Get in a great workout before you go to your Independence Day celebration. Either the night before or the morning of, hit the gym with gusto, go for a good run or bike ride or take a nice sweaty hike with a friend or spouse or whatever . Rev up your metabolism with some light snacks before you exercise and a little something with protein and carbs right after. You'll feel less like scarfng down everything you see at the party if you don't starve yourself all morning.
Hydrate like crazy. Drink more, eat less -- but not in the aforementioned rock star way, of course. Sometimes we crave starchy foods when we're thirsty. So keep a cold water bottle at hand all day. On occasion, I even recommend a low or no calorie energy drink if you're feeling sluggish from the heat. Don't make it a habit, but sometimes a no-cal Red Bull or Monster-type drink will help you stay active at the beach (or wherever your party is) and keep the hunger at bay. Of course, all good things come to an end, and when the caffeine wears off, beware that you may be extra hungry so keep that water pumping.
Play party games, not card games. If you're going to a party or hosting one, start a game that requires people to be active. Even if you're just standing and cheering at a volleyball game or flag football, it's better to be on your feet on the sand or grass than on your behind.
Exercise your food options! Surely people are going to grill burgers and dogs and if budget is an issue, chances are the meat is going to be the low quality, high fat type. So splurge on bringing the right rtls for you. Turkey burgers or franks, chicken sausages and veggie patties are all much better for you and a lot lower in calories and heart-clogging fat. Don't forget the green salad and veggies too.
Watch out for the double and triple starches. If you're diabetic you already may know this from your doctor. If you're drinking beer, skip the buns and corn on the cob. If you'd rather have bread or pasta salad, don't get in line at that keg. Or go halvsies: half of a bun on your burger and a light beer is a good compromise. You get the picture. If you must have it all, have a mini serving of each. Nothing makes you feel more bloated than a starch binge and it's not muy bueno for the blood sugar either.
After-party hangover blues? You gotta move, but not just to the medicine cabinet for ibuprofen and Pepto Bismol! Hangovers will abate faster if you get your metabolism up and sweat. As hard as it is to get started, be sure to get some exercise and fresh air the day after (this is good advice after any celebration).
Post-party fasting. You just might be able to undo the damage if you give your body a break the next day. Personally I'm not a fan of regular fasting but I do understand why it has certain benefits. My grandmother did it once a month. You can do it by drinking plenty of water or juicing vegetables the next day. Or, just eat super light the day after your celebration especially if you're diabetic, exercising or suffer from hypoglycemia. Play it smart by checking with your doctor beforehand.
This tip is so L.A., but come late and leave early, or party hop. If you don't stay too long at any one party, you won't drink too much (particularly if you're the designated driver, I hope) and you won't have as much time to eat. It's still rude to dine and dash, right?
If you're not hitting the gym or doing a workout the morning of and the morning after, sleep in. Research has shown that hunger hormones balance out in your favor when you get more sleep. In one well documented study, people who slept closer to eight hours a night had lower levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin and higher levels of leptin. That's what you want because higher ghrelin levels make you feel hungry and low levels of leptin signal your body to have a bigger appetite.
If none of these strategies work for you, it may time for professional help. If you continue to keep gaining weight all summer, there might be a deeper, underlying problem. It may be as simple as hiring a personal trainer or health coach to get you in the habit of eating better and exercising more or it could be something more serious like depression, hormonal changes, or a combination of things. Remember there's nothing wrong with asking for help!
The Colorado Department of Health and Environment is suspending all testing of blood-alcohol and blood-drug levels at its state toxicology lab pending an investigation to see if they are being done correctly.
An independent lab will take over testing any new or unprocessed samples in the meantime. And it will also retest as many as 800 blood-alcohol samples done by the state lab to ensure they were accurate.
The report found employees are not properly trained to conduct blood-alcohol tests, the linchpin of many drunk driving cases, and that they weren’t properly trained to teach new employees to do them.It also found that employees weren’t adequately trained to give expert testimony in court and that blood samples awaiting testing weren’t stored in a locked refrigerator.
And investigators found it “more than likely” that an unnamed supervisor made comments to suggest she was biased in favor of prosecutors. Employees reported overhearing the supervisor make statements like, “I really stuck it to the defendant today,” and “I’m sure he’s going to jail.”
That bias was also manifest in the supervisor’s habit of making “excessive accommodations for prosecutors and law enforcement agencies,” resulting in a greater workload.The report opened the door for legal challenges in hundreds of drunk driving cases and led to the resignation of the supervisor cited in the report.
Dr. Chris Urbina, the state’s chief medical officer, also resigned, saying in a press release that he’s stepping down to “explore other opportunities.”
In addition to suspending the blood tests, the lab will be audited by the Association of Public Health Laboratories and as many as 800 blood samples will be retested for accuracy by an independent lab, according to a story on Denver’s 7News.
“We will have an independent laboratory retest approximately 800 blood-alcohol samples to verify the state toxicology lab’s blood-alcohol test results,” Urbina told the station on his last day of work on Friday.
Read the full story at www.ecived.com/en/!
2013年7月2日星期二
2013年2月16日星期六
Good neighbours, industrious immigrants recalled amid remnants
An old fountain stands dry, the well-tended garden is gone and the Fuoco family doesn’t live at 640 Lorne anymore, but the modest house survives as a reminder of the city’s industrious and close-knit past.
The theme of this year’s Heritage Week is Good Neighbours, which could easily apply to Benny and Clelia Fuoco, who came to Kamloops to escape the crushing poverty of southern Italy, 99 years ago.
Their former home, built in 1908 by Joseph Ratchford, is one of 10 city homes so far recognized with centennial plaques. A ’50s-style stucco job belies some finer qualities within — ceramic tile floors, oak paneling and a stain-resistant concrete floor in the basement for winemaking.
“There’s a lot of history here,” said grandson Reg Fuoco. “We’ve had four generations of family living here.”
Next door stands the original Recchi family home, the only other remaining house in what was once the hub of a thriving neighbourhood. In between, there once stood a little laundry business. Benny allowed a Chinese man to live in his yard for free in a laundry shack. The immigrant community tended to stick together, Reg said.
Locked in the garage nearby sits his grandfather’s 1929 Dodge in perfect condition. Talk of the car reminded Reg of a chance encounter almost 50 years ago. It was the year after the B.C. Lions won their first Grey Cup, by which time quarterback Joe Kapp was a household name.
A Mustang convertible — it was the first year of production for pony cars — pulled up. Kapp was at the wheel, wanting to buy the vintage Dodge. Twelve years old at the time, the young Fuoco didn’t appreciate the significance when his grandfather identified the man.
The family rents the house now, and Reg doesn’t think it will withstand development pressure. What happens when the good neighbours have moved away and the neighbourhood is in transition, surrounded by higher-density housing, commercial or industrial properties?
Scarlett describes the luxurious 1650-squarefoot Florence floor plan as "bright and open." The open concept main floor makes hosting guests a pleasure and the natural gas fireplace creates a cosy night by the fire with family or friends.
Large windows in the living area and long rectangular windows in the dining let in tons of natural light. The home also includes a deck off the dining room, another standard feature Scarlett explains.
On the second level, two large bedrooms provide enough room for a double bed in each or a roomy office space instead.
"Some floor plans don't allow room in the extra bedrooms for even a double bed," says Scarlett. "But these are big."
A handy laundry room on the upper level offers a convenient sink and large linen closet for storage.
The master bedroom beams with plenty of natural light and lots of space.
The grand ensuite includes lots of extras, such as his and her sinks, jetted tub, tiled shower and walk-in closet with custom shelving.
This is the first show home for Homes by Montebello. With so many standard bonus features, it will definitely not be the last. Project manager Graham Figg expects to do around 10 homes this year. Last year, the company built several in-fill houses, two duplexes and seven houses.
Looking for the perfect house at the perfect price in the perfect location? Look no further! This newly-completed gem of a home is just inside the city limits of Wolfforth to provide you the utility and efficiency amenities, yet just outside the hustle and bustle that Lubbock can hold. It is located for the most desired schools that the acclaimed Frenship School District has to offer. In the popular subdivision of Preston Estates, 1507 Yorkshire is found on a wide, quiet cul-de-sac street which lends you the privacy you’ve been wishing for.
Whether you’re a single home buyer or one looking for a home to accommodate your growing family, this 1,789 square foot plan should fit the bill. To describe this home as “a three bedroom, two bath, two car garage” would be remiss. The openness of the pillared entry, dining area, living room with corner fireplace, and spacious kitchen with pantry together give you room to relax and to interact with your loved ones and friends. For take-home work, an office nook is an added surprise. The personality-plus master hosts a box ceiling, an oversized shower, a deep and inviting tub, and his-and-her separated closets.
Quality and nouveau style best describe the decorator amenities. From the rubbed bronze lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures, cabinetry pulls, and doorknobs to the woodgrain offset floor tile and speckled twill carpeting, no extra on your want list will be left unchecked!
The theme of this year’s Heritage Week is Good Neighbours, which could easily apply to Benny and Clelia Fuoco, who came to Kamloops to escape the crushing poverty of southern Italy, 99 years ago.
Their former home, built in 1908 by Joseph Ratchford, is one of 10 city homes so far recognized with centennial plaques. A ’50s-style stucco job belies some finer qualities within — ceramic tile floors, oak paneling and a stain-resistant concrete floor in the basement for winemaking.
“There’s a lot of history here,” said grandson Reg Fuoco. “We’ve had four generations of family living here.”
Next door stands the original Recchi family home, the only other remaining house in what was once the hub of a thriving neighbourhood. In between, there once stood a little laundry business. Benny allowed a Chinese man to live in his yard for free in a laundry shack. The immigrant community tended to stick together, Reg said.
Locked in the garage nearby sits his grandfather’s 1929 Dodge in perfect condition. Talk of the car reminded Reg of a chance encounter almost 50 years ago. It was the year after the B.C. Lions won their first Grey Cup, by which time quarterback Joe Kapp was a household name.
A Mustang convertible — it was the first year of production for pony cars — pulled up. Kapp was at the wheel, wanting to buy the vintage Dodge. Twelve years old at the time, the young Fuoco didn’t appreciate the significance when his grandfather identified the man.
The family rents the house now, and Reg doesn’t think it will withstand development pressure. What happens when the good neighbours have moved away and the neighbourhood is in transition, surrounded by higher-density housing, commercial or industrial properties?
Scarlett describes the luxurious 1650-squarefoot Florence floor plan as "bright and open." The open concept main floor makes hosting guests a pleasure and the natural gas fireplace creates a cosy night by the fire with family or friends.
Large windows in the living area and long rectangular windows in the dining let in tons of natural light. The home also includes a deck off the dining room, another standard feature Scarlett explains.
On the second level, two large bedrooms provide enough room for a double bed in each or a roomy office space instead.
"Some floor plans don't allow room in the extra bedrooms for even a double bed," says Scarlett. "But these are big."
A handy laundry room on the upper level offers a convenient sink and large linen closet for storage.
The master bedroom beams with plenty of natural light and lots of space.
The grand ensuite includes lots of extras, such as his and her sinks, jetted tub, tiled shower and walk-in closet with custom shelving.
This is the first show home for Homes by Montebello. With so many standard bonus features, it will definitely not be the last. Project manager Graham Figg expects to do around 10 homes this year. Last year, the company built several in-fill houses, two duplexes and seven houses.
Looking for the perfect house at the perfect price in the perfect location? Look no further! This newly-completed gem of a home is just inside the city limits of Wolfforth to provide you the utility and efficiency amenities, yet just outside the hustle and bustle that Lubbock can hold. It is located for the most desired schools that the acclaimed Frenship School District has to offer. In the popular subdivision of Preston Estates, 1507 Yorkshire is found on a wide, quiet cul-de-sac street which lends you the privacy you’ve been wishing for.
Whether you’re a single home buyer or one looking for a home to accommodate your growing family, this 1,789 square foot plan should fit the bill. To describe this home as “a three bedroom, two bath, two car garage” would be remiss. The openness of the pillared entry, dining area, living room with corner fireplace, and spacious kitchen with pantry together give you room to relax and to interact with your loved ones and friends. For take-home work, an office nook is an added surprise. The personality-plus master hosts a box ceiling, an oversized shower, a deep and inviting tub, and his-and-her separated closets.
Quality and nouveau style best describe the decorator amenities. From the rubbed bronze lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures, cabinetry pulls, and doorknobs to the woodgrain offset floor tile and speckled twill carpeting, no extra on your want list will be left unchecked!
2013年1月27日星期日
Omaha-based artist Zhu hopes
That’s how curator Teliza Rodriguez describes the work of Omaha-based artist Ying Zhu, whose installation, “Watch Your Steps,” continues on display through April 7 at the Museum of Nebraska Art. The piece, located in Skylight Gallery on the second floor of the museum, includes a floor constructed of uneven tiles and a wad of polyester batting shaped like a cloud and suspended at eye level in the middle of the room.
“It’s deceptively simple, even in concept,” Rodriguez said while standing in the exhibit. “The thing I love about it is that she had to think architecturally and spatially about this. It wasn’t just the concept. She had to think about how it’s going to ‘read’ in this specific room with the skylight always changing.”
Rodriguez also believes the exhibit is user friendly by allowing — and in some ways, forcing — the viewers to walk on the uneven tiles.
Zhu, 33, wants viewers to share her excitement about life and experiencing art. Originally from China, she studied photography at Communication University of China followed by studies in management information systems at University of Nebraska – Omaha. Zhu finished her M.F.A. in studio art at University of Nebraska.
The installation is part of the Nebraska Now series in Skylight Gallery, a space dedicated to artwork created within two years from exhibiting, by emerging artists living in Nebraska.
“Sometimes we put traditional artwork in there,” Rodriguez said, “meaning painting, sculpture or those types of things. Sometimes we exhibit non-traditional art. The hope is that it presses your idea of what you think art is, or what it isn’t.”
Many of Zhu’s art pieces come from distilling her life through an artistic lens. Both of her parents still live in China. Her mother came to visit Zhu for six months in Nebraska. That visit became the basis for a piece of art.
During the legal process that resulted in the 16-year-old's being sent to the Delaware County school for court-adjudicated youth, Pierce had been portrayed as angry, undisciplined, disruptive. But that day, in that gloomy place, he was just a scared kid.
Pierce was there because he'd been involved in a brawl at Lower Merion High, where the football prodigy had encountered frequent trouble. One of the youngsters he hit had to be hospitalized.
"That was the big issue with him," said Rick Badanjek, the Glen Mills running backs coach. "He was very immature. As time went on, he blossomed. But it wasn't an easy road for him."
Somehow that road led the Ardmore native to all the right places. In 2009, Temple made the freshman its featured back. This season, despite being Ray Rice's backup, the Ravens' third-round pick has become one of the NFL's most accomplished rookies.
Next Sunday, of course, the road will land the 22-year-old in Super Bowl XLVII as Baltimore opposes the San Francisco 49ers on sports' ultimate stage.
"Bernard grew into a man here," said Kevin Owens, Glen Mills' coach. "By the time he left we all believed he could do something special. But the Super Bowl? As a rookie? I don't know if we thought that big."
Pierce's initial reaction to Glen Mills - a "Why-am-I-here-and-when-can-I-go?" attitude - wasn't unusual. Most of the teenagers who politely greet visitors to the sprawling rural campus were just as scared and disoriented.
"It's no easy adjustment," said Owens, a 29-year school employee. "They feel like, 'I'm coming to a school for juvenile delinquents. I've got to be a tough guy.' We don't allow that here. We create a culture where everyone can feel comfortable and learn to be a normal kid."
Before they helped mold his speed and muscle into rare football talent, Owens, Badanjek, and the Glen Mills staff had to rework his attitude.
Raised by his mother and grandmother in a working-class island on the Main Line - his estranged father died in a 2008 auto accident - Pierce exhibited a rebelliousness that was exacerbated by a group of friends he now calls "knuckleheads."
"I can't talk specifically about why he was here, but there are kids here who are worse and better than Bernard," Owens said. "He wasn't hard-core. He was a likable kid who made bad decisions.
"We're not a prep school. We're a school for juvenile delinquents. I always tell these kids, 'You've got to be willing to let the streets go.' With the help of everyone here, Bernard did."
Both coaches said Pierce's turning point came after his junior year. At that point, his sentence completed, he could have returned to Lower Merion. Instead, he asked to stay. And because his GPA and credit total met the school's standards, he was allowed to do so.
“It’s deceptively simple, even in concept,” Rodriguez said while standing in the exhibit. “The thing I love about it is that she had to think architecturally and spatially about this. It wasn’t just the concept. She had to think about how it’s going to ‘read’ in this specific room with the skylight always changing.”
Rodriguez also believes the exhibit is user friendly by allowing — and in some ways, forcing — the viewers to walk on the uneven tiles.
Zhu, 33, wants viewers to share her excitement about life and experiencing art. Originally from China, she studied photography at Communication University of China followed by studies in management information systems at University of Nebraska – Omaha. Zhu finished her M.F.A. in studio art at University of Nebraska.
The installation is part of the Nebraska Now series in Skylight Gallery, a space dedicated to artwork created within two years from exhibiting, by emerging artists living in Nebraska.
“Sometimes we put traditional artwork in there,” Rodriguez said, “meaning painting, sculpture or those types of things. Sometimes we exhibit non-traditional art. The hope is that it presses your idea of what you think art is, or what it isn’t.”
Many of Zhu’s art pieces come from distilling her life through an artistic lens. Both of her parents still live in China. Her mother came to visit Zhu for six months in Nebraska. That visit became the basis for a piece of art.
During the legal process that resulted in the 16-year-old's being sent to the Delaware County school for court-adjudicated youth, Pierce had been portrayed as angry, undisciplined, disruptive. But that day, in that gloomy place, he was just a scared kid.
Pierce was there because he'd been involved in a brawl at Lower Merion High, where the football prodigy had encountered frequent trouble. One of the youngsters he hit had to be hospitalized.
"That was the big issue with him," said Rick Badanjek, the Glen Mills running backs coach. "He was very immature. As time went on, he blossomed. But it wasn't an easy road for him."
Somehow that road led the Ardmore native to all the right places. In 2009, Temple made the freshman its featured back. This season, despite being Ray Rice's backup, the Ravens' third-round pick has become one of the NFL's most accomplished rookies.
Next Sunday, of course, the road will land the 22-year-old in Super Bowl XLVII as Baltimore opposes the San Francisco 49ers on sports' ultimate stage.
"Bernard grew into a man here," said Kevin Owens, Glen Mills' coach. "By the time he left we all believed he could do something special. But the Super Bowl? As a rookie? I don't know if we thought that big."
Pierce's initial reaction to Glen Mills - a "Why-am-I-here-and-when-can-I-go?" attitude - wasn't unusual. Most of the teenagers who politely greet visitors to the sprawling rural campus were just as scared and disoriented.
"It's no easy adjustment," said Owens, a 29-year school employee. "They feel like, 'I'm coming to a school for juvenile delinquents. I've got to be a tough guy.' We don't allow that here. We create a culture where everyone can feel comfortable and learn to be a normal kid."
Before they helped mold his speed and muscle into rare football talent, Owens, Badanjek, and the Glen Mills staff had to rework his attitude.
Raised by his mother and grandmother in a working-class island on the Main Line - his estranged father died in a 2008 auto accident - Pierce exhibited a rebelliousness that was exacerbated by a group of friends he now calls "knuckleheads."
"I can't talk specifically about why he was here, but there are kids here who are worse and better than Bernard," Owens said. "He wasn't hard-core. He was a likable kid who made bad decisions.
"We're not a prep school. We're a school for juvenile delinquents. I always tell these kids, 'You've got to be willing to let the streets go.' With the help of everyone here, Bernard did."
Both coaches said Pierce's turning point came after his junior year. At that point, his sentence completed, he could have returned to Lower Merion. Instead, he asked to stay. And because his GPA and credit total met the school's standards, he was allowed to do so.
2013年1月21日星期一
Nevada Tourism Hits The Road With BuzzFeed
Nevada's tourism challenge is not boosting Sin City, but Nevada itself. The problem is that most people think the former is the landing strip for the latter. A new campaign by communications firm Burson-Marsteller and BuzzFeed is about changing that perception with a digital road show involving two BuzzFeed editors tooling around the state, reporting on different attractions and general Nevada must-sees.
The effort includes tweets, video and images of such things as Nevada's ghost towns and ski resorts.
Michael Bassik, chair of U.S. digital practice at the agency, says the campaign's limited budget required a rather imaginative approach that wraps interactive ads around the editors' travels. "We looked back at research from TNS that shed light on the effectiveness of their previous online ads." He says the agency found that the effectiveness of their efforts had begun to decrease as time went on.
"We could no longer rely on banner messages alone to determine that an integrated campaign was necessary." That meant partnerships with content providers who would marry content with ad opportunities. "We selected BuzzFeed as a partner because we had envisioned a perfect marriage of paid content and advertising working with a story of Nevada reaching a target that includes younger travelers," he says.
Challenges are ever increasing with global markets. Customers are expecting quicker response times on the solutions they seek. Companies are impacted by forces from all directions, but it all comes down to execution: if you don’t execute you will not win the market or launch the product. Execution is stopped by distractions from your core business and your business core processes; none of these distractions are new.
The pressure to increase sales drives the company to launch new products at unprecedented rates. These ideas for new products are dumped on engineering groups that are already busy and are unable to deliver new designs at the required speed and reliability enough to capture the market. Overcoming this hurdle is imperative.
Next the designs need to be built into a prototype since building prototypes conflicts with the monthly production and sales dollars. As managers place the focus of the resources on monthly results and local optima the prototypes fall farther behind schedule. Now the sales force which has been driven to increase sales are overloaded and are losing encouragement as the new product requests take too long to produce and your competitor just stole the market on the next great idea.
These new products have now distracted your operation and your sales force and the ability to execute drops even farther into the abyss. Companies are disrupted as the capacity and skill levels required to build these new products and prototypes are lacking and time slips farther away as the market is captured by those who execute and bring products to market quicker proving that Speed Wins.
Distractions kill your chances for success. These distractions may be as simple as too many projects, or too many products to develop at one time. The conflict on resources working on the current production vs. the future project with the current month’s shipments winning out stalls the development process project. Understaffed engineering departments and machinists that don’t have the time to focus on the building of prototypes needed for success will also stop the project. Engineering and Machinists are pulled off projects and prototypes to “firefight” today’s issues on the production floor again stall the process. Lastly the skills are lacking to take ideas from sketches to prototypes or samples.
Equipment in-house is not designed for rapid prototype production. Most production machines lack the visibility and flexibility as they were purchased for a set production family. If machinery is in-house, it’s not dedicated to prototype production and production of current products happens first: the development project stops cold. Staff is not dedicated to the success of the prototypes as they are supporting current production first and foremost. Line Managers focus on shipping the day, the week, the month and not on the long term future as bonuses and accountability is measured based on these measures.
The capacity of the system must be flexible and meet the high demands on delivery so one day you may have the team sitting doing nothing and the next day need two or three 5-axis machines. So determining how much equipment is needed could be very challenging. Zero Conflicts “Production vs. Prototypes” will require a dedicated Team and a dedicated Department with the maintenance people.
Does this scare Top Management to know that building the team and the department with machines commits millions to the process so that most Managers will run from the idea and look for alternatives? One option of developing in-house talent looks bleak as the staff takes years to build and train and then is idle when the project list is short and spends millions on machines and tooling without knowing what the future looks like. If the floor space is not available, then there is the cost of another building added on to the development.
Project control increases as the correct partner has the resources to support the project. The partner works one-on-one with your Design people to ensure the output meets the requirements. Lead-times are reduced as the partner is a specialist and resolves issues quickly. The partner has the sub-tier suppliers that respond and deliver quicker and better than anyone. The cost topic is simple compared to missing the market or being late to the market; the costs are lower and are recovered quickly. If you compared the costs of building your own Team and purchasing the equipment to the costs, the cost is pennies on the dollar lower and has the flexibility to only pay as you need the resources. So this quickly becomes the winning choice.
Key advantages to picking the right partner is that you are in control of the project and the partner has an organization focused on prototypes to run on schedule with quicker Lead-times and lower costs. Speed-to-market is quicker and “Speed Wins”. Here is a short list of how you can find the right partner: what to look for and what ask.
The effort includes tweets, video and images of such things as Nevada's ghost towns and ski resorts.
Michael Bassik, chair of U.S. digital practice at the agency, says the campaign's limited budget required a rather imaginative approach that wraps interactive ads around the editors' travels. "We looked back at research from TNS that shed light on the effectiveness of their previous online ads." He says the agency found that the effectiveness of their efforts had begun to decrease as time went on.
"We could no longer rely on banner messages alone to determine that an integrated campaign was necessary." That meant partnerships with content providers who would marry content with ad opportunities. "We selected BuzzFeed as a partner because we had envisioned a perfect marriage of paid content and advertising working with a story of Nevada reaching a target that includes younger travelers," he says.
Challenges are ever increasing with global markets. Customers are expecting quicker response times on the solutions they seek. Companies are impacted by forces from all directions, but it all comes down to execution: if you don’t execute you will not win the market or launch the product. Execution is stopped by distractions from your core business and your business core processes; none of these distractions are new.
The pressure to increase sales drives the company to launch new products at unprecedented rates. These ideas for new products are dumped on engineering groups that are already busy and are unable to deliver new designs at the required speed and reliability enough to capture the market. Overcoming this hurdle is imperative.
Next the designs need to be built into a prototype since building prototypes conflicts with the monthly production and sales dollars. As managers place the focus of the resources on monthly results and local optima the prototypes fall farther behind schedule. Now the sales force which has been driven to increase sales are overloaded and are losing encouragement as the new product requests take too long to produce and your competitor just stole the market on the next great idea.
These new products have now distracted your operation and your sales force and the ability to execute drops even farther into the abyss. Companies are disrupted as the capacity and skill levels required to build these new products and prototypes are lacking and time slips farther away as the market is captured by those who execute and bring products to market quicker proving that Speed Wins.
Distractions kill your chances for success. These distractions may be as simple as too many projects, or too many products to develop at one time. The conflict on resources working on the current production vs. the future project with the current month’s shipments winning out stalls the development process project. Understaffed engineering departments and machinists that don’t have the time to focus on the building of prototypes needed for success will also stop the project. Engineering and Machinists are pulled off projects and prototypes to “firefight” today’s issues on the production floor again stall the process. Lastly the skills are lacking to take ideas from sketches to prototypes or samples.
Equipment in-house is not designed for rapid prototype production. Most production machines lack the visibility and flexibility as they were purchased for a set production family. If machinery is in-house, it’s not dedicated to prototype production and production of current products happens first: the development project stops cold. Staff is not dedicated to the success of the prototypes as they are supporting current production first and foremost. Line Managers focus on shipping the day, the week, the month and not on the long term future as bonuses and accountability is measured based on these measures.
The capacity of the system must be flexible and meet the high demands on delivery so one day you may have the team sitting doing nothing and the next day need two or three 5-axis machines. So determining how much equipment is needed could be very challenging. Zero Conflicts “Production vs. Prototypes” will require a dedicated Team and a dedicated Department with the maintenance people.
Does this scare Top Management to know that building the team and the department with machines commits millions to the process so that most Managers will run from the idea and look for alternatives? One option of developing in-house talent looks bleak as the staff takes years to build and train and then is idle when the project list is short and spends millions on machines and tooling without knowing what the future looks like. If the floor space is not available, then there is the cost of another building added on to the development.
Project control increases as the correct partner has the resources to support the project. The partner works one-on-one with your Design people to ensure the output meets the requirements. Lead-times are reduced as the partner is a specialist and resolves issues quickly. The partner has the sub-tier suppliers that respond and deliver quicker and better than anyone. The cost topic is simple compared to missing the market or being late to the market; the costs are lower and are recovered quickly. If you compared the costs of building your own Team and purchasing the equipment to the costs, the cost is pennies on the dollar lower and has the flexibility to only pay as you need the resources. So this quickly becomes the winning choice.
Key advantages to picking the right partner is that you are in control of the project and the partner has an organization focused on prototypes to run on schedule with quicker Lead-times and lower costs. Speed-to-market is quicker and “Speed Wins”. Here is a short list of how you can find the right partner: what to look for and what ask.
2013年1月17日星期四
Shiseido America To Expand East Windsor Facility
Shiseido America in East Windsor will be undergoing a 72,988 square foot two-phase expansion of their facility on Princeton-Hightstown Road. The building is currently 211,000 square feet and has 150 full-time employees and about 150 temporary employees. The expansion will bring an additional ten full-time employees to the building.
The first phase of the expansion (Phase I) is the construction of a 54,580 square foot office addition which will be tacked onto the existing warehouse building. Phase I will also include the creation of additional parking spaces, a storm water management bass, a widened driveway and an expanded loading area.
Phase II is the construction of an 18,408 square foot addition which will be located behind the existing office building. Both Phases of construction are expected to be completed by mid-summer 2013.
This expansion will allow Shiseido to gradually shift some distribution from their Oakland facility to the East Windsor facility. The manufacturing and warehouse additions will enlarge the space capacity for handing the company’s innovative cosmetics brands which include Shiseido, Nars, and Bare Escentuals.
The additions will also increase the exportation of products manufactured at the East Windsor facility to Europe and Asia. The expansion also lets the loading docks to be moved inside in order to create a more systematic floor loading system.
“Shiseido is one of our preeminent companies and community-minded corporate neighbors, and we are excited that East Windsor is such a great location to grow their company,” East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov said. “Shiseido’s continued success and decision to expand illustrates East Windsor’s business attractiveness, and will add tax dollars and new jobs for our community. With a long company history of promoting and protecting our green environment, the corporate leadership and staff of Shiseido America has set an admirable model for businesses in our community and around the world.”
Shiseido America is a subsidiary of the Japanese-based corporation Shiseido Company LTD, which established their operations in East Windsor in 1998 and serves as a manufacturing center for the company.
Shiseido Company LTD, is the fourth largest cosmetics company in the world. They develop upscale cosmetics, personal care items, toiletries, sun care products, fragrances, professional salon hair care products, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals.
Shiseido in East Windsor received a New Jersey Environmental Excellence Award in 2010 for reducing reliance on traditional sources of electricity by 80 percent through the installation of a roof-top solar array, a modest sized ground-based array, and various energy-saving initiatives.
“Shiseido is proud to have worked closely with Mayor Mironov and the Township for over a decade and is very appreciative of the partnership we have established with East Windsor’s local officials,” Shiseido America President and Chief Operating Officer Edward Houlihan said. “We are hopeful that we will continue to deepen our productive relationship with the community and continue to expand our presence and business activities in East Windsor for years to come.”
When it was announced the prison was reopening in the past, Five CAP, Inc. built affordable single-family and multi-family housing in Baldwin and Lake County to support individuals living and working in the county. At the time, they were selling as fast as they were being built, said Mary Trucks, Five CAP executive director. However, as soon as the prison closed, the houses were put up for sale and the owners moved.
All of the units built during that time are currently occupied, Trucks said, except for two that were in the process of being built when the prison closed. If the prison does reopen, Five CAP would be willing to build housing units again, she said.
"If (the prison) opens, I think it creates the market that allows for us to do many things in the community, including addressing the shortage of affordable housing," Trucks said. "We see an opportunity to do many things from an economic standpoint that would benefit the community, and from a social standpoint to benefit the community."
Bumstead admits the prison's past practices have made Lake County residents cautious, but he remains optimistic that the prison could stay open this time.
"Hopefully in the next six or eight years (the prison) proves itself that it is a huge savings to the state, which there would be because that's part of the deal that it has to be a minimum of 10 percent savings," Bumstead said. "If that facility is full, it is like $25 million (in savings). If we can get it maxed out, that is a huge savings to the state and jobs to our area."
Not everyone in Lake County will be qualified to work as a corrections officer, but residents could receive the necessary training to become employed at the prison, Bumstead said. Also, not all of the jobs will be in corrections, he added. Employees also will be needed in areas like food service.
The T Sheets paper templates are updated to reflect diagnostic and treatment protocols specific to H3N2, the primary influenza A virus circulating this season. It supports consistent charting and critical patient health information capture while ensuring hospitals meet regulatory and reimbursement needs.
"With the continued reports of rising flu levels this year, we felt it was critical to offer our assistance," said Sunny Sanyal, T-System chief executive officer. "In handling a public health crisis such as this latest seasonal epidemic, providers involuntarily find themselves lacking a sufficient strategy to keep up with the increased patient volumes. T Sheets offers an easy and structured way to help ED clinicians treat and document the surge of patients both onsite and offsite more efficiently."
According to news reports, the resulting overflows of patients complaining of flu-like symptoms are flooding EDs across the country. Many are operating at capacity and are setting up secondary EDs in parking lots and hospital hallways, conference rooms and clinics to meet demand and enacting emergency procedures.
The first phase of the expansion (Phase I) is the construction of a 54,580 square foot office addition which will be tacked onto the existing warehouse building. Phase I will also include the creation of additional parking spaces, a storm water management bass, a widened driveway and an expanded loading area.
Phase II is the construction of an 18,408 square foot addition which will be located behind the existing office building. Both Phases of construction are expected to be completed by mid-summer 2013.
This expansion will allow Shiseido to gradually shift some distribution from their Oakland facility to the East Windsor facility. The manufacturing and warehouse additions will enlarge the space capacity for handing the company’s innovative cosmetics brands which include Shiseido, Nars, and Bare Escentuals.
The additions will also increase the exportation of products manufactured at the East Windsor facility to Europe and Asia. The expansion also lets the loading docks to be moved inside in order to create a more systematic floor loading system.
“Shiseido is one of our preeminent companies and community-minded corporate neighbors, and we are excited that East Windsor is such a great location to grow their company,” East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov said. “Shiseido’s continued success and decision to expand illustrates East Windsor’s business attractiveness, and will add tax dollars and new jobs for our community. With a long company history of promoting and protecting our green environment, the corporate leadership and staff of Shiseido America has set an admirable model for businesses in our community and around the world.”
Shiseido America is a subsidiary of the Japanese-based corporation Shiseido Company LTD, which established their operations in East Windsor in 1998 and serves as a manufacturing center for the company.
Shiseido Company LTD, is the fourth largest cosmetics company in the world. They develop upscale cosmetics, personal care items, toiletries, sun care products, fragrances, professional salon hair care products, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals.
Shiseido in East Windsor received a New Jersey Environmental Excellence Award in 2010 for reducing reliance on traditional sources of electricity by 80 percent through the installation of a roof-top solar array, a modest sized ground-based array, and various energy-saving initiatives.
“Shiseido is proud to have worked closely with Mayor Mironov and the Township for over a decade and is very appreciative of the partnership we have established with East Windsor’s local officials,” Shiseido America President and Chief Operating Officer Edward Houlihan said. “We are hopeful that we will continue to deepen our productive relationship with the community and continue to expand our presence and business activities in East Windsor for years to come.”
When it was announced the prison was reopening in the past, Five CAP, Inc. built affordable single-family and multi-family housing in Baldwin and Lake County to support individuals living and working in the county. At the time, they were selling as fast as they were being built, said Mary Trucks, Five CAP executive director. However, as soon as the prison closed, the houses were put up for sale and the owners moved.
All of the units built during that time are currently occupied, Trucks said, except for two that were in the process of being built when the prison closed. If the prison does reopen, Five CAP would be willing to build housing units again, she said.
"If (the prison) opens, I think it creates the market that allows for us to do many things in the community, including addressing the shortage of affordable housing," Trucks said. "We see an opportunity to do many things from an economic standpoint that would benefit the community, and from a social standpoint to benefit the community."
Bumstead admits the prison's past practices have made Lake County residents cautious, but he remains optimistic that the prison could stay open this time.
"Hopefully in the next six or eight years (the prison) proves itself that it is a huge savings to the state, which there would be because that's part of the deal that it has to be a minimum of 10 percent savings," Bumstead said. "If that facility is full, it is like $25 million (in savings). If we can get it maxed out, that is a huge savings to the state and jobs to our area."
Not everyone in Lake County will be qualified to work as a corrections officer, but residents could receive the necessary training to become employed at the prison, Bumstead said. Also, not all of the jobs will be in corrections, he added. Employees also will be needed in areas like food service.
The T Sheets paper templates are updated to reflect diagnostic and treatment protocols specific to H3N2, the primary influenza A virus circulating this season. It supports consistent charting and critical patient health information capture while ensuring hospitals meet regulatory and reimbursement needs.
"With the continued reports of rising flu levels this year, we felt it was critical to offer our assistance," said Sunny Sanyal, T-System chief executive officer. "In handling a public health crisis such as this latest seasonal epidemic, providers involuntarily find themselves lacking a sufficient strategy to keep up with the increased patient volumes. T Sheets offers an easy and structured way to help ED clinicians treat and document the surge of patients both onsite and offsite more efficiently."
According to news reports, the resulting overflows of patients complaining of flu-like symptoms are flooding EDs across the country. Many are operating at capacity and are setting up secondary EDs in parking lots and hospital hallways, conference rooms and clinics to meet demand and enacting emergency procedures.
NLRB’s actions in 2012 highlight critical labor issues for nonunion employers
In 2012, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) aggressively staked out positions on employment policies and practices prevalent in both union and nonunion workplaces. These issues include social media policies and practices, at-will statements in employee handbooks, statements to employees in internal investigations about the need to maintain confidentiality, and arbitration policies and agreements. The Board addressed them in the context of union and nonunion workplaces, and regularly brought enforcement actions against nonunion employers for alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
Although nonunion employers have always been subject to the NLRA and to the enforcement powers of the NLRB, the developments in 2012 underscore the need for all employers to address the NLRA aspects of common workplace policies and practices. This alert provides background on the NLRA and NLRB and summarizes last year’s developments.
The NLRA sets forth the rights of employers and employees with respect to union organizing and collective action by employees. The NLRA applies to almost all private sector employers.
Section 7 of the NLRA states that in addition to the right to unionize, "employees shall have the right to . . . engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection." An activity is "concerted" when an employee acts with or on the authority of other employees and not solely by and on behalf of the employee himself or herself. Concerted activity includes circumstances where individual employees seek to initiate or to induce or prepare for group action. Section 7 applies to all covered employees, regardless of whether the workplace is union or nonunion.
The NLRB is the federal agency charged with investigating and remedying alleged violations of the NLRA. The NLRB is comprised of a five-member Board and an Office of the General Counsel. Board members are appointed to staggered five-year terms, with a new Board vacancy coming up every year. The Board currently consists of only three members — all Democrats appointed by President Obama.
The NLRB’s Office of the General Counsel investigates and prosecutes unfair labor practices. This position is currently held by an Acting General Counsel, Lafe Solomon, whose nomination was sent to the Senate in January 2011 but has not come before the full Senate for a vote. The general counsel serves a four-year term.
In 2012, the NLRB addressed several workplace issues common to both union and nonunion workplaces. In addressing these issues, the NLRB focused on whether an employer’s policies or practices interfered with an employee’s ability to engage in protected concerted activity under Section 7 of the NLRA. The NLRB’s actions highlight the need for union and nonunion employers to review and evaluate their policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the NLRA.
In 2012, the NLRB emphasized that employees who use social media to interact with their co-workers about their working conditions may be engaged in protected concerted activity, and employer social media policies and practices that restrict such activity may violate Section 7. The Board explained these positions in a series of reports, enforcement actions and decisions.
The acting general counsel released two reportsin 2012 addressing social media policies and providing guidance to employers.1 A January 2012report detailed the outcomes of cases concerning the use of social media by employees and employer’s social media policies.2 A May 2012 report analyzed six social media policies that the NLRB found to contain unlawful provisions and a seventh policy that NLRB concluded was lawful (albeit after a revision).3
The NLRB also addressed the issue of social media policies in two cases decided in September 2012. In both cases, the Board concluded that social media policies and other employer rules that broadly limited employees’ posts and communications on social media violated employees' Section 7 rights to engage in protected concerted activity. In one case, the company’s policy stated that an employee’s on-line statements that "damage the Company, defame any individual or damage any person’s reputation" could result in discipline or termination of employment. The Board concluded that this rule was unlawful because employees would reasonably interpret the rule to restrict Section 7 rights — including the employees' right to criticize the company about their working conditions — and nothing in the rule suggested Section 7 activities were exempt from the rule. Similarly, in the second case, the employee handbook had a "Courtesy Rule" prohibiting an employee from being "disrespectful" or using "language which injures the image or reputation of the [employer]." The Board found the "Courtesy Rule" unlawful because employees would reasonably construe the broad prohibition to include Section 7 activity, such as objecting to working conditions or seeking support from others to improve working conditions.
The Board concluded that the Facebook postings constituted protected concerted activity under Section 7 and that the employer violated the NLRA. The Board determined that the initial Facebook comment and the responses were concerted activity because the employees made the comments in "common cause" and because the comments constituted a "first step towards taking group action" to defend themselves against a co-worker’s accusation. The Board rejected the employer’s position that the comments were unprotected harassing and bullying comments in violation of its "no tolerance" policy because the comments were not based on any protected category (e.g., race, sex, religion) and therefore were outside the scope of the employer’s anti-harassment policy. Further, the Board noted that any legitimate managerial concerns to prevent harassment "do not justify policies that discourage the free exercise of Section 7 rights by subjecting employees to . . . discipline on the basis of the subjective reactions of others to their protected activity." The Board ordered that the employer reinstate the five employees and make them whole for lost earnings and benefits, among other remedies.
Social media policies serve legitimate purposes, including protecting against the disclosure of confidential information, prohibiting defamatory statements and prohibiting an employee from making disparaging comments about the employer’s products, services, or customers. But as the NLRB’s recent actions demonstrate, an overbroad social media policy potentially raises NLRA concerns. Unions, in turn, can use a challenge to a nonunion employer’s social media policy as a springboard to organizing.
Employers should review their social media policies in light of the NLRB’s guidance. They also should carefully evaluate the enforcement of harassment or bullying policies to ensure that those policies are not applied so broadly as to prohibit activity protected by the NLRA. And when considering taking an adverse employment action against an employee for the employee’s statement on social media, employers should consider carefully the relevant NLRA issues.
Nonunion employers regularly include statements in employee handbooks confirming that employment is terminable at-will and limiting the authority of managers to change such policies. The NLRB has concluded that certain at-will statements in employee handbooks violate the NLRA because the statements suggest that employees cannot modify their at-will status through collective action and other protected concerted activity. The recent cases and NLRB guidance are instructive to employers.
In a case decided on February 1, 2012, an NLRB administrative law judge concluded that an employer violated the NLRA when its handbook required employees to acknowledge that "the at-will employment relationship cannot be amended, modified or altered in any way." In that case, an employee refused to sign the acknowledgement and her employment was terminated, leading to an unfair labor practice charge. The judge concluded that the at-will statement effectively required an employee to waive his or her Section 7 right to take concerted action to change the at-will status of employment. The judge concluded that such a provision may restrict employees from working together to collectively bargain for a change in their employment status.
Although nonunion employers have always been subject to the NLRA and to the enforcement powers of the NLRB, the developments in 2012 underscore the need for all employers to address the NLRA aspects of common workplace policies and practices. This alert provides background on the NLRA and NLRB and summarizes last year’s developments.
The NLRA sets forth the rights of employers and employees with respect to union organizing and collective action by employees. The NLRA applies to almost all private sector employers.
Section 7 of the NLRA states that in addition to the right to unionize, "employees shall have the right to . . . engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection." An activity is "concerted" when an employee acts with or on the authority of other employees and not solely by and on behalf of the employee himself or herself. Concerted activity includes circumstances where individual employees seek to initiate or to induce or prepare for group action. Section 7 applies to all covered employees, regardless of whether the workplace is union or nonunion.
The NLRB is the federal agency charged with investigating and remedying alleged violations of the NLRA. The NLRB is comprised of a five-member Board and an Office of the General Counsel. Board members are appointed to staggered five-year terms, with a new Board vacancy coming up every year. The Board currently consists of only three members — all Democrats appointed by President Obama.
The NLRB’s Office of the General Counsel investigates and prosecutes unfair labor practices. This position is currently held by an Acting General Counsel, Lafe Solomon, whose nomination was sent to the Senate in January 2011 but has not come before the full Senate for a vote. The general counsel serves a four-year term.
In 2012, the NLRB addressed several workplace issues common to both union and nonunion workplaces. In addressing these issues, the NLRB focused on whether an employer’s policies or practices interfered with an employee’s ability to engage in protected concerted activity under Section 7 of the NLRA. The NLRB’s actions highlight the need for union and nonunion employers to review and evaluate their policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the NLRA.
In 2012, the NLRB emphasized that employees who use social media to interact with their co-workers about their working conditions may be engaged in protected concerted activity, and employer social media policies and practices that restrict such activity may violate Section 7. The Board explained these positions in a series of reports, enforcement actions and decisions.
The acting general counsel released two reportsin 2012 addressing social media policies and providing guidance to employers.1 A January 2012report detailed the outcomes of cases concerning the use of social media by employees and employer’s social media policies.2 A May 2012 report analyzed six social media policies that the NLRB found to contain unlawful provisions and a seventh policy that NLRB concluded was lawful (albeit after a revision).3
The NLRB also addressed the issue of social media policies in two cases decided in September 2012. In both cases, the Board concluded that social media policies and other employer rules that broadly limited employees’ posts and communications on social media violated employees' Section 7 rights to engage in protected concerted activity. In one case, the company’s policy stated that an employee’s on-line statements that "damage the Company, defame any individual or damage any person’s reputation" could result in discipline or termination of employment. The Board concluded that this rule was unlawful because employees would reasonably interpret the rule to restrict Section 7 rights — including the employees' right to criticize the company about their working conditions — and nothing in the rule suggested Section 7 activities were exempt from the rule. Similarly, in the second case, the employee handbook had a "Courtesy Rule" prohibiting an employee from being "disrespectful" or using "language which injures the image or reputation of the [employer]." The Board found the "Courtesy Rule" unlawful because employees would reasonably construe the broad prohibition to include Section 7 activity, such as objecting to working conditions or seeking support from others to improve working conditions.
The Board concluded that the Facebook postings constituted protected concerted activity under Section 7 and that the employer violated the NLRA. The Board determined that the initial Facebook comment and the responses were concerted activity because the employees made the comments in "common cause" and because the comments constituted a "first step towards taking group action" to defend themselves against a co-worker’s accusation. The Board rejected the employer’s position that the comments were unprotected harassing and bullying comments in violation of its "no tolerance" policy because the comments were not based on any protected category (e.g., race, sex, religion) and therefore were outside the scope of the employer’s anti-harassment policy. Further, the Board noted that any legitimate managerial concerns to prevent harassment "do not justify policies that discourage the free exercise of Section 7 rights by subjecting employees to . . . discipline on the basis of the subjective reactions of others to their protected activity." The Board ordered that the employer reinstate the five employees and make them whole for lost earnings and benefits, among other remedies.
Social media policies serve legitimate purposes, including protecting against the disclosure of confidential information, prohibiting defamatory statements and prohibiting an employee from making disparaging comments about the employer’s products, services, or customers. But as the NLRB’s recent actions demonstrate, an overbroad social media policy potentially raises NLRA concerns. Unions, in turn, can use a challenge to a nonunion employer’s social media policy as a springboard to organizing.
Employers should review their social media policies in light of the NLRB’s guidance. They also should carefully evaluate the enforcement of harassment or bullying policies to ensure that those policies are not applied so broadly as to prohibit activity protected by the NLRA. And when considering taking an adverse employment action against an employee for the employee’s statement on social media, employers should consider carefully the relevant NLRA issues.
Nonunion employers regularly include statements in employee handbooks confirming that employment is terminable at-will and limiting the authority of managers to change such policies. The NLRB has concluded that certain at-will statements in employee handbooks violate the NLRA because the statements suggest that employees cannot modify their at-will status through collective action and other protected concerted activity. The recent cases and NLRB guidance are instructive to employers.
In a case decided on February 1, 2012, an NLRB administrative law judge concluded that an employer violated the NLRA when its handbook required employees to acknowledge that "the at-will employment relationship cannot be amended, modified or altered in any way." In that case, an employee refused to sign the acknowledgement and her employment was terminated, leading to an unfair labor practice charge. The judge concluded that the at-will statement effectively required an employee to waive his or her Section 7 right to take concerted action to change the at-will status of employment. The judge concluded that such a provision may restrict employees from working together to collectively bargain for a change in their employment status.
2012年11月11日星期日
Maxis offers logistic solution for SMEs
Maxis’ Managed M2M solution is the country’s first and only self-managed web-based fleet management solution in Malaysia.
M2M offers business owners more information about their business processes, more automation with which to manage assets and increase productivity, and enables enterprise to offer customers a new generation of services with a lower cost to serve. Combined with Maxis’ 2G and 3G network, the widest and fastest in the country, enterprises can monitor their mobile vehicles and perform remote diagnosis anytime and wherever they are.
This provides benefits such as increased driver productivity based on location-based tracking anytime, anywhere; reduced driver overtime enabled by way of monitoring trip reports; and remote monitoring facilitated through automatic notifications of violations such as speeding, off-hour operations, among others. This will also ensure that SMEs gain greater visibility across their business, mitigate risks and increase overall efficiency.
The Logistics & Warehouse Management system via Maxis Cloud’s enables SMEs to run back-end business processes smoothly with the lowest capital expenditure while offering overall operation visibility in real-time and increasing efficiency. Maxis Cloud also offers customers comprehensive total logistics management software and applications for freight and forwarding, as well as shipping, transport and warehouse. In addition, companies will also be able to lower administrative costs through automated tendering, shipment creation and consolidation processes.
Maxis FLS enables SMEs to enjoy savings offered by Maxis mobile rate plans with their office fixed line phone. With free calls of up to 38 hours between company lines, whether fixed or mobile, within one office location or between branches, companies can enjoy savings of up to 40% on their company’s monthly phone expenses. With Maxis FLS, warehousing and logistics companies who do not have fixed coverage at their site offices will have access to a proper communications system, allowing them to connect with their workforce in different locations. The revolutionary FLS bundled with Unity Hotline solution also enables customers to distribute up to 30 concurrent incoming calls to a maximum of 100 Maxis mobile lines from one single business number.
“Built for SME – Logistics & Transportation provides logistics SMEs with end-to-end solutions from mobile to applications and software under one bundled offering that is designed to help their business run efficiently and in the most cost-effective manner. This solution will benefit price-conscious SMEs who require communications technology at low upfront investments
and maintenance costs, and will enable them to access these services through a single provider to address all their communications needs,” remarked Fitri Abdullah, Head of Maxis Business Services.
Telecom analyst Chetan Sharma says that the telecom industry has been through three distinct revenue waves in its history. First there was the voice wave, then messaging and finally data.
Both the first and second of these waves produced phenomenal profits for decades but now are in serious decline due to market saturation and the rise of consumer-friendly OTT alternatives. While many in the industry see the third wave as being a replacement cash cow, others believe operators must look beyond data revenue to the fourth wave: OTT and Value Added Services (VAS).
Having become accustomed to diets of “all you can eat” data bundles, consumers naturally expect the price of data to drop over time, not rise. If operators bump up data costs, we can assume consumers will respond by flocking to services like Freedom Pop, which relies on Wi-Fi as the main source of data, switching only to cellular data when Wi-Fi is unavailable. So while data will undoubtedly continue to be a major part of operators’ revenue, there is only so much cash they can directly extract from it. And more importantly it’s highly unlikely that that revenue will ever compensate for those lost from the decline in voice and text use.
The fourth wave is already building rapidly, as people are now using their mobiles to do everything from paying their grocery bills and online shopping to downloading digital media or even checking their medical records. Virtually all of these services are provided not by operators but by third parties. This has understandably rattled most operators’ cages. Many have panicked and gone so far as to throttle their users’ service in response – or even completely blocked them from using services such as Skype.
M2M offers business owners more information about their business processes, more automation with which to manage assets and increase productivity, and enables enterprise to offer customers a new generation of services with a lower cost to serve. Combined with Maxis’ 2G and 3G network, the widest and fastest in the country, enterprises can monitor their mobile vehicles and perform remote diagnosis anytime and wherever they are.
This provides benefits such as increased driver productivity based on location-based tracking anytime, anywhere; reduced driver overtime enabled by way of monitoring trip reports; and remote monitoring facilitated through automatic notifications of violations such as speeding, off-hour operations, among others. This will also ensure that SMEs gain greater visibility across their business, mitigate risks and increase overall efficiency.
The Logistics & Warehouse Management system via Maxis Cloud’s enables SMEs to run back-end business processes smoothly with the lowest capital expenditure while offering overall operation visibility in real-time and increasing efficiency. Maxis Cloud also offers customers comprehensive total logistics management software and applications for freight and forwarding, as well as shipping, transport and warehouse. In addition, companies will also be able to lower administrative costs through automated tendering, shipment creation and consolidation processes.
Maxis FLS enables SMEs to enjoy savings offered by Maxis mobile rate plans with their office fixed line phone. With free calls of up to 38 hours between company lines, whether fixed or mobile, within one office location or between branches, companies can enjoy savings of up to 40% on their company’s monthly phone expenses. With Maxis FLS, warehousing and logistics companies who do not have fixed coverage at their site offices will have access to a proper communications system, allowing them to connect with their workforce in different locations. The revolutionary FLS bundled with Unity Hotline solution also enables customers to distribute up to 30 concurrent incoming calls to a maximum of 100 Maxis mobile lines from one single business number.
“Built for SME – Logistics & Transportation provides logistics SMEs with end-to-end solutions from mobile to applications and software under one bundled offering that is designed to help their business run efficiently and in the most cost-effective manner. This solution will benefit price-conscious SMEs who require communications technology at low upfront investments
and maintenance costs, and will enable them to access these services through a single provider to address all their communications needs,” remarked Fitri Abdullah, Head of Maxis Business Services.
Telecom analyst Chetan Sharma says that the telecom industry has been through three distinct revenue waves in its history. First there was the voice wave, then messaging and finally data.
Both the first and second of these waves produced phenomenal profits for decades but now are in serious decline due to market saturation and the rise of consumer-friendly OTT alternatives. While many in the industry see the third wave as being a replacement cash cow, others believe operators must look beyond data revenue to the fourth wave: OTT and Value Added Services (VAS).
Having become accustomed to diets of “all you can eat” data bundles, consumers naturally expect the price of data to drop over time, not rise. If operators bump up data costs, we can assume consumers will respond by flocking to services like Freedom Pop, which relies on Wi-Fi as the main source of data, switching only to cellular data when Wi-Fi is unavailable. So while data will undoubtedly continue to be a major part of operators’ revenue, there is only so much cash they can directly extract from it. And more importantly it’s highly unlikely that that revenue will ever compensate for those lost from the decline in voice and text use.
The fourth wave is already building rapidly, as people are now using their mobiles to do everything from paying their grocery bills and online shopping to downloading digital media or even checking their medical records. Virtually all of these services are provided not by operators but by third parties. This has understandably rattled most operators’ cages. Many have panicked and gone so far as to throttle their users’ service in response – or even completely blocked them from using services such as Skype.
2012年11月4日星期日
When working from home goes wrong
Nearly every office dweller fantasises about the joys of working from home: Dressing in PJs instead of suits. Eating from the fridge and not the vending machine. Listening to birds chirp instead of the boss bark.
But Superstorm Sandy has created legions of people who can’t wait to get back to office.
They include parents who have struggled to juggle conference calls while their kids scream in the background. Also, families who have fought for days over the use of a single home computer. And even executives who have conducted business with the only device they had with reliable internet access: their smartphone.
About one-third of American workers work from home at least occasionally, according to Forrester Research. But massive flooding, power outages, transit shutdowns and school closings that followed Sandy forced thousands more from North Carolina to Maine to do so this week. And many learned that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
Michael Lamp, a social and digital media strategist who has been working out of his one-bedroom apartment in the Brooklyn borough of New York City because his office in the Manhattan borough is closed, sums it up on his Twitter page: “I’m getting sicker of it with every hour that passes. I might be slowly losing it.”
Lamp, who converted his coffee table into a desk, says he longs for face-to-face interaction with his colleagues at Hunter Public Relations. And he’s finding it particularly difficult to share his workspace with his live-in partner.
“I love him very much, but I would rather not see him 24 hours a day,” says the 28-year-old, who proudly admits that he can’t wait to greet his manager in the office. “I’m going to run to my boss’ office and tell her I missed her face.”
Alan Hilfer, director of psychology at Maimonides Medical Centre in New York, says it’s normal to struggle with working from home. He says it “has its own set of difficulties” that people who don’t do it often aren’t always aware of.
“There are many more distractions than working in an office,” he says. “Even people who do it on a regular basis find it much harder to structure and discipline their time.”
Hilfer, who lives in Brooklyn and works in a hospital in Manhattan, knows the distractions firsthand. He was working at home on Thursday to avoid the difficult commute in the storm’s aftermath. But he kept getting distracted by Sandy updates on TV, projects he needed to get done around the house and his wife asking questions about what she should get from the supermarket.
“I had a whole list of things this morning I intended to do working from home, and I got about half of them done,” he says.
With some school districts cancelling classes for the week, children have become the biggest distraction for stranded employees who were working from home.
“I’ve had to juggle taking care of a very energetic five-year old — who only wants to jump on the couch — and trying to get as much work done as possible under the situation,” she says.
On Wednesday, with the added pressure of Halloween festivities, she gave up and took the day off. But on Thursday, she drove three hours to her parent’s home in Westhampton, New York, so that she could finally get some work done at home.
“I kind of threw my hands up in the air and said I have to go to the only place I know that has free child care, and that is my parents’ house,” says Zammit, who acknowledges that she can’t wait to get back to the office.
Drew Kerr, a public relations specialist, was also eager to return to work on Wednesday morning after losing power at his home in Westchester, New York on Monday.
But Superstorm Sandy has created legions of people who can’t wait to get back to office.
They include parents who have struggled to juggle conference calls while their kids scream in the background. Also, families who have fought for days over the use of a single home computer. And even executives who have conducted business with the only device they had with reliable internet access: their smartphone.
About one-third of American workers work from home at least occasionally, according to Forrester Research. But massive flooding, power outages, transit shutdowns and school closings that followed Sandy forced thousands more from North Carolina to Maine to do so this week. And many learned that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
Michael Lamp, a social and digital media strategist who has been working out of his one-bedroom apartment in the Brooklyn borough of New York City because his office in the Manhattan borough is closed, sums it up on his Twitter page: “I’m getting sicker of it with every hour that passes. I might be slowly losing it.”
Lamp, who converted his coffee table into a desk, says he longs for face-to-face interaction with his colleagues at Hunter Public Relations. And he’s finding it particularly difficult to share his workspace with his live-in partner.
“I love him very much, but I would rather not see him 24 hours a day,” says the 28-year-old, who proudly admits that he can’t wait to greet his manager in the office. “I’m going to run to my boss’ office and tell her I missed her face.”
Alan Hilfer, director of psychology at Maimonides Medical Centre in New York, says it’s normal to struggle with working from home. He says it “has its own set of difficulties” that people who don’t do it often aren’t always aware of.
“There are many more distractions than working in an office,” he says. “Even people who do it on a regular basis find it much harder to structure and discipline their time.”
Hilfer, who lives in Brooklyn and works in a hospital in Manhattan, knows the distractions firsthand. He was working at home on Thursday to avoid the difficult commute in the storm’s aftermath. But he kept getting distracted by Sandy updates on TV, projects he needed to get done around the house and his wife asking questions about what she should get from the supermarket.
“I had a whole list of things this morning I intended to do working from home, and I got about half of them done,” he says.
With some school districts cancelling classes for the week, children have become the biggest distraction for stranded employees who were working from home.
“I’ve had to juggle taking care of a very energetic five-year old — who only wants to jump on the couch — and trying to get as much work done as possible under the situation,” she says.
On Wednesday, with the added pressure of Halloween festivities, she gave up and took the day off. But on Thursday, she drove three hours to her parent’s home in Westhampton, New York, so that she could finally get some work done at home.
“I kind of threw my hands up in the air and said I have to go to the only place I know that has free child care, and that is my parents’ house,” says Zammit, who acknowledges that she can’t wait to get back to the office.
Drew Kerr, a public relations specialist, was also eager to return to work on Wednesday morning after losing power at his home in Westchester, New York on Monday.
2012年10月7日星期日
Canadian diplomacy takes a backward step
WHERE CANADA has no foreign mission and Britain does, the two countries will now seek to pool their diplomatic resources for consular purposes, for dealing with emergencies and possible evacuations, and for sharing local expertise.
As British Foreign Secretary William Hague told CTV News: “So it is natural that we look to link up our embassies with Canada’s in places where that suits both countries. It will give us a bigger reach abroad for our businesses and people for less cost.”
And if you listened to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird tell it, last week’s decision to share embassy office space, services and staff with Britain is little more than a “small administrative agreement” and cost-saving measure.
Former clerk of the Privy Council and Canadian high commissioner in London, Mel Cappe, also concurred: “This is merely a matter of sharing facilities. I don’t see this as a problem at all. We’re never going to see a British officer delivering a diplomatic note to a foreign minister on behalf of Canada.” At least not yet. While it may be true that such a move will not immediately affect the independence of our foreign policy decision-making process, this is still a bad idea.
Let’s remember that Canadians fought long and hard to secure the 1931 Statute of Westminster, which effectively extricated us from the colonial box and turned over autonomous conduct of foreign affairs to Ottawa.
Furthermore, at least part of the push for these changes comes expressly from the Brits (who first leaked it to the Daily Mail newspaper in London). But we should be careful here that Canada is not being used by the British for their own domestic political interests — that is, for putting some diplomatic space between them and the extension of the European Union’s (EU) own foreign policy reach. (One is left wondering: does that explain why the Brits would not want to utilize the diplomatic missions of other EU countries as opposed to those of Canada?) To be sure, the last thing that Canada needs to do is to jeopardize ongoing free trade negotiations with the EU, which are now at a very crucial and delicate stage.
We also run the risk of having Canada’s brand undermined globally. Canadians could be simply lumped in with the British whether we like it or not. And given the U.K.’s less than stellar colonial history, such association will only hurt Canada’s image and profile in regions like Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
Indeed, we have tried in certain parts of the world to take advantage of the fact that we don’t have the baggage of a colonial master and military intervenor. Canadians constantly tell others that we conduct ourselves differently than the Brits or the Yanks.
But our reputation in Latin America (to say nothing of our bilateral relations with Argentina) has already suffered because of our siding with the British at the 2012 Summit of the Americas over the Falklands/Malvinas territorial dispute. Do we really want to further cement the idea — by moving forward with these diplomatic changes — that Canada is doing the U.K.’s bidding in the Americas?
Foreign policy is, in part, about image-making and perception, sending messages to the world and national branding. We certainly don’t want anyone abroad mistaking us with British support for apartheid in South Africa during the 1980s (which we opposed), with British reluctance to put boots on the ground in Bosnia during the early 1990s (where we sent peacekeepers), and with British military engagement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq (which, thankfully, we stayed out of). Do we want this kind of confusion and blurring of Canada’s image to mark our foreign relations?
Accordingly, former Canadian ambassador Louis Delvoie worried about the collateral damage to Canada in countries where the British are held in low regard. “The British embassy in Iran was attacked last year — if it was a joint embassy, our Canadian diplomats would have been in danger,” he explained.
The timing of this announcement is also questionable given the recent election of a secessionist government in Quebec. Everyone knows that the sovereigntists have no time for the “Britainization” of Canadian foreign policy or for expanding connections with the motherland, the Queen or even the Commonwealth. Why would we want to make this change knowing that the Péquistes will only use it to bolster their own argument for why they need to chart their own course in international affairs?
More important, could key Canadian interests be negatively affected by this move? What happens in a place like Burma, where Canada has no diplomatic footprint, and one or two Canadian diplomats are posted to the British embassy (will the Canadian flag be prominently displayed?). Will Canadian economic interests be aggressively pursued in that country from the British embassy?
Are not the Brits and Canadians commercial competitors in Burma? And how does it look when you have to hold Canada-Burma bilateral trade discussions back at the British embassy compound. Is that a secure office location for Canada?
After all, Canada should not be trying to conduct its foreign policy on the cheap. We are a rich industrialized country, with vast mineral wealth, and a respected member of the G-8. We don’t need to be pinching pennies when it comes to our foreign relations and diplomatic presence abroad. If we want to be a real player on the world stage, this is not the way to do it.
The bottom line is that we should have our own embassy and physical presence in Burma (and elsewhere) to build constructive relationships with the host government and civil society, to collect valuable intelligence and to identify business opportunities, and to serve Canadians there (and those who want to come to Canada). As a former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations opined succinctly to one media outlet: “You need your embassies to be your eyes, ears and your voice abroad.” Well said.
As British Foreign Secretary William Hague told CTV News: “So it is natural that we look to link up our embassies with Canada’s in places where that suits both countries. It will give us a bigger reach abroad for our businesses and people for less cost.”
And if you listened to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird tell it, last week’s decision to share embassy office space, services and staff with Britain is little more than a “small administrative agreement” and cost-saving measure.
Former clerk of the Privy Council and Canadian high commissioner in London, Mel Cappe, also concurred: “This is merely a matter of sharing facilities. I don’t see this as a problem at all. We’re never going to see a British officer delivering a diplomatic note to a foreign minister on behalf of Canada.” At least not yet. While it may be true that such a move will not immediately affect the independence of our foreign policy decision-making process, this is still a bad idea.
Let’s remember that Canadians fought long and hard to secure the 1931 Statute of Westminster, which effectively extricated us from the colonial box and turned over autonomous conduct of foreign affairs to Ottawa.
Furthermore, at least part of the push for these changes comes expressly from the Brits (who first leaked it to the Daily Mail newspaper in London). But we should be careful here that Canada is not being used by the British for their own domestic political interests — that is, for putting some diplomatic space between them and the extension of the European Union’s (EU) own foreign policy reach. (One is left wondering: does that explain why the Brits would not want to utilize the diplomatic missions of other EU countries as opposed to those of Canada?) To be sure, the last thing that Canada needs to do is to jeopardize ongoing free trade negotiations with the EU, which are now at a very crucial and delicate stage.
We also run the risk of having Canada’s brand undermined globally. Canadians could be simply lumped in with the British whether we like it or not. And given the U.K.’s less than stellar colonial history, such association will only hurt Canada’s image and profile in regions like Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
Indeed, we have tried in certain parts of the world to take advantage of the fact that we don’t have the baggage of a colonial master and military intervenor. Canadians constantly tell others that we conduct ourselves differently than the Brits or the Yanks.
But our reputation in Latin America (to say nothing of our bilateral relations with Argentina) has already suffered because of our siding with the British at the 2012 Summit of the Americas over the Falklands/Malvinas territorial dispute. Do we really want to further cement the idea — by moving forward with these diplomatic changes — that Canada is doing the U.K.’s bidding in the Americas?
Foreign policy is, in part, about image-making and perception, sending messages to the world and national branding. We certainly don’t want anyone abroad mistaking us with British support for apartheid in South Africa during the 1980s (which we opposed), with British reluctance to put boots on the ground in Bosnia during the early 1990s (where we sent peacekeepers), and with British military engagement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq (which, thankfully, we stayed out of). Do we want this kind of confusion and blurring of Canada’s image to mark our foreign relations?
Accordingly, former Canadian ambassador Louis Delvoie worried about the collateral damage to Canada in countries where the British are held in low regard. “The British embassy in Iran was attacked last year — if it was a joint embassy, our Canadian diplomats would have been in danger,” he explained.
The timing of this announcement is also questionable given the recent election of a secessionist government in Quebec. Everyone knows that the sovereigntists have no time for the “Britainization” of Canadian foreign policy or for expanding connections with the motherland, the Queen or even the Commonwealth. Why would we want to make this change knowing that the Péquistes will only use it to bolster their own argument for why they need to chart their own course in international affairs?
More important, could key Canadian interests be negatively affected by this move? What happens in a place like Burma, where Canada has no diplomatic footprint, and one or two Canadian diplomats are posted to the British embassy (will the Canadian flag be prominently displayed?). Will Canadian economic interests be aggressively pursued in that country from the British embassy?
Are not the Brits and Canadians commercial competitors in Burma? And how does it look when you have to hold Canada-Burma bilateral trade discussions back at the British embassy compound. Is that a secure office location for Canada?
After all, Canada should not be trying to conduct its foreign policy on the cheap. We are a rich industrialized country, with vast mineral wealth, and a respected member of the G-8. We don’t need to be pinching pennies when it comes to our foreign relations and diplomatic presence abroad. If we want to be a real player on the world stage, this is not the way to do it.
The bottom line is that we should have our own embassy and physical presence in Burma (and elsewhere) to build constructive relationships with the host government and civil society, to collect valuable intelligence and to identify business opportunities, and to serve Canadians there (and those who want to come to Canada). As a former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations opined succinctly to one media outlet: “You need your embassies to be your eyes, ears and your voice abroad.” Well said.
2012年4月27日星期五
Missile Defense Needed despite Attacks by Detractors
Today, missile defense is under attack. This is not a new thing, however. Opponents tried to eliminate funding for ballistic missile defense when Ronald Reagan was President, sneeringly calling it "Star Wars" to denote how foolish they thought the idea to be. Under President Bill Clinton, defenses against long-range missiles were zeroed out in his first defense budget, along with nearly 40 percent of defenses against rockets of shorter range.
After eight years, despite a new legislative requirement to deploy a missile defense for the continental United States, President Clinton decided not to go forward with a missile defense system to defend the U.S. population. In the 2000 presidential campaign, the Democratic Party platform warned about "ill-conceived" missile defenses, warning about a new arms race should they be pursued.
The critics no doubt thought they had won the policy battle. But no, the fight was just being joined. In 2001, his first year in office, President George W. Bush withdrew the United States from the ABM Treaty, the 1972 Cold War era agreement with the Soviet Union whereby the United States agreed not to build a missile defense system for the country.
The critics' reaction? They had a collective stroke. They warned such a move would end "arms control" and ignite another arms race. These critics had said the same thing in 1983, too, when President Reagan proposed the two-track approach of simultaneously modernizing our nuclear deterrent, developing missile defenses, and pursuing major reductions in nuclear weapons.
Similarly, after President Bush shed the ABM Treaty and its detailed restrictions on missile defenses he then signed an arms control agreement with Russia in 2002 that reduced deployed nuclear warheads by a record 67 percent. At the same time, President Bush pushed for the deployment of a multilateral, layered, global missile defense that consisted of nearly two dozen elements including radars, space-based sensors, and interceptors. And he worked to secure the cooperation of our allies in and out of NATO, especially Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Japan and Israel.
In 2008, at the end of President Bush's two terms, when all the tests were added up since the program began in 1983, there were more than 50 intercept tests that were successful. Missile defense worked. Some 25 countries worldwide had become partners with the United States in ballistic missile defense developments and deployments. By the middle of this decade, if current acquisition plans continue, the United States and its allies will have in their inventory well over 1,500 interceptors of all kinds, exactly what the U.S. military combat commanders insist they need to provide for both our security and deterrence.
But just as missile defense has become a normal everyday part of our security strategy, the critics have come back seeking to curtail this work. New attacks call missile defense a "scam." Some claim it just "cannot work." Others say no country will launch a ballistic missile against the United States because once we know where it originates, we will retaliate and obliterate the offending country. Even others claim we are building a "shield" only so we can better use our "swords," the implication being missile defense is no defense at all.
Is missile defense flawless? No. There are a number of technical challenges. For example, long-range missile warheads once in outer space could also carry what are known as decoy warheads. They could fool midcourse interceptors because of the difficulty in outer space of telling the difference between the real warhead and the fake ones. North Korea and Iran have not yet developed such a capability but critics assume they will. They thus want to eliminate the initial U.S. missile defenses that do not yet fully discriminate the real warheads from the decoys but which can deal with the current threats.
Can the United States build such defenses against future, enhanced threats? Yes. Decoys deploy only after the missile upon which they sit has burned out. From launch to burn out is called the boost phase. So the boost phase interceptor must be in a location near enough to the launch and fast enough to impact the enemy missile early in its flight.
A ship-borne interceptor, for example, with sufficient speed, could intercept such missiles and avoid the decoy problem. Or an interceptor could be launched from orbiting satellites in space. Better yet, interceptors could be launched from platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles or manned combat aircraft such as the F-15 or F-22. And they have the added benefit of dealing with threats from our maritime regions that currently are not covered.
Missile defense critics have repeatedly been proven wrong over their 30 years of efforts to stop such defenses. For example, one prominent critic, a favorite of the media, said Iran could not construct multi-stage missiles or solid fuel missiles. Staged rockets allow a missile to reach intercontinental range; solid fuel allows a missile to be ready for launch at any time. Only days after his report, Iran launched missiles proving the assessment wrong.
Do these critics want to protect America but with the "right defense"? You be the judge. In 30 years of nay saying, two proposals have been put forward. One top critic proposed we defend against North Korean missiles by having the Russians build a missile defense system in Vladivostok, Russia! Another critic proposed a Rube Goldberg drone system, without the range, payload and endurance needed.
Most others take a novel approach. As one top analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists proclaimed "No defense is better than any defense"! Iran seeks nuclear weapons and has made considerable progress on ballistic missiles, now having an offensive rocket inventory in the thousands. They support, finance and arm terror groups. They have transferred rockets to Hamas, Hezbollah and to the Taliban in Afghanistan.
We face missile defense challenges, for sure. But critics have an obligation beyond denigrating the progress made to date. For example, in just three years, Israel deployed the new "Iron Dome", which has now shot down 80 percent of the rockets it engaged. Hamas launched some 200 rockets from Gaza in March. America is now a partner in further Iron Dome system deployments.
After eight years, despite a new legislative requirement to deploy a missile defense for the continental United States, President Clinton decided not to go forward with a missile defense system to defend the U.S. population. In the 2000 presidential campaign, the Democratic Party platform warned about "ill-conceived" missile defenses, warning about a new arms race should they be pursued.
The critics no doubt thought they had won the policy battle. But no, the fight was just being joined. In 2001, his first year in office, President George W. Bush withdrew the United States from the ABM Treaty, the 1972 Cold War era agreement with the Soviet Union whereby the United States agreed not to build a missile defense system for the country.
The critics' reaction? They had a collective stroke. They warned such a move would end "arms control" and ignite another arms race. These critics had said the same thing in 1983, too, when President Reagan proposed the two-track approach of simultaneously modernizing our nuclear deterrent, developing missile defenses, and pursuing major reductions in nuclear weapons.
Similarly, after President Bush shed the ABM Treaty and its detailed restrictions on missile defenses he then signed an arms control agreement with Russia in 2002 that reduced deployed nuclear warheads by a record 67 percent. At the same time, President Bush pushed for the deployment of a multilateral, layered, global missile defense that consisted of nearly two dozen elements including radars, space-based sensors, and interceptors. And he worked to secure the cooperation of our allies in and out of NATO, especially Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Japan and Israel.
In 2008, at the end of President Bush's two terms, when all the tests were added up since the program began in 1983, there were more than 50 intercept tests that were successful. Missile defense worked. Some 25 countries worldwide had become partners with the United States in ballistic missile defense developments and deployments. By the middle of this decade, if current acquisition plans continue, the United States and its allies will have in their inventory well over 1,500 interceptors of all kinds, exactly what the U.S. military combat commanders insist they need to provide for both our security and deterrence.
But just as missile defense has become a normal everyday part of our security strategy, the critics have come back seeking to curtail this work. New attacks call missile defense a "scam." Some claim it just "cannot work." Others say no country will launch a ballistic missile against the United States because once we know where it originates, we will retaliate and obliterate the offending country. Even others claim we are building a "shield" only so we can better use our "swords," the implication being missile defense is no defense at all.
Is missile defense flawless? No. There are a number of technical challenges. For example, long-range missile warheads once in outer space could also carry what are known as decoy warheads. They could fool midcourse interceptors because of the difficulty in outer space of telling the difference between the real warhead and the fake ones. North Korea and Iran have not yet developed such a capability but critics assume they will. They thus want to eliminate the initial U.S. missile defenses that do not yet fully discriminate the real warheads from the decoys but which can deal with the current threats.
Can the United States build such defenses against future, enhanced threats? Yes. Decoys deploy only after the missile upon which they sit has burned out. From launch to burn out is called the boost phase. So the boost phase interceptor must be in a location near enough to the launch and fast enough to impact the enemy missile early in its flight.
A ship-borne interceptor, for example, with sufficient speed, could intercept such missiles and avoid the decoy problem. Or an interceptor could be launched from orbiting satellites in space. Better yet, interceptors could be launched from platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles or manned combat aircraft such as the F-15 or F-22. And they have the added benefit of dealing with threats from our maritime regions that currently are not covered.
Missile defense critics have repeatedly been proven wrong over their 30 years of efforts to stop such defenses. For example, one prominent critic, a favorite of the media, said Iran could not construct multi-stage missiles or solid fuel missiles. Staged rockets allow a missile to reach intercontinental range; solid fuel allows a missile to be ready for launch at any time. Only days after his report, Iran launched missiles proving the assessment wrong.
Do these critics want to protect America but with the "right defense"? You be the judge. In 30 years of nay saying, two proposals have been put forward. One top critic proposed we defend against North Korean missiles by having the Russians build a missile defense system in Vladivostok, Russia! Another critic proposed a Rube Goldberg drone system, without the range, payload and endurance needed.
Most others take a novel approach. As one top analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists proclaimed "No defense is better than any defense"! Iran seeks nuclear weapons and has made considerable progress on ballistic missiles, now having an offensive rocket inventory in the thousands. They support, finance and arm terror groups. They have transferred rockets to Hamas, Hezbollah and to the Taliban in Afghanistan.
We face missile defense challenges, for sure. But critics have an obligation beyond denigrating the progress made to date. For example, in just three years, Israel deployed the new "Iron Dome", which has now shot down 80 percent of the rockets it engaged. Hamas launched some 200 rockets from Gaza in March. America is now a partner in further Iron Dome system deployments.
2012年4月16日星期一
Voyage Manager And Omnisense To Improve Safety At Sea
Travel technology specialist Voyage Manager has teamed up with real time location company Omnisense in a joint venture to provide state of the art solutions for ensuring the safety of passengers and crew at sea.
In this 100th anniversary year of the Titanic, the recent Costa Concordia disaster illustrates that despite the many improvements in maritime safety in the intervening century, avoidable deaths continue to haunt us. In such situations, the speed of the rescue process has proven to be a key determinant of survivability, but this is hampered by a total lack of information about passenger and crew locations, necessitating a slow and painstaking room by room search of the vessel.
With this in mind, Cambridge based Voyage Manager and Omnisense have teamed up to develop the world's most advanced system for locating passengers and crew in real time, aimed at improving response times in the case of an emergency and reducing the chance of fatalities.
The system delivers an easy to use, easy to manage method for tracking the location of people as they move about a ship, one which places no additional demands on its users. This is essential as it's by achieving near-100% usage rates that the value of the system will be maximised in the case of an incident.
“The technology developed through this partnership will not only benefit passenger ships, but also cargo and production vessels, as well as on-shore and off-shore oil installations“ says John Scott, CEO of Voyage Manager.
“Our systems for sensing position and behaviour are uniquely flexible and easy to deploy, providing added assurance in the ability to account for everyone on board in the case of an incident. We are delighted to be working with Voyage Manager. ” says Andy Thurman, CEO of Omnisense.
Voyage Manager is a Cambridge, UK based travel technology company specializing in automated travel tracking and monitoring solutions.
The Voyage Manager travel tracking solution is a suite of online services that provides businesses with a flexible, easy to use and cost efficient platform for managing and monitoring employee travel. These services are completely automated and accessible from any location by web, SMS and mobile phone.
In this 100th anniversary year of the Titanic, the recent Costa Concordia disaster illustrates that despite the many improvements in maritime safety in the intervening century, avoidable deaths continue to haunt us. In such situations, the speed of the rescue process has proven to be a key determinant of survivability, but this is hampered by a total lack of information about passenger and crew locations, necessitating a slow and painstaking room by room search of the vessel.
With this in mind, Cambridge based Voyage Manager and Omnisense have teamed up to develop the world's most advanced system for locating passengers and crew in real time, aimed at improving response times in the case of an emergency and reducing the chance of fatalities.
The system delivers an easy to use, easy to manage method for tracking the location of people as they move about a ship, one which places no additional demands on its users. This is essential as it's by achieving near-100% usage rates that the value of the system will be maximised in the case of an incident.
“The technology developed through this partnership will not only benefit passenger ships, but also cargo and production vessels, as well as on-shore and off-shore oil installations“ says John Scott, CEO of Voyage Manager.
“Our systems for sensing position and behaviour are uniquely flexible and easy to deploy, providing added assurance in the ability to account for everyone on board in the case of an incident. We are delighted to be working with Voyage Manager. ” says Andy Thurman, CEO of Omnisense.
Voyage Manager is a Cambridge, UK based travel technology company specializing in automated travel tracking and monitoring solutions.
The Voyage Manager travel tracking solution is a suite of online services that provides businesses with a flexible, easy to use and cost efficient platform for managing and monitoring employee travel. These services are completely automated and accessible from any location by web, SMS and mobile phone.
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