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NEW YORK (AP) - Potential victims of credit card fraud tied to Target's security breach said they had trouble contacting the discounter through its website and call centers.
Angry Target customers expressed their displeasure in comments on the company's Facebook page. Some even threatened to stop shopping at the store. Target apologized on Facebook and said it's working hard to resolve the problem and is adding more workers to field calls and help solve website issues.
The fury and frustration come as the nation's second-largest discounter acknowledged Thursday that data connected to about 40 million credit and debit card accounts was stolen as part of a breach that began over the Thanksgiving weekend.
The theft is the second-largest credit card breach in U.S. history, exceeded only by a scam that began in 2005 involving retailer TJX Cos. That incident affected at least 45.7 million card users.
Target disclosed the theft a day after reports that the company was investigating a breach. The retailer's data-security troubles and its ensuing public relations nightmare threaten to drive off holiday shoppers during the company's busiest time of year.
Christopher Browning, of Chesterfield, Va., said he was the victim of credit card fraud earlier this week and believes it was tied to a purchase he made at Target with his Visa card on Black Friday. When he called Visa on Thursday, the card issuer could not confirm his suspicions. He said he hasn't been able to get through to Target's call center.
On Monday, Browning received a call from his bank's anti-fraud unit saying there were two attempts to use his credit card in California _ one at a casino in Tracey, Calif., for $8,000 and the other at a casino in Pacheco, for $3,000. Both occurred on Sunday and both were denied. He canceled his credit card and plans to use cash.
"I won't shop at Target again until the people behind this theft are caught or the reasons for the breach are identified and fixed," he said.
Customers who made purchases by swiping their cards at its U.S. stores between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15 may have had their accounts exposed. The stolen data included customer names, credit and debit card numbers, card expiration dates and the embedded code on the magnetic strip found on the backs of cards, Target said.
There was no indication the three- or four-digit security numbers visible on the back of the card were affected, Target said.
The data breach did not affect online purchases, the company said.
Target hasn't disclosed exactly how the breach occurred but said it has fixed the problem.
Given the millions of dollars that company's such as Target spend implementing credit-card security measures each year, Avivah Litan, a security analyst with Gartner Research said she believes the theft may have been an inside job.
"The fact this breach can happen with all of their security in place is really alarming," Litan said.
Other experts theorize that Target's network was hacked and infiltrated from the outside.
Whatever the case, Jason Oxman, CEO of the Electronics Transaction Association, which represents the payments technology industry, said data breaches like Target's are generally "heavily organized and sophisticated."
Annual losses from global credit and debit card fraud are on the rise. Last year, it reached $11.27 billion, up 11.4 percent from the previous year, according to The Nilson Report, which tracks global payments. Even so, Nilson's publisher David Robertson pointed out that fraud still accounts for less than 6 cents of every $100 spent.
Target, which has almost 1,800 stores in the U.S. and 124 in Canada, said it immediately told authorities and financial institutions once it became aware of the breach on Dec. 15. The company is teaming with a third-party forensics firm to investigate and prevent future problems.
The credit card breach poses a serious problem and threatens to scare away shoppers who worry about the safety of their personal data.
Target's stock dropped more than 2 percent, or $1.40, to $62.15 on Thursday.
"This is close to the worst time to have it happen," said Jeremy Robinson-Leon, a principal at Group Gordon, a corporate and crisis public relations firm. "If I am a Target customer, I think I would be much more likely to go to a competitor over the next few days, rather than risk the potential to have my information be compromised."
Target advised customers Thursday to check their statements carefully. Those who see suspicious charges should report them to their credit card companies and call Target at 866-852-8680. Cases of identity theft can also be reported to law enforcement or the Federal Trade Commission.
"Target's first priority is preserving the trust of our guests, and we have moved swiftly to address this issue, so guests can shop with confidence," Chairman, President and CEO Gregg Steinhafel said Thursday in a statement.
Brianna Byrnes of Kansas City, Mo., a student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a call center worker, said she made a Target purchase during the affected period. The situation made her "a little bit" nervous, but she still plans to shop for toys at the store, she said.
"I've never had anyone steal my identity. I guess it's taking a risk."
The incident is particularly troublesome for Target because it has used its store-branded credit and debit cards as a marketing tool to attract shoppers with a 5 percent discount.
During an earnings call in November, the company said some 20 percent of store customers as of October have the Target-branded cards. In fact, households that activate a Target-branded card have increased their spending at the store by about 50 percent on average, the company said.
"This is how Target is getting more customers in the stores," said Brian Sozzi, CEO and Chief Equities Strategist. "It's telling people to use the card. It's been a big win. If they lose that trust, that person goes to Wal-Mart."
TJX Cos., which runs stores such as T.J. Maxx and Marshall's, had a breach that began in July 2005 and exposed at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards to possible fraud. The breach was not detected until December 2006.
Without anyone noticing, one or more intruders installed code on the discount retailer's systems to methodically collect and transmit account data from millions of cards.
In 2009, TJX agreed to pay $9.75 million in a settlement with multiple states.
Litan doubts the breach will have much effect on Target's sales, noting that TJX launched sales promotions immediately following the news of its breach. The effort increased sales.
"People care more about discounts than security," Litan said.
Associated Press writers Michelle Chapman in New York and Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this report.
Follow Anne D'Innocenzio at __ http://www.Twitter.com/adinnocenzio
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- The idea behind the Tampa Women's Club charity event was simple. For $20, you could buy a flute of champagne and a chance to win a one-carat, $5,000 diamond.
Organizers of the Saturday event placed $10 cubic zirconia stones in the bottom of 399 of the 400 champagne glasses. The prized diamond, donated by Continental Wholesale Diamonds, was placed in the last.
The problem? Eighty-year-old Miriam Tucker accidentally swallowed it.
Tucker told local news media that she didn't want to put her finger in the champagne, so she drank a bit. While laughing with women at the table, she realized she swallowed it.
Embarrassed, she had to tell jewelers who were frantically searching for the winner.
Already scheduled for a colonoscopy on Monday, she had a doctor recover the jewel.
Friday, April 26, 2013
colonoscopy recovers treasure
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An increasing number of boys and girls are playing recreational and organized sports. As a result, there is a rise in the number of overuse injuries seen among children and adolescents. The majority of sports and overuse injuries are due to minor trauma involving soft tissue injuries--injuries that affect the bone, muscles, ligaments, and/or tendons.
One such injury is Osteochondritis Dissecans, which is marked by knee pain and swelling. Possible cause is a piece of cartilage in the knee joint that separates from the joint surface. Theories suggest that it may run in families or be caused by a metabolic problem.
Overuse injuries can also lead to stress fractures. Stress fractures are weak spots or small cracks in the bone caused by continuous overuse. Stress fractures often occur in the foot after training for basketball, running, and other sports. There usually is no swelling, but pain and tenderness often increase during movement.
Treatment of an overuse injury
Specific treatment for an overuse injury will be determined by your child's doctor based on:
Your child's age, overall health, and medical history
Extent of the condition
Type of condition
Your child's tolerance for specific medications, procedures, or therapies
Expectations for the course of the condition
Your opinion or preference
The goal of treatment is to control the pain, promote healing, prevent complications, and restore normal use of the injured area.
Initial treatment for overuse injuries includes R.I.C.E. (rest, ice, compression, and elevation).
Be sure to consult your child's doctor if there is a prolonged, visible deformity of the affected area, or if severe pain prevents use of the arm, leg, wrist, ankle, or knee.
Other treatment options may include:
Activity restrictions
Splint or cast
Crutches or wheelchair
Physical therapy (to stretch and strengthen the injured muscles, ligaments, and tendons)
Surgery (especially if the injury is reoccurring, there is persistent pain, or if a muscle, tendon, or ligament is badly torn)
Long-term outlook for children with overuse injuries
Overuse injuries heal quite quickly in children. It is important that the child adhere to the activity restrictions and/or stretching and strengthening rehabilitation programs to prevent reinjury.
Most sports injuries are due to either traumatic injury or overuse of muscles or joints. Many sports injuries can be prevented with proper conditioning and training, wearing appropriate protective gear, and using proper equipment.
For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 314.454.5437 or 800.678.5437 or email us.


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Digital Marketing Services For Realtors® In Pilot Point
The way Realtors® market themselves is changing. If you have been lucky enough to depend on legacy "traditional marketing" vehicles to grow your Real Estate practice, lack of a digital marketing strategy puts you at risk of stifling your growth.
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The Enea, Ciaccia, Applegate and Day Funeral Directors have been serving the families of the Mohawk Valley for over a century. Our belief is not only that we are guiding and supporting our community, but that we ARE the community. The families we provide strength and comfort for are the same families that we were raised with...that our children are being raised with. Therefore, it is our passion to be sure that everyone who enters through our doors is treated as family...


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Clayton Kershaw (5-3, 3.09) vs. Bud Norris (2-3, 3.93).
In the last 15 years, I've had jobs which have required a lot of travel, domestic and international. And there was one time where I had to go on a business trip from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas, by myself. Since the time zones are against you, I remember flying out early that morning, the day before the meeting, and landing in Austin some time that afternoon. I remember shuttling to the rental car station and throwing my carry-on in the trunk of some mid-sized unremarkable car.
And then, instead of checking in at my hotel, I drove for three hours to catch a game at Minute Maid Park.
Mind you, the route between Austin and Houston, on US-290, is far from scenic. With small towns like Elgin, Carmine, Brenham, Hempstead, and Prairie View along the way, it's a pretty desolate slog. The radio couldn't really keep me company, since I wasn't much of a country music fan. So I armed myself with some Coke and fritos, and I forged onward, singularly focused on picking off another MLB stadium in my quest.
Minute Maid Park was a pretty cool stadium, I might add. On the night I was there, the retractable roof was closed (Texas is one humid state!), and the temperature inside was pleasant and comfortable.
Watching games on television, the most obvious oddity is that crazy hill in center field; some might also notice the train on the rails above left and center field (which activates on Astros home runs). However, besides that, there are some other quirks that make Minute Maid Park a neat reflection of the Houston community. For example, the price of a barrel of oil was signaled one of the ribbon scoreboards:
...and in center field, there's an old-style oil pump that tracks the Astros home runs hit at the ballpark:
Anyway, it was well worth the trip to see a game, even with the long drive through the pitch-black night back to Austin that evening. I was pretty tired for that business meeting the following day. But I did bag a pretty sweet adidas t-shirt (pictured at top). And, unlike the 2011 Dodgers with RISP, you gotta take advantage of opportunities when you've got 'em.
photos: oil commodities swiped from here; oil pump photo swiped from here. Someday, I'll scan in my own pictures, but for now this is what I've got.


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Popular Science ends reader comments, says practice is bad for science
The scientific method relies on rigorous observation and peer-based feedback as critical components in testing a hypothesis. But one of the world's leading science publications now says there is a major difference when it comes to reading news articles about science.
In a surprising move, the website for Popular Science announced it is no longer allowing reader comments on its articles. And in a potentially even more controversial move, the site's online content director boldly explains the decision was reached because of the publication's belief that reader comments are actually bad for science.
"A politically motivated, decades-long war on expertise has eroded the popular consensus on a wide variety of scientifically validated topics," writes Suzanne LaBarre. "Everything, from evolution to the origins of climate change, is mistakenly up for grabs again. Scientific certainty is just another thing for two people to 'debate' on television. And because comments sections tend to be a grotesque reflection of the media culture surrounding them, the cynical work of undermining bedrock scientific doctrine is now being done beneath our own stories, within a website devoted to championing science."
LaBarre says there is evidence suggesting that skewed comments can impact a reader's original view of a news story, even if the comments are inaccurate or misleading. "Simply including an ad hominem attack in a reader comment was enough to make study participants think the downside of the reported technology was greater than they'd previously thought," LaBarre writes.
The move has received a mixed reaction publicly. GigaOm writer Mathew Ingram called the decision "both sad and wrong," arguing that the publication should have made a greater effort to fix its reader comments section before closing it. Other sites like Poynter have linked to suggestions about giving the reader community more autonomy to moderate the comments section in order to quarantine disruptive commenters.
However, LaBarre says the site will not permanently block all reader feedback. For now, it will still accept and occasionally respond to user feedback through its social media accounts on sites like Twitter (where the site has nearly 200,000 followers) and Facebook. She also says it plans to open up reader comments sections "on select articles that lend themselves to vigorous and intelligent discussion."
Nonetheless, it's an interesting risk for the 141-year-old publication, as any news editor can explain that reader comments are often a big part of site's reaching its monthly traffic goals.
And for an interesting counterpart, Scientific American recently published a blog post in July attempting to explain why we read reader comments even when we know the potential downsides.


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Memorial to Louis Kahn or FDR at Southpoint Park?
The images above are from the proposed Louis Kahn Memorial purported to be for President Franklin Roosevelt that some hope to be installed at Southpoint Park on Roosevelt Island, (Top image is from Architectural Record, bottom from NY Times). The New York Sun is reporting today that:
A plan to build a memorial to President Franklin Roosevelt on Roosevelt Island is getting a boost from city leaders, who are meeting today to underscore their support for the initiative. The movement for the memorial, which was designed by architect Louis Kahn almost 35 years ago, needs to raise $40 million by the end of the year; as of July 20, it had collected $5.1 million.As I have stated before, my impression is that for many proponents of the Memorial, their support is based more upon the desire for a Louis Kahn project in NYC than to honor President Franklin D. Roosevelt, particularly since there is an existing FDR national memorial near the National Mall in Washington DC and Roosevelt Island as well the FDR Drive are named after the late President.
The city leaders set to attend the event include Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney; City Council Speaker Christine Quinn; City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin; New York State Assembly member Micah Kellner, and the president of Manhattan, Scott Stringer.
Those in support of this proposal should know that there are many residents of Roosevelt Island who do not want this massive granite structure with rows of trees obstructing the beautiful waterfront views from Southpoint Park and further impeding access to the East River. This NY Sun article had the following statement indicating opposition to the Louis Kahn memorial by Roosevelt Island residents:
The president and CEO of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association, Matthew Katz, said he is concerned that the memorial will cut off views to the east and west. A survey of residents found that most want "the greenest thing possible" in that space, he said.I agree. We do not want any green space nor access to the water from Southpoint's Park removed because of this proposed memorial.
"The Roosevelts were gods in my house, growing up," Mr. Katz said. "Whether this is the appropriate memorial is another question."
The association's secretary, Sherie Helstien, said that by resisting Kahn's memorial design, residents are trying to "save the last big community park" in the city. "I think a lot of us are just hoping they don't get the money," she said. "We don't want that thing here."
More background on this issue from this NY Times 2005 article:
the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, the state-appointed organization that runs the island, has commissioned a new design by a New York landscape designer for the 14-acre site, known as Southpoint Park. Taking into account feedback from residents and visitors, the design would substitute the granite memorial and overarching linden trees of Kahn's plan with a lawn for 7,000 spectators to view performances on a removable stage. There would also be a sledding hill and a skate pond.Here is a link to the Southpoint Park Conceptual Plans discussed above including the Wild Gardens/Green Rooms concept approved by most residents as well as the Visionary Landscape concept that includes the Kahn Memorial, assuming funding can be obtained.
..."Kahn's memorial was played out in a different time, a different era, a different world," said Herbert Berman, president of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation. "It was right for 30 years ago, not for now." Today, he said, those who live on Roosevelt Island are interested in less formal uses for the land.
...Last April, the operating corporation invited the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit organization that helps communities protect and conserve land by developing parks and recreational activities, to come up with new proposals for attracting people to the park and to the island.In November the trust presented the operating corporation with "Wild Gardens/Green Rooms," a picturesque park designed by Mark K. Morrison, a local landscape designer who is currently working on security fencing for the United Nations, as well as on numerous Manhattan playgrounds. The design includes a cafe in the ruins of the smallpox hospital and an earth mound providing enough contour for sledding in winter. The removable stage at the edge of a large lawn would be located at the southernmost tip, where Kahn put his granite room open to the sea.
..."Louis Kahn would have done it differently if he were alive today," said Charles McKinney, the consultant in charge of the Roosevelt Island park proposal for the Trust for Public Land. "He was well known for his concerns about creating communal spaces, and he would have understood the importance of this community's concerns, and he would have responded."
If the proposed Louis Kahn memorial is built, Roosevelt Island loses opportunities for special events that produce views like this from Thom Sokoloski's The Encampment as well as normal everyday experiences of walking down to beautiful green parkland and listening to the sounds of the East River. Or maybe even the possibility of importing a sand beach to Southoint Park similar to the one in Long Island City at the NY Water Taxi Beach.
It would be a real shame to give up so much potential for Southpoint Park for this memorial.
As I was writing this post Curbed picked up story here.


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"I don't want to just say I made it to the UFC. I want to make a good run at this." - Mitch Gagnon
It was October 2011 in Montreal's Bell Centre and Canadian fighter Mitch Gagnon (8-2) was staring across the cage at David Harris, a fighter from Detroit, Michigan. Both fighters were riding win streaks of three or better and Harris was making a splash north of the border.
For Gagnon, who was making his bantamweight debut, it was the moment of truth.
"I fought mostly local talent up until Harris, who is American," he said. "He was considered the Canadian Killer, and he was walking through the bantamweights here in Canada."
The two fighters met in the center of the cage and Harris sent Gagnon stumbling backwards after glancing him with a head kick. Mitch answered with several inside leg kicks before Harris dove in for the takedown – his first and last mistake of the match – as Gagnon quickly secured a guillotine, forcing the tap at just 2:09 of the first round.
"I put a stop to that pretty quick," Gagnon said. "It was really at that point that I felt like I deserved the shot in the UFC, but I always feared that unknown of how UFC fighters really are."
Gagnon found out first hand at UFC 149 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where he got the call up to the big leagues to take on a tough-as-nails Bryan Caraway.
"The minute I grabbed Bryan Caraway and the way my positioning on him was really great, I felt I belonged in there," he says. "Even though I lost that bout, I feel like I can match up well with any fighter in the bantamweight division."
Indeed, Gagnon has nothing to be ashamed about in suffering his first loss in over three years against Caraway. Their fight was a war of attrition, with both guys being dominant at several points during the fight, and Gagnon nearly finishing Caraway with vicious ground and pound in the first round. The two bantamweights eventually took Fight of the Night honors, earning them both an extra $60,000 for their crowd pleasing efforts.
"The experience was awesome," says Gagnon. "I enjoyed it right up to the moment I lost. I really felt like I belonged. It was hard because I hadn't suffered a loss in three years so I forgot how that felt. But it made me a better fighter. I got to look back to see what I did wrong and what I could have done better."
Gagnon next faces Walel Watson (9-4) at UFC 152 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on September 22nd. For this camp Mitch – who usually fights bigger guys at Sudbury, Ontario, Canada's Team Shredder, where he has a personal fitness and training business - headed north to train with Antonio Carvalho, a fellow UFC bantamweight who himself made an impressive showing at UFC 149 with a knockout of Daniel Pineda.
"I felt like I needed to train with other bantamweights," says Gagnon. "It's different fighting 170 pounders and then fighting 135 pounders. They're faster down at this weight so I needed to get time in with faster guys."
In Watson, Gagnon faces a dynamic striker who is also very tricky on the ground.
"Walel is really tall," says Gagnon. "He likes to throw head kicks and his length allows him to throw these weird angle submissions that most other guys just can't. He throws these anaconda chokes at these really weird angles and you have to be aware of that and be cautious of that. I'm sure he's working a lot on his wrestling. I'm thinking he's going to try to stuff my takedowns, but I've got a really good game plan and I know what I have to do. I've been drilling and drilling a lot."
Aside from drilling technique, Gagnon is also dieting better and approaching this weight cut a bit more scientifically then he did for the last two cuts to bantamweight.
"I cut 17 pounds during fight week last time and I think that's too much for any bantamweight," he said, adding that the tough cut might have contributed to what he considers a poor performance against Caraway.
"I think there was a point in that first round where I could have stopped hitting him while he was recovering," he says. "My fighting style is really high paced and I thought I was conditioned enough to sustain that pace throughout three rounds, and leading up to the fight I think my weight cut was a little rough as well. That was only my second time fighting at 135 and the first time I did that I also had a hard cut but that fight only lasted two minutes. I didn't really know how the weight cut was going to affect me over three rounds, so looking back on that fight, for this next fight I'm making sure my diet is good and that I'm leaner going into the cut so that it's not too hard."
For any fighter, the UFC is the biggest deal going, and Gagnon is taking his opportunity as seriously as one can get. He is focused full-time on his next fight, leaving his personal training clients to two colleagues in Sudbury so that he can train full time. He's also left his fiancé back home.
"She's never once told me to miss a training session or to not go away for camp," he said. "She's very supportive. I have a lot of support from my family, my sponsors and the local community, so that I can focus 100 percent on Walel Watson and nothing else."
And while for most guys a Fight of the Night bonus might take away the sting of a loss, for Gagnon, he's not in it for the money, although it does help.
"The bonuses in the UFC are great and if I'm smart with my money it will help me be better financially, but I'm a short-term goal setter. I like to set little goals and go out and meet them. Right now my goal is to get the W against Walel," he said. "But I don't want to just say I made it to the UFC. I want to make a good run at this. I feel like I can beat guys in the division and I can have a long career with Zuffa."
UFC 117 Fight Between Anderson Silva And Chael Sonnen…


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Two more American military personnel were killed in Southern Afghanistan today when, officials believe, an Afghan civilian grabbed a weapon from an Afghan soldier and opened fire, NPR's Quil Lawrence reports from Kabul. At least one other attacker may also have been involved.
Quil adds that "we don't know yet whether this attack is linked to the Quran burnings, which set off so much violence — including the killing of four U.S. servicemen in the week that followed."
But as he notes, the killings follow closely the anti-American protests and violence in Afghanistan since it was reported on Feb. 21 that international military personnel had burned some Qurans at the Bagram Air Field north of Kabul. According to U.S. officials, the Qurans were mistakenly mixed with some trash. There have been apologies from President Obama and top U.S. commanders.
The Associated Press adds that it's been told by some officials that as many as three attackers may have been involved in today's killings — and that two of them were killed. NATO's International Security Assistance Force says in a statement "two individuals, one believed to be an Afghan National Army service member and the other in civilian clothing, turned their weapons indiscriminately against International Security Assistance Force and Afghan National Security Force service members in southern Afghanistan today."
On ABC News' Nightline Wednesday, Obama said that while "we're not out of the woods yet," he believes the apologies have "calmed things down" in Afghanistan. He came under some sharp criticism — most vocally from Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich — after issuing the apology.
Earlier today, on Morning Edition, NPR's Tom Bowman reported from Fort Polk, La., on the mock villages where U.S. military personnel are training for their dangerous mission to be advisers to the Afghan Army:
"The mission will be to advise and assist the Afghans on just about everything from combat operations and logistics to police work and medical care.
"It's no small task. Afghan soldiers and police aren't well-educated. There are desertion, drug abuse and a host of other problems. 'The big problem in Afghanistan, for the Afghanistan government, is corruption,' says Wahidullah Naqibullah, one of the Afghan role-players at Fort Polk."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – Some 25 law enforcement officials from 10 countries are gathered in Cameroon for a training initiative on enhanced use of INTERPOL's notices in combating terrorism.
During the two-week session (19 – 30 November) organized by INTERPOL's Capacity Building and Training Directorate, participants from Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Guinea Conakry, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal will be shown how INTERPOL's range of notices can be used as an investigative tool in addition to taking part in a range of practical exercises.
Special guests at the opening of the Cameroon training included Délégué Général of the Délégation Générale à la Sûreté Nationale of Cameroon, Mr Martin Mbarga Nguele, Sécrétaire Général of the Délégation Générale à la Sûreté Nationale of Cameroon, Victor Ndocki, Canada's High Commissioner to Cameroon Bénoît-Pierre Laramée and the Ambassadors of Algeria and Marocco to Cameroon.
INTERPOL's notices are international alerts used by police in the Organization's 190 member countries to communicate information about crimes, criminals and threats to their counterparts around the world with each colour-coded notice serving a specific purpose;
Red Notice - To seek the location and arrest of a person wanted by a judicial jurisdiction or an international tribunal with a view to his/her extradition.
Blue Notice - To locate, identify or obtain information on a person of interest in a criminal investigation.
Green Notice - To warn about a person's criminal activities if that person is considered to be a possible threat to public safety.
Yellow Notice - To locate a missing person or to identify a person unable to identify himself/herself.
Black Notice - To seek information on unidentified bodies.
Orange Notice - To warn of an event, a person, an object or a process representing an imminent threat and danger to persons or property.
INTERPOL–United Nations Security Council Special Notice - To inform INTERPOL's members that an individual or an entity is subject to UN sanctions.
Purple Notice - To provide information on modi operandi, procedures, objects, devices or hiding places used by criminals.
The course is the fourth and final in a series held throughout the year which has seen 93 participants from 40 countries, of whom 21 have subsequently certified as trainers.


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This Bankruptcy is located at Nursery Rd Apt 26203, Clearwater, FL 33764. This property is Bankruptcy.
Save money on this property now.
This property is available as a bankruptcy at Nursery Rd Apt 26203. Based on our analysis of the current market conditions in Clearwater for Nursery Rd Apt 26203 and comparable listings, the estimated market value is still being calculated. If purchased for rental purposes, this property might present an opportunity to make monthly rental income. The rental value will be updated on this listing soon. Factors considered in this calculation include the property location, condition, status, and convenience. Properties like this one located at Nursery Rd Apt 26203 are updated daily along with others in Clearwater, Florida.
The property located at Nursery Rd Apt 26203 in Clearwater, FL is listed as a Bankruptcy
This bankruptcy listing at Nursery Rd Apt 26203 in Clearwater, Florida is among more than 1 million records featured in our comprehensive nationwide real estate database. However, unlike most property records, not all homes / addresses associated with a bankruptcy filing are for sale. This is an important legal concept to understand before moving forward on Nursery Rd Apt 26203 Clearwater, FL. We highly recommend that you first contact the court-appointed receiver / trustee listed below (scroll down) under "Bankruptcy Information" to learn whether or not the property is (or will soon be) for sale.In order to purchase a bankruptcy property, you will need to approach the court appointed receiver / trustee to pursue your deal.
Contact the bankruptcy trustee to find out if the property is for sale as part of the bankruptcy. If so, request the terms for the sale of the property as well as any additional information regarding the condition of the property. This will help you understand the type of investment your are getting into.
Here is how you can proceed:
There are special issues to be considered when dealing with properties that are the subject of bankruptcy. Properties in bankruptcy frequently have flaws both physically due to lack of maintenance, and liens of creditors. There may be a great deal of motivation for the courts to dispose of the property for the benefit of the creditors, which can translate into a good deal for a property investor. When dealing with the courts in the sale of a property, buyers need to be patient as each decision related to the sale has to be approved by the court. However, a patient real estate investor can turn this situation into a sale at below market price.
Contact the court-appointed receiver / trustee listed below (scroll down) under "Bankruptcy Information" to determine whether or not the property is (or will soon be) for sale. REMEMBER: not all homes / addresses associated with a bankruptcy filing are for sale.
Step 2Request the terms of the sale for the property that is included in the bankruptcy filing, as well as any additional information regarding the condition of the home. This will help you better understand the type of investment (price, terms, conditions, etc.) that you are exploring.
Step 3Drive by the property and visually inspect it, as well as the surrounding neighborhood. Frequently, properties that are involved in bankruptcy filings are in need of maintenance (some may even be abandoned). Please keep in mind that the distressed homeowner(s) may still be living in the property and their privacy must always be respected.
Step 4Make an offer! At this stage, you have already determined that the property is for sale, appears to be in acceptable condition, and that you can live with the terms the court-appointed receiver / trustee has spelled out. Be certain that your offer contains contingencies such as appraised value, property inspections, clear title and the financing you will need to close the deal.
Step 5Once the court-appointed receiver / trustee has signed off on your offer, have professional inspectors give detailed reports on the condition of such things as construction defects, the roof, insect infestations, mold, electrical and plumbing systems, appliances, and heating and air conditioning units. Once you are satisfied with the inspections -- and all other contingencies are assured -- have your lender give you a commitment for financing.
Patience is the key to buying a home involved in a bankruptcy filing. For example, bankruptcies can present unique problems with respect to title since you will be receiving the deed from the court. Also, when bankruptcies occur, liens frequently follow. Therefore, be sure to work with a title agent who understands the fine points of bankruptcy and can insure your title is clean and unencumbered.
Patience will be rewarded more often than not … in a major way!
Indeed, there is often a great deal of motivation for the court-appointed receiver / trustee to sell a home included in a bankruptcy filing quickly and reasonably to satisfy creditors, which can translate into a great deal for a property investor (that's you!). Just be patient -- each decision related to the sale has to be approved by the court. However, a patient real estate investor can often turn a bankruptcy situation into a sale at well below fair market price.
The information provided on the Website, which encompasses details such as property dimensions, floor area, valuation, geographic location, and general property description, is furnished for your convenience and originates from third-party sources. This data should not be interpreted as constituting a contractual offer for the procurement, leasing, or advertising of real estate. No express or implied warranties or assurances are extended concerning these properties, including their availability. While the data presented on this Website is considered reliable, it acknowledges a degree of uncertainty, thus necessitating independent verification.
The administrators of this platform, as well as their respective directors, associates, and personnel, have not undertaken a process of due diligence to verify the accuracy of the information. Their role is limited to disseminating the information, and they do not accept liability, whether direct or indirect, for any injuries, losses, claims, damages, or associated indirect or consequential harms, including but not limited to lost profits or savings, arising from the use of any information or any deficiencies, inaccuracies, or defects in the disseminated information within the bounds of the Website.
Foreclosure.com, in conjunction with its Affiliates, disclaims any responsibility arising from your acquisition of third-party goods, services, or tangible properties based on the informational context of the Site. Foreclosure.com reserves the right, at its sole discretion and without prior notice, to rectify errors or omissions within any section of the Site or to restrict access to the Site.
Relying solely on the informational content featured on the Website is not advisable. Conduct your own personal inquiries and seek legal counsel regarding any property under consideration within the scope of the Website or the associated data.
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USDA Allows More Meat, Grains In School Lunches
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Agriculture Department says it's making permanent rules that allow schools to serve larger portions of lean meat and whole grains in school lunches and other meals.
Guidelines restricting portion size were originally intended to combat childhood obesity, but many parents complained their kids weren't getting enough to eat. School administrators say that rules establishing maximums on grains and meats are too limiting and make it difficult to plan daily meals.
The department eliminated limits and on meats and grains on a temporary basis more than a year ago. On Thursday officials made the rule change permanent.
The change was announced by Kevin Concannon, an undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services.
He says the department has delivered on its promise to give school nutritionists more flexibility in meal planning.


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Productivity may be our main focus here at Lifehacker, but that doesn't mean we don't like to kick back with a good video game once in a while (after all, they're more than just an entertaining time sink). This weekend, take a break and de-stress with some of your favorite games (and some tweaks to make them better).
Break Out the Ol' Console
Okay, it doesn't necessarily have to be old, but the quickest way to get up and running (or shooting, or slaying, or portal gunning) is with a good old fashioned console and controller. Of course, there are any number of things that could get in your way. Those controllers can wear out pretty quickly, for example. If your buttons are feeling a little unresponsive, try fixing them with aluminum foil. Of course, for more complicated controllers—like those of the Rock Band/Guitar Hero persuasion—you may need to do a little more work. Though while you're at it, you could give your controllers a bit of extra modding, like this vented fan that keeps your controller from getting too sweaty.
If you've really got the DIY bug, you can do a little modding of the console itself, too. Nintendo consoles are particularly hackable, with the Wii allowing you to back up and play your games from an external drive, and the Nintendo DS letting you play all your games from one cartridge. Consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are a bit less hackable, but that doesn't mean you can't combine them in one computer case to create the ultimate gaming machine, now does it?
Lastly, if you want to go retro, be prepared for setbacks—a lot of those old consoles just don't work like they used to. If your old NES or Genesis has bitten the dust, you can always just get those games on your PC or mobile device, complete with CRT filters to make them feel just like they used to. You could even turn your kickass XBMC media center into a video game console, and convert your old NES or SNES controller to USB—though it'd be a lot easier to just get a USB gamepad or USB adapter instead. And, if you just aren't ready to say goodbye to your old console, you can give it new life by turning it into a cool, retro DVD player or something similar. Photo by Pedro Aznar.
Beef Up Your Gaming PC for Superior Performance
Consoles are great for a lot of things, but PCs give you the most configurable game experience possible, so if you're of a PC person, you better take advantage of it. You don't have to build a whole new PC to get a good experience, though you may have to upgrade the hardware, since software tweaks can only do so much. If you're looking to upgrade, check out our part lists for the best $600 and $1200 computer you can buy, as well as the video card benchmarks over at Anandtech to get the most bang for your buck. And, if you want to make one last ditch effort to save your dying video card, you can try sticking it in the oven before you go spending money on a new one.
While software tweaks won't dramatically change your experience, they can give you a bit of a boost, which is great if your games are just on the wrong end of playable. The best thing you can do is overclock your video card, which is easy to do with a program like MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision. You can also overclock your processor, which won't necessarily help as much, but can still increase performance in games that have a lot of things going on on the screen. If you're using a low-powered computer running something like an Atom, you'll definitely want to overclock it for the best performance possible.
If you're looking to have a little LAN party without carrying your tower over to your friend's house, it's worth mentioning the power of a VPN. It'll let you game with your friends from home as if you were all on the same LAN—no need to deal with that game's online services and other annoying players. Be sure to grab a good gaming headset too, so you can all talk to each other.
Lastly, if you're still feeling retro, you can play a lot of retro PC games on modern hardware with tools like DOSBox or ScummVM.
Find Some New Games for Free or Cheap
If your current crop of games is starting to feel a little stale after a weekend marathon, you might be thinking it's time to grab some new ones. Of course, you could head to GameStop to buy a brand new game, or you could play some free ones from one of these great resources (Linux users are especially lucky on the "free" front with places like Penguspy offering so many free games). You can also trade in your used games without even leaving the house, and use that traded money to shop strategically for cheap games. Of course, stores like Amazon and Steam often have lots of sales and free games, too, so be sure to check them out.
Got any other gaming hacks, tricks, or just games you're looking forward to playing this weekend? Share them in the comments below.


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Gym mats enhance the fun and safety of preschools and daycare centers. What kinds of tumble mats are good for kids? With a wide range of colors and styles that are made for kids, you are sure to find some great options from Hertz Furniture. Tumbling mats enable young learners to run, play and develop their skills without fear of injury.
All of our gym mats are made of high-quality vinyl and meet the highest safety and fire standards. Whatever your budget or your classroom setup, Hertz Furniture has gym mats for kids that will help you bring out the best in the little ones entrusted to your care.
Where do you need tumbling mats?
Gym mats serve a number of purposes. When little ones are developing their motor skills, creating exciting obstacle courses will promote development and encourage them to try new things. With an exercise mat beneath the soft play toys that you arrange, both children and caregivers can breathe easy as toddlers take charge and learn new things. Even older children can benefit from some soft cushioning as they practice various tumbling exercises in gym class.
When toddlers are running around and having a ball, you don't want them to be limited more than necessary. Little ones who are still perfecting their balancing skills can benefit from having some tumbling mats beneath them, especially when they are doing activities which require a lot of quick movement. If a child stumbles or falls, they will be supported by soft cushioning which will prevent them from becoming injured or alarmed. Making children feel safe and protected as they play will get them excited and enjoying the benefits of physical education early on.
What will make my classroom floor comfortable to sit on?
When little ones in an early childhood education classroom sit on the floor to build with blocks or play with animals, you want to make sure that they have a clean and cozy play area. tumbling mats for kids are great for floor play. They are cleaner and more comfortable than a hard floor and can be used to designate a special floor play area. When little ones know which parts of the classroom are designated for certain activities, they are less likely to interfere with each other's games or trip over their classmates who are seated on the floor.
How can you store tumbling mats when they are not in use?
Our folding exercise mats are designed for easy use and arrangement. Many of them can be folded up in a flash and some even include handles for easy carrying. Foldable mats can also be tons of fun. Children's Factory has specially-designed mats that can be folded into a tent or secret hiding place. This arrangement encourages young learners to take initiative, build and explore.
In the process of choosing anything for your daycare or preschool classroom, it is important to make sure that products are built to last. Our tumbling mats will give young learners many years of comfort, safety and enjoyment. They are made of tear-resistant vinyl that is easy to clean. Soft foam cushioning in between the layers of vinyl will stay cozy, even with frequent use.
Every early-childhood setting should be colorful and enticing so little ones will look forward to playing and enjoy being there. Folding gym mats are available in a wide variety of colors and designs that can be coordinated with classroom colors or gym decor. Choose from a patchwork of brightly-colored squares, rainbow stripes, animal graphics and more. For a more subdued option, we have solid colors as well.
How can I prevent paints and project materials from spilling on the floor of my classroom?
Tired of cleaning up when messy projects overflow or spill onto the floor? Splash mats are the perfect solution to your needs. If you have a water-play preschool learning center or are doing a special activity that involves messy liquids, a splash mat will prevent stains and make it much easier to clean everything up. It can be used on tables or on the floor to prevent soggy carpets and potentially slippery areas.
Children are your most precious asset, so it is important to make sure that they are protected and comfortable throughout the school day. With Hertz Furniture's great selection of play and tumbling mats, you can feel free to let little ones run and play in a safe classroom environment.


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In a world where demand for water is on the road to outstripping supply, many companies are struggling to find the water they need to run their businesses. In 2004, for instance, Pepsi Bottling and Coca-Cola closed down plants in India that local farmers and urban interests believed were competing with them for water. In 2007, a drought forced the US Tennessee Valley Authority to reduce its hydropower generation by nearly a third. Some $300 million in power generation was lost.
Businesses everywhere could face similar challenges during the next few years. A larger global population and growing economies are placing bigger demands on already-depleted water supplies. Agricultural runoff and other forms of pollution are exacerbating the scarcity of water that is clean enough for human and industrial use in some regions, and changes in climate may worsen the problem. Scarcity is raising prices and increasing the level of regulation and competition among stakeholders for access to water. To continue operating, companies in most sectors must learn how to do more with less.
Achieving that goal is an opportunity as well as a necessity. Many of these same companies are developing products and services that can help business customers raise their water productivity. In agriculture, improved irrigation technologies and plant-management techniques are yielding "more crops per drop." New approaches now rolling out will help oil companies, mines, utilities, beverage companies, technology producers, and others use water more efficiently. Closing the gap between supply and demand by deploying water productivity improvements across regions and sectors around the world could cost, by our estimate, about $50 billion to $60 billion annually over the next two decades. Private-sector companies will account for about half of this spending, government for the rest. Many of these investments yield positive returns in just three years.
Making a business out of improving water efficiency won't be easy. Successful providers will have to migrate from selling equipment and components to selling solutions aimed at helping business customers reduce their water and energy use. The providers will therefore have to develop new skills and capabilities, particularly in marketing and sales, to identify and capture the higher-value-added solutions that business-to-business markets need. They must also engage more actively in shaping the regulations that will define this market—standing on the sidelines is no longer an option. Nearly every sector will be affected, whether a company is improving its own water productivity or selling equipment and services to help other companies do so.
Doing more with less
Many countries face a growing gap between the amount of water they can supply reliably to their economies and the amount they need. Assuming continued economic and population growth, by 2030 water supplies will satisfy only 60 percent of global demand (exhibit) and less than 50 percent in many developing regions where water supply is already under stress, including China, India, and South Africa. Closing the gap by increasing supply—through desalination, the drilling of deep wells, or transporting surface water—will be extremely difficult and expensive. More likely, governments will need to manage demand, either by raising the price of water or by capping the amount of it that users can draw.
By 2030, water supplies will satisfy only 60 percent of global demand on average.
These moves will have a direct impact on local and multinational businesses. They need water—often in large quantities—for their processes, products, and operations. Their global assets reside in countries where rules governing water usage and prices will vary, along with access to water.
Take Chile, for example—one of the world's most important mining centers and also among the driest spots on Earth. Here the authorities allocate fresh-water rights among companies strictly, closely monitor their usage of water, and pressure them to use less of it; for example, the country's third-largest copper mine, Xstrata's Collahuasi operation, was asked to reduce its rate of water extraction to 300 liters a second by 2010, from 750 liters now. To make up the difference needed to remain in operation, the company has considered building a desalination plant or shipping in water to the mine. It is also deploying new technologies and processes, such as using less water to separate waste rock (called tailings) from ores and recycling more of the water used in the process.
Companies in several sectors are improving their water productivity. The Swedish pulp-and-paper producer SCA,1 for instance, aims to reduce its overall water consumption by 15 percent from 2005 to 2010. SCA tracks its performance through a resource-management system that collects and aggregates data on energy, water, transport, and raw-material use, as well as waste and emission levels from both production sites and business divisions. The brewing conglomerate SABMiller launched a water footprint study to compare its total water usage, from crop to consumer, in different countries and has used the findings to target improvements throughout the value chain. By 2015, it hopes to use 25 percent less water per liter of beer produced.
Several other big corporations, such as Ford Motor Company, Nestlé, and P&G, have been reducing their water usage too. The first step is usually to study where their processes use water and how much of it. Often, these companies discover a few areas where they can make significant improvements for a small outlay. A mining company, for example, found that more than 30 percent of the expense associated with water came from potable water. By fixing leaks in a single pipeline leading to a mine, the company cut the cost of potable water by 5 percent. After examining the total costs associated with water usage, it discovered that 40 percent of them came from the energy needed to run pumps.
Few companies, however, look beyond near-term water constraints, as important as they are, to a more comprehensive assessment of the longer-term business risks associated with water scarcity. Bottling companies are among the exceptions, in part because water scarcity already influences their strategic decisions, such as where to locate operations. More and more decisions about where to put assets involve such environmental considerations.
Where the opportunities are
Many solutions that will help companies use water more efficiently in their operations—from farms to semiconductor fabs, bottling plants to nuclear ones, steel mills to oil rigs—will be new products and services under development today. Global industrial players, such as ABB, GE, and Siemens, already have large water businesses and continue to develop new products in this area for large industrial users and water utilities. IBM provides technologies to measure and track water efficiency efforts and to improve water treatment and irrigation. A few oil companies are thinking about getting into the water market by selling the pumping technology they've developed for their own operations.
Roughly speaking, the broadest range of opportunities for new products and services falls into three areas: improving the productivity of water treatment and distribution, of water-intensive industrial and power processes, or of water usage in agriculture. These segments are evolving on different time lines and involve different sets of solutions, but a broad range of companies could be successful in any of these areas.
Treatment and distribution
Municipal or private water utilities and many large businesses spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year making water fit for human consumption and industrial activity and then transporting it, through pumps and pipes, from treatment plants to points of use. The costs include expenditures on new infrastructure, such as a new treatment plants—China and India alone are building hundreds of them to treat water and wastewater—and on operating and maintaining systems. Two-thirds of this spending occurs in developed countries, but much of the growth in new systems will take place in Asia and other developing regions over the next two decades. Trillions of dollars will be spent on technology, equipment, and services.
Meeting this growth with existing technologies is a huge business in itself. In China alone, we estimate, the market for the current membrane technology used to clean wastewater will grow by more than 30 percent a year over the next two decades. Introducing new technologies and services will eventually be an even bigger opportunity, both for existing players and new entrants.
In many European and US cities, for instance, the same sewage systems collect residential and commercial wastewater, runoff rainwater, and melted snow. Singapore, by contrast, collects different gradations of discharged water separately and can redirect some of it to uses (such as watering lawns and gardens) requiring lower levels of quality. Then it goes on to treatment plants for cleaning and reuse in other applications—a far more efficient approach. In Masdar City, a planned community under construction in Abu Dhabi, urban designers hope to recycle as much as 80 percent of the water the community will use. And new desalination technologies are reducing the cost (and the extensive energy) involved in desalinating water, as well as increasing its quality. As water needs grow in the developed and developing world alike, and regulations and water prices come to reflect the need to manage demand, new solutions could provide significant value to public and private buyers.
Companies already active in this space have many opportunities to introduce new products, including devices that collect wastewater from sinks to reuse for flushing toilets, technology for collecting and reusing condensate from air-conditioning systems, more water-efficient appliances, and ultraviolet disinfection technology adapted for home use (for instance, to wash clothes with treated rainwater). Hong Kong's water department has developed systems to use seawater in toilets and may soon use it to cool commercial buildings. There are also opportunities for innovators. On the drawing board today are ideas for recycling desalinated brines, low-energy technology that separates industrial waste into irrigation-quality water and valuable chemical by-products, and ways to condense fog into usable water.
Industrial efficiency
Power and industrial companies use significant amounts of water in production processes and as a coolant—16 percent of global demand today, rising to 22 percent by 2030, with about 40 percent of this growth in China. Moving water at these volumes and using it in some processes (such as steel making or power production) requires a great deal of energy, so using less water to do more also means using less energy. One bottling company, for example, is starting to deploy a new technology, called radical water, to clean bottles.2 The traditional process requires about five hours of cleaning; with the new one, the company can clean the same number of bottles in just 30 minutes, using significantly less water and energy.
Other technologies that can help businesses to reduce their water usage and energy costs include thickening paste tailings3 in mines, closed-loop systems in pulp and paper plants, and flow control and automatic shut-off valves in textile production. These solutions sometimes require trade-offs, however. Dry or closed-loop cooling systems in power plants, for instance, use up to 97 percent less water but are also less efficient. (In South Africa, Eskom uses dry-cooling technology because of the looming prospect of water shortages, but in another climate the efficiency trade-offs may not make sense.) Emerging new technologies also help companies in industries such as power to use water more efficiently in energy-intensive processes. The market for these solutions will grow dramatically in just a few years as regulations and increased water prices make using large amounts of water more costly.
Finally, many manufacturers don't have the information they need to manage the water that flows through their processes—information that is critical for improving productivity. Technology providers are starting to develop products that can help these industrial companies improve the way they track their water usage and monitor their progress.
Farming accounts for 71 percent of global water withdrawals, a proportion that we project will decline only slightly, to 65 percent by 2030. Water scarcity is tied both to the growing and the trading of food. India, for instance, now has just half of the water it will need in 2030, and agriculture will account for about half of the growth in water demand over the next two decades. It will account for about half of all water use in China by 2030 and for about a third in Brazil—and neither country will have enough water for all its needs in 20 years.
Finding ways to use water more efficiently in agriculture is critical. Agricultural companies are already looking for ways to design seeds and fertilizers that require less water, and better drip irrigation technologies will keep farmers from overwatering their fields. Many other sectors can provide valuable solutions under the right economic conditions. A large industrial company, for instance, could provide farming communities with pumps that it now sells to water utilities, broadening its customer base while improving efficiency in agriculture. IT solutions can help as well. They are too expensive for subsistence farmers, but water scarcity may promote consolidation and the emergence of larger farming groups that would need—and could afford—efficiency tools.
Even raising the water productivity of farms in rainy locales is a critical piece of the puzzle. Maintaining rain-fed land and improving its productivity are particularly important, since to the extent that agriculture uses water from rain, it is unnecessary to extract water for irrigation. In India, this source provides 17 percent of the total potential for agriculture to close the gap between demand and supply. The opportunities include a better fertilizer balance in fields, integrated pest management, and improved drainage systems.
Finally, financial institutions and investors can benefit from efforts to boost water productivity in treatment, efficiency, and agriculture. Banks will need to provide capital for many water productivity investments, especially when the public sector can't. The investment can be attractive for lenders, but they will have to know where and how to play. In India, for instance, some drip irrigation projects could help farmers reduce the cost of certain inputs (such as fertilizer) by up to 50 percent, depending upon the crop. Investors could capture a share of this value either as lenders or as equity holders in companies active in the drip irrigation value chain. China needs about $1.8 billion a year in capital to reduce leakage in municipal water systems. With a 22 percent rate of return, these investments could be an attractive solution for municipal utilities and their lenders alike.
Winning in water
Water is a large market, but as it grows, the rules for winning will change. Buyers of water-related goods and services, ranging across the public and private sectors, have very different needs. For many years, water has been largely a "pull" market: utilities and businesses request bids on new equipment, and the companies making it respond. As the market grows and novel technologies become available, profitable new opportunities will emerge. Today, by meeting only the minimum standards of customers, an equipment provider has little opportunity to prove that it can give them better service, with lower costs and lower levels of risk over a life cycle. New technologies will change that.
Providers will also need to engage more actively with regulators, which over the next five years are going to design water-management policies that will determine which new technologies succeed or fail. What's more, capital costs for many projects are so high that purchases of new technologies often depend on a public buyer's ability to put together complicated deals for capital financing. Tomorrow's winners will have to tackle these issues.
Developing a sales and marketing approach
Even large industrial players in the water market have found it difficult to grow in this sector. Their sales efforts, reflecting the diversity of customer segments, suffer from fragmentation across different business units. Public-sector buyers often have slow, exacting procurement processes. Corporate buyers of new water facilities often want not just components but also integrated solutions for managing water in production processes—requiring significant levels of niche-sector expertise from sellers. Highly fragmented agricultural buyers favor low-cost solutions, while desalination players are few in number and put a premium on technological innovation. Meeting these different needs requires a variety of approaches.
For this reason, large industrial suppliers typically organize their sales efforts by sector, with water-related equipment as part of the mix of solutions they provide to buyers in it. The trade-off is focus. Frequently, sales of water products take a back seat to sales efforts for higher-ticket items, such as power equipment. With no specific focus on water as a business, these suppliers feel no pressure to expand it. As a result, they are vulnerable to new entrants that specialize in the water market.
One industrial company, recognizing the opportunity to grow along with the water market, is trying to change its approach: it has created a special initiative in which sales and marketing employees across sector-based business units identify and target new opportunities. The initiative reports directly to a top executive, and team members have incentives to increase sales in water markets rather than just their respective sector-focused businesses. Over time, the company believes, a focused sales force will find new openings for higher-value services and integrated solutions.
Engage on regulation
What will shape the sector's economics, separating winners from losers, is regulation. Many water users are already actively clarifying critical positions with regulators. Water utilities, for instance, are capital-intensive businesses that make money selling water. In a world where regulators want to reduce demand for it by pricing it higher or establishing caps on its use, these utilities will need new models and a reasonable way to transition from old ones. In the United Kingdom, where water utilities have mostly been privatized, their executives are helping leaders of Ofwat, the UK Water Services Regulation Authority, to understand the nature of competition in the sector, the impact of demand management and pricing issues, and other matters that will shape the water market in coming decades. Similarly, some mining companies are working with regulators to determine the economic impact of the use of water and the options for consuming it more efficiently.
Sellers of water products and services too must participate in these debates, as some large industrial companies in the water space already do. They recognize that if regulators in a region favor water reuse as a strategy for conservation (as Singapore does), this preference will tilt the market odds in favor of companies that offer those technologies. The public-affairs units of some such companies are trying to understand how they could engage in conversations with regulators in a given region about new regulatory strategies.
Inescapably, water will become a strategic factor for companies in most sectors. All businesses will need to conserve, and many will make a market in conservation. Tomorrow's leaders in water productivity are getting into position today.


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Ex-cop killed after shooting at US courthouse in West Virginia
| WHEELING, W.Va.
A retired police officer armed with an assault weapon and a handgun fired up to two dozen shots at a U.S. courthouse in West Virginia on Wednesday before police returned fire and killed him, authorities said.
Wheeling Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger identified the gunman as Thomas J. Piccard, 55, of Bridgeport, Ohio. He was a retired Wheeling police officer.
Schwertfeger did not say whether Piccard used both weapons during the assault on the Wheeling Federal Building or speculate on a motive. Officials said they had no knowledge of any sort of note left behind by Piccard.
Three on-duty security officers were injured by flying debris during the onslaught, he told a news conference.
Wheeling Mayor Andy McKenzie said police who briefed him earlier Wednesday told him that Piccard was a 20-year-plus veteran of the force who retired 13 years ago.
Investigators were seeking a search warrant for Piccard's home in hopes of determining a motive and if he acted alone, said Chief Deputy Mike Claxton of the U.S. Marshals Service in northern West Virginia.
Asked if the gunman had any beef with the U.S. government, Claxton said, "We're really digging hard at this point to find out."
Claxton said a man later identified as Piccard began firing from a parking lot across from the federal building. "He was observed in the parking lot very quickly after the first shots were fired," he said.
The building houses a variety of courtrooms and related offices, including those for judges, prosecutors and law enforcement.
Officials said it was too early to tell whether Piccard was targeting anyone in the building or what his motive may have been.
"That's still trying to be determined," said Bob Johnson, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Pittsburgh office.
People inside the building ducked under desks as the shots struck the building and shattered windows.
U.S. Attorney Bill Ihlenfeld said shots were fired into at least three rooms in his office on the building's second floor. He described hearing gunshots, then panic among staff.
"Members of my staff were crawling on the floor or running from office to office telling people to get away from the windows," he said.
Ihlenfeld said he knew Piccard from 1997 when he started working in the city prosecutor's office until the officer retired in 2000. He said he had no reason to believe his office was targeted, and that Piccard was not under any sort of investigation by federal authorities.
"There was nothing about my relation with him or anything that I observed in dealing with him ... to cause me to think anything like this would happen," he said.
About 40 percent of Ihlenfeld's staff was furloughed because of the federal government shutdown, so many weren't working on Wednesday.
"To be honest, the security plans in place to deal with a situation like this don't work when we don't have everybody there," he said, without elaborating.
Carla Webb Daniels told media outlets she was in her attorney's office nearby when she heard loud gunshots. She saw the gunman fire from a bank parking lot across the street.
"I was so nervous, I couldn't believe it," Daniels said. "People were scared and were banging on the doors asking to be let in."
Piccard's body will be sent to the Medical Examiner's Office in Charleston for an autopsy. Meanwhile, officials continued to search his four-door sedan that he drove to the scene and his trailer across the river in Bridgeport, Ohio.
Johnson said a bomb squad would clear the home before investigators go in as a precaution.
The three-story gray federal building remained cordoned off Wednesday night, surrounded by a heavy police presence in the city along the Ohio River in West Virginia's northern panhandle about 60 miles southwest of Pittsburgh.
Most people were going about their evenings, eating at local restaurants in the small city of about 28,000 with an older downtown with stone buildings, banks and coffee shops. Only a few stopping to gaze at the courthouse.
David Wohlfeil, the owner of the Metropolitan City Grill near the courthouse, said he ran outside after he heard the first round of shots. He heard two more volleys of gunfire then ran back inside.
"I told everyone to get in the basement and then called 911," he said, adding that police arrived while he was on the phone.
Wheeling has been hit by layoffs in the steel industry and its population dropped by 9.3 percent from 2000 to 2010 to about 28,500 people.
McKenzie said the shooting underscores the fact that even small cities like Wheeling are "not immune to national problems."
"Things like this aren't just happening in large cities, in this country we need to do a better job on mental health," he said.
John Raby contributed to this story from Charleston, Larry O'Dell and Steve Szkotak from Richmond, Va., and Brock Vergakis from Norfolk, Va.


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When Apple first announced the MacBook Air, it was met with oohs and ahs form Apple fans and non-Apple fans alike. The Air is a very attractive notebook, even if it does have a wealth of odd issues prospective owners have to live with.
Even though the MacBook Air has generated lots of praise for its design and thin construction, the notebook has taken a few hits for its lack of a user-replaceable battery, meager performance, lack of more USB ports and a missing GbE connection onboard.
According to Ars Technica, even with the caveats of MacBook Air ownership, the demand is apparently still high leading to long wait times for shipping and frequent sell outs at Apple stores in large markets. Amazon says its MacBook Air orders won't be shipping until March 16 and Best Buy has been low on systems as well.
It makes sense that Apple resellers like Amazon and Best Buy would be low on stock since Apple is having a hard time keeping its own retail stores supplied with the Air. Some stores in and around Boston were out of stock and store employees said that some would be Air owners were opting to spend the significantly higher price on the SSD equipped Air because it tends to be in stock longer.
Apple stores in large markets like LA, New York City and Chicago get daily shipments and are still not able to keep a regular stock of the Air. However, it seems that Apple fans in smaller markets may have an easier time getting their hands on the MacBook Air — one Apple Store in Indianapolis reported that it had more than enough stock to meet demand.
The real question behind the shortages of MacBook Air systems is if the demand is really that high, or perhaps did Apple simply not order enough of the machines making them hard to keep in stock. Whatever the reason the Air is hard to get in some areas, there is little doubt that the computer has proven to be surprisingly popular despite the issues it may have.


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Well sort of, it's nylon and the right size and weight. The idea of dimpled paintballs comes up every couple months and we always have to tell them sorry we tried that and it didn't work.
Here is a pic I have been meaning to post. I thought I would share it with all of you before I move it to deep blue.
Bunny- Couldn't find picture - 5-28-2017


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The integration with Apache and possible other servers has been described in the separate chapter.
The API provided by the HW_API extension is fully object oriented. It is very similar to the C++ interface of the Hyperwave SDK. It consist of the following classes.
Each class has certain method, whose names are identical to its counterparts in the Hyperwave SDK. Passing arguments to this function differs from all the other PHP extensions but is close to the C++ API of the HW SDK. Instead of passing several parameters they are all put into an associated array and passed as one parameter. The names of the keys are identical to those documented in the HW SDK. The common parameters are listed below. If other parameters are required they will be documented if needed.
Methods returning boolean can return
or HW_API_Error object.


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Summer Riding Camp on Friends Sphere from
Head off to Summer Riding Camp with the LEGO Friends! Spend the summer at the LEGO Friends Summer Riding Camp! Head off to camp with Emma, Stephanie and their friend Ella in the mini-bus, complete with a trailer for bringing everything you need for a summer with horses. Practice your horseback riding skills and learn to pull the cart with the help of the Instructor Theresa mini-doll figure! Take lessons in the classroom then take the horses out for a ride. Learn to put on their saddles and hold the reins before you ride around the pretty pastures. Then serve up a yummy meal in the canteen, clean up in the bath house and hang out by the campfire! The LEGO Friends love roasting marshmallows and reading each other stories before they go to bed in the cool camp bunkhouse with 4 beds. Includes Emma, Stephanie, Ella and Instructor Theresa mini-doll figures.• Includes 4 mini-doll figures: Emma, Stephanie, Instructor Theresa and Ella• Features 2 two-story buildings: the camp canteen, classroom, 2 bedrooms, bath house with toilet, horse staging area and paddock• Includes a mini-bus with seats for all 4 mini-doll figures and a detachable trailer• Animals include hedgehog and 3 different colored horses: Champion, Foxy and Sunshine• Accessories include camera, storybook, riding helmets, croissants, salad, sausages, dining furniture, blackboard, 3 saddles, 3 bridles, pitch fork, whip, bonfire, marshmallows, cups; animal accessory set: brushes, comb, bows, hairspray, soap and prize ribbons; and flower accessory set: flowers, ladybirds and butterflies• Load the LEGO Friends into the mini-bus!• Ride, groom and feed the horses!• Rebuild and create new ways to play!• LEGO Friends pieces are fully compatible with all LEGO System bricks• Collect all of the LEGO Friends sets for a whole city of LEGO Friends fun!• LEGO Mini-dolls are figures made especially for the world of LEGO Friends, with thousands of customizable fashion and accessory combinations!• Measures over 9" (23cm) tall, 20" (51cm) wide and 6" (17cm) long• Mini-bus and trailer measures over 2" (6cm) tall, 1" (5cm) wide and 7" (20cm) long


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Logitech to Announce Third Quarter Fiscal 2013 Results
NEWARK, Calif.— Jan. 2, 2013 and MORGES, Switzerland, Jan. 3, 2013 — Logitech International (SIX: LOGN) (Nasdaq: LOGI) today announced that it will release quarterly financial results on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013 at 04:00 Central European Time.
There will be a teleconference to discuss these results on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time and 14:30 Central European Time. A live webcast of the call will be available on the Logitech corporate website at http://ir.logitech.com.
About Logitech
Logitech is a world leader in products that connect people to the digital experiences they care about. Spanning multiple computing, communication and entertainment platforms, Logitech's combined hardware and software enable or enhance digital navigation, music and video entertainment, gaming, social networking, audio and video communication over the Internet, video security and home-entertainment control. Founded in 1981, Logitech International is a Swiss public company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (LOGN) and on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (LOGI).
# # #
Logitech, the Logitech logo, and other Logitech marks are registered in Switzerland and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. For more information about Logitech and its products, visit the company's website at www.logitech.com.


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Mexico needs carbon and petrol tax, which revenues are all redistributed by a Universal Basic Income mechanism.
Published in FT
As a former Executive Director of the World Bank I know that the columnists of the Financial Times have more voice than what I ever had, and therefore they might need some checks-and-balances. For more see "A Blog is Born" at the very bottom.
Would a child shouting out "the Emperor is naked" have his observation published in FT? Would he now need a PhD for that to happen?
Some very few regulators thinking they were capable of managing the bank risks of the world, caused and are still causing immense sufferings, and you Sir are refusing to help holding them accountable for that.
Bank regulators, dare to debate with me the silliness or the wisdom of your regulations... come on don't be shy
On October 1 2009, the Economist Forum gave me some FT voice again publishing "Free us from imprudent risk-aversion"
And I very much appreciate it.
And on July 12 2012 Wolf also wrote that when "setting bank equity requirements, it is essential to recognise that so-called "risk-weighted" assets can and will be gamed by both banks and regulators. As Per Kurowski, a former executive director of the World Bank, reminds me regularly, crises occur when what was thought to be low risk turns out to be very high risk."
And that is something that I of course also appreciate, but that yet makes me curious on why Wolf does not follow up on it.
English is not my mother language so bear with me and you'll probably note when my letter has been published in FT by its correctness. Swedish is my mother language but I have not written anything serious in it for about 40 years and last time I tried, they just laughed their hearts out because of my démodés. Polish is my father language but, unfortunately, I do not speak a word of Polish, much less write it. Yes Spanish is my language, as I am from Venezuela and although I trust I write in it with great flair, I would still never dream of publishing an article in Spanish without having it edited by my wife.
And so friends here is my Tea with FT blog with my old and new letters to the editor. I hope you will share them with me now and again, and then again and again.
Welcome, and cheers, as I believe they say over there.
PS. Just so that FT does not get too cocky and believe it is my only window to the world, I will now and again publish a letter sent to the editor of another publication.