Moves by the card schemes to shift liability for fraudulent card fraud payments to US merchants take effect in October 2015, providing a strong incentive for retailers to re-eqip their POS networks to accept EMV chip cards.
But at a payments conference organised by automated clearing house Nacha in San Diego this week, three of the nation's largest retailers hit back, arguing that the move to EMV will impose huge costs for a minimal reduction in fraud rates.
For retailers such as hamburger chain Wendy's - which already accepts PIN debit at the checkout - the fraud rate is so small "it's hardly worth mentioning," said Gavin Waugh, Wendy's vice president and assistant treasurer. "Even if we pay the fraud liability, it's a whole lot cheaper than putting in (new EMV) terminals."
Others were concerned that the introduction of EMV at the check-out would simply shift the attak vectors to weaker alternative channels, such as card-not-present and ACH fraud.
Equally, the failure to enforce a shift to PIN at the point-of-sale - with issuers prepared to still accept signature authorisation - remains indoor Tracking, notes Kansas City Fed economist Richard Sullivan in a just-published paper.
While chip-based cards will counteract the threat from counterfeit copies, he notes, "fraudsters may put more effort into stealing computer-chip payment cards, knowing that they may be able to commit a few fraudulent transactions using a forged signature before issuers cut off use of the card".
And in the absence of a commitment by issuers and card schemes to move to 3D-secure or chip card authentication at the PC, fraud in online channels can also be expected to increase, says Sullivan,
A bigger cause for concern, however, is that the US does not yet have a comprehensive system for collecting and reporting statistics on payment fraud, which would allow the industry to respond swiftly and effectively to new attacks.
Sullivan argues that the UK system for capturing and monitoring such information was a critical asset enabling the payment card industry to respond to the new trends in fraud that emerged during the transition to chip-and-PIN cards.
"In the absence of critical information on the sources and types of card payment fraud, efforts aimed at limiting fraud may be misdirected and wasteful," states Sullivan. "Both regulators and the card payment industry could benefit from mechanisms to measure the levels and sources of fraud and to identify who pays the price-and how much is paid-for the nation's losses from payment card fraud."
Senior journalists flew around the world on the same plane with prime ministers such as Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Keating and, for a time, Howard, and as the hours went by, the leaders tended to wander to the media cabin for long chats.
Their thoughts and fears and boasts found their way into reports and feature articles and informed the prognostications of columnists and commentators. It humanised those politicians, and in turn, the public was informed at a deeper level than is possible now the leaders rarely grant more than a carefully controlled doorstop or speak through their advisors.
If Paul Keating, for instance, had pulled off the sort of coup that Gillard achieved in China a few weeks ago, securing a joint currency deal and annual leader-to-leader meetings, you could be sure that by the time his plane had arrived in Australia, he would have sold it in detail as an accomplishment worthy of weeks of scrutiny and celebration.
Ms Gillard hardly managed to sell for a day her execution of an agreement for which most Western world leaders would have given their eye teeth. Having explained it in no more than a press conference and a media release before boarding her media-free plane home, the matter faded from media and public conscientiousness with astonishing swiftness.
The big old VIP planes were pensioned off under Howard and replaced with jets too small to accommodate the media (who, by the way, had to pay fares much higher than if they had travelled by commercial aircraft, which today they have to do).
Former prime ministers had other ways, too, to reveal themselves to communicators. The media found themselves invited from time to time around to the Lodge for a fireside chat. The prime minister of the time might serve up a roast, stir the fire in the grate and both offer his thoughts and mine the views of his guests. It was rarely too cosy - neither leader nor journalist would let down their guard too far - but it was a form of communication now all but lost.
2013年4月26日星期五
2013年4月25日星期四
Education, innovation and economic growth
Despite the divergent perspectives we each may hold on the complex issues surrounding immigration, there is one aspect of any such proposal that Americans should be willing to get behind because of its potential to contribute to the economic growth of Arizona and the nation. This concerns reform of immigration laws regarding the status of international students, many of whom receive advanced educations in scientific and technical fields that are critical drivers of the U.S. economy. Upon the completion of their studies, these highly trained scientists, engineers, researchers and professionals, often described as the "best and brightest," bring untold potential for discovery and innovation to our workforce and nation's laboratories. New research shows the extent to which their contributions in turn create jobs that spur our economy.
As the president of one of the nation's largest public research universities, I wish to underscore the imperative of attracting and retaining these highly educated international students and graduates. The U.S. can no longer afford to train the most talented international students in our leading institutions of higher education only to send them back overseas to compete against us in the global marketplace simply because our immigration system does not provide an opportunity for them to utilize their talent and training in our work force. Streamlining the "green card process" to allow international students who receive advanced degrees in the STEM fields - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - to remain in the U.S. serves our national interests.
In March, I joined David Skorton, president of Cornell University, and Eduardo Padrón, president of Miami Dade College, in an open letter addressed to academic leaders regarding this aspect of immigration reform. We cited compelling evidence of the contributions of these researchers and professionals to our indoor Tracking.
For example, three-fourths of patents issued to the 10 American universities that produced the most patents in 2011 were awarded to immigrant researchers. According to research from the American Enterprise Institute and the Partnership for a New American Economy, each foreignborn American-trained advanced-degree recipient working in a STEM fi eld creates 2.62 jobs for American workers. Finally, we cited research that projects a shortage in our nation of more than 220,000 workers for jobs that require advanced STEM degrees by 2018.
The number of international students seeking enrollment at our colleges and universities attests to the perception that these institutions offer opportunities found nowhere else. Arizona figures prominently in this equation because in authoritative international assessments, both Arizona State University and the University of Arizona rank in the top 100 globally. ASU continues to be one of the top choices for international students, placing twentieth in the nation among all colleges and universities during the past two years, according to the Institute of International Education. ASU draws students from 120 countries because of the breadth of its programs and reputation for innovative academic programs and worldclass research. Not only is ASU a national leader in undergraduate STEM education but its graduate programs in these fields are among the best across the board. The university advances critical national research in such areas as earth and space science, renewable energy, advanced materials, microelectronics, healthcare, national security, and urban systems design.
Providing access to higher education to qualified Arizona students is the first phase of advancing the economic competitiveness of our state in the global knowledge economy. We leverage our most valuable assets when we build a highly skilled work force. And the issue is especially important for Arizona, because without broadly educated graduates who possess specialized cutting-edge skills requisite for success in the contemporary workplace, our state risks losing ground against more competitive regions. ASU economists estimate that just a single percentage point increase of college graduates in the Arizona workforce would in time increase aggregate earnings in the state by $2.1 billion per year. And this is to say nothing of the less quantifiable personal and social impacts of education.
Retaining highly educated international students in the work force is similarly essential to the competitiveness and prosperity of our region. Arizona is poised to become one of America's leading centers for innovation-based economic development, with potential for global leadership in a range of industries, including the biosciences, solar energy, aerospace, and defense. Already among the 10 leading states nationally in the conduct of scientific and technologically oriented economic activity, Arizona depends on the growth of our innovative capacity to create new companies and encourage others to relocate here, spurring job growth and boosting tax revenues and overall prosperity. Support for smart immigration reform to retain this talent is about both economics and equity. The decisions we make regarding whom we educate and whom we exclude from our work force and laboratories will impact all of us.
Dotty is a corporate lawyer; I'm a freelance writer and a writing coach. I'm a dyed in the wool Democrat; she's a conservative Republican sort. In certain lights, she resembles Vogue editor Anna Wintour. Even as she walks her dog she is exquisitely turned out — earrings, clever shoes, a multitude of carefully put together ensembles. My look leans more towards late-'60s funk — faded jeans, baggy tees, and a pair of fur-lined Merrell clogs that have seen better days.
We are gardening neighbors, dog walking neighbors, neighbors who wave hello from one another's lawns. For 21 years we inquired after one another's growing children and discussed the warm summer or cool fall.
"Everything good?" I asked, expecting the usual innocuous reply. Instead she gave a little crooked shrug, sighed, and — to my complete astonishment — started to cry.
"I'm so sorry," she apologized. She dabbed her eyes. And then she started to speak. Her children were about to leave the nest — Kevin this year, Rachel the next. She had found a cyst in her breast (which turned out to be nothing). She had developed acid reflux in her throat. She had a suspicious mole that the doctor wanted biopsied, and she had started having terrific panic attacks.
She felt, she said, as though she was sinking, then going through a long, dark tunnel where everything was black. She worried that she hadn't spent enough time with her children while they were growing up; she worried that she had picked the wrong career. She was 53 and life suddenly felt more fragile than she ever recalled. She couldn't seem to stop crying, and she was so sorry that she was burdening me. She waved a thin hand before her eyes.
I stood there, shocked, not so much by her news — which was a lot at once — but about why she was telling it all to me. You must understand: I had always seen this woman as unbreakable, inviolable. Her fa?ade was so careful, so tailored. She was the sort of person you didn't muss; she was the sort of person who never required therapy. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I had always viewed her as the complete opposite of me.
Cursed with bi-polar 2 disease and type 2 diabetes, I was often depressed and anxious. I worried endlessly about my choice of career. My kids had left for college and jobs a few years back, and there were days when I worried that I hadn't spent enough time with them and worried about what my life's purpose was going to be. I often stayed up late into the night, running over my faults, real and perceived. I'd spent years talking about all of this in therapy.
But standing on my driveway with Dotty, I realized that wasn't the woman she saw. She saw — what? A stable, steady, and reliable neighbor. Who bragged about her children and had a secure marriage. Who took vacations to Maine and the beach. Who had friends in the neighborhood.
I stood on the driveway and thought: You reach a period in your life where you think you can predict things, and your life becomes predictable. You might chafe at it, but it offers a sense of security. But sometimes, you can be so very wrong.
As the president of one of the nation's largest public research universities, I wish to underscore the imperative of attracting and retaining these highly educated international students and graduates. The U.S. can no longer afford to train the most talented international students in our leading institutions of higher education only to send them back overseas to compete against us in the global marketplace simply because our immigration system does not provide an opportunity for them to utilize their talent and training in our work force. Streamlining the "green card process" to allow international students who receive advanced degrees in the STEM fields - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - to remain in the U.S. serves our national interests.
In March, I joined David Skorton, president of Cornell University, and Eduardo Padrón, president of Miami Dade College, in an open letter addressed to academic leaders regarding this aspect of immigration reform. We cited compelling evidence of the contributions of these researchers and professionals to our indoor Tracking.
For example, three-fourths of patents issued to the 10 American universities that produced the most patents in 2011 were awarded to immigrant researchers. According to research from the American Enterprise Institute and the Partnership for a New American Economy, each foreignborn American-trained advanced-degree recipient working in a STEM fi eld creates 2.62 jobs for American workers. Finally, we cited research that projects a shortage in our nation of more than 220,000 workers for jobs that require advanced STEM degrees by 2018.
The number of international students seeking enrollment at our colleges and universities attests to the perception that these institutions offer opportunities found nowhere else. Arizona figures prominently in this equation because in authoritative international assessments, both Arizona State University and the University of Arizona rank in the top 100 globally. ASU continues to be one of the top choices for international students, placing twentieth in the nation among all colleges and universities during the past two years, according to the Institute of International Education. ASU draws students from 120 countries because of the breadth of its programs and reputation for innovative academic programs and worldclass research. Not only is ASU a national leader in undergraduate STEM education but its graduate programs in these fields are among the best across the board. The university advances critical national research in such areas as earth and space science, renewable energy, advanced materials, microelectronics, healthcare, national security, and urban systems design.
Providing access to higher education to qualified Arizona students is the first phase of advancing the economic competitiveness of our state in the global knowledge economy. We leverage our most valuable assets when we build a highly skilled work force. And the issue is especially important for Arizona, because without broadly educated graduates who possess specialized cutting-edge skills requisite for success in the contemporary workplace, our state risks losing ground against more competitive regions. ASU economists estimate that just a single percentage point increase of college graduates in the Arizona workforce would in time increase aggregate earnings in the state by $2.1 billion per year. And this is to say nothing of the less quantifiable personal and social impacts of education.
Retaining highly educated international students in the work force is similarly essential to the competitiveness and prosperity of our region. Arizona is poised to become one of America's leading centers for innovation-based economic development, with potential for global leadership in a range of industries, including the biosciences, solar energy, aerospace, and defense. Already among the 10 leading states nationally in the conduct of scientific and technologically oriented economic activity, Arizona depends on the growth of our innovative capacity to create new companies and encourage others to relocate here, spurring job growth and boosting tax revenues and overall prosperity. Support for smart immigration reform to retain this talent is about both economics and equity. The decisions we make regarding whom we educate and whom we exclude from our work force and laboratories will impact all of us.
Dotty is a corporate lawyer; I'm a freelance writer and a writing coach. I'm a dyed in the wool Democrat; she's a conservative Republican sort. In certain lights, she resembles Vogue editor Anna Wintour. Even as she walks her dog she is exquisitely turned out — earrings, clever shoes, a multitude of carefully put together ensembles. My look leans more towards late-'60s funk — faded jeans, baggy tees, and a pair of fur-lined Merrell clogs that have seen better days.
We are gardening neighbors, dog walking neighbors, neighbors who wave hello from one another's lawns. For 21 years we inquired after one another's growing children and discussed the warm summer or cool fall.
"Everything good?" I asked, expecting the usual innocuous reply. Instead she gave a little crooked shrug, sighed, and — to my complete astonishment — started to cry.
"I'm so sorry," she apologized. She dabbed her eyes. And then she started to speak. Her children were about to leave the nest — Kevin this year, Rachel the next. She had found a cyst in her breast (which turned out to be nothing). She had developed acid reflux in her throat. She had a suspicious mole that the doctor wanted biopsied, and she had started having terrific panic attacks.
She felt, she said, as though she was sinking, then going through a long, dark tunnel where everything was black. She worried that she hadn't spent enough time with her children while they were growing up; she worried that she had picked the wrong career. She was 53 and life suddenly felt more fragile than she ever recalled. She couldn't seem to stop crying, and she was so sorry that she was burdening me. She waved a thin hand before her eyes.
I stood there, shocked, not so much by her news — which was a lot at once — but about why she was telling it all to me. You must understand: I had always seen this woman as unbreakable, inviolable. Her fa?ade was so careful, so tailored. She was the sort of person you didn't muss; she was the sort of person who never required therapy. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I had always viewed her as the complete opposite of me.
Cursed with bi-polar 2 disease and type 2 diabetes, I was often depressed and anxious. I worried endlessly about my choice of career. My kids had left for college and jobs a few years back, and there were days when I worried that I hadn't spent enough time with them and worried about what my life's purpose was going to be. I often stayed up late into the night, running over my faults, real and perceived. I'd spent years talking about all of this in therapy.
But standing on my driveway with Dotty, I realized that wasn't the woman she saw. She saw — what? A stable, steady, and reliable neighbor. Who bragged about her children and had a secure marriage. Who took vacations to Maine and the beach. Who had friends in the neighborhood.
I stood on the driveway and thought: You reach a period in your life where you think you can predict things, and your life becomes predictable. You might chafe at it, but it offers a sense of security. But sometimes, you can be so very wrong.
2013年4月23日星期二
Merchant Data Systems Brings New Services and Opportunities
Hundreds of customers come passing through the doors of cosmetic stores everyday. Some buy items with cash while others buy it with plastic cards. Nowadays, consumers prefer using credit cards because of the flexibility, convenience, and rewards they offer. From the cosmetic store's standpoint, these benefits are yet to be realized. A cosmetic store owner must be able to accept credit cards otherwise he/she stands to lose a significant amount of sales and profit. For store owners facing this dilemma, Merchant Data Systems is the right professional to call with their new and expanding merchant services.
Merchant Data Systems is a leading merchant processing service provider in the U.S. The company was established in 1997 and from then on, they've been delivering award-winning services through customer-oriented principles and an unwavering commitment towards innovation in which both their merchant clients and sales affiliates benefit from. They cater to all kinds and sizes of businesses, from cosmetic stores to five-star restaurants to e-commerce firms and everything in between.
Merchant services offered by MDS include debit and credit card processing, electronic account settlement, check guarantee, POS integration, equipment sales and leasing, cash advance, and payroll programs. All of their services are backed up by a 24/7 fully staffed customer service desk. The service is open 365 days a year including weekends and holidays. The company uses a consultative system for clients to help them get the products and services they need while helping downsize the expenses. This enables store owners to streamline their core operations with the certainty that their payment acceptance equipment are functioning collaboratively to improve in-store profit.
Cosmetic store owners who decide to partner with MDS can enjoy a number of benefits. For starters, MDS lets clients customize a service plan trimmed to fit their business needs and demands. This guarantees 100 percent client satisfaction, unbeatable pricing, and long term transactions. To add up, the company has fabricated extra sales software like integrating shopping cart to guarantee continual success as well as implement initiatives to improve client experience in processing all payment modes, such as American Express and Visa.
Giving customers more than one payment method also allows merchants to appear more professional. Customers will appreciate the fact that they can switch from cash to card and vice versa whenever they need to. MDS' innovative credit card terminals will help merchants achieve this professional panache.
MDS also gives online merchants a variety of PCI-compliant and certified processing gateways and virtual terminals to choose from and integrate. World-class standalone gateways support electronic credit, and cash and check payments through the web. PCI compliance ensures that transactions are conducted in a fast and safe manner. This way, merchants and sales partners can complete transactions from any web-enabled computer, grant transaction capability to any volume of users, schedule recurring billing information, and eliminate the need for software installation or updates.
DePaul University gave out flash drives at its Earth Day “Loop Share Fair” to encourage students to switch from paper transcripts to electronic transcripts, an effort that was started a couple of years ago. The number of students using paper transcripts has decreased from 100 percent to 49 percent.
“If just a couple of students decide to use the electronic version versus a paper version of their transcript, that immediately helps the environment,” said Summer Brown, executive director of the Institute for Business and Professional Ethics at DePaul University.
DePaul also supports the campus Urban Farming Organization, that encourages students and faculty to learn about urban agriculture. Gus Chagares, an environmental health and safety specialist at DePaul, said the organization has around 15-20 members who are actively involved and a larger number of people who volunteer irregularly.
Food grown at the campus garden is donated to the community. The group also holds open houses at the beginning of growing season and sells herbs and plants on campus for affordable prices in order to increase its influence.
Roosevelt University students commemorated Earth Day Monday by transferring soil and plants onto the school’s new roof garden on its Wabash Ave. building on its Chicago campus. Vegetables in the new roof system will be used in the school’s dining center.
Students also will be creating their own garden in the community garden started last year on Roosevelt’s Schaumburg campus. This year the community garden has expanded from 12 to 29 10-by-10-foot plots.
In addition, students at the school are encouraged to recycle not just plastic and paper, but also metal and E-waste, such as computers, throughout the year. Students are asked to drop off their E-waste from home at recycle boxes on campus instead of waiting for community recycling programs, Mathews said.
Students are the main organizers of green campaigns at Loyola University, said Aaron Durnbaugh, sustainability director at Loyola University. His office provides assistance when students have difficulties, he said. This year student government at Loyola University voted to provide $50,000 to a Green Initiative fund, a new grant for students to implement sustainable projects. Durnbaugh said the sustainability office will help them decide how the money is used.
Merchant Data Systems is a leading merchant processing service provider in the U.S. The company was established in 1997 and from then on, they've been delivering award-winning services through customer-oriented principles and an unwavering commitment towards innovation in which both their merchant clients and sales affiliates benefit from. They cater to all kinds and sizes of businesses, from cosmetic stores to five-star restaurants to e-commerce firms and everything in between.
Merchant services offered by MDS include debit and credit card processing, electronic account settlement, check guarantee, POS integration, equipment sales and leasing, cash advance, and payroll programs. All of their services are backed up by a 24/7 fully staffed customer service desk. The service is open 365 days a year including weekends and holidays. The company uses a consultative system for clients to help them get the products and services they need while helping downsize the expenses. This enables store owners to streamline their core operations with the certainty that their payment acceptance equipment are functioning collaboratively to improve in-store profit.
Cosmetic store owners who decide to partner with MDS can enjoy a number of benefits. For starters, MDS lets clients customize a service plan trimmed to fit their business needs and demands. This guarantees 100 percent client satisfaction, unbeatable pricing, and long term transactions. To add up, the company has fabricated extra sales software like integrating shopping cart to guarantee continual success as well as implement initiatives to improve client experience in processing all payment modes, such as American Express and Visa.
Giving customers more than one payment method also allows merchants to appear more professional. Customers will appreciate the fact that they can switch from cash to card and vice versa whenever they need to. MDS' innovative credit card terminals will help merchants achieve this professional panache.
MDS also gives online merchants a variety of PCI-compliant and certified processing gateways and virtual terminals to choose from and integrate. World-class standalone gateways support electronic credit, and cash and check payments through the web. PCI compliance ensures that transactions are conducted in a fast and safe manner. This way, merchants and sales partners can complete transactions from any web-enabled computer, grant transaction capability to any volume of users, schedule recurring billing information, and eliminate the need for software installation or updates.
DePaul University gave out flash drives at its Earth Day “Loop Share Fair” to encourage students to switch from paper transcripts to electronic transcripts, an effort that was started a couple of years ago. The number of students using paper transcripts has decreased from 100 percent to 49 percent.
“If just a couple of students decide to use the electronic version versus a paper version of their transcript, that immediately helps the environment,” said Summer Brown, executive director of the Institute for Business and Professional Ethics at DePaul University.
DePaul also supports the campus Urban Farming Organization, that encourages students and faculty to learn about urban agriculture. Gus Chagares, an environmental health and safety specialist at DePaul, said the organization has around 15-20 members who are actively involved and a larger number of people who volunteer irregularly.
Food grown at the campus garden is donated to the community. The group also holds open houses at the beginning of growing season and sells herbs and plants on campus for affordable prices in order to increase its influence.
Roosevelt University students commemorated Earth Day Monday by transferring soil and plants onto the school’s new roof garden on its Wabash Ave. building on its Chicago campus. Vegetables in the new roof system will be used in the school’s dining center.
Students also will be creating their own garden in the community garden started last year on Roosevelt’s Schaumburg campus. This year the community garden has expanded from 12 to 29 10-by-10-foot plots.
In addition, students at the school are encouraged to recycle not just plastic and paper, but also metal and E-waste, such as computers, throughout the year. Students are asked to drop off their E-waste from home at recycle boxes on campus instead of waiting for community recycling programs, Mathews said.
Students are the main organizers of green campaigns at Loyola University, said Aaron Durnbaugh, sustainability director at Loyola University. His office provides assistance when students have difficulties, he said. This year student government at Loyola University voted to provide $50,000 to a Green Initiative fund, a new grant for students to implement sustainable projects. Durnbaugh said the sustainability office will help them decide how the money is used.
2013年4月17日星期三
Presentation chronicles Boulder family's adventure
For Chip and Jill Isenhart, the answer was clear: Show and tell. The Boulder couple had already created a business, ECOS Communications around the show and tell model, developing educational materials and exhibits for conservation non-profits, wildlife groups, zoos and aquariums. As their two children Jesse, now 12, and Hannah, now 14, grew older, Chip and Jill wanted them to better understand their environmental work, as well as to see firsthand the threats to wildlife and their habitats.
What they had in mind was to contact various environmental groups who could use their expertise and offer their services in exchange for room and board for the entire family. They planned a six-month trip to three diverse places: Kenya, Nepal and China. The family will offer a presentation on their trip, "Unplugging to Plug-In, a Family Adventure," at Casey Middle School on April 25.
Jesse and Hannah reacted to the prospect of the trip just as most kids their age might. "Our son, who loves to travel, was beaming from ear to ear," Chip says. "Our daughter, who was in the eighth grade, looked at us and said, 'I can't leave my friends.'"
The kids were not naifs when it comes to experiencing life in other countries, however. When Hannah and Jesse were younger, the Isenharts lived for a year in Panama while the parents worked for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Since then, the kids have spent an extended spring break in Panama every year, going to school and keeping their Spanish fresh.
In Kenya, they went to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, which blends tourism and conservation and the Daraja Academy, a secondary school, where underprivileged girls from all over the country attend. In China, they worked with The Nature Conservancy on education and visitor experience for the country's first private nature reserve. In Nepal, they worked on teaching and interpretive training in the towns of Khandbari and Dhupu.
"I was mad that kids didn't realize that and respect it," she says. "I was like, 'Don't you know people are struggling and would die for this opportunity?'"
As a seventh-grader, Hannah started her own business called, "Hanimals," in which she photographed stuffed animals such as grizzly bears in the habitat where real grizzlies roam. She made the images into greeting cards and calendars and sold them at several local stores, giving the proceeds to Polar Bear International.
In China, she explained the business to BeiBei, the daughter of their Chinese translator, who started a similar business using stuffed pandas.
For Chip and Jill, having the kids on the trip came with a bonus beyond their companionship -- it broke down barriers.
"We had no idea how much having them in a tow (made us) immediately welcome everywhere," Jill says. "We were not introduced as consultants, we were introduced as a family -- here's the work this family will be doing. A lot of people had families of their own. It gave us sort of a common ground."
Last year, Sony's peculiar move to beef up its entry-level NEX left us puzzled, and generally unimpressed. The NEX-F3 was a fine mirrorless camera by most accounts, but its larger footprint left us hoping for a next-gen offering more in line with its predecessor, the NEX-C3 -- a tried-and-true shooter that many Engadget staffers still turn to for review photos and trade shows, thanks to its consistent performance and light weight. We were quite relieved, then, to see that this year's device represented a return to the 2011 design, with a few very compelling additions, to boot.
Like last year's model and even the C3, the Sony NEX-3N packs a 16.1-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor. The chip is physically larger than what you'll find in a Micro Four Thirds camera, and it's comparable in size to the sensors that ship in many full-size DSLRs. That imager is the key to the 3N's success -- it enables the camera to offer DSLR-like performance in a body that's much smaller, and even less expensive. Speaking of which, the 3N kit carries an MSRP of $500, though you may be able to find it for a bit less, including the 16-50mm retractable zoom lens -- we'll touch on that a bit more after the break.
Another fresh addition is the built-in, pop-up flash, which, believe it or not, is a first for Sony's starter NEX. Of course, adding in a strobe without boosting the body size doesn't come without compromise -- there's no proprietary mount up top, which means an external mic is out of the question. This may be slightly disconcerting to video shooters, especially considering that the camera's stereo microphones are mounted on the top of the camera rather than on the front, flanking the lens. That configuration makes the 3N a fine fit for narration but a less-than-stellar option for conducting interviews in noisy environments. We would be willing to look past this oversight had Sony included a microphone input, but alas, there's no such port present.
Sony opted to shift port positioning a bit this year. The only I/O options can be accessed by lifting a door on the left side of the camera, behind which you'll find HDMI and micro-USB connectors, along with an SD card slot. Previously, the removable storage could only be accessed from the bottom of the camera, which often meant unscrewing a tripod mount before popping in a new card, so this left-hand slot is much appreciated. The battery door remains on the bottom of the camera, but the 3N can be charged using a USB adapter, so unless you want to swap cells for a long shoot, your power pack can stay in place.
What they had in mind was to contact various environmental groups who could use their expertise and offer their services in exchange for room and board for the entire family. They planned a six-month trip to three diverse places: Kenya, Nepal and China. The family will offer a presentation on their trip, "Unplugging to Plug-In, a Family Adventure," at Casey Middle School on April 25.
Jesse and Hannah reacted to the prospect of the trip just as most kids their age might. "Our son, who loves to travel, was beaming from ear to ear," Chip says. "Our daughter, who was in the eighth grade, looked at us and said, 'I can't leave my friends.'"
The kids were not naifs when it comes to experiencing life in other countries, however. When Hannah and Jesse were younger, the Isenharts lived for a year in Panama while the parents worked for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Since then, the kids have spent an extended spring break in Panama every year, going to school and keeping their Spanish fresh.
In Kenya, they went to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, which blends tourism and conservation and the Daraja Academy, a secondary school, where underprivileged girls from all over the country attend. In China, they worked with The Nature Conservancy on education and visitor experience for the country's first private nature reserve. In Nepal, they worked on teaching and interpretive training in the towns of Khandbari and Dhupu.
"I was mad that kids didn't realize that and respect it," she says. "I was like, 'Don't you know people are struggling and would die for this opportunity?'"
As a seventh-grader, Hannah started her own business called, "Hanimals," in which she photographed stuffed animals such as grizzly bears in the habitat where real grizzlies roam. She made the images into greeting cards and calendars and sold them at several local stores, giving the proceeds to Polar Bear International.
In China, she explained the business to BeiBei, the daughter of their Chinese translator, who started a similar business using stuffed pandas.
For Chip and Jill, having the kids on the trip came with a bonus beyond their companionship -- it broke down barriers.
"We had no idea how much having them in a tow (made us) immediately welcome everywhere," Jill says. "We were not introduced as consultants, we were introduced as a family -- here's the work this family will be doing. A lot of people had families of their own. It gave us sort of a common ground."
Last year, Sony's peculiar move to beef up its entry-level NEX left us puzzled, and generally unimpressed. The NEX-F3 was a fine mirrorless camera by most accounts, but its larger footprint left us hoping for a next-gen offering more in line with its predecessor, the NEX-C3 -- a tried-and-true shooter that many Engadget staffers still turn to for review photos and trade shows, thanks to its consistent performance and light weight. We were quite relieved, then, to see that this year's device represented a return to the 2011 design, with a few very compelling additions, to boot.
Like last year's model and even the C3, the Sony NEX-3N packs a 16.1-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor. The chip is physically larger than what you'll find in a Micro Four Thirds camera, and it's comparable in size to the sensors that ship in many full-size DSLRs. That imager is the key to the 3N's success -- it enables the camera to offer DSLR-like performance in a body that's much smaller, and even less expensive. Speaking of which, the 3N kit carries an MSRP of $500, though you may be able to find it for a bit less, including the 16-50mm retractable zoom lens -- we'll touch on that a bit more after the break.
Another fresh addition is the built-in, pop-up flash, which, believe it or not, is a first for Sony's starter NEX. Of course, adding in a strobe without boosting the body size doesn't come without compromise -- there's no proprietary mount up top, which means an external mic is out of the question. This may be slightly disconcerting to video shooters, especially considering that the camera's stereo microphones are mounted on the top of the camera rather than on the front, flanking the lens. That configuration makes the 3N a fine fit for narration but a less-than-stellar option for conducting interviews in noisy environments. We would be willing to look past this oversight had Sony included a microphone input, but alas, there's no such port present.
Sony opted to shift port positioning a bit this year. The only I/O options can be accessed by lifting a door on the left side of the camera, behind which you'll find HDMI and micro-USB connectors, along with an SD card slot. Previously, the removable storage could only be accessed from the bottom of the camera, which often meant unscrewing a tripod mount before popping in a new card, so this left-hand slot is much appreciated. The battery door remains on the bottom of the camera, but the 3N can be charged using a USB adapter, so unless you want to swap cells for a long shoot, your power pack can stay in place.
2013年4月16日星期二
Has a crush on her yoga guru
When your city has the tallest building on the planet and the world’s richest horse race, you’re bound to attract some haters. Dubai is often dubbed a plastic fantastic, soulless Disney-esque playground. And when I walk through the world’s largest mall with its labyrinth of identikit stores and Arctic-style air-conditioning (Dubai has the world’s second largest carbon footprint per capita after Doha, according to the World Wildlife Fund) – I couldn’t agree more.
However, on the fringes of our perma-sunny city famed for its boozy brunches and excessive consumerism, there’s a growing spiritual community. We’re not talking trippy Goa-style hippies on scooters, but there’s an underground tribe of energy healer types who are quickly filling a gap in the market. Now you can do AcroYoga in Safa Park, African drumming in the desert, zone out at a gong meditation session or awaken your sensual energy with kundalini yoga.
I’ve become hooked on a form of power yoga. My previous attempts at committing to yoga were unfruitful – the idea of doing a Wild Thing pose was appealing but I was too impatient and my body strength was nil. Perhaps the truth was I wasn’t ready for a journey of self-realisation. Instead I continued to distract myself from myself – travelling to danger zones like Yemen and maxing out my credit card on shiny, new things at the mall.
But these days, I get strangely excited about twisting into a pretzel-like shape. Skinny Banker has noticed that I’m suspiciously cheerful early in the mornings. She also thinks I’ve lost the plot and dismissively says things like, “Enjoy your slow motion chanting!”
I don’t even bother to set the record straight. You see, I’m in the throes of a new love affair, the butterflies in the stomach phase. Although I have a sneaky feeling my newfound enthusiasm for yoga might also have something to do with my instructor. While male yoga teachers may have once conjured up images of scrawny guys in drawstring trousers, these days you have buff instructors with tattoos. Our teacher is in his late 30s and has a cheeky, boyish charm about him. And other women in the 9am class have sensed it too. There’s the super toned brunette (in her lululemon get-up) who flaunts enviable killer poses on her hot pink mat. While she slips effortlessly into an Upward Facing Bow (aka Urdhva Dhanurasana) most of us crumble to the floor in frustration.
During one session, while we attempt to do the Crane Pose, the sweaty-browed woman next to me gives me a pained look. Meanwhile Miss Lululemon is emanating a raspy panting sound, prompting us to giggle like school girls. During the moans and pants, our teacher zips around, lifting and adjusting different shaped legs. At one point, I exaggerate a yelp and collapse to the ground. The teacher rushes over and bellows, “Sarah, where’s your willpower? You can do much better than that!”
Despite his boot camp style put-downs, there’s something incredibly magnetic about him. He oozes willpower, a sense of strength and togetherness. His energy is light and baggage-free, unleashing a powerful aphrodisiacal effect, leaving yoga students wanting to connect with it. And yearning to be validated during the class, almost like seeking approval from a lover or a father. I tell my yogi friend about my new crush and she just smiles and says, “There’s a tendency to get attached to your yoga teacher, that’s why I have three.”
While I’m aware of the benefits of developing a healthy detachment to people (letting go is the first step to freedom and the so-called path to nirvana), I admit I struggle with the concept. “Why don’t you come with me to India next month?” asks my yogi friend. I start picturing myself on a beach in Goa discussing eco issues with a dreadlocked traveller. “I’m going to a spiritual retreat in Pune,” she adds. I suddenly imagine being woken up at 4am, chanting along to a sitar guitar, clad in a white robe and sipping rice milk for breakfast. “I’m going to the Osho ashram,” she reveals. I like Osho’s spiritual books, although during the 80s (before his wise guru image) he was a cult leader living in America with a harem of women and Rolls-Royce cars. “You’re not talking about one of those free-love communes, are you?” I cringe. It turns out that’s exactly what my friend is talking about. I think I need to go and lie down in the Corpse Pose!
Drake knows that Beyonce's quite popular with the ladies. Popular enough, in fact, for him to pen a song called "Girls Love Beyonce" and sing-rap a line from Destiny's Child's "Say My Name." James Fauntelroy, one of hip-hop's go-to songwriers, appears to take over and sing the rest of the hook.
The release is one of two Drake tracks to hit the web late Monday. "No New Friends," which borrows a line from his own song "Started From the Bottom," features Lil Wayne, DJ Khaled and Rick Ross. (Drizzy also repeats the "no new friends" mantra on "Girls Love Beyonce"; it's like his post-lapsarian version of YOLO.)
"Girls Love Beyonce" offers a familiar Drake, the one wondering why he and his friends "get money and f--k hoes" instead of searching for love. "Where we get these values I don't know what to tell you," he says somberly.
Twitter reacted positively to the track, with many saying that Drake's on a hot streak that's lasted a few years. His recent songs, "5AM in Toronto" and "Started From The Bottom" were both well-received, with the latter being somewhat of a late winter/early spring rap anthem.
Drake has also done a good job in the keeping-them-honest department, stopping by Elliott Wilson's East Village Radio show to throw some barbs Chris Brown's way. "His insecurities are the fact that I make better music than him, that I'm more popping than him and that at one point in life the woman that he loves fell into my lap," Drake said, adding "I did what a real n---a would do and treated her with respect."
However, on the fringes of our perma-sunny city famed for its boozy brunches and excessive consumerism, there’s a growing spiritual community. We’re not talking trippy Goa-style hippies on scooters, but there’s an underground tribe of energy healer types who are quickly filling a gap in the market. Now you can do AcroYoga in Safa Park, African drumming in the desert, zone out at a gong meditation session or awaken your sensual energy with kundalini yoga.
I’ve become hooked on a form of power yoga. My previous attempts at committing to yoga were unfruitful – the idea of doing a Wild Thing pose was appealing but I was too impatient and my body strength was nil. Perhaps the truth was I wasn’t ready for a journey of self-realisation. Instead I continued to distract myself from myself – travelling to danger zones like Yemen and maxing out my credit card on shiny, new things at the mall.
But these days, I get strangely excited about twisting into a pretzel-like shape. Skinny Banker has noticed that I’m suspiciously cheerful early in the mornings. She also thinks I’ve lost the plot and dismissively says things like, “Enjoy your slow motion chanting!”
I don’t even bother to set the record straight. You see, I’m in the throes of a new love affair, the butterflies in the stomach phase. Although I have a sneaky feeling my newfound enthusiasm for yoga might also have something to do with my instructor. While male yoga teachers may have once conjured up images of scrawny guys in drawstring trousers, these days you have buff instructors with tattoos. Our teacher is in his late 30s and has a cheeky, boyish charm about him. And other women in the 9am class have sensed it too. There’s the super toned brunette (in her lululemon get-up) who flaunts enviable killer poses on her hot pink mat. While she slips effortlessly into an Upward Facing Bow (aka Urdhva Dhanurasana) most of us crumble to the floor in frustration.
During one session, while we attempt to do the Crane Pose, the sweaty-browed woman next to me gives me a pained look. Meanwhile Miss Lululemon is emanating a raspy panting sound, prompting us to giggle like school girls. During the moans and pants, our teacher zips around, lifting and adjusting different shaped legs. At one point, I exaggerate a yelp and collapse to the ground. The teacher rushes over and bellows, “Sarah, where’s your willpower? You can do much better than that!”
Despite his boot camp style put-downs, there’s something incredibly magnetic about him. He oozes willpower, a sense of strength and togetherness. His energy is light and baggage-free, unleashing a powerful aphrodisiacal effect, leaving yoga students wanting to connect with it. And yearning to be validated during the class, almost like seeking approval from a lover or a father. I tell my yogi friend about my new crush and she just smiles and says, “There’s a tendency to get attached to your yoga teacher, that’s why I have three.”
While I’m aware of the benefits of developing a healthy detachment to people (letting go is the first step to freedom and the so-called path to nirvana), I admit I struggle with the concept. “Why don’t you come with me to India next month?” asks my yogi friend. I start picturing myself on a beach in Goa discussing eco issues with a dreadlocked traveller. “I’m going to a spiritual retreat in Pune,” she adds. I suddenly imagine being woken up at 4am, chanting along to a sitar guitar, clad in a white robe and sipping rice milk for breakfast. “I’m going to the Osho ashram,” she reveals. I like Osho’s spiritual books, although during the 80s (before his wise guru image) he was a cult leader living in America with a harem of women and Rolls-Royce cars. “You’re not talking about one of those free-love communes, are you?” I cringe. It turns out that’s exactly what my friend is talking about. I think I need to go and lie down in the Corpse Pose!
Drake knows that Beyonce's quite popular with the ladies. Popular enough, in fact, for him to pen a song called "Girls Love Beyonce" and sing-rap a line from Destiny's Child's "Say My Name." James Fauntelroy, one of hip-hop's go-to songwriers, appears to take over and sing the rest of the hook.
The release is one of two Drake tracks to hit the web late Monday. "No New Friends," which borrows a line from his own song "Started From the Bottom," features Lil Wayne, DJ Khaled and Rick Ross. (Drizzy also repeats the "no new friends" mantra on "Girls Love Beyonce"; it's like his post-lapsarian version of YOLO.)
"Girls Love Beyonce" offers a familiar Drake, the one wondering why he and his friends "get money and f--k hoes" instead of searching for love. "Where we get these values I don't know what to tell you," he says somberly.
Twitter reacted positively to the track, with many saying that Drake's on a hot streak that's lasted a few years. His recent songs, "5AM in Toronto" and "Started From The Bottom" were both well-received, with the latter being somewhat of a late winter/early spring rap anthem.
Drake has also done a good job in the keeping-them-honest department, stopping by Elliott Wilson's East Village Radio show to throw some barbs Chris Brown's way. "His insecurities are the fact that I make better music than him, that I'm more popping than him and that at one point in life the woman that he loves fell into my lap," Drake said, adding "I did what a real n---a would do and treated her with respect."
2013年4月11日星期四
To get green cards, these immigrants must prove they are extraordinary
Both women have been deemed “aliens of extraordinary ability” by Uncle Sam -- an elite cadre of immigrants who earn green cards, and a path to citizenship, by proving they are tops in their field.
While the "extraordinary ability" route can be one of the fastest, persuading a faceless bureaucrat they deserve permanent residency can be a frustrating, expensive, even humbling experience for high achievers who may already be household names in their homelands.
“The process is a nightmare,” said Anju Singh, the researcher with the National Institutes of Health, who was born in India and studied and worked in the U.S. for nearly a decade before she pursued the coveted green card granting permanent U.S. residency.
The payoff, though, is something many immigrants with less impressive resumes can only dream about.
“I have never been so excited about a piece of plastic,” said Bettina May, the dancer and pinup model who left Canada to striptease on more fertile American soil. “And it’s actually green!”
Fewer than 4,000 extraordinary ability EB-1A green cards -- which don’t require a job offer from an American sponsor -- were approved last year. A third of the applications were rejected, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Have an Oscar, Nobel, Pulitzer or Olympic gold medal? Getting the card should be a breeze. But for other A-list artists, athletes, scientists, educators and entrepreneurs, reams of documentation are needed to show they meet at least three of 10 criteria for the program -- from awards and media coverage to high salary and membership in elite groups.
May was touring the U.S. on a one-year visa when she decided to apply. Over four months, she compiled a 2-inch-thick dossier to demonstrate burlesque was an art form and that she had made a unique contribution.
The file she submitted in December 2010 had clippings from papers around the country, tape of her appearance on a “Real Housewives” franchise, box-office receipts and hard-won letters of recommendation from producers and venue owners attesting that she is the creme de la Can-Can.
While Miss Universe can land a green card in a matter of weeks, this Golden Pasties winner had to wait more than a year and a half because her lawyer left her birth certificate out of the application and the adjudication officer kept sending requests for more evidence.
“I was a wreck, thinking at any minute they’re going to tell me you have to leave the country," she said. "It’s so hard to live your life that way. What do I do if I get kicked out? If I go back to Canada, I’ll have to get a desk job.” After $10,000 in legal fees, May got her ego-boosting green card in August.
She also was pregnant when she decided to apply for a green card early last year. Between bouts of morning sickness, she badgered big-name scientists who had cited her work to give her recommendations and began reviewing research to satisfy an application criterion.
Among the challenges: translating her biggest achievements -- isolating novel markers to identify stem cells that make bone, which could one day lead to disease cures -- in a way that would impress an adjudicator with no scientific expertise.
While statistics show the percentage of applications approved hit a decade high last year, some immigration lawyers think it's actually getting more difficult to make cases, with frequent requests for more evidence that underscore the subjective side of the process.
Jeff Goldman, who practices in Cambridge, Mass., said he had to get the National Basketball Association commissioner's office involved after the feds expressed skepticism about the worthiness of Cleveland Cavaliers forward Omri Casspi, who stars in cereal commercials in his native Israel, was a first-round draft pick and was named to the NBA's all-rookie team.
"We have seen over the years it's harder to get these cases approved," said Michael Wildes, a lawyer who helped supermodel Gisele Bundchen and golfer Greg Norman obtain green cards. "We've seen the government go through (applications) with a surgical knife."
Adjudicators go from screening ballerinas to biologists. While there are guidelines, "in practice, there's a big standard deviation," said Cletus Weber, an attorney from the Seattle area.
His first forecast is that inflation will be notably higher by 2015, perhaps somewhere in the 4-6 percent range, numbers that seem comfortable enough as double digit inflation is always touted as the scourge of the economic system and the precursor of doom for all that exchange currency for goods and services.
A little known fact is that 2 percent is the Fed’s preferred rate. It is therefore understandable that 10 percent or more could give some cause for worry. According to Yun, the rates hit double digits in the 1970s.
The net worth of households across the country is on the rise again having grown each quarter since the first quarter of 2009. Homeowner equity is on the rise, credit card debt is dropping, as is delinquency rate.
It is difficult to have credit card debt without a credit card, and qualifying for a credit card is much more difficult than it was years ago when they arrived in the mailboxes and begged whoever found the plastic to go somewhere and spend as much as they could.
It was interesting to see that the trade deficit is shrinking at a considerable rate after having been more than $700 billion. It has been at $400 billion for the past four years.
Along with those tidbits of good news, Yun noted that rental rates have climbed both in number of renters and how much they pay. Once again, the credit crunch helped those numbers inasmuch as fewer qualify for loans and they have to live somewhere and landowners have more ability to raise rental rates when homeownership is more difficult, in a good way, of course.
While the "extraordinary ability" route can be one of the fastest, persuading a faceless bureaucrat they deserve permanent residency can be a frustrating, expensive, even humbling experience for high achievers who may already be household names in their homelands.
“The process is a nightmare,” said Anju Singh, the researcher with the National Institutes of Health, who was born in India and studied and worked in the U.S. for nearly a decade before she pursued the coveted green card granting permanent U.S. residency.
The payoff, though, is something many immigrants with less impressive resumes can only dream about.
“I have never been so excited about a piece of plastic,” said Bettina May, the dancer and pinup model who left Canada to striptease on more fertile American soil. “And it’s actually green!”
Fewer than 4,000 extraordinary ability EB-1A green cards -- which don’t require a job offer from an American sponsor -- were approved last year. A third of the applications were rejected, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Have an Oscar, Nobel, Pulitzer or Olympic gold medal? Getting the card should be a breeze. But for other A-list artists, athletes, scientists, educators and entrepreneurs, reams of documentation are needed to show they meet at least three of 10 criteria for the program -- from awards and media coverage to high salary and membership in elite groups.
May was touring the U.S. on a one-year visa when she decided to apply. Over four months, she compiled a 2-inch-thick dossier to demonstrate burlesque was an art form and that she had made a unique contribution.
The file she submitted in December 2010 had clippings from papers around the country, tape of her appearance on a “Real Housewives” franchise, box-office receipts and hard-won letters of recommendation from producers and venue owners attesting that she is the creme de la Can-Can.
While Miss Universe can land a green card in a matter of weeks, this Golden Pasties winner had to wait more than a year and a half because her lawyer left her birth certificate out of the application and the adjudication officer kept sending requests for more evidence.
“I was a wreck, thinking at any minute they’re going to tell me you have to leave the country," she said. "It’s so hard to live your life that way. What do I do if I get kicked out? If I go back to Canada, I’ll have to get a desk job.” After $10,000 in legal fees, May got her ego-boosting green card in August.
She also was pregnant when she decided to apply for a green card early last year. Between bouts of morning sickness, she badgered big-name scientists who had cited her work to give her recommendations and began reviewing research to satisfy an application criterion.
Among the challenges: translating her biggest achievements -- isolating novel markers to identify stem cells that make bone, which could one day lead to disease cures -- in a way that would impress an adjudicator with no scientific expertise.
While statistics show the percentage of applications approved hit a decade high last year, some immigration lawyers think it's actually getting more difficult to make cases, with frequent requests for more evidence that underscore the subjective side of the process.
Jeff Goldman, who practices in Cambridge, Mass., said he had to get the National Basketball Association commissioner's office involved after the feds expressed skepticism about the worthiness of Cleveland Cavaliers forward Omri Casspi, who stars in cereal commercials in his native Israel, was a first-round draft pick and was named to the NBA's all-rookie team.
"We have seen over the years it's harder to get these cases approved," said Michael Wildes, a lawyer who helped supermodel Gisele Bundchen and golfer Greg Norman obtain green cards. "We've seen the government go through (applications) with a surgical knife."
Adjudicators go from screening ballerinas to biologists. While there are guidelines, "in practice, there's a big standard deviation," said Cletus Weber, an attorney from the Seattle area.
His first forecast is that inflation will be notably higher by 2015, perhaps somewhere in the 4-6 percent range, numbers that seem comfortable enough as double digit inflation is always touted as the scourge of the economic system and the precursor of doom for all that exchange currency for goods and services.
A little known fact is that 2 percent is the Fed’s preferred rate. It is therefore understandable that 10 percent or more could give some cause for worry. According to Yun, the rates hit double digits in the 1970s.
The net worth of households across the country is on the rise again having grown each quarter since the first quarter of 2009. Homeowner equity is on the rise, credit card debt is dropping, as is delinquency rate.
It is difficult to have credit card debt without a credit card, and qualifying for a credit card is much more difficult than it was years ago when they arrived in the mailboxes and begged whoever found the plastic to go somewhere and spend as much as they could.
It was interesting to see that the trade deficit is shrinking at a considerable rate after having been more than $700 billion. It has been at $400 billion for the past four years.
Along with those tidbits of good news, Yun noted that rental rates have climbed both in number of renters and how much they pay. Once again, the credit crunch helped those numbers inasmuch as fewer qualify for loans and they have to live somewhere and landowners have more ability to raise rental rates when homeownership is more difficult, in a good way, of course.
2013年4月10日星期三
Are package rates a solution to arbitrary claims settlement?
Mediclaim policyholders with cashless or reimbursement claim get a rude shock when the insurance company/third party administrator (TPA) approves partial amount for payment. In the cashless mode, you may have time to raise concerns and get higher amount approved before your procedure is done. In reimbursement mode, you have already left the hospital after the procedure and the only option is to continue your fight with the insurance company or give up.
In most cases, the insurance company will turn a deaf ear and show the “take it or leave it” attitude. So, you end up accepting the offer and keep quiet or get dragged for a long battle at the insurance ombudsman or consumer court. Are pre-declared package rates in a policy document a solution to arbitrary claims settlement? You will know what is paid by the insurer for the 42 standard procedures before you step inside the hospital.
Technically, if there is a proper contract between the hospital and insurer/TPA, cashless treatment should not have issues of partial amount approval. This is because the insurance company/TPA has already negotiated the rates with the hospital and hence ambiguity should not arise. But, there are numerous cases of cashless approval wherein the TPA may approve an amount lower than the hospital rate. Even with no fault of your own, you may have to face the brunt of under-approval by the TPA or over-charging by the hospital.
To add to the woes, government insurers stopped offering the cashless facility to the consumer since July 2010 in many of the leading hospitals. This impasse is primarily due to the inability of the insurers and medical fraternity to agree on package rates for the cashless facility. This has caused immense physical and mental hardships and financial strain to the consumer for almost three years now.
If cashless claim is out of question for the policyholder, reimbursement is a drawback for the policyholder as it means paying the hospital first and then receiving reimbursement from the insurance company. Many policies have room-rent and other restrictions, but even policies with no such restriction may not get the full amount approved simply because the hospital charges more than “reasonable and customary”. The insurer knows what it should pay for a specific procedure done in a particular type of hospital. It will also consider the room type where the insured stayed and city where hospital is located. The policyholder has no idea about what will be paid by the insurer and there starts the trouble for the insured.
If the package rate is known in advance, consumers can search for a facility which fits their budget and may even be able to negotiate with the doctors. There is a real need for it as Association of Hospitals and Bombay Nursing Homes Association submitted to the Bombay High Court that it cannot give fixed package rates and it is better for insurers to pre-declare package rates in their policy documents. AMC (Association of Medical Consultants) submitted to the Bombay High Court a document outlining its bracket rates stating that the rates are not meant to be a cap or limit to the fee of a professional and that the doctor’s professional charges if higher may have to be borne by the patient himself or herself. Considering these facts, it makes sense if the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) asks insurance companies to pre-declare the rates for the 42 standard procedures in the insurance policy document.
Here is an example that works on similar lines: CGHS (Central Government Health Scheme) provides retired government employees fixed package amounts for standard ailments, as fixed by the government, by taking into consideration various factors like cost of treatment, doctor’s fees, etc. These retired employees can take treatment from any hospital of their liking (outside the government network). They know in advance how much minimum amount they will get, giving further transparency and uniform applicability in the interest of justice.
On a Saturday night during the hectic swell of New York fashion week, the founders of Made fashion week, the presentation-and-party platform that twice a year becomes a crackling nexus of downtown fashion, are happily installed at their favorite hangout, the Standard Grill. It's that rare calm in the storm of New York's show season when the three of them can sit down together and drink tequila.
As they do, Mazdack Rassi, Jenné Lombardo, and Keith Baptista slip into familiar roles. Rassi, a born host, does the ordering. Baptista, exhausted but composed, sinks into his seat—he just produced Altuzarra, his third major show in three days. Lombardo, meanwhile, keeps a restless eye on the table next to us, where a group of vanilla-looking young ladies are eating fondue and giggling as they sip from a communal punch bowl. Lombardo tries valiantly not to comment, but holding back is simply not her style. "Missionary sex," she snipes. "All year long."
Mogul talk it isn't. Lombardo's knack for trash talk is matched by her late-night stamina, and Rassi, too, seems to come alive when those around him are throwing back shots and clapping shoulders. (Baptista keeps more conventional hours, not to mention a lower profile. "I'm the safe one," he told me.) But their festive lifestyle takes nothing away from the fact that Made has become a serious enterprise, and one that's growing fast. Since 2009, when Made launched with MAC cosmetics as a sponsored initiative that provided 27 emerging New York designers with presentations at Rassi's Milk Studios free of charge, the program's profile and reach have skyrocketed. The party spirit isn't beside the point. It may be a major part of it.
On one level, the flag that Made has planted is about brick-and-mortar. There's been a perceptible geographic shift of New York fashion week in recent seasons, away from the carpeted, trade-show atmosphere of Lincoln Center and toward downtown. This shift comes to a head at Milk Studios, the Made headquarters. Made, its founders want to make clear, isn't Milk. Milk hosts it, and Milk also exists outside of it: as a year-round photo studio, gallery, and general crossroads of everything from music to the skater scene. Milk is a venue. Made is a "culture," an "ecosystem." You might invoke the all-powerful B-word: It's a brand.
Unlike venues, cultures and brands can travel, and a pair of ambitious recent efforts to export Made outside the downtown environment aim to help it do just that. One was the transfer of the trio's sponsored-hub model to Paris, the other the debut of their first collection, Made4Impulse, for the fashion-forward Macy's line. It begs the question: Does everyone want a piece of Made? On the retail side, the answer isn't yet clear. But on the sponsorship side, interest is high: Though MAC remains an important partner for Made, there's now a flow of inquiries so steady that a major agency, CAA, has been brought on to help sift through them.
Whatever else the trio's intentions may be, kicking up dust is key among them. "Disruptive" is how Rassi describes their approach, with boyish enthusiasm. "People say we're breaking the rules," Lombardo says. "I think we just saw the necessity for change."
It all began with a photo studio. Rassi, then working in real estate, opened Milk in the nineties. Calvin Klein showed there starting in 1998, and Rassi would let unknown designers piggyback on those shows with presentations of their own. The up-and-comers paid what they could for the privilege—until 2009, when the economy was in the tank and they couldn't pay at all. Rassi discussed the situation with Lombardo, who at that time worked for MAC. She convinced her bosses there to bankroll designer presentations and events at Milk—in exchange, Rassi said with offhand canniness, for "a little R&D."
Rassi remembers the early days fondly. "The energy was unbelievable. Kids running through the hallways, high-fiving each other—it was true collaboration, true New York." Realizing they needed production know-how, he and Lombardo brought in their friend Baptista, a highly respected event and show producer.
In most cases, the insurance company will turn a deaf ear and show the “take it or leave it” attitude. So, you end up accepting the offer and keep quiet or get dragged for a long battle at the insurance ombudsman or consumer court. Are pre-declared package rates in a policy document a solution to arbitrary claims settlement? You will know what is paid by the insurer for the 42 standard procedures before you step inside the hospital.
Technically, if there is a proper contract between the hospital and insurer/TPA, cashless treatment should not have issues of partial amount approval. This is because the insurance company/TPA has already negotiated the rates with the hospital and hence ambiguity should not arise. But, there are numerous cases of cashless approval wherein the TPA may approve an amount lower than the hospital rate. Even with no fault of your own, you may have to face the brunt of under-approval by the TPA or over-charging by the hospital.
To add to the woes, government insurers stopped offering the cashless facility to the consumer since July 2010 in many of the leading hospitals. This impasse is primarily due to the inability of the insurers and medical fraternity to agree on package rates for the cashless facility. This has caused immense physical and mental hardships and financial strain to the consumer for almost three years now.
If cashless claim is out of question for the policyholder, reimbursement is a drawback for the policyholder as it means paying the hospital first and then receiving reimbursement from the insurance company. Many policies have room-rent and other restrictions, but even policies with no such restriction may not get the full amount approved simply because the hospital charges more than “reasonable and customary”. The insurer knows what it should pay for a specific procedure done in a particular type of hospital. It will also consider the room type where the insured stayed and city where hospital is located. The policyholder has no idea about what will be paid by the insurer and there starts the trouble for the insured.
If the package rate is known in advance, consumers can search for a facility which fits their budget and may even be able to negotiate with the doctors. There is a real need for it as Association of Hospitals and Bombay Nursing Homes Association submitted to the Bombay High Court that it cannot give fixed package rates and it is better for insurers to pre-declare package rates in their policy documents. AMC (Association of Medical Consultants) submitted to the Bombay High Court a document outlining its bracket rates stating that the rates are not meant to be a cap or limit to the fee of a professional and that the doctor’s professional charges if higher may have to be borne by the patient himself or herself. Considering these facts, it makes sense if the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) asks insurance companies to pre-declare the rates for the 42 standard procedures in the insurance policy document.
Here is an example that works on similar lines: CGHS (Central Government Health Scheme) provides retired government employees fixed package amounts for standard ailments, as fixed by the government, by taking into consideration various factors like cost of treatment, doctor’s fees, etc. These retired employees can take treatment from any hospital of their liking (outside the government network). They know in advance how much minimum amount they will get, giving further transparency and uniform applicability in the interest of justice.
On a Saturday night during the hectic swell of New York fashion week, the founders of Made fashion week, the presentation-and-party platform that twice a year becomes a crackling nexus of downtown fashion, are happily installed at their favorite hangout, the Standard Grill. It's that rare calm in the storm of New York's show season when the three of them can sit down together and drink tequila.
As they do, Mazdack Rassi, Jenné Lombardo, and Keith Baptista slip into familiar roles. Rassi, a born host, does the ordering. Baptista, exhausted but composed, sinks into his seat—he just produced Altuzarra, his third major show in three days. Lombardo, meanwhile, keeps a restless eye on the table next to us, where a group of vanilla-looking young ladies are eating fondue and giggling as they sip from a communal punch bowl. Lombardo tries valiantly not to comment, but holding back is simply not her style. "Missionary sex," she snipes. "All year long."
Mogul talk it isn't. Lombardo's knack for trash talk is matched by her late-night stamina, and Rassi, too, seems to come alive when those around him are throwing back shots and clapping shoulders. (Baptista keeps more conventional hours, not to mention a lower profile. "I'm the safe one," he told me.) But their festive lifestyle takes nothing away from the fact that Made has become a serious enterprise, and one that's growing fast. Since 2009, when Made launched with MAC cosmetics as a sponsored initiative that provided 27 emerging New York designers with presentations at Rassi's Milk Studios free of charge, the program's profile and reach have skyrocketed. The party spirit isn't beside the point. It may be a major part of it.
On one level, the flag that Made has planted is about brick-and-mortar. There's been a perceptible geographic shift of New York fashion week in recent seasons, away from the carpeted, trade-show atmosphere of Lincoln Center and toward downtown. This shift comes to a head at Milk Studios, the Made headquarters. Made, its founders want to make clear, isn't Milk. Milk hosts it, and Milk also exists outside of it: as a year-round photo studio, gallery, and general crossroads of everything from music to the skater scene. Milk is a venue. Made is a "culture," an "ecosystem." You might invoke the all-powerful B-word: It's a brand.
Unlike venues, cultures and brands can travel, and a pair of ambitious recent efforts to export Made outside the downtown environment aim to help it do just that. One was the transfer of the trio's sponsored-hub model to Paris, the other the debut of their first collection, Made4Impulse, for the fashion-forward Macy's line. It begs the question: Does everyone want a piece of Made? On the retail side, the answer isn't yet clear. But on the sponsorship side, interest is high: Though MAC remains an important partner for Made, there's now a flow of inquiries so steady that a major agency, CAA, has been brought on to help sift through them.
Whatever else the trio's intentions may be, kicking up dust is key among them. "Disruptive" is how Rassi describes their approach, with boyish enthusiasm. "People say we're breaking the rules," Lombardo says. "I think we just saw the necessity for change."
It all began with a photo studio. Rassi, then working in real estate, opened Milk in the nineties. Calvin Klein showed there starting in 1998, and Rassi would let unknown designers piggyback on those shows with presentations of their own. The up-and-comers paid what they could for the privilege—until 2009, when the economy was in the tank and they couldn't pay at all. Rassi discussed the situation with Lombardo, who at that time worked for MAC. She convinced her bosses there to bankroll designer presentations and events at Milk—in exchange, Rassi said with offhand canniness, for "a little R&D."
Rassi remembers the early days fondly. "The energy was unbelievable. Kids running through the hallways, high-fiving each other—it was true collaboration, true New York." Realizing they needed production know-how, he and Lombardo brought in their friend Baptista, a highly respected event and show producer.
2013年4月8日星期一
Universal Commerce Will Force Retailers to Change
Technology advances have greatly impacted the payments industry and consumers now expect a more integrated buying experience that is not only quick, consistent and secure, but also readily available and accessible wherever they are. Convenience store operators are recognizing that customer interactions are no longer limited to the confines of brick-and-mortar establishments.
This new reality of increased information and access to sophisticated technology that is transforming today’s commerce can best be described as Universal Commerce. The driving enabler of Universal Commerce is the technology behind smart devices, mobile transactions and personalized offers, among others.
According to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, 83 percent of U.S. consumers go online to research electronics, computers, books, music and movies before buying those items in brick-and-mortar stores. It is crucial that store operators acknowledge this new wave of technology behind the latest payment solutions and deliver the experiences that customers want and, in fact, are creating for themselves.
Offering these seamless and integrated engagement experiences, though, requires rethinking basic business models, practices, processes and the technology infrastructure that supports them.
Devices such as tablets and smartphones enable store operators to execute highly targeted promotions that are proving much more cost effective than broad, poorly focused awareness advertising. The lines are blurring between in-store commerce, eCommerce and mobile commerce. Smart devices have opened the door to prepaid mobile applications (apps), smartphone-based media purchases, and near-field communication or cloud-based technology.
Consumers are not just using their smartphones to socialize with a select few on social networks, but rather to log on to user review sites, gain knowledge from people they are connected with, and take advantage of virtual wallets to make online purchases that they will redeem in-store.
The popularity and demand for electronic promotions is another increasingly influential consideration on the payments industry because of technology. By using electronic promotions, consumers can consolidate and track personal offers, ensuring a higher redemption rate. These capabilities alter the economics of offers and loyalty programs, and also provide merchants with detailed data revealing customer shopping behavior.
Mobile devices are at the forefront of changing how consumers go about their daily lives – and in particular, how they are monitoring their finances and making purchases. Commerce-enabled mobile devices allow users to manage multiple accounts whether they are credit, debit or merchant-specific. By simplifying how resources are managed, consumers can improve financial monitoring and purchasing decisions, and experience faster, simpler transactions to eliminate dependency on credit cards, debit cards, checks and cash.
Consider that in a recent First Data Corp. study, 60 percent of consumers surveyed said they believe contactless payments translate into faster transactions, with 36 percent saying mobile purchasing is more convenient than using a credit or debit card in person at the store.
As technology matures and new options become available, consumers will continue to gain confidence in the security of mobile payments and be more aware of the technology features in place — such as the layered security concept — to protect their data. In fact, experts predict that most consumers will have embraced mobile payments by 2020, wiping out the need for cash and credit cards, according to a 2012 Pew Research Center report.
Technology is also helping to provide software developers and direct-connect merchants with a streamlined way to deliver payment-rich applications through a single interface that empowers customers to pay any way and anywhere they choose. By doing so, merchants can reduce the time, cost and complexity of integrating with their payments processor, which includes simplified testing and certification, expediting time to the market.
Businesses that accept credit or debit payments will also need to ensure ongoing heightened compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). But this process doesn’t have to be time consuming or difficult – especially with the right tools in place. The good news is technology exists that helps small to mid-sized merchants rapidly achieve and maintain PCI-DSS certification. This would include point-to-point encryption and tokenization solutions.
As consumers continue to demand more convenience, store operators should also consider how EuroPay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) technology affects their businesses and look into options for accepting chip-based credit and debit cards.
In the coming year, non-cash payments will continue to be a significant component of most businesses’ receivables. Beyond traditional debit and credit, transactions made by mobile devices and contactless cards will gain popularity. Proactively researching and investing in smart solutions that work today will ensure that retailers are prepared for what’s to come.
Like financial institutions, c-store retailers must recognize they need to adapt to the new ways of doing business in order to survive in today’s marketplace and embrace technology as it becomes available. By adopting the same Universal Commerce attitude as consumers, customizing it to their business and choosing the right partners to integrate cutting-edge technology, c-store operators will be able to create more innovative solutions that can help increase customer loyalty, boost repeat business and leave more customers satisfied.
This new reality of increased information and access to sophisticated technology that is transforming today’s commerce can best be described as Universal Commerce. The driving enabler of Universal Commerce is the technology behind smart devices, mobile transactions and personalized offers, among others.
According to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, 83 percent of U.S. consumers go online to research electronics, computers, books, music and movies before buying those items in brick-and-mortar stores. It is crucial that store operators acknowledge this new wave of technology behind the latest payment solutions and deliver the experiences that customers want and, in fact, are creating for themselves.
Offering these seamless and integrated engagement experiences, though, requires rethinking basic business models, practices, processes and the technology infrastructure that supports them.
Devices such as tablets and smartphones enable store operators to execute highly targeted promotions that are proving much more cost effective than broad, poorly focused awareness advertising. The lines are blurring between in-store commerce, eCommerce and mobile commerce. Smart devices have opened the door to prepaid mobile applications (apps), smartphone-based media purchases, and near-field communication or cloud-based technology.
Consumers are not just using their smartphones to socialize with a select few on social networks, but rather to log on to user review sites, gain knowledge from people they are connected with, and take advantage of virtual wallets to make online purchases that they will redeem in-store.
The popularity and demand for electronic promotions is another increasingly influential consideration on the payments industry because of technology. By using electronic promotions, consumers can consolidate and track personal offers, ensuring a higher redemption rate. These capabilities alter the economics of offers and loyalty programs, and also provide merchants with detailed data revealing customer shopping behavior.
Mobile devices are at the forefront of changing how consumers go about their daily lives – and in particular, how they are monitoring their finances and making purchases. Commerce-enabled mobile devices allow users to manage multiple accounts whether they are credit, debit or merchant-specific. By simplifying how resources are managed, consumers can improve financial monitoring and purchasing decisions, and experience faster, simpler transactions to eliminate dependency on credit cards, debit cards, checks and cash.
Consider that in a recent First Data Corp. study, 60 percent of consumers surveyed said they believe contactless payments translate into faster transactions, with 36 percent saying mobile purchasing is more convenient than using a credit or debit card in person at the store.
As technology matures and new options become available, consumers will continue to gain confidence in the security of mobile payments and be more aware of the technology features in place — such as the layered security concept — to protect their data. In fact, experts predict that most consumers will have embraced mobile payments by 2020, wiping out the need for cash and credit cards, according to a 2012 Pew Research Center report.
Technology is also helping to provide software developers and direct-connect merchants with a streamlined way to deliver payment-rich applications through a single interface that empowers customers to pay any way and anywhere they choose. By doing so, merchants can reduce the time, cost and complexity of integrating with their payments processor, which includes simplified testing and certification, expediting time to the market.
Businesses that accept credit or debit payments will also need to ensure ongoing heightened compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). But this process doesn’t have to be time consuming or difficult – especially with the right tools in place. The good news is technology exists that helps small to mid-sized merchants rapidly achieve and maintain PCI-DSS certification. This would include point-to-point encryption and tokenization solutions.
As consumers continue to demand more convenience, store operators should also consider how EuroPay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) technology affects their businesses and look into options for accepting chip-based credit and debit cards.
In the coming year, non-cash payments will continue to be a significant component of most businesses’ receivables. Beyond traditional debit and credit, transactions made by mobile devices and contactless cards will gain popularity. Proactively researching and investing in smart solutions that work today will ensure that retailers are prepared for what’s to come.
Like financial institutions, c-store retailers must recognize they need to adapt to the new ways of doing business in order to survive in today’s marketplace and embrace technology as it becomes available. By adopting the same Universal Commerce attitude as consumers, customizing it to their business and choosing the right partners to integrate cutting-edge technology, c-store operators will be able to create more innovative solutions that can help increase customer loyalty, boost repeat business and leave more customers satisfied.
2013年4月1日星期一
Rickshaws, Helicopters, Submarines, You Name It
I still haven't watched last week's episode, which aired while I was on vacation, so I have no idea what it was about. Smart money's on "ridiculous rich people doing rich-people things," which is also what we're presented with as this week's episode opens. Kim and Kourtney climb aboard personal watercraft for some of the least-needed R&R in history, except someone's tied some complicated-ass knots in the ropes securing the personal watercraft to the boat they're moored to. Scott remarks on this repeatedly. Like, seriously, who tied up these personal watercraft with these goofy knots? You crazy for this one, knot-tiers! It's not the greatest cold open. Eventually the knots are undone, and off Kim and Kourtney go, across the water and out of sight, and for a moment we all get to imagine what it would be like if they never came back, but they do. They always do.
Nighttime, Kim and Scott, in the black Rolls, Scott at the wheel. "I swear there must be something in our food," Kim says. "Why do so many women my age have fertility problems?" Scott asks Kim if, in the event that she did become pregnant, she'd absolutely keep it; Kim says she can't imagine doing otherwise. She says, "I feel like that would be a little selfish, to me," so I guess she's against it because only being a little selfish is not the Kardashian way? There is discussion of whether Kris Jenner would be an egg donor for Kim if push came to creepy gross insect-queen-hive birthing-matrix shove; Scott suggests that Kris, preferring to do things "the old-fashioned way," would say, "Tell Kanye to come on over!" instead. Kim calls Kris, who tells her, "I haven't had an egg since 1998," and we're spared further nightmare-fuel.
Another day, another car, an SUV, Scott in the back on his way to the airport for a personal appearance in Vegas, Miami blowing past through purplish polarized windows. Scott takes a call from his friend Benny, says, "Are you in Vegas yet?" and immediately touches his balls. I'm pretty sure that's what happened. I ran it back a couple of times. This is my job. Anyway: He's going to Vegas, bros in tow, and he's bringing his testicles, is the point of this scene. Scott makes another call: "Feinstein, what are you doing, you sick fuck?" (Michael? Dianne?)
Brandon and Leah Jenner drop by the Miami house for a visit on their way to play their music on a cruise ship. Great art finds its level. Khloe talks about her fertility struggles and how she doesn't ovulate and how her "uterus lining" isn't thick enough. Kourtney tells the talking-head camera that Khloe's situation makes her sad. Meanwhile in Vegas — where sadness goes to drown itself in watered well-booze and wakes up face-down in a half-eaten room-service quesadilla — Scott's at a club inside the Paris Las Vegas hotel/casino's Eiffel Tower simulacrum, doing whatever it is people pay him to show up and do. Sometimes that means dressing even more like Patrick Bateman than usual and throwing money at people, but tonight it just means getting wasted — or at least, since there's a cut here from Scott sipping a Bud Light bottle to him yelling "I love my Armenian friend!" and "Let's get in this [bleeping] 1997 Town Car!" while presumably after-party bound, that's the conclusion I'm drawing.
Back in Miami, Kim and Kourtney are still looking for a place to locate the new Dash store. The search for the new pope didn't take as long as it's taking Kim and Kourtney to settle on a new Dash store. It's almost as if they have nothing else to do. Anyway, they seem to have found a place. It's a store. Problem solved, maybe, which means Kim and Kourtney can go back to talking about Khloe's uterus. Dash Director of Stores Slash Buyer Slash Long-Sufferer of All This Bullshit Roya Bahrami suggests that Kourtney could be Khloe's surrogate, and somewhere in the control room at E! some producer blows the special reggaeton air horn they keep around for moments like this, when a B-plot presents itself, or "presents itself." There is talk about how weird it would be for Kourtney to carry a baby the size of Lamar Odom inside her body, because that is how pregnancy works.
Scott comes home from Miami real faded and turns down dinner with Kourtney in favor of Gatorade and the returning of obviously phantom business calls. Kim and Khloe wrap themselves in cozy throws and talk a bunch of shit about Scott's "double life." Quick flashbacks: Scott getting handsy with Khloe/Scott falling in Chapman Ducote's pool. Kim says maybe she should hire Jake, the private investigator from a few episodes ago, to follow Scott around and see what he's up to. Khloe says this is probably a bad idea, and Kim says, "Yeah, you're right," and that's the end of that. April Fool's! What she actually says is, "We need to find out the truth. It's our duty to, like, step in," unable to suppress that smile that always creeps across her face when she's about to chuck a grenade up into the tank-turret of somebody's personal life. Kim just wants to watch the world burn, is the truth. "Nothing good could come out of Jake," Khloe says, to nobody.
Khloe and the talking cow skulls in her dry-gulch Wild West ghost town of a uterus play hide-and-seek with Mason, spurring Kourtney to float the surrogacy idea past Scott, who's not into it: "You don't just go puttin' babies in other sisters because you can!" The important thing about this scene is that Kourtney's wearing some absurd neon-pink sweatsuit that says K-DOLL on the front; she identifies it as being from the Dash collection, because apparently it's Flog the Brand Like a Recalcitrant Plow Horse Week this week.
Kim meets Jake the private eye at an Alaska Coffee Roasting. Jake (whose beard still looks like something you'd purchase at a Halloween store to complete your racist Ming the Merciless costume) tells her the teen runaway they went looking for a few weeks ago is "still out there." Yeah, yeah, whatever — on to the meddling. Kim explains the situation, such as it is, and Jake says he'll need her to provide Scott's phone records and his credit card, and that he'll need to know which car Scott drives the most so he can put a tracking device on it. Jake also warns her that things will never be the same if she goes down this road, but presumably this last part sounds like mere notes on a muted trumpet by the time it reaches Kim's ears, because in the next scene there she is, opening the garage door so Jake can stick a transponder on Lord Disick's Rolls.
Kourtney takes a call from a surrogacy specialist named Dr. Boostanfar, who talks to her about how easy being a gestational carrier is. Kim goes out to dinner with Jonathan Cheban at a restaurant where the waitress asks Cheban, "You love soul food, right?" Cheban says, "Who doesn't, right?" and then Kim says, "I love me some ribs," and at this point I black out for a few seconds. Kim tells Cheban that Kourtney's going to be a surrogate for Khloe — presenting the news as if the decision's already been made — and Cheban says he wants to cry at this news, and then Kim says she's just kidding, but wouldn't that be great? Then she laughs so hard she accidentally spits in her own hair. "You bring out emotion in me, and this is what I get back?" Cheban says. They have the OMG-imagine-Kourtney-pregnant-with-a-giant-freakish-Lamar-sized-baby conversation again.
Kim hangs out in the kitchen shooting the breeze with Scott like she's not about to jump in a car with a private investigator and follow him around the minute he leaves the house, which is exactly what she does. Scott drives around for a while, then pulls up to "this really random home" and goes inside. Kim says that if Scott is going to do "something crazy" it's her job to "put a stop to it," as if there's a possibility Scott's double life involves plotting to assassinate a visiting head of state and plunge America into war rather than, like, handjobs.
Nighttime, Kim and Scott, in the black Rolls, Scott at the wheel. "I swear there must be something in our food," Kim says. "Why do so many women my age have fertility problems?" Scott asks Kim if, in the event that she did become pregnant, she'd absolutely keep it; Kim says she can't imagine doing otherwise. She says, "I feel like that would be a little selfish, to me," so I guess she's against it because only being a little selfish is not the Kardashian way? There is discussion of whether Kris Jenner would be an egg donor for Kim if push came to creepy gross insect-queen-hive birthing-matrix shove; Scott suggests that Kris, preferring to do things "the old-fashioned way," would say, "Tell Kanye to come on over!" instead. Kim calls Kris, who tells her, "I haven't had an egg since 1998," and we're spared further nightmare-fuel.
Another day, another car, an SUV, Scott in the back on his way to the airport for a personal appearance in Vegas, Miami blowing past through purplish polarized windows. Scott takes a call from his friend Benny, says, "Are you in Vegas yet?" and immediately touches his balls. I'm pretty sure that's what happened. I ran it back a couple of times. This is my job. Anyway: He's going to Vegas, bros in tow, and he's bringing his testicles, is the point of this scene. Scott makes another call: "Feinstein, what are you doing, you sick fuck?" (Michael? Dianne?)
Brandon and Leah Jenner drop by the Miami house for a visit on their way to play their music on a cruise ship. Great art finds its level. Khloe talks about her fertility struggles and how she doesn't ovulate and how her "uterus lining" isn't thick enough. Kourtney tells the talking-head camera that Khloe's situation makes her sad. Meanwhile in Vegas — where sadness goes to drown itself in watered well-booze and wakes up face-down in a half-eaten room-service quesadilla — Scott's at a club inside the Paris Las Vegas hotel/casino's Eiffel Tower simulacrum, doing whatever it is people pay him to show up and do. Sometimes that means dressing even more like Patrick Bateman than usual and throwing money at people, but tonight it just means getting wasted — or at least, since there's a cut here from Scott sipping a Bud Light bottle to him yelling "I love my Armenian friend!" and "Let's get in this [bleeping] 1997 Town Car!" while presumably after-party bound, that's the conclusion I'm drawing.
Back in Miami, Kim and Kourtney are still looking for a place to locate the new Dash store. The search for the new pope didn't take as long as it's taking Kim and Kourtney to settle on a new Dash store. It's almost as if they have nothing else to do. Anyway, they seem to have found a place. It's a store. Problem solved, maybe, which means Kim and Kourtney can go back to talking about Khloe's uterus. Dash Director of Stores Slash Buyer Slash Long-Sufferer of All This Bullshit Roya Bahrami suggests that Kourtney could be Khloe's surrogate, and somewhere in the control room at E! some producer blows the special reggaeton air horn they keep around for moments like this, when a B-plot presents itself, or "presents itself." There is talk about how weird it would be for Kourtney to carry a baby the size of Lamar Odom inside her body, because that is how pregnancy works.
Scott comes home from Miami real faded and turns down dinner with Kourtney in favor of Gatorade and the returning of obviously phantom business calls. Kim and Khloe wrap themselves in cozy throws and talk a bunch of shit about Scott's "double life." Quick flashbacks: Scott getting handsy with Khloe/Scott falling in Chapman Ducote's pool. Kim says maybe she should hire Jake, the private investigator from a few episodes ago, to follow Scott around and see what he's up to. Khloe says this is probably a bad idea, and Kim says, "Yeah, you're right," and that's the end of that. April Fool's! What she actually says is, "We need to find out the truth. It's our duty to, like, step in," unable to suppress that smile that always creeps across her face when she's about to chuck a grenade up into the tank-turret of somebody's personal life. Kim just wants to watch the world burn, is the truth. "Nothing good could come out of Jake," Khloe says, to nobody.
Khloe and the talking cow skulls in her dry-gulch Wild West ghost town of a uterus play hide-and-seek with Mason, spurring Kourtney to float the surrogacy idea past Scott, who's not into it: "You don't just go puttin' babies in other sisters because you can!" The important thing about this scene is that Kourtney's wearing some absurd neon-pink sweatsuit that says K-DOLL on the front; she identifies it as being from the Dash collection, because apparently it's Flog the Brand Like a Recalcitrant Plow Horse Week this week.
Kim meets Jake the private eye at an Alaska Coffee Roasting. Jake (whose beard still looks like something you'd purchase at a Halloween store to complete your racist Ming the Merciless costume) tells her the teen runaway they went looking for a few weeks ago is "still out there." Yeah, yeah, whatever — on to the meddling. Kim explains the situation, such as it is, and Jake says he'll need her to provide Scott's phone records and his credit card, and that he'll need to know which car Scott drives the most so he can put a tracking device on it. Jake also warns her that things will never be the same if she goes down this road, but presumably this last part sounds like mere notes on a muted trumpet by the time it reaches Kim's ears, because in the next scene there she is, opening the garage door so Jake can stick a transponder on Lord Disick's Rolls.
Kourtney takes a call from a surrogacy specialist named Dr. Boostanfar, who talks to her about how easy being a gestational carrier is. Kim goes out to dinner with Jonathan Cheban at a restaurant where the waitress asks Cheban, "You love soul food, right?" Cheban says, "Who doesn't, right?" and then Kim says, "I love me some ribs," and at this point I black out for a few seconds. Kim tells Cheban that Kourtney's going to be a surrogate for Khloe — presenting the news as if the decision's already been made — and Cheban says he wants to cry at this news, and then Kim says she's just kidding, but wouldn't that be great? Then she laughs so hard she accidentally spits in her own hair. "You bring out emotion in me, and this is what I get back?" Cheban says. They have the OMG-imagine-Kourtney-pregnant-with-a-giant-freakish-Lamar-sized-baby conversation again.
Kim hangs out in the kitchen shooting the breeze with Scott like she's not about to jump in a car with a private investigator and follow him around the minute he leaves the house, which is exactly what she does. Scott drives around for a while, then pulls up to "this really random home" and goes inside. Kim says that if Scott is going to do "something crazy" it's her job to "put a stop to it," as if there's a possibility Scott's double life involves plotting to assassinate a visiting head of state and plunge America into war rather than, like, handjobs.
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