Departing Sanliurfa, we make a stop at Harran, one of the oldest continuously lived-in places in the world. Harran (also known as Carrhae) is an archaeological site of great value as an ancient center of commerce. The legends surrounding Harran go to the beginning of man and it is said that Adam and Eve came here when they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. It is also mentioned in the Book of Genesis that Abraham and his family lived in Harran for several years on their way to Canaan. Harran is also famous for its traditional “beehive” adobe houses constructed entirely without wood. Their design makes them cool inside and it is thought that this design has been unchanged for 3,000 years. Today, most of Harran’s population lives in a nearby village.
Visiting Harran’s fortress with its unusual 10-sided towers, walls and Aleppo Gate, we also see the Grand Mosque built in the 8th century, one of the oldest and largest mosques of Anatolia – restored during the Selcuk period – with its beautiful stone masonry.
Lunch today is at the Ataturk Dam, which is part of the Southeastern Anatolia Project to bring water to this part of dry land and turn it into a breadbasket of the Middle East. It is the largest development project in Turkey with its goal of extensive irrigation for active farming and bringing electricity and clean water to every home. Similar to the Tennessee Valley Authority, its scope covers nine provinces with major economic-development outreach.
We drive to Kahta for our climb to Mt. Nemrut, the site of the state of Commagene, made world-famous by the monumental heads commemorating its ruler, Antiochus I, a site among the Eight Historical Wonders of the world and declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987. Our van driver takes us to the car park and refreshment stand from which we slowly start our 20-minute climb to the summit. We reach the Processional Way and East Terrace where there are five colossal statues believed to be Apollo, Zeus, Tyche, Heracles and Antiochus facing the dawn. Their heads have been toppled to the ground over the centuries due to earthquakes and erosion. Also, on the East Terrace is a massive square stone, the Altar. The West Terrace is identical to the East Terrace except for the Altar and has the same statues, somewhat in better shape and facing the sunset. King Antiochus I, who is responsible for this spectacular mountaintop site, is buried somewhere underneath. However, archaeologists have been unable to find his tomb. From 64 B.C. to 32 B.C., Antiochus was king of Commagene and all the kings of this Roman state claimed descent from Alexander the Great.
We wait until sunset arrives with its breathtaking views of this incredible site and then start the much easier climb down Mt. Nemrut. The other Commagene sites within the Mt. Nemrut National Park are the Karakus (Black Bird) Tumulus and the Statue and Cendere Bridge on Cendere Creek going back to the Roman times. It is one of the oldest bridges known in the world and is still in use.
Our next city is Gaziantep, which has been an important crossroads in every period in history. We visit the Archaeological Museum famous for its Roman mosaic collections and pictures excavated in Zeugma before the waters of the Southeastern Anatolia Project flooded this ancient site. Copper work and furniture with inlaid mother-of-pearl is the specialty of the artisans of Gaziantep and we get plenty of opportunities to purchase some. The city is famous for its rich cuisine and producing the best chefs in Turkey. Gaziantep is also world-renowned for its baklava, the Gulluoglu brand the most prominent. We all line up at its store to buy the freshly baked and boxed baklava. Last but not least, the city is the center of Turkey’s pistachio production where we take advantage of the reasonable prices and stock up on pistachios.
Before departing we also visit the Jewish and Armenian Houses district, the Kurtulus Mosque and the Ethnographical Museum, a typical Gaziantep house in the old city where documents and pictures of heroes and martyrs during the “Defense of Antep” are displayed. This took place after the European forces occupied the city following the defeat of the Ottoman army in World War I.
Today’s Antakya (Antioch) is where SS. Peter, Paul and Barnabas organized the first church of the Christians, and St. Paul used Antioch as headquarters of his missionary journeys. We visit the Cave Church of St. Peter, located just outside Antakya. It is widely believed the cave had been dug by Peter himself as a place for the early Christian community of Antioch to meet and thus to be the very first Christian church. SS. Peter and Paul did preach in Antioch around 50 A.D. and a church had been established in Antioch as early as 40 A.D. Antioch became a major center for planning and organizing the apostles’ missionary efforts and it was the inhabitants of Antioch who were the first to be called Christians as followers of Jesus Christ.
2012年5月31日星期四
2012年5月30日星期三
Quebec protesters, government close in on deal
Quebec student representatives and provincial government officials emerged from a second day of talks to end a bitter dispute over tuition hikes short of an agreement but confident talks were progressing to possibly end weeks of student protests.
Both sides agreed to meet again Wednesday. Student leaders said progress had been made and they would evaluate several proposals presented by both sides.
Students have called for a tuition freeze, but the government has ruled out that possibility. Students also object to an emergency law put in place to limit protests.
"We will take the night and probably tomorrow morning to evaluate the different scenarios and restart the negotiations during the day in the hope of presenting an offer to our members," Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, a co-spokesman for the more hardline CLASSE student protest group, told reporters.
Asked if a deal was imminent, Martine Desjardins, the head of one of the university student groups, said "it depends how many hours you consider to be imminent."
Student leaders said tuition hikes were on the table while the matter of the law was "broached" but left to be dealt with in greater detail in the future.
Any agreement would have to be put to the various student associations for approval. The government was hoping to avoid a repeat of previous talks that ended with an agreement in principle with the leaders that was later rejected by the associations.
The French-speaking province's average undergraduate tuition - $2,519 a year - is the lowest in Canada, and the proposed hike- $254 per year over seven years - is tiny by U.S. standards. Opponents consider the raise an affront - a manner of thinking that has its roots in the philosophy of the 1960s reforms in Quebec dubbed the Quiet Revolution.
The social movement set Quebec apart from the rest of Canada, and has the Quebecois comparing themselves to European countries where higher education is mostly free, rather than to the neighboring United States.
Protesters in Montreal and Quebec City were back in the streets again Tuesday evening in the latest in a string of consecutive night protests, banging pots and chanting against tuition hikes and the new law. A number of demonstrators gathered again in front of the building where the talks were taking place.
Police were noticeably absent Tuesday evening, some protesters going as far as banging on the door of the building with pots and wooden spoons.
On Monday, riot police were deployed as about 200 protesters stood in front of the building where the talks were held. Quebec City Police Lt. Stephane Dufresne said 84 were arrested. It was the first incident of mass arrests since last Wednesday when nearly 700 protesters were arrest. More than 2,500 people have been arrested since a student strike at more than a dozen Quebec colleges and universities began in February.
Quebec Premier Jean Charest, who has vowed to shake up the debt-ridden province's finances since he was elected nearly a decade ago, has refused to cave in. But he attended Monday's talks with the students for the first time since the conflict began, after being urged to do so by student leaders.
Charest said Tuesday he participated in the talks to show the government speaks with one voice at the table and because discussions had reached a new stage.
"We all want to turn the page and move onto other things," Charest said. "I hope it helps send a signal that the government wants to arrive at the best possible solution."
Charest's government passed emergency legislation on May 18 restricting protests and closing striking campuses until August. The law requires that police be informed eight hours before a protest begins, saying organizers must provide details on the route of any demonstration of 50 or more people. It also prohibits demonstrations within 50 meters (165 feet) of a college and declares that anyone who incites or helps another person break the new regulations can be fined.
Both sides agreed to meet again Wednesday. Student leaders said progress had been made and they would evaluate several proposals presented by both sides.
Students have called for a tuition freeze, but the government has ruled out that possibility. Students also object to an emergency law put in place to limit protests.
"We will take the night and probably tomorrow morning to evaluate the different scenarios and restart the negotiations during the day in the hope of presenting an offer to our members," Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, a co-spokesman for the more hardline CLASSE student protest group, told reporters.
Asked if a deal was imminent, Martine Desjardins, the head of one of the university student groups, said "it depends how many hours you consider to be imminent."
Student leaders said tuition hikes were on the table while the matter of the law was "broached" but left to be dealt with in greater detail in the future.
Any agreement would have to be put to the various student associations for approval. The government was hoping to avoid a repeat of previous talks that ended with an agreement in principle with the leaders that was later rejected by the associations.
The French-speaking province's average undergraduate tuition - $2,519 a year - is the lowest in Canada, and the proposed hike- $254 per year over seven years - is tiny by U.S. standards. Opponents consider the raise an affront - a manner of thinking that has its roots in the philosophy of the 1960s reforms in Quebec dubbed the Quiet Revolution.
The social movement set Quebec apart from the rest of Canada, and has the Quebecois comparing themselves to European countries where higher education is mostly free, rather than to the neighboring United States.
Protesters in Montreal and Quebec City were back in the streets again Tuesday evening in the latest in a string of consecutive night protests, banging pots and chanting against tuition hikes and the new law. A number of demonstrators gathered again in front of the building where the talks were taking place.
Police were noticeably absent Tuesday evening, some protesters going as far as banging on the door of the building with pots and wooden spoons.
On Monday, riot police were deployed as about 200 protesters stood in front of the building where the talks were held. Quebec City Police Lt. Stephane Dufresne said 84 were arrested. It was the first incident of mass arrests since last Wednesday when nearly 700 protesters were arrest. More than 2,500 people have been arrested since a student strike at more than a dozen Quebec colleges and universities began in February.
Quebec Premier Jean Charest, who has vowed to shake up the debt-ridden province's finances since he was elected nearly a decade ago, has refused to cave in. But he attended Monday's talks with the students for the first time since the conflict began, after being urged to do so by student leaders.
Charest said Tuesday he participated in the talks to show the government speaks with one voice at the table and because discussions had reached a new stage.
"We all want to turn the page and move onto other things," Charest said. "I hope it helps send a signal that the government wants to arrive at the best possible solution."
Charest's government passed emergency legislation on May 18 restricting protests and closing striking campuses until August. The law requires that police be informed eight hours before a protest begins, saying organizers must provide details on the route of any demonstration of 50 or more people. It also prohibits demonstrations within 50 meters (165 feet) of a college and declares that anyone who incites or helps another person break the new regulations can be fined.
2012年5月29日星期二
Iran victim of another cyberattack
A Russian-based internet security firm says a powerful computer virus with unprecedented data-snatching capabilities has attacked machines in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Iran has not disclosed any damage done by the new spyware virus, dubbed "Flame." Its origin has not been identified, but Israel's vice premier fueled speculation that his country, known for its technological innovation and tireless campaign against Iran's suspect nuclear program, unleashed it.
Russian digital security provider Kaspersky Lab, which identified the virus, said in a release posted on its website late Monday that "the complexity and functionality of the newly discovered malicious program exceed those of all other cyber menaces known to date."
It said preliminary findings suggest the virus has been active since March 2010, but eluded detection because of its "extreme complexity" and the fact that only selected computers are being targeted. Flame's primary purpose, it said, "appears to be cyber espionage, by stealing information from infected machines" and sending it to servers across the world.
According to Kaspersky, the virus collected information not only in Iran, but also in Israel and the Palestinian territories, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Iran, however, was far and away the country most affected, it said.
A unit of the Iranian communications and information technology ministry said only that it has produced an antivirus capable of identifying and removing the new malware. The Flame virus is the fourth known cyber attack on Iranian computer systems.
Comments Tuesday by Israel's vice premier did little to deflect suspicion about possible Israeli involvement in the latest attack.
"Whoever sees the Iranian threat as a significant threat is likely to take various steps, including these, to hobble it," Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon told Army Radio. "Israel is blessed with high technology, and we boast tools that open all sorts of opportunities for us."
Israel, like the West, rejects Tehran's claims that its nuclear program is designed to produce energy, not bombs. It considers Iran to be the greatest threat to its survival and repeatedly, if obliquely, threatened to attack Iran's nuclear facilities if Tehran doesn't abandon its uranium enrichment project, a key element of bomb making.
Because Flame is so complex, was not designed to hack into bank accounts and doesn't have the hallmarks of amateur hackers, Kaspersky has concluded that the research that went into the code was government-sponsored.
The code offers no information that can tie Flame to any specific country, Kaspersky said in its release, but a company agent in Israel said "you could more or less put your finger on any Western nation."
There is no indication of what kind of material it stole, but "we know that the computers that were infected were computers with very sensitive information" because the virus can be modified to mine whatever information is sought, added Ilan Froimovici, technical director at Power Communications, Kaspersky's representative in Israel.
Evidence suggests the same programmers were behind both Flame and Stuxnet, a virus that disrupted controls of some nuclear centrifuges in Iran in 2010, Froimovici said. The centrifuges are devices used in enriching uranium.
The two codes "use the same vulnerabilities in the operating system and the computer infrastructure in order to infect the computer system. We do believe that the same programmers built the two codes," he said.
Udi Mokady, CEO of Cyber-Ark, an Israeli developer of information security, said he thought four countries, in no particular order, have the technological know-how to develop so sophisticated a cyber offensive: Israel, the U.S., China and Russia.
"It was 20 times more sophisticated than Stuxnet," with thousands of lines of code that took a large team, ample funding and months, if not years, to develop, he said.
"It's a live program that communicates back to its master. It asks, where should I go? What should I do now? It's really almost like a science fiction movie."
Iran claims Stuxnet and other computer viruses have done no serious harm to Iran's nuclear or industrial facilities, and sees them as part of a campaign by Israel, the U.S. and their allies, which includes the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists, to undermine the Iranian nuclear program.
Iran has not disclosed any damage done by the new spyware virus, dubbed "Flame." Its origin has not been identified, but Israel's vice premier fueled speculation that his country, known for its technological innovation and tireless campaign against Iran's suspect nuclear program, unleashed it.
Russian digital security provider Kaspersky Lab, which identified the virus, said in a release posted on its website late Monday that "the complexity and functionality of the newly discovered malicious program exceed those of all other cyber menaces known to date."
It said preliminary findings suggest the virus has been active since March 2010, but eluded detection because of its "extreme complexity" and the fact that only selected computers are being targeted. Flame's primary purpose, it said, "appears to be cyber espionage, by stealing information from infected machines" and sending it to servers across the world.
According to Kaspersky, the virus collected information not only in Iran, but also in Israel and the Palestinian territories, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Iran, however, was far and away the country most affected, it said.
A unit of the Iranian communications and information technology ministry said only that it has produced an antivirus capable of identifying and removing the new malware. The Flame virus is the fourth known cyber attack on Iranian computer systems.
Comments Tuesday by Israel's vice premier did little to deflect suspicion about possible Israeli involvement in the latest attack.
"Whoever sees the Iranian threat as a significant threat is likely to take various steps, including these, to hobble it," Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon told Army Radio. "Israel is blessed with high technology, and we boast tools that open all sorts of opportunities for us."
Israel, like the West, rejects Tehran's claims that its nuclear program is designed to produce energy, not bombs. It considers Iran to be the greatest threat to its survival and repeatedly, if obliquely, threatened to attack Iran's nuclear facilities if Tehran doesn't abandon its uranium enrichment project, a key element of bomb making.
Because Flame is so complex, was not designed to hack into bank accounts and doesn't have the hallmarks of amateur hackers, Kaspersky has concluded that the research that went into the code was government-sponsored.
The code offers no information that can tie Flame to any specific country, Kaspersky said in its release, but a company agent in Israel said "you could more or less put your finger on any Western nation."
There is no indication of what kind of material it stole, but "we know that the computers that were infected were computers with very sensitive information" because the virus can be modified to mine whatever information is sought, added Ilan Froimovici, technical director at Power Communications, Kaspersky's representative in Israel.
Evidence suggests the same programmers were behind both Flame and Stuxnet, a virus that disrupted controls of some nuclear centrifuges in Iran in 2010, Froimovici said. The centrifuges are devices used in enriching uranium.
The two codes "use the same vulnerabilities in the operating system and the computer infrastructure in order to infect the computer system. We do believe that the same programmers built the two codes," he said.
Udi Mokady, CEO of Cyber-Ark, an Israeli developer of information security, said he thought four countries, in no particular order, have the technological know-how to develop so sophisticated a cyber offensive: Israel, the U.S., China and Russia.
"It was 20 times more sophisticated than Stuxnet," with thousands of lines of code that took a large team, ample funding and months, if not years, to develop, he said.
"It's a live program that communicates back to its master. It asks, where should I go? What should I do now? It's really almost like a science fiction movie."
Iran claims Stuxnet and other computer viruses have done no serious harm to Iran's nuclear or industrial facilities, and sees them as part of a campaign by Israel, the U.S. and their allies, which includes the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists, to undermine the Iranian nuclear program.
2012年5月28日星期一
Die Hard 4 reveals a real threat
Diligence and gritty determination may have helped Eugene Kaspersky become one of the software world's most successful entrepreneurs, but there's one thing the antivirus king can't bear: Die Hard 4.0.
"I watched the movie for 20 minutes, then pressed pause, got a cigarette and a glass of Scotch. To me it was really scary: they were talking about real scenarios. It was like a user guide for cyber terrorists. I hated that movie," the flamboyant Russian entrepreneur says.
The popular 2007 action film pits Bruce Willis' character, John McClane, against a domestic terrorist who's bent on launching a large-scale cyber attack that would disable financial markets, traffic lights, and other computer-controlled infrastructure across the United States.
For most viewers, it was nothing more than a fast-paced popcorn flick combining macho bravura with implausible technobabble. For Kaspersky it represented the popularisation of a relatively new mode of cyber attack that has now emerged as a real threat.
"We came to the [potential] of cyber terrorist attacks years before Die Hard 4.0," explains Kaspersky, the co-founder and chief executive of security firm Kaspersky Labs. "But it was forbidden in my company to explain it to journalists, because I didn't want to open Pandora's Box. I didn't want to let people think that my business is the business of fear. And I didn't want the bad guys to learn from these ideas."
His "silence" wasn't enough: as at least one high-profile hacking attack has recently shown, industrial control systems – and, in particular, SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems used to monitor and manage physical plant processes - can be a target of interest for a number of attackers, from hackers to military operations.
Because of their mission-critical nature, SCADA systems traditionally run on separate data networks with no internet or intranet connectivity. However, some have been brought online, to enable remote access and control.
Their security environments are often managed separately to those of the general enterprise, and they often run on different operating systems that aren't updated as often as enterprise software, leading some experts to believe SCADA systems present potential holes in the cyber defences of critical infrastructure operations.
The threat became clear in mid 2010 as the notorious Stuxnet worm spread across Windows desktops inside Iran's nuclear facilities, until it found systems running Step-7. The software application from German giant Siemens manages SCADA programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that control industrial process lines. It is believed Stuxnet then grant itself root access and reconfigured SCADA systems that met certain specific criteria.
An incident in 2000 brought SCADA sabotage to our shores as Queensland-based former Maroochy Shire Council (now Sunshine Coast Council) was forced to deal with attacks from disgruntled SCADA contractor Vitek Boden, whose work with a laptop and radio transmitter flooded parks, rivers, and a local hotel with 800,000 litres of raw sewage.
While isolated, these events remain a threat, says Bill Holder, a SCADA security expert.
"The threat from hackers is real," he explains, arguing that infrastructure authorities should build security controls at every level of the infrastructure to limit their exposure to major attacks.
"Catastrophic failure is one end of the scale, and is the type of thing that fail-safe [measures] and monitoring would mitigate. The idea of security is that it is not added on after everything else is done; it should be part of the overall design and development," Holder says.
"I watched the movie for 20 minutes, then pressed pause, got a cigarette and a glass of Scotch. To me it was really scary: they were talking about real scenarios. It was like a user guide for cyber terrorists. I hated that movie," the flamboyant Russian entrepreneur says.
The popular 2007 action film pits Bruce Willis' character, John McClane, against a domestic terrorist who's bent on launching a large-scale cyber attack that would disable financial markets, traffic lights, and other computer-controlled infrastructure across the United States.
For most viewers, it was nothing more than a fast-paced popcorn flick combining macho bravura with implausible technobabble. For Kaspersky it represented the popularisation of a relatively new mode of cyber attack that has now emerged as a real threat.
"We came to the [potential] of cyber terrorist attacks years before Die Hard 4.0," explains Kaspersky, the co-founder and chief executive of security firm Kaspersky Labs. "But it was forbidden in my company to explain it to journalists, because I didn't want to open Pandora's Box. I didn't want to let people think that my business is the business of fear. And I didn't want the bad guys to learn from these ideas."
His "silence" wasn't enough: as at least one high-profile hacking attack has recently shown, industrial control systems – and, in particular, SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems used to monitor and manage physical plant processes - can be a target of interest for a number of attackers, from hackers to military operations.
Because of their mission-critical nature, SCADA systems traditionally run on separate data networks with no internet or intranet connectivity. However, some have been brought online, to enable remote access and control.
Their security environments are often managed separately to those of the general enterprise, and they often run on different operating systems that aren't updated as often as enterprise software, leading some experts to believe SCADA systems present potential holes in the cyber defences of critical infrastructure operations.
The threat became clear in mid 2010 as the notorious Stuxnet worm spread across Windows desktops inside Iran's nuclear facilities, until it found systems running Step-7. The software application from German giant Siemens manages SCADA programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that control industrial process lines. It is believed Stuxnet then grant itself root access and reconfigured SCADA systems that met certain specific criteria.
An incident in 2000 brought SCADA sabotage to our shores as Queensland-based former Maroochy Shire Council (now Sunshine Coast Council) was forced to deal with attacks from disgruntled SCADA contractor Vitek Boden, whose work with a laptop and radio transmitter flooded parks, rivers, and a local hotel with 800,000 litres of raw sewage.
While isolated, these events remain a threat, says Bill Holder, a SCADA security expert.
"The threat from hackers is real," he explains, arguing that infrastructure authorities should build security controls at every level of the infrastructure to limit their exposure to major attacks.
"Catastrophic failure is one end of the scale, and is the type of thing that fail-safe [measures] and monitoring would mitigate. The idea of security is that it is not added on after everything else is done; it should be part of the overall design and development," Holder says.
2012年5月27日星期日
Cicero model home is Energy Star certified
Model homes appeal to our fantasies. They show us how we could be living and help us imagine what empty rooms and bare walls can become.
Marty Moore, sales and marketing manager of Ryan Homes Syracuse, recently led a tour of the company's freshly completed model home at 8681 Lavender Lane in Cicero's Wallington Meadows development. The four-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath model, called the Ravenna, is Energy Star certified, and the exterior has what they call a "cottage elevation," evocative of a bungalow or Arts and Crafts-style home but with vinyl siding and cultured stone.
The home is $264,990, which Moore said is a discounted price, considering the upgrades and extra features. The price includes all Energy Star-certified appliances, even a front-load washer and dryer in the second-floor laundry room with a sewer-connected safety pan beneath the washer.
The 2,688-square-foot home has upgraded wood molding and trim, and rubbed oil bronze hardware and fixtures throughout. There is a built-in sound system as well as a security system and hardwired smoke and carbon monoxide detectors with battery backup.
The property has an asphalt driveway, lawn irrigation system, landscaping and sump pump. The price includes all the shower curtains, window dressings, decorative pillows and comforters. If the buyer wants the home with all the furniture, art, accessories, area rugs, mattresses and box springs, the price would be $335,934.
Since Ryan Homes needs to use the model to market homes for the next two to three years, the buyer will be the company's landlord.
"We become renters here. They purchase the home, close on it, and then we'll pay them rent until we're done selling homes in this community," Moore said. "It's a good investment for them. We cover the mortgage, taxes and insurance, and they get a discounted price as well as tax write-offs each year."
The two-car garage has been temporarily converted to Ryan Homes' office space, but will be restored at no charge.
The open concept first floor includes a Berber-carpeted family room and the kitchen and morning room, which have oak floors. The family room has a stone front natural gas fireplace. The kitchen has cherry cabinets with crown molding, a stainless steel sink, a built-in microwave and electric range with convection oven. The island, the counters and the breakfast bar are all topped with an upgraded beveled-edge laminate.
The space, which has nine-foot-high ceilings, is flooded with natural light, and the windows all have low-E, argon gas-filled glass panes. A double French door in the morning room opens to the composite deck and backyard.
Between the kitchen and the garage is a powder room as well as a small room that could be a home office.
Flanking the main entrance is a formal living room with oak floors and a carpeted formal dining room with a chair rail. Both rooms have two windows overlooking the front yard.
To maximize usable space, designers eliminated the two-story foyer, so ubiquitous in home construction of late, freeing up more square footage for second-floor bedrooms and a significant buffer between the master suite and the rest of the rooms.
The bedrooms and second-floor hallways have textured wall-to-wall Berber carpet. There is a full bath, a bonus storage closet and a large linen closet in the hall near three of the bedrooms. One bedroom is decorated in a Cicero Falcons Pop Warner Football & Cheer motif.
The master bath has his and hers sinks set in granite atop a maple vanity, and the commode is hidden in its own room. The deep soaking tub and walk-in shower are surrounded by ceramic tile, accented with decorative strips of tiny stone and glass mosaic tiles.
Marty Moore, sales and marketing manager of Ryan Homes Syracuse, recently led a tour of the company's freshly completed model home at 8681 Lavender Lane in Cicero's Wallington Meadows development. The four-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath model, called the Ravenna, is Energy Star certified, and the exterior has what they call a "cottage elevation," evocative of a bungalow or Arts and Crafts-style home but with vinyl siding and cultured stone.
The home is $264,990, which Moore said is a discounted price, considering the upgrades and extra features. The price includes all Energy Star-certified appliances, even a front-load washer and dryer in the second-floor laundry room with a sewer-connected safety pan beneath the washer.
The 2,688-square-foot home has upgraded wood molding and trim, and rubbed oil bronze hardware and fixtures throughout. There is a built-in sound system as well as a security system and hardwired smoke and carbon monoxide detectors with battery backup.
The property has an asphalt driveway, lawn irrigation system, landscaping and sump pump. The price includes all the shower curtains, window dressings, decorative pillows and comforters. If the buyer wants the home with all the furniture, art, accessories, area rugs, mattresses and box springs, the price would be $335,934.
Since Ryan Homes needs to use the model to market homes for the next two to three years, the buyer will be the company's landlord.
"We become renters here. They purchase the home, close on it, and then we'll pay them rent until we're done selling homes in this community," Moore said. "It's a good investment for them. We cover the mortgage, taxes and insurance, and they get a discounted price as well as tax write-offs each year."
The two-car garage has been temporarily converted to Ryan Homes' office space, but will be restored at no charge.
The open concept first floor includes a Berber-carpeted family room and the kitchen and morning room, which have oak floors. The family room has a stone front natural gas fireplace. The kitchen has cherry cabinets with crown molding, a stainless steel sink, a built-in microwave and electric range with convection oven. The island, the counters and the breakfast bar are all topped with an upgraded beveled-edge laminate.
The space, which has nine-foot-high ceilings, is flooded with natural light, and the windows all have low-E, argon gas-filled glass panes. A double French door in the morning room opens to the composite deck and backyard.
Between the kitchen and the garage is a powder room as well as a small room that could be a home office.
Flanking the main entrance is a formal living room with oak floors and a carpeted formal dining room with a chair rail. Both rooms have two windows overlooking the front yard.
To maximize usable space, designers eliminated the two-story foyer, so ubiquitous in home construction of late, freeing up more square footage for second-floor bedrooms and a significant buffer between the master suite and the rest of the rooms.
The bedrooms and second-floor hallways have textured wall-to-wall Berber carpet. There is a full bath, a bonus storage closet and a large linen closet in the hall near three of the bedrooms. One bedroom is decorated in a Cicero Falcons Pop Warner Football & Cheer motif.
The master bath has his and hers sinks set in granite atop a maple vanity, and the commode is hidden in its own room. The deep soaking tub and walk-in shower are surrounded by ceramic tile, accented with decorative strips of tiny stone and glass mosaic tiles.
2012年5月24日星期四
Freight Carriers Discovering Even More Uses for GPS
It was back in 1973 when president Ronald Reagan opened up an extensive military GPS satellite system for public use after a Korean jetliner was shot down by Russian fighters after straying into Soviet airspace.
Not surprisingly it shipping carriers who were among the first to take advantage of it to deter theft and hijackings that have always plagued their industry.
Through GPS they were finally able to track the exact location of their trucks and trailers in real time as they made their way to their final destination and back, something that criminals were quick to become aware of.
What they discovered along the way though, was that there are even more reasons for fitting their trucks and vehicles with GPS. Uses for GPS tracking systems that are helping today's business operators to cut costs while they maintain a fleet of trucks or vehicles.
So to find out more about what fleet operators are using GPS systems for, aside from theft prevention, we contacted a company spokesperson from PinPoint GPS Solutions.
He informed us that, "Global positioning systems on company vehicles produce savings from several directions. For instance you can use GPS to track employee driving habits. Now drivers now know this now, so just by virtue of having GPS on their vehicle makes for a safer driver. This in turn translates directly over into fuel savings and fewer accidents as well. Then GPS also allows for more efficient navigation, so loads arrive quicker in a more predictable time frame which translates into a more satisfied client."
Now safer drivers and lower fuel bills are for sure an easy sell on their own in today's more competitive global business environment. Even so, all these benefits of GPS systems in their totality add up to yet one more big plus for todays business operator.
This is that as the public becomes more aware of the fuel savings that companies are achieving through the use of GPS technologies it's fast becoming the latest green trend. The latest PR tool in the race to be viewed by the public as being the most carbon friendly.
In the end though the real irony of it all is that the satellites that were initially launched into orbit were placed there for military purposes. Satellites that are now being used to reduce the likelihood of military conflicts through greater energy independence. PinPoint GPS Solutions Inc. provides end-to-end GPS tracking and mobile workforce solutions for a wide variety of market segments by combining innovative technologies with a focus on service.
Not surprisingly it shipping carriers who were among the first to take advantage of it to deter theft and hijackings that have always plagued their industry.
Through GPS they were finally able to track the exact location of their trucks and trailers in real time as they made their way to their final destination and back, something that criminals were quick to become aware of.
What they discovered along the way though, was that there are even more reasons for fitting their trucks and vehicles with GPS. Uses for GPS tracking systems that are helping today's business operators to cut costs while they maintain a fleet of trucks or vehicles.
So to find out more about what fleet operators are using GPS systems for, aside from theft prevention, we contacted a company spokesperson from PinPoint GPS Solutions.
He informed us that, "Global positioning systems on company vehicles produce savings from several directions. For instance you can use GPS to track employee driving habits. Now drivers now know this now, so just by virtue of having GPS on their vehicle makes for a safer driver. This in turn translates directly over into fuel savings and fewer accidents as well. Then GPS also allows for more efficient navigation, so loads arrive quicker in a more predictable time frame which translates into a more satisfied client."
Now safer drivers and lower fuel bills are for sure an easy sell on their own in today's more competitive global business environment. Even so, all these benefits of GPS systems in their totality add up to yet one more big plus for todays business operator.
This is that as the public becomes more aware of the fuel savings that companies are achieving through the use of GPS technologies it's fast becoming the latest green trend. The latest PR tool in the race to be viewed by the public as being the most carbon friendly.
In the end though the real irony of it all is that the satellites that were initially launched into orbit were placed there for military purposes. Satellites that are now being used to reduce the likelihood of military conflicts through greater energy independence. PinPoint GPS Solutions Inc. provides end-to-end GPS tracking and mobile workforce solutions for a wide variety of market segments by combining innovative technologies with a focus on service.
2012年5月23日星期三
Robot Fish Sniffs Out Underwater Pollution
The latest advancement in pollution-seeking technology looks like a fish and swims like a fish, but gathers data like a robot. These pollution-hungry robot fish are the product of research from British BMT Group and SHOAL research and are now be studied as they swim the seas of Gijon, Spain.
Luke Speller — who plays dual roles as SHOAL Project Leader and Senior Research Scientist for BMT Group — said of the research:
“SHOAL has introduced the capability of cutting the detection and analysis of pollutants in sea water time from weeks to just a few seconds. Chemical sensors fitted to the fish permit real-time in-situ analysis, rather than the current method of sample collection and dispatch to a shore based laboratory. Furthermore, the Artificial Intelligence which has been introduced means that the fish can identify the source of pollution enabling prompt and more effective remedial action.”
Currently, in order to monitor the water quality in the port of Gijon, divers are sent to take analyses and samples from hundreds of points in the port. This process is not only costly, but also lengthy, as the results can take weeks to return.
The SHOAL fish, however, could continuously swim the waters, discovering pollution and sending important data to port authorities instantly, allowing them to respond immediately to boat spillage and other forms of pollution.
According to the BMT Group, 5 recent areas of major development have led up to these swimming robots, including Artificial intelligence, chemical analysis, hydrodynamics, robotic design and underwater communication.
Each of the robot fishes are outfitted with an array of sensors which can detect copper, lead and other pollutants as well as help them navigate the open waters.
As such, these neon-yellow robotic fish — about the size of a regular tuna — can manage through multiple scenarios. Not only can these fish find and report pollution, they can also keep a safe distance away from other fish, report their location and the location of pollution and return to their base stations at the end of the day to be recharged.
The fishes’ batteries are said to last about 8 hours between charges, and their internal mechanics make them quiet, so as not to disturb the surrounding marine life.
SHOAL and the BMT Group took extra care to ensure these robots did not interrupt everyday life for the surrounding environment, allowing everything to carry on naturally as if the fish weren’t there.
These robot fish work together in groups, covering a square-kilometer area of water to detect and report pollution, all the way down to 30 meters. The fish then report this information back to their base station using low-frequency sound waves, which can travel through water more easily than radio waves.
“SHOAL has seen the coming together of scientists from across Europe to create a system that could not have been achieved without collaboration between different disciplines,” said Speller.
“One of the greatest achievements of SHOAL is getting robots running outside the lab and in the harsh, dynamic conditions of the sea. Autonomously exploring and investigating the harbor, the fish can work together to monitor and track down sources of pollution.”
In the future, the fish could also be outfitted to perform rescue and security duties, as well.
Luke Speller — who plays dual roles as SHOAL Project Leader and Senior Research Scientist for BMT Group — said of the research:
“SHOAL has introduced the capability of cutting the detection and analysis of pollutants in sea water time from weeks to just a few seconds. Chemical sensors fitted to the fish permit real-time in-situ analysis, rather than the current method of sample collection and dispatch to a shore based laboratory. Furthermore, the Artificial Intelligence which has been introduced means that the fish can identify the source of pollution enabling prompt and more effective remedial action.”
Currently, in order to monitor the water quality in the port of Gijon, divers are sent to take analyses and samples from hundreds of points in the port. This process is not only costly, but also lengthy, as the results can take weeks to return.
The SHOAL fish, however, could continuously swim the waters, discovering pollution and sending important data to port authorities instantly, allowing them to respond immediately to boat spillage and other forms of pollution.
According to the BMT Group, 5 recent areas of major development have led up to these swimming robots, including Artificial intelligence, chemical analysis, hydrodynamics, robotic design and underwater communication.
Each of the robot fishes are outfitted with an array of sensors which can detect copper, lead and other pollutants as well as help them navigate the open waters.
As such, these neon-yellow robotic fish — about the size of a regular tuna — can manage through multiple scenarios. Not only can these fish find and report pollution, they can also keep a safe distance away from other fish, report their location and the location of pollution and return to their base stations at the end of the day to be recharged.
The fishes’ batteries are said to last about 8 hours between charges, and their internal mechanics make them quiet, so as not to disturb the surrounding marine life.
SHOAL and the BMT Group took extra care to ensure these robots did not interrupt everyday life for the surrounding environment, allowing everything to carry on naturally as if the fish weren’t there.
These robot fish work together in groups, covering a square-kilometer area of water to detect and report pollution, all the way down to 30 meters. The fish then report this information back to their base station using low-frequency sound waves, which can travel through water more easily than radio waves.
“SHOAL has seen the coming together of scientists from across Europe to create a system that could not have been achieved without collaboration between different disciplines,” said Speller.
“One of the greatest achievements of SHOAL is getting robots running outside the lab and in the harsh, dynamic conditions of the sea. Autonomously exploring and investigating the harbor, the fish can work together to monitor and track down sources of pollution.”
In the future, the fish could also be outfitted to perform rescue and security duties, as well.
2012年5月22日星期二
Big Brother or Good Business?
Privacy fans, take note: A new technology, called Indoor Positioning System, could push your worry meter to the max. IPS allows pinpoint tracking of any Wi-Fi-enabled device, such as a smartphone or tablet, within a building. This means that an IPS service could easily track you--right down to, say, the table you’re occupying in a mall’s food court--as long as your mobile devices’ Wi-Fi is turned on. And, if you’re a typical device user, your Wi-Fi is always on, right?
In short, we've moved far beyond using regular old GPS for location tracking. Indoor environments are challenging for low-cost location systems such as GPS, because the ways in which buildings are constructed--not to mention physical obstacles and even people’s bodies--interfere with GPS's ability to pinpoint a location.
One example of the new technology is the Navizon Indoor Triangulation Service, which MIT’s Technology Review blog discussed recently. Location services company Navizon says that ITS can provide accurate tracking of Wi-Fi-enabled devices, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops, anywhere inside a building or throughout a campus. (Triangulation by Wi-Fi hotspots helps to make location services more accurate.)
As such services begin to grow, they might threaten your privacy. So, in many instances, if you don’t want an entity knowing the location of your mobile device, you should shut it off or ditch it completely.
At the same time, however, device tracking could become hugely useful to you. Innovators have figured out how to take GPS-like navigation indoors so that people can not only quickly find the restroom in a department store or their departure gate at the airport, but also receive deals and discounts from retailers upon stepping over a shop's threshold.
Navizon wouldn’t comment for this article, but some of its competitors did. Let’s take a look at other companies working on IPS services.
Skyhook developed the first hybrid location system to use Wi-Fi positioning, GPS, and cell-tower triangulation to determine the coordinates of a device, even indoors. Since then, Apple (Skyhook’s biggest customer) and Google (Skyhook’s biggest competitor) have emulated the hybrid approach for their respective mapping apps.
All sorts of mobile devices on the market--phones, laptops, ebook readers, digital cameras, and gaming devices--are location aware. In many cases, that’s because Skyhook software is baked into them.
For instance, Apple, Dell, and HP laptops use the Skyhook system to change their clocks automatically when users take them across time zones. The laptops also let users pull up real-time information about what’s happening in a neighborhood that they happen to be in, and they can broadcast their location so that users can find them in case of theft.
But what’s really interesting about Skyhook is its ability to profile individual devices--not identifiable people, as CEO Ted Morgan is quick to point out--and know which ones are associated with certain kinds of people. For instance, if Skyhook sees that a device shows up at Wrigley Field four times in a season, it assumes that the person using the laptop is a sports fan. Or if a laptop or smartphone is detected in an airport several times a month, Skyhook guesses that the user is most likely a business traveler.
“Because we’ve been running the location on about 100 million devices for the last four or five years, we have a tremendous amount of knowledge into overall human behavior--about where people are throughout the day, where they go, which street corners are busy, which ones are not at different times of the day,” Morgan says.
Over time, Skyhook also figures out where all these devices live. Then, by mixing into device profiles publicly available data from the U.S. Census, for example, it adds demographic data such as age and ethnicity.
This is a veritable gold mine of data that Skyhook can then package and offer to marketers who want to reach only select segments of consumers, or to developers and device makers who can use the software to deliver highly relevant real-time content to users.
“We’re able to see at an aggregate level what 100,000,000 people are doing, so we can predict what areas of a city are getting busy or less busy, what types of people are in different areas of the city,” Morgan says. “So, if you want to know where to go out in Seattle tonight, I can tell you what the most active street corner is going to be, and I can tell you the high-level breakout of the type of people who will be there, because they’ve done that every Friday night for the last three years.”
So just how does Skyhook do all this profiling of individual devices while maintaining the anonymity of the people using them?
Morgan says that the company does not use device MAC addresses or phone numbers.
“Every time a new phone registers on our system, we give it an ID like a license plate. There’s no way for you to know what it is. There’s no way for anyone to see it. If you were able to look into our system and see what my phone’s ID was, the only thing you’d ever find out about me is that I’m a middle-aged white guy who makes over $100,000,” Morgan says. “It would never say my name. It would never say where I’m from. There’s nothing that could ever figure out the user, and that’s the bar we have for privacy. Nobody could get into our system, even ourselves, to figure out the name of a user.”
In short, we've moved far beyond using regular old GPS for location tracking. Indoor environments are challenging for low-cost location systems such as GPS, because the ways in which buildings are constructed--not to mention physical obstacles and even people’s bodies--interfere with GPS's ability to pinpoint a location.
One example of the new technology is the Navizon Indoor Triangulation Service, which MIT’s Technology Review blog discussed recently. Location services company Navizon says that ITS can provide accurate tracking of Wi-Fi-enabled devices, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops, anywhere inside a building or throughout a campus. (Triangulation by Wi-Fi hotspots helps to make location services more accurate.)
As such services begin to grow, they might threaten your privacy. So, in many instances, if you don’t want an entity knowing the location of your mobile device, you should shut it off or ditch it completely.
At the same time, however, device tracking could become hugely useful to you. Innovators have figured out how to take GPS-like navigation indoors so that people can not only quickly find the restroom in a department store or their departure gate at the airport, but also receive deals and discounts from retailers upon stepping over a shop's threshold.
Navizon wouldn’t comment for this article, but some of its competitors did. Let’s take a look at other companies working on IPS services.
Skyhook developed the first hybrid location system to use Wi-Fi positioning, GPS, and cell-tower triangulation to determine the coordinates of a device, even indoors. Since then, Apple (Skyhook’s biggest customer) and Google (Skyhook’s biggest competitor) have emulated the hybrid approach for their respective mapping apps.
All sorts of mobile devices on the market--phones, laptops, ebook readers, digital cameras, and gaming devices--are location aware. In many cases, that’s because Skyhook software is baked into them.
For instance, Apple, Dell, and HP laptops use the Skyhook system to change their clocks automatically when users take them across time zones. The laptops also let users pull up real-time information about what’s happening in a neighborhood that they happen to be in, and they can broadcast their location so that users can find them in case of theft.
But what’s really interesting about Skyhook is its ability to profile individual devices--not identifiable people, as CEO Ted Morgan is quick to point out--and know which ones are associated with certain kinds of people. For instance, if Skyhook sees that a device shows up at Wrigley Field four times in a season, it assumes that the person using the laptop is a sports fan. Or if a laptop or smartphone is detected in an airport several times a month, Skyhook guesses that the user is most likely a business traveler.
“Because we’ve been running the location on about 100 million devices for the last four or five years, we have a tremendous amount of knowledge into overall human behavior--about where people are throughout the day, where they go, which street corners are busy, which ones are not at different times of the day,” Morgan says.
Over time, Skyhook also figures out where all these devices live. Then, by mixing into device profiles publicly available data from the U.S. Census, for example, it adds demographic data such as age and ethnicity.
This is a veritable gold mine of data that Skyhook can then package and offer to marketers who want to reach only select segments of consumers, or to developers and device makers who can use the software to deliver highly relevant real-time content to users.
“We’re able to see at an aggregate level what 100,000,000 people are doing, so we can predict what areas of a city are getting busy or less busy, what types of people are in different areas of the city,” Morgan says. “So, if you want to know where to go out in Seattle tonight, I can tell you what the most active street corner is going to be, and I can tell you the high-level breakout of the type of people who will be there, because they’ve done that every Friday night for the last three years.”
So just how does Skyhook do all this profiling of individual devices while maintaining the anonymity of the people using them?
Morgan says that the company does not use device MAC addresses or phone numbers.
“Every time a new phone registers on our system, we give it an ID like a license plate. There’s no way for you to know what it is. There’s no way for anyone to see it. If you were able to look into our system and see what my phone’s ID was, the only thing you’d ever find out about me is that I’m a middle-aged white guy who makes over $100,000,” Morgan says. “It would never say my name. It would never say where I’m from. There’s nothing that could ever figure out the user, and that’s the bar we have for privacy. Nobody could get into our system, even ourselves, to figure out the name of a user.”
2012年5月21日星期一
On the trail of the snow phantoms
‘Stones of Silence’, a classic by the renowned naturalist George Schaller changed me forever. I knew that I wanted to work in the high Himalaya and study the ‘mountain monarchs’, the herbivores of the high mountains.
Sighting the snow leopard appeared far-fetched, as Schaller’s travels over several hundred kilometres had just yielded one or two sightings. He called it the grey ghost of the Himalaya… Little did I know 20 years ago that snow leopard conservation would be my main job!
Snow leopards are medium-sized cats and since they don’t roar, they weren’t clubbed with the other large cats, but given a genus of their own, Uncia. Recent genetic studies place them closer to the tiger than the leopard, and taxonomists have renamed them Panthera uncia.
Overall, the range of snow leopards spans an estimated 1.3 lakh sq. km in India, which is about six per cent of the global range. The Indian territory, however, is estimated to house about 10 per cent of the global population.
Since the mid 1980s, some studies by the Snow Leopard Trust (SLT), Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and other organisations have tried to unravel the mysteries of this elusive cat. However, these initial investigations couldn’t yield much on the species, except some useful tools to monitor them - counting signs along landform edges, marking posts of the snow leopard. It is with the advent of camera trapping that some hope emerged to get a clearer picture of the species’ abundance.
Around the same time, the emergence of satellite and GPS based telemetry to track wildlife species emerged, making it possible to study and understand the movements and resource use of such species. Further, using nuclear DNA that it amplified from scats (faeces) of snow leopards, it is now possible to trace it to the individual, thus enabling population estimates over large landscapes too.
Since the past two decades, researchers from the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore (NCF), SLT and the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore have been involved with studies to understand the species, its prey, human society and threats using both traditional and advanced tools and have been rewarded with some amazing insights on the species.
A key revelation was about the occurrences of the snow leopard and its prey. We realised that the entire potential area of snow leopards, from the treeline of the Greater Himalaya to the Trans Himalaya, from east to west, appeared to be occupied by the snow leopard. This region is thus very different from the rest of the forested tracts of the country where wildlife, especially endangered ones, are limited to protected areas (PA) alone. Protected areas in the rest of the country appear to be habitat ‘islands’ in a maze of human dominated landscape, but in the snow leopard areas there may be some valleys better than others, but the habitat appears to be contiguous.
Human use also appears to be pervasive, with the pastoral and agro-pastoral people depending on remote corners of the area for their needs. Human-induced barriers seem to be non-existent in the landscape. We realised that the PAs here, about 31 of them, cover substantial area, but still leave out many areas where good wildlife occurs.
People in much of the range rear livestock and have traded in their products such as meat, wool and cashmere. Due to changes since Independence and a move towards a market economy, these have often resulted in increased numbers of livestock.
Such areas have been overgrazed and degraded, resulting in severe competition with native herbivores resulting in a decline in their populations and even local extinction in some cases. Often this process is linked with increased dependence of snow leopard and other wild carnivores on livestock. The economic losses to people can be severe and can lead to retaliatory killing of the carnivores.
Sighting the snow leopard appeared far-fetched, as Schaller’s travels over several hundred kilometres had just yielded one or two sightings. He called it the grey ghost of the Himalaya… Little did I know 20 years ago that snow leopard conservation would be my main job!
Snow leopards are medium-sized cats and since they don’t roar, they weren’t clubbed with the other large cats, but given a genus of their own, Uncia. Recent genetic studies place them closer to the tiger than the leopard, and taxonomists have renamed them Panthera uncia.
Overall, the range of snow leopards spans an estimated 1.3 lakh sq. km in India, which is about six per cent of the global range. The Indian territory, however, is estimated to house about 10 per cent of the global population.
Since the mid 1980s, some studies by the Snow Leopard Trust (SLT), Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and other organisations have tried to unravel the mysteries of this elusive cat. However, these initial investigations couldn’t yield much on the species, except some useful tools to monitor them - counting signs along landform edges, marking posts of the snow leopard. It is with the advent of camera trapping that some hope emerged to get a clearer picture of the species’ abundance.
Around the same time, the emergence of satellite and GPS based telemetry to track wildlife species emerged, making it possible to study and understand the movements and resource use of such species. Further, using nuclear DNA that it amplified from scats (faeces) of snow leopards, it is now possible to trace it to the individual, thus enabling population estimates over large landscapes too.
Since the past two decades, researchers from the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore (NCF), SLT and the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore have been involved with studies to understand the species, its prey, human society and threats using both traditional and advanced tools and have been rewarded with some amazing insights on the species.
A key revelation was about the occurrences of the snow leopard and its prey. We realised that the entire potential area of snow leopards, from the treeline of the Greater Himalaya to the Trans Himalaya, from east to west, appeared to be occupied by the snow leopard. This region is thus very different from the rest of the forested tracts of the country where wildlife, especially endangered ones, are limited to protected areas (PA) alone. Protected areas in the rest of the country appear to be habitat ‘islands’ in a maze of human dominated landscape, but in the snow leopard areas there may be some valleys better than others, but the habitat appears to be contiguous.
Human use also appears to be pervasive, with the pastoral and agro-pastoral people depending on remote corners of the area for their needs. Human-induced barriers seem to be non-existent in the landscape. We realised that the PAs here, about 31 of them, cover substantial area, but still leave out many areas where good wildlife occurs.
People in much of the range rear livestock and have traded in their products such as meat, wool and cashmere. Due to changes since Independence and a move towards a market economy, these have often resulted in increased numbers of livestock.
Such areas have been overgrazed and degraded, resulting in severe competition with native herbivores resulting in a decline in their populations and even local extinction in some cases. Often this process is linked with increased dependence of snow leopard and other wild carnivores on livestock. The economic losses to people can be severe and can lead to retaliatory killing of the carnivores.
2012年5月20日星期日
Castle on the river
With equal parts of inspiration, envy and generosity, people flock to see the May Court's Homes of Distinction each year.
The six houses on the 2012 tour offer plenty to kick-start your imagination or turn you green with envy, at the same time you help feed hungry students.
"People get a lot of ideas on the tour," said Margaret Vetter, publicity chair for May Court. "Every house is different. Every house is unique. We just want them to come out and enjoy the tour."
The homes were suggested by Marcus Plowright of Anden Construction and Sue-Ann Richardson-Siarto, publisher of Our Homes magazine.
"I like them all for different reasons," said Cathy Egerton, co-chair of the tour. "The Waterloo Street house is a commercial property renovation. There are two complete makeovers, a heritage home and a custom-built. Each has its own character. People will like them for different reasons."
The custom-built house at 2955 Catherine St., west of Dorchester, is certainly a showcase. Picture a French fairy-tale castle, set on the river. Exposed stonework, an archway reminiscent of ruins, muntin windows with arched lintels and a turret create the look of a castle. The 2.4-hectare property was professionally landscaped. Gardens, tennis court, golf course, pool, patio and terraces are edged by a ravine and conservation area.
You enter a half-round walnut door in the turret. The second floor of the turret houses a baby grand piano. A bas relief carving of a prince and princess was built into the stone hood over the range in the kitchen by a Serbian plaster artist who lives in Stratford. Rich wood cabinets echo the arched windows in glass-fronted doors.
The open stairway divides the entry and living room as it frames the view to the river. The decor is inviting, and carries through the living room, den and kitchen. An arched doorway separates the formal dining room from the hall. A glass-topped table reflects light from the French doors leading to a walled terrace.
The house was designed as a gathering place for family and friends. The concept started with the squash court and grew. The lower level is a walk-out to the pool and patio. As well as a guest suite, it houses a spectacular bar with mosaic tile backsplash, a large table for games or dining and a cozy television room. A shower, sauna, locker room and two-story squash court complete the sports offerings.
Upstairs, the master suite is a luxurious escape overlooking the pool and golf green.
The limestone-lined ensuite is better than a spa retreat, and the walk-in closet has a place for everything, even the washer and dryer.
The fairy tale continues in the daughter's room with its hand-painted mural walls and chandelier. A large playroom offers a great place for a child's imagination to soar. Another guest room and bathroom are beautifully appointed with soft, earthy colours and rich textures.
Throughout the second storey, the angled ceiling lines create drama and interest. They follow the rooflines of that side of the house that is stick, hand-framed construction. The house took a year to build.
The homeowners had lived in London's Old North and wanted to incorporate the trim, the warmth of wood and a wood-burning fireplace they'd enjoyed in those houses. Personality is reflected in objects collected on travels and from the work of local artists. Craftsmanship is a theme throughout.
The idea for the exposed stone, done by an Italian mason, on the exterior came during a walk by St. Peter's Seminary.
Another house on this year's tour is across the road from the seminary. It is a classic, symmetrical Georgian Revival, built for Harry Sifton. The style was named after three English kings, during whose reign the architecture evolved as a variation of Palladian, with a balanced facade, simple ornamentation and few details. This sturdy Georgian also contains a dollhouse, a miniature version of itself. The original garage has been converted into a den.
Still in the Old North neighbourhood, a Craftsman cottage on Victoria St. has been remodelled to reflect today's tastes. Many of the houses on the street were built in the 1920s and influenced by styles popular in California.
A side-hall cottage on Sydenham St. also features renovation ideas. This cottage plan was popular in the late 19th century, but remodelling shows how it can function well more than 100 years later.
One of London's prominent architectural firms of the turn of the 20th century, Moore, Henry and Munro, designed the house on Waterloo St. for a wealthy cigar manufacturer.
It's an example of Queen Anne style at its finest: tower, dormer, fluted columns and Palladian window. A law firm owns the house and has retained many of the impressive details, including a vault in the basement, stained glass (reputedly Tiffany) and mahogany wainscotting.
The new house on the tour echoes the Georgian style of the Huron St. home. Located in Old South, it features a custom approach to blending old and new. Even the garage features a traditional exterior with new technology inside.
Passport holders are served tea at the Carolinian Winery & Eatery during the tour. It is newly renovated and reopened.
The tour is the main fundraiser for the group's school nutrition program. This year 96 schools received $45,000 in food certificates. More than 200 volunteers provide thousands of hours for the May Court's program to supply snacks, breakfasts and lunches.
"We give the schools certificates and the teachers manage the flow of food," Egerton said. "They know best who needs something - from the kid who forgot lunch one day to those who need it regularly."
The six houses on the 2012 tour offer plenty to kick-start your imagination or turn you green with envy, at the same time you help feed hungry students.
"People get a lot of ideas on the tour," said Margaret Vetter, publicity chair for May Court. "Every house is different. Every house is unique. We just want them to come out and enjoy the tour."
The homes were suggested by Marcus Plowright of Anden Construction and Sue-Ann Richardson-Siarto, publisher of Our Homes magazine.
"I like them all for different reasons," said Cathy Egerton, co-chair of the tour. "The Waterloo Street house is a commercial property renovation. There are two complete makeovers, a heritage home and a custom-built. Each has its own character. People will like them for different reasons."
The custom-built house at 2955 Catherine St., west of Dorchester, is certainly a showcase. Picture a French fairy-tale castle, set on the river. Exposed stonework, an archway reminiscent of ruins, muntin windows with arched lintels and a turret create the look of a castle. The 2.4-hectare property was professionally landscaped. Gardens, tennis court, golf course, pool, patio and terraces are edged by a ravine and conservation area.
You enter a half-round walnut door in the turret. The second floor of the turret houses a baby grand piano. A bas relief carving of a prince and princess was built into the stone hood over the range in the kitchen by a Serbian plaster artist who lives in Stratford. Rich wood cabinets echo the arched windows in glass-fronted doors.
The open stairway divides the entry and living room as it frames the view to the river. The decor is inviting, and carries through the living room, den and kitchen. An arched doorway separates the formal dining room from the hall. A glass-topped table reflects light from the French doors leading to a walled terrace.
The house was designed as a gathering place for family and friends. The concept started with the squash court and grew. The lower level is a walk-out to the pool and patio. As well as a guest suite, it houses a spectacular bar with mosaic tile backsplash, a large table for games or dining and a cozy television room. A shower, sauna, locker room and two-story squash court complete the sports offerings.
Upstairs, the master suite is a luxurious escape overlooking the pool and golf green.
The limestone-lined ensuite is better than a spa retreat, and the walk-in closet has a place for everything, even the washer and dryer.
The fairy tale continues in the daughter's room with its hand-painted mural walls and chandelier. A large playroom offers a great place for a child's imagination to soar. Another guest room and bathroom are beautifully appointed with soft, earthy colours and rich textures.
Throughout the second storey, the angled ceiling lines create drama and interest. They follow the rooflines of that side of the house that is stick, hand-framed construction. The house took a year to build.
The homeowners had lived in London's Old North and wanted to incorporate the trim, the warmth of wood and a wood-burning fireplace they'd enjoyed in those houses. Personality is reflected in objects collected on travels and from the work of local artists. Craftsmanship is a theme throughout.
The idea for the exposed stone, done by an Italian mason, on the exterior came during a walk by St. Peter's Seminary.
Another house on this year's tour is across the road from the seminary. It is a classic, symmetrical Georgian Revival, built for Harry Sifton. The style was named after three English kings, during whose reign the architecture evolved as a variation of Palladian, with a balanced facade, simple ornamentation and few details. This sturdy Georgian also contains a dollhouse, a miniature version of itself. The original garage has been converted into a den.
Still in the Old North neighbourhood, a Craftsman cottage on Victoria St. has been remodelled to reflect today's tastes. Many of the houses on the street were built in the 1920s and influenced by styles popular in California.
A side-hall cottage on Sydenham St. also features renovation ideas. This cottage plan was popular in the late 19th century, but remodelling shows how it can function well more than 100 years later.
One of London's prominent architectural firms of the turn of the 20th century, Moore, Henry and Munro, designed the house on Waterloo St. for a wealthy cigar manufacturer.
It's an example of Queen Anne style at its finest: tower, dormer, fluted columns and Palladian window. A law firm owns the house and has retained many of the impressive details, including a vault in the basement, stained glass (reputedly Tiffany) and mahogany wainscotting.
The new house on the tour echoes the Georgian style of the Huron St. home. Located in Old South, it features a custom approach to blending old and new. Even the garage features a traditional exterior with new technology inside.
Passport holders are served tea at the Carolinian Winery & Eatery during the tour. It is newly renovated and reopened.
The tour is the main fundraiser for the group's school nutrition program. This year 96 schools received $45,000 in food certificates. More than 200 volunteers provide thousands of hours for the May Court's program to supply snacks, breakfasts and lunches.
"We give the schools certificates and the teachers manage the flow of food," Egerton said. "They know best who needs something - from the kid who forgot lunch one day to those who need it regularly."
2012年5月17日星期四
Fred Green resigns as CEO of Canadian Pacific
A months-long battle between the leaders of Canadian Pacific Railway and its largest shareholder resulted in the resignation of CP chief executive Fred Green on Thursday shortly before the company's annual meeting.
The departure of Green and five other CP directors, announced before official voting results were disclosed, will open a new chapter for an iconic company that's nearly as old as Canada.
The defeat of CP's current leaders had been widely anticipated as a number of institutional fund managers disclosed they would support the nominees proposed by New York-based activist fund manager Bill Ackman.
"We heard loud and clear your mandate for change and we're honoured to work with the board to take this great company to even higher levels of performance and achievement," Ackman told shareholders at the meeting.
"We will not make progress overnight, but we will deliver on our commitment to make this railway one of the best railways in the world."
Ackman had pushed for Green's removal since last year when his Pershing Square fund company acquired about 14 per cent of the company's stock.
Green's detractors say Canadian Pacific has become North America's worst performing major railway under his leadership while his supporters insisted the problems have been exaggerated and Green was the best person for the job.
Canadian Pacific chairman John Cleghorn, who has been among Green's most outspoken defenders, is also leaving the company, along with Green and four other Canadian Pacific directors didn't stand for re-election.
Green decided to resign "after taking into account the views expressed by shareholders about the desire for change," Cleghorn said at the meeting.
"I'm confident that the new board will move forward in a constructive way on behalf of all stakeholders," Cleghorn added.
"We've got to have two strong railroads in this country."
The new board is comprised of Ackman, Gary Colter, Richard George, Paul Haggis, Paul Hilal, Krystyna Hoeg, Tony Ingram, Richard Kelly, Rebecca MacDonald, John Manley, Anthony Melman, Linda Morgan, Madeleine Paquin, David Raisbeck, Hartley Richardson and Stephen Tobias.
The announcement came shortly before the shareholders meeting, although early tallies of proxy votes suggested Ackman's slate of nominees had overwhelming support from major shareholders.
One of their top priorities will be to begin the process of replacing Green, likely with Hunter Harrison a retired former CEO of rival Canadian National Railway .
Ackman told reporters that Harrison wasn't at the meeting and Green didn't make an appearance.
"There aren't an enormous number of candidates obviously," said Ackman, who added Harrison becoming CEO is not a sure thing.
"We're going to do a proper job, we're going to meet all the candidates and do it the right way."
The company's stock was little changed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, gaining 63 cents to $76.39 at midmorning.
"We continue to believe that most of the operational upside is already priced into the shares at current levels," Desjardins analyst Benoit Poirier said in a research note Thursday.
Much of the debate in recent months has been over what can be done to improve Canadian Pacific's operating ratio, a key performance metric in the railroad industry that calculates the percentage of revenues spent to operate the railroad.
CP believes it has a realistic plan to bring the ratio down from 80.1 per cent to 70 to 72 per cent for 2014 through cost cutting and revenue boosting.
It says there are structural factors — its trains have to traverse steep terrain, for example — that prevent it from pushing its operating ratio lower. It sought to back up that argument earlier this year by releasing a study it commissioned from consultancy Oliver Wyman examining the differences between CP and CN.
Ackman's Pershing Square doesn't buy CP's explanation for why it has underperformed other North American railroads. It believes it comes down to poor corporate culture, and that under Harrison's leadership it can achieve a 65 per cent operating ratio by 2015.
Two major pension funds — the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan — have said publicly they support Pershing Square's push for change. So too have proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholders Services and Glass Lewis & Co. and credit rating agency Egan Jones Ratings Co.
Canadian Pacific had warned that Harrison's leadership could mean deep cuts at the railroad and could jeopardize relationships with customers. Some of its biggest customers, including miner Teck Resources Ltd. and fertilizer maker Mosaic Co., have come out in support of Green's continued leadership.
The departure of Green and five other CP directors, announced before official voting results were disclosed, will open a new chapter for an iconic company that's nearly as old as Canada.
The defeat of CP's current leaders had been widely anticipated as a number of institutional fund managers disclosed they would support the nominees proposed by New York-based activist fund manager Bill Ackman.
"We heard loud and clear your mandate for change and we're honoured to work with the board to take this great company to even higher levels of performance and achievement," Ackman told shareholders at the meeting.
"We will not make progress overnight, but we will deliver on our commitment to make this railway one of the best railways in the world."
Ackman had pushed for Green's removal since last year when his Pershing Square fund company acquired about 14 per cent of the company's stock.
Green's detractors say Canadian Pacific has become North America's worst performing major railway under his leadership while his supporters insisted the problems have been exaggerated and Green was the best person for the job.
Canadian Pacific chairman John Cleghorn, who has been among Green's most outspoken defenders, is also leaving the company, along with Green and four other Canadian Pacific directors didn't stand for re-election.
Green decided to resign "after taking into account the views expressed by shareholders about the desire for change," Cleghorn said at the meeting.
"I'm confident that the new board will move forward in a constructive way on behalf of all stakeholders," Cleghorn added.
"We've got to have two strong railroads in this country."
The new board is comprised of Ackman, Gary Colter, Richard George, Paul Haggis, Paul Hilal, Krystyna Hoeg, Tony Ingram, Richard Kelly, Rebecca MacDonald, John Manley, Anthony Melman, Linda Morgan, Madeleine Paquin, David Raisbeck, Hartley Richardson and Stephen Tobias.
The announcement came shortly before the shareholders meeting, although early tallies of proxy votes suggested Ackman's slate of nominees had overwhelming support from major shareholders.
One of their top priorities will be to begin the process of replacing Green, likely with Hunter Harrison a retired former CEO of rival Canadian National Railway .
Ackman told reporters that Harrison wasn't at the meeting and Green didn't make an appearance.
"There aren't an enormous number of candidates obviously," said Ackman, who added Harrison becoming CEO is not a sure thing.
"We're going to do a proper job, we're going to meet all the candidates and do it the right way."
The company's stock was little changed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, gaining 63 cents to $76.39 at midmorning.
"We continue to believe that most of the operational upside is already priced into the shares at current levels," Desjardins analyst Benoit Poirier said in a research note Thursday.
Much of the debate in recent months has been over what can be done to improve Canadian Pacific's operating ratio, a key performance metric in the railroad industry that calculates the percentage of revenues spent to operate the railroad.
CP believes it has a realistic plan to bring the ratio down from 80.1 per cent to 70 to 72 per cent for 2014 through cost cutting and revenue boosting.
It says there are structural factors — its trains have to traverse steep terrain, for example — that prevent it from pushing its operating ratio lower. It sought to back up that argument earlier this year by releasing a study it commissioned from consultancy Oliver Wyman examining the differences between CP and CN.
Ackman's Pershing Square doesn't buy CP's explanation for why it has underperformed other North American railroads. It believes it comes down to poor corporate culture, and that under Harrison's leadership it can achieve a 65 per cent operating ratio by 2015.
Two major pension funds — the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan — have said publicly they support Pershing Square's push for change. So too have proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholders Services and Glass Lewis & Co. and credit rating agency Egan Jones Ratings Co.
Canadian Pacific had warned that Harrison's leadership could mean deep cuts at the railroad and could jeopardize relationships with customers. Some of its biggest customers, including miner Teck Resources Ltd. and fertilizer maker Mosaic Co., have come out in support of Green's continued leadership.
2012年5月16日星期三
TDIC Begins Handover Of First Saadiyat Beach
Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), master developer of Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi, announced that it has started the handover of Saadiyat Beach Villas phase one to their owners, and residents have now begun to move in.
The exclusive residential community, which is located in the Saadiyat Beach district of the island, consists of high-end homes that are available in sizes ranging from three to six bedrooms. The first phase of the development, which consists of 254 villas, was launched in 2009 and completely sold out; due to this success, a second batch of 90 villas was released in November 2011 to meet demand. The handover of both phases are set to be completed by quarter 4 of 2012.
The demand for this luxury residential community is attributed to the high-quality finishes and attention to detail that is found in each villa. The villas come in three distinctive styles - Arabian, Mediterranean and Contemporary - and offer high-quality finishes such as marble kitchen surfaces, intricate mosaic tiles and bold geometric windows. The villas have been designed to distinctive standards to reflect the requirements of discerning clients, and are available in a range of sizes, catering to a variety of individuals’ needs.
The variety of financing options that TDIC has carefully developed for prospective homeowners has also contributed to the success of the villas, as the company partnered with a number of leading banks to offer attractive financing options, including the exclusive 100 per cent mortgage offer in partnership with Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB). Also previously the villas were available for sales only and due to popular demand TDIC has now added competitive lease option and lease-to-own option to Saadiyat Beach Villas. The leasing rate for Saadiyat Beach Villas starts at AED256,500, while lease-to-own rates start from AED310,500.
Ahmed Al Fahim, Executive Director of Marketing, Communications, Sales & Leasing at TDIC, said: "We would like to warmly welcome the first Saadiyat Beach Villas residents to their new homes. Each property has been carefully developed and finished to remarkable standards, and the handover of the first villas is an extremely important milestone. We are delighted with the demand we have received for these villas; we attribute this success not only to the confidence TDIC’s clients have in our residential communities, but also due to the fact these properties offer a smart investment opportunity."
The success of Saadiyat Beach Villas community is also due to the exclusive lifestyle that the island offers to its residents. In 2011, Saadiyat came to life, as various exciting hospitality and cultural projects launched, helping to secure the island’s appeal as an inviting destination for residents and visitors. In November 2011, TDIC opened the St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort, Abu Dhabi - a stunning 377-room hotel, which features an impressive spa and a wide variety of fine dining restaurants. Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel and Villas, developed by Abu Dhabi National Hotels company (ADNH), also opened its doors on the island, offering 270 rooms, a multi-functional event facility, a spa, and a number of restaurants. The island’s new offerings, together with the already opened Monte-Carlo Beach Club, Saadiyat and Saadiyat Beach Golf Club, are set on one of the most pristine beaches the UAE has to offer, making Saadiyat a very appealing residential address.
Saadiyat Beach Villas is also in close proximity to The Collection at The St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort - an exclusive retail complex that consists of a mix of 22 restaurants and retail outlets. Everyday shopping needs will be catered for with a planned supermarket, as well as other conveniences such as a pharmacy, hairdressing and nail salon, a bank and gift shops. The complex will be open from Q3 2012.
TDIC has also revealed plans to introduce a number of important community services and developments to serve residents of Saadiyat Beach Villas. These include a purpose-built nursery, which will be operated by an internationally-recognised academic operator and will accommodate up to 120 children. A retail centre offering day-to-day conveniences is also set to be developed, which will feature a grocery store, pharmacy, hair & nail salon and coffee shop. Other amenities include a mosque, ladies beach club and international school. The developments will be completed by 2013.
The exclusive residential community, which is located in the Saadiyat Beach district of the island, consists of high-end homes that are available in sizes ranging from three to six bedrooms. The first phase of the development, which consists of 254 villas, was launched in 2009 and completely sold out; due to this success, a second batch of 90 villas was released in November 2011 to meet demand. The handover of both phases are set to be completed by quarter 4 of 2012.
The demand for this luxury residential community is attributed to the high-quality finishes and attention to detail that is found in each villa. The villas come in three distinctive styles - Arabian, Mediterranean and Contemporary - and offer high-quality finishes such as marble kitchen surfaces, intricate mosaic tiles and bold geometric windows. The villas have been designed to distinctive standards to reflect the requirements of discerning clients, and are available in a range of sizes, catering to a variety of individuals’ needs.
The variety of financing options that TDIC has carefully developed for prospective homeowners has also contributed to the success of the villas, as the company partnered with a number of leading banks to offer attractive financing options, including the exclusive 100 per cent mortgage offer in partnership with Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB). Also previously the villas were available for sales only and due to popular demand TDIC has now added competitive lease option and lease-to-own option to Saadiyat Beach Villas. The leasing rate for Saadiyat Beach Villas starts at AED256,500, while lease-to-own rates start from AED310,500.
Ahmed Al Fahim, Executive Director of Marketing, Communications, Sales & Leasing at TDIC, said: "We would like to warmly welcome the first Saadiyat Beach Villas residents to their new homes. Each property has been carefully developed and finished to remarkable standards, and the handover of the first villas is an extremely important milestone. We are delighted with the demand we have received for these villas; we attribute this success not only to the confidence TDIC’s clients have in our residential communities, but also due to the fact these properties offer a smart investment opportunity."
The success of Saadiyat Beach Villas community is also due to the exclusive lifestyle that the island offers to its residents. In 2011, Saadiyat came to life, as various exciting hospitality and cultural projects launched, helping to secure the island’s appeal as an inviting destination for residents and visitors. In November 2011, TDIC opened the St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort, Abu Dhabi - a stunning 377-room hotel, which features an impressive spa and a wide variety of fine dining restaurants. Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel and Villas, developed by Abu Dhabi National Hotels company (ADNH), also opened its doors on the island, offering 270 rooms, a multi-functional event facility, a spa, and a number of restaurants. The island’s new offerings, together with the already opened Monte-Carlo Beach Club, Saadiyat and Saadiyat Beach Golf Club, are set on one of the most pristine beaches the UAE has to offer, making Saadiyat a very appealing residential address.
Saadiyat Beach Villas is also in close proximity to The Collection at The St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort - an exclusive retail complex that consists of a mix of 22 restaurants and retail outlets. Everyday shopping needs will be catered for with a planned supermarket, as well as other conveniences such as a pharmacy, hairdressing and nail salon, a bank and gift shops. The complex will be open from Q3 2012.
TDIC has also revealed plans to introduce a number of important community services and developments to serve residents of Saadiyat Beach Villas. These include a purpose-built nursery, which will be operated by an internationally-recognised academic operator and will accommodate up to 120 children. A retail centre offering day-to-day conveniences is also set to be developed, which will feature a grocery store, pharmacy, hair & nail salon and coffee shop. Other amenities include a mosque, ladies beach club and international school. The developments will be completed by 2013.
2012年5月15日星期二
Township, Police Implement New Emergency Notification System
Last year, a hurricane hit Cinnaminson, a string of burglaries affected township homes and accidents shut down roads.
But since the township’s emergency notification phone system had been down for quite some time, residents didn’t receive the voice messages they were so used to.
Now, Cinnaminson residents can rely on those emergency phone calls; the Cinnaminson Police Department and other officials have begun using Global Connect, an emergency notification system. It gives the township the ability to call thousands of people within minutes.
“It’s much better than the system we had before,” said Public Safety Director Michael P. King. “If there are burglaries in one section of town, we can notify them first, then do the entire town so everybody is aware of it.”
Global Connect uses voiceovers to send messages to a database of telephone numbers, email addresses or even fax numbers. Right now, Comcast phone customers and cell phone-users need to register their numbers on the Cinnaminson Police website.
In the event of an emergency, the system allows King, or another emergency management official, to record a personalized message that will go to all registered numbers in a matter of seconds.
“When Cinnaminson residents need to be informed of any public safety issue, series of home burglaries, water main break, fast-moving fire, approaching storm, or other crisis, the Global Connect emergency notification system is the most efficient way to reach them with the news,” said Craig Bird, CEO and founder of Global Connect, in a recent release.
The notification system is made possible through the county’s office of emergency management.
“They are providing us with this system,” King said. “It’s a much better system [than before] at no cost.”
Other features of Global Connect include instant callback, remote access and real-time reporting.
Towns can create a customized list of call recipients by selecting an area affected by the emergency. Emergency management officials can record and sent out a message from any location. And officials can see which residents have received messages.
The system will continue to call residents who have not been reached.
Township committeeman John Rooney calls Global Connect “a proven technology.”
“It will increase the emergency notification services that we provide to our township residents,” Rooney said.
But since the township’s emergency notification phone system had been down for quite some time, residents didn’t receive the voice messages they were so used to.
Now, Cinnaminson residents can rely on those emergency phone calls; the Cinnaminson Police Department and other officials have begun using Global Connect, an emergency notification system. It gives the township the ability to call thousands of people within minutes.
“It’s much better than the system we had before,” said Public Safety Director Michael P. King. “If there are burglaries in one section of town, we can notify them first, then do the entire town so everybody is aware of it.”
Global Connect uses voiceovers to send messages to a database of telephone numbers, email addresses or even fax numbers. Right now, Comcast phone customers and cell phone-users need to register their numbers on the Cinnaminson Police website.
In the event of an emergency, the system allows King, or another emergency management official, to record a personalized message that will go to all registered numbers in a matter of seconds.
“When Cinnaminson residents need to be informed of any public safety issue, series of home burglaries, water main break, fast-moving fire, approaching storm, or other crisis, the Global Connect emergency notification system is the most efficient way to reach them with the news,” said Craig Bird, CEO and founder of Global Connect, in a recent release.
The notification system is made possible through the county’s office of emergency management.
“They are providing us with this system,” King said. “It’s a much better system [than before] at no cost.”
Other features of Global Connect include instant callback, remote access and real-time reporting.
Towns can create a customized list of call recipients by selecting an area affected by the emergency. Emergency management officials can record and sent out a message from any location. And officials can see which residents have received messages.
The system will continue to call residents who have not been reached.
Township committeeman John Rooney calls Global Connect “a proven technology.”
“It will increase the emergency notification services that we provide to our township residents,” Rooney said.
2012年5月14日星期一
GSA hires IBM to run the smart building initiative
Fifty of the government's highest energy-consuming buildings soon will get new smart technology to help reduce electricity and other power usage.
The General Services Administration awarded IBM a one-year contract to develop a system to monitor how much energy these buildings use nationwide. IBM will collect the data in a central location, letting GSA's Public Buildings Service employees perform analytics and to save energy and reduce building operating costs across the agency's entire 182-million square foot inventory.
"The installation of this new smart buildings technology will give employees and building managers a new window into building operations and launch a whole new chapter in efficient, cost-effective building management strategies while delivering important savings to the taxpayer," said GSA acting administrator Dan Tangherlini in a release.
GSA issued the RFP for smart building technology in August. As part of the solicitation, GSA said the 50 buildings include the Ronald Reagan Building and the Federal Aviation Administration's Wilbur Wright Building in Washington, D.C., and the Everett Dirksen building in Chicago, the Richard Russell Building in Atlanta and the JFK Federal Building in Boston.
"This program connects existing building technologies in new ways to improve building efficiency in over 32 million square feet of real estate," said GSA's acting PBS commissioner Linda Chero in the release. "Awarding this contract benefits taxpayers, as it will reduce maintenance and operating costs of the federal building portfolio--saving taxpayers an estimated $15 million annually."
GSA says when the system is fully in place, agency customers will have a dashboard to better understand the energy usage and where potential areas for efficiencies exist.
"The new technology will give property managers real-time information and diagnostic tools to keep buildings performing at peak efficiency, increasing cost savings across the federal building portfolio," GSA said.
The General Services Administration awarded IBM a one-year contract to develop a system to monitor how much energy these buildings use nationwide. IBM will collect the data in a central location, letting GSA's Public Buildings Service employees perform analytics and to save energy and reduce building operating costs across the agency's entire 182-million square foot inventory.
"The installation of this new smart buildings technology will give employees and building managers a new window into building operations and launch a whole new chapter in efficient, cost-effective building management strategies while delivering important savings to the taxpayer," said GSA acting administrator Dan Tangherlini in a release.
GSA issued the RFP for smart building technology in August. As part of the solicitation, GSA said the 50 buildings include the Ronald Reagan Building and the Federal Aviation Administration's Wilbur Wright Building in Washington, D.C., and the Everett Dirksen building in Chicago, the Richard Russell Building in Atlanta and the JFK Federal Building in Boston.
"This program connects existing building technologies in new ways to improve building efficiency in over 32 million square feet of real estate," said GSA's acting PBS commissioner Linda Chero in the release. "Awarding this contract benefits taxpayers, as it will reduce maintenance and operating costs of the federal building portfolio--saving taxpayers an estimated $15 million annually."
GSA says when the system is fully in place, agency customers will have a dashboard to better understand the energy usage and where potential areas for efficiencies exist.
"The new technology will give property managers real-time information and diagnostic tools to keep buildings performing at peak efficiency, increasing cost savings across the federal building portfolio," GSA said.
2012年5月13日星期日
Best practices for disposing of old electronics
New tablets, phones and laptops seem to be released practically every six months; the volume of devices we have is increasing significantly. But what should be done with the old devices we no longer want?
The issue of disposing of these devices, in a secure way, is critically important. Just throwing a computer or other device in the garbage is not an option, since the information contained on these systems can still be accessed.
About one month ago, I did some spring cleaning and found five phones and three mp3 players along with cords for each in random drawers throughout the house. I simply put them all in a bag together and stored them in a kitchen cupboard. Just like many of us, I have heard about the wonderful donation programs for phones and computers to help military personnel, domestic abuse victims, and low-income students. My goal is to get those devices to programs like those, but the task of wiping the stored personal information first is daunting.
The Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center provides guidance in its "Erasing Information and Disposal of Electronic Media, A Non-Technical Guide."
Just think about the documents stored on a typical home computer for a minute. Passwords, account numbers and tax returns are a few items that could end up in the wrong hands if not properly removed before disposing of a computer. Before getting rid of a computer, personal data should be transferred to other devices like USB drives, CDRoms, external hard drives, or a new device. Once the sensitive data is transferred, the next step is to completely erase the memory on the device.
Before disposing of a computer or phone, it's important to make sure personal information is completely wiped from the system. Just reformatting the hard drive or deleting files is not enough. In the skilled hands, files can still be discovered. Software needs to be run on a computer to actually wipe clean the hard drive.
For some people, their smartphone or tablet has taken the place of a computer altogether. So cleaning data from a phone is just as important as cleaning a computer before disposing of it. Information can be manually deleted from the SIM card on a phone, and service providers and phone manufacturers can provide instructions for that process. Data erasing tools are also available online.
After transferring data and wiping a device clean, one decision still remains: How should devices be disposed? Recycling a clean device is the always better than just putting it in the trash. In this instance, recycling could be better explained as repurposing. There are many organizations that can reuse electronic devices. The U.S Environmental Agency has information on how to "eCycle Cell Phones" and "eCycle Computers."
The MS-ISAC "Erasing Information and Disposal of Electronic Media, A Non-Technical Guide" can also be found on the Michigan Cybersecurity Initiative site. Just click on "Michigan Cyber Initiative Toolkit" for more information.
The issue of disposing of these devices, in a secure way, is critically important. Just throwing a computer or other device in the garbage is not an option, since the information contained on these systems can still be accessed.
About one month ago, I did some spring cleaning and found five phones and three mp3 players along with cords for each in random drawers throughout the house. I simply put them all in a bag together and stored them in a kitchen cupboard. Just like many of us, I have heard about the wonderful donation programs for phones and computers to help military personnel, domestic abuse victims, and low-income students. My goal is to get those devices to programs like those, but the task of wiping the stored personal information first is daunting.
The Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center provides guidance in its "Erasing Information and Disposal of Electronic Media, A Non-Technical Guide."
Just think about the documents stored on a typical home computer for a minute. Passwords, account numbers and tax returns are a few items that could end up in the wrong hands if not properly removed before disposing of a computer. Before getting rid of a computer, personal data should be transferred to other devices like USB drives, CDRoms, external hard drives, or a new device. Once the sensitive data is transferred, the next step is to completely erase the memory on the device.
Before disposing of a computer or phone, it's important to make sure personal information is completely wiped from the system. Just reformatting the hard drive or deleting files is not enough. In the skilled hands, files can still be discovered. Software needs to be run on a computer to actually wipe clean the hard drive.
For some people, their smartphone or tablet has taken the place of a computer altogether. So cleaning data from a phone is just as important as cleaning a computer before disposing of it. Information can be manually deleted from the SIM card on a phone, and service providers and phone manufacturers can provide instructions for that process. Data erasing tools are also available online.
After transferring data and wiping a device clean, one decision still remains: How should devices be disposed? Recycling a clean device is the always better than just putting it in the trash. In this instance, recycling could be better explained as repurposing. There are many organizations that can reuse electronic devices. The U.S Environmental Agency has information on how to "eCycle Cell Phones" and "eCycle Computers."
The MS-ISAC "Erasing Information and Disposal of Electronic Media, A Non-Technical Guide" can also be found on the Michigan Cybersecurity Initiative site. Just click on "Michigan Cyber Initiative Toolkit" for more information.
2012年5月10日星期四
Monument status for Alameda's Bruton House
Visitors who walk into the home's entry hall see a dark brown paneled staircase with a large banister and art glass windows reminiscent of another time.
The spacious backyard is dominated by a huge coastal oak tree, its branches hanging over a manicured garden with a stone fountain as the centerpiece. One can almost imagine well-dressed guests chatting, enjoying Champagne and listening to music on a Victorian afternoon there.
Welcome to the Bruton House, a landmark turn-of-the-20th-century home that has become Alameda's latest monument.
In April, the Alameda City Council approved the special designation for the home based on its architectural significance and historical background.
Built in 1897, the home is named for the affluent family whose three daughters were raised there and who became well-known California artists.
The house is located in Alameda's Gold Coast neighborhood and used to front San Francisco Bay before the surrounding area was filled in during the 1950s.
The other homes on the block were constructed between 1897-1960 and are a mix of styles, including Colonial Revival. Craftsman, (part of the Arts and Crafts movement) and ranch.
The Bruton House was built in the Colonial Revival style, and is the oldest on the block.
It's also one of the largest homes in the city with 4,000 square feet of living space on four levels and a total lot size exceeding 12,700 square feet.
The backyard tree is also one of the largest in the city and is estimated to be almost 150 years old, according to Woody Minor, the architectural historian who submitted the report needed for monument designation.
Oakland and Alameda had one of the largest concentrations of oaks in the state at one time, and the city's original name, Encinal, is Spanish for oak grove. The name was later changed to Alameda because residents wanted the town to be the county seat of Alameda County, Minor said.
Alameda's neighborhoods include many homes built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the city was a commuter community serving residents who traveled to San Francisco by ferry.
The home's first owners, Daniel and Helen Bruton, were Irish immigrants who moved to Alameda from New York in 1879 when Daniel Bruton became the West Coast agent for the American Tobacco Company.
The couple's three daughters, Margaret, Esther and Helen, grew up in the home and became artists during the 1920 and '30s.
They often worked together using the attic of the home as a studio.
Margaret Bruton's best-known work is visible today: a set of circus-themed murals she painted in the Cirque Room bar at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel.
Esther Bruton was a commercial artist who worked for the former I. Magnin department store for seven years.
Helen Bruton made woodblock prints and mosaics. Her 22 glazed tile mosaic murals graced the Mudd Memorial Library at the University of Southern California.
Like many artists of the 1930s, she worked for the federal Works Progress Administration creating a mural for the San Francisco Zoo and the UC Berkeley Student Art Gallery.
The Brutons sold the house in 1944 and the home went through several owners before the current occupant, Jeanne Graham, bought the property in 1999.
Graham and her husband, Bruce Gilliat, had restored a Queen Anne-style home on San Jose Avenue, so they knew the drill on restoring an old structure.
The spacious backyard is dominated by a huge coastal oak tree, its branches hanging over a manicured garden with a stone fountain as the centerpiece. One can almost imagine well-dressed guests chatting, enjoying Champagne and listening to music on a Victorian afternoon there.
Welcome to the Bruton House, a landmark turn-of-the-20th-century home that has become Alameda's latest monument.
In April, the Alameda City Council approved the special designation for the home based on its architectural significance and historical background.
Built in 1897, the home is named for the affluent family whose three daughters were raised there and who became well-known California artists.
The house is located in Alameda's Gold Coast neighborhood and used to front San Francisco Bay before the surrounding area was filled in during the 1950s.
The other homes on the block were constructed between 1897-1960 and are a mix of styles, including Colonial Revival. Craftsman, (part of the Arts and Crafts movement) and ranch.
The Bruton House was built in the Colonial Revival style, and is the oldest on the block.
It's also one of the largest homes in the city with 4,000 square feet of living space on four levels and a total lot size exceeding 12,700 square feet.
The backyard tree is also one of the largest in the city and is estimated to be almost 150 years old, according to Woody Minor, the architectural historian who submitted the report needed for monument designation.
Oakland and Alameda had one of the largest concentrations of oaks in the state at one time, and the city's original name, Encinal, is Spanish for oak grove. The name was later changed to Alameda because residents wanted the town to be the county seat of Alameda County, Minor said.
Alameda's neighborhoods include many homes built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the city was a commuter community serving residents who traveled to San Francisco by ferry.
The home's first owners, Daniel and Helen Bruton, were Irish immigrants who moved to Alameda from New York in 1879 when Daniel Bruton became the West Coast agent for the American Tobacco Company.
The couple's three daughters, Margaret, Esther and Helen, grew up in the home and became artists during the 1920 and '30s.
They often worked together using the attic of the home as a studio.
Margaret Bruton's best-known work is visible today: a set of circus-themed murals she painted in the Cirque Room bar at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel.
Esther Bruton was a commercial artist who worked for the former I. Magnin department store for seven years.
Helen Bruton made woodblock prints and mosaics. Her 22 glazed tile mosaic murals graced the Mudd Memorial Library at the University of Southern California.
Like many artists of the 1930s, she worked for the federal Works Progress Administration creating a mural for the San Francisco Zoo and the UC Berkeley Student Art Gallery.
The Brutons sold the house in 1944 and the home went through several owners before the current occupant, Jeanne Graham, bought the property in 1999.
Graham and her husband, Bruce Gilliat, had restored a Queen Anne-style home on San Jose Avenue, so they knew the drill on restoring an old structure.
2012年5月9日星期三
Welcome to the BBC’s global live wildlife event starring . . . two buffalo
The broadcaster came under fire after the 70-minute programme failed to deliver any new footage of the “magnificent creatures” shown in previews.
One viewer said: “Enjoyable, but I’m still waiting for live pictures of any creature that isn’t a human being.”
The episode featured little more than 20 minutes of live footage during which the presenters, Richard Hammond and Julia Bradbury, spoke to the camera from their respective locations in Kenya and Minnesota. Most of the programme consisted of pre-recorded footage of lions, elephants, bears, whales and monkeys.
The BBC had advertised the series as a “global wildlife event” that would feature “real animals” in “real time”. Producers had hoped to emulate the success of series such as Springwatch, which have proved popular.
Within minutes of the first instalment of the eight-part series being broadcast, the BBC’s Points of View message boards were deluged with complaints. Moderators were forced to amalgamate at least 17 comment “threads” which focused on the programme. The BBC said it had received 118 complaints.
One viewer wrote on the Digital Spy website: “The bulk of the live action was Richard Hammond in a tent, in the dark, in the rain. It might as well have been in the field at the back of my house rather than one of the world’s great places.” Another asked: “Why fly the presenters to all these places and set up camp when it could have been done in a studio in London?”
Each presenter is backed by a team of wildlife experts and documentary makers, with additional footage being sent from teams in other locations.
Among the hundreds who took to online message boards to complain, many noted that the only animals to appear live were two buffalo which wandered close to Hammond’s makeshift studio in the Masai Mara game reserve.
“The presenter may be live but that’s about it, what’s the point? Shameful way to waste the licence fee,” one said.
Another added: “As far as I recall the only 'live’ wildlife in the programme was a couple of buffalo caught in a thermal imaging camera.”
Others complained about the choice of presenters, with many questioning why naturalists such as Chris Packham, Kate Humble or Simon King were not involved.
Hammond, in particular, proved an unpopular choice. The presenter, more famed for racing cars in Top Gear, was described as “maddening” and “annoying” by wildlife lovers. One viewer said: “I don’t think Richard Hammond is a suitable presenter for wildlife documentaries.” Another said: “Hammond should stick to cars.”
A spokesman for the BBC admitted that there was little live animal action but said the presenters were there to comment on the day’s news and stories and to provide analysis. “A lot of it had been filmed that day on location and the footage was clearly signed as pre-packaged,” said the spokesman. “We consider the series to be a multi-media experience so the Twitter feed and website is key to the live action.”
She acknowledged that many complaints had been about the choice of presenters but said they had been chosen because they were popular and were surrounded by wildlife experts. The second instalment is on BBC One tonight.
One viewer said: “Enjoyable, but I’m still waiting for live pictures of any creature that isn’t a human being.”
The episode featured little more than 20 minutes of live footage during which the presenters, Richard Hammond and Julia Bradbury, spoke to the camera from their respective locations in Kenya and Minnesota. Most of the programme consisted of pre-recorded footage of lions, elephants, bears, whales and monkeys.
The BBC had advertised the series as a “global wildlife event” that would feature “real animals” in “real time”. Producers had hoped to emulate the success of series such as Springwatch, which have proved popular.
Within minutes of the first instalment of the eight-part series being broadcast, the BBC’s Points of View message boards were deluged with complaints. Moderators were forced to amalgamate at least 17 comment “threads” which focused on the programme. The BBC said it had received 118 complaints.
One viewer wrote on the Digital Spy website: “The bulk of the live action was Richard Hammond in a tent, in the dark, in the rain. It might as well have been in the field at the back of my house rather than one of the world’s great places.” Another asked: “Why fly the presenters to all these places and set up camp when it could have been done in a studio in London?”
Each presenter is backed by a team of wildlife experts and documentary makers, with additional footage being sent from teams in other locations.
Among the hundreds who took to online message boards to complain, many noted that the only animals to appear live were two buffalo which wandered close to Hammond’s makeshift studio in the Masai Mara game reserve.
“The presenter may be live but that’s about it, what’s the point? Shameful way to waste the licence fee,” one said.
Another added: “As far as I recall the only 'live’ wildlife in the programme was a couple of buffalo caught in a thermal imaging camera.”
Others complained about the choice of presenters, with many questioning why naturalists such as Chris Packham, Kate Humble or Simon King were not involved.
Hammond, in particular, proved an unpopular choice. The presenter, more famed for racing cars in Top Gear, was described as “maddening” and “annoying” by wildlife lovers. One viewer said: “I don’t think Richard Hammond is a suitable presenter for wildlife documentaries.” Another said: “Hammond should stick to cars.”
A spokesman for the BBC admitted that there was little live animal action but said the presenters were there to comment on the day’s news and stories and to provide analysis. “A lot of it had been filmed that day on location and the footage was clearly signed as pre-packaged,” said the spokesman. “We consider the series to be a multi-media experience so the Twitter feed and website is key to the live action.”
She acknowledged that many complaints had been about the choice of presenters but said they had been chosen because they were popular and were surrounded by wildlife experts. The second instalment is on BBC One tonight.
2012年5月8日星期二
Space suits and Mars rovers tested in Austrian ice caves
A team of engineers, physicists and astrobiologists has been using Alpine ice caves to test space suits and other apparatus -- including rovers, 3D cameras and communications systems -- intended for use on Mars.
The five day "mission" in the ice caves found in the Dachstein region of Austria was conducted by the Austrian Space Forum, along with 11 international research partners. The mission put the Aouda.X spacesuit, designed specifically to simulate the conditions of Mars, to the test. Physicist Daniel Schildhammer wore the suit while he collected samples in the ice caves.
The 45kg kevlar suit with an aluminium coating mimics the conditions that a real Mars spacesuit would provide during a walk on the surface of the planet, such as weight, pressure, and limited sensory input. It has a modifiable exoskeleton to simulate pressure on all of the human joints including the fingers. It also has an advanced biomonitoring interface, which provides real-time information about the astronaut's heart rate, body temperature and carbon dioxide and oxygen levels. These are projected onto a video screen in the helmet's visor as well as being sent to mission control. Any astronaut to walk on Mars would have to have access to this real-time information as any message sent back to Earth would have a time dalay of 26 minutes, meaning it would take almost an hour to receive any commands or advice in the event of a problem.
The mission also provided an opportunity to test rovers such as Asimov, the brainchild of 100 German scientists, engineers and developers who formed an organisation called the Part-Time Scientists in a bid to win the Google Lunar X Prize. A second rover, Magma White, was also sent down into the caves to test the Wisdom radar system, which is due to be used on the next European Mars mission in 2018. The radar can analyse rocks to a depth of around three metres, and ice to around ten metres. Other instruments that were trialled in the caves include 3D cameras and communications systems. They also conducted simulated astrobiology experiments by drilling into the ice to collect samples.
The location was selected because ice caves are likely to be a natural refuge for any microbes that might exist on the red planet. Gernot Groemer, president of the Austrian Space Forum, explained that if there does happen to be life on Mars, it would likely be in the planet's lava canals -- a network of underground caves in the planet's basalt interior that were carved out during ancient volcanic eruptions. These ice caves would provide consistent temperatures and shielding from cosmic rays.
The mission is now over, although another large scale test will take place in February 2013 in the Sahara desert.
This is not the first time that space exploration has been rehearsed on Earth. In June 2010 a team of six astronauts were locked in a shed in a reasearch facility in Moscow, where they spent eight months simulating a journey to Mars, before spending a few days "exploring the planet" and then jumping back into the windowless capsule for the eight month return journey.
The five day "mission" in the ice caves found in the Dachstein region of Austria was conducted by the Austrian Space Forum, along with 11 international research partners. The mission put the Aouda.X spacesuit, designed specifically to simulate the conditions of Mars, to the test. Physicist Daniel Schildhammer wore the suit while he collected samples in the ice caves.
The 45kg kevlar suit with an aluminium coating mimics the conditions that a real Mars spacesuit would provide during a walk on the surface of the planet, such as weight, pressure, and limited sensory input. It has a modifiable exoskeleton to simulate pressure on all of the human joints including the fingers. It also has an advanced biomonitoring interface, which provides real-time information about the astronaut's heart rate, body temperature and carbon dioxide and oxygen levels. These are projected onto a video screen in the helmet's visor as well as being sent to mission control. Any astronaut to walk on Mars would have to have access to this real-time information as any message sent back to Earth would have a time dalay of 26 minutes, meaning it would take almost an hour to receive any commands or advice in the event of a problem.
The mission also provided an opportunity to test rovers such as Asimov, the brainchild of 100 German scientists, engineers and developers who formed an organisation called the Part-Time Scientists in a bid to win the Google Lunar X Prize. A second rover, Magma White, was also sent down into the caves to test the Wisdom radar system, which is due to be used on the next European Mars mission in 2018. The radar can analyse rocks to a depth of around three metres, and ice to around ten metres. Other instruments that were trialled in the caves include 3D cameras and communications systems. They also conducted simulated astrobiology experiments by drilling into the ice to collect samples.
The location was selected because ice caves are likely to be a natural refuge for any microbes that might exist on the red planet. Gernot Groemer, president of the Austrian Space Forum, explained that if there does happen to be life on Mars, it would likely be in the planet's lava canals -- a network of underground caves in the planet's basalt interior that were carved out during ancient volcanic eruptions. These ice caves would provide consistent temperatures and shielding from cosmic rays.
The mission is now over, although another large scale test will take place in February 2013 in the Sahara desert.
This is not the first time that space exploration has been rehearsed on Earth. In June 2010 a team of six astronauts were locked in a shed in a reasearch facility in Moscow, where they spent eight months simulating a journey to Mars, before spending a few days "exploring the planet" and then jumping back into the windowless capsule for the eight month return journey.
2012年5月7日星期一
Mobile inventory management brings visibility, flexibility to the warehouse
Out of all the complex business information that manufacturers must keep track of, inventory is among the most critical. With large volumes of goods moving through and out of the warehouse, real-time inventory data is invaluable to everyone involved in the process, from warehouse workers to retailers. Mobile inventory management software can provide quick access to this data, with the added convenience and freedom of unwired devices.
“[Mobile inventory management] offers remote or field workers the opportunity to both understand and influence buying and selling behaviors,” said Simon Ellis, practice director of global supply chain strategies at IDC Manufacturing Insights, based in Framingham, Mass. “This would also allow people who work around the retail store, such as in retail support, merchandising or sales to have a better and more timely view of in-stock inventory and shipment statuses.”
The benefits of mobile inventory management begin in the warehouse, according to C. Dwight Klappich, research vice president for Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn. “We see an extensive and growing use of mobile devices as an extension of business applications, shifting the interface from a desktop or notebook,” he said. “The guys walking around the warehouse are using these disconnected mobile devices as a user interface connected to some other application, and the warehouse management system is feeding data to the inventory management system.”
Recent advancements in mobile devices themselves -- particularly smartphones and tablets -- have given manufacturers more freedom to share information in different formats. “[Mobile inventory management] used to be very text-based, as there was limited real estate on devices. Now users are acclimated to a more appealing experience and can use mobile to send pictures or a map to somebody in a warehouse to verify what they’re looking for more easily,” Klappich said.
This instant communication between the manufacturing side and the sales side is one of the biggest draws of mobile inventory management, said George Lawrie, vice president and principal analyst serving application development and delivery professionals at Forrester Research Inc., based in Cambridge, Mass. Lawrie points to the increasingly popular practice of direct store delivery, in which manufacturers deliver goods right from warehouses to stores using their own employees, rather than employing a centralized distribution process. With mobile inventory management, these employees can stay informed on stock levels as they make deliveries and up to date on changes to how the merchandise should be displayed, Lawrie explained.
“A common cause of inefficiency in the supply chain is that on-hand inventory is often displayed incorrectly,” he said. “The way that an item is displayed makes a big difference. That’s why manufacturers are putting their own people in the stores. For example, route service people for snacks or soda, when the display matters and it’s low volume, are sent in to make sure items are correctly displayed and inventory is up to standard. This is happening all over, from China to South Africa to India.”
“[Mobile inventory management] offers remote or field workers the opportunity to both understand and influence buying and selling behaviors,” said Simon Ellis, practice director of global supply chain strategies at IDC Manufacturing Insights, based in Framingham, Mass. “This would also allow people who work around the retail store, such as in retail support, merchandising or sales to have a better and more timely view of in-stock inventory and shipment statuses.”
The benefits of mobile inventory management begin in the warehouse, according to C. Dwight Klappich, research vice president for Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn. “We see an extensive and growing use of mobile devices as an extension of business applications, shifting the interface from a desktop or notebook,” he said. “The guys walking around the warehouse are using these disconnected mobile devices as a user interface connected to some other application, and the warehouse management system is feeding data to the inventory management system.”
Recent advancements in mobile devices themselves -- particularly smartphones and tablets -- have given manufacturers more freedom to share information in different formats. “[Mobile inventory management] used to be very text-based, as there was limited real estate on devices. Now users are acclimated to a more appealing experience and can use mobile to send pictures or a map to somebody in a warehouse to verify what they’re looking for more easily,” Klappich said.
This instant communication between the manufacturing side and the sales side is one of the biggest draws of mobile inventory management, said George Lawrie, vice president and principal analyst serving application development and delivery professionals at Forrester Research Inc., based in Cambridge, Mass. Lawrie points to the increasingly popular practice of direct store delivery, in which manufacturers deliver goods right from warehouses to stores using their own employees, rather than employing a centralized distribution process. With mobile inventory management, these employees can stay informed on stock levels as they make deliveries and up to date on changes to how the merchandise should be displayed, Lawrie explained.
“A common cause of inefficiency in the supply chain is that on-hand inventory is often displayed incorrectly,” he said. “The way that an item is displayed makes a big difference. That’s why manufacturers are putting their own people in the stores. For example, route service people for snacks or soda, when the display matters and it’s low volume, are sent in to make sure items are correctly displayed and inventory is up to standard. This is happening all over, from China to South Africa to India.”
2012年5月6日星期日
We have cleaned up our books– Otti, GMD, Diamond Bank
Dr. Alex Otti, the Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank, can easily be described as someone who eats, breathes and lives banking, although it was not his first choice of career. He distinctly said: “Banking is what I do, but I did not set out to be a banker even though I read Economics.” According to him, his first job was teaching. The job excited his dad but he wanted to try other things and, eventually, came to banking.
Barely one year after he took over the leadership of the Diamond Bank, Dr. Otti said the institution has gone through its internal reforms of cleaning up it’s books and had started 2012 on a very good note.
In this interview with Daily Sun, he described the bank as leader in innovation in technology, saying Diamond Bank has acquired the necessary technology to drive business in the area of small, medium enterprise, an effort which, he said, is to complement President Goodluck Jonathan’s vision of growing the economy and empowering the people.
The chief executive, who was recently honoured with a Doctor of Science (D.Sc) degree for his outstanding performance in the academic and financial sector, affirmed that Diamond Bank is very healthy, founded on ethics of financial integrity and professionalism. He said: “We want to do a whole lot of that to be a very efficient electronic driven bank, more efficient and stable than we are today.”
Excerpts:
I am currently the CEO of Diamond Bank Group. Before now, I worked in different institutions in the banking industry; First Bank, UBA and a few others, including Citibank, where I started. I read Economies and graduated in 1988 from the University of Port Harcourt, as the best graduating student; had an MBA from the University of Lagos in 1994 and other prestigious institutions. In addition to receiving an honorary doctorate degree in Business Administration, I am alumnus of Harvard Business School. I also trained at Stanford Business School, California; Wharton Business School (University of Pennsylvania) and Columbia Business School, New York, just to name a few.
This recent recognition from the University of Port Harcourt, which is important to me, though this is not the first time I am getting an honorary degree, but this time it is my alma mater recognizing me and, if you know how it works, it’s not all the time your parents feel that you are grown up. So, I am excited about that opportunity because it is a recognition, and I thank the university for the honour accorded me. I have served on the board of several companies, and presently sits on the Governing Council of two Nigerian universities – University of Port Harcourt and Babcock University.
I have been very much interested in the progress of the university from the private sector perspective, but I am not too sure that I have done enough. Perhaps, this is a calling now for me to do more. I have done a lot of things in the academic world, and I am still interested in them. By the time I am done with banking job, I will pick up the chalk to teach in the university. I believe that is the best thing to do and I believe the university will benefit a whole lot more, when people who have practiced in different industry bring the practical perspective, together with the theoretical, then the students will benefit a lot more. I’ve been married to Prescilia for 18 years and we have three wonderful children. I like to listen to music, play my squash and travel.
How did you come into banking, any regrets?
When I graduated from the university, I went for my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in the banking industry. The banking sector was exploding at that time, it was the era of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) and that was when a lot of new banks were springing up. I was also interested in banking, having read Economics, just like I was interested in other things during my service. I found that Citibank, in those days, was arranging and organizing interview for people who had 2:1 and above.
I sat for the test and passed, went through the interview process and I was hired to do my Youth Service in the bank and, after the service, I was retained in 1989. Banking is what I do. Though I read Economics, I did not set out to be a banker. It was a difficult decision then because, at that same time, the same university I graduated from had indicated that I could come and do my NYSC and begin my Masters programme and, of course, teach as a graduate assistant. That was the job my father was excited about, and I was to disappoint him for the first time. He was very unhappy about that decision.
There were other issues then. I had a scholarship to do my Masters at the University of Leeds, and a University in Canada. Then I had a job from the then Arthur Andersen, of which a part is now KPMG; and the other, Accenture, but I chose to remain in Citibank for a whole a lot of reasons. I liked the environment; an American bank, and I also liked the money, which was like two times what Arthur Andersen was offering me. With the banking profession, I have no regrets. There would have been challenges left, right and center, which usually comes with anything you are doing in life. It is not that challenges will not come, but the most important thing is been able to surmount them...and move on. And so far, so good, I’ve been able to weather the storms.
You came into Diamond Bank at a time of severe reforms of the Nigeria financial sector. How has this impacted on your management over the past one year?
Well, if you read the just published annual report, you will know that we have gone through our own internal reforms in this one year. It is still early days, but a whole lot of things have happened and these reforms have a lot to do with global economic crisis and the resolution of the crisis. Maybe we didn’t start or do the things we should have done early, but I can tell you that as I speak, we have done a lot in terms of the cleaning up our books.
We have finished with that at the end of the financial year 2011 and we have started 2012 on a very good note. These challenges are not specific to Diamond Bank alone, it comes to virtually every other bank in the industry, and not just in Nigeria alone but globally. You are also aware of banks that failed; very big ones that were ‘too big to fail’. I think we have confronted the challenges and we are coming out stronger.
How would you assess the impact of Diamond Bank’s investment in the Nigerian SME’s, vis-à-vis President Jonathan’s economic transformation agenda?
We pride ourselves as the leaders in the SME space, when you look at what is happening elsewhere in the Nigerian banking industry. That is not to underestimate the challenges existing in that space but what we have done, taken the lesson we have to learnt, and also bringing in the skills we needed, and the proposition that this space requires. We have been able to do a whole a lot in terms of lending; a very large chunk of our lending in that space. We have taken the lessons at some point; had some challenges, and we have cleaned them up.
Barely one year after he took over the leadership of the Diamond Bank, Dr. Otti said the institution has gone through its internal reforms of cleaning up it’s books and had started 2012 on a very good note.
In this interview with Daily Sun, he described the bank as leader in innovation in technology, saying Diamond Bank has acquired the necessary technology to drive business in the area of small, medium enterprise, an effort which, he said, is to complement President Goodluck Jonathan’s vision of growing the economy and empowering the people.
The chief executive, who was recently honoured with a Doctor of Science (D.Sc) degree for his outstanding performance in the academic and financial sector, affirmed that Diamond Bank is very healthy, founded on ethics of financial integrity and professionalism. He said: “We want to do a whole lot of that to be a very efficient electronic driven bank, more efficient and stable than we are today.”
Excerpts:
I am currently the CEO of Diamond Bank Group. Before now, I worked in different institutions in the banking industry; First Bank, UBA and a few others, including Citibank, where I started. I read Economies and graduated in 1988 from the University of Port Harcourt, as the best graduating student; had an MBA from the University of Lagos in 1994 and other prestigious institutions. In addition to receiving an honorary doctorate degree in Business Administration, I am alumnus of Harvard Business School. I also trained at Stanford Business School, California; Wharton Business School (University of Pennsylvania) and Columbia Business School, New York, just to name a few.
This recent recognition from the University of Port Harcourt, which is important to me, though this is not the first time I am getting an honorary degree, but this time it is my alma mater recognizing me and, if you know how it works, it’s not all the time your parents feel that you are grown up. So, I am excited about that opportunity because it is a recognition, and I thank the university for the honour accorded me. I have served on the board of several companies, and presently sits on the Governing Council of two Nigerian universities – University of Port Harcourt and Babcock University.
I have been very much interested in the progress of the university from the private sector perspective, but I am not too sure that I have done enough. Perhaps, this is a calling now for me to do more. I have done a lot of things in the academic world, and I am still interested in them. By the time I am done with banking job, I will pick up the chalk to teach in the university. I believe that is the best thing to do and I believe the university will benefit a whole lot more, when people who have practiced in different industry bring the practical perspective, together with the theoretical, then the students will benefit a lot more. I’ve been married to Prescilia for 18 years and we have three wonderful children. I like to listen to music, play my squash and travel.
How did you come into banking, any regrets?
When I graduated from the university, I went for my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in the banking industry. The banking sector was exploding at that time, it was the era of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) and that was when a lot of new banks were springing up. I was also interested in banking, having read Economics, just like I was interested in other things during my service. I found that Citibank, in those days, was arranging and organizing interview for people who had 2:1 and above.
I sat for the test and passed, went through the interview process and I was hired to do my Youth Service in the bank and, after the service, I was retained in 1989. Banking is what I do. Though I read Economics, I did not set out to be a banker. It was a difficult decision then because, at that same time, the same university I graduated from had indicated that I could come and do my NYSC and begin my Masters programme and, of course, teach as a graduate assistant. That was the job my father was excited about, and I was to disappoint him for the first time. He was very unhappy about that decision.
There were other issues then. I had a scholarship to do my Masters at the University of Leeds, and a University in Canada. Then I had a job from the then Arthur Andersen, of which a part is now KPMG; and the other, Accenture, but I chose to remain in Citibank for a whole a lot of reasons. I liked the environment; an American bank, and I also liked the money, which was like two times what Arthur Andersen was offering me. With the banking profession, I have no regrets. There would have been challenges left, right and center, which usually comes with anything you are doing in life. It is not that challenges will not come, but the most important thing is been able to surmount them...and move on. And so far, so good, I’ve been able to weather the storms.
You came into Diamond Bank at a time of severe reforms of the Nigeria financial sector. How has this impacted on your management over the past one year?
Well, if you read the just published annual report, you will know that we have gone through our own internal reforms in this one year. It is still early days, but a whole lot of things have happened and these reforms have a lot to do with global economic crisis and the resolution of the crisis. Maybe we didn’t start or do the things we should have done early, but I can tell you that as I speak, we have done a lot in terms of the cleaning up our books.
We have finished with that at the end of the financial year 2011 and we have started 2012 on a very good note. These challenges are not specific to Diamond Bank alone, it comes to virtually every other bank in the industry, and not just in Nigeria alone but globally. You are also aware of banks that failed; very big ones that were ‘too big to fail’. I think we have confronted the challenges and we are coming out stronger.
How would you assess the impact of Diamond Bank’s investment in the Nigerian SME’s, vis-à-vis President Jonathan’s economic transformation agenda?
We pride ourselves as the leaders in the SME space, when you look at what is happening elsewhere in the Nigerian banking industry. That is not to underestimate the challenges existing in that space but what we have done, taken the lesson we have to learnt, and also bringing in the skills we needed, and the proposition that this space requires. We have been able to do a whole a lot in terms of lending; a very large chunk of our lending in that space. We have taken the lessons at some point; had some challenges, and we have cleaned them up.
2012年5月3日星期四
Rep. says man trapped in cell shows problem at DEA
The case of a detained college student who was forgotten in a holding cell for more than four days suggests a breakdown in procedure and oversight within the Drug Enforcement Administration, a California federal lawmaker said Thursday.
Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter said in a letter sent Thursday to DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart that the treatment of 23-year-old Daniel Chong raises concerns about the agency's handling and monitoring of individuals in custody.
Chong was swept up in a drug raid on April 21. After questioning him, agents told him that he would not be charged and to hang tight in the holding cell until they finished the paperwork to release him. The door did not reopen until April 25 when agents found a severely dehydrated Chong covered in his own feces.
Chong spent five days in the hospital.
The incident was one of the worst cases of its kind, law enforcement experts say.
Hunter said he wants a full account of Chong's incarceration, the process currently in place for holding individuals suspected of unlawful activity and the steps that the DEA is taking to address this matter in its entirety.
"The situation involving Chong may in fact be an isolated incident," Hunter wrote. "Regardless, my concern is that this situation could also be a symptom of a bigger problem, with errors in procedure and oversight possibly extending to the division's law enforcement function."
Hunter said such oversight is especially important given the DEA's presence in the U.S.-Mexico border region. He is asking for information on any other investigations pertaining to the San Diego division.
A federal law enforcement official familiar with DEA operations said the agency's protocols require that cells be checked each night. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said the cell where Chong was held is not intended for overnight stays because it does not have a toilet.
The top DEA agent in San Diego, William R. Sherman, said in a statement that he was "deeply troubled" by what happened to Chong and has personally ordered an extensive review of his office's policies and procedures. Sherman also issued an apology to Chong, though the student said he was not personally contacted by Sherman.
Chong told The Associated Press in an interview that he screamed and kicked the door after waiting hours in the cell.
Then as the days dragged on, the terrifying realization set in that he was trapped. He had been forgotten in a 5-by-10-foot windowless room, hearing only the muffled sounds of voices and toilets flushing in the Drug Enforcement Administration facility in San Diego.
On the third day, he began to hallucinate. He urinated on a metal bench to be able to drink his urine. He stacked a blanket, his pants and shoes on the bench and tried to reach an overhead fire sprinkler, futilely swatting at it with his cuffed hands to set it off.
Then, the engineering student says he gave up and accepted death. He bit into his eyeglasses to break them. He says he used a shard of glass to carve "Sorry Mom" onto his arm so he could leave something for her.
He managed to finish an "S." He says he considered ending his life with the glass to quicken his death.
"I pretty much lost my mind," he told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Help came after four days, when agents on a fluke opened the door and found him covered in his own feces. He says a bewildered agent asked: "Where'd you come from?"
Chong was treated in the hospital for dehydration, kidney failure, cramps and a perforated esophagus. He had lost 15 pounds.
His attorneys filed a $20 million claim on Wednesday against the federal agency, saying his treatment constitutes torture under U.S. and international law. The five-page notice, a required precursor to a lawsuit, was sent to the DEA's chief counsel in Washington, D.C. The $20 million figure refers to the maximum amount that Chong and his lawyers would seek.
Chong told the AP his ordeal started after he went to his friend's house on April 20 to get high, part of a national, annual countercultural ritual on that date. Chong slept there that night and, the next morning, agents stormed into the house. The raid netted 18,000 ecstasy pills, other drugs and weapons. Nine people, including Chong, were taken into custody, according to the DEA.
Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter said in a letter sent Thursday to DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart that the treatment of 23-year-old Daniel Chong raises concerns about the agency's handling and monitoring of individuals in custody.
Chong was swept up in a drug raid on April 21. After questioning him, agents told him that he would not be charged and to hang tight in the holding cell until they finished the paperwork to release him. The door did not reopen until April 25 when agents found a severely dehydrated Chong covered in his own feces.
Chong spent five days in the hospital.
The incident was one of the worst cases of its kind, law enforcement experts say.
Hunter said he wants a full account of Chong's incarceration, the process currently in place for holding individuals suspected of unlawful activity and the steps that the DEA is taking to address this matter in its entirety.
"The situation involving Chong may in fact be an isolated incident," Hunter wrote. "Regardless, my concern is that this situation could also be a symptom of a bigger problem, with errors in procedure and oversight possibly extending to the division's law enforcement function."
Hunter said such oversight is especially important given the DEA's presence in the U.S.-Mexico border region. He is asking for information on any other investigations pertaining to the San Diego division.
A federal law enforcement official familiar with DEA operations said the agency's protocols require that cells be checked each night. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said the cell where Chong was held is not intended for overnight stays because it does not have a toilet.
The top DEA agent in San Diego, William R. Sherman, said in a statement that he was "deeply troubled" by what happened to Chong and has personally ordered an extensive review of his office's policies and procedures. Sherman also issued an apology to Chong, though the student said he was not personally contacted by Sherman.
Chong told The Associated Press in an interview that he screamed and kicked the door after waiting hours in the cell.
Then as the days dragged on, the terrifying realization set in that he was trapped. He had been forgotten in a 5-by-10-foot windowless room, hearing only the muffled sounds of voices and toilets flushing in the Drug Enforcement Administration facility in San Diego.
On the third day, he began to hallucinate. He urinated on a metal bench to be able to drink his urine. He stacked a blanket, his pants and shoes on the bench and tried to reach an overhead fire sprinkler, futilely swatting at it with his cuffed hands to set it off.
Then, the engineering student says he gave up and accepted death. He bit into his eyeglasses to break them. He says he used a shard of glass to carve "Sorry Mom" onto his arm so he could leave something for her.
He managed to finish an "S." He says he considered ending his life with the glass to quicken his death.
"I pretty much lost my mind," he told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Help came after four days, when agents on a fluke opened the door and found him covered in his own feces. He says a bewildered agent asked: "Where'd you come from?"
Chong was treated in the hospital for dehydration, kidney failure, cramps and a perforated esophagus. He had lost 15 pounds.
His attorneys filed a $20 million claim on Wednesday against the federal agency, saying his treatment constitutes torture under U.S. and international law. The five-page notice, a required precursor to a lawsuit, was sent to the DEA's chief counsel in Washington, D.C. The $20 million figure refers to the maximum amount that Chong and his lawyers would seek.
Chong told the AP his ordeal started after he went to his friend's house on April 20 to get high, part of a national, annual countercultural ritual on that date. Chong slept there that night and, the next morning, agents stormed into the house. The raid netted 18,000 ecstasy pills, other drugs and weapons. Nine people, including Chong, were taken into custody, according to the DEA.
2012年5月2日星期三
Julie Wilson’s Love Letter to Readers
Julie Wilson, author of the new book Seen Reading, is funny, articulate, and self-deprecating. She has a fondness for both witty anecdotes and bathroom humour: an ideal cocktail party guest or, you might think, a good person to sit beside on a long commute. In transit however, Wilson—a self-described literary voyeur—is more likely to be peering over someone’s shoulder and scribbling into her notebook than chatting up a fellow passenger.
Fittingly, Wilson also knows how to throw an interesting party. On Monday, at the book’s launch, she had volunteers go on stage to pretend they were riding the subway—the tallest volunteer got to be a subway pole the others hung on to, while lightly swaying.
What is a literary voyeur? For Wilson, reading in public is a form of exhibitionism; since she watches others reading, her actions make her a voyeur. And while you might think exhibitionism in this context refers to the book covers people show (or try to hide), Wilson is much more interested in the readers themselves, in the potential reactions the next sentence or page elicits from them. “[Y]ou have no idea what emotions may floor you from one sentence to the next, and when they do, I’m there, watching,” she writes in Seen Reading.
If you use the TTC regularly, you may have seen Wilson, over the past five years, spotting someone reading, then making notes about the book, the reader, and how far through it they’ve progressed. She’s been chronicling some of those observations on her blog (also called Seen Reading), wherein she imagines the mindset of the readers she’s watched in spare but potent prose. Her very first entry involved spotting a woman “distressed” while nearing the end of Miriam Toews’ A Complicated Kindness. After the encounter, Wilson rushed to the nearest bookstore to buy the book and began reading it “in anticipation of the final pages, where I would once again meet this reader within the book that moved her so.” And so, a voyeur was born.
While the word “voyeur” may have unsavory undertones, it is the perfect choice here. “Observer” or “watcher” (as in “people-watcher”) don’t capture the level of passion Wilson has for literature, the joys of reading, and the bonds between readers, nor the dynamics of her experiences, which take place just on the edge of private space created around a person when she reads in public. Wilson understands this private space, and then cleverly inverts it in her writing. Reading a book need not be about hiding away in plain sight: it can be a way of giving yourself permission to have deep experiences while in public. Wilson’s micro-fiction doesn’t take away from the reader or those experiences—it’s a way of celebrating them.
Wilson, at the launch, mentioned that transience runs through the book as a theme. She offered a few possible explanations: maybe it was that the readers were always in transit; maybe it was that while the commute remained the same, the commuters would always have different faces; or maybe it was something about Wilson herself, some need to connect with people around her that she didn’t know, except to know that they shared a common passion for books.
Perhaps, too, Wilson could sense the shift that would happen as books went virtual. With over 100 pieces of micro-fiction (chosen from over 700 blog entries) she has captured a time when walking down the length of a subway car meant seeing a mosaic of covers rather than the greys and blacks of electronic devices we encounter more often today, and there’s something magical about capturing that image.
Fittingly, Wilson also knows how to throw an interesting party. On Monday, at the book’s launch, she had volunteers go on stage to pretend they were riding the subway—the tallest volunteer got to be a subway pole the others hung on to, while lightly swaying.
What is a literary voyeur? For Wilson, reading in public is a form of exhibitionism; since she watches others reading, her actions make her a voyeur. And while you might think exhibitionism in this context refers to the book covers people show (or try to hide), Wilson is much more interested in the readers themselves, in the potential reactions the next sentence or page elicits from them. “[Y]ou have no idea what emotions may floor you from one sentence to the next, and when they do, I’m there, watching,” she writes in Seen Reading.
If you use the TTC regularly, you may have seen Wilson, over the past five years, spotting someone reading, then making notes about the book, the reader, and how far through it they’ve progressed. She’s been chronicling some of those observations on her blog (also called Seen Reading), wherein she imagines the mindset of the readers she’s watched in spare but potent prose. Her very first entry involved spotting a woman “distressed” while nearing the end of Miriam Toews’ A Complicated Kindness. After the encounter, Wilson rushed to the nearest bookstore to buy the book and began reading it “in anticipation of the final pages, where I would once again meet this reader within the book that moved her so.” And so, a voyeur was born.
While the word “voyeur” may have unsavory undertones, it is the perfect choice here. “Observer” or “watcher” (as in “people-watcher”) don’t capture the level of passion Wilson has for literature, the joys of reading, and the bonds between readers, nor the dynamics of her experiences, which take place just on the edge of private space created around a person when she reads in public. Wilson understands this private space, and then cleverly inverts it in her writing. Reading a book need not be about hiding away in plain sight: it can be a way of giving yourself permission to have deep experiences while in public. Wilson’s micro-fiction doesn’t take away from the reader or those experiences—it’s a way of celebrating them.
Wilson, at the launch, mentioned that transience runs through the book as a theme. She offered a few possible explanations: maybe it was that the readers were always in transit; maybe it was that while the commute remained the same, the commuters would always have different faces; or maybe it was something about Wilson herself, some need to connect with people around her that she didn’t know, except to know that they shared a common passion for books.
Perhaps, too, Wilson could sense the shift that would happen as books went virtual. With over 100 pieces of micro-fiction (chosen from over 700 blog entries) she has captured a time when walking down the length of a subway car meant seeing a mosaic of covers rather than the greys and blacks of electronic devices we encounter more often today, and there’s something magical about capturing that image.
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