Denver Boutique Hotels Update to Impress

Revitalized spaces attract new faces. This simple notion is shared among the leaders of Denver’s keen hotel industry. To generate new business and impress the loyal customer, various boutique hotels downtown continue to renovate – distinguishing themselves from the crowd. 303 Magazine’s Lifestyle team beat the pavement to see who was implementing change the best in terms of: design aesthetic,Find solar panel from a vast selection of solarpanel. green incentives, and accommodations – both for us and our pets. Think personality contest. Here are the top three finalists:

The Oxford doesn’t follow trend because it doesn’t have to. As Denver’s premier hotel built in 1891, its historical significance remains its predominant feature. Guest rooms are embellished with various French and English antiques procured directly by the owners, dating from the late 1800s to early 1930s. In-house design professionals tweak aesthetics often, yet subtly, with complementary gestures to the Old World interior. Steady enhancements turn even the oldest rooms new again, like # 205 with an Art Deco inspired scheme completed just two weeks ago.

Green incentives are plentiful over on the 1600 block of 17th Street. The Oxford has partnered with Clean the World Foundation,Supplier and Manufacturer of plasticmoulds And Components, Inc. – a company that gathers bars of soap and bottled amenities from American hotels for redistribution throughout deserving communities. Additional proactive measures we noticed were the RTD annual transit EcoPasses offered to all employees, recycling bins located in all offices and guest rooms, the use of environmentally friendly cleaning products, and their Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee.

Ever heard of a Bath Butler? Well, the Oxford will happily introduce you to a new favorite indulgence. Ring up room service and they’ll arrange one to come to your room,A UK leading thermoplastic products manufacturer specialising in plasticinjectionmold and Rapid Prototyping. draw you a hot bath, and present you with a selection of bubble baths and salts. The bathrooms rival the charm of the suites themselves. A claw foot tub demands presence along with intricate ceramic tile, much of which echoes the original subway tile throughout the building. Swank accommodations appeal to a cosmopolitan demographic with the butler service,What is the best way to clean porcelaintiles floors? the spa amenities, the urban fitness club, and the martinis at one deluxe hotel bar: The Cruise Room.

Don’t miss the bang for your bark: pets can enjoy the Dog Days at the Oxford available upon arrival. This package includes a Downtown dog-friendly map, a $25 gift card to Dog Savvy Boutique & Spa in Larimer Square, and dog water bottles and food dishes. The Oxford gives the dog a bone, a yogurt-dipped bone in fact.

Last year, two guest rooms were morphed into one large open conference space with spectacular mountain views. A conscious effort has been made to maintain not only a vibrant interior, but exterior as well. The 14th Street project, completed last November, was a $14M upgrade that enhanced the pedestrian experience.TBC help you confidently buymosaic from factories in China. Connectivity to attractions such as Larimer Square, the Performing Arts Complex, and the Colorado Convention Center improved significantly. From one progressive endeavor to the next, Teatro thrives. Sustainability is a major focus, as the Green Team Unit on the Executive Staff continually researches and implements eco-conscious practices within the hotel.

In proximity to the Denver Center for Performing Arts, the hotel was named “Teatro” meaning “theatre” in Italian. Many photos, posters, costumes, and props are on display to evoke a theatrical theme. La Dolce Vita prevails with a complimentary daily-guided jogging program and yoga-on-demand services available upon request. Indulge your pup with the Bone Voyage package, featuring a Hotel Teatro dog tag, doggie treats presented in their own bowls with placemats, doggie toys, free dog-walking services, and a donation to the Denver Dumb Friends League in their name.

Although part of the Kimpton Hotel group, the Denver Monaco feels particularly boutique. Throughout the past two years the hotel has undergone an extensive renovation encompassing guestrooms, meeting rooms, and the hotel lobby. Interior designer Susan Caruso crafted a truly pleasing western-modern style, with an atmosphere emphasizing both comfort and joie de vivre. Our favorite lobby feature was an onyx bar-height communal table used as a transitional, productive area. Guests can be seen using their laptops or enjoying the free wine offered every day from 5 to 6pm. We won’t tell you about the hanging mirror – go, see, surprise yourself.

Besides their decorative relationship with the Colorado west, the folks at the Monaco are all about thinking globally and acting locally. Whether it’s the C.O. Bigelow bath products in every room, the cleaning supplies concocted by local chemists, or their affiliation with several Denver non-profits, Hotel Monaco prioritizes a neighborhood experience for their guests. Bike rentals are complimentary during your stay through the hotel’s partnership with The Bike Depot – an organization that helps underprivileged Denver citizens learn to ride, build, and repair their own bikes.

M-DOT workers compete in "Roadeo"

If you were out on local roads Thursday you may have seen a few less Mississippi Department of Transportation workers on projects along the asphalt. That is because a good number of them were in Hattiesburg, tooling around in some big vehicles, competing in the annual M-DOT Roadeo.

Every year M-DOT equipment operators gather for a day of strategy and competition.

"You have to be able to back it up, if you go out there talking game you going to have to come down to reality, you're going to have to do it,GOpromos offers a wide selection of promotional items and personalized gifts." said M-DOT operator Oliver Leggett.

More than 80 Sixth District workers came to the Forrest County Multi-Purpose Center parking lot - getting a paid day off the job and a free lunch - to sign up and drive in any of six events.Spro Tech has been a plastic module & moldmaker,

The courses are difficult and meticulously scored because that is how the job is.China professional plasticmoulds,

Orange cones lining obstacle course routes made the parking lot look a little bit like a drivers education course but it is not; M-DOT drivers need to be exact.

When you see a big yellow backhoe on the job, it is not just shoveling dirt - the operator is avoiding flammable gas lines or tiny wires - so the test at the Roadeo is picking up a tiny pink golf and dropping it into a canister.

"They've got some of the highest skills of anyone including private business and we'll put them against anybody," said Southern District Transportation Commission Tom King.

The winners of the Sixth District courses compete for the state title in Gulfport, but nearly all the men at the event know each other by name and if they're coworkers, they are also friends, and they are out here to have fun.

"Sometimes we have bets on who's going to get closest, on who's going to carry away the competition," said Leggett.

The guys out at the course have tough jobs - it is physical work, it is dangerous, and they are some of the lowest paid M-DOT workers.

"They're in a dangerous position," said Cape Jones, Sixth District Assistant Maintenance Manager. "These are the guys that are out close to traffic every day and we really want to stress to drivers, motorists, when you see these guys out there you know, give them a break,What are some types of moulds? slow down, give them a little room, this is their office and it's a dangerous work place.External hemorrhoids are those that occur below the dentate line."

NFC payment plans face detractors as tech comes to U.S.

Mobile payment technologies are spreading fast,Full color plasticcard printing and manufacturing services. as Google Wallet is already available on NFC-ready Android phones, and Isis Mobile Wallet is coming this summer.

Apple’s rumored iPhone 5 is also reported to support NFC, or Near-Field Communication technology, which observers expect would spark greater interest by Americans in making contactless payments for retail items and transit fares.

NFC capabilities from chip makers, smartphone vendors and others were on display at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, adding fuel to the mobile wallet fire.

But mobile payment technologies may be slow to spread, at least in the U.S., as polls show Americans are suspicious of NFC technology for security reasons, analysts note.

Backers of mobile payments, meanwhile, say that NFC technology is more secure than plastic credit cards, and that users would not be held liable for losses through theft or fraud.

The skepticism among Americans is at odds with widespread acceptance of using NFC mobile devices in South Korea and Japan and parts of China to pay for train rides and small retail purchases.

Some e-commerce companies don’t see the need for NFC in phones to make purchases. For instance, Starbucks lets customers load dollars on a Starbucks card which is in turn loaded on a phone that interacts with traditional bar code readers to subtract payments.

And at MWC, eBay Mobile and sister company PayPal exhibited ways to make quick non-NFC mobile payments for things like clothes and lunch through a phone tied to a PayPal account.

“We believe you don’t need NFC to pay for things by mobile,” said Steve Yankovich,To interact with beddinges, vice president of eBay Mobile, in an interview.Specialising in injectionmoulding innovations, “You can [pay for things by phone] already today. The ‘n’ part of NFC is ‘near’—why should I have to be near to pay?”

Yankovich acknowledged that NFC can be useful when passing quickly through a turnstyle to get on a train, but added that a smart card could work just as well.

EBay and PayPal support technologies that can do payments and more. The companies, for example, use imaging technology that’s widely prevalent in smartphones to capture a picture of a product, not just the barcode, to find out what it is and where it can be sold.

EBay plans to reach agreements with a wide variety of retailers to use the technologies to help refer customers to the nearest store for a product scanned from a phone, receiving a small fee from the retailer for the service.

“If NFC shows up in a big way on lots of devices and point-of-sale terminals — and that’s a big if — we’ll work with it,” Yankovich said. “We’re already doing the promise of NFC right now, today, so to us it’s not a threat.”

Online Internet-based purchasing from PayPal alone grew from $750 million four years ago to $4 billion in 2011,Low prices on projectorlamp from Projector Point London UK. said Hill Ferguson, senior director of PayPal’s mobile division.

About 14% of all e-commerce sites have a payment tool from a mobile device, and some retailers are able to attract new customers through the mobile channel.

“There’s a lot of opportunity in mobile commerce,” Ferguson said.

At the conference, Google showed off NFC capabilities that use of Android Beam technology to go beyond mobile payments. For example, Google partner Wyse Technologies demonstrated file transfers initiated by NFC-capable devices.

Also, MWC sponsor GSMA showed how an NFC-ready phone could be used to unlock a car or start its ignition.

Nav Bains, GSMA’s expert on mobile NFC services,Diagnosing and Preventing coldsores Fever in the body can often trigger the onset of a cold sore. said 40 carriers and members of the trade group support a plan to put NFC security on SIM cards. The supported approach would give users the ability to remove the SIM and use it in another phone, along with the wallet security information.

Other possible security approaches include embedding the security into a phone’s hardware, or putting it on a phone’s micro SD card.

Representatives for wireless carriers Telecom Italia, France-based Orange and South Korea-based KT appeared with Bains and endorsed the GSMA’s SIM-based security approach for NFC phones.

To date, though, Americans are not widely acquainted with SIMcards, partly because Sprint and Verizon Wireless have large customer bases that use CDMA and have never used GSM phones with SIMs, noted Andrew Borg, an analyst at Aberdeen Group.

The question of how security is incorporated into a phone isn’t expected to squelch growth of NFC payments in the U.S., but could play a role in how fast it gains popularity, Borg said.

Perhaps when Apple enters the NFC payments field, Americans will warm up to the concept, Bains and Borg said. But for now, Borg wondered, what will make NFC payments more compelling than other ways to pay?

The original Observer linotype printing machine

The O’Neils had news ink flowing in their veins. Jimmie’s dad and several brothers were publishers in Washington and in years to come Jimmie’s son Wayne, daughter-in-law Frances, daughter Carol, granddaughter Peggy, and grandson Dan all were key cogs in producing the Chinook Observer newspaper.

The Observer’s linotype machine prominently displayed in the Village Gallery of Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum (CPHM) is a Mergenthaler Linotype Co. model 5 #15131. It was the primary machine used for eight decades by the Chinook Observer.China professional plasticmoulds, In 1900, the Observer was started by George Hibbert and Frank Gaither in Chinook and in 1938 James O’Neil moved the Chinook Observer to Long Beach, where it kept the original name and where it has been ever since.

J.M. “Jimmie” O’Neil and co-worker Lee Marsh finally said goodbye to the linotype machine in the early 1970s and it has been on loan at CPHM since. In 1963, Wayne O’Neil took over as editor of the Observer and he and wife Frances worked there until 1983.

“We consider the newspaper public property. The plant (and linotype machine) is privately owned, but the newspaper belongs to the people. The editor’s obligation first, last and always is to see that this publication is handled for the best interests of the majority and may God help us all to live up that standard,” Jimmie O’Neil stated in the first Observer issue he put out.

Linotype users typically took information from rough drafts and proofreaders were expert at reading print in reverse. (Try reading a book in a mirror to see their dilemma.) “I used to read the pages upside down. It made reading the reverse type easier for me. After awhile you got used to it,” Frances O’Neil recollects.

Jimmie O’Neil’s early days of being the only newsman and on call around the clock meant that he was so short-handed he often had to exclude the copy writer and proofreader. He would do all the composing at the 90-character keyboard and put his work “to bed” himself. He did this until his first vacation in 1952, after 14 years at the linotype. “A whole week off!” he exclaimed.

O’Neil’s editorials were often to the point and met serious local concerns. He wrote in Aug. 14, 1953, “One bad accident averted at 101 - Peninsula Rd. intersection through the use of a blinker would be money well spent.” Two decades later his son, Wayne, would write a similar piece about a school child killed at the same intersection that now features a seeing-eye stop light.

“Sometimes we’d drop off the newspapers at the post office after midnight on Thursdays so they’d be ready to mail. The Observer office was our second home,Omega Plastics are a leading rapid tooling and plastic injectionmold company based in the UK,A top plastic lnjectionmoulds manufacturer and exporter in China.” Frances O’Neil related.

Linotype is a spinoff of the words “line of type.Argo Mold limited specialize in Plastic injectionmould manufacture,” The keyboard had separate keys for lower case and capital letters, and for characters, punctuation and spaces. The linotype machine was invented in Baltimore by German immigrant Ottmar Mergenthaler. In 1891, the New York Tribune was among the first to use the linotype method for its books and daily newspaper. The machine was still in wide use into the 1970s for magazines, posters and newspapers.

The linotype assembled a row of matrices (brass letter and character molds), then cast the entire line of reverse text in a molten (about 600 degrees Fahrenheit) alloy of 85 percent lead, 11 percent antimony and 4 percent tin that produced one long line of type called a “slug.” This process was known as “hot metal” typesetting.

The slug cooled and was trimmed to the desired dimensions and then dropped into a galley tray, which held the text lines. When an entire page layout was complete, the filled galley tray then went to the proofreader and then to the printer. If there were spaces between the matrices,To interact with beddinges, the molten alloy could spurt through the gaps possibly injuring the operator. Thus blank matrices for spaces had to be added. The linotype machine gave off toxic fumes from the molten lead-based alloy so the area needed to be properly ventilated.

Kim Barry and Clay Trout Pottery take local art to the masses

From the vacation home of the Obama family to the movie set of Sherlock Holmes, Kim Barry’s pottery and tile work has been places.

Throw in a Ralph Lauren exhibition too.

Barry, a Marion native and Mattapoisett resident,Omega Plastics are a leading rapid tooling and plasticinjectionmould company based in the UK, has been making a living with custom clay works for the past 15 years with the Clay Trout Pottery business.

“I’ve always felt the urge to create,” Barry says. “It’s just a part of me.”

Her love of sculpture started at an early age, going to museums and being awe-struck at the Greek and Roman figures. Eventually she received her bachelor’s degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and worked with the Opera Company of Boston doing scene painting and sculpture. Painting is also a big outlet in Barry’s life.

After awhile, she became interested in making plant pots and sold them. She says the first batches went fast.

“I didn’t know of anyone making pots catered to certain flowers,” Barry says. “And the more I worked, the more specific I got.”

Barry is an avid orchid grower and says a pot’s shape and size relies on the flower or plant used.

Her relief-style work with tiles often incorporates local sea life as well.

“Sometimes I can be doing orders of 500 to 1,000 plant pots,” she says. “The pots are really my commercial outlet, while the tile and painting become more personal.”

Barry says she can throw, or create,Carrying the widest selection of projectorlamp, 25 pots a day, depending on the size. For the large orders, she’ll recruit a few friends to help place logos or package for shipping—even her kids, Brendan and Maura, get involved.

Her work housed the ornate orchid display at Blue Heron Farm in Chilmark for the Obama family’s vacation last August. Barry made a special piece for the President’s daughters, Malia and Sasha, featuring a silhouette of a Portuguese Water Dog—just like Bo,Spro Tech has been a plastic module & moldmaker, the family pet.

As for Sherlock Holmes, his apartment at 221B Baker Street housed close to 40 pots for the first movie.

Oh, and her studio on Acushnet Road was built with the original gaff rig of Tabor Academy’s Tabor Boy schooner too.

When she’s not making clay works, Barry is teaching at UMass Dartmouth, where she received a master’s degree. Tag on being an owner of the art cooperative Gallery 65 on William in New Bedford.

“I have a lot of irons in the fire,” she says.We offer the best ventilationsystem, “Sometimes I put my life on hold and throw myself into my work. And there’s always the challenge of working with different clays and the physically tiring process. But this is me. It’s how I express myself.Daneplast Limited UK are plastic injectionmoulding & toolmaking specialists.”

And she won’t be slowing down any time soon. Even with an unsteady economy, Barry is always in the studio throwing pieces and listening to Arcade Fire, Feist, Coldplay and—her new favorite—Miley Cyrus.

“As an artist, you have to keep going,” Barry says. “You have to try different things, and that constant change keeps me going.”

Dwolla raises $5 million, stays in Des Moines

Dwolla founder Ben Milne heard the question more than once while crossing the country pitching his tech startup to potential investors: Will you move the company from Iowa?

Milne said no. While he acknowledges his defense of Des Moines might have cost his company money, the 30-year-old entrepreneur says finding a good match for the company was more important to him.

“We were told more than once, ‘This is a tough one for us because of where you are (located),’ ” he said. “But it’s good to grow a company where it is; why would you want to move that? If an investor wants to take that away, it’s not a good investor at all and not someone you should let invest in your company.”

Dwolla will announce today that it has raised $5 million in a second round of fundraising, known as Series B funding. The money will help the company bolster product development and the technology that supports its mobile payment services. This means more products could be on the way and the service can be built to handle a larger volume of transactions as its user base grows.

Dwolla allows users to use a mobile phone to transfer money and buy goods and services, and it allows merchants to avoid credit card fees.The beddinges sofa bed slipcover is a good and affordable alternative to buying a new sofa that is run down.

Company leaders insist they will grow within Des Moines. They signed a multiyear lease Monday that moves them from the Midland Building on downtown’s “Silicon Sixth Avenue” to larger offices a half-block away at the Wells Fargo Financial Center. The company employs about 20 people, and Milne said they hope to double that within the next year.

The company’s $1 million first round of investments came from two Iowa-based financial institutions. All of the new money this round comes from outside of Iowa, led by Union Square Ventures.Learn all about solarpanel, The New York City-based firm has invested in tech heavyweights Foursquare and Twitter.

Union Square partner Albert Wegner will join Dwolla’s board of directors. Los Angeles-based Paige Craig of Betterworks, Pennsylvania’s Artist and Instigators and New York’s Village Ventures and Thrive Capital round out the list of investors to be announced today.

“I don’t remember the last time an Iowa company got a syndicate with those kinds of names,” DeWaay Investment Banking managing director Adam Claypool said.xcel Mould is a Custom Plastic injectionmouldingmanufacturer, “It shows investors that a company in the state of Iowa can produce a top-quality management team to attract these kinds of venture investors. It tells me they have made a lot of progress in a short amount of time.”

Milne founded Dwolla in 2008 and launched the service nationally in late 2010. The company says it moves between $30 million and $50 million per month in transactions from its 80,000 individual accounts and 7,500 merchant accounts. Dwolla grew out of Milne’s frustration at credit card fees, and his goal has been to simplify those fees and make transactions safer.

Milne said the lead partnership between Dwolla and Union Square almost fizzled thanks to what Milne called a “philosophical disagreement” he declined to discuss.

“Any time you are looking at doing a business deal or partnership, there are always going to be disconnects,” Milne said. “Albert and me, we had a strong disconnect. I misunderstood what he was saying and said, ‘It’s a dead deal.’ ”

But Wegner saw the potential in Dwolla and wanted to fix the relationship. He reached out and before Milne could respond, he boarded a flight from New York to Des Moines. Wegner said it was important that he meet Milne face to face.

“Misunderstandings without a history of knowing each other are difficult to overcome by phone or email,Information on useful yeasts and moulds,” Wegner said. “I felt that an in-person trip was the right way to build trust.”

Union Square has a portfolio of heavy tech hitters. Along with Foursquare and Twitter, the firm has invested in social gaming leader Zynga, entertainment social network GetGlue and online craft market giant Etsy.Here you will find product listings for automotiveplasticmoulds, Wegner said he sees similarities between the early trajectory of Dwolla and some of his firm’s other investments.

“We really like the level of engagement among Dwolla’s early adopters, especially in Iowa,” Wegner said. “It reminds us of other companies that seem to have struck some kind of nerve with people, such as Etsy.”

Village Ventures has built a close relationship with Iowa’s Fund of Funds, which seeks national venture capital funds to invest money in Iowa. The fund invested $5 million in Village Ventures in October 2007. Matt Harris of Village Ventures said the timing for Dwolla’s rise could prop up the rest of the Iowa tech community.

“I think this is a real moment in Des Moines, and Iowa more broadly,” Harris said. “The way the community has embraced Dwolla’s success, and Dwolla has, in turn, focused attention on the community, has led to a virtuous feedback loop. ”

Past Ellerslie winners design gardens for the future

Four past gold medal winners at the Ellerslie International Flower Show return to this year's show to create an inner city courtyard or rooftop garden for Christchurch of the future.

Aucklanders Xanthe White and Tim Feather, Wellington's Ben Hoyle and the Canterbury Horticultural Society will each design a City in a Garden, a new look for the city as it rebuilds following the devastating earthquakes.

Xanthe,Online fine art gallery of quality original landscapeoilpaintings, who has won two sliver gilt awards at the world's prestigious Chelsea Flower Show and several medals at Ellerslie, says her 2012 garden has two sides. "The garden has duality,We are the largest producer of projectorlamp products here. embracing Christchurch's heritage through stone work and classicism, while looking to the future with a contemporary courtyard where diversity in planting gives the garden complexity."

She says the garden retains the most beautiful aspects of the city's heritage in a lush planted green garden, complete with water feature, transitioning into a dry, arid garden featuring a marble Tim Royall sculpture.

Xanthe's garden, sponsored by Daltons, will also aim for sustainability through its design, bringing heating and cooling elements into the garden, the plant material being a mix of native plants and flowers.Choose from our large selection of cableties,

"The garden will be about aspiration with a balance of architecture and the magic of plants. It will be beautiful with a fresh city edge for the future."

Ben Hoyle's She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not garden is "a little bit out there" and captures Cantabrians love/hate relationship with their ever changing environment as a result of what has happened in the city.

In essence, his courtyard will be a giant water lily, about seven meters wide and two metres tall, floating in the middle of a still pond. Giant petals will spread out across the water, with two or three broken and floating in the pond.

"What I am creating is a garden in the water.My favourite city councillor,You can find best mouldengineeringsolution china manufacturers from here! Normally, it is the other way round - you punctuate a landscape with a water element. This provides an opportunity to mentally and physically float away from the ground as the garden is insulated by water which acts as something of a shock absorber. Demolition material such as bricks and broken concrete from the city will be used to form gabion walls around the garden in a symbolic process of the historic past providing the core of a solid foundation for the future.

Ben was only 21 when he took part in his first Ellerslie Show - that was in 1998 when he won silver.Produce largescalemolds and castings for full scale locomotive train, Fourteen years on, he has now competed at eight Ellerslie shows and has a fistful of gold medals to his credit, including more recently taking out Gold and the Supreme Peace Award in 2010 while representing New Zealand at the Gardening World Cup in Japan.

Christchurch's Tony Milne is designing the garden on behalf of the Canterbury Horticultural Garden, which won gold at the 2009 Show with its A Taste of Tomorrow garden designed by Rob Watson.

Tony says Love (in) Your Garden is a play on the Society's new slogan designed to inspire a new generation of gardeners.

His garden is a sculptural rooftop garden that tells a love story combining aspects of romance, fertility and resilience. The story is told through a sculptural display of abstracted flower anatomy, drawing inspiration from the older love gods.

"A grove of 12 stamens dance around the pistil in a display of affection that will ultimately regenerate new life, reminding us of the resilience of the flowering plant life cycle to survive even in the most damaged environment."

Tony says the top of the stamens, the anther will be filled with a number of items that we need to survive in the event of a disaster, symbolic of the sustenance required to be self-sustaining and resilient.

The garden will also allude to alternative energy sources, feature drifts of wildflowers blooming among crushed rubble and the garden walls will feature William Morris prints, peppered with an abstraction of words from Shakespeare and love stories.

Tim Feather's A Moveable Feast garden is a selection of four whimsical pop-up and portable courtyard gardens inspired by the recent earthquakes in Christchurch, creating to help meet the challenges the city faces in designing the gardens of the future.

He says the garden, sponsored by Bay Audiology, allows the homeowner to select a courtyard that reflects their mood and to change or reconfigure elements to enhance their enjoyment. "There is a lot of humour is the garden which I think visitors to the Show will enjoy; everyone should have a bit of a chuckle."

Frayed nerves can be soothed in the Easy Listening Courtyard where you sit on cube seats around a water feature listening to background sounds and enjoy the visual feast of a pop-up planter. The Disco Courtyard turns the back lawn into disco heaven where the homeowner can boogie on down; while in the Seismic Shuffle Courtyard you are able to rearrange the decking segments to create a different look every day. The Liquefaction Blues Courtyard is a place to sit, relax and kick sand in the face of life. It has a pool, deck chairs and beach balls leading through to an overgrown garden with vegetables and fruit trees.

Not clinical, just thinking outside the box

DOCTORS' clinics, particularly those designed for children, can tend to be formulaic. Primary colours on walls and furniture are supposed to cheer up parents and children as they enter. A stack of toys in the corner is the norm.

But Flourish Paediatrics in Clarendon Street, South Melbourne, has taken a different approach. Designed by Molecule, the clinic has more of the aesthetic of a Scandinavian spa, one you might find on the edge of a Norwegian wood.

"Our brief wasn't to make the clinic feel like a playground for children and get them hyped up when they see overstuffed toys,'' says architect Jarrod Haberfield of Molecule.

''It was deliberately designed as a calming space, in a place where parents, as well as children,Full color plasticcard printing and manufacturing services. are often distraught."

Haberfield worked closely with the practice's other directors, architects Richard Fleming and Anja de Spa.

Flourish Paediatrics, owned by Dr Liz Hallam, is not your usual string of rooms. Instead, there's a module clad in plywood sitting in the middle of the 40-square-metre space.

Appearing to be carved into these walls are nooks, cupboards and shelves, like an ingenious cubby house. And at the rear of the ''cube'' is a kitchenette.

"The space is quite modest,And not just the usual suspects,Customized imprinted and promotionalusbonsale flash drives. so we wanted to build as many features into the joinery as possible," says Fleming, opening cupboards to reveal scales, IT server and a fridge. And although there are armchairs at reception, there's also built-in banquette seating within the central form.

"We wanted to create one strong sculptural element in the space," says de Spa.

To ensure the ''sculpture'' was clearly delineated,Product information for Sell electronicplasticmoulds from China! Molecule pared back the reception area, with a white Corian bench and pale timber lounges and chairs.

While the exterior of the pod is made of plywood, the interior,What is Plastic injectionmouldingmanufacturer, comprising one room, features white laminate walls and a glass ceiling. And like a piece of fruit that has several layers beneath the skin, there's an interstitial layer of green eco panel sandwiched between the plywood and laminate.

De Spa likens the design to a Jenga Puzzle, where blocks can be pushed back and forth. These layers also provide an element of surprise, leaving timber surrounded by pristine white walls inside the cube.

The core of the design is Dr Hallam's consultation area within the pod. As well as a desk, there's a nook in which toddlers can play. And no, the doctor doesn't have an aversion to a few toys scattered on the floor.

"From the outset, it was important to provide an environment that would calm parents, as well as children,'' Haberfield says. ''Parents may have already seen a number of general practitioners before coming here."

This module approach,Pfister werkzeugbau AG aus Mönchaltorf ist Ihr Partner bei der Herstellung von Werkzeugen und Spritzformen. although suitable for a clinic, could equally be considered for a small apartment or office, where space is limited.

"This treatment could be developed as a bedroom in a compact apartment," Haberfield says.

Molecule also appreciated the input from Dr Hallam.

"Liz is extremely pragmatic,'' Haberfield says. ''She's obviously concerned with how her patients feel. But she also knows the importance of being able to wipe things down and provide a level of comfort.''

Some of the plywood furniture and a rug was also designed by Molecule to ensure a seamless result.

"This motif implies growth, something that's at the heart of this clinic," Haberfield says.

Expert teams aid dairy farmers in company management

Faced with recurring incidences of mastitis among his herd, Kewaunee County dairy farmer Tony Knorn used a federally funded state program to draw upon the collective knowledge of industry experts to help solve the problem.

Knorn — who owns Junion Homestead Farm with his wife, Peggy, in the town of Luxemburg, and milks about 150 cows — tapped into the Grow Wisconsin Dairy Farm Management Team program.

The program pulls together experts from the field — from livestock specialists and veterinarians, to lenders and dairy equipment manufacturers — to help the state's dairy farmers develop long-term strategies and solutions to help operations thrive in the dairy business, a $26.5 billion industry in the state.

"We probably had eight to 10 people at the meetings," Knorn said last week. "We'd try to come up with an idea of what we thought might be wrong and what we could start to focus on."

The program is offered by the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and a joint venture of several agencies including the University of Wisconsin-Extension and state technical colleges

The on-farm team program was started in fall 2009,Full color plasticcard printing and manufacturing services.Don't know what tooling style you need? growing out of a U.S. Department of Agriculture dairy business initiative launched in 2004. It's funded by a mix of federal, state and dairy industry money, said Nicole Breunig, a marketing consultant at DATCP.

The program provides up to $2,000 in cost-sharing to pay for consultant fees and testing related to the topic at hand.There are 240 distinct solutions of the Soma cubepuzzle,

"The program is designed to help farmers look at farm growth, financial success and long-term sustainability," she said. "We wanted a program that was very customizable so a farmer could tap the consultants he needed to work with based on the issue he was experiencing."

Other teams have looked at long-term business planning and transitioning the farm to other family members, production practices, herd health and the viability of expanding an operation or changing the operating structure, Breunig said.

More than 90 farms statewide have been enrolled in the ongoing program, she said.

While the state's milk production "continues to grow, our dairy processors still need more milk," Breunig said. "Ten percent of the milk needed by processors is brought in from out of state because we just don't make enough. It's about helping our dairy farmers combat low milk prices, be profitable and grow milk production to meet the demand of our dairy processors."

That in turn bolsters the overall dairy industry and the state's economy.

In 2010, Aerica Bjurstrom, agricultural agent with Kewaunee County UW-Extension, orchestrated the monthly meetings, which are now quarterly, on the Knorn farm.

"A lot of people were really interested in helping and being part of this," she said. "That's what a lot of them do … they work with the farmer to improve production and improve profitability. The group changed from month to month, but we had a core group."

Bjurstrom said the program allows experts and producers to find solutions through a focused effort, though it can take several meetings before the group hones in on a clear direction leading to action.

"It's something that has to develop over time," she said.Learn all about solarpanel, "Everybody has to find their place in the group and add their expertise."

Mastitis is an inflammatory reaction in a cows udder caused by an infection that increases the somatic cell count of milk produced by the cow. A higher somatic cell count translates into less money paid for the milk produced by that animal.

The group first had to pinpoint where the issue was. After determining it wasn't feeding or milking procedures,Buy a chickencoop direct & save. focus turned to the barn.

Red Means Run author Brad Smith: ‘I have an aversion to cops’

Brad Smith’s hands look as if they’ve done everything but pecked at a keyboard or held a pen. He’s worked as a farmer, signalman, insulator,Choose from our large selection of cableties, truck driver, bartender, schoolteacher, maintenance mechanic, roofer and carpenter,There are 240 distinct solutions of the Soma cubepuzzle, but it’s only when you reach the last line of his biography that the fact that he’s a writer becomes apparent.

Between 2000 and 2007, Smith published four novels — the above-mentioned title plus All Hat, Busted Flush, and Big Man Coming Down the Road. He was marketed as a throwback, a bit of a roughneck, an outsider. Now, after a five-year-absence — Smith prefers the term “sabbatical” — he returns with a new publisher and a new book, Red Means Run, the first of two that will arrive in stores by the end of summer.

“I never stopped writing. It just seemed like the industry was kind of in a slump for a while,” says Smith, nursing a beer at a popular King Street West restaurant in downtown Toronto, a long way, mentally if not geographically, from the 80-year-old farmhouse near the north shore of Lake Erie he calls home .This article refers to electrical projectorlampproducer.

“I didn’t have a publisher,” he explains — he parted ways with Penguin, who’d released his last three books — “and I wasn’t even really looking for a publisher, to tell you the truth, because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But I kept writing.”

Red Means Run introduces the reader to Virgil Cain, an ordinary man who constantly finds himself in extraordinary circumstances. Not long after the novel opens, Mickey Dupree, a slick criminal defence lawyer, is found dead on the local golf course, the shaft of a five-iron staked through his heart. Cain, a former minor-league catcher, is the only suspect, and with good reason: Dupree successfully defended the man charged with murdering Cain’s wife, Alan Comstock, a drug-addled music producer who likes his beer cold and his guns loaded. After realizing the police aren’t looking for anyone else, Cain breaks out of jail and goes on the lam, determined to find the killer before the cops find him.

“Virgil came pretty easily to me, because I know that guy,” says Smith, sporting a shaved head and a grey goatee.Some basic principles of building achickencoopplans plans, “He’s probably a more idealistic version of me. A better version of me.”

Smith, a fiftysomething native of Canfield, Ont., knows all about troubled men with checkered pasts; he’s had his share of run-ins with the law and is intimately familiar with the inside of a cell.The mold consists of two primary components, the injectionmoulds and the ejector mold . In fact, it was time spent in a courthouse jail over 30 years ago that inspired the scene in which Virgil undertakes his own Great Escape.

Anna DeVries, his editor at Scribner in New York, believes Smith’s damaged hero, and the parade of miscreants that populate the novel, will ultimately appeal to readers.

“We are calling it country noir, but it definitely fits in with that tradition of writers, … in terms of Richard Russo, Dennis Lehane and Elmore Leonard, who have these characters who are a little more experienced in the life department, and may have a few bumpy roads behind them that they’ve come down. And I think that really appeals to readers — to see that this hero is flawed but resilient.”

Red Means Run marks the first time Smith has written a book with a series in mind. He’s been asked by publishers before, but has always refused. “To me, a series represents cops — you know, the savvy detective, whatever. It’s pretty procedural and, frankly, some of the stuff I read it like the same book over and over again.”

At the first meeting with his new publisher, the idea of a series was broached again, and again Smith said no. “I’ve been arrested a lot, so I have an aversion to cops,” he laughs. “But then I got thinking about it a few weeks later, and I said ‘what if I can do a series with an Everyman … just a blue collar guy that I know, like the guys I wrote about in One-Eyed Jacks or Busted Flush?’ There’s similarities there. None of them are dancing to ballet.”

Crow’s Landing, the further (mis)adventures of Virgil Cain, is due out in August; that novel finds Virgil reeling in a snowstorm’s worth of cocaine while fishing in the Hudson River. He’s under contract to write a third book, and is also developing a TV series, about a doctor who is sentenced to 500 hours of community service at a downtrodden downtown hospital after being convicted of drunk driving.

“It’s better than shingling,” he says.

Jackson Oral Surgeons Educate Patients About Maxillofacial Surgery

"After careful planning and design, we are thrilled to announce our new website,Glass insulator were first produced in the 1850's for use with telegraph lines." said oral surgeon Donald L. Seago, DDS. "Our new 'Patient Education' library is filled with informative articles explaining how common dental problems develop and how as oral surgeons we can correct these conditions."

The 'Patient Education' library also includes information on common oral surgery procedures including implant dentistry and the removal of tumors of the mouth. The website features 3D Dental Videos to visually show patients how dental implants, wisdom teeth extraction and pediatric dental surgery are performed.

"Prior to wisdom teeth extraction or other surgery, it's natural for patients to feel anxiety about the procedure," said Dr. Seago. "These videos are designed to help patients relax and feel confident, knowing exactly what to expect."

The 3D Dental videos also demonstrate proper brushing and flossing techniques. "Many serious periodontal problems can be prevented with brushing, flossing and regular dental visits," said David E. Seago, DMD. "Our goal with the website is to help educate patients about not only different oral surgery techniques, but also how to keep the gums and teeth healthy and prevent oral health problems in the first place."

The new website also includes information on TMJ treatment explaining how this condition can occur and how different treatment therapies can help patients naturally manage TMJ pain.

"A TMJ disorder is a serious condition that can profoChoose from our wide range of porcelaintiles today.undly affect a patient's quality of life,China glassbottles manufacturer provides glass bottles including glass jam jars," said Stephen R. Gandy, DMD. "However, many patients who suffer from a TMJ disorder may not even realize that they grind or clench their teeth at night.If you have a kidneystones, One goal with our new website is to enhance awareness of this condition. The earlier we can diagnosis a TMJ disorder, the more we can do to prevent damage to the teeth."

Individuals can learn more about TMJ treatment such as self-care, a nightguard, or positioning appliance on the website.Wholesale zentaisuits, According to Dr. Gandy, only in extreme cases is corrective jaw surgery or joint repair required.

The website also features a new blog. The oral surgeons frequently post blog entries on the latest oral surgery techniques and preventive care tips. They also encourage patients to post questions or comments on the blog.

"We hope to foster an interactive dialogue with patients," said Dr. Gandy. "Patients can also connect on Facebook for regular preventive care tips and other wellness news."

Where the heavyweights of ice carving indulge in fantasy

Curiously, Craig McConnell’s oversized checked luggage raises no alarm among airport security personnel, even though it contains chainsaws, chisels, angle grinders, blow torches, household irons, and die grinders with all sorts of bits and burrs. Maybe the handwritten note inside helps: "These are my tools for ice carving. Please be careful - some of them are sharp. I am traveling to Lake Louise, Alberta, for an ice-carving competition."

Every January, The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, one of Canada’s grand old railway hotels, hosts the Ice Magic International Ice Carving Competition, where a dozen two-person teams gather on the frozen shores of Lake Louise to create fantastic sculptures. Each team has 34 hours to shape 15 massive blocks of ice into a soaring sculpture related to a specific theme. Last year’s "Magical Madness" theme inspired artists to produce fanciful renderings of sorcerers, dragons, and mythical gods. This year’s more conceptual theme, "WordPlay: Where language comes out to play," will bring storytelling alive in the form of pirates, a fairy, and other elaborately carved structures. The competition runs Jan. 20-22 as part of the Ice Magic Festival.

"It’s really a wonderful medium to express yourself and be creative," says Norm Flann, a carver from the Canadian team Crushed Ice. "Ice is soft and the tools you use let you carve it so easily, unlike stone."

Each giant "ice cube" weighs 300 pounds, meaning the work can be physically grueling.

"We’ll help each other lift blocks and everyone will work together," says McConnell, a former chef at the Ritz-Carlton, Boston Common, and now owner of Images in Ice, a Brockton-based ice-carving business. McConnell and his partner, Gene Shea, met five years ago at a Faneuil Hall competition, and they have been doing the Lake Louise event together ever since.Provides custom and promotionalusbs flash drive memory. "Last year, we helped one of the teams lift a mushroom cap that was made out of a full block of ice. We showed them a trick for lifting it using tie-down straps that we wrapped around the ice."

Ice carving at Lake Louise dates to 1994, when the Fairmont’s chef and culinary friends pulled blocks of ice from the lake and carved them into sculptures for fun,Our company has the capability of design and makes molds according to demand of clients, including some largescalemolds. according to Micaela Zagozewski, event manager for the Ice Magic Festival. "The event has grown ever since."

Now, more than 7,000 people attend each year. Visitors can watch some of the world’s top ice carvers at work, and ask them questions throughout the competition. This year’s participants will have traveled from the Netherlands, Britain, Russia, the United States, and Canada.

The carvers also come from remarkably different backgrounds: One used to work as executive chef at The Fairmont Empress, a renowned high-end hotel in Victoria, British Columbia. Another works as a mail carrier in rural Washington State, and has competed in ice-carving events at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Nagano, and Salt Lake City. And another, Ben Rand of Casco, Maine, helps run an ice-carving business in West Palm Beach, Fla., of all places, producing upward of 1,000 sculptures a year for local restaurants and businesses. Rand trained as a five-star classic chef and then became a full-time ice carver. He and his carving partner, Scott Harrison, won first place in last year’s Ice Magic event for their Harry Potter entry.

Two of the 24 entrants are women, one of whom is Stephanie Quayle from the United Kingdom.

"In terms of male-female ratios, there’s definitely a big hairy man bias," says Quayle, who teams up with her fiance, Darren Jackson. "I suppose it’s only natural, due to the nature of the work and the temperatures we have to endure, but I like to think we girls can do it just as well - we just need a lot more hot chocolate to keep us going."

Competitors cannot use gas chain saws or lathes, and they may only work from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday.

"I’ve never competed when I didn’t carve until the last second," says Jeff Bleier, a former carver who now runs a restaurant in Rochester, and helps judge the Lake Louise competition. "I’ve been 6 feet up on a ladder putting on the last piece with three seconds to go."

Teams must use all the ice they are allotted, and cannot supplement with natural snow or other materials - no props, decorations, or coloring of ice - though they may use water. The entries must be carved on all sides.

The first day, carvers organize and stack their hefty ice blocks. Many attach enlarged templates, much like a seamstress’s pattern, onto the blocks to ensure that they use all the ice and don’t waste anything, and so they can labor away without having to stop and calculate measurements. Then they fire up chainsaws and start carving.

"The most important thing about ice sculpture is that you have to create a piece with a strong silhouette or outline," says Rand. "It’s difficult to see things that overlap each other in ice, so instead of folded arms, you want to have arms that are spread apart. This also helps the sculpture appear more fluid and dynamic."

The creations must measure at least 7 feet tall, but no more than 13 1/2 feet, in order to create a challenge for artists while keeping the competition zone safe.Wholesale zentaisuits, Small chisels and drills create more intricate patterns that resemble fish scales, hieroglyphics, or razor-sharp claws.

On day two,Chinese porcelaintiles on the floor of a Jewish synagogue in Cochin, each team sends someone down the hill to the Village of Lake Louise to participate in the One Carver, One Hour, One Block event. Each artist can create anything he or she wants from one 300-pound block of ice during this speed-carving competition.

"One is like a marathon, the other is like a sprint," says Rand. "They’re just two different ways to approach the ice."

The festival also includes ice-carving demonstrations by lead judge Dan Rebholtz, a judges’ "carve-off" at the Lake Louise Ski Area, horse-drawn wagon rides around the lake, and ice skating with a fabulous view (weather permitting) of the Victoria Glacier.

As the hourglass empties up at Lake Louise, carvers put on the final touches: They use hairdryers and blow torches to put a polished shine on certain areas of their sculptures, and they clean up their work stations.

Works are judged on their level of complexity and overall creative intent, and how well carvers used the ice and their tools.There are 240 distinct solutions of the Soma cubepuzzle, Carvers get points for hiding seams, and for creating sculptures that appear more three dimensional and that stretch the boundaries of what ice can do, such as creating something that looks like it may fall over but is so masterfully engineered that it won’t.

"We’ll often put supports [made of ice] underneath the pieces that hang out, so the vibration from carving the rest of the sculpture doesn’t destroy them," Rand explains. "With the Harry Potter sculpture we did last year, we had at least 1,000 to 1,500 pounds supported on a 7-inch circle, which was the dog’s right paw. The whole thing had a temporary support. In the last 15 minutes, you start cutting those supports out and the sculpture either survives or it crashes. It can be pretty nerve-racking."

Judges award third, second, and first prize, with a $1,000 to $3,000 purse. And sculptures can win the People’s Choice, Carver’s Choice, and Children’s Choice awards, with $500 or $1,000 in cash prizes.

This year, Ice Magic extends to the following weekend, Jan. 28-29, with family-oriented events. You can take a look at the finished creations from the previous weekend, and then attend the Little Chippers Festival, where children of any age can try their hands at ice carving. A new ice playground features ice miniature golf, an ice tunnel, and an ice slide. You can also watch a professional 10-block ice-carving event, or go skating on Lake Louise with the ice queen - all free events.

McConnell and Shea plan to fly their oversized bags up north and compete again this year. Just look for the intricately carved arch, the pirates, and the daring and creative twist on Pandora’s box.

"Sometimes carvers stop where it’s safe, when they could have taken their work further and created a more dynamic and lifelike piece," says McConnell. "You can’t do that in competition. It’s like when you’re skiing and your tips go over the edge and you’re looking down some crazy slope. The more you think, the more you’re going to get into trouble. I always say to myself: Forget it. Just do it."

Fresh starts on the farm

By the new year nearly every bar of soap Melanie Vanderlip had made in the past six months had sold out. She’s lucky that for a business run completely on family power, her son Christopher and daughter-in-law Jennifer had just returned from a year in Costa Rica and were helping to fill orders for the busiest time of year for Fridays at the Farm.

“Everyone wants to give soap,” Melanie says of the business founded in 2002 with her friend Jessicca Laughlin in the rustic barn down the hill from Melanie’s house.

Vestiges of family activities remain in the living room of the main house, where once there were a ping-pong table and other games. The centerpiece now is a long worktable where creamy-smooth soap bars are packaged with pretty strips of paper, homemade labels and adorned with a black-and-white photo of family relatives. Racks stand with shelves of drying soap, and a tantalizing mix of aromas — lemon verbena, orange, lavender, chocolate — fill the room.

Everything about Fridays at the Farm is down-home and real, from the soap recipes to the market booth made wholly of recycled materials. Melanie buys as many local and organic ingredients as she can, and even grows her own when possible.

The new booth and its display are one example of some changes Melanie has implemented since she bought the business from Jessicca last year.For production of injectionmoulds and stamping tools we are equipped in own tool shop， “It’s a big step for me to have the business on my own,” Melanie says, “and these changes are to make it feel like my own.”

Fridays at the Farm got its name legitimately, with two friends “messing around” in soapmaking and perfume classes, and then experimenting with their own soap recipes every Friday —at the farm.

“We created this great bar of soap,” Melanie says of her efforts with Jessicca, “and everyone wanted a bar.”

From there, a business was launched that Melanie estimates has grown 20 percent every year. She still makes all the soap in small batches to ensure its high quality. Generally, she pours around 240 bars into handmade molds in a five-hour period on Mondays. The next day she cuts the bars, and then the bars are cured for six weeks.

With one person making the soap,Choose from our large selection of cableties, keeping up with demand has been the greatest challenge, Melanie says. That’s even as family members pitch in, from her husband,Glass insulator were first produced in the 1850's for use with telegraph lines. John, who built the booth and sets it up at Saturday Market, to her mother, who cuts the wrapping paper, to her 6-year-old son Ian, who clamors to weigh the oils and to cut the soap.

There are more sisters, nieces and relatives, all dedicated to preparing the goat milk-based bars for distribution.

“We used goats’ milk from the very beginning,” Melanie says, “and I think that sets us apart.”

Melanie and Jessicca knew initially of some of the useful attributes of goat-milk soap, she says. Over time, with reading and studying,It has downgraded price targets for David Jones honeycombpanelsbest , Melanie learned of its high moisturizing and other premium properties. Now she has her own Nigerian dwarf goats (their milk has higher fat content than that of other goats) with the goal of milking them this spring.What is Faux chinaceramictile?

“I think it’s important for me to know that I have gone through the whole process, and that they have been raised here,” she says.

When Melanie was a teenager in the 1970s, her father, a middle school science teacher, asked the family to support his decision to quit teaching and become a painter. He became successful, known for his Western oils, and Melanie helped him keep his books. The lesson she learned was to make a living doing something that feeds her soul. “That’s what drives me,” she says. “It feels comfortable to me, doing some kind of art for people.”

This year definitely will be a transition for Melanie’s art form. With a revamped barn, she has thoughts of opening up a small shop there (open on Fridays, of course), in addition to the space she now shares with Mama Rose’s Naturals in Eugene. And even if she trains someone else in the labor-intensive process of making the soap, she wants to retain the business at home.

Zennstrom-Backed Startup Reinvents The Gift Card

For the last few years, my sister and I have approached the holidays this way: I bought gift cards for her kids, and she bought gift cards for my kids. And we’re hardly alone. U.S. adults on average buy close to five gift cards a year; they are now a more than $100 billion a year business. But the gift card business has fundamental flaws,We provide you a big discount on Catsuits & zentai, not the least of which is that they’re based around the physical purchase of little plastic cards. Gift cards, in short, are a fundamentally bricks-and-mortar focused business in an e-tailing world.

But maybe there’s a better way.

At least, that’s the theory behind Wrapp, a Stockholm-based start-up backed by Atomico, the London-based venture firm founded by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom.We offer parkingguidancesystem, The core idea: gift giving is a fundamentally social act. So why not tie the act of gift giving to social networks?

The Wrapp team includes a host of mostly Swedish Web veterans; the CEO is Hjalmar Winbladh, a serial entrepreneur who among other things started Rebtel, an IP telephony company that actually competes with Skype, and Sendit, a company acquired by Microsoft in 1999. CTO Andreas Ehn was previously CTO at the music service Spotify.

In interviews with FORBES in late December, Zennstrom and Winbladh laid out the case for how Wrapp plans to reinvent the gift card business.

The basic concept is to tie giving gift cards to Facebook.. The social gifting service works like this: On the Wrapp site, you can sign up for the service for free using your Facebook account. There are apps for Wrapp for both iPhones and Android phones. The app notifies you when your Facebook friends have birthdays; with a few clicks you send them a gift card, which then can be redeemed online or in retail stores. The “gift card” comes in the form of an email with a bar code that can be scanned at a retailer’s point of sale, like a normal gift card.

One novel feature of Wrapp is the ability to give your friends not only paid gift cards, but also free gift cards. The idea of giving free gift cards isn’t as loopy as it sounds. The idea is that retailers can generate store traffic by luring in customers with free gift cards in hand. Imagine, for instance, that I gave you a free $10 gift card for a shoe store; the theory is that the retailer would happily give up some revenue dollars in exchange for gaining a new customer,Bathroom floortiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles. who are not going to be able to buy a pair of shoes for $10. In theory, everyone wins: I get to give you a gift for free. You get a gift card. The retailer gets a new customer. Wrapp gets a commission when a gift card is redeemed.

Meanwhile, the fact that I sent you a gift card shows up on our Facebook pages – and other friends can add to the gift. So while I might start by offering you a free gift card,This billabongboardshort has the following technological features: I can add it to it myself, and invite friends to do the same. That makes Wrapp a nice solution for group gifts.We offer hundreds of thousands of oilpaintingsforsale. And while the tie to Facebook gives Wrapp a way to prompt you to consider gifting your friends on their birthdays, you can decide to send them a gift card any time you want.

Retailers, meanwhile, can fine tune which Wrapp customers get which offers; young male users might get a different set of gift card choices than older female users.

Wrapp launched in Sweden in October, with several dozen retailers already signed on, most of them focused on selling in in physical stores. The company plans to launch in the U.K. and the U.S. in the 2012 first quarter. Zennstrom says the service has been growing users at a rate of about 40% week-over-week.

Zennstromg, who lead a recent $5.5 million venture round for Wrapp, notes that the company shouldn’t need huge amounts of capital to get off the ground; for one thing, he points out that they have a positive cash flow model, selling cards up front that are redeemed down the road. He also notes that the company is a play on three of the hottest Internet trends – mobile/social/local.

Says Zennstrom: “From an investment point 0f view, the business is going after a huge market which has not had that much innovation.”

Year-end Wrap Up

How do I summarize a year in which we lost one of the founders of the digital age and the first year where we had products that let us interact with computer with our voice,Find the best achickencoopplans plans with our chicken coop plans review page， face and our body? Maybe it’s not so difficult; this year was a year of small, foundational transitions setting the stage for what will be a mind-boggling 2012.

While there were many new technologies this year, in general, most technology companies seemed to be concentrating on infrastructure, which the sexy tech will be built upon.

Giant data centers, super smart scaling software, virtualized machines: this was the year when it seems everyone finally bought into cloud computing. From the general public using things like DropBox or Apple’s iCloud to store files and photos, to many organizations realizing it doesn’t make sense to buy physical servers anymore.

We want access to our data everywhere and all the time,The magiccube is an ultra-portable, full-sized virtual computer keyboard. so it doesn’t make sense to keep it in a place we can’t get to on the go. With software developers embracing this idea fully and rolling out products which take advantage of the cloud, we will store more of our information in some etherial place we will never actually see or touch.

This is further facilitated by wireless network providers launching faster wireless services like LTE. This year we started to get used to always having access to our files, never needing to backup our pictures, and working on the internet from anywhere. Next year, we’ll just expect this to be the norm.

Talk to any IT employee in the medical industry and you’ll hear about a year full of horror stories and insane hours as they began to transition their organizations to electronic medical records. There’s a 2014 deadline mandated by Washington and moving a mass of disparate systems to work with the new records is a challenge of Herculean proportions.

This year was an implementation year for many in the medical community, and it’s been tough, but it’s just another way more of you are going digital. More of your life, from your vacation pictures to, now, your health records, are in a digital format. This means more of your information can be analyzed at scale, sent around world instantaneously, and maybe most importantly, integrated into other systems and devices.Muyoung mould specializes in manufacture plasticmoldingonsale,

Besides the standard cost savings and reduction in medical mistakes by not moving paper around,Shop for airpurifiertarget at Target, imagine never needing to fill out those annoying medical questionnaires every time you visit a different doctor or specialist. Imagine the anonymized data that medical researchers could access when analyzing the effectiveness of treatments; and think of the possibilities of integrating your medical history into intelligent surgical devices.

Like I’ve mentioned before,Microsoft’s Kinect and Apple’s Siri are game changers. They are the first commercially viable products which significantly change how we interface with computers. The Kinect has now had a full year to mature, with Microsoft just releasing a software update on the Xbox 360 to more fully utilize its features throughout the experience. Siri is relatively new, but will mature rapidly.

These two technologies are the foundation for a completely different way to use our devices and access the net. In a few years, you’ll lose your TV remote in the couch cushions and won’t be bothered because you haven’t used it in 3 months,If you have a akidneystones, you may already know how painful？ anyway. You’ll be controlling your TV completely with your voice or hand gestures. Since I think TV remotes are stupid, I’m happy that this year was the foundation for that future.

Technical problems delay Expo Line's debut

The opening date for the long-awaited Expo Line has been postponed several times, and a test ride last week showed how a spot of bad circuitry and a debate over six-letter words — "subway," "tunnel" and "trench" — continue to delay the system's operation.

While examining a 0.6-mile stretch of railway that dips below ground level near USC,We are porcelaintiles specialists and are passionate about our product - the most durable, transportation officials on Thursday argued over nomenclature.

"I think it's a subway, it's not a trench. There's special ventilation requirements on a subway," said Art Leahy, head of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Rick Thorpe, head of the Exposition Construction Authority, insisted the feature was a trench.

"You say po-TAY-to, I say po-TAH-to," Leahy said. "When I look up and I see a roof and I'm on a train, I'm in a subway."

"But you can also look up and see the sky," Thorpe said.

"In certain places, that ..The Tile Depot is the UK's largest independent floortiles retailer,. would be a trench," Leahy said.

Ventilation in the trench — or tunnel — is one of a handful of technical issues that officials with Metro, the agency responsible for funding and operating the line, say need to be fixed before they can finish "pre-revenue operations": training operators and testing the line.

Officials with the Exposition Construction Authority, who announced Nov. 28 that they had turned the system over to Metro for those pre-revenue operations, are complying despite saying that some of the requested changes — like fans in the trench or tunnel — are unnecessary.

County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who sits on the Metro board of directors, described the tension between Leahy and Thorpe as "sibling rivalry."

"The older child is giving the younger child a hard time," he said.

The two agencies do agree on some of the requested changes. One is to fix the line's primary technical problem at the junction where the Expo Line shares tracks with the Blue Line, which runs between Long Beach and downtown L.A.This profile page summarizes all known activity of the domain promotionalusbonsale.

Thorpe explained that rail operators receive signals from the track ensuring that the train is going the right speed, and in one area those signals were not going through.

Leahy said the junction is already tricky because trains will run frequently — minutes apart — in both directions, but the problems with the circuitry make full testing impossible.

"We can simulate service south of 23rd [Street]. We cannot simulate service north of 23rd because of the junction," Leahy said. "We can't get the trains through there fast enough. We've got to work out some signal system issues with the junction," he said.

"I think optimistically we're a few days away in solving it," Thorpe said Thursday.

Metro officials said they were working with the city Fire Department and are pushing for certain changes because the line can't open before the California Public Utilities Commission certifies it as safe. The first part of the line to open will go 7.9 miles, between the downtown 7th Street/Metro Center station and La Cienega Boulevard.

Leahy said that soon after problems at the junction are fixed, he'll be able to begin pre-revenue operations — which can take up to three months — and set an opening date shortly after.

Predictions for when the Expo line would begin service have repeatedly proved inaccurate. On Thursday, Leahy and Thorpe declined to specify a date.

The technical issues are the latest kink in a project that has faced numerous delays and cost increases, most often because of design enhancements, safety concerns and increases in construction prices.

Some officials said the problems occurred because of an initial bewilderment about funding sources and a disjointed process of construction, design and other contracts.

The first phase of the line originally carried a price tag of $640 million and was considered a cheap way to get rail into the Westside, but the cost grew to exceed $930 million.

When complete, the first phase will take commuters 8.6 miles between downtown Los Angeles and downtown Culver City at speeds of up to 55 mph.

But the 0.7-mile stretch into Culver City will not be ready for several months. Officials decided to first open the line as far as La Cienega, just east of Culver City.

The second phase of the project is budgeted at $1.5 billion. When fully built, the Expo Line will transport riders from downtown L.A. to Santa Monica in 46 minutes with 19 stops. It will be the first light rail line into the Westside since the days of the Red Car trolleys and is expected to become one of the most heavily used in the country.

Most of the line's first phase is complete.Serving Australia with a large range of decorative wallmirrorshop in our Sydney store. Each rail station will feature original artwork based on local history, including an interpretation of when the Baldwin Hills Reservoir dam burst in 1963.

At the above-ground La Cienega station, commuters will enjoy a 360-degree view of the region including the Hollywood sign, West L.A. and the Federal Building, Baldwin Hills and downtown L.Shop and save on blurayburners, Blu-Ray Burner,A.

Mexican Festivals and Holidays: Keeping Traditions Alive

The El Paso-Ciudad Juarez borderland was hopping with activity in recent days. In downtown El Paso, lumbering city buses navigated between crowds of shoppers searching for a cheap, potential present made by Chinese or Vietnamese or Pakistani hands. Not far away, the piata and candy shops on gritty Alameda Avenue were festooned in green, blue, red and white, as a man stood in a median with a sign promoting a bargain buffet of seafood.This entry was posted by billabongboardshortscloths. A pair of Border Patrol agents strolled along the sidewalk.

In the reconverted quarters of an old garment plant now rechristened Mercado Mayapan, La Mujer Obrera (The Woman Worker) staged its annual Christmas posada. El Paso's Mariachi Gala entertained a crowd that enjoyed a corn and chocolate drink called champurrado and buuelos, sugary pastries, all for free.

An old tradition, the posada celebrates the wandering carpenter and his wife seeking shelter and sustenance. A group of singing, amateur actors reenacted the ageless saga, asking the celebrants for a helping hand. The attendees were then given a free gift bag,Read about coldsorestreatments, which are caused by a viral infection that attacks the skin and nervous system. or colación, which consisted of oranges, nuts and Mexican candy. Adults and children alike took turns swinging at what seemed like an unbreakable piata, which finally popped after a determined man landed a few furious blows.

"We feel it is symbolic for what Mercado Mayapan is in the community," said Rubi Orozco, spokesperson for La Mujer Obrera. "It is an alternative space for people to come to. It's a community refuge."

Founded by former garment workers who banded together to promote grassroots economic development, Mercado Mayapan is a place where residents and visitors can shop for fair trade-oriented holiday gifts while reaffirming traditional culture. "It's not about the consumerist aspect,With Payflowpaymentgateway," Orozco said in an interview with Frontera NorteSur. "It's more about the get-together."

Although the market recently ran up against serious financial challenges and was forced to drastically cut back its hours, rumors of Mercado Mayapan's imminent demise are exaggerated, Orozco insisted. While La Mujer Obrera attempts to renegotiate its lease, the market space is available for both community gatherings and private events like quinceaeras; food workers are mulling alternatives such as a catering business, she said. In November and December,Manufacturer of industrial coatedabrasive rolls, Mercado Mayapan's kitchen offers seasonal tamales on order.

Orozco said her group is reviving another tradition that counters the prevailing commercialism of the age. On the morning of the posada, Orozco and several friends did a trial run of a bartering exchange they want to do on a regular basis. For their first barter, the friends traded body care products and natural foods including oatmeal, fresh mint and chiles curtidos, chiles in vinegar.

"We're trying to create that alternative space so we can support each other, even though we are all struggling," Orozco said. "Everyone's feedback is, ‘let's definitely do this again.'"

Ana Gomez, Mercado Mayapan manager, said the Christmas posada is just one of many festivities that her organization organizes every year. Among the list of celebrations is December 12, Virgin of Guadalupe Day. This year, Gomez and seven other women walked from the market to the Cathedral in downtown Ciudad Juarez in an annual pilgrimage honoring the Virgin of Guadalupe.

The different activities, Gomez added, create "community" and help maintain a Mexican culture that gets diluted on this side of the border. "We are always planning," said Gomez, who worked in a laundry that washed jeans for Levi Strauss before the company relocated its operations across the border in 1999.

"This has been a learning experience for me," said Gomez of her involvement in La Mujer Obrera's cultural and economic projects. "I only attended elementary school. In a factory you only do one thing, but when I got here they told me I was going to learn how to plan events. It's been an incredible experience for me."

Hailing from a younger generation than Gomez, Orozco has her own experiences with migration and multicultural holiday celebrations. Born in southern California, Orozco was taken back to Mexico as a baby and grew up speaking Spanish. Later, she moved back to the country of her birth, learned English and attended UC-Berkeley. While living in the Bay Area, the public health specialist participated in the indigenous, alternative Thanksgiving Day ceremony at Alcatraz Island.

Increasingly, Mexican and US holiday traditions are celebrated in both nations. For example, the presence of a large US expatriate and snowbird community in Puerto Vallarta has turned Thanksgiving into a visible celebration in the Mexican port city. Some restaurants advertise Thanksgiving meal specials. A buffet at El Torito restaurant/sports bar featured an all-you-can eat feast of turkey, ham, typical trimmings and, to throw in a Mexican-flavor, tamales. This year's huge meal drew a mixed crowd of US and Canadian expatriates, tourists and Mexican nationals.

Cross-border influences are wildly evident in the growth of Day of the Dead celebrations in the US as well as the grafting of Halloween traditions onto the same festivities in Mexico. In Aguascalientes, the presence of young people dressed up in scary, Halloween-like costumes during this year's Day of the Dead festivities was striking.

Guillermo Saucedo, director of Aguascalientes' Posada Museum, said the fusion of Halloween/Day of the Dead rituals represents "transculturalization with peculiar results."

According to the cultural scholar, the legendary artist Jose Guadalupe Posada's skeleton-like La Catrina cartoon character - which is now an icon of the Day of the Dead - has leaped across borders and oceans. Saucedo said he was even surprised to see a German horse festival using a Posada image. Closer to home, the spirit of La Catrina was present in a Mexico City demonstration against violence that was convened via Facebook and Twitter last month.

Next year, two major anniversaries will honor the "new diva of Mexico," Saucedo said. 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of La Catrina's appearance in this world, and the 160th birthday of her creator, he said. Unfortunately, there is little state support for either the museum or the upcoming anniversaries, Saucedo grumbled.

A recognized poet and writer from Aguascalientes, Claudia Santa-Ana said the very act of the festival is "integral" to Mexican identity and strongly implanted in a land where nature, animals and death are powerful forces.We parkingguidancesystem , vehicle location system and urban area parking management system, Santa-Ana contended that mixing Halloween and Day of the Dead symbols is not necessarily a bad thing, but that a need exists to transmit authentic Mexican Day of the Dead traditions to the next generation.

What a SC tornado ripped apart is found again

Sharon Courtney came to an old South Carolina schoolhouse on a cold December night to try to find memories of her husband Steve, who was killed last month when a tornado tore their home apart.

Sifting through piles of muddied photos, crushed papers, and mangled tools gathered by volunteers,With Payflowpaymentgateway, the 55-year-old church pianist found a tattered piece of paper that was a faded anniversary card sent by her in-laws to celebrate her two-year wedding anniversary in 1978.

"How about that? Isn't that marvelous?" she said, a bit of wonder in her voice, showing the signature she recognized from her late husband's father, who had passed away a month before the storm.

"Now he's in heaven with his dad," Courtney said. "Christmas isn't going to be easy, but we'll get through it."

Courtney's husband was among six killed in three states by a severe weather system that struck the South late last month. It was among the final deadly gasps of a devastating year of tornadoes that killed hundreds in Missouri, Alabama and elsewhere.

In the aftermath of the deadly storms, all sorts of odd lost-and-founds have helped survivors cope and communities rebuild. In Alabama, a Facebook page connected people with personal items flung miles away by April twisters, while workers in Missouri carefully cleaned and sorted 27,000 photos buried or blown away when a tornado devastated Joplin in May.

In South Carolina, Courtney said it was hard to search through the piles of personal items gathered by members of her small, rural community, but it also showed the kindness of strangers.

"We've all become a family," Courtney said of the rescue workers and volunteers gathered at the school house.

The old building became a collection point because it was located next to the Bethesda Volunteer Fire Department, whose firefighters were among the first to respond when the 135 mph tornado hit down the road. An area meteorologist has also used his blog to help people track personal items and explain the physics behind their long journeys.

The funnel cloud touched down over several miles and blew apart eight houses, damaged 20 others, tore metal farm sheds off their foundations and twisted trees like pipe cleaners.

York County Coroner Sabrina Gast, who worked all night to locate the dead and wounded, has since banded with the firefighters and local volunteers to collect personal items and return them to their owners. Tornado victims were invited to peruse the items,Shop for airpurifiertarget at Target, organized in paper bags by where they were found.

"We hope they can find something, and get a little bit back of what they lost," says Gast, standing amid the piles turned in over the past three weeks.

Sue Ferrell Clark, 58, showed a pile of dirtied bills, letters and portraits of her grandchildren that she'd collected. Portraits of her elderly parents were intact, still inside a mud-splashed plastic frame.

She laughed at a faded photo from her wedding 25 years ago. "That's my ex-husband,The temporomandibular joint is the joint of the jaw and is frequently referred to as tmj." she said with a laugh. Her elderly parents survived the storm under a couch as the storm's winds whipped the roof off their home.

"The Lord was really looking after them," she said. "But I haven't found my laptop yet," she added ruefully.

Firefighter Capt. Tim Mills and his wife Amber used Facebook and put out word through the department's women's auxiliary to organize the school house gathering.

"I'm just hoping that everybody can find something, something to take back, because there's some things they lost they can't never get back," said Mills.

"There's still a lot left," said his wife, 25.Examining the options for UK webmasters looking for third partymerchantaccount for credit card processing. "At least everybody who came tonight found some stuff."

As the collection is diminished, it also grows.

Anthony Johnson, 58, of Rock Hill, came by to drop off some torn bits of wedding pictures he'd found in his front yard.

"At first, I didn't know what it was from, and then I realized, the storm!" said Johnson, who lives about three miles away. "It really makes you realize how blessed you are, because with that storm, it could have been you."

Chief meteorologist Brad Panovich of WCNC-TV in Charlotte, more than 20 miles away, has been keeping track of the tornado debris.

His blog displays a picture of a canceled check belonging to Courtney that was found about 25 miles away in Ballantyne, N.C., south of Charlotte, and mailed back to her. She said she was "very pleased" to have gotten it.

"It is common for lightweight materials to be carried long distances after a tornado lifts," Panovich wrote on his blog, noting that some items were found in Tennessee after the tornadoes in Alabama earlier this year.Find the best achickencoopplans plans with our chicken coop plans review page，

Tracking such debris has a dual use because it helps scientists understand how storms lift and carry items as they whip back upward in the sky, the meteorologist said.

"Not only does this help reunite people with their lost possessions. It helps us to understand the power of tornados and how the wind and debris they lift behaves after the tornado lifts," Panovich said.

Theater

Despite being two of Shakespeare's "problem plays,Detailed information on the causes of RUBBER SHEET," "Measure for Measure" and "All's Well That Ends Well'' offer fun, emotion and solid entertainment in the Public Theater productions now being performed in repertory at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

The plays have their share of comedy and drama, but they are a problem, some believe, because the happy endings seem to be reached too easily, ignoring the issues of corruption, promiscuity, power-hungry politicians, etc.

At the beginning of "Measure for Measure,Houston-based rubber hose Resources said Friday it had reached pipeline deals" the Duke of Vienna (Lorenzo Pisoni) announces he needs to get away, leaving his deputy Angelo (Michael Hayden) in charge. Angelo is moral to a fault, arresting prostitutes and pimps, and resurrecting an old law punishing sex outside of marriage with death.

Among the first of Angelo's victims is a young gentleman, Claudio (Andre Holland), who has impregnated his fiance, Juliet. Claudio begs his sister, Isabella (Danai Gurira), to try to talk sense into Angelo. What she does not expect is for Angelo to lust after her.

He cuts her a deal: Sleep with me, and your brother goes free. Adding to the drama is that the duke has never left town.What is the difference between a Ripcurl and a 3rd party processor? He is dressing as a friar in order to view Angelo's leadership skills.

At almost three hours,The name "high risk merchant account" is not unique. "Measure for Measure" may be a bit too much for children and young teens. But even they will find certain characters and scenes appealing.Has anyone done any research on making landscape oil paintings parts from scratch? Throughout the show, the audience is drawn to the flamboyant Lucio (Reg Rogers) and, especially, to the clownish Pompey (Carson Elrod). Indeed, Elrod received some of the strongest applause at the curtain call.

As for the leads, Pisoni dominates the stage with his charisma. Even as a friar, he creates a powerful presence. Gurira does not have the same effect, although there is nothing troubling about her performance.

Holland, however, will be remembered. One of the strongest moments in the play is when Claudio begs Isabella to do what she can to save his life. The character opens himself completely, full of agony and fear at his pending fate.

Apple corners market for display panels

Apple Inc.'s stranglehold on parts supplies forced a month-long delay in the release

of Research In Motion Ltd.'s PlayBook tablet computer, a report from Taiwanese trade

publication DigiTimes said Thursday.

It said PlayBook shipments were postponed partly because Apple had already booked

most of the available capacity of touch display panels.

The component is needed to manufacture the 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook, which is set

for full commercial rollout starting on April 19.

RIM's answer to the iPad had originally been scheduled to debut in the first quarter

of 2011. Instead, the PlayBook will ship more than one month after Apple released

the second-generation of its market-leading tablet.

Citing component manufacturers in China, the report said PlayBook shipments were

postponed from the original schedule "due to a delay in software testing, as well as

shortage of touch panels."

DigiTimes said assembler Quanta Computer and connector maker Foxlink, also an Apple

supplier, are picking up the pace of component deliveries to RIM because they see

the PlayBook as one of this year's major tablet orders.

Apple said in its most recent earnings call that it had invested $3.9 billion (U.S.)

of its nearly $60 billion in cash reserves in long-term supply contracts. The

company declined to reveal the components involved, citing competitive concerns, but

analysts say the investment was related to touch displays.

That may not be a problem for Motorola Mobility after analysts said its products

have not differentiated themselves in a crowded market.

Deutsche Bank concluded that Motorola has sold about 100,000 Xoom tablets since its

launch in February versus Apple's sale of 300,000 iPads on the first weekend it was

available. DigiTimes said iPad 2 sales are "running at a rate faster than its

predecessor."

The 10.1 inch Xoom, which is being released at Best Buy and Future Shop stores in

Canada this week, is the first tablet to ship with Android 3.0, code-named Honeycomb

that is designed for large-screen resolution.

In a separate report, meanwhile, research firm Gartner Inc. said the number of

smartphone shipments will jump to nearly 468 million units this year. That will help

Google Inc.'s Android operating system surge to a 38.5 per cent market share,

followed by Apple's iOS at 19.4 per cent and Nokia Corp.'s Symbian operating system

at 19.2 per cent.

Gartner said more than 630 million smartphones will ship worldwide in 2012 and

Android will have cornered 49.2 per cent of the market versus the iOS with 18.9 per

cent. The BlackBerry operating system will take the third spot with a 12.6 per cent

share.