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Siesta Key Rum racked up three medals at the Rum XP Tasting Competition last month. Now it's time to see where it's made.
An Inside Look at Drum Circle Distilling
by Mike Streeter
I remember hearing about Drum Circle Distilling a few years ago when they had their official launch. It was good to know that a start-up micro distillery was opening up shop in Florida and had chosen to produce rum. A few short years later and this brand is winning awards and gaining serious notoriety from the fine spirits community. At the Rum Renaissance Festival in Miami last month, Drum Circle won a Gold-Best in Class medal for their Siesta Key Silver Rum and Silver medals for Siesta Key Gold and Siesta Key Spiced. Not a bad start.
A month went by and an opportunity to tour the Drum Circle Distillery came up and I jumped at the chance. Along with several members of the Rum XP group, we made our way north from glamorous downtown Sarasota to a much more humble industrial area. I catch the sweet smell of molasses as we pull into a nondescript parking lot and know that we're in the right place. The entire Drum Circle facility is few thousand square feet of converted warehouse space packed with top notch distilling equipment and aging barrels. What it lacks in size is makes up tenfold in quality!
Troy Roberts and Tom Clarke are the owners of Drum Circle Distillery and greet our group upon arrival. We all pull out cameras as Troy begins our tour of the facility. He explains the distilling process and gives us a detailed account of what each piece of equipment is used for. Their still was made by Christian Carl Distilleries in Stuttgart, Germany and is quite unique. It is a pot still and column still combination with a few secret modification thrown in. It is a beautiful piece of high quality distilling equipment and I can't get over its sculptural qualities.
We have an opportunity to taste the spirit directly out of the still at 160 proof and out of several aging barrels at proof before dilution. Some of our group sips it slowly and others throw it back as a shot, but we're all impressed at the level of quality (even at high ABV). They are currently enlarging the aging space at Drum Circle and experimenting with different barrels. It will be interesting to see what products come out of this expansion.
Once the rum is aged and blended it heads to the bottling and labeling room which is also very minimal. Four bottles are filled at a time and each is labeled individually. The attention to detail in the entire process is evident and the finished product has a distinct artisan quality to it. It helps that the rum inside is top-notch as well.
After our tour, Troy and Tom treat us to rum cake and conversation about the future of the brand. Distribution is expanding at a rapid pace in Florida and beyond and their award winning Spiced Rum is about to hit the market. For a list of retailers and online sales options, check out the Siesta Key website.
In an industry dominated by giant corporations, it's great to see some of the smaller rum producers flourishing. You can expect to see continued success from our friends at Drum Circle Distilling. Siesta Key Rum is among the best on the market and is definitely worth tracking down.
Cheers to Troy and Tom for making great rum and living the dream!!


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Some say it's the design. Others say it's the speed of the car while some thinks its just the fact that "Alfa Romeo" is engraved on the car. But regardless of the reason, the Alfa Romeo cars truly are dream cars to own. If you have one, you would probably be the talk of the town. Dreaming and hoping to have one? Motivate yourself with a screen saver to remind you of that desire. We have a long list a lot of Alfa Romeo HD wallpapers and desktop backgrounds downloadable here on our site. From the older classical ones to the new series and models release, all are uploaded on this site!
Aside for the brand Alfa Romero wallpapers we have, there are other wallpapers that you can view. If it's not cars you can also check out the cool images machines! Check out our machine category and see gizmos and techs of the future!
|Alfa Usa 31 Cool Car Wallpaper
|Image Source
|Image File Size
|Image Width
|Image Height
File Size : 155.19 KB
Image Resolution : 960x639 Pixel
Tagged on : Alfa Usa Cool Car Wallpaper
Image Keyword : Alfa Usa
Upload on Category : Alfa Romeo
Upload by : hdwpcar
Upload on : October 25, 2015, 1:24 pm
Total View : 132 times

subset: commoncrawl


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Blumentals Screensaver Factory / Wonder 22.214.171.124 Multilingual | 50 MB
Screensaver Wonder is a premium screensaver software for creating amazing personal screensavers. With Screensaver Wonder you can easily make a screensaver from your own pictures and video files. You can add background music and select from over 100 stunning picture transition effects. Screensaver Wonder is extremely easy to use. You can create standard screensaver files and install them on your system automatically. You can also create standalone, self-installing screensavers for easy distribution and sharing with your friends.
Screensaver Wonder is one of the most popular screensaver software products on the market today, helping thousands of users decorate their computer screens quickly and easily.
Key features
- Make a screensaver from your pictures and/or video files
- Add background music from MP3, WAV, WMA and MID sound files
- Select from over 100 smooth image transition effects
- Exclusive constant movement effects - slide, rotate and zoom
- Easily add customizable text labels
- Enhance your screensaver with cool background options
- Customizable screen saver settings window
- Built-in compression ensures smallest possible file size
- Excellent quality, compatibility and performance on all PCs
- Works with Windows 7
Blumentals Screensaver Factory
Create screensavers for yourself, for promotion or unlimited royalty-free commercial distribution. Make screensavers from images, video and flash animation, add background music and smooth picture display and transition effects. Screensaver Factory is very easy to use, and it enables you to make standalone self-installing screensaver files and CDs for easy setup and distribution.
You can make screensavers for sale using special features for shareware authors - registration keys, trial limitations, customizable nag-screen, readme information file and license agreement. With Screensaver Factory you can start your very own screensaver business right now.
With Screensaver Factory you can:
- Create screensavers from pictures, videos, flash animation and sound files
- Make self-installing screensaver files and CDs for easy distribution
- Create time and feature limited trial screensavers
- Make shareware screensavers with nag-screens and registration keys
- Make screensavers for marketing and promotion
- Create multi-language screensavers
- Create clock, calendar and even RSS screensavers
Screensaver Factory features include:
- Very smooth graphics processing
- Support for all popular image, video and sound formats
- Over 100 smooth, customizable image transition effects
- Exclusive constant movement effects - slide, rotate and zoom
- Customizable screensaver settings and about windows
- Built-in compression for ensuring smallest possible file size
- Advanced marketing features
- Excellent quality, compatibility and performance on all PCs
- Works with Windows 7
Site BBcode/HTML Code:


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Please wait a few moments while we confirm your booking.
Your table is now booked!
Here's your booking reference () and you'll receive a
confirmation email shortly.
We look forward to seeing you.
0130 5568110
Monday-Thursday, 11.30am-11pm
Friday & Saturday, 11.30am-11pm
Sunday, 11.30am-10.30pm
Situated within the beautiful old Dorchester Brewery site, Zizzi's new home boasts a large terrace that overlooks the Brewery square - which is beautiful on sunny days. Inside, the restaurant makes the most of the old brewery's architecture with exposed brickwork and large arched factory windows, whilst the design is inspired by Dorchester being part of the 'Jurassic Coast'. Our open-plan kitchen is situated in the centre of the building, so every table can view our chefs hard at work and cooking up a storm for all to enjoy!
Our Italian restaurant serves tasty, authentic dishes from pizza, pasta and risotto to salads and indulgent desserts – all in a uniquely designed restaurant. Our Italian menu also includes Vegan and Vegetarian options.
We are open Monday – Sunday for lunch and dinner. Dine al fresco with an outdoor dining area for sunny weather at our Dorchester restaurant. Plus tweet what you eat with free WiFi available here (if you're in to that).
Outdoor Eating
24.5 Miles
35.7 Miles
37.4 Miles


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Coming up with a unique business gift idea can sometimes be challenging. What do you give a busy executive that would be useful for everyone? Surge protectors with USB charging capabilities is the answer. It's a tech gift that everyone can use and appreciate. Not only does it protect laptops and other electronics from sudden power surges, it also expands charging capabilities with the added USB charging slots.
The Hamba Surge Protector Outlet & USB Charger comes with 3 standard plug slots as well as 2 USB slots, perfect for charging all your devices at once whether at home or at the office. Your logo is printed onto the front of the device for maximum brand visibility. Click here to view additional product information.
There are also travel surge protectors available such as this Bonza Travel Surge Protector & USB Charger. This is a very handy device for those busy executivees who travel frequently and it includes a mesh travel bag. Bulk pricing as low as $18.95 includes a one color logo, but full color printing is also available for an additional cost.
The Tamboti Travel Surge Protector comes with 2 USB chargers and 1 standard plug slot. It compact size makes it convenient for travel. Your logo will really pop against the white background and full color printing is available for this style. Click here to learn more.
Need additional branded gift ideas? Visit our website and search over 300,000 unique promotional gifts.


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It's just you car's color is same as stock Challenger, so I suggested to do strips like on Challenger. But yeah, that stupid compression fuck shit up.
Also it's the problem for many people who has stutters. Textures were compressed heavily and it requires a lot of GPU power to decompress and load them. Oh, and FYI RTW edition was like 15 GB, and G1's is 5.


text:
Parties by Marty began in Denver in 2002.
My mission has always been to provide singles (40 & over) with
an elegant up-scale (yet also fun and affordable) party and dance
venue where they can connect with friends, meet new friends, network
their businesses, find romance and/or meet their mate!
For more information call Marty at 303-649-9125, or
email firstname.lastname@example.com.
Valley Country Club
Check out our upcoming parties in 2011
Dates: The 2nd Thursday of the Month
Thursday October 13
Thursday November 10
Thursday December 8
Dates: The 2nd Thursday of the Month
Make new friends, network your business,
find romance, and/or meet your mate at this great
Contact Marty Pickert:
Email: email@example.com
Website: www.martypickert.com
Back to top


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SQL Sum
SQL Sum() Example
Select Sum(Film_Length) From Film_Table Where Film_Title in ("Big Daddy", "The Waterboy", "The Wedding Singer");
345 (in minutes, as length is just a numeric)
|Comments Comments are left by visitors to FluffyCat.com and may or may not be accurate.
|Comment by Larry on 2006-12-12 Rate this Comment
Working with time and dates can be tricky and is usually database specific or even database version specific. I found this example in the online MySQL documentation. Essentially, the summing is done for the time using base 100 (like most sums) and is then converted back into time using the SEC_TO_TIME function.
|Comment by archive on 2006-12-12 Rate this Comment
|Sign in to comment on SQL Sum.


text: The information age has not been kind to the humble bookstore. After mega-chains valiantly tried and failed to compete with the 800-pound gorilla that is Amazon, only Barnes & Noble is left in the US (and it's quickly becoming a showroom for LEGO and Pop Vinyl toys as much as an actual bookseller). A few indies are surviving thanks to a small resurgence of dead tree reading and some trendy makeovers, but the writing is on the wall.Read More


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Are pet doors easy to install?
Can I install a pet door in a wall, rather than a door?
Can pet doors be installed in glass panels?
How high up on my door or wall should I install a pet door?
Do you have a pet door designed specifically for sliding doors?
Are your pet doors energy efficient?
Do pet doors lock?
Will my pet door allow me to keep other animals outside?
Do I have to train my dog to use a pet door?
Which pet doors work best for large dogs?


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It is absolutely dumbfounding to me how much time and money American's spend taking care of their lawn.
According to the article 'Statistically Speaking: Lawns by the Numbers,' we spend a whopping 30 billion dollars keeping our grass green and trim. The reason we are so focused on the yard is quite simple. It's what everyone sees when they drive by! Really, if we all took care of our lawn like we did our garage or basement, I suspect it wouldn't look quite so nice.
As much as we try, people tend to make judgement calls by what they see. People's perception is their reality, even if their perception is false. So we spend a lot of time making sure our lawns look nice (among many other things) so people will have a good perception of us.
What bothers me about this is that many ministries forget to take care of their "other" lawn. I'm talking about their virtual lawn – the church or ministry website.
Sometimes I am really embarrassed when I see some church websites. Often, it is the equivalent of an unkempt lawn with weeds sticking out everywhere, shrubs that are way overgrown and tall grass in places that should have been trimmed with a weed wacker long ago. No church would want to leave their front lawn in that condition on a Sunday morning!
What's even more scary is that some church leaders either don't care or don't realize their website needs help. So the many virtual guests who 'visit' the church each week stop by, take one look, and put the pedal to the metal. They figure, "If that's what the front lawn looks like, there's no way I want to stop by for a visit!"
I HAVE TO BE HONEST. This really, really, really bothers me. And it's why I started my own website business several years ago – to specifically help local churches and ministries with their virtual presence. I believe your church website holds one of the keys to increasing guest attendance each week!
I would love to have the chance to give you my opinion of your church or ministry website. I promise to be honest with you (no gimmicks and no tricks.) I'll tell you if I think it looks great or if it needs a facelift, an overhaul or a funeral. If it needs a facelift, I'll make some recommendations. If it needs more, I'll let you know and also give you a quote for what I would charge to fix it for you.
Please consider taking me up on the offer. You have nothing to lose!


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Sawn Timber: 01455 209121
Machined Timber: 01606 555500
Uses: Sports goods, Furniture, Flooring
General Description: Birds eye maple is strong, heavy, hard, and fine textured. The heartwood is light reddish-brown with deeper-coloured late-wood bands. The sapwood is white in colour, and furnishes the white maple prized for certain uses. It differs mainly from the soft maples in its greater density and firmer texture.
Medium - Birds eye maple is rather difficult to work, the timber tending to cause saws to vibrate, and for cutters to ride on the wood during planing. A reduction of cutting angle to 20º assists the finishing operation particularly when curly grain is present. The timber can be stained, polished and glued satisfactorily, but it is hard to nail or screw, although these are held firmly.
All types dry without undue difficulty but rather slowly, particularly rock maple.
Compared with European beech, rock maple is about equal in bending strength and in compression along the grain. and some 15 to 20 per cent superior in hardness, resistance to shock loads and resistance to splitting.
Family Name: Aceraceae
Latin Name: Acer saccharum
Distribution: Found generally in Canada and eastern USA.
Also known as: Rock maple, hard maple, sugar maple, black maple


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Dynamic host configuration protocol is used to automatically assign TCP/IP addresses to clients along with the correct subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS server. There are global and scope options. Global options apply to all client computers. Scope options apply to specific subnets or range of IP addresses. DHCP RFCs are 1533, 1534, 1541, and 1542.
When booting, there will be four attempts to get a DHCP address at 9, 13, and 16 second intervals. Once the lease is obtained at one half the lease period the client will try to renew the lease with the original DHCP server and will continue until the lease term is seven eights complete. At 7/8th completion, the client will attempt the renew process with any DHCP server. If the lease is not renewed and a new lease is not obtained, at the end of the lease period, TCP/IP communications cease from the client.
DHCP is available for NT 3.5 and later Servers. Only one scope (range of IP addresses) can be configured for one DHCP server.
Option levels:
The specific client options have greater priority than scope options and scope options have priority over global options. Options may be set to allow various global options to be set as defaults for undeclared options in the scope or client options (Each subnet may have its own WINS server). Global and scope options may be reached from the DHCP options menu. Some of these options are:
There can be several DCHP servers on a network. More than one may be configured to back up the other in case of failure.
Because of how leases are assigned and accepted, operation with multiple DHCP servers is not a problem as long as the DCHP servers are configured correctly. The DCHP servers must be configured so the scope of available IP addresses are not the same on any redundant DHCP server. DHCP servers do not communicate with each other.
The backup interval is stored in the registry at:
A duplicate registry key is in the \WINNTROOT\System32\Dhcp\Backup\dhcpcfg file
Database files:
If changing from static IP mapping to DHCP mapping, a reboot is not required. If changing from DHCP mapping to static IP mapping a reboot is required for the IP address to be effective.
IPConfig options:


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dmitry trashkov
Exhibition Ended Sunday 14 October 2012. Artworks are still available for sale. Please email firstname.lastname@example.com with your enquiry.
A U R O R I A N D A W N by Dmitry Trashkov
21 September – 14 October 2012
From my rotting body,
flowers shall grow
and I am in them
and that is eternity
– Edvard Munch
Dmitry Trashkov, a BFA graduate from the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts in Christchurch, New Zealand, now based in Melbourne.
This exhibition, Aurorian Dawn, showcases his aptitude for graphic art, rather than illustrating romantic fantasies for their own sake; instead seeks to create metaphysical and open-ended symbolic and esoteric dream worlds. Trashkov's atmospheric mixed media works, full of menace and mystery, draw inspiration from the magical folktales of his native Russia, and an entire history of countercultures, from nineteenth century fin-de-siècle Symbolism and Decadence through to twenty-first century Metal and Goth.
Moody painters like Fernand Khnopff, Alexandre Benois, Victor Vasnetsov, Jan Toorop, Arnold Böcklin, Mikhail Vrubel, and particularly Edvard Munch are obvious visual touchstones as ways of setting up ghost stories without narrative and ambiguous mystical visions.
The philosophical cinematic aesthetics of Lars von Trier and Andrey Tarkovskiy also seem to resonate. Entropy, illness, death and decay are always present in these tonally de-saturated and chilly-looking Arcadias. These are intensely psychological works, studies of personality created by conflict with melancholy, ennui, and existential angst.
At the same time they are records of the invented inhabitants of a universe that co-exists with ours, but intangible and invisible. They are also somewhat random, like the spectres of a slightly racy Edward Gorey story. Who are these ghosts, fallen angels and lamias? But then, that's on a need to know basis, and only the artist needs to know.
By rejecting the conceptual and material tropes of contemporary art, Trashkov deliberately places himself in the role of an anachronistic outsider more comfortable with the lost cultural byways of the past than an increasingly superficial and technologically mediated present. It is probably natural for the soul drawn to moody beauty to be drawn back in time to seek solace in half-remembered, half-invented fantasies about a past or timeless present suffused with supernatural happenings and enigmas.
The mind must enter open and receptive to the eddies and currents of the art's aura.
The art works are infused with death, sickness, decline and despair, but at the same time contain a tonal poetry of considerable beauty. One thinks of Keats' odes for their lush naturalistic imagery, supreme artistry, and mortal resignation. Several of the works take place in wild natural settings – perhaps a forest. These settings represent the unknown, a sacred place that is a separate world where all the magic happens – a place of origin, of beginnings, something wild, dark, unknown and perhaps even frightening; the unknowable 'something'.
The forest is also, as implied by Nietzsche, a symbol of the subconscious mind in which the conscious mind is a clearing occasionally entered by gods of either Apollonian or Dionysian aspect. The forest is the realm of the psyche and a place of testing and initiation, of unknown perils and darkness in which inner darkness of uncertainty is confronted and resolved whence the viewer emerges at a higher level of humanity. Or perhaps the bleakly carnivorous eroticism and pale desperation will make the viewer something more bestial?
– Andrew Paul Wood


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Provides Career Coaches who are dedicated to helping individuals with all levels of experience find and maintain employment. 410-466-9200 | jcsbaltimore.org
Provides employers FREE connections to qualified candidates currently working with the JCS Career Center who have been pre-screened by our trained professionals. 410-466-9200 | jcsbaltimore.org
Privacy Policy | Terms of Service


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In addition to their stunning buggys, Maclaren also makes baby carriers. We recently had the chance to review their Techno Carrier.
Features of the Techno Carrier include:
· Coordinates with the Techno XLR range (buggy)
· Special, padded removable pod insert for the smallest of infants
· Unique one-hand, quick release buckles
· Secondary, colour–coded restraint for added security
· Centered shoulder and back harness distributes weight evenly, relieving your back
· Removable bottle holder and shade blanket/bib
Appropriate From
· 8–12 lb
· 12–25 lb without pod insert
What we loved:
It's competitively priced with other similar carriers on the market.
There are several stylish color combinations to choose from.
The carrier worked well for our newborns, the pod is a nice touch in helping them be safe and snug.
It's a great solution for when you are places where a buggy just isn't an option – the security line at the airport, festivals or other crowded areas.
It's a very clean, smart looking carrier.
The outer fabric is durable and the carrier feels secure.
The removable newborn pod makes it adaptable for your growing child.
Things we didn't love:
It might not be comfy for a larger baby, even one within the weight limits.
It's harder to put on than it looks, it took a few moments to adjust the straps so they fit comfortably – it's definitely not a grab and go carrier!
The detachable dribble bib and bottle holder are useful extras, but be aware that you can't have both attached at the same time.
You can't throw it in the washer machine, a minus for a baby item!
If you want to learn more about the Maclaren Techno Carrier you can go to their website here : http://www.maclarenbaby.com/us/content/view/109/88889711/lang,en/
Disclaimer: We received free product for our review. No monetary compensation was received for this post. The opinion here is our own.


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CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. (WIVB) – TSA agents at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport found a loaded handgun in a carry-on bag belonging to a Chautauqua County man Thursday morning.
Officials say the weapon was spotted at an X-ray machine checkpoint. The .380 caliber handgun was loaded with six rounds and one bullet in the chamber.
NFTA Police responded and confiscated the weapon, which they say was registered to its owner, 36-year-old Troy Livecche, who has a license for the weapon.
Charges are pending against him.


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I seriously cannot believe that my little baby is just one short month away from being a year old. That whole saying, "The days are long, but the years are short," totally applies to how I'm feeling. With his cute little baby face, Brad and I are always remarking that Rylan seems younger at this age than Brandon did. Maybe that's why it surprises me so much when he grasps a new concept. He's beginning to understand processes lately, and likes knowing what to expect. As most mothers would recognize, he is in the pulling everything out stage – emptying a drawer or basket of clean diapers takes no time. Clapping is still his go-to move (everyone loves that he knows "If you're happy and you know it"), but he has also gotten the hang of using signs for "more" and "all done" at meal time.
We are very much in the midst of teething. This kid will chomp on anything he can reach. I left him alone for 2 seconds the other day, and turn around to see him gnawing away on the door hinge, with a big piece of paint in his mouth. Oh brother! His sleep hasn't been as interrupted as last time, but eating has been a bit of a problem. He would much rather suck on his cold sippy cup than eat any baby food. Right now, pretty much the only thing we can get him to eat is "real" food, straight off our plates. Meat and pasta are his favorite. We also moved him over to a booster seat with a tray so that he feels more included at meal time. He loves it, especially since he can sometimes reach Brandon's food. Brandon doesn't love that so much. On a very exciting note, we are starting to wean him off his reflux meds. His spitting up has decreased radically, and I no longer have to change his (or my) clothes a million times a day. My laundry machine is breathing a sigh of relief.
One of the biggest changes to Rylan's schedule this month is the fact that I've added in a little tv time. I know, I know, everyone preaches waiting until 2 years, but that just isn't practical for us. He sees Brandon watching a show and wants to be included too. For me, it's better to have it planned out and for a short amount of time, rather than just turning it on at random when I feel like I need it. This way it doesn't get abused, and the boys know what to expect. Everything else has stayed pretty much the same. Happy 11 months Ra-Ra!
- 7:30 am – wake-up, get dressed and bottle (8 oz with 1 T rice cereal)
- 7:45 – breakfast w/ Brandon
- 8:15 – Outside!
- 9:30-11/11:30 – nap #1
- 11:30 – play with Brandon
- 12 – bottle (8 oz)
- 12:15 – lunch
- 1:30-3:30/4 – nap #2
- 4 – bottle (8 oz)
- 4:15-5 – "play" with Brandon or Outing
- 5 – independent play in play pen
- 5:30 – watch tv with Brandon
- 6 – dinner with family
- 6:40 – bath
- 7 – bottle (8 oz with 1 T rice cereal)
- 7:30 – bedtime!


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Western Omelet Casserole
Recipe type: Entree
Western Omelet Casserole is a crock pot recipe with hash browns, ham, onions and peppers.
- 32 ounces hash browns, frozen
- 1 pound ham, extra lean, cooked and cubed
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 medium green bell pepper, diced
- 1½ cups Monterey Jack Cheese, shredder (I plan on using Cheddar)
- 12 eggs
- 1 cup milk, skim
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper, or to taste
- Place a layer of frozen potatoes on the bottom of the crock pot, followed by a layer of ham, then onions, green peppers and cheese.
- Repeat the layering process two or three times, ending with a layer of cheese.
- Beat the eggs, milk and salt & pepper together. Pour over the mixture inside the crackpot, cover and turn on low.
- Cook for 10-12 hours, overnight, and enjoy for breakfast or brunch the next day.


text:
We have used Security-Net members for work at many sites across the US with great results.
A Security-Net Partner for Nationwide Security Integration
Firstline Security Integration is a partner in Security-Net, a prestigious federation of some of the nation's most accomplished security technology experts. Membership in Security-Net is limited to security providers who can meet the most stringent standards of knowledge in security system integration fields that include systems architecture, networking, digital intrusion prevention and the applications needed to run it all.
Our partnership with Security-Net represents the high level of achievement attained by our security integration experts. Participating security services providers in Security-Net must hold some of the most recent and technologically advanced certification standards, including Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA), ASIS Physical Security Professional (PSP), and others.
Our clients can feel confident knowing that Firstline Security Integration upholds the high standards demanded of all Security-Net partners. They can also benefit from the expertise offered by our fellow partner organizations. These benefits include localized service across the country and the ability to obtain outside expertise from security technology specialists for application in unique scenarios.
About Security-Net
Security-Net was established in 1993 as a means to offer standardized security systems integration services nationwide that could meet the highest benchmarks for quality and knowledge. By creating a partnership between federated companies, clients could recognize an instant standard of service excellence and expertise no matter where they happened to be.
This alliance between security integrators has also enabled strategic benefits for security companies. Together, we and our partners can share the latest best practices in security integration, stay abreast of the most recent and advanced security technologies, and share other industry intelligence to prevent any risk of knowledge gaps.
Together, Security-Net represents a network of "the world's finest security systems integrators" with 60 regional offices and 1,400 security professionals in the U.S., Canada, and across the planet. Our collective mastery of security technologies and dedication towards advancing integration practices can help us and our clients achieve far more than we ever could alone.


text:
Kick Ass did a good job of building a movie around seven issues of a comic book. It did it by fixing some of the holes and expanding the characters.
Kick Ass 2 tries to do the same thing, but it has one big problem. Chloe Moretz has grown up. Its solution is to stick in a Mean Girls plot that is completely out of place.
Every other second superhero movie follows the pattern of having the hero contemplate hanging up the cape. But there's usually more at stake than date night.
The high school scenes in Kick Ass told us why someone might want to be a superhero. The high school scenes in Kick Ass 2 don't tell us anything and belong in a completely different movie.
That's not the only problem with Kick Ass 2. Moving the showdown from Times Square to a warehouse doesn't do the ending any favors. Neither does cutting out the dark ending of the comic and trading it for an action movie shark finish and a neat escape.
Kick Ass 2 might have worked if it had stuck to that darker ending where the superheroes are arrested, Kick Ass is a wanted man after killing his nemesis and Hit Girl is on the way to prison. Instead there's an uplifting moral about how everyone has a hero inside them.
The things that Kick Ass 2 does well are the same things that Kick Ass did well. It develops the villains and makes them a lot more interesting and entertaining than Millar managed to do. And Jim Carrey steals every scene he's in as Captain Stars and Stripes, even if he's unrecognizable and decided to take his name out of the credits.
What it fails at is developing the heroes. If Kick Ass 2 had done as much for the development of the heroes as it did in developing Chris and his relationship with his father's bodyguard and the attention it lavished on Mother Russia, it would be a good movie.
But no such luck.
The heroes get scaled down to dumber costumes. And Insect Man is traded for a guy who is there for comic effect. Hit Girl's big conflict is wanting to date and be a cheerleader.
Evil has a solid trajectory. Good doesn't.
Kick Ass 2 thinks the villains are a lot more entertaining than the heroes. But a movie where the villains are solidly developed and the heroine is off doing Mean Girls doesn't work. The movie straddles this disconnect by not going too dark. The Captain's dog lives. Katie doesn't get raped. Kids don't get shot. And that takes the energy Kick Ass had off the table.
Kick Ass went places you didn't expect. With Kick Ass 2 you know who's going to get eaten by the shark long before it happens.
Kick Ass 2's big mistake is that it gets too comfortable being a comedy that it doesn't think too much about the superhero stuff. It goes for easy laughs by building up the villains and lowering the stakes. It forgets that there already was a superhero comedy and this isn't it.
Kick Ass backed out of the some of the comic's darker moments, but it was smarter about what it replaced them with. Kick Ass 2 has nothing to replace them with.


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Gary Baker, who once during his driving days at more than 200 mph cracked the concrete at Talladega, says stock car racing has hit a similarly hard economic wall. And he's unsure when, if ever, it will recover from the jolt.
"I've been involved in this sport for 40 years as a driver, track owner, marketing official and team owner," says Baker, a Nashville attorney and co-owner of Baker Curb Racing. "It's worse than bad. It's brutal."
Baker lost long-term sponsor Kimberly Clark at the end of last season along with veteran driver Jason Keller. Last week he signed Greg Biffle to drive a partial schedule in the Nationwide Series starting next month at Daytona.
He and other Nationwide team owners are struggling to survive in NASCAR's second-tier series that is being smothered by Sprint Cup interlopers. Cup drivers win all the championships and most of the races. They drain off the prize money and leave Nationwide regulars scratching for crumbs and leftovers.
Biffle's car will be sponsored by Red Man Moist Snuff, hardly a Fortune 500 company. Baker's unsure how many races he can run with the limited financing — maybe 10 or 12 of the season's 34.
Meanwhile, NASCAR continues to twiddle its thumbs while the series collapses before its eyes.
"Anyone can see what the problems are," says Baker who for years has lobbied to limit Cup-driver entries in Nationwide races. "You bet it's frustrating."
The presence of Cup stars boosts Nationwide media coverage and TV ratings and helps sell tickets. But to what avail if it eventually kills the series? Teams like Baker's are hanging on by their fingernails, struggling to run part-time schedules with dwindling resources.
Baker has seen hard racing times in the past. He owned Fairgrounds Speedway during its glory years but saw the track's fate sealed when the city let its two Cup races get away in 1984.
He also has been involved in the ups and downs of sports marketing as he has tried to help son Brad get his fledgling racing career off the ground. And he knows that frustration and setbacks are part of the sport, but he's never seen a climate as grim as the current one.
So why does he press on, spending millions in hopes of finishing 10th on a good day?
"I've always been an optimist," Baker says. "I got it from my dad who taught me to look on the bright side of things. I don't see much sunshine right now but I'm not ready to give up. There's always tomorrow."
I have met Gary a few times. My daughters went to school with his kids, very nice guy. For him to complain about the number of cup drivers racing in Nationwide and then to hire one part time shows how hard it is to get sponsorship for a young lesser known driver . Sure it is not the same as a cup team entering their own popular and experienced driver with big time sponsors, but it still hinders a driver like his son, Brad, Chad Chaffin, or Casey Atwood from getting a ride.
I sure can't speak for him, but it seems Mr. Baker is aggravated more about the large, multi-car teams than he is upset with big-name drivers entering Nationwide races. Based on that assumption, he is exactly right. Every competitor values a "level playing field," and when the multimillion dollar teams use Nationwide as a test track it bullies opportunity from moderate-budget teams working their way up.
I became a fan for the first time in February of 1979 watching the Daytona 500. At that time it was one of the most spectacular sporting events that I had seen.
For years afterward I was a stalwart within the ranks of Nascar fans. I knew the number,the driver,the owner and the sponsor.
At some point and I think it started with the restrictor plates the sport began to look more like professional wrestling. (A lot of hype and glitter and not much substance)
I have not watched a race in it's entirety in 3 years. I always watch the last 40 or 50 laps of Daytona and Talladega.
It appears that the management does not acknowledge that NASCAR is ill or they are not sure about the cause or the cure. A good business person with no knowledge of racing could help considerably in helping the Nationwide tour.
First rule is fewer races and no driver from the Big races allowed. A nationwide tour is to be strictly the proving ground for the BIG CIRCUIT.
If it is imperative to do so,find a way to eliminate teams with more than two cars and
restrictor plates. Encourage in some manner racing from lap one throud the final lap whatever that is. Coasting until the last 40 laps should be discouraged.
They need the big name cup drivers in Nationwide to keep the TV ratings and fan attendance and the resulting sponsorship dollars; without them the struggling teams would have the same problems. There needs to be some limitations on their involvement to give the smaller teams a chance but at the same time make it worth their while to participate . . . a fine line.
NASCAR isn't too good in finding the right balance in their actions. The new wing being tested on the cup cars is a step backwards to make the COT more attractive to the fans and the races more competitive.
I would rather watch a good late model and truck race at the Nashville Fairgrounds than any Nascar race promoted these days. Even the street mods are a better show!


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BARCELONA, Spain, Mobile World Congress, Feb. 25, 2013 /CNW/ - In an address earlier today, Sony Mobile Communications ("Sony Mobile") reinforced its commitment to the premium smartphone and tablet segments. Kazuo Hirai, President and CEO of Sony Corporation, and Kunimasa Suzuki, President and CEO of Sony Mobile Communications and EVP, Corporate Executive Officer of Sony Corporation, restated the importance of mobile to Sony's overall strategy and declared Sony's intention to further enhance the premium mobile segment. Additionally, Sony Mobile announced that the highly anticipated Xperia Tablet Z will be available globally, and that its award-winning flagship smartphone, Xperia Z, is available now across 60 countries.
"In the past year we have worked hard to integrate mobile into the heart of the Sony business and placed all our Android smartphones and tablets under a single brand - 'Xperia'," said Kazuo Hirai, President and CEO of Sony Corporation. "It is a premium brand with a consistent user experience across every device and a great example of what we can achieve as 'One Sony'."
The introduction of the Xperia Z and the Xperia Tablet Z feature Sony's unique technology, content and applications that are ideally suited to fit it every aspect of people's lives - whether watching the latest movies on the web, capturing those special moments, listening to their favourite music or playing games on the go.
"2013 will be a breakthrough year for Sony in the mobile sector. We are delivering on our objective to combine the best of Sony for an outstanding user experience," said Kunimasa Suzuki, President and CEO of Sony Mobile Communications. "Sony Mobile's Xperia products and content applications are designed around what consumers want and this approach is inherent in Sony's DNA. We continue to set ourselves apart from the competition by creating products and services that only Sony can deliver."
Xperia Z has already received positive endorsement from a host of operators, and following strong support in the Japanese domestic market, it also looks set to follow suit globally with the widest operator ranging to date.
"Xperia Z and Xperia Tablet Z offer consumers a unified and consistent cross-device user experience with premium specifications and the best of Sony technology," said Kaoru Kato, President and Chief Executive Officer of NTT DOCOMO. "The response to Xperia Z from our customers since launch has been incredibly positive. We highly recommend this smartphone to our customers. We are delighted to learn that both products will be available globally allowing others to benefit from Sony's premium mobile entertainment experiences."
Sony is showcasing its latest premium Xperia Z smartphone, and its market variant Xperia ZL, and Xperia Tablet Z at Mobile World Congress. These products epitomise the technical expertise and innovation of the Sony brand culminating in the most advanced smartphone and tablet offerings and with the largest range of dedicated NFC-enabled products.
Xperia™ Z smartphone available now worldwide:
Xperia™ Tablet Z global availability from Spring:
Most ambitious marketing campaign to date: "Experience the best of Sony in a Smartphone": At today's Mobile World Congress, Sony Mobile unveiled its new integrated marketing campaign for its Xperia smartphones. The integrated campaign will be deployed in more than 20 markets across TV, print, digital, out of home and retail from March 2013.
The creative execution reminisces about Sony's much loved products and the campaign reflects the unique consumer experiences that only Sony can deliver. It looks back at iconic moments in history and fast forwards to the innovation that Sony delivers today. To view Sony Mobile's new television commercial, please visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pp7nDmb5K4&hd=1
Visit us at Mobile World Congress:
To experience Sony's range of products, content and experiences first-hand, visit the Sony stand 6D10 located in Hall 6 of the Gran Via at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
About Sony Mobile Communications
Sony Mobile Communications is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation, a leading global innovator of audio, video, game, communications, key device and information technology products for both the consumer and professional markets. With its music, pictures, computer entertainment and online businesses, Sony is uniquely positioned to be the leading electronics and entertainment company in the world. Through its Xperia™ smartphone portfolio, Sony Mobile Communications delivers the best of Sony technology, premium content and services, and easy connectivity to Sony's world of networked entertainment experiences. For more information: http://www.sonymobile.com
Sony "make.believe" is a trademark or registered trademarks of Sony Corporation. "Xperia" is a trademark of Sony Mobile Communications AB. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
SOURCE: Sony Mobile Communications
For further information:
For more information, images and videos please visit: http://www.sonymobile.com/press
Sony Mobile Communications, Global Communications & PR department
General Press: +44(0)208-762-5858
Sony Mobile Communications
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First off, a piece of personal news: today marks my last day at SHIFT Communications. It has been a great ride and I am leaving some friends, particularly a great team, behind, What's next? It is too early to tell tales, but my next move is sure to include explicit responsibilities relating to social media. I believe social media is only going to take more and more of our time, attention and resources- whether "we" toil in PR, marketing, advertising, or numerous other departments. In fact, that thinking leads me to the meat of this post; rather than talk about my own moves (though I will be sure to update here once I have decided on my next step), I thought I would take a gander at where public relations is and how I think it, and its related disciplines, are changing.
Isn't this a better idea than an "End of Year" list or "2010 Predictions" post? I
think so. Even if you don't, let me have it in comments.
I'll start by saying that I am making no declarations or writing a manifesto here- but stating my observations. If you think that's the same thing, cheers.
- Public Relations as Media Relations Mill is Coming to an End
Public relations agencies have actually made progress in scaling down the mass-spamming of media targets, at least in my experience (that's not the same as saying it's gone, of course). However, the reliance on media relations as the backbone of PR agency work seems to be getting its oxygen only from client demands to be in this or that publication. When clients deprive us of that oxygen, we will be freer (or forced) to pitch our talents in other areas: strategy, social media, content creation and other more creative, effective pursuits. I can say from experience that clients are already clamoring for more strategic counsel vs. more of the same ol' media relations. That's a great, early sign of what may come.
- PR Agencies Must Catch Up to Each Other in Social Media Know-How
Some agencies "got it" early, and I have been lucky enough to work for two–SHIFT Communications and Topaz Partners– over the last several years. Other agencies, including larger ones, have caught up (have they?). Is the next step that the early leaders dart out ahead on the Next Big Thing? Or do larger agencies scale up their social media services to the point where it's a standard discipline? I would love to see the former- and I think we are already seeing the latter (witness Edelman, no slouch in social media awareness anyway, and its recent hire of David Armano).
The opportunities to teach social media and create more awareness among clients, agency talent, and the industry at large is still there. If anything, the audience has increased and is hungrier.
- We Won't Figure Out Measurement, or Will We?
I am fond of saying that PR should own social media because we have had decades of practice in not being able to figure out measurement. Social media was made for us? Of course, we can figure out measurement- the only question is do we want to, and do we want to do it in a way that will show clear benefits to clients? I will continue to pay attention to the likes of Katie Paine to try and stay on top of this important, untamed aspect of the PR industry. I will definitely be working harder on measurement in 2010.
- "Personal Brand" Should be Recognized for What it Is: a Networking and Reputation Boon for Companies
Here in Boston, when I go to events, I am used to the fact that typically, very few PR agencies are represented at the events. Good old-fashioned face-to-face networking is a must– and the people that use social media to build up their own "brand" or whatever you want to call it would be foolish to squander that on online pursuits only. I'm not talking about traveling to conferences if you don't have the budget- but I can't say enough about the value of that- I am talking even more about what you can do without a big budget: impromptu "Tweet-ups" and other gatherings- especially to greet visitors from out-of-town; local industry events, whether they be for PR/Marketing groups or for clients' vertical industries.
The most visible agencies will win that battle in each city. In Boston, I would argue that mantle is up for grabs. Looking back to my earlier paragraph, many PR folks know more about PR than others know. Time to stop hiding that light under a bushel.
- Will PR, Marketing, Advertising and other Functions Merge?
That's a fascinating question. I watch to see if companies look at "full-service" agencies, or if social media becomes a set of tool fitting the needs of the separate disciplines (include customer service and even sales in that group), which remain distinct. I lean toward the latter. PR and advertising, in particular, want to hold on to their at times diametrically opposed views on earned vs. paid attention, and how social media serves that. I continue to be entertained and educated by the stories of PR efforts that strike a wrong chord- or even anger customers, as well as advertising efforts upended by creative that is too clever for its own good, at the expense of relevance and engagement.
Who will win? I don't think we need a winner.
On to 2010
Will I stay in PR? I think there is a lot of unfinished work I could attend to, whether at agencies or in-house. On the other hand, it is also an opportunity to redefine what I do- does it make sense to pursue positions that have more specific social media responsibilities? I think so- now is the time. What form that takes is a matter of time, people and opportunity- and there is a lot of that right now. 2010 is going to be a great and fascinating year.


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The Curtis Granderson deal is now officially completed. When you follow a team as closely as I have over the past 11 months, a trade of this magnitude makes your head spin.
The trade has really opened up a can of warms. There are so many questions that come with a trade like this – where is he going to bat? what happens to Melky? and Damon? – just to name a few.
I really should probably just wait and see if the Yankees make any more moves before I start to analyze the situation, but it's too hard to avoid. Like most people, I don't think the Yankees are done making moves yet this offseason. But if spring training started tomorrow, this is how the Yankees would stand.
The Yankees have Granderson, Melky Cabrera and Nick Swisher as outfielders in 2010. They have no clear DH yet, and with the re-signing of Andy Pettitte, that leaves Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes as the fourth and fifth starters. With the departure of Phil Coke, Mike Dunn seems like the likely candidate to replace the lefty.
This article is also featured on lenNY's Yankees.


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Glitchland: In the Future, the Digital Will Know How to Decay
Years ago I was at a gig. A tall African guy was on stage, about to begin his performance of traditional music. As he picked up the microphone, an abrasive snap of audio feedback shot through the speakers and caused one or two people in the crowd to flinch uncomfortably. As the glitch reverberated and a sound engineer ran around trying to fix it the African man said slowly, in a thick accent, "We like it! It is in the rhythm."
This was long before anyone had written essays about something called the "New Aesthetic" or was making music videos like this.
Today there is a fascination with manufacturing glitches, with imposing faults and quirks on otherwise clean and seamless media. Many have theorised that this is a reaction to the irrationally perfect landscape of the hyperreal; or a comment on the "binary" state of technology as we now know it - it either works or it doesn't.
That's the assertion made in this PBS video and, having owned an iPhone 4 which worked perfectly until the day it decided never to turn on again, I get the argument:
The presenter points out that some of the nostalgia associated with glitches may be connected to our memories of pre- and early digital media which was ostensibly more prone to error and failure. He calls the present proliferation of glitch art "a ballet of mistakes" and explains why, for us, broken has become beautiful.
There's a lot of weight behind those statements. We love this stuff. A friend of mine linked to a glitch art tool made by Georg Fischer which randomly imposes various degrees of glitch onto photographs uploaded by the user. There are other examples of this, such as Smack my Glitch Up and Glitchy3bitDither. Experimentation with glitching, without having to play around with code or complicated software, has clearly become popular.
I was mildly surprised, however, to see Fischer's tool featured as one of the top stories on The Verge a day or two after I'd heard about it. Here was one of the most popular tech-culture sites on the web massively foregrounding a simple, experimental tool that screws up digital photographs. Why? Aside from the neat technical accomplishments of Fischer's JavaScript program, it's probably because interactive glitch art tools say something about our relationship with this phenomenon. We're making glitches, not becoming unexpectedly, unwillingly subject to them.
Which, if you think about it, is sort of the opposite of what a glitch in the original sense really is. Designed and predefined errors are not at all the same as things not working in the first place. Consider the title of the book, Glitch: Designing Imperfection, for example. You might be able to fool someone with glitch art and raise questions about the reliability of different technologies and formats, but that's a very different experience from living with glitches - accepting stuff that doesn't work properly (even though we all know that experience).
Truly glitch-prone things are not really remembered fondly. Take this PC World top ten "worst PCs of all time". These were bad computers. You know, really bad. They were slow, poorly designed, they broke, they suffered from bugs and security flaws. Their quirks, such as power supplies which frequently failed or internal electronics that warped when the system warmed up, indicate the kind of catastrophic entropy to which their users were mercilessly subject.
Glitch art and glitches towards which we display an overwhelmingly positive response seem to occupy a sweet spot of failure which is not quite completely broken but which is vibrant and random enough to catch our attention. As long as nothing's actually faulty, glitches are, we have decided, pretty awesome.
I thought about this for a while. I also thought about my previous argument that glitches represented the "edge space" which allowed cyberspace to possess Otherness, like a realm out of which unexpected surprises and strange materials might still tumble. I maintain that that's true, but I started to imagine a slightly alternate version of our world. I wondered what it would be like if digital stuff were prone to decay instead of glitches.
Any piece of paper is biodegradable. You can stall its decomposition for a long, long time under controlled conditions, but that piece of paper is constantly obedient to certain physical laws which give it a kind of life expectancy. Although it is a myth that digital artefacts do not degrade, they don't seem to do so in the same way. A file may get corrupted. It may fail to load, or we might lose the technology required to read it. But we don't know that will happen - digital materiality seems pregnant with a much greater degree of uncertainty. It seems both more stable and less reliable at the same time.
"Imagine if you took a digital photograph today knowing that it will look faded ten years from now"
I think that paradox lies behind a lot of the fascination with glitches, but imagine if things were different. Imagine if you took a digital photograph today knowing that it will look faded ten years from now. Maybe you don't know how much, exactly, but you knew that it would lose some of its vibrancy because, well, nothing lasts forever. And maybe it would lose more of its vibrancy if it were displayed in lots of places, or if lots of computers accessed it. How would that make you feel about the digital object, the photograph that you took?
Would the notion of that inevitable decay narrow the dichotomy of physical and digital things? Would our relationship with online media be more like our relationship with physical media (online text versus printed text) if more attributes of the physical were (arbitrarily) mirrored?
I look at the floorboards in my room. They are decades old, varnished but chipped in places, scratched, and marked with the indentations of many previous inhabitants. Physical things readily receive the mark of human presence, but websites look the same no matter how many people have opened and closed them, scrolled madly through their text or double-clicked on embedded links.
Glitches are not decay, they are faults in process. Decay remains largely an out-of-place concept in the context of digital media.
This is because the kind of transience which exists for digital media, for code and electronics, is not relevant to our natural understanding of decay. Digital media is entropic and its life is non-linear, therefore it's difficult for us to relate to because we know that our organic bodies are subject to very different laws. We might use technical metaphors to describe ourselves, maybe even calling a bodily defect as a "glitch", but that is simply an indication of how metaphor constantly emphasises contradictions.
We currently occupy a period in which the explicit differences between physical and digital materiality are prized by our culture. We adore the contrast between print and online being so stark. We don't even have to explain it. That they should have separate, distinct, mutually reinforcing values is something that we instinctively know.
The potential for digital artefacts to upturn our expectation that they will be around forever is something that has already been mused upon by researchers. Whether it's temporary social media or the possible failures of digital records and archives, we are already aware of a dichotomy between physical decay and digital non-permanence.
Recently Reuters listed several apps which aim to challenge the idea that digital media is eternal. Yet none of this is an embrace of the true glitch. Again, we are talking about designing experiences which circumvent the established norms of this technology in order to satisfy specific use cases.
"Glitch art is just the beginning of ... a world in which the permanence of the digital is no longer assumed"
And that's the power that we have with digital media. We can design obsolescence if we wish, we may pre-program decay when we want - but until recently there was no reason to. As time goes on, however, we will come up with more excuses to do precisely that. Glitch art is just the beginning of our culture leaning towards a world in which the permanence of the digital is no longer assumed. The mangled JPEGs and ruptured codecs which frustrated us in the past and which inspire artists of the present will be demanded by consumers of the future.
And we'll get to choose when and why our artefacts collapse or exhibit defects. We'll expect it - and not just for aesthetic purposes. It will also be for reasons of privacy, as a social tool, and as a way of defining value.
Just wait and see. A new universe of determinable digital decay is on the horizon.
We like it. It is in the rhythm.
Photo: "Glitch service" by Henry Faber. Reproduced under a Creative Commons (CC) License.
Photo: "Glitch Baby" by Ignotus the Mage. Reproduced under a Creative Commons (CC) License.
- How We Started Calling Visual Metaphors Skeuomorphs and Why the Debate over Apples Interface Design is a Mess
- "The Wheel of the Devil": On Vine, gifs and the power of the loop
- Terrified Together: The Online Cult of Slender Man
- Facebook, the Projected Self and Narcissism
- The Promise of Technology
- The Quality of Offline and Online Friendships
- The Machine Stops: Forster's Dystopia
The Machine Starts is all over Twitter! Click here to check out a flurry of observations on digital culture and links to the latest and most interesting tech news from around the web.Follow @machinestarts
The Interface and Hyperreality
Interfaces express not that a journey has been eliminated, but that a new one may be created.
Predicting a Riot: What Violence Means for "Society"
Networking, in many senses, gives rise to a new perspective on the London Riots of 2011.
Could you quit the internet?
Does abstinence from the web ever last? Is it even a good idea?
The Computer Virus: Our Cultural Contagion
Computer viruses are not just computer viruses. They spread in pathological as well as technological ways.


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Used Cars – Buy Repossessed Used Cars Online
Used Cars:
Repossessed Used Cars have become the choice for many people today simply because used cars are cheaper and there is always a wide selection to choose from. Have you ever known a guy who suddenly becomes the owner of a fancy sports car even though you know that he couldn't possibly afford such an expensive car? Well obviously, something fishy is going on here. How could he possibly have a better car than you and how can you get your hands on such an awesome ride?
In truth, that guy probably didn't win the lottery nor did he sell his soul to the devil for a new car. Ask him where he got his car and he'll probably say that he got it at a government auto auction. There are lots of tales going around about government auto auctions. You might have heard about people getting outrageous deals for Ferrari's, or some other similar story, but how much of this is true?
Read more articles Buy Cars – Where To Buy Used Cars Online Car Auction – Three Killer Steps To Get The Finest Deals Of Repossessed Cars Cars For Sale – Government Car Auction – Japan Used Cars On Sale Cars for Sale:used cars junction
Repossessed Used Cars:
Vehicles can end up in an auction from a variety of ways. They can be the vehicles that once belonged to criminals or were used on some sort of illegal act. This means that you can be the new owner of a genuine getaway truck! Imagine finding your dream car in this way.
Repossessed Used Cars For Sale:
Auto auctions are conducted regularly and in most areas. Check your local newspaper or the internet for information and lists of upcoming auctions. But there's no need to go through all the trouble because here is an internet link that will lead you to one of the top best selling repossessed cars site online where every transaction is legal and also available is a massive selection of all sorts of repossessed used cars for you to choose from. Click here to join.


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If you signed up at a hotel or by phone, activate your SPG account.
Located on the 2nd floor, our vibrant and exciting kids' room features a colorful, fun slide and toys. Please note that the room is not staffed; parents must be present to supervise children. Contact the Front Desk to obtain a key card for the room.


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- Keywords > compulsory licences
- Keywords > intellectual property laws
- Keywords > intellectual property protection (IPP)
- Keywords > parallel importation
- Keywords > patentability criteria - policy options
- Keywords > patents
- Keywords > pharmaceutical legislation
- Keywords > public health
- Keywords > Trade Related Aspects of the Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
- Keywords > TRIPS flexibilities
(2000; 140 pages) [French] [Spanish]
VII.2.1 Options - Early Working
The "early working" exception, as noted above, may in some cases be considered as part of the experimental use exception. However, given the importance of this issue, and the uncertainty surrounding judicial interpretation, it seems advisable to include a specific provision on the matter. It may include the following:
Early Working
The patent shall have no effect with respect to any acts, including testing, using, making or selling the invention, solely for purposes reasonably related to the development and submission of information required under any law of ... (country) or of another country that regulates the manufacture, construction, use or sale of any product.
The proposed wording includes, among the possible non-infringing acts, the limited manufacturing of the patented product in order to undertake the tests required by the health authorities. This option would not allow for production and stockpiling before the expiration of the patent.


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Atlas Muscle Cars is proud to offer for sale this beautiful Black 1968 Camaro with white Z28 stripes, body is super solid and straight. Paint is brand new base coat clear coat paint that has been wet sanded and buffed to a show car finish. Interior is really nice and new, gauges, switches and heater control are older and still look good. Engine has a few miles on it and is a great running small block, transmission also has miles on it and shifts perfectly. Front suspension is very tight and new feeling. Wheels are 20" and 18" American Racing Rev Classic Charcoals with 265/35ZR-20s on the rear and 235/40ZR-18 on the front. This car runs and drives great. $25,900.00
Car is equipped with the following options:
350 small block V8 engine
Turbo 350 3 speed automatic transmission
10 bolt rear end with taller highway gearing
power steering
power drum brakes


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Since the last round of nominations had such low turnout, we're running with the runner up of the last vote instead... so please nominate more post games.
Rules are pretty simple, make a post according to the following template:
^ The AF banner.Code:^ something about the previous poster < something about yourself v something about the next poster
< Has started a new post game.
v Will be the first poster who can really say something about the previous poster.


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Scripting tips
In this section, we will look at a few extra tips that can be handy when you create scripts for Vim. Some are simple code pieces you can add directly in your script, while others are good-to-know tips.
Gvim or Vim?
Some scripts have extra features when used in the GUI version of Vim (Gvim). This could be adding menus, toolbars, or other things that only work if you are using Gvim. So what do you do to check if the user runs the script in a console Vim or in Gvim? Vim has already prepared the information for you. You simply have to check if the feature gui_running is enabled. To do so, you use a function called has(), which returns 1 (true) if a given feature is supported / enabled and 0 (false), otherwise.
An example could be:
if has("gui_running")
"execute gui-only commands here.
This is all you need to do to check if a user has used Gvim or not. Note that it is not enough to check if the feature "gui" exists, because this will return true if your Vim is just compiled with GUI support—even if it is not using it.
Look in :help 'feature-list' for a complete list of other features you can check with the has() function.
Which operating system?
If you have tried to work with multiple operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Linux, you will surely know that there are many differences.
This can be everything from where programs are placed, to which programs you have available and how access to files is restricted.
Sometimes, this can also have an influence on how you construct your Vim script as you might have to call external programs, or use other functionality, specific for a certain operating system.
Vim lets you check which operation system you are on, such that you can stop executing your script or make decisions about how to configure your script. This is done with the following piece of code:
if has("win16") || has("win32") || has("win64")|| has("win95")
" do windows things here
elseif has("unix")
" do linux/unix things here
This example only shows how to check for Windows (all flavors available) and Linux / Unix. As Vim is available on a wide variety of platforms, you can of course also check for these. All of the operating systems can be found in:
:help 'feature-list'
Which version of Vim?
Throughout the last decade or two, Vim has developed and been extended with a large list of functions. Sometimes, you want to use the newest functions in your script, as these are the best / easiest to use. But what about the users who have a version of Vim that is older than the one you use, and hence don't have access to the functions you use?
You have three options:
- Don't care and let it be the user's own problem (not a good option).
- Check if the user uses an old version of Vim, and then stop executing the script if this is the case.
- Check if the user has too old a version of Vim, and then use alternative code.
The first option is really not one I would recommend anyone to use, so please don't use it.
The second option is acceptable, if you can't work around the problem in the old version of Vim. However, if it is possible to make an alternative solution for the older version of Vim, then this will be the most preferable option.
So let's look at how you can check the version of Vim.
Before we look at how to check the version, we have to take a look at how the version number is built.
The number consists of three parts:
- Major number (for example, 7 for Vim version 7)
- Minor number (for example, 3 for Vim version 6.3)
- Patch number (for example, 123 for Vim 7.0.123)
The first two numbers are the actual version number, but when minor features / patches are applied to a version of Vim, it is mostly only the patch number that is increased. It takes quite a bit of change to get the minor number to increase, and a major part of Vim should change in order to increase the major version number.
Therefore, when you want to check which version of Vim the user is using, you do it for two versions—major and minor versions and patch number. The code for this could look like:
if v:version >= 702 || v:version == 701 && has("patch123")
" code here is only done for version 7.1 with patch 123
" and version 7.2 and above
The first part of the if condition checks if our version of Vim is version 7.2 (notice that the minor version number is padded with 0 if less than 10) or above. If this is not the case, then it checks to see if we have a version 7.1 with patch 123. If patch version 124 or above is included, then you also have patch 123 automatically.
Printing longer lines
Vim was originally created for old text terminals where the length of lines was limited to a certain number of characters. Today, this old limitation shows up once in a while.
One place where you meet this limitation of line length is when printing longer lines to the screen using the "echo" statement. Even though you use Vim in a window where there are more than the traditional 80 characters per line, Vim will still prompt you to press Enter after echoing lines longer than 80 characters. There is, however, a way to get around this, and make it possible to use the entire window width to echo on. Window width means the total number of columns in the Vim window minus a single character. So if your Vim window is wide enough to have 120 characters on each line, then the window width is 120-1 characters.
By adding the following function to your script, you will be able to echo screen-wide long lines in Vim:
" WideMsg() prints [long] message up to (&columns-1) length
function! WideMsg(msg)
let x=&ruler | let y=&showcmd
set noruler noshowcmd
echo a:msg
let &ruler=x | let &showcmd=y
This function was originally proposed by the Vim script developer Yakov Lerner on the Vim online community site at http://www.vim.org.
Now whenever you need to echo a long line of text in your script, instead of using the echo statement you simply use the function Widemsg(). An example could be:
:call WideMsg("This should be a very long line of text")
The length of a single line message is still limited, but now it is limited to the width of the Vim window instead of the traditional 80-1 characters.
Debugging Vim scripts
Sometimes things in your scripts do not work exactly as you expect them to. In these cases, it is always good to know how to debug your script.
In this section, we will look at some of the methods you can use to find your error.
Well-structured code often has fewer bugs and is also easier to debug.
In Vim, there is a special mode to perform script debugging. Depending on what you want to debug, there are some different ways to start this mode. So let's look at some different cases.
If Vim just throws some errors (by printing them at the bottom of the Vim window), but you are not really sure where it is or why it happens, then you might want to try to start Vim directly in debugging mode. This is done on the command line by invoking Vim with the -Dargument.
vim -D somefile.txt
The debugging mode is started when Vim starts to read the first vimrc file it loads (in most cases the global vimrc file where Vim is installed). We will look at what to do when you get into debug mode in a moment.
Another case where you might want to get into debug mode is when you already know which function the error (most likely) is in, and hence, just want to debug that function. In that case you just open Vim as normal (load the script with the particular function if needed) and then use the following command:
:debug call Myfunction()
Here everything after the :debug is the functionality you want to debug. In this case, it is a simple call of the function Myfunction(), but it could just as well be any of the following:
:debug read somefile.txt
:debug nmap ,a :call Myfunction() <CR>
:debug help :debug
So let's look at what to do when we get into the debugging mode.
When reaching the first line that it should debug, Vim breaks the loading and shows something like:
Entering Debug mode. Type "cont" to continue.
cmd: call MyFunction()
Now you are in the Vim script debugger and have some choices for what to make Vim do.
If you are not familiar with debugging techniques, it might be a good idea to read up on this subject before starting to debug your scripts.
The following commands are available in the debugger (shortcuts are in parentheses):
- cont (c): Continue running the scripts / commands as normal (no debugging) until the next breakpoint (more about this later).
- quit (q): Quit the debugging process without executing the last lines.
- interrupt (i): Stop the current process like quit, but go back to the debugger.
- step (s): Execute the next line of code and come back to the debugger when it is finished. If a line calls a function or sources a file, then it will step into the function / file.
- next (n): Execute the next command and come back to the debugger when it is finished. If used on a line with a function call, it does not go into the function but steps over it.
- finish (f): Continue executing the script without stopping on breakpoints. Go into debug mode when done.
So now you simply execute the different commands to go through the lines of the script / function to see how it jumps through the if conditions, and so on. If you want to execute the same command multiple times, you simply press Enter without feeding a new command.
You can at any point execute another Ex command if needed (see :help 'excommand-index'), but note that you don't have direct access to the variables, among others, in the debugger, unless they are global.
Sometimes, the place you want to get to is many lines into the code, and you really don't want to step all the way through the code until you get to that place.
In that case, you can insert a breakpoint at the exact line where you want to start the real debugging, and then just execute a cont as the first command. A breakpoint is inserted by one of the following commands, depending on how you want it inserted:
breakadd func linenum functionname
breakadd file linenum filename
breakadd here
The first example sets a breakpoint on a particular function. The functionname can be a pattern such as Myfunction* if you, for instance, want to break on any function with a name that begins with Myfunction.
Sometimes, however, it is not in a function that the problem resides, but rather around a specific line in a file. If this is the case, then you should use the second command, where you give it a line number and a filename pattern as arguments to tell it where to break.
The final command is used if you have already stepped to the right place in the file but want to be able to break on it the next time you go through the code in the debugger. This command simply sets a breakpoint on the current line, in the current file, where you currently are in the debugger.
You can at any point of time get a list of breakpoints with the following command:
If a breakpoint is no longer needed, you have to delete it. As when adding breakpoints, there are a few different ways to delete them also.
The simplest way to do it is by simply finding the number of the breakpoint in the list of breakpoints, and then using the following command:
:breakdel number
Alternatively, you can delete the breakpoints the same way as you added them—except that you now use breakdel instead of breakadd:
:breakdel func linenum functionname
:breakdel file linenum file
breakdel here
If you want to remove all breakpoints, you can do it in one step by using this command:
:breakdel *
You can add a breakpoint directly on the command line when going into debug mode. Simply use the -c argument as follows:
vim -D -c 'breakadd file 15 */.vimrc' somefile.txt
Distributing Vim scripts
Now that your script is ready, it is time for you to distribute the script (if you have chosen to do so). The online Vim community has become the de facto place to publish scripts for others to find. Because of this, I urge you to do the same. But before you get to this, there are a couple of things you have to get ready.
First of all, you need to figure out whether your script needs to be packed into a compressed file such as a ZIP file, or if it should just be distributed as a single .vim file. The main reason for choosing the first option is that your script consists of multiple files (such as main script, file type plugin, syntax file, documentation, and so on).
How to create ZIP files (or related file types) is beyond what this article will look at, but here are a couple of pointers on how I make my ZIP files "install ready":
- Create the ZIP file including the folders where the files are placed relative to your VIMHOME. For example, consider that you have:
Then the ZIP file should contain the three folders: plugin, syntax, and doc with one file in each. This makes the installation easy, as you simply have to go into your VIMHOME and then unpack the ZIP file.
- Always include a help file for your script. This file should be installed in VIMHOME/doc/ and contain descriptions of what the script does, which settings it has, and how to use it.
Even though you only have one script file, it can still be a good idea to put it in a ZIP file together with a help file. This makes it easier for you to remember to add documentation. We will look more at how to create Vim documentation in the next section.
Making Vimballs
Another, maybe even more interesting, alternative is to make a Vimball. We have previously looked at how to use Vimballs to install scripts, so it could now be interesting to look a bit at how to create one.
The command to create a Vimball is constructed as:
:[range]MkVimball filename.vba
This sure seems simple, right? And it really is. There is, however, a bit of preparation you need to do before calling this function.
The first thing you have to do is to open a new empty buffer in Vim with:
Now you add the paths to all the files (one on each line) relative to your VIMHOME. Considering the previous ZIP file example, it could look like:
When this is done you are actually ready to execute the command across the range of lines. Place the cursor on the first line in the buffer, go into normal mode, and use the keys Shift+v to select all the lines with paths on. Now all you have to do is execute the command:
:MkVimball myscript.vba
Vim will automatically add the range of the lines you have selected in front of the command. The filename myscript.vba can be any name, but if the file already exists, then a warning is given, but no file is written.
If you really want to overwrite an existing file, then just add an ! after the MkVimball command to tell Vim that you mean it. There is no more to it. You now have a Vimball file called myscript.vba, which can be installed as described earlier in this chapter.
Remember that you need to install the Vimball script in order to use the Vimball functions we have described at. The latest version of the Vimball script can always be found here: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1502.
Using external interpreters
Even though you can do nearly everything with Vim scripts, there are, however, some things that might be smarter or faster to do in other languages. The developers of Vim have recognized this need, and therefore implemented the possibility to interface with other scripting languages from within Vim. There are in particular three languages that you have access to:
- Perl
- Python
- Ruby
In the following sections, will we take a peek at how to interface with these scripting languages and which variables you have access to.
The support for these language interfaces is not included in Vim by default, and you will have to either compile Vim yourself to get it, or find a precompiled version that supports them.
To check if your version supports one of the languages, you simply run Vim on the command line with -version argument:
vim –version
Then, you look through the list of features to see if it has one of the following in the list:
It needs to say + in front of the language name to show that it is included. If it instead says, for example, -perl, then Perl support is not included.
Alternatively, you can just open up Vim and then test for the features with the has() function.
:echo has("perl")
:echo has("python")
:echo has("ruby")
It should return 1 for the languages you have support for.
Vim scripting in Perl
Perl is a very popular scripting language that has been around for quite some time now. It is very powerful when it comes to parsing text and other similar tasks. This also makes it very useful from within Vim.
The simplest way to use Perl in Vim is with the following command:
:perl command
This executes the Perl command in the argument command. Note that the values you set with the Perl command will persist throughout the entire Vim editing session.
Often you would, however, like to execute more than just a single command and hence you have to use another command.
In that case you can use:
:perl << endpattern
perl code here
This executes all the Perl code between the endpattern at the beginning and at the end.
In Perl, Python, or Ruby, you can use anything for your endpattern, but the last one needs to be the only word on that particular line, and should be at the beginning of the line. If you leave out the first endpattern, then Vim defaults to use a single dot as endpattern.
An example that just prints a single line of text to Vim could be:
:perl << EOF
VIM::Msg("this is a text");
Note how EOF is used as endpattern, and that in the Perl code I used a function called VIM::Msg() to print a message into Vim. This is just one among many functions you can use to interface between Vim and Perl. Other examples of Vim functions you can use from Perl are:
- VIM::buffers(): Return a list of all buffers open in Vim.
- VIM::SetOption("option"): Set a Vim option from Perl.
- $curbuf->Name(): Returns the name of the current buffer.
- $curbuf->Set(100, "fooo"): Replace line 100 in current buffer with new text.
- $curwin->SetCursor(15,8): Set cursor at line 15, column 8 in current window.
You can find a full list of the Vim-specific functions you can use from within Perl by looking in the help system with:
:help perl-pverview
If you put Perl code in your script, you should always remember to check if the user has support for Perl in his or her version of Vim.
It is always a good idea to have your Perl code wrapped in Vim functions in your script. This way it is easy to implement your script, and for an inexperienced user, the script will look normal and work as usual. An example of how to wrap Perl in a function could be:
function MoveCursor(row,col)
if has("perl")
perl << EOF
($oldrow,$oldcol) = $curwin->Cursor();
VIM::Msg("Old position was: ($oldrow,$oldcol)");
echo "perl not available. canceling function call"
This function gets the old position of the cursor in the current window, prints that position, and then moves the cursor to the position that matches the two arguments for the function (row and column).
If the user does not have Perl support, then a message about this will be written. Note how the EOF is placed entirely to the left, even though the rest of the code is indented. This is strictly needed in order for Vim to be able to recognize it as the endpattern.
Vim scripting in Python
Through the recent years, Python has become the favorite scripting language for many programmers. This is mainly for its ease of use and strict rules about indenting (which lead to more readable code).
As with Perl, there is also an interface for Python in Vim, such that you can break out of Vim and use Python in your script. There are three main ways to use Python:
- When you only want to execute a single Python statement from Vim: :python statement. An example could be:
:python print "hello Vim developer"
- If you want to execute a larger amount of Python code at the same time, you can use the following from Vim:
:python << endpattern
python statements here
his executes all the Python code between the endpatterns.
- The third option for using Python from within Vim is by executing an entire Python script file. This is done with the following command from Vim:
:pyfile file.py
Replace file.py with the name of the script you want to execute.
Sometimes your Python script expects to get some command-line arguments. It is, however, not possible to pass these in the pyfile command.
There is, however, a workaround where you set the arguments in sys.argv before executing the Python script file. An example could be:
:python import sys
:python sys.argv = ["argument1", "argument2"]
:pyfile myscript.py
To make it easier to interface between Python and Vim, there is a Python module available called vim. This module gives access to some extra functionality in Vim. Here is an example of usage in a Python script:
import vim
window = vim.current.window
window.height =200
window.width = 10
window.cursor = (1,1)
You can find a complete list of available functions in the help system in:
:help 'python-vim'
It is always a good idea to wrap your Python code into Vim functions if you use it in a Vim script.
Vim scripting in Ruby
For many programmers in the western world, Ruby has been an unknown language until just recently. It has, however, been quite a popular programming language in Asia for some time, and after its introduction as a scripting language for web development it has become quite popular in the rest of the world. A real strength of Ruby is said to be the fact that it is truly object oriented, which makes the language very modular.
Vim has a nice interface for Ruby, such that you can use it from within Vim. This can be done in several different ways. The simplest way to execute single Ruby commands in Vim is with the following: :ruby command.
Replace command with any single-line Ruby command. An example could be:
:ruby print "Hello from Ruby"
You might, however, want to execute several lines of Ruby in a sequence. This can be done with the following Vim command:
:ruby << endpattern
ruby commands here
This executes all the Ruby code between the endpatterns. If you set any variables or create any objects in the code, then these will be stored for later use in Vim.
Here is an example of what this could look like:
:ruby << EOF
window = VIM::Window.current
window.height = 250
window.width = 35
window.cursor = (10,10)
If your Ruby code is in a file, then you can even load this file directly in Vim and execute it. This is done with the following command:
:rubyfile file.rb
This is basically an alternative to using:
:ruby load 'file.rb'
Again all objects, among others, that you create in the script are stored in Vim for later usage, unless you remove them in the script.
This article has been an article especially for those who wanted to learn how to create complete scripts for Vim.
We learned a couple of tips about how to make your script check for all sorts of things such as the operating system and the version of Vim.
An introduction to using external scripting languages was also covered.
If you have read this article you may be interested to view :


text:
Here's a perfect example of the adage, great things come in small packages. This is the entrance to InTown Luxury House in Rome, a guest house hotel which Roomie & I stayed at on our last night in Italy.
Although the entrance is a little underwhelming, Intown's proximity to Via Condotti, the Spanish Steps, and all the major designer stores is the perfect reason why you should never underestimate the power of a small package. Hello, Marni. About 20 steps from the entrance is Chloe, Hermes and all the big names. Perfect for shopaholics who don't want to lug around all those shopping bags around town. The proximity of the hotel makes it perfect for random drop-offs mid-shopping.
The elevator is actually so small that we preferred to just climb up the stairs to get to the Lobby. It was more like a luggage lift. Not a problem, we are young and agile women.
The lobby is nothing great, with a couple of chairs. More of a seating area, it faces the small counter which serves as the front desk. I was happy because the Front Desk Officer on duty was Richard, who happened to be Filipino. Again, I didn't need a lavish lobby, I needed a comfortable room, and wifi, both of which were provided.
As we were about to check-in, I was informed that we were given an upgrade to a Junior Suite. Grazie mille!
The interiors is a mix of classical Italian design with early 20th century chic, modern comfort and hints of romantic, Art Deco, Japanese influences, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema paintings and lots of wood, from Zebrano to Wengue.
"Each habitation comes fully equipped with air conditioning, LCD television including Sky satellite television channels, free high speed internet connection, sound proof walls, heating, high-secure safe, minibar and direct line telephone. The accommodation also includes free in-room internet connection."
The bedroom was decorated in the contemporary manner, with a flat screen TV in the bedroom as well as the living room.
The bathroom hallway was a bit odd, as there was a glass wall which exposed the luggage room. Chants & I had to make sure to close the door, or stay fully clothed, whenever we went to the bathroom.
The bathroom was spacious and perfect for two ladies with lots of toiletries.
Instead of a shower, a bathtub complete with jacuzzi jets was present, making me realize that this suite is probably more for couples canoodling than roommates who don't really take couples showers.
We were happy that our final hotel was spacious and had comfortable beddings. The duvet was TDF.
And after a holiday of shopping, luggage accumulation and walking around town, it was a nice reprieve for us roomies to relax with our own personal space without feeling like our elbows touch every time. I picked the bedroom while Chants took to the living room. The sofa reminds me that a group of friends could stay in the suite, not just two people.In the morning, breakfast was set up in a small room with a couple of chairs. I love how, no matter how small the hotel may be, it still provides proper breakfast for its guests. Very important for travelers and nomads such as myself.
Similar to the breakfast we had at Rome Boutique Hotel which was served in our room, the breakfast buffet at InTown Luxury House had the addition of Prosciutto Crudo (uncooked) and Cotto (cooked), as well as some cheese.
Alongside fresh juices and pastries, the breakfast spread included muesli, coffee and tea, which you are free to help yourself with. Just my type of breakfast, just my type of hotel. Who needs a big lobby when you get all the luxuries of a full-fledged hotel in a pretty little package right next to the best location in Rome?
Via Bocca di Leone 7, Rome 00187
P.Iva : 00917581001
+39 06 69380200
Fax : +39 06 9200077


text:
Together we've created Crisp Studios a small photography and graphic design studio in the San Francisco Bay Area. We offer crisp, modern and fresh photography for weddings, babies, families and graphic design services to follow those important milestone events. Our work stems from our passion to capture those events that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
I am Mac. I am a techie, am into gadgets, I love hand crafted beers, playing with my kids, and have a extreme passion for photography…my kids are my number one clients.
I am Jo. I am a designer, I collect vintage sign letters, I like to make things…all kinds of things…check out my Etsy site. I also love being a mom and have an eye for all things graphic and artsy.
We're originally from Honolulu, Hawaii and moved to the Bay Area 14 years ago. We've built a life, built a family and now we're building a business with what we love to do. We're also proud parents of a 2 and 4 year old, they are our inspiration. Our life is happy and chaotic and we would not have it any other way. We love what we do and our works shows it…
Contact us now for your photography + graphic design + photo booth fun needs.
mac + jo
stay crispy.


text:
The yen fell against the dollar and euro on Friday after rising Asian and European equities calmed markets, prompting investors to edge back into relatively risky carry trades.
The yen fell in tandem with a rally in Asian shares and European shares were also in positive territory as investors took comfort from a financial package mooted by US President George W. Bush aimed at cushioning the economy from a downturn. In carry trades, market players use low-yielding currencies such as the yen to finance purchases of assets offering higher returns. Those trades are more attractive when stock markets rise, supporting investor risk appetite.
"There was a dollar bounce from the Bush stimulus package, Asian equities rallied and in the near term this should help the dollar," said Colin Asher, currency strategist at Nomura.
However he noted the longer-term outlook for the US economy remains bleak.
"The flip side of this is that the run up in data has been shocking, I can't remember the last time the data has been this bad and the continued problems in banks mean that in the medium term the US economy will continue to struggle."
The dollar rose 0.6% to 107.48 yen. The euro was up 0.4% against the yen at 157.41 yen.
The euro was steady on the day at $1.4649 by 1152 GMT, well off its all-time high just below $1.50 set in November as expectations increased that the European Central Bank may cut rates this year.
"The market is definitely nervous about any risk of the ECB signaling that rates have peaked and that's keeping us in relatively tight ranges," said Adam Cole, global head of currency strategy at RBC Capital Markets.
Helping lift some of the gloom surrounding the US economy, Bush's plan is to introduce tax rebates for families and breaks for businesses that could cost up to $150 billion.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in testimony before the House of Representatives' Budget Committee on Thursday, also backed the idea that the struggling economy needed rescue.
Bernanke had reiterated a bleak assessment of the US economy that he gave last week, which investors saw as a signal that the US central bank was willing to cut the benchmark federal funds rate aggressively from the current 4.25% this month.
Interest rate futures have already fully priced in a half-percentage point cut from the Fed at its regular policy meeting on Jan. 29-30, and saw a 50-50 chance of an even broader 75 basis point cut.
Markets also turned more bearish on the UK economy as weak retail data figures prompted investors to price in a higher probability of imminent rate cuts and sell the pound.
"More people are now starting to price in the possibility of a 50 basis point cut at the February MPC meeting," said Asher at Nomura, adding that he did not think this was likely. (Reuters)


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September 10, 2013 Posted by Foundation News in The Ted Simon Foundation
The World As It Really Is
"The media have to decide: do they see their role as being to inflame or to inform?"Speaking at a TEDx conference in London earlier this year, Lord David Puttnam talked about the media's role in democracy and society's collective duty of care. The context of his speech was political citizenship, and some of the references are specific to the political landscape of Britain, but his overall theme, which he expresses most eloquently, echoes the principles and purpose of the Foundation. Set aside ten minutes and listen to the end of this thought-provoking talk.
"...honesty, accuracy and impartiality are fundamental to the process of building and embedding an informed and participatory democracy," Lord Puttnam points out. "It has to be possible to balance freedom of expression with wider moral and social responsibilities."
"...film-makers, journalists and even bloggers... [have] ...a collective responsibility... to deal with the world as it really is."
Commenting on the influence of the media on society and its ability to resolve complex issues in a rational way, he said, "...if the facts themselves are distorted, the resolutions are only likely to create further conflict..." adding that we need, "...accurate, unprejudiced information, with which to make our own judgements."