had installed roofing and flooring that had not met specifications. This has led to a good portion of the new roof having to be taken down and the flooring taken out with the contractor being put on a default notice.

He said the project is still listed as being on schedule. In the meantime, various directives have been issued regarding restrictive access to the school by staff, students and the general public who are having to use alternate doorways and hallways to reach various areas of the school during the reconstruction process.

Relocatable classrooms have been assigned to Assiniboia Park School in Weyburn and Moosomin.
Dobson noted the junior high school in Weyburn will undergo a facelift and become an elementary school once the junior high students move into the rebuilt Weyburn Comp, while Queen Elizabeth and Haig Schools will be closed and decommissioned.

He said a rebuild at Souris School is necessary but hasn't been put into the approval mix by the Ministry of Education yet, although a rebuild at Carlyle has.

The facilities manager said assessments of roofs on all the division's facilities have been completed and inspections are now being carried out on all the heating and ventilation systems. He pointed to some areas where impending problems could surface in the coming years and also noted that a steam boiler taken out of the former Oxbow school will be installed in the Macoun School in a proactive move to address an impending heating issue there.

Dobson also talked to the trustees about the preventative maintenance and renewal policy that is coming into effect this spring. He said one aspect of the new guideline will see maintenance teams spending more consecutive hours in each facility addressing all identified immediate needs as well as potential problems, rather than having them returning to schools multiple times during the course of a school year.

“We'd rather see them doing that than doing a lot of running around. These are projects that will not require ministry approval,” said Dobson.

An energy-saving project proposed for all seven of Darien's public school buildings would pay for itself each fiscal year over the course of 15 years and result in less energy usage and newer, upgraded building equipment, the Board of Education was told on Tuesday.

The proposal, put together by Honeywell under the supervision of an independent consulting company which would help monitor it, involves $6.6 million worth of changes, including replacement of the old,Do you know any howo spare parts wholesale supplier? pneumatic-tube system of heating controls in some public schools.

Those pneumatic tubes, vital to the heating systems of some school buildings, will need to be replaced, schools Finance Director Richard Huot told the Board of Education. This would be one way of replacing them without costing taxpayers any money, he said.

Board of Education Chairperson Elizabeth Hagerty-Ross said she was unimpressed by the 15-year length of the payback period. Other energy-saving projects have been proposed with much shorter periods in which school districts would save enough on energy for the project to pay for itself, she pointed out.

Those projects involved expenditure in one fiscal year that would be countered with energy savings in future years. This proposal would involve no borrowing of money by the town.

School Superintendent Stephen V. Falcone said he thought the proposal would benefit the school district, but he suggested that the Board of Education and perhaps Board of Finance might want to take a tour of some nearby school district that had adopted a similar plan.

Dress appropriately by wearing loose, lightweight, warm clothing in several layers. Outer garments should be tightly woven, water repellent and hooded. Always wear a hat or cap on your head. Cover your mouth with a scarf to protect your lungs from extreme cold. Mittens, snug at the wrist, are better than gloves because fingers maintain more warmth when they touch each other.

Hypothermia is caused by prolonged exposure to cold temperatures, especially in children and the elderly. Watch for the following symptoms: inability to concentrate, poor coordination, slurred speech, drowsiness, exhaustion, and/or uncontrollable shivering, following by a sudden lack of shivering. If a person’s body temperature drops below 95 degrees Fahrenheit, get emergency medical assistance immediately. Remove wet clothing, wrap the victim in warm blankets, and give warm, non-alcoholic, non-caffeinated liquids until help arrives.

Frostbite can occur when working or playing outdoors during the winter. In the early stages of frostbite, there is no pain. Watch for danger signs: skin may feel numb and become flushed, and then turn white or grayish-yellow; frostbitten skin feels cold to the touch. If frostbite is suspected, move the victim to a warm area.Buy Joan Rivers crystal mosaic Stretch Bracelet. Cover the affected area with something warm and dry.The stone mosaic series is a grand collection of coordinating Travertine mosaics and listellos. Never rub it! Get to a doctor or hospital as quickly as possible.

Prevent pipes from freezing by turning on both hot and cold water faucets slightly, preferably in a basement sink – running water will not freeze as quickly. Open cabinet doors to allow more heat to get to non-insulated pipes under a sink or appliance near an outer wall. If you plan to leave your residence, drain and shut off the water system (except indoor sprinkler systems).

If your pipes burst, make sure you and your family knows how to shut off the water. Stopping water flow minimizes damage to your home.Explore online some of the many available selections in floor tiles. Call a plumber and contact your insurance agent. Never try to thaw a pipe with an open flame or torch. Always be careful of the potential for electric shock in and around standing water.

If you should lose power, turn off or unplug lights and appliances to prevent a circuit overload when service is restored. Leave one light on to indicate power has been restored. Make sure fuel space heaters are used with proper ventilation.We have brought a large range of attractive cry stalmosaic tiles. Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to help reduce food spoilage.

Dictators, and Drug Lords, and the Art They Loved

It is a well-known fact that taste has nothing to do with morality. On auction floors and at art fairs, autocrats and Ponzi schemers rub elbows with respectable collectors, while a passion for collecting may double as a vehicle to launder money or dodge taxes. Recent scandals have made corrupt practices a point of conversation, but it's hardly a new phenomenon.

In fact, many of the most notorious dictators of our time have, at one point or another, attended (or sent a representative to appear at) major auctions, while some of the great faces of evil have one or two masterpieces hanging on their wall. Since this is hardly news, more compelling than "who," perhaps, is "what" -- as in, what kind of art do these terrible people like?

To aid in this investigation, we've put together a brief compendium of dictators and other despots along with their preferred artists and art collections. Whether driven by the fetishization of power, their own terrible taste, the attempt to disguise ill-gotten gains, or the megalomaniacal drive to leave a legacy, each offers interesting case study from the darker side of the art market. (For our illustrated guide to dictators and the art they loved, click on the slideshow.)

Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 - April 30, 1945): In one of history's great speculative fables that the 20th century might have been spared the mass atrocities of the Holocaust and WWII if a once-aspiring watercolor painter had not been rejected (twice) from the Vienna Art Academy. Though Hitler dropped his craft en route to fascist leadership, he later curated a body of Third Reich propaganda, re-classified the whole of modern art as "degenerate," and pillaged many museums and private collections for Aryan gain. Personal acquisitions erred towards Austro-Bavarian painters such as Carl Spitzweg and Eduard Grutzner, as well as Romantic painters such as Caspar David Friedrich and Swiss landscape painters, particularly Arnold Bocklin; "Isle of the Dead" was his favorite painting.

Hermann Goering (January 12, 1893 - October 15,We offers several ways of providing hands free access to car parks to authorised vehicles. 1946: Like Hitler, Goering capitalized off of Nazi looting to establish a personal collection that numbered 1,375 works by the end of the war. His preference was for Medieval and Renaissance works, including Botticelli's "Mary with Jesus and St. John the Baptist," Rembrandt's "Portrait of an Old Man," and "Sketch of a Stag Beetle" by Albrecht Dürer. Oddly, despite the artist's being famously labeled as a "degenerate," Goering also owned one painting by Picasso.Bottle cutters let you turn old glass mosaic and wine bottles into bottle art! Many works from his personal collection (along with works from the Third Reich) have been assembled in an online catalogue.

Joseph Goebbels (October 29, 1897 - May 1, 1945): An early fan of modern art (particularly German Expressionism), Goebbels later had to reinvent his taste somewhat to match his Fuhrer's anti-intellectual mandates; while an early collector of Emil Nolde's watercolors, he was forced to abandon his support of the artist when Hitler named Nolde a "degenerate." Considering himself intellectually and culturally superior to his peers, Goebbels personally purchased works for the ministry rather than delegating the responsibility, and he also kept a diary of his personal collection process, which included two works by Rembrandt, "Portrait of the Father" and "Portrait of the Mother" (purchased with government funds). Throughout his time in office, he frequently commissioned famed artists to paint his portrait, including Leo von Konig , Conrad Hommel, Wilhelm Otto Pitthan, H.J. Pagels, Arno Breker, and Rudolf Zill (1943).

Pieter Menten: A prominent Dutch export businessman and art collector, Menten also participated in the mass killing of Jews in East Galicia -- many of them old friends and neighbors -- while working as an interpreter for the SS under Nazi occupation. But with the help of other friends in Parliament, he managed to escape conviction for most of his war crimes at a trial in 1949. After a bare eight-month sentence, he spent the decades after WWII speculating on real estate and collecting works by Nicolaes Maes, Francisco Goya, Jan Sluyters, and others, which filled 20 rooms of his 40-room mansion outside Amsterdam. A 1976 attempt to auction some of these at Sotheby's Mak van Waay caught press attention, and investigative journalists turned up new evidence of his participation in Lviv massacre of Jewish professors. Menten was convicted in a second trial and sentenced with 10 years imprisonment and fines; his works eventually ended up back on the auction block to pay off his debts.

Josip Broz Tito: While the Comrade President didn't exactly encourage creativity during his regime, he did build a substantial collection of art to decorate his residence -- approximately 3,500 works, primarily paintings by 16th - 19th century Old Masters, with preference to Rembrandt -- that he later donated to the Museum of Yugoslav History. Belgrade art professor Nenad Radi?, later sizing up the acquisitions in the book "Poussin and the Pentagram," aptly noted the symbolic placement of Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski's "Lone Wolf" and "Tribute Money" by Gebrand van den Eeckhout within the General's bedroom.

Nicolae Ceausescu: Among the many human rights crimes of the last Romanian Communist dictator -- including mass-imprisonment of dissidents and a contraceptives ban to ensure population growth -- Ceausescu's 1981 "austerity program," an attempt to liquidate national debt through export and strict domestic food and fuel rations, led to an all-time national high in malnutrition and infant mortality. But the dictator spared himself little in amassing a fleet of yachts, bespoke suits, and works by Romanian artists like Constantin Artachino, Nicolae Tonitza, Theodor Pallady, and Gheorghe Petrascu, as well as engravings by Goya.Do you know any howo spare parts wholesale supplier? Seized by the state after Ceausescu was overthrown and executed, the works were recently ordered to be returned to the dictator's heirs by a Bucharest court.

Fulgencio Batista: Along with his wife Marta, the Cuban autocrat spent much of his political career acquiring historic Cuban masterpieces that encompassed a 200-year period from colonial to modern art. In 1958, shortly before his presidency was on the brink of collapse, he shipped his collection abroad to Daytona Beach, Florida, where the Batistas had lived during exile in the 1940s. Though after the arrest Batista was denied U.S. entry and instead took asylum in Portugal, his full collection was donated to Daytona, and now makes up the Cuban Foundation Museum at the Florida burg's Museum of Arts and Sciences. With works by artists such as Victor Manuel, Armando Menocal, Amelia Pelaez, Mario Carreno, Rene Portocarrero and Daniel Serra-Badue, the selection has provided a rare Western window into contemporary Cuban arts and culture; although, as many Cubans have rightfully argued, it probably belongs back home.

Zhang Xueliang: Though once Manchuria's most powerful warlord, made famous most for his 1936 kidnapping of Chiang Kai-shek, Zhang still doesn't really rank in the "terrible" category -- his early efforts to unite Nationalists and Communists against Japanese invasion have since led him to be deemed a national hero and patriot. Nevertheless, he still lived through most his life under house arrest as a result of Chiang Kai-shek's abduction, and surprisingly went on to amass one of the largest collections of fan paintings and calligraphy from Chinese Old Masters, as well as many works by his iconic friend Zhang Daqian. In 2004, Sotheby's sold 200 of his works in a major Fine Chinese Art auction.

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi: During his 38-year-reign, the jet-setting King of Kings Reza drew glitterati like Andy Warhol to Iran while putting together what critics consider now one of the finest collections of late-19th and 20th century art; including major works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Duchamp, Bacon, Magritte, Chagall, Rothko, Lichtenstein, Hamilton... the list goes on and on. But following Ayatollah Khomeini's overthrow of the Shah,Product information for Avery Dennison cable ties products. this collection has since languished in the basement of Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Art for nearly 30 years, considered too pornographic or "un-Islamic" to display. Until last year, that is, when its first Pop Art & Op Art exhibition introduced many young Iranians to the works of Hockney and Oldenburg as well as masterpieces like Warhol's Mao paintings and Pollocks "Mural on Indian Red Ground,We have many different types of crys talbeads wholesale." considered one of his most important works and worth more than $250 million.

King Farouk (February 11, 1920 - March 18, 1965): Were it not for his substantial palace space, Egypt's famously high-living ruler might have earned a spot on "Hoarders" -- he was known for amassing enormous collections ranging from the random to the luxurious (coins) to the historically significant (including antiquities, among them many of Egypt's Armana sculptures). Most of all, he owned a massive collection of erotic art, which included sculpture, paintings, pornography, and a large number of pieces falling into the little-known category of "erotic watches." A 1954 Sotheby's auction of his treasures was later deemed one of the most significant sales of the century.

Ferdinand Marcos & Imelda Marcos: Throughout her husband's reign in the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, most famous for her legendary shoe collection, also put together an enviable selection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art with works by van Gogh, Cézanne, Renoir, and Manet, as well as paintings by Picasso and Rembrandt, often viewed by partygoers in her Upper East Side New York townhome. After the Marcos regime fell, the works mysteriously vanished for nearly 25 years -- until this past November, when Imelda's former personal secretary Vilma Bautista was caught selling pieces such as Monet's "Le Bassin aux Nymphéas" and "L'église et La Seine à Vétheuil" , Alfred Sisley's "Langland Bay", and Albert Marquet's "Le Cyprès de Djenan Sidi Said" , also known as "Algerian View."

Manuel Noriega: When the Panamanian dictator's home was raided in 1989, U.S. troops discovered a bizarre mix of high-class and hideous taste. In addition to collections of French cognac, opera CDs, and valuable pre-Columbian pottery and figurines, Noriega had stashes of erotic coasters, teddy bears dressed up as paratroopers, and giant paintings of Hitler and Gaddafi.

Saddam Hussein: Though the dictator's main contribution to arts in Iraq was the construction of hideous public monuments, a 2003 Marine raid on his private townhouse in Baath revealed a private fetish for "fantasy art": a large collection of brightly colored paintings and murals depicting bare-chested warriors, forked-tongue dragons, and bikini-clad women enslaved by trolls. Several were the work of American sci-fi artist Rowena Morill, who, having sold them to Japanese collectors in the '80s, was horrified to see them turn up in a TV expose. Nevertheless, the pieces strangely fit well within his den's décor: Along with expensive munitions and liquor, the hideout featured shag carpeting, plastic plants, and bean-bag chairs.

Kim Jong-Il: A longtime cinephile, Jong-Il's 200,000-plus film collection, which includes hundreds of Hollywood westerns, horror flicks, and porn, is legendary; he also once kidnapped a South Korean director to make low-budget monster movies including the now-cult-classic Pulgasari. He also sought out young painters for official state creation of propaganda. One of these was Song Byeok (a pseudonym), who worked for the regime throughout the '90s. Having relocated to the UK, Byeok now creates satiric paintings of the Dear Leader reimagined as celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, acting out compromising situations.

2013年1月21日 星期一

The man

I forget what I said in the speech -- and the audience probably has long forgotten, too, -- but I will always remember having lunch with Stan Musial.

I asked him how it all began. He said when he was in high school during the Depression a baseball scout came to his hometown of Donora, Pa. The scout told Musial's father he wanted to sign him to a contract.

Musial said his father rejected the offer, telling the scout, "My son is going to college." Musial's father worked in a steel mill and never got a college education. Like most fathers,We offers several ways of providing hands free access to car parks to authorised vehicles.Product information for Avery Dennison cable ties products. he wanted a better life for his son and believed college would be his ticket to success.

The scout left, but returned several weeks later to again ask that Stan be allowed to play professional baseball. He was rejected again. Musial says the scout then appealed to "a higher authority, my mother" and she agreed.

In 1938, Musial was signed as a pitcher to a professional baseball contract. I asked him how much they paid him. As I now recall it was about $2,000 to $3,000. With so many players of lesser skill making millions today, I didn't begrudge him selling his autograph on baseballs and memorabilia.

After injuring his arm as a minor league player, Musial was moved to the outfield and then to first base where he began to hit the ball like few left-handers ever had. He became one of the greatest hitters in Major League Baseball history.

If ever there was a sports role model, Stan was one. A World War II vet and family man, Musial played his entire career with the St. Louis Cardinals, a rarity today when players, like interchangeable parts, are traded often or jump to other clubs for more money.

President Obama touched on Musial's character when he presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 2011. The president said then, "Stan remains to this day an icon untarnished,You can buy mosaic Moon yarns and fibers right here as instock. a beloved pillar of the community, a gentleman you'd want your kids to emulate."

In our celebrity culture where it doesn't matter why you're famous, only that you are famous, we don't focus enough on true achievement and the untarnished. Musial's contemporaries, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, received more media attention than he did, but Stan never publicly expressed any bitterness. They were in larger media markets, -- New York and Boston respectively -- which may account for some of it, though it was in New York that Musial acquired his moniker "The Man." Sporting News reports that, "According to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Musial earned 'The Man' nickname 'by (Brooklyn) Dodgers fans for the havoc he wrought at Ebbets Field.'"

Sporting News quoted Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson: "Stan will be remembered in baseball annals as one of the pillars of our game. The mold broke with Stan. There will never be another like him."

On that one day in 2007, as I had lunch with my childhood hero, I was a kid again. For me, it was better than any politician I have met or dined with. He signed a baseball for me, for free. It sits encased on a shelf in my office.

“To anybody who knows us (who) feels any bad feelings about Foxygen’s ‘successes,’” says a recent post on the band’s Facebook page, “[...] it only seems like we’re ‘making it’ or ‘going places’ on the internet, so get off your computer and record some music.” It could be a stretch, but maybe that reveals something about the epicenter of Foxygen’s musical ideology. The Californian duo of Sam France and Jonathan Rado twist the hell out of a familiar British Invasion blueprint as it suits them, dressing it up with candid brain-flow lyrics and a lust for misleading your expectations. We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic is turbulent creativity stuffed into a mold of vintage pop rock, barely holding it all together while lurching along a line between safety and madness—recommended listening for anyone mourning some perceived end of rock ‘n’ roll.

The first two songs of the album—straightforward, mellow—are two of the best, but belie an approaching torrent of free-wheeling indulgence in which tempos swap, structures melt, and France’s vocal performances rev into a stream-of-consciousness freak-out,We have brought a large range of attractive cry stalmosaic tiles. like Kevin Barnes being tempered into shape with Jack White’s bluster. Tracks such as “On Blue Mountain” and leadoff single “Shuggie” swap tempos and moods in bipolar fashion, with downtrodden verses suddenly picking up speed and launching into exuberant refrains. Other loops taken are more subtle: The wonderful “San Francisco,” for instance, is veiled as a polite Kinks-like tune of schmaltzy reminiscence, trussed with glockenspiel, before a priceless chorus (“I left my love in San Francisco/That’s okay, I was bored anyway”) totally inverts the sentimental mood. Little things.

I couldn’t find a boring, robotic bassline or mailed-in lyric on this album. Painstaking attention to the minor details in all regards—production as well, dolled up with psyched-out keyboard flourishes, clever talk-backs, and my favorite drum sound in recent memory—will keep this one in my stereo for a long time.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? The titular song, oozing with genuine petulant son-of-a-bitch swagger, sums up the vitality behind Foxygen’s latest, fueled with abhorrence for misery and disillusionment. It’s welcome at a time when popular rock music seems to be taking a lethargic slide towards the gutless.

We Expect Govt to Hit the Ground Running

2012 was an interesting year both for the country and for the economy. For the country we had the present administration of the federal government settling down to work and to do the business of the day. Key areas of focus such as power, agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure were addressed and at the end of the year, privatisation took place in the power sector and the process is ongoing and we feel that with a lot of investment in power, production will go up in 2013. For agriculture, the central bank had gotten involved in this a few years ago and the minister of agriculture has stepped up and done a nearly miraculous work. Bank lending to agriculture has increased from one to three per cent and the target for 2013 is 10 per cent of aggregrate lending. We are involved in new initiatives in lending to agriculture. We are trying to make it more bankable.

You would see that agricultural production had gone up in 2012 and there should be continued efforts in 2013. Specific focus areas in 2012 where banks got involved, apart from the general areas from cropping to animal husbandry and processing, were direct initiatives in the area of fertiliser and seeds financing. So, what you have is fertilisers getting to the end users much more and also better quality seed is being distributed at affordable prices to farmers. So, that has helped production a lot and we should see that improve in 2013. On infrastructure, we have seen the airport and we have seen a lot of road contract taking place. State and federal governments are doing a lot on infrastructure and much more deep-rooted things planned for 2013.

But security is still of concern, but it is fairly under control.Product information for Avery Dennison cable ties products. A lot more still has to be done. I believe that the assistance of the international community where you could get better technological assistance would be of great help in resolving a lot in the area of security. In the banking industry, I think 2012 was a year of realisation of the efforts of the industry, the central bank's work, AMCON and the economy as a whole for the industry to report ground-breaking profits as an industry. The banks are relatively sound and are all behaving responsibly and ready to support the growth of the economy. There are good signs for the banking industry today as competition is back. We have seen relatively stable interest rates with inflation at 12 per cent, still high, but stable. Interest rates are still a bit high,We can supply howo truck products as below. but that was necessitated by the fact that government's borrowing is still high and also due to the need to stabilise exchange rates. So, the tightening of money supply pushes the rates up. But we feel that 2013, interest rates should slide a bit. Some of the things that are still holding interest rates where they are include the need to maintain exchange rate. So, the tightening would continue and the central bank would continue to maintain that stance as long as there are signs that the exchange rate may go out of control. So, that stability has enabled banks to plan, has also enabled companies to plan and has created a platform for us to work and realise our goals, so it was a fairly good year.

2013 is a new year that comes with many financial working capital questions and concerns for small business owners. TieTechnology’s Business Cash Advance recognizes the new economic times that we live in and the need for alternative types of business capital loans that are required for doing business.. A credit card cash advance is a business cash advance based upon the future receivables of a business. There are many business owners seeking the money,Bottle cutters let you turn old glass mosaic and wine bottles into bottle art! to expand, pay current bills, needed promotional marketing costs or to make opportunistic buys. The beauty of of this advance is that when your business is busy the advance gets paid back sooner and when sales are slow it is paid back slower. This means that there are no fixed payments. This type of merchant cash advance is beneficial to merchants as the money is collected through the merchant accounts batches every night. Many times the merchant will choose to switch over their current credit card processing services to TieTechnology Merchant Services for the purpose of one stop services and support. TieTechnology can usually lower the merchants’ rates right away when utilizing both services thus creating a win-win working relationship. TieTechnology believes in treating their customers’ the right way, with the right services for their individually specific business needs.

Some business merchants automatically assume that a merchant cash advance for business will be too expensive, but in actuality the issue of focus should be on how the money advanced will be used? If you spend $5,000, but make $15,000, then you come out $10,000 ahead. If a merchant does not take the opportunity to grow their business they run the risk of being dated and left behind, thus making it even easier for the competition to put them out of business.

The qualification process for the credit card cash advance is quite simple. In order to reduce the cost of a merchant cash advance, one can provide all the necessary documentation upfront. This ensures that there is a clear picture and understanding of the specific business industry. Common documentation for this type of business capital loan is the companies’ tax returns, profit and loss statements, and balance sheets. One will want to provide good reasons why paying the business cash advance will be a good return of investment for the merchant lending bank. If one’s company is driven by seasonal efforts, then providing one year of merchant statements can demonstrate the high and low volume months to the bank for proper payment adjustments.

The next time I went underground was on a tour to the 4,550-foot level of the mine, in January of 2009. The Black Hills Pioneer was one of only three media outlets that were allowed to tour the mine, and I felt honored. At that time,We offers several ways of providing hands free access to car parks to authorised vehicles. contractors were working to remove old utilities and equipment from the former Homestake Gold Mine to prepare it for excavation. That was before the ventilation system had been installed, and I will never forget the heat and humidity was unlike any I had ever experienced before. I am guessing that it was at least 95 degrees, with about 90 percent humidity, but those numbers are a personal estimate. Let’s just say it was hot!

A much more comfortable underground experience was when Lesko, Gov. Mike Rounds, T. Denny Sanford and a host of other dignitaries stood proudly on a newly dewatered 4,850-foot level to dedicate it as ready for development into a science laboratory. June 22, 2009 was a jubilant day to say the least, the celebration was warranted. Officials had achieved what many had deemed impossible in “dewatering” the mine for science. But there was much work to be done, as the walls were still bare, the floor was still rock, and the scene was still that of an underground gold mine.

It was several years later when I would return underground to see the finished lab. Though I had reported on its progress, I was unprepared for what I saw. The place looked like any other ultra-clean laboratory above the surface of the earth. The shotcreted walls, a concrete floor shined to a high glossy finish, brand new infrastructure, and a feel for science was truly a testament to the monumental work local craftsmen and master constructors had done to make the lab a reality.We mainly supply professional craftspeople with wholesale turquoise beads from china. By the way, did I mention that the majority of the labor was done by former Homestake workers and/or local residents?

On Thursday, going underground was the icing on the cake. I watched scientists in action. This is what all of these years of reporting is all about. This is the whole purpose of the project. To watch them working in their designated, ultra-clean area of the lab, maintaining their level of positive energy and enthusiasm for the discoveries they expect to make in such a first-class facility, was nothing short of extraordinary to a reporter like me, who once ruined a pair of jeans on that orange muck the miners warned me about.

Rodrigo Rubio's Endesa Pavilion is a smart solar structure

"Architecture is a slow technology," says Rodrigo Rubio, architect at Barcelona's Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. "Maybe we have to rethink how we understand architecture -- as a static field or a dynamic one." Rubio's Endesa Pavilion, a building shaped to maximise its exposure to the Sun, is, he says, a statement of how energy efficiency should guide the form of a building, rather than just adding solar panels to a finished design.

Every aspect of the pavilion design is shaped for its location on Barcelona's Olympic harbour. "Each module is adapted to its specific position in relation to the Sun's path," explains Rubio, 34. The angular modules reduce the Sun's full glare to the building's interior in summer, but let in light during winter. At the same time, the solar panels are exposed as directly to the Sun as possible throughout the day and over the year.Wholesale various Glass Mosaic Tiles from china glass mosaic Tiles Suppliers. Designating the modules' positions involved feeding radiation, temperature and energy data into a software model -- each panel is positioned at the sweet spot that maximises solar-panel surface area and exposure.

"We're balancing the production of energy with low consumption," says Rubio. "Our philosophy was, if you want to be self-sufficient, start by consuming less. Introduce the passive concepts, then the active ones." The pavilion is a proof-of-concept showroom that will remain on site for the next year as part of the Smart City Expo, and is intended to produce up to 150 per cent of its energy needs (using 20kWh per day, but generating 120kWh), selling the surplus back to the grid.

Rubio favours open-sourcing the software to allow anyone to build their own house, which can be customised for their location's climate. With design, fabrication and construction costs kept low, and a surplus of solar energy being produced, owners of these buildings may find they pay for themselves. Meanwhile, Rubio is thinking of taking his form-follows-energy concept further, "to make it more high-tech and more reactive to the environment," he suggests. "Instead of static models optimised for position, we'll make a dynamic fa?ade that reacts to the position of the Sun in real time."

When Tagged debuted its site in 2004, it thought it was going to be Facebook. In a stunningly candid interview, CEO and founder Greg Tseng tells me “For three years we competed to become the world’s social network. We realized by the end of 2007 that there was going to be one winner and it wasn’t going to be us. So we made the difficult decision to pivot into social discovery, which is a fancy way of saying ‘meeting new people.’”

That worked. Fifteen million users a month flock to Tagged to browse profiles of potential dates or friends and play games. It just finished its fifth consecutive profitable year thanks to ads, virtual currency sales, and subscriptions to premium features. But there’s no rest for Tseng. He admits: “Tagged is a web company. We’re reorienting to become a mobile company because we’re convinced the future of social discovery is in mobile.” It’s got its main Tagged app, and has tried and failed with some other roughshod apps that it’s since killed off, but it’s putting its weight behind Sidewalk.

Tagged used a startup-within-a-startup strategy Tseng calls “intrepreneurship” to develop Sidewalk. Working independently inside of Tagged, the 15-person Sidewalk team is led by Jared Kim, founder of WeGame, which Tagged acquired in 2011. Tseng says the game plan lets Sidewalk “operate like a startup with all the advantages of being small and nimble, but not the problems of having to raise money and hit arbitrary venture-capitalist targets.” They can use as much or as little of Tagged’s infrastructure as they like.

Building Sidewalk as a standalone app rather than as a feature of Tagged also protects the company. Kim tells me “With Sidewalk we have nothing to lose, but Tagged has a lot to lose. We can be like, ‘Hey, turn that button orange.’ On Tagged that could mean ‘oh we just dropped 5 percent in revenue.’” It also prevents Tagged from getting bloated.

Tseng explains the need that Sidewalk addresses and why it’s a critical complement to Tagged: “We’re all social animals. We’re all constantly refreshing our 150 connections – Dunbar’s number. How? We don’t normally wake up and say ‘let’s meet people!’ You go through your life and new people slow in. It happens very naturally, organically — it’s serendipitous.”

The idea is that you’ll open Sidewalk, discover something fun going on nearby, get off your butt and go there, and meet people, including this post’s author, as you share an experience together. There are no gimmicks, forced ice breakers, or private messaging.Shop the web's best selection of precious gemstones and gemstone beads at wholesale prices. Sidewalk also has less anonymity, and more barriers to bad acting than online social discovery where Tagged made its name. The app is simply a portal to connection around real-life moments.

Tseng believes this sets Sidewalk apart from Highlight, At The Pool, and other apps that he believes don’t work. He thinks those competitors assume you can meet people “based on interests or being friends, but it’s just not happening.” I haven’t found those apps too compelling, either, but I see potential in Sidewalk.

Sidewalk greets users with the message “Let’s discover San Francisco together.” The design language employs a swirled watercolor motif, symbolizing the app’s desire to help people express the unique way they bounce around their city. Sidewalk is immediately refreshing because there are no privacy controls to think about or social graph to recreate. Everything you share can be seen by everyone in your city, and you don’t follow people. Instead you browse a two-column feed of relevancy-sorted photos with descriptions and optional (but encouraged) location tags.

Click through to see photos full-screen, check out a map of the specific spot or neighborhood where they were taken, and leave a comment. The absence of private messaging keeps things casual and keeps users from being hit on too aggressively. Instead, you could comment on someone’s post that you’re going to join them there, arrange a meetup, or just thank them for showing you something exciting.All smartcardfactory comes with 5 Years Local Agent Warranty !

If you’re somewhere interesting, tap the ‘+’ button to share. A camera launches or you can choose an existing photo of yours, then add a description and location. There are no filters or photo editing. Sidewalk isn’t trying to be Instagram. It’s not about taking art for art’s sake. It’s about showing what you’re doing to guide others. Tagged hopes Sidewalk will become a “for locals, by locals” app where people share stuff that will excite their neighbors rather than posting about tourist traps.We offer a wide variety of high-quality standard ultrasonic sensor and controllers.

As for being SF-only, Tseng tells me “It makes sense to start in San Francisco because that’s what we know. If and when we can dominate SF and we see the product really works, then there must be some secret sauce, and we’ll try to replicate that formula in other cities.” For now Tagged is aggressively buying Facebook mobile app install ads to jumpstart growth.Our team of consultants are skilled in project management and delivery of large scale rtls projects. Tseng says he’ll know Sidewalk has succeeded based on seven-day retention metrics, and “if people are getting enough value out of this they’re continuously going back.”

Breaking people’s habits of sharing photos for the sake of sharing will be Sidewalk’s big challenge. I see plenty of selfies taken at home and artful pics of candles and coffee. Instead Sidewalk needs to get people creating posts that serve as mini travel guides. I’ve already discovered some cool happenings and places like street markets, vista points, and beer gardens.

2013年1月15日 星期二

Woman trying to flee officer causes

A 23-year-old St. Louis woman has been charged with aggravated fleeing and attempting to elude a police officer, a class 4 felony.

Chiffon D. Blanchard, of 1524 Fathom Drive in St. Louis, attempted to elude a police officer at St. Clair Square mall in Fairview Heights and caused a head-on traffic crash, according to police.

At 1:30 p.m. Saturday, a Fairview Heights police officer was patrolling the mall lot when he observed a vehicle he found to be suspicious traveling up and down the parking rows. The officer noted the vehicle had tinted windows and had passed several vacant parking spaces without parking. The officer completed a license plate check on the vehicle. The car had Illinois license plates; however, they belonged on another vehicle, police said.

Once the officer was able to get behind the vehicle it made a turn into a parking space and stopped. The officer activated his emergency lights to signal the driver he was making contact with them; however, as the officer approached the car on foot the driver drove away from him, attempting to flee.

Police said the suspect vehicle accelerated rapidly onto the road that goes around the mall property with no regard for traffic. The suspect vehicle entered oncoming traffic, colliding head-on with another vehicle. No one was seriously injured in the crash.

All four of the occupants of the suspect vehicle were taken into custody. Inside the vehicle, officers located numerous clothing items still with the sensor tags on them as well as shopping bags with homemade theft detection shielding devices inside.You can buy mosaic Moon yarns and fibers right here as instock.

Mooly Eden steps out of the world of transistors and microprocessors for a moment. “If you want a simple explanation of what we’re doing, just look to Asimov,” the head of Intel’s Perceptual Computing push says, explaining. “Or Star Trek, Star Wars, and Avatar. The ideas have been in science fiction for years, and now they’re becoming fact.”

That’s as direct a line into Perceptual Computing as you’ll find, since the plans that Intel has shown us to this point have been fairly ambiguous. Right now, we’re seeing the vanguard arrive, with features like the eye-tracking Tobii, a Kinect-like gesture and motion sensor, and human recognition and overlay.

The long-term goals, though, are much more ambitious. “Wearable is inevitable,” Eden says, referring to Google Glass-like tech, “And implantable is probably the next step.” Imagine an implantable computer that could monitor, or even help hinder,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? Alzheimer’s symptoms. Or even brain-reading implants, which Eden mentioned but was very clear it was meant in a general sense.We offers several ways of providing hands free access to car parks to authorised vehicles.

It’s the kind of project you’d expect to be off on its own, like Lucius Fox’s R&D Department, operating well away from whatever real world business Wayne Enterprises or Intel are conducting. Instead, it’s at the heart of everything Intel is doing.

Intel’s Perceptual Computing initiative began in earnest about 18 months ago, with heavy corporate investment, but its roots are from the PC Client division, where Mooly Eden and his team had been picking at it for years before that. It revolves around a totally different way of thinking about how to build a microprocessor. “For years, I would look at a microprocessor and just see floating-point f numbers, or other specs,” Mooly says. “But I’d go home to my wife, and she’d say, ‘Well, what does that do for me?’ And I didn’t really have an answer.”

That’s when Eden, part of Intel’s PC Client Group for over 30 years, and its general manager since 2009, changed things up. Instead of focusing purely on drilling down on specs and metrics, Intel began tailoring its future goals for its microprocessors around the results from sociological studies about how people actually use their computers. But it also took cues from Mooly’s team, which anticipated things like the need for extreme power efficiency and smarter sleep states.

How is that going to manifest as a future-perfect space toy for you in the near future? Beyond the performance and efficiency benefits to today’s gadgets as Eden marshals the weaponry he needs, there are already some ideas on the table. If you have an always-on camera, for instance (you didn’t think Google Glass was the only one with its eyes on that prize, did you?) that was smart enough to know what your car looks like, you could ask it, in plain language, “Where did I leave my car?”, and it would show you a screenshot or a few seconds of footage, saving you a half hour of wandering around the parking garage like a jackass.

But how we get from here to there is a process. Instead of just hunkering down for a few years and maybe, hopefully, possibly coming out the other side with something real people will be able use someday (á la Microsoft Research), Intel’s doing the legwork on features that will be key to future uses. And then it’s implementing them now, like with the mandatory touch on next-gen PCs, or the advanced-but-still-getting-there motion sensing it showed at CES.

In the near future, a lot of those building blocks will involve this year’s Haswell processors, and next year’s Broadwell. On the surface, these just seem like just the fourth generation of Intel’s Core series. But that’s a total misnomer according to Eden. “Haswell was built from the ground up with the intention of improving the experience for people,” he says. It implements advanced power-saving methods like finer screen refresh control, advanced sleep states, and controlling power for nearly everything on the motherboard.

Intel’s teams are still plowing ahead with more traditional microprocessor tech. “We’re basically trying to defy gravity,” Mooly says of the new 22nm process used in the Haswell architecture. The transistors remain crucial. “If I’m trying to build the world’s greatest Lego tower,” he continues, “I need the best Lego bricks that we can possibly make.”

But while Intel talks a big game about taking these technologies, and its goals are absolutely pointed in the right direction, a second glance at its real world efforts to this point gives you a second of pause. For all the technical advancements and achievements—dedicated hardware accelerators, impressive new architectures, faster power state shifts—it still has a problem: It’s got a long way to go in mobile before it’s on equal footing with the competition.

Clover Trail Atom processors haven’t made the splash Intel was hoping for,We have brought a large range of attractive cry stalmosaic tiles. and the attention focused on Medfield last year seems to have shifted to Lexington, a lower cost value platform. Basically, Intel’s talking a big game about the future of computing, but it’s still playing catchup on the present of mobile.

Further, if Intel’s going to find traction with perceptual computing, it has to nail the interface, or face the same adoption resistance that Windows 8 is staring down now. Basically, people are happy to gawk at a tech demo, but if they’re going to use something day-to-day,Product information for Avery Dennison cable ties products. it has to work perfectly.