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Welcome to our gallery of fantastic tennis courts!
If you are a sports fanatic, there is no greater luxury than to have your own playing field. For many, the sport of choice is tennis. It is a true luxury to have your own tennis court in your backyard for all your recreational needs.
When you have your very own tennis court you can easily play any time, day or night. And when you play often enough you are bound to get better, allowing you to be competitive with all of your tennis playing friends.
Tennis is also an amazing workout. Having an easily accessible area to exercise can motivate you to get out and get your cardio in!
- Sports anytime – Anytime you want to host a pickup game of tennis the facilities are just a stone's throw away.
- Social draw – If you have an athletic friend, a home tennis court may draw them over.
- Dedication to tennis – If you are not entirely sure that you will use a tennis court on a regular basis for the foreseeable future you may want to consider another option. A backyard tennis court is a large commitment to space as well as money. To make the endeavor worth it you will want to get a lot of use out of it.
- Maintenance – There are different finishes that you can have on your tennis court but all require maintenance. Maintenance can cost money and take time.
Building a tennis court starts between $40,000 and $45,000 for your basic court. The average cost for a tennis court runs closer from the mid $50,000s to low $60,000s. Higher end courts are often post-tensioned. With this method you can expect to be looking at a cost closer to the low $100,000 range. However, these numbers are just an estimate.
There are multiple factors that can alter cost. These factors include site condition, the surface applied to the court, and any accessories added to the court. Of course, there are also upkeep costs to fix cracks and other damages to your court. Depending on the severity of your winter this may or may not be an issue. (Source: Concrete Network)
Find more backyard ideas in our definitive guide to backyards!
Here we see a tennis court that can easily be converted into a basketball court. With the proper surface paint you can have a dual function area like this. The versatility increases the appeal of this area.
Building a tennis court among your trees is a great way to create some seclusion to your court without having to build privacy walls. A few chainlink fences will still let you see your trees without losing an errant serve in the forest. Source: Zillow Digs™
Traditional Landscape by Andover Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers Paul Maue Associates Landscape Architects
One way to bring a unique look to your court is to let moss and vines overtake your walls. This can tie in with the green finish of your tennis court.
Masonry is perfect for buildings and other structures around your tennis court. A well constructed pavilion can provide a nice place to rest or watch the tennis matches that you host. Shop the lookTraditional Landscape by Burlingame Photographers Dennis Mayer, Photographer
A simple fence and some bushes do just as well to border your tennis court. The greenery brings a bit of character and the simple fence catches runaway balls without disrupting the view.
Here is a court with wonderful hedges around the outside and some nice benches for watching matches. The grass top court is great for a verdant and manicured lawn. Source: Zillow Digs™
Eclectic Landscape by Atlanta General Contractors Vesta Homes, Inc.
Concrete is ideal for a court that can double as a basketball court. Removing the tennis net is quick and easy. In only a moment your tennis court can host a pickup basketball game.
Here is a nice tennis court to the side of this estate. Putting trees and garden beds on the corners of your court can help integrate it with the rest of your landscaping. Source: Zillow Digs™
Traditional Landscape by Pocasset Specialty Contractors Cape and Island Tennis & Track
Here is a simple tennis court. There is no need for complicated buildings or pavilions if you are simply looking to build a place for you to practice and hone your tennis skills.
Here is another tennis court that has a basketball hoop attached as well. Most courts that do double duty have their hoop at half court.
Modern Landscape by Bellevue General Contractors John F Buchan Homes
Here is a tennis court that has two basketball hoops so that it can transform into a full basketball court. This is perfect for the sports fan who wants to be able to practice both sports on a regular basis.
If you have uneven landscaping you can build a tennis court lowered into the ground. This lets people above the tennis court observe the match as well as saves you the trouble of building a fence. Source: Zillow Digs™
Contemporary Landscape by Seattle Architects & Building Designers Motionspace Architecture + Design
Here is a secluded tennis court hidden in a populated area by trees and hedges. Hedges are a great way to build privacy around areas like tennis courts while keeping a natural and lush appeal.
When you have a tennis court in your backyard you can go from a relaxing brunch to playing a quick game in no time. After a game you can sit in your comfortable yard furniture and enjoy a beverage with your friends. Shop the look
Traditional Landscape by Chandler General Contractors Fieldstone
If you have a tennis court and want to play at night you may need to light the area. A large lamp post pointed down to the court is a simple and effective way to achieve this.
There are plenty of ways to divide your yard into different sections. Garden beds and tree lines can be very effective in sectioning off your tennis court from the rest of your landscaping while keeping your appeal in tact. Source: Zillow Digs™
Contemporary Exterior by San Francisco Interior Designers & Decorators TRG Architects
A masonry half wall with flower beds on top is a great way to create an elegant appeal to your sports area. You can make this space very attractive with the right landscaping. A tennis court may simply be the place to play your sport, but you might as well make it appealing.
Here is a lovely tennis court with a high end pavilion with seating and glass doors. This is the perfect place to host many games of tennis. Anyone would be lucky to play a few games on a court like this. Source: Zillow Digs™
Traditional Landscape by Santa Barbara Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers Charles McClure – Professional Site Planning
If your court is further away from your home you may need a path to it. Decorating these paths with trees and flowers can make the walk to and from your court very pleasurable.
If your space is large enough you may not need fences or gates; a ball can only bounce so far. With large enough trees you can also benefit from some shade on your court. A shady court can keep you cool and in the game longer.
If your court is close enough, your patio can act as a grandstand. Your family and friends can be comfortable on the patio while watching the game. What could be better during a game than refreshments close by?
Other Galleries & Yards You May Like:
39 Stupendous Backyard Bench Ideas | 34 Soothing Hot Tub Ideas | 7 Fantastic Patio Staging Ideas (Photos) | Top 21 Swimming Pool Builders
Home Stratosphere is an award-winning home and garden online publication that's a result of our talented researchers and writers who work directly with hundreds of professional interior designers, furniture designers, landscape designers and architects from around the world to create helpful, informative, entertaining and inspiring articles and design galleries.


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gfv posted an update 1 week, 4 days ago
Business listings of Non Woven Fusible Interlining manufacturers, suppliers and exporters in China.
Product description:
woven fusible interlining fabric is produced by interlocking layers of fibers or filament mechanically, thermally or chemically. It mimics the features of woven fabric. We offer several varieties of Non-Woven Fusible Interlining fabrics. These are manufactured from raw material of superior quality. There is a wide choice of colours. With high bonding strength and controlled shrinkage, these non fusible interlining are highly durable fabrics with a long serving life. In this type, one gets the benefits of both non woven and knitted interlinings. Our non woven fusible interlining are preferred for use in clothes like fashion garments, jackets and overcoats. They are ideal for collars and trousers interlining. The fabric is also widely used for garment interlining, clothing shirt interlining, chef hat material, and in handicraft products and embroidery.
Question and answer:
Q:What crafts are you using?
A:we provide hot rolled non-woven fabrics.
Q:Can the size and weight be customizable?
A:Yes,You can ask us for weight and size and other specifications as needed.best Polyester Interlining

subset: commoncrawl


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By James DeRuvo (doddleNEWS)
There is a persistent problem that is plaguing the online marketplace for filmmakers and photographers alike, and that is the widespread infection of counterfeit memory cards. Not only are they appearing on eBay, where one would expect to see them, but also Amazon, and other online e-commerce sites we thought we could trust. And they're so convincing, you may not know you've been had. But look closely, the devil is in the details.
Often, the so-called "counterfeit" memory cards are cards that have failed quality control tests for benchmark standards. Normally, if the failure is within a certain range, the cards are sold to third party sellers and off brands. But bogus cards have also appeared, and they almost instantly give a card reading error when inserted into your camera.
Counterfeits affect just about any top brand of memory cards, but it seems that SanDisk is the most popular target. So we'll focus on this brand. There are a few giveaways that may show if you've received a counterfeit SanDisk card. Pick up one of your other SanDisk cards and compare them side by side. First, look at the locking tab on the left. This is the tab that prevents the card from being written to. If the tab is yellow, or another color other than the gray that SanDisk uses, then you know it's not genuine.
Secondly, look for disparities in the font used on the label. The first thing that should jump out is the difference in the numbers for the size of the card itself. The size may be larger, the justification will be off, and even the tone of the font color will look different. The same will be true for the counterfeit writing of SanDisk Extreme PRO. It's VERY subtle here. But you can tell the difference.
Next, you may notice a small asterix missing from the "95/MB/s*" rating. This asterix is to signify that the card doesn't go up to 95MB/S for both reading and writing. This is SanDisk's legal disclaimer that the card has different speeds for different activities.
Now flip the card over. A genuine SanDisk card will have a serial number, while the counterfeit does not. That's a dead giveaway. But the data pins on the back of the card will also be misaligned. You can also test your card to see if it's legit. There is an app called H2TestW which will verify the specs advertised on your SD card. You can also try to register your product on SanDisk's website here. If it doesn't register, that's a sure sign you've got a counterfeit card.
How can Amazon let such things slip through? Well, many resellers on Amazon use the portal to sell in exchange for kicking back to Amazon a piece of the pie. They will handle all the shipping, and all Amazon does is provide the portal. In this case, users who find they've been bit by a counterfeit will likely find it impossible to secure a refund. In this case, once the 3rd party seller receives enough complaints, Amazon will ban them. But the money is gone, and it's likely the seller will just pop up again under another name.
Shops where fulfillment is done by Amazon itself is another matter. These are so-called drop shippers, who handle the orders, but Amazon sends out the product. In this case, Amazon will process a refund quickly. As for eBay, the problem is even more rampant. To make matters worse, even eBay's own online literature on counterfeits states that they will take no action unless the trademark owner (SanDisk) contacts them directly. If in doubt, read eBay's tech note on how to spot a fake SanDisk SD card here.
It's not really practical to expect Amazon to inspect all third party packages, so it's best to pay close attention to what you're ordering and if it's coming from a 3rd party, then avoid it altogether. Here are a few other tips to keep in mind when buying anything online:
- Buy from authorised SanDisk resellers. B&H is always the best option. But Adorama is another.
- Amazon is OK if you sure your order is fulfilled by Amazon and not a 3rd party seller. And it will always say so.
- Avoid eBay
- Keep a copy of all communications between yourself and the seller, just in case
- Pay with a credit card or through a service like PayPal, who's fraud policy ensures your refund
As stated, SanDisk isn't the only victim of counterfeiting. A bogus card can be any brand. So, as always, when shopping online, the latin phrase "caveat emptor" should be followed. LET THE BUYER BEWARE. And be less eager to go for the bargain price. It's much better to go with a reputable dealer instead.
Hat Tip – DIY Photography


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Keywords: Other Structure, SPT Visits
Inter-governmental committee
Other: Inter-governmental Body
Sub-Decree No. 122 SRR (7 August 2009)
Cambodia ratified the OPCAT in 2007 and established an Intergovernmental Committee as its NPM two years later through a sub-decree approved by the Prime Minister. The NPM is a temporary body and discussions are currently ongoing on how to establish an independent NPM.
Furthermore, Cambodia received a first visit by the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture in 2009 and the report has not been made public yet.The SPT made a follow-up visit to Cambodia in December 2013. The report of this visit has not been sent to the authorities yet.
The SPT member who is the SPT Focal Point for Cambodia is available here.
CAT: Concluding Observations (November 2010)
SPT Visit: (2-11 December 2009). The report has not been made public yet. Follow-up visit (9-13 December 2013). Press release.
Communication to the SPT: Official Correspondence from Cambodia (12 January 2009)
Documents relating to other UN human rights mechanisms are available here


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Matt Maher was born in Newfoundland, Canada, but it was not until a family upheaval led Maher to the desert climes of Arizona that he would find his calling and begin a musical career that would find him composing work for genre artists such as Bethany Dillon and Chris Tomlin, as well as releasing albums and playing shows across the Southwest — and eventually the world. Having been asked to take on the mantle of youth pastor and music director at his church, Maher would develop his skills quickly, leading to a working relationship with songwriter Tom Booth after moving to Mesa. In 2001, Maher released the first of three independent albums, The End and the Beginning, which was followed by 2003's Welcome to Life and 2006's Overflow.
His eventual publishing deal with EMI led to further exposure, and he soon found himself signing a record deal with the Essential label. That relationship allowed Maher to record and release his first "official" album, April 2008's Empty and Beautiful.


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Mother of pearl or nacre is a processed shell product. It produces a lovely, high quality button with a pleasant lustre. It can be quite light coloured, or much more richly toned with a transparent, luminescent quality. Old mother of pearl buttons may be somewhat discoloured; however, you can clean and care for these buttons as you would other shell materials, depending upon their value and condition. Bleaching mother of pearl buttons requires peroxide as a bleaching agent, rather than chlorine.
Wipe the mother of pearl buttons with a soft cloth dampened with mineral oil to clean the MOP buttons before bleaching. Remove all visible dirt and residue to achieve even colour lightening in the peroxide based MOP bleaching solution. Check the colour of the MOP buttons and look for staining or discolouration that may be improved by bleaching.
Make a solution of 3 per cent hydrogen peroxide to bleach mother of pearl buttons in a small, non-reactive dish. Place the MOP buttons into the solution. Allow your mother of pearl buttons to soak until the desired level of colour lift is achieved.
Remove the MOP buttons from the peroxide bleach solution and wipe with a damp cloth. Dry well, using a hair dryer on low if necessary. Polish with mineral oil on a soft cloth.
Use your mother of pearl buttons as they are now with their new bleached colour or acid dye them after bleaching to coordinate them with fabrics or supplies for a craft project.
Most recent
- Assess the condition and value of your mother of pearl buttons. Clean valuable MOP buttons with care, but do not attempt to bleach old MOP buttons with financial or sentimental value.
- Check the percentage of peroxide in the hydrogen peroxide solution you use. Three to 5 per cent is ideal, but you can experiment with a peroxide bleach solution of up to 10 per cent.
- Avoid bleaching buttons with metal shanks or hardware.
- Never use chlorine bleach on mother of pearl.


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Compare American Summer Camps
Want to work at an American summer camp but don't know which company to go with? Compare the top American summer camp agencies and get the most from your summer abroad!
Fancy travelling halfway across the world and getting paid to have the experience of a lifetime? Working at American summer camps really is the stuff of dreams – and for thousands of students every year, it's a reality.
But while working in America for the summer is an exciting possibility, we know from experience that choosing which company to go with can be confusing. For starters, you'll find plenty of posts and reviews about each company – but it's difficult to know if you can trust them.
So we've done the hard research and put together an up-to-date comparison table and reviews of the five main American summer camp companies available: AmeriCamp, Camp Leaders, BUNAC and CCUSA.
American summer camps comparison
|Flexible and discounted flights
High basic salary
|Flights not included
Visa handling fee
|High basic salary
100% guarantee of placement, or your fees refunded
Exclusive travel deals with STA Travel
|Included flights work out very expensive
|Camp America
|J1 visa sponsors
Freebies including t-shirt and exclusive discount
|Joint-highest costs
Lowest minimum salary
|Camp Leaders
|Only agency with an app
100% guarantee of placement, or your fees refunded
|Joint-highest costs
|Low costs
J1 visa sponsors
£20 discount for every friend referred
|Low minimum salary
While this table mostly focuses on the financial aspect of things, you should do your own research into exactly what the customer experience with each company is like.
On the main, the experience with most agencies should be positive (and broadly similar) – but should something go wrong during the process (including while you're in the States), you'll be looking to them for support.
With that in mind, it's worth asking around and looking online to see if the company you're interested in has a good track record in dealing with these kinds of issues.
If you're after a more in-depth breakdown of the costs of the various American summer camps, see below.
* Salary amounts shown are the minimum based on age and role for packages booked without flights (see each agency's review for full salaries). Figures were provided in US Dollars, and the exchange rate was correct as of March 2019.
** These costs are for first-timers without flights, are subject to change, and do not include flights and other third-party costs. See each review for prices with flights, and further below for a summary of the third-party costs.
*** AmeriCamp, BUNAC, CCUSA and Camp Leaders are not the only American camp companies out there but were the five that we deemed provided the best service for students in the UK.
American summer camp companies reviewed
As you can see from the table, AmeriCamp has one of the highest basic salaries on offer. However, you may note that there's no option to include flights within the cost.
The logic here is that this allows you to find your own at a better price, and even if you're not great at finding cheap flights, AmeriCamp have a flight team who will endeavour to find you the best deal.
With that in mind, your plane tickets shouldn't cost much more than £500 all-in – and it's certainly possible to get them a lot cheaper than this still.
Most other American summer camp agencies will set a fixed price for flight packages, meaning you'll pay a set amount regardless of how much your flight actually costs. But as opting for flights included usually means that your salary is far lower, the effective cost of your tickets can be £800 or more.
As such, as long as you can bag some cheap flights, opting for a package without flights will usually be the cheapest option.
AmeriCamp salaries
- 18 year olds: $1,500 (£1,138)
- 19 and 20 year olds: $1,600 (£1,213)
- 21+ year olds: $1,750 (£1,327).
An extra $100 (£75) is also paid if you are placed at a special needs camp.
AmeriCamp costs
- Applying before 1st January: £324 (£279 + £45 visa handling fee)
- Applying on or after 1st January: £344 (£299 + £45 visa handling fee)
BUNAC are the longest running American summer camp agency of the bunch, and it could be because of this that they're comfortable in offering a 100% guarantee of placing you at a camp – if they don't, they'll refund you your fees.
While BUNAC's lowest basic salary is still comfortably the second highest, the flight costs leave a bit of a sting in the tail. Their programmes cost £499 with flights, and £269 without – so on the face of it, your travel costs a very reasonable £230.
However, as with many of the other agencies, opting to have your flights included in the package doesn't just increase the fees – it also decreases the amount you can earn.
To use an example, anyone under the age of 21 will earn $1,550 (£1,187) with the non-flight option, compared to $950 (£727) with flights included. So with flights included, your net profit will be about £230, while with flights not included it's about £918.
Of course, you'll still need to pay for your flights if you don't have them included – but given that you're almost £690 better off than if you'd opted to include them, this is definitely the most cost-effective option if you can get some cheap flights.
BUNAC salaries
- Aged under 21 (flights included): $950 (£727)
- Aged under 21 (flights not included): $1,550 (£1,187)
- Aged 21 and over (flights included): $1,150 (£881)
- Aged 21 and over (flights not included): $1,750 (£1,340).
An extra $100 is paid for being a lifeguard, or for working at a special needs camp.
BUNAC costs
- Flights included: £499
- Flights not included: £269.
Camp America
Camp America is probably the most well-known American summer camp agency – so much so that you've probably heard people refer to working at American summer camps as simply "doing Camp America".
However, their costs are the joint-highest of the five companies featured, and their minimum expected salary is also the lowest. In fact, with a minimum salary of $650 (£494) and the flights-included option costing £599, there's a chance the whole experience could end up costing you money.
That said, if you opt for flights not to be included, the package costs just £399 and the minimum salary jumps to $1,250 (£950). Again, assuming you can get some cheap flights, this means you should make a net profit from the experience.
Camp America salaries
- Flights included: $650 – $1,200 (£494 – £912)
- Flights not included: $1,250 – $1,800 (£950 – £1,368).
Camp America costs
- Flights included: £599
- Flights not included: £399.
Camp Leaders
Camp Leaders are the only American summer camp agency to have an app – something that may not be an absolute deal-breaker, but is an undeniably useful extra feature. What's more, like BUNAC, Camp Leaders will refund your money if they fail to place you at a camp.
But these benefits come at a cost – literally. Along with Camp America, Camp Leaders' fees are the joint-highest, and there's a chance that you may even lose money from the experience.
Remember, you'll get pretty much the same camp experience no matter which company you go with (and you might even work at the same camp as people working with different agencies) – so when the main difference is money, it's worth taking it into consideration!
If you're aged 18–20 and book a flights-included place with Camp Leaders after February, it'll cost you £649, with a salary range of $850 – $1,250. $850 works out at about £643, so while you may well earn more than the minimum salary, there's still a chance you could make a loss.
Of course, this is where we remind you that you can still opt for the package without flights (£399), get a higher minimum salary and find your own travel at a knock-down price!
Camp Leaders salaries
- Aged 18–20 (flights included): $850 – $1,250 (£643 – £946)
- Aged 18–20 (flights not included): $1,450 – $1,600 (£1,097 – £1,210)
- Aged 21 and over (flights included): $950 – $1,250 (£719 – £946)
- Aged 21 and over (flights not included): $1,550 – $1,250 (£1,173 – £1,210).
Camp Leaders costs
- Flights included (booked before end of February): £599
- Flights included (booked after end of February): £649
- Flights not included: £399.
CCUSA (Camp Counsellors USA) is one of just two American summer camp agencies with official J1 visa sponsor status (the other being Camp America).
We won't go through the nitty gritty of it all, but in essence, you need a J1 visa to work at an American summer camp. These visas have come under scrutiny from Trump's government, and in theory, applying through an agency with official sponsorship status should work in your favour if President Trump decides to clamp down on the system.
Money-wise, if you're 18 years old at the time of the summer camp (and you go for a flights-included option), your salary is pretty low – $750 (£568) to be precise. Nonetheless, with the flights-included option costing £525, you're not at any risk of making a loss.
CCUSA salaries
- Aged 18 (flights included): $750 (£568)
- Aged 18 (flights not included): $1,335 (£1,010)
- Aged 19 or 20 (flights included): $900 (£681)
- Aged 19 or 20 (flights not included): $1,600 (£1,211)
- Aged 21 and over (flights included): $1,050 (£795)
- Aged 21 and over (flights not included): $1,695 (£1,282).
CCUSA also pays higher wages if you can bring extra skills to the role, including activities such as climbing, tennis and sailing. Taking this into account, you could earn up to $2,395 (£1,813) during their stay.
CCUSA costs
- Flights included: £525
- Flights not included: £249.
Extra summer camp information
Third-party costs
No matter who you go with, you'll need to pay the third-party costs yourself – and despite what some companies might say, the costs are the same regardless of who you'll be working with.
These are the main third party costs that you'll need to pay for:
- CRB police check: £30 – £60 (can vary)
- Embassy interview appointment to gain working visa: $160 (£121)
- Travel to Embassy: varies on where you live
- Medical at doctors: varies.
The prices may change from person to person, but in total you're looking at at least £150 in third party costs.
Types of summer jobs
Most summer camp companies can place you as a general camp counsellor or a specialist in your chosen activity. But whatever the role, you'll be working with American kids and helping them have a great summer break!
Here are a few examples of the kinds of jobs and activities you can expect to be doing at an American summer camp. If you've got a talent in any of these areas, or something similar, jump right in and get involved!
- Archery
- Arts and crafts
- Climbing
- Dancing
- Drama
- Fencing
- Gymnastics
- Horse riding
- Life guard
- Sailing
- Swimming
- Tennis
- Water-skiing
- General admin and camp support staff.
Working at an American summer camp is just one of the many ways you can make money working abroad – check them out if you're not convinced this one's for you!


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Science Mission Concepts are typically hard to come back by. When your youngster comes residence from faculty often in January or February and says, hey Mom and Dad my instructor sent house this note that we now have a science undertaking due in three weeks. I will reveal the fact that air has weight by our first homeschool science experiment beneath. If you happen to change your thoughts and need the bodily unit (which people often do), you cannot refund your obtain and will need to pay full worth for the bodily unit.
The Junior Academy recruits STEM experts to teach groups of proficient, highly motivated students as they compete in science & know-how challenges sponsored by industry-main firms. There are not any a lot agricultural challenges in the United States of America due to science and technology.
These interactive websites and apps breathe life into textbook illustrations and classes about the human body and anatomy for Okay-12 college students. This challenge was funded partially by the John Templeton Foundation, a nicely-resourced group that backs efforts to bring religion and science into concord, as well as the Smithsonian's Peter Buck Fund for Human Origins Research.
I am doing this for my science fair venture. Including mini books, informational texts, and many thrilling arms-on experiments and initiatives, this unit could have your little scientist asking for more! In the fashionable world when science and technology are quick rising, college students can simply put down solutions to series of calculations inside a minute with the assistance of the scientific calculator.
Experiments in science at present are in one way or another affecting the for instance the experiment on cloning a human being. Or you can google "wind turbine science truthful experiment" and you will see that different experiments. Science has invented methods to peep inside the human body to tackle diseases of human beings through X-ray machines.


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By Becky Huebner, Nebraska Home Sales REALTOR®
Recently, the wonders of technology allowed me to enjoy the ancient beauties of Rome while not missing a beat (or at least not too many) in my world of work back home. Ancient and modern worlds working hand in glove, work and play too.
Roman forum, coliseum, churches, and cobblestone streets (how do the locals manage wearing heels?) carry the life and tell the story of over two millennia until today.
As glorious as Rome is, the thing that made this trip a mountain top experience was the people. The people before who trod these roads and built this civilization and the people I shared this trip with. Without my tour guide son to point out the meaning of the art or my al dente pasta served by the very same waiter who served us two years ago (true!), and above all, without the people who shared these tables and these steps with me my experience would have been lacking. With them, the marrow was sucked out of every moment and a mountain top week was born.
So too with real life and real estate. A house is not a home until people and their possessions fill it. Rome is only old buildings and pretty art without the story tellers to make their meaning come alive. Websites and Apps can get you information about a listing but only a flesh and blood agent can identify the nuances of it or write a contract appropriate to your unique needs and circumstance.
I had a listing go live while I was away. It was one of those sweet, hot properties that sold in a day. This transaction was made possible courtesy of my "boots on the ground" colleague, Sarah. She knows me, how I work and represents me well. She kept our trains running. Technology can take me there, but to truly be there, I need to turn it off.
Get online, look at pictures but when ready to make the dream live, reach out. Let's work hand in glove and get you where you want to go, from where ever you may be. If it happens to be Rome they have some pretty sweet leather gloves there.


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TV studio set for the catalán televisión channel Betevé. A flexible and austere space. A lighting system controlled from production is designed to allow generate different scenes and records in the space, affecting on the intensity and the color of the light sources that are integrated to the translucent elements of the furniture.
Stefano Colli


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Poster un message
portmad tai
13 mai 2019 03:30, par Alain François
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It all started with a vision for an Islamic school. A place where children can connect, learn and develop according to Islamic principles. We want to create a hub for the community with a masjid forming the basis for a new Muslim community in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. All enabled and built based on a sustainable financial model that is not dependent on overseas investors or commercial organisations, but on the support of everyday people. People that bought into the vision of using their super and savings to benefit their community are helping towards building a greater future for our kids.
The next building to be constructed as part of the rollout of the Master Plan is the new Student Hub for Years 3 to 9. The North and East Wing of the Y-shaped building is currently under construction, with an estimated completion time by the end of 2019.
We have covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time so people naturally ask, what are your plans for the future?
Given the additional land purchase of 65 Harvest Home Road, the Master Plan for the site has been revised and is expected to be endorsed by Council (City Of Whittlesea) in due course. The Master Plan includes a large double story masjid (including a ladies section), gymnasium, swimming pool, Islamic Centre, library and classrooms. With the support of Barakah shareholders, we are confident of delivering on all construction projects contained within this Master Plan within 12 years inshaAllah.
With the settlement of 65 Harvest Home Road scheduled for 31st July 2015, the planning for the masjid is expected to start in early 2016. A generous area of 60 metres by 30 metres has been allocated for the masjid building. The masjid is planned to be a double story building, providing facilities for both men and ladies. The construction of the masjid will be a major milestone for Barakah and a further realisation of our mission to build for the benefit of the ummah.
The Barakah journey is transpiring into a great story – and in quietly working away I would be the first to admit that we do not share this story as much as we should. As a Barakah shareholder, you make a difference to the lives of many people on a daily basis. Whether it is the students that come to school, the staff or the many people that come to the Musalaah for their salaah, they are deeply indebted to you investors for enabling a vibrant community that has become a part of their daily life.
I would like to thank all our shareholders for being part of the Barakah family and investing in the ummah. If you have not been to the Al Siraat College site recently, I invite you to visit and be surprised by the significant progress that has been made on site.
Alhamdulilah, we thank Allah for bringing us this far, and look forward to working with you in the delivery of our planned projects. Please share the success to date with the community as the success of the ummah lies within all of our hands.


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Todd and Karen
Welcome to our photo site!
Here you'll find pictures of our family, travels, and adventures! Feel free to leave comments!
- Todd and Karen
Here you'll find pictures of our family, travels, and adventures! Feel free to leave comments!
- Todd and Karen
"A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into." ~Ansel Adams
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Wir nehmen regelmäßig an wichtigen Branchenkonferenzen zu GRC, SAP-Sicherheit und Risikomanagement teil und werden oft zu Vorträgen eingeladen. Schauen Sie, ob wir in naher Zukunft auf einer Veranstaltung in Ihrer Nähe sein werden.
Why do many risk or compliance managers not succeed in getting a sufficient picture of the effectiveness of the security measures? Or viewed from the IT perspective: How can IT manage to present the existing security instruments transparently to corporate management parties?
Let's work together to find answers to these burning questions. In a small circle (planned approx. 8 - 10 participants) and among "like-minded" security and compliance experts.
More information coming soon
Join Turnkey at the annual UKISUG Connect show in Birmingham, United Kingdom. The SAP User conference with over 100 sessions about customer success stories, case studies and best practices as well as showcasing the latest tools and innovations as well as great networking opportunities where you can engage with peers across all industry types.
Being successful in enterprise security and risk management means challenging everyday norms as to what constitutes good governance and strategic thinking. Getting the right information at the right time and knowing what to do with it is critical if you are to make informed decisions, secure your systems, refine your processes and ensure survival in today's business environment.
This conference will demonstrate how you can re-engineer processes and exploit the full potential of SAP's finance automation solutions - from Invoice-to-Pay and Cash Management to Intelligent Robotics and AI - to improve existing workflows and the overall performance of your finance operations.
Access governance is all about reducing to the greatest possible extent the risk that comes with end-users, and more specifically excessive or unnecessary access privileges to systems and data. It is vital thus that you have the tools to monitor use, detect abuse, keep track and act, as the access and governance system landscape continues to evolve driven by the ever-growing business needs.
With data playing a more pivotal role for businesses, securely managing access to your critical enterprise applications and information is a greater priority than ever before. This two day event will explore how leading organizations, with the help of SAP, are building robust security measures to safeguard against risks, such as downtime or loss of data.
The cyber threat landscape is growing in complexity, resource and sophistication. New attacks emerge every day that are imaginative in execution and potentially devastating in impact. Meanwhile, the cyber domain has moved into every area of modern life, from the SCADA systems of nuclear stations to the smart homes they power.
In the face of these threats, enterprises and governments face a growing challenge. To protect vital infrastructure, assets, and customer data in an increasingly online world.
kennen Sie die Schwachstellen Ihres IT-Systems und Ihrer Kontrollmechanismen? Diese Frage ist vor allem dann brisant, wenn Ihr Unternehmen digitale Innovationen umsetzen will.
Besuchen Turnkey auf dieser Veranstaltung und erhalten Sie Einblick in unsere GRC und Cyber-Risk Projekterfahrung. Sehen Sie dort speziell unsere SAP Partner-Lösung zur Integration von SAP ETD und SAP GRC Process Control. Hier zeigen wir Ihnen unter dem Motto "IT- & Cybersecurity und Compliance – Hand in Hand" unseren integrierten Ansatz für das Management von Cyber-Risiken in digitalisierten Unternehmen.
As more and more organizations use SAP to support their business processes, there is a growing need for SAP security & controls professionals. Global demand for SAP security & controls professionals is increasing and this workshop will help you by progressing quickly to becoming one.
The conference co-locates five events including Financial 2019, BI, Analytics & HANA 2019, Cybersecurity 2019, GRC 2019, and Administration, Infrastructure & Platform 2019.
Gain insights from SAP experts and leading global practitioners., network with SAPinsiders from around the world and access in-depth sessions, case studies and product demonstrations.
The 8th Corporate Governance Compliance Strategies 2019 is the largest German-language industry meeting at which decision-makers from medium-sized and large companies from all major industrial sectors bring together compliance strategies, processes and approaches and exchange views on strategic and operational challenges in corporate governance in its unique mixture of case studies and discussion formats.
Download the Pocket Agenda here
(Please note that this event is in German)
Learn from our experts why SAP is an extremely attractive target susceptible from both insider threats and external attacks. With our worldwide Roadshow, we want to enable SAP user companies to run their SAP applications securely.
In addition, the event will offer an excellent platform for networking, provide the opportunity to exchange best practices and knowledge on how to run your SAP at the highest standard.
We're teaming up with SAP on our next webinar to show you how you can monitor and eliminate both external and internal threats occurring within the SAP landscape.
Turnkey's own security expert, Tom Smith with be joined by Paul Lloyd-Smith from SAP's Office of the CFO to explore some simple use cases for SAP Enterprise Threat Detection (ETD).
Von Intelligent Closing über Working Capital Management und Finance Process Centralization and Transformation bis hin zu Tax Management – finden Sie es heraus in unseren Themenforen beim SAP-Infotag Intelligent Finance.
The spread of Internet connectivity among virtually every device around us has created the world of the IoT. Every device has an identity that can be tracked, monitored, given direction to, and received information from. SAP Leonardo IoT Products and Services enable organisations to embed IoT data and technology into almost any line of business solution one can imagine. Learn how SAP companies are leveraging it to introduce greater productivity and an array of new product offerings to their customers.
The intelligence Conference in 2018 was once again an unprecedented success. We saw year on year attendee numbers grow by an amazing 35%, cementing its position as the number one Partner delivered SAP conference in Europe.
We are pleased to announce that #itelli2019 will once again take place at the QEII Centre, London. We have secured a larger space spread over just 2 floors enabling access to larger presentation rooms, additional interactive zones and networking areas.
Mastering SAP is home to five independent conferences. Turnkey, alongside our partner Virtual Forge, will be premier sponsors for this event.
A comprehensive 3-day single-stream conference programme bringing together Indonesian
Join us at the ICC in Birmingham for this SAP User conference and networking event this autumn. With over 100+ sessions featuring customer success stories, case studies and best practices as well as showcasing the latest tools and innovations.
Engage with peers across all industry types. Join forces with other customers facing the same challenge to influence SAP.
How SAP customers can automate Governance, Risk and Compliance for finance operations.
CSX 2018 Europe will help you stay on top of the latest cybersecurity trends, further your cyber career and make new connections with professionals around the world.
During this premier conference, you'll learn how to use SAP GRC Solutions to manage risk and compliance, strengthen cyber security and optimise controls.


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Elegance Tufted Bed Frame
Tufted bed frame – Tufting is when the hidden buttons and fabrics make a design, and usually seen on chairs, sofas and headboards, bed frames. It is considered an elegant look that gives any room a classy upgrade. If you are looking to add a Tufted your bed frame headboard, you can make one at home. The advantage is that you save money and the chance to choose exactly what fabric you want.
Many people like the look of an upholstered headboard. A tufted bed frame and headboard has the addition of buttons to give it a tufted look. Buying a tufted headboard can be expensive, but you can make your own with just a few supplies. First you need to upholster the headboard and then add the locks. For best results, make sure you have a large area of land in which to work.
You want a headboard crafted with style for your head to rest on when you are asleep in bed? Store bought headers are nice, but they are often expensive and very generic looking. A tufted bed frame can add instant elegance to a bedroom. Build a tufted headboard is easy. Tufted add wonderful texture and appearance, especially if the fabric you are using in the header is monochrome.


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'Maleficent: Mistress of Evil' is a sequel to 'Maleficent' that came out in 2014. Angelina Jolie once again dawns her wings to play the "not so evil" Mistress of Evil.Show Me More
Dora the Explorer is back and has grown up in her new film Dora and the Lost City of Gold. Her new adventure? High School. Dun dun duuunnnnn! Can she survive the dangers of being a teenager?Show Me More
Okay, "It was a dark and stormy night………" No really, it was! Toy Story 4 starts out filling us in on what happened to Bo Peep 9 years prior to the movie taking place. We learn why she . . .Show Me More
I figured Christopher Robin was going to be a good movie and make us feel nostalgic but what I didn't realize was that all the adults that went were going to cry through the film. Disney Studios did a fantastic job bringing Winnie the Pooh and the grown-up Christopher Robin to the big screen with this heartwarming movie.Show Me More
Let's Go Watch a Movie Kids So what's a Favorite Grampy to do when Disney gives him tickets to an advance screening of Incredibles 2 at lunchtime on a school day? Take the grandkids out of school to watch the film of course. The Incredibles Back on the Screen after 14 Years Wow has it been 14…Show Me More
Right from the beginning, this 19th Marvel Studios film takes you on a roller-coaster ride of emotions and nonstop action that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very end of the movie.Show Me More
I asked my granddaughter what her thoughts were on the movie from an 11-year-old's tween perspective. She said she liked it and that it was really cool.Show Me More
Favorite Grampy loves Marvel Studios' superheroes so when Disney invited me to attend an advanced screening of Black Panther I jumped at it. Plus, it was in IMAX 3D. It doesn't get any better.Show Me More
Coco is about a family that unlocks the real story behind their family history.
You see, Great Grandma's father was the greatest musician of all time but one day he left with his guitar and never returned. Because of that incident that happened generations ago, the family thinks music is a curse.
Now Miguel, our hero, loves music but his family doesn't understand that he wants to be a musician just like his great-great-grandfather. Miguel wants to follow his dream and that journey takes him, and us, to the stunning and colorful Land of the Dead.Show Me More


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Archive for the 'Google' tag
Google Site Kit Installation Guide
Via my webhost, pair, and a new Knowledge Base:
Google Site Kit is the much anticipated Google WordPress plugin. With this plugin, you can monitor your site's visitors, see what pages they land on, how long they stay, and more!
Installing and Activating Google Site Kit WordPress Plugin
To install Google Site Kit on your WordPress site:
Open your WordPress Admin Interface
In the left sidebar, click Plugins
(click here to continue reading Google Site Kit Installation Guide | pair Knowledge Base.)
Why not? Maybe Google will help my site get slightly more traffic? In the golden age of blogging, I got 20,000 to 30,000 visits a day, with occasional spikes up to 70,000. That sort of traffic is long, long gone (didn't help that I stopped posting frequently, and generally became a lazy blogger, also the industry changed, Facebook and Twitter became channels of communication, yadda yadda), perhaps I can recapture some of that magic?
I wonder if I should add back Google Ads? I never see them myself because I use a tracker blocker, but if they are irritating, it isn't worth it for the amount of money it could bring in, especially if my daily traffic is less than 1,000 visitors a day.
Tim Cook blasts weaponization of personal data and praises GDPR
BBC News reports:
Apple chief executive Tim Cook has demanded a tough new US data protection law, in an unusual speech in Europe.
Referring to the misuse of "deeply personal" data, he said it was being "weaponised against us with military efficiency".
"We shouldn't sugar-coat the consequences," he added. "This is surveillance."
The strongly-worded speech presented a striking defence of user privacy rights from a tech firm's chief executive.
Mr Cook also praised the EU's new data protection regulation, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The Apple boss described in some detail what he called the "data industrial complex", noting that billions of dollars were traded on the basis of people's "likes and dislikes", "wishes and fears" or "hopes and dreams" – the kind of data points tracked by tech firms and advertisers.
He warned that the situation "should make us very uncomfortable, it should unsettle us".
(click here to continue reading Tim Cook blasts 'weaponisation' of personal data and praises GDPR – BBC News.)
Kudos to Mr. Cook. As regular readers of this space know, I've been jealous of the EU and their fancy data protection policies for a while.
And this point is key:
And the trade in personal data served only to enrich the companies that collect it, he added.
Not only is our personal data being mined, processed and sold, but we don't get compensated for it. Sure we get a place to look at photos of grandkids, and Russian-created memes, but at what cost?
Google Exposed User Data, Feared Repercussions of Disclosing to Public
Google exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of users of the Google+ social network and then opted not to disclose the issue this past spring, in part because of fears that doing so would draw regulatory scrutiny and cause reputational damage.
A software glitch in the social site gave outside developers potential access to private Google+ profile data between 2015 and March 2018, when internal investigators discovered and fixed the issue, according to the documents and people briefed on the incident. A memo reviewed by the Journal prepared by Google's legal and policy staff and shared with senior executives warned that disclosing the incident would likely trigger "immediate regulatory interest" and invite comparisons to Facebook's leak of user information to data firm Cambridge Analytica.
(click here to continue reading Google Exposed User Data, Feared Repercussions of Disclosing to Public – WSJ.)
The cover-up is always worse. Google could have admitted to this during some Trump-Tweet-Tempest, and nobody would have paid much attention.
Google and Mastercard Cut a Secret Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales
Bloomberg reports:
For the past year, select Google advertisers have had access to a potent new tool to track whether the ads they ran online led to a sale at a physical store in the U.S. That insight came thanks in part to a stockpile of Mastercard transactions that Google paid for.
But most of the two billion Mastercard holders aren't aware of this behind-the-scenes tracking. That's because the companies never told the public about the arrangement.
Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Mastercard Inc. brokered a business partnership during about four years of negotiations, according to four people with knowledge of the deal, three of whom worked on it directly. The alliance gave Google an unprecedented asset for measuring retail spending, part of the search giant's strategy to fortify its primary business against onslaughts from Amazon.com Inc. and others.
(click here to continue reading Google and Mastercard Cut a Secret Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales – Bloomberg.)
Google has more efficient PR teams than Facebook, even though the two companies seem equally as cavalier about vacuuming up personal information without informed consent of consumers.
Google expanding space in Fulton Market, this time on Randolph St
Chicago Tribune reports:
Google is planning a two-level store in Chicago's Fulton Market district, its first known location for a retail flagship.
The technology giant is close to finalizing a lease for almost 14,000 square feet on the first and second floors of several connected, two-story brick buildings between 845 and 853 W. Randolph St., according to sources.
If completed as expected, Google's deal will represent another milestone in the evolution of the longtime meatpacking district west of the Kennedy Expressway, where Google already has its Midwest office headquarters and more than 900 employees.
To date, Google's only retail spaces have been pop-up stores and small shops within other stores.
Google's lease will include former spaces of longtime area restaurants Jaipur and Perez.
Behind the connected buildings, an alley forms a pedestrian walkway between Peoria and Green streets. The property is directly across the street from the Nobu Hotel that is under construction.
(click here to continue reading Google expanding space in Fulton Market, this time with a flagship store – Chicago Tribune.)
I am very curious as to what exactly Google wants with a storefront. Are they planning to launch some new product? Expand the Next line? A new phone? Obviously, Alphabet has plenty of cash to throw around, but I'm puzzled as to what the point of this new endeavor is, other than being in the Hot West Loop1.
- a phrase I hear too frequently [↩]
Why Advertisers Won't Rush to Delete Facebook But We Should
The WSJ reports:
As frustrated as advertisers may be with Facebook these days, a bigger challenge may be finding a suitable alternative.
Whether many will actually try to do so remains the $55 billion question. That is what Wall Street currently expects Facebook to generate in advertising revenue this year. It is a big number that also happens to be 37% higher than what the company generated in ad sales last year. For comparison's sake, Google's ad business was growing about half as fast when it was the same size.
Perhaps most notable is that the majority of analysts haven't brought down their projections for Facebook's ad business even as controversy has engulfed the company over the last two weeks. Many instead are taking a wait-and-see approach. Questions over Facebook's handling of user data has sparked an online campaign to #DeleteFacebook. But little is known now about whether that is having any effect. Facebook's next quarterly report—likely about a month from now—will be the first real opportunity to see if users are fleeing or largely sticking around.
In the latter case, most advertisers likely will too. As controversial as Facebook may be right now, its scale and reach make the platform unique among advertising channels. The social network ranked highest in terms of return on investment among online advertising platforms in a survey by RBC Capital Markets. Interestingly, most of the survey took place in the latter half of March as the negative headlines about Facebook piled up. RBC analyst Mark Mahaney noted that Facebook even managed to edge out Alphabet Inc.'s Google for the top ranking for the first time.
(click here to continue reading Why Advertisers Won't Rush to Unfriend Facebook – WSJ.)
Cash rules everything around me…
Facebook plans on riding out this wave of bad PR, just as they have in the past. As long as people continue to use Facebook, and willingly be the product that is sold to advertisers, Facebook will continue profiting off your clicks.
As Vox writer Matthew Yglesias notes, Google collects as much or more information on us, yet they in return give something useful. Google search is the best search engine, usually, and Gmail is a good, free mail. What does Facebook offer in return for selling your data? A place to share photos of your children? A place to argue about politics? Why can't that be done in the same way it was done before Facebook? The main selling point of Facebook is that it has a built-in audience for your content. But is it really worth it? Maybe because I'm a cynical Gen-Xer who wrote most of my college papers on a typewriter, but I wouldn't miss Facebook if it vanished, especially if Twitter survived. I'm comfortable emailing people, if I needed to communicate with them. Maybe this sucky blog would start to get decent traffic again?
That Facebook's relentless growth threatens the existence of news organizations is something that should make the architects of that relentless growth feel bad about themselves. They are helping to erode public officials' accountability, foster public ignorance, and degrade the quality of American democracy.
Google, of course, poses similar threats to the journalism ecosystem through its own digital advertising industry. But Googlers can also make a strong case that Google makes valuable contributions to the information climate. I learn useful, real information via Google every day. And while web search is far from a perfect technology, Google really does usually surface accurate, reliable information on the topics you search for. Facebook's imperative to maximize engagement, by contrast, lands it in an endless cycle of sensationalism and nonsense.
(click here to continue reading The case against Facebook – Vox.)
Remember, ideas become things.
Facebook is actually bad for our media infrastructure, the media infrastructure which is an essential pillar to our democracy.
Meanwhile, Facebook is destroying the business model for outlets that make real news.
Facebook critics in the press are often accused of special pleading, of hatred of a company whose growing share of the digital advertising pie is a threat to our business model. This is, on some level, correct.
The answer to the objection, however, is that special pleaders on behalf of journalism are correct on the merits. Not all businesses are created equal. Cigarette companies poison their customers; journalism companies inform them.
And traditionally, American society has recognized that reality and tried to create a viable media ecosystem. The US Postal Service has long maintained a special discount rate for periodicals to facilitate the dissemination of journalism and the viability of journalism business models. Until last fall, the Federal Communications Commission maintained rules requiring licensed local broadcast stations to maintain local news studios.
The association between Facebook and fake news is by now well-known, but the stark facts are worth repeating — according to Craig Silverman's path-breaking analysis for BuzzFeed, the 20 highest-performing fake news stories of the closing days of the 2016 campaign did better on Facebook than the 20 highest-performing real ones.
Rumors, misinformation, and bad reporting can and do exist in any medium. But Facebook created a medium that is optimized for fakeness, not as an algorithmic quirk but due to the core conception of the platform. By turning news consumption and news discovery into a performative social process, Facebook turns itself into a confirmation bias machine — a machine that can best be fed through deliberate engineering.
In reputable newsrooms, that's engineering that focuses on graphic selection, headlines, and story angles while maintaining a commitment to accuracy and basic integrity. But relaxing the constraint that the story has to be accurate is a big leg up — it lets you generate stories that are well-designed to be psychologically pleasing, like telling Trump-friendly white Catholics that the pope endorsed their man, while also guaranteeing that your outlet gets a scoop.
(click here to continue reading The case against Facebook – Vox.)
I like this final point:
For a better path forward, it's worth looking at the actual life of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
He likes to do annual personal challenges, and they are normally sensible. One year, he set about to learn Mandarin. Another year, he challenged himself to run 365 miles. He visited all 50 states and met and spoke face to face with people in each state he visited. He committed to reading a book cover to cover every two weeks.
This year, his challenge is to try to fix Facebook. But he ought, instead, to think harder about those other challenges and what they say about what he finds valuable in life — sustained engagement with difficult topics and ideas, physical exercise, face-to-face interaction with human beings, travel. This suggests a healthy, commonsense value system that happens to be profoundly and fundamentally at odds with the Facebook business model.
To simply walk away from it, shut it down, salt the earth, and move on to doing something entirely new would be an impossibly difficult decision for almost anyone. Nobody walks away from the kind of wealth and power that Facebook has let Zuckerberg accumulate. But he's spoken frequently about his desire to wield that wealth and power for good. And while there are a lot of philanthropists out there who could donate to charities, there's only one person who can truly "fix" Facebook by doing away with it.
(click here to continue reading The case against Facebook – Vox.)
If Zuckerberg did this, he'd become a hero to many, and for sure would be immortal in the business school textbooks…
Google now data mining credit card data
Cougle Comission – Fulton Market
Inevitable, and yet still creepy
Google has begun using billions of credit-card transaction records to prove that its online ads are prompting people to make purchases – even when they happen offline in brick-and-mortar stores, the company said Tuesday.
The advance allows Google to determine how many sales have been generated by digital ad campaigns, a goal that industry insiders have long described as "the holy grail" of online advertising. But the announcement also renewed long-standing privacy complaints about how the company uses personal information.
To power its multibillion-dollar advertising juggernaut, Google already analyzes users' Web browsing, search history and geographic locations, using data from popular Google-owned apps like YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps and the Google Play store. All that information is tied to the real identities of users when they log into Google's services.
The new credit-card data enables the tech giant to connect these digital trails to real-world purchase records in a far more extensive way than was possible before. But in doing so, Google is yet again treading in territory that consumers may consider too intimate and potentially sensitive. Privacy advocates said few people understand that their purchases are being analyzed in this way and could feel uneasy, despite assurances from Google that it has taken steps to protect the personal information of its users.
(click here to continue reading Google now knows when its users go to the store and buy stuff – The Washington Post.)
especially since all this data is vulnerable to hackers
Paul Stephens, of Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer advocacy group based in San Diego, said only a few pieces of data can allow a marketer to identify an individual, and he expressed skepticism that Google's system for guarding the identities of users will stand up to the efforts of hackers, who in the past have successfully stripped away privacy protections created by other companies after data breaches.
"What we have learned is that it's extremely difficult to anonymize data," he said. "If you care about your privacy, you definitely need to be concerned."
Such data providers have been the targets of cybercriminals in the past. In 2015, a hack of data broker Experian exposed the personal information of 15 million people.
Thursday Leftovers – Plate 4
Some morsels you've maybe already sampled…
Urban Roses.
What an asshole…
Sen. Tom Cotton on Thursday slammed his colleagues' efforts to pass sweeping criminal justice reforms, saying the United States is actually suffering from an "under-incarceration problem."
Cotton, who has been an outspoken critic of the bill in Congress that would reduce mandatory minimum sentences, smacked down what he called "baseless" arguments that there are too many offenders locked up for relatively small crimes, that incarceration is too costly, or that "we should show more empathy toward those caught up in the criminal-justice system."
"Take a look at the facts. First, the claim that too many criminals are being jailed, that there is over-incarceration, ignores an unfortunate fact: for the vast majority of crimes, a perpetrator is never identified or arrested, let alone prosecuted, convicted, and jailed," Cotton said during a speech at The Hudson Institute, according to his prepared remarks. "Law enforcement is able to arrest or identify a likely perpetrator for only 19 percent of property crimes and 47 percent of violent crimes. If anything, we have an under-incarceration problem."
(click here to continue reading Sen. Tom Cotton: U.S. has 'under-incarceration problem' – POLITICO.)
Good for Google, doing something notEvil…
In its first five years, the Google Cultural Institute scanned and archived 200 works of art in super-high-resolution gigapixel images. Now in just the past few months, it has managed to scan another 1,000.
The sudden expansion is thanks to a new camera developed by Google, simply called the Art Camera. It's designed to be far simpler to use than other camera setups, making it easier for museums and other institutions to start digitizing the art and documents in their collection. And critically, it's also much faster.
"The capture time has been reduced drastically," says Marzia Niccolai, technical program manager at the Cultural Institute. "Previously it could take almost a day to capture an image. To give you an idea, now if you have a one meter by one meter painting, it would take 30 minutes."
(click here to continue reading Google made an insanely high-res camera to preserve great works of art | The Verge.)
Hi, I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn
Gee, that's great news, LinkedIn. Remind me why I even have a LinkedIn account?
Hey, do you remember back in 2012 when hackers hit LinkedIn, stole a few million passwords, and released them online? It was a while ago, so don't feel bad if you don't. LinkedIn simply can't leave the breach behind, though: there are now another 117 million e-mail addresses and passwords for sale on an underground marketplace.
…Sure, the data is old, but people do tend to use the same password from one site to another, which means that the credentials might still be useful for accessing other sites, even if users have already changed their passwords, or LinkedIn reset them.
After an initial report on Motherboard that the the cache was for sale for 5 bitcoin ($2,285), LinkedIn confirmed that the leaked information is genuine. "We are taking immediate steps to invalidate the passwords of the accounts impacted, and we will contact those members to reset their passwords," the company said in a post on its official blog. "We have no indication that this is as a result of a new security breach." Well, that's… still not comforting.
(click here to continue reading Remember That LinkedIn Breach Back In 2012? It May Have Been Bigger – Consumerist.)
Familiar Ground
Still waiting for Ted Cruz to admit he's told lies, you know, sinned. Oh that's right, for Ted Cruz's brand of Christianity, lying your ass off is fine as long as you lie to attack liberals.
Last year liberals took a break from attacking veterans, unborn babies, and Christmas to wage war on cops. Like all the other wars that didn't actually happen, this one was deserving of a full-court press on Fox News and became a centerpiece of the Cruz campaign. … Cruz, of course, blamed Obama. And complained about Obama's "complete silence" following the shooting of a deputy—a silence in which Obama had already made comments, issued a statement, and called the deputy's relatives. But faster than you can repeat "Obama won't say radical Muslim terrorists," the entire right was singing the chorus of how liberals hate cops, cops were getting massacred, and it was all the left's fault for backing horrible, life-threatening ideas like not shooting unarmed 12-year-olds, and accountability. In New York City, the police union went so far as to insist that officers shouldn't conduct arrests because of "wartime" conditions.
The narrative continued through the year, but now that all the numbers are in …
Data released by the FBI on Monday shows that 2015 was one of the safest years for U.S. law enforcement in recorded history, following a sustained trend of low numbers of on-duty deaths in recent decades. …
Every one of the 41 police officers killed on the job is a tragedy, and every effort should be made to bring that number to zero. Oh, and every one of the at least 1,186 people killed by police in the same period is also a tragedy, and every effort should be made to bring that number to zero.
The number of officers killed on the job was down almost 20 percent from 2014. However, even in 2014, being an active duty police officer was number 15 on the list of dangerous jobs.
(click here to continue reading The 'war on cops' leads to … one of the safest years for cops on record.)
For news organizations, Trump is good for business, so expect the cable news flunkies to line up to kiss his ring
And it's clear Trump is good for business. According to one Fox News producer, the channel's ratings dip whenever an anti-Trump segment airs. A Fox anchor told me that the message from Roger Ailes's executives is they need to go easy on Trump. "It's, 'Make sure we don't go after Trump,'" the anchor said. "We've thrown in the towel." Similarly, the New York Post has staked out a pro-Trump position in the marketplace while its rival the Daily News remains one of Trump's loudest critics. The Post endorsed Trump last month and dubbed him "King Don!" after he won the New York primary. (The outlier among Murdoch's properties is The Wall Street Journal. "They're stupid people," Trump told me back in March).
(click here to continue reading Hullabaloo- Rupert's game plan .)
Case in point: Megyn Kelly is no journalist, but people still pretend she is…
"You are so powerful," Megyn Kelly, of Fox, said to Donald Trump, with a note of wonder in her voice, as she interviewed him for her special on Tuesday night. They were sitting in a conference room on a high floor, with a view of Central Park behind them, the proper backdrop for an interview characterized by a soft deferral to the grandeur of Trump. Kelly had, in the moments before, remembered his angry response, after she asked a question at the first Republican Presidential debate about his past comments disparaging women. It had caused a "firestorm," and Trump was the fire. Did he understand the profound effect that he had on people?
And what did Megyn Kelly know? When the special returned to Trump Tower, the Donald let it slip that, in the period when he was loudly claiming to be boycotting her on Fox News, he had, perhaps, peeked at her show. The other big news was Kelly's unveiling of her new book, "Settle for More"—not a good slogan for the G.O.P. at the moment—which will go on sale after the election and in which, she said, "For the first time, I will speak openly about my year with Donald Trump." So what did we just watch? "Well, that is it," Trump tweeted after the broadcast ended. "Well done Megyn—and they all lived happily ever after! Now let us all see how 'THE MOVEMENT' does in Oregon tonight!" Trump won the Republican primary in Oregon with about sixty-seven per cent of the vote. Senator Ted Cruz and Governor John Kasich were still on the ballot, but Trump was, effectively, unopposed—just like he now is on Fox.
(click here to continue reading Megyn Kelly's Guide to Surrendering to Donald Trump – The New Yorker.)
Would You Believe was uploaded to Flickr
embiggen by clicking
I took Would You Believe on July 19, 2015 at 11:56AM
and processed it in my digital darkroom on July 24, 2015 at 08:14PM
Publishers Weigh Ways to Fight Ad Blocking
Adblocking software is a default installation for any browser on any computer I set up, usually using Ghostery. I am frequently amazed at the sheer amount of tracking code a typical publisher uses. Dozens and dozens of third party cookies, sometimes even more.
Browsing the web without ads is actually kind of nice. No popups stealing your screen. No autoplaying video ads making the page load as slowly as if it were being dialed up through America Online circa 1999. And millions of people seem to agree. They've installed extensions to their web browsers that delete the ads from most, if not all, of of the sites they visit. One popular ad blocker, AdBlock Plus, claims that it's been installed on people's browsers more than 400 million times and that it counts "close to 50 to 60 million active users," said Ben Williams, communications and operations director at Eyeo, the company that makes AdBlock Plus.
Ad blocking isn't a new issue. People have been installing these extensions for years. But those people were considered a fringe group. But that group is getting closer to the mainstream as kids who grew up browsing the web on their parents' computers are getting their own laptops that they can customize all the way.
And advertisers' target audience du jour — millennials — appear to be more likely to use ad blockers than any other age group. Of the survey respondents who were between the ages of 18 and 29 years old, 41% said they use ad blockers. As further evidence ad blocking isn't abating, Mr. Williams said AdBlock Plus has averaged 2.3 million downloads a week since 2013.
(click here to continue reading Publishers Weigh Ways to Fight Ad Blocking | Media – Advertising Age.)
If the trend continues, the ad-supported model of web publishing will die soon. I'm not sure what will replace it – a subscription model I guess – but web publishers did themselves no favors by making ads increasingly more obnoxious. Autoplay videos are evil, and I cannot wait until Apple allows ad blocking software on iPhones and iPads.
Ad blocking extensions have been possible on Safari for Mac for a long time, but plugin architecture for Safari on iOS is much more limited. With iOS 9, Apple has added a special case of extension for ad blockers. Apps can now include 'content blocker' extensions that define resources (like images and scripts) for Safari to not load. For the first time, this architecture makes ad blockers a real possibility for iOS developers to make and iOS customers to install and use.
The inclusion of such a feature at this time is interesting. Apple is also pushing its own news solution in iOS 9 with the News app, which will include ads but not be affected by the content blocking extensions as they only apply to Safari. There is also clearly the potential for Safari ad blockers to hurt Google, which seems to be a common trend with Apple's announcements recently…
(click here to continue reading iOS 9 lets app developers make ad blockers for Safari | 9to5Mac.)
Blocking ad tracking is also parenthetically about user privacy, and Apple is more likely to increase capabilities for its customers to opt out of the massive marketing databases of contemporary corporations like Acxiom, with the exception of inclusion in Apple's own massive database of course. Apple is not a benevolent grandmother, but at least they are being more open about their marketing and data collection practices than some of their technology company peers.
Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, who was onstage to present new "proactive" artificial intelligence features of the next iPhone operating system, paused before one of the slides to make the company's devotion to privacy clear.
Yes, he said, the new software will try to anticipate your information needs, based on things like your calendar and location — something that its rival, Google, already does. But, Federighi added, "we do it in a way that does not compromise your privacy. We don't mine your email, your photos, or your contacts in the cloud to learn things about you. We honestly just don't wanna know."
He continued: "All of this is done on [the] device, and it stays on [the] device, under your control." And Apple says that if it does have to perform a lookup [online] on your behalf, it's anonymous, it's not associated with your Apple ID, and it's not shared with third parties.
In case you missed that point, Federighi immediately repeated: "You are in control."
(click here to continue reading Walt Mossberg: Apple's Latest Product Is Privacy | Re/code.)
We are talking significant revenue at stake already:
"Consumers want a faster web, significantly less tracking by unknown third parties and clean, well-lit media experiences. [Apple's mobile ad-blocking plan] just accelerates it, and opens up a significant share of the marketplace," said Jason Kint, CEO of online publisher trade group Digital Content Next. That significant share would significantly cut into publishers' revenues. Take the biggest digital ad seller — Google — as a proxy. PageFair has estimated that Google, which made $59.1 billion from advertising in 2014, lost $6.6 billion that year because of ad blocking. As Vice's chief digital officer Mike Germano said at an industry conference in New York earlier this month, "I love my audience, but fuck you, ad blockers — 20% of my revenue is gone."
Spain's Google News Shutdown Is a Silly Victory for Publishers
As we suspected, having traffic to Spanish news sites drop by 5%-15% is kind of a big deal…
We call it the "Google News bump." When a story on WIRED.com gets a link on the front page of Google News, traffic skyrockets. Readers click. Ads are served.
But in Spain, at least, the Google News bump is no more. On Tuesday, Google shut down Google News in Spain in response to a law that requires news aggregators to pay a fee for the right to post snippets of stories. Big Spanish publishers pushed for the law, but their math is hard to fathom. Without Google News, they get no bump, nor do they get any fee. Trying to stick it to Google is an understandable impulse, a resentment fed by the company's monolithic influence over the web. But all the shutdown really shows is how powerless traditional publishers really are.
But where I work, at least, a 5 percent traffic dip wouldn't exactly be something to celebrate, much less lobby lawmakers to effectively codify. And as GigaOm's Mathew Ingram says, the damage could be worse. The chief data scientist at Chartbeat, a web service many publishers use to monitor real-time reader traffic, told Ingram that the average falloff in the hours since the Google News shutdown was more like 10 to 15 percent.
(click here to continue reading Spain's Google News Shutdown Is a Silly Victory for Publishers | WIRED.)
and as many people have noted: removing all Google News traffic benefits the larger media companies at the expense of the smaller media companies. Google News links to both: sites you've heard of, and sites you haven't. If you don't regularly visit the websites of smaller news organizations, you probably won't.
Google Shutting Google News in Spain
Ride Smarter on the Google Train.
I wonder how this new development will play out. Will the traffic plummet for Spanish publications? Or will it not matter? And how exactly does Google News move past this trend of European countries1 demanding Google pay for fair use inclusion? Does this relate to blogging Fair Use?
Google Inc. said Wednesday it will shut its Google News service in Spain because a new law will require the company to pay publishers for displaying any portion of their work.
In a blog post, Google said it also will remove Spanish publishers from the service.
The legislation, which takes effect in January, requires Spanish publishers to charge services like Google News for showing excerpts or snippets from their publications, Google said.
"As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not sustainable," Richard Gingras, head of Google News, wrote in a blog. He said the service will close Dec. 16.
(click here to continue reading Google Shutting Google News in Spain – WSJ.)
From Google's Europe Blog:
[Google News is] a service that hundreds of millions of users love and trust, including many here in Spain. It's free to use and includes everything from the world's biggest newspapers to small, local publications and bloggers. Publishers can choose whether or not they want their articles to appear in Google News — and the vast majority choose to be included for very good reason. Google News creates real value for these publications by driving people to their websites, which in turn helps generate advertising revenues.
But sadly, as a result of a new Spanish law, we'll shortly have to close Google News in Spain. Let me explain why. This new legislation requires every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications, whether they want to or not. As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not sustainable. So it's with real sadness that on 16 December (before the new law comes into effect in January) we'll remove Spanish publishers from Google News, and close Google News in Spain.
For centuries publishers were limited in how widely they could distribute the printed page. The Internet changed all that — creating tremendous opportunities but also real challenges for publishers as competition both for readers' attention and for advertising Euros increased. We're committed to helping the news industry meet that challenge and look forward to continuing to work with our thousands of partners globally, as well as in Spain, to help them increase their online readership and revenues.
(click here to continue reading Google Europe Blog.)
Germany already has some data on how well it works, we'll soon see if politicians are getting angry phone calls from media websites:
A German law now requires Google to secure the rights to publish any content other than links to articles and headlines. Google refused to pay for those rights, but gave publishers a choice: offer them free or face the removal of snippets and thumbnails from its services like Google News.
German media giant Axel Springer , a Google critic, demanded payment from Google for a time this fall. But Axel granted Google a free license when traffic from Google News and Google's search engine plunged.
"I imagine the news outlets for which the law was designed will start to miss the traffic that Google sent their way," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at R.W. Baird.
I've long used Google News as a primary jumping off point to read news sites, for what it's worth…Footnotes:
- and Rupert Murdoch companies [↩]
Sign in To YouTube Using an iOS Device Like an iPhone
For perhaps the five hundredth time this decade,1 I spent a long time trying to login to YouTube to upload a video, and my password was not accepted, even though I'd copied it right out of 1 Password. After wasting about ten minutes trying to figure it out, I remembered that because I have set up a 2-Step Verification for my Google account, I have to generate an App specific password for logging into YouTube. I'm not sure why YouTube is different than other 2-Step Verification services2, but at least the solution is easy enough, once you remember that is why your password keeps failing. You'd think Google could update YouTube to at least give a hint that enabling 2-Step verification means a user can't login simply with email and password. I mean, would it be that hard for the YouTube iOS App to add a footer to the login page? Or at least a suggestion to look to the App passwords page if a password fails a few times?
Anyway, after I did the proper Google search, I ended up here, with these instructions.
Sign in using App Passwords
An App password is a 16-digit passcode that gives an app or device permission to access your Google Account. If you use 2-Step-Verification and are seeing a "password incorrect" error when trying to access your Google Account, an App password may solve the problem. Most of the time, you'll only have to enter an App password once per app or device, so don't worry about memorizing it.
- Visit your App passwords page. You may be asked to sign in to your Google Account.
- At the bottom, click Select app and choose the app you're using.
- Click Select device and choose the device you're using.
- Click Generate.
- Follow the instructions to enter the App password (the 16 character code in the yellow bar) on your device.
(click here to continue reading Sign in using App Passwords – Accounts Help.)
That's pretty clear, and simple, once you know that is what you are required to do.
Perhaps since I'm writing a post about this procedure, I'll remember next time I'm uploading a video from a new iOS device, or a new app that uses YouTube.
Also, the video was pretty dark, I'll have to retry with better lighting next time I have a can of Nuclear Winter beer by Finch's Beer…
My app specific list looks like this3
Google App specific passwords, a partial list
Vimeo version…
Nuclear Winter Boilermaker- Finch's Beer from Seth Anderson on Vimeo.
With a name like Nuclear Winter, what else could I do?
update, damn, this post became a spam comment magnet so we're disabling comments for a while. Sorry.
- every time I get a new iPhone or iPad, or Apple TV basically. Though some apps use YouTube as well, I'm guessing this has happened more than three million times since I've enabled 2-Step Verification [↩]
- for instance, I use 2-Step Verification for Tumblr, for Twitter, for Buffer, and probably some others too [↩]
- not all shown [↩]
Google Experimenting With Removing Google Ads for a Fee
Cougle, Google's neighbor in the West Loop.
Almost sounds a little back-alley-ish: "hey, I've been deluging you with these ads for decades, but for a small fee, I'll remove them, in certain circumstances…"
On Thursday, Google started experimenting with a new way to let users contribute to web sites in exchange for removing – or at least reducing – the number of ads. The service, called Contributor by Google, has users give between $1 and $3 a month to sites like The Onion and Mashable.
Once they pay, the ads that normally show will be replaced with a banner that says "Thank you for being a contributor."
For Contributor, Google is only working with 10 sites, and it will take a small cut of the contributions. The sites may not be completely ad free: Google only has the power to remove ads it has served, so it should probably be described as a way to see "fewer ads" rather than no ads.
(click here to continue reading Google Experimenting With Removing Ads for a Fee – NYTimes.com.)
The only way I could see this working would be for low-traffic websites with a loyal leadership – it seems Google shares a slice of that fee with the publisher. I notice Google doesn't disclose what the percentages actually are, it could be a 90-10 split for all we know, with Google retaining $2.70 of a $3 contribution. I doubt I'd ever use Contributor By Google, but you never know. Is the occasional visit to Urban Dictionary or The Onion worth $36 a year? Meh. Especially since I use Ghostery to block most ads in the first place, so the savings would be negligible, plus Google would be able to accumulate more data about me for their data mills.
I used to have Google Ads displayed over there on the right column, and when this blog sucked less1 and got more daily traffic, the ads paid me a few hundred dollars a year. That was quite a while ago though, certainly before Twitter and other social media soaked up my bandwidth, and the tumbleweeds started accumulating here. In fact, I removed the Google Ads several years ago, probably when Google started frequently being a bully and a thief.2Footnotes:
Apple and Others Encrypt Phones, Fueling Government Standoff
Apparently this ridiculousness is still going on, we blogged about it last month, and previously…
The No. 2 official at the Justice Department delivered a blunt message last month to Apple Inc. executives: New encryption technology that renders locked iPhones impervious to law enforcement would lead to tragedy. A child would die, he said, because police wouldn't be able to scour a suspect's phone, according to people who attended the meeting.
Apple executives thought the dead-child scenario was inflammatory. They told the government officials law enforcement could obtain the same kind of information elsewhere, including from operators of telecommunications networks and from backup computers and other phones, according to the people who attended.
Technology companies are pushing back more against government requests for cooperation and beefing up their use of encryption. On Tuesday, WhatsApp, the popular messaging service owned by Facebook Inc., said it is now encrypting texts sent from one Android phone to another, and it won't be able to decrypt the contents for law enforcement.
AT&T Inc. on Monday challenged the legal framework investigators have long used to collect call logs and location information about suspects.
In a filing to a federal appeals court in Atlanta, AT&T said it receives an "enormous volume" of government requests for information about customers, and argued Supreme Court decisions from the 1970s "apply poorly" to modern communications. The company urged the courts to provide new, clear rules on what data the government can take without a probable cause warrant.
(click here to continue reading Apple and Others Encrypt Phones, Fueling Government Standoff – WSJ.)
Law enforcement officials are clever, they can find ways to get data in other ways, like this, for instance…
And good for Tim Cook – he suggests that Apple Inc. should not be in the business of enabling the police in their quest to snoop on our phones without first getting warrants. You know, like if we were living in a constitutional Democracy with a Bill of Rights again?
In June 2013, Mr. Snowden provided reporters with documents describing a government program called Prism, which gathered huge amounts of data from tech companies. At first, tech-company executives said they hadn't previously heard of Prism and denied participating. In fact, Prism was an NSA code word for data collection authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Tech companies routinely complied with such requests.
More than a year later, tech executives say consumers still mistrust them, and they need to take steps to demonstrate their independence from the government.
Customer trust is a big issue at Apple. The company generates 62% of its revenue outside the U.S., where it says encryption is even more important to customers concerned about snooping by their governments.
These days, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook stresses the company's distance from the government.
"Look, if law enforcement wants something, they should go to the user and get it," he said at The Wall Street Journal's global technology conference in October. "It's not for me to do that."
In early September, Apple said the encryption on its latest iPhone software would prevent anyone other than the user from accessing user data stored on the phone when it is locked. Until then, Apple had helped police agencies—with a warrant—pull data off a phone. The process wasn't quick. Investigators had to send the device to Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, and backlogs occurred.


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