text:
Even before its incorporation 53 years ago, Lighthouse Point has attracted good folks and Good Fellas. Cap's Place epitomizes that legacy, from its speakeasy and casino beginnings during Prohibition to what it is today, 81-years later -- a romantic and rustic waterfront restaurant.
Owned by siblings Talle, Ted and City Commissioner Tom Hasis, Cap's boasts a visitor list that includes Meyer Lansky, Al Capone; actors Jim Belushi and George Wendt; Beatle George Harrison; singer Mariah Carey and celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey.
Bill Clinton has chosen from the mostly seafood menu several times, from when he governed Arkansas until 18 months ago, and Franklin D. Roosevelt once dined there with Winston Churchill.
In 1990, Cap's was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
A unique aspect of the place is that it has parking only for disabled customers. Most patrons must park at the restaurant's dock and take its shuttle boat across Lake Placid.
Lighthouse Point resident Moira Elliott Day courted a favorite boyfriend at the unique spot where old photos and mementos hang on its wooden walls.
"On one of our first dates, Alan said, 'We have to move here,' " Elliott-Day said.
Cap's must have worked its magic: the couple married and moved to the city from Sunrise five years ago.
Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report. Linda Trischitta can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com or 954-356-4233.


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The Central Connecticut women's lacrosse team hosts the Bison of Howard University at Arute Field in New Britain, CT. Today's contest is the fifth all-time meeting between the Bison and Blue Devils on the lacrosse field with the Blue Devils holding a 3-1 record in the series. CCSU also has a perfect 2-0 record against Howard at Arute Field.
• This is the third of three-straight home games for the Blue Devils and the final non-conference game of the season for CCSU.
• Following today's game the Blue Devils will open Northeast Conference play on Friday, April 4 at Mount St. Mary's. CCSU will also visit Wagner on Sunday, April 6 before returning home for four straight contests. The Blue Devils will host Saint Francis U, Robert Morris, Bryant and Sacred Heart at home over a three week period. The regular season will wrap-up with a trip to LIU Brooklyn on April 27 and the NEC Tournament will begin on May 2 at the site of the regular season champion.
• Senior Amanda Toke currently leads the Blue Devils in points (24), goals (18), assists (6) and draw controls (30). Sophomore Madison Hughes has a team-high 22 ground balls and 13 caused turnovers. While sophomore Falynn McCartney is second on the squad in points (16), goals (13) and draw controls (29).
• Freshman Marissa Soto was selected as the NEC Rookie of the Week on Monday, March 17. Soto registered her first career goal and assist over a pair of games at Stony Brook and Brown. She also had four ground balls and three draw controls on the week.

subset: commoncrawl


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We are in a period that is unlike any we have ever seen in my 25 years in the professional staffing industry. Moderate GDP growth rates have resulted in a disproportionate share of job growth coming in the temporary staffing sector.
Driven by the increased reliance on cloud and mobile technologies and Big Data, the CFTO has emerged as a valuable player in ensuring that businesses properly address the challenges and opportunities that come with these new technologies.
The Big Data market is expected to grow from $3.2 billion in 2010 to $16.9 billion in 2015. That's a compound annual growth rate of 40% or about 7 times that of the overall information and communications technology market.
While the December job data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported lackluster hiring in most sectors, temporary jobs were truly the star in the end of 2013.
Advanced knowledge of programming language(s), software development tools and environment(s) and systems analysis and functional design


text:
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
Libraries that Have It: The Foresthill messenger. (Foresthill, CA.) 1982-current
Foresthill, CA. (1982-current)
HOLDING: Placer Cnty Libr, Auburn, CA
View more titles from this institution
Available as: Original
- <1982:11-1984:12:7>
Last updated: 04/1998


text:
Product Code: DB2031
Manufacturer: DBX
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It's amazing. One little button. So much effect. dbx® Type III® Noise Reduction is an entirely new concept... virtually instantaneous encode/decode within the circuitry of the box. We started out to build the finest EQs possible, boxes with the heritage and performance to rival our famous 30 Series EQs. And to no one's surprise they came out awfully darn good. (Ask to see the Audio Precision plots compared to the competition.) But then, Roger (our chief engineer, a nice guy, as far as engineers go) got the crazy idea of putting this new noise reduction stuff in the box. We listened to it and were amazed. The EQs sounded great without it but with it the performance was nothing short of incredible. Check it out yourself and see.
But hey, Roger wasn't about to stop there. PeakPlus® Limiter. Who knows more about limiting than the folks at dbx; nobody... that's who. So when the guys were developing this new series of EQs they wanted something that would be unique to these EQs. That's when Roger got another one of his bright ideas and said "I bet they'll work a lot better if there's a cool limiter built in." Next thing you know, all the guys are in the studio amazed at the new limiter Roger had designed specially for the 20 Series. Once again, hearing is believing... With a threshold range of 0dbu to plus 20dbu, the patent-pending PeakPlus limiter is designed to tame your program material from the subtlest nuances to the rowdiest hits. Also, the four stage LED ladder gives you a great visual indication as to what the limiter is doing.
20 Series EQs. You used to have to settle for second best in a reasonably priced EQ but not any more. With the new 20 Series from dbx® Professional Products you get a great EQ circuit, a graceful yet powerful limiter and the revolutionary new design of the Type III Noise Reduction. Check out the dbx 20 Series graphic EQs at your pro audio outfitter. You'll see, with the 20 Series EQs you get MORE!!!
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We hope you enjoy your visit and if there is anything you need any assistance with, please don't hesitate to let us know via Live Chat, Email or Phone – we'd love to hear from you.


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On Monday, Sept. 17, Cape Coral resident Mildred Murphy turned 100, after a fun-filled formal celebration that was held Sunday.
A 1915 Ford picked her up, and whisked her off to a party at Gulf Harbour Resort Country Club, a luncheon for family and friends.
Her daughter, Sandy Saracione, talked about her beloved mother, and of Murphy's life over the last century.
Article Photos
Cape Coral resident Mildred Murphy celebrated her 100th birthday on Monday. On Sunday, her daughter and son-in-law, Sandy and Chick Saracione, held a birthday party in her honor at Gulf Harbour Yacht and Country Club in Fort Myers.
"She was born in Astoria, N.Y., and she moved to Florida nine years when my husband and I retired," she said.
She remembers her mother as always active.
"She would walk with her husband, John Murphy, for miles, even over the Triborough and 59th Street bridges. They would walk to the Bronx Zoo - they didn't have the money to take the bus both ways then. They would walk over, and take the bus back."
Her mother is still active and very alert, she said. "She's got a wonderful way of life - no medication, and eats healthy."
Murphy worked for the government as the chief clerk for Selective Services.
"She worked for the draft board, she put the boys into the service," Saracione said. "She was blessed with many honorary degrees from colonels for her outstanding work and dedication."
And she was always a perfectionist.
"Perfection in the house is and always was the key."
Of her interests, sewing was a personal passion. "Basically she always loved to sew," Saracione said. "I was always a dancer and a Rockette, and she used to make all my clothes as a child, and she sewed my costumes."
Murphy shared her daughter's excitement of being a world-famous Rockette.
Saracione said one of the most special things about her mother was that she lives for her family. "Everything in her life when I was growing up was built around me - that was her life," she said.
She also has a 47-year old grandson named Joseph and three beautiful great-grandchildren, Marikate, Joseph Jr. and Jack. Jack was named after his great grandfather.
"She also loves people," Saracione said. "We entertain a lot at home, and reminisce. We have great friends, so it makes her life very interesting."
Saracione said one of the most important and fun things she inherited from her mother is how she looks at life.
"When we do things, we do things in an extravagant ways. Big! That's our background."


text:
Step-by-step: how to create a successful SEO campaign
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Article source: http://www.free-seo-news.com/newsletter566.htm#facts


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Sometimes, we can't get the streaming source for online videos, TV shows, and Live TV so as to send it to TV via DLNA using a DLNA server such as TVersity.
For online TV like PPStream, PPLive, these popular Chinese online TV software, there were some methods introduced using VLC: Link 1, Link 2, and Link 3. The idea is this. VLC captures the online streaming, and generates a secondary streaming, which is taken by TVersity and shared on the local network. But it seems none of these works for me for uusee, pplive and ppstream, since I can't find the streaming source for these software.
Streaming the whole screen will be an ultimate method that can work with any media source via DLNA streaming.
More details about VLC and TVersity can be found here: https://alenblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/stream-computer-desktop-to-tv-using-dlna-tversity-and-vlc/ and https://alenblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/tversity-dlna-for-samsung-tv/.
Here is how it's done.
VLC can capture the screen using screen://. But it turns out it can't capture audio simultaneously using input-slave: dshow://. The workaround would be to use DirecShow with a directshow filter, such as VH Screen Capture.
VH screen captures video or audio only in MP4. But both captured, video is not shown, even though MediaInfo shows video data is stored. For DIV3+MP3 (asf), VH can't see video at all, even though video data was also stored. Without transcoding, output .asf file is fine. But the data file is so big, and VLC crashes soon. The picture captured in MP4 are really great. It's the best picture I've got compared to other ways mentioned here.
UScreenCapture works fine with DIV3+mp3(asf) and MP4. But the picture quality is a lot worse, even if using larger BitRate and generate big data file. Anyway, for the time being, by using directshow (UScreenCapture), video and audio can be both captured.
Another problem is my SoundMax HD audio sound card doesn't have Stereo Mix. So I use a stereo audio cable to connect my speaker and mic ports, sending sound from the speaker to mic directly. VLC captures the audio from the microphone.
If you can see your screen, but not the video, you may need disable the hardware accelaration, which can be found at the property of your graphics.
I make the streaming using the VLC GUI. I select the video and audio sources, transcode it to DIV3+MP3, 25fps, 4096 kbps, and then stream it to mms://127.0.0.1:1234 or http://127.0.0.1:1234, which is further shared by TVersity. Then I can watch on my Samsung HDTV anything on PC. It works great, particular for PPStream that I use it very often.
This way, I don't need worry about that the media type for TVersity or Samsung TV any more. Whatever I can see on PC, I can see it on TV.
** When using VLC, try to transcode with some codecs that are natively supported by your TV. Then TVersity doesn't need do another transcoding. That will work much better.
Filed under: Internet, Software, TV | Tagged: DLNA, internet TV, Live TV, Online TV, PPLive, PPStream, Streaming, TVersity, VLC | 40 Comments »


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Sunday, September 6, 2009
Crocodile birthday
Or maybe it's an alligator??? Today's card I made for my son to give to his friend. I had a lot of fun with this one!
I used Background Basics: Retro to make the "crocodile crossing" background and I colored each circle with my white gel pen. The crocodile is colored in with New Leaf trio of Copic markers.
Have a great day,
"Happy Birthday Macky" (all PTI unless noted)
Stamps: Background Basics: Retro, "Happy Birthday" from Mother, Fresh alphabet, crocodile (Sandylion), star from Star Prints
Paper: Kraft, New Leaf, Vintage Cream and Dark Chocolate
Ink: Rich Cocoa (Memento), Antique Linen and Walnut Stain (Ranger)
Other: Copic markers, dimensionals, sponge, white gel pen, rectangle scallop Nestabilitie die (Spellbinders)
12 comments:
- travelingmama said...
What a cute card! I love how you put the background on the diagonal! Great idea!
- September 6, 2009 at 7:54 AM
- IamDerby said...
This is one of the cutest birthday cards I have seen in a long time! Adorable!
- September 6, 2009 at 9:04 AM
- Stimey said...
So cute. Seriously. I want to frame it and put it on my kids' wall, and it has some other kid's name on it.
- September 6, 2009 at 10:23 AM
- Belinda said...
Super cute! :) Love the fun crocodile/alligator!
- September 6, 2009 at 10:41 AM
- Cheryl said...
I LOVE that background! What a cute card.
- September 6, 2009 at 4:42 PM
- Taheerah said...
Wow, that background stamping is amazing!! The crocodile is really cute and well coloured too! Great card Melissa!!
- September 6, 2009 at 5:43 PM
- Sharron said...
Such an adorable card! Darling 'crocodile' and your green background looks great!
- September 6, 2009 at 11:00 PM
- Anette Eakins said...
Oh my gosh, that background is fantastic. It is so cute with crocodile!
- September 6, 2009 at 11:31 PM
- Kim said...
This is so cute! I love the background and the white dots add just the perfect touch!
- September 7, 2009 at 8:54 AM
- BethieJ said...
Oh this is soooo CUTE Melissa.. I bet your sons friend LOVED it!!!
- September 7, 2009 at 11:47 AM
- Aimes said...
Oh totally adorable! Crocodile or Aligator - it's cute! Your colouring rocks as always and your son is soooo lucky to be able to give such a fab card!
- September 7, 2009 at 1:59 PM
- Amy said...
Love that background! So perfect for a crocodile card!
- September 9, 2009 at 3:42 PM


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Yes you read that correctly. Nancy Pelosi used the term "assault magazines in an interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell in talking about how the kind of firepower allegedly used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings should be outlawed.
Before I continue, I have been guilty myself in referring to certain types of weapons, even some I own myself are considered by the left to be "assault weapons." I have not cared what people have called them in the past, to be honest, that does not make them anymore or less dangerous than any other gun. However, in reading a piece by Jan Morgan, I think I'm going to stop referring to them as such. Here's what Morgan writes:
My AR is not an assault rifle.
It is not an assault weapon.
It will never be used to criminally assault anyone.
My AR will only be used for defensive and sporting purposes.
It is simply a modern musket.
Trending: Trump approval rating shocks dems, President 'thanks' AOC for boost
Continuing with that point, let's define our terms here. "Assault" is defined by Noah Webster as:
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1. An attack or violent onset, whether by an individual, a company, or an army. An assault by private persons may be made with or without weapons. As assault by an army is a violent hostile attack; and when made upon a fort or fortified place is called a storm, as opposed to sap or siege.
2. An attack by hostile words or measures; as, an assault upon the prerogatives of a prince, or upon a constitution of government.
3. In Law, an unlawful setting upon one's person; an attempt or offer to beat another, without touching his person; as by lifting the fist or a cane, in a threatening manner. If the blow aimed takes effect, it is a battery.
So Morgan is correct. My weapons, and I'm sure many of yours, will never be used to criminally assault anyone. In fact, if we were to use the term "assault weapon," it could literally be applied to anything; a baseball bat, knife, pencil, barbed wire, or even a car!
However, Pelosi moves the argument up a notch. Now she is not even calling for a ban on what she wrongly calls "assault weapons," but is calling for "assault magazines" to be outlawed!
She told Mitchell on Tuesday:
"How does something like this happen? Because a person with impaired judgment had access to firepower that should be outlawed. There is no reason why these assault magazines – and that's what they are. We've got to call them what they are, assault magazines. you aren't even allowed to have that on a hunting gun in California, which has three shots."
What the heck is an assault magazine? Are people with AR-15s and AK-47s now throwing their fully loaded magazines at people? This is so far over the top it's rather difficult to take seriously, but we must because these people are the ones framing the argument and if we do not correct the misuse of language, and yes I am one that is looking to correct my own in regards to this matter, then we will inevitably lose the argument and with that the fight over our rights.
Again, I'll remind Pelosi and the rest of us that the Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting.
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Since the Supreme Court has ruled this applies to individuals and since the Amendment begins by defining the purpose for the right to keep and bear arms is with regards to a "well regulated militia." The problem comes for both the courts and the Congress with that nagging little bit at the end, "Shall not be infringed." This is the beginning point of where the liberals start. Our voices must be loud in pointing that out.Don't forget to Like Freedom Outpost on Facebook, Google Plus, & Twitter. You can also get Freedom Outpost delivered to your Amazon Kindle device here.


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In an effort to catch overweight trucks skipping past weigh stations, Wisconsin will be adding "virtual scales" on I-43.
"We wouldn't be issuing tickets just based on that information," Sgt. Gary Bauer of the State Patrol told the Janesville Gazette. "A weigh-in-motion scale isn't as accurate. But we could stop trucks and weigh them on portable scales or the scales at La Prairie Township."
It will be the third "weigh-in-motion" scale the state has employed. According to the state, the scale is designed to catch overweight trucks that otherwise might jump off the highway to avoid scales.
According to the state, when a truck drives over the scale, it will weigh it, record the id number and send that information to a computer database which police can use to determine whether to pull over the truck at a weigh station for a more accurate reading.
My question is why? Why spend this money on this technology? If the state is going to pull over trucks that are overweight, that means staffing the weigh stations regularly. If Wisconsin is going to do that, why not just have all trucks pull into the station? If the argument is to identify and find trucks taking alternative routes, that will require resources as well. Do the ends justify the means?
Besides, if a truck drives over the virtual scale and is not found not to be in violation of weight limits, will that truck be allowed to skip the weigh station? Just wondering.


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© 2012 The Joy of Cooking Trust and the MRB Revocable Trust
Who We Are
We are John, Megan, and Maggie. We three are responsible for posting on the site, maintaining it, answering your emails and letters, and working on the book as a whole. We test recipes, make corrections, take on side projects related to JOY, and are generally at the beck and call of the oldest family-owned and run all-purpose cookbook in American history. We're optimistic, motivated, and passionate, and we love what we do.
We want you to know that there are people behind JOY. When you pick up a copy of the Joy of Cooking, you might, in your mind, lump it together with the Betty Crocker cookbooks or Better Homes and Gardens. There's nothing wrong with those cookbooks, mind you. We have them in our own library. But the JOY is unique in American cookery in that it remains a family-run institution. From the first printing by Irma in 1931 to the most recent in 2006, the Becker family oversees and is actively involved in everything that JOY takes part in.
We don't have interns or a paid staff. We don't have an agent or a publicist. We do our own food photography. When I refer to our "test kitchen" I'm talking about our home kitchen. We want to test our recipes in a similar environment to what you, our readers and fans, will be cooking our recipes in. This not only ensures that you will be able to replicate our results, but it also means that we take into consideration how many pans it takes to make a specific dish, how many different stores we have to go to in order to find the ingredients for a recipe, and how expensive a recipe is to make.
The Site
Many of you have expressed some confusion about the contents of the site. First off, yes, this is the official website of the Joy of Cooking cookbook. However, the content of the site does not mirror the content of the book. If you're looking for Poached Eggs Blackstone or Golden Glow Salad, you'll have to go to the book for those.
There are a couple reasons for this disparity. One, we are a small family business. Just as other cookbook authors do not give away the content of their books, neither do we. We simply cannot afford to. In order to bring you the highest quality recipes, the best reference information, and consistently reliable content, we need the income from the book to do so. There are serious expenses that we incur to maintain and improve the book and this site. Free or cheap content often means substandard content, and we always strive for excellence.
Two, the website is intended, as are many food blogs, to supplement and expand on the book's content. We do feature some JOY recipes on this site, but we also want to bring you the latest exciting dishes from our home kitchen. This is why you may not find Parker House Rolls, but you will find kale salad.
Having said that, if there's a JOY recipe you'd really like to see on the site, please don't hesitate to let us know about it. We keep a running list of requests, and while it may take us a while to get to them, we do keep them in mind.
The front page is dedicated to the most recent article. The filmstrip at the top of the page will show you the two dozen or so most recent blogs. Use the arrows at the left or right of the filmstrip to navigate those photos. Click on the photos to navigate to any blog that strikes your fancy.
You may use the search box at the top right corner of the home page to find recipes. You will have the best luck searching for specific ingredients--for instance, raspberries or shrimp. You will also have some degree of luck if you search for meal type--for instance, breakfast or dessert. However, do not use multiple search terms at once in this box.
A more comprehensive search tool can be found on the Recipes page. Enter the specific ingredient you're looking for, and then choose a meal type and season if you like. This will help narrow your search.
If you have a question about food, cooking, cookbooks, etc., please visit the Community page to ask all JOY site users your questions. Commenting and posting on the forums is most effective if you are a site member. That way, when someone comments on your post, you will receive notification in your inbox.
We want to promote a friendly, positive atmosphere on the site. With that in mind, any comments that are negative, inflammatory, profane, or otherwise inappropriate will be deleted from the site. If an individual persists in leaving inappropriate comments, they will be banned from commenting on our site in the future.
The Joy Kitchen does not endorse products nor do we host advertising on our site. We feel that, to remain a reputable source of information, it is imprudent for us to accept money for product endorsements. So we don't. If we ever talk about a product or a brand on this site, you'll know that we really, really like it and that we weren't paid to say nice things about it. In that spirit, we ask that you do not use our website as a billboard for your site. When you comment at The Joy Kitchen, you will have an opportunity to enter the url for your website. Your alias will become a link, and any visitor to our site can click it. Do not post comments that say, "Visit my site!" or "Check out my awesome blog!" These comments will be treated as spam.
Undergoing Constant Improvement
Think of the Joy of Cooking as a very large boat. Not large enough to warrant a swimming pool on deck, but pretty big. There's always a lot going on, and you can't turn the thing on a dime. To be such a large craft, there are very few people responsible for keeping up with everything. As such, we ask for your patience with us as we work to constantly improve and expand the site. Please send us an email if you have questions, comments, or concerns. We would love to hear from you.
Please be aware that there have been 13 printings of the 2006 edition since it was published. Each printing contains corrections made to the text. Therefore, there have been hundreds of small to significant corrections made to the book since 2006. If you have an older printing (i.e. if you purchased your copy of the 2006 edition around the year 2006), please refer to the errata and update your book accordingly. If you have an older edition of JOY, awesome! Nonetheless, we encourage you to purchase the newest edition due to changes made over the years regarding food safety. The canning and preserving chapters are particular instances of this. What's more, due to time constraints and necessity, we are unable to test and update older editions of the book, therefore, any mistakes in older editions will not be corrected.


text:
The UK has the world's fifth highest rate of a Type1 diabetes in children, according to a health charity.
Diabetes UK says 24.5 out of every 100,000 children under 14 in the UK are diagnosed every year with Type 1 diabetes which, unlike the other main strand, Type 2, is not linked to lifestyle or obesity factors.
Of the 89 countries included in the charity's data, only Finland, Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Norway have higher rates than the UK.
The UK rate is more than double that in France and Italy; and in Papua New Guinea and Venezuela, which have the joint lowest reported rates in the world, just 0.1 per 100,000 develop the condition a year.
Scientists do not fully understand why there is such wide variation, but genetics is thought to play a role.
Type 1 diabetes, where the body does not produce insulin, can lead to serious illness and even death if it is not diagnosed quickly.
In the UK only 9% of parents are aware of its symptoms and a quarter of the 2,000 children a year who develop diabetes are only diagnosed once they are already ill, according to the charity.
It suggests the UK rate is so high as parents are unaware of the four main symptoms for Type 1 diabetes: frequent urinating; excessive thirst; extreme tiredness; and unexplained weight loss.
Barbara Young, chief executive of Diabetes UK, said the charity also wants to highlight the need for good quality healthcare for children with diabetes. Currently only 6% of children with the condition are recorded as getting the eight checks suggested by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
Ms Young said: "The fact that the UK has a relatively high number of children developing Type 1 diabetes also means it is vital that we are able to offer first-class healthcare once children are diagnosed.
"But too many children are not getting the recommended checks and have high blood glucose levels, while another big issue is that young people are also being lost in the system when the time comes to transfer from paediatric to adult services.
"Type 1 diabetes is a serious condition that can lead to devastating complications and early death if not managed properly, and this is why children with Type 1 diabetes need to set off on the right path in terms of managing their condition well from the beginning. It is a tragedy that all too often this is not happening."
In the UK, around 3.7 million people have diabetes, with 2.9 million living with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
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text:
Tangem Raises $15M from SBI for the Industrial Adoption of Blockchain-enabled Smart Cards
Tangem, the producer of blockchain smart card wallets, raises US$15M from SBI Crypto Investment Ltd. for a breakthrough in mass adoption of blockchain technology.
Tangem pioneered in making crypto currencies look like cash and easy to use as cash, and now attracts additional investment to accelerate the deployment of its technology in other industries where the secure storage and circulation of blockchain assets has the highest potential:
- Cryptocurrencies and stable coins
- ICO / TAO token distribution
- Ticketing
- Anti-counterfeit
- Digital identity
- Retail loyalty and promotions
"We take the next big step on our mission to bring blockchain to people's everyday life," says Andrey Kurennykh, co-founder of Tangem. "In 2018, our technology was proven by the markets after we launched the mass production of Tangem cards for crypto currencies and tokens. With this additional investment in 2019, we will be able to extend our product offering in other industries and provide better support to companies which embrace the idea of physical distribution of blockchain assets".
SBI Crypto Investment Ltd. is a digital asset venture investment company wholly owned by SBI Holdings Inc. ( "SBI", HQ in Tokyo, Japan, Representative Director, President & CEO Mr. Yoshitaka Kitao), SBI has built an internet-based financial ecosystem and is expanding their existing partnerships and investments to digital asset-related venture companies to strengthen their technological supremacy.
"The Tangem hardware wallet, which is highly secure and affordable, is an important tool to promote mass adoption of digital assets and blockchain. We believe utilizing Tangem will help stipulate the demand for other blockchain services provided by SBI," said Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, President & CEO of SBI Holdings Inc.
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Japan to Lead Development of SWIFT Network for Cryptocurrency
Japan's government is leading a global push to set up an international network for cryptocurrency payments, similar to the SWIFT network used by banks, in an effort to fight money laundering, a person familiar with the plan said on Thursday. Tokyo aims to have the network in place in the next few years, the person said, declining to be identified because the information has not been made public.
A team related to the inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will monitor its development and Japan will cooperate with other countries, the source said. It remains unclear how the cryptocurrency network would work. SWIFT is the international payments messaging system used by banks to send money around the world.
FATF in June approved the plan for establishing the new network, which was proposed by Japan's Ministry of Finance and the Financial Services Agency (FSA) regulator, according to the person. Both the FSA and the Ministry of Finance declined to comment.
Tokyo has pushed to ensure the security of virtual currencies, hoping to leverage the fintech industry to stimulate economic growth. Japan became the first country in the world to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges at a national level, in 2017.
It remains unclear whether the network would meet resistance from users, given that the attraction of cryptocurrencies is, in part, in their unregulated nature. That lack of regulation is precisely what worries governments and central bankers.
Facebook's recent announcement of plans to launch a digital coin has met with a chorus from regulators, central banks and governments insisting the tech giant must respect anti money-laundering rules and ensure the security of transactions and user data.
Digital currencies are also likely to be a topic at the G7 finance ministers meeting in France this week.
Siemens Evaluates Blockchain Potential For Carsharing
With the invention of bitcoin came a new, secure method of value transfer, via its underlying technology blockchain. Since bitcoin's inception ten years ago, a plethora of mainstream entities have investigated various ways to channel blockchain's potential. Automation giant Siemens is evaluating the technology for various enterprise use cases, including improving the carsharing market.
Siemens is following the trend of mainstream giants looking to incorporate blockchain. "We are in the space where we want to come up with industrial extensions of blockchain systems, […] blockchain systems for enterprises," Siemens Corporate Technology head of cybersecurity and blockchain Andreas Kind said to me in an interview. Kind mentioned use cases pertaining to areas such as supply chain, mobility, manufacturing, etc.
When entities are interested in making the move toward blockchain, they generally undergo periods of testing and discovery before choosing the most effective and applicable use cases, Kind explained. "Siemens is exactly in this kind of phase," he added. The company just completed a period of exploration, Kind said, adding, "Now we're at the point where we're really zoomed into a set of use cases that are related to Siemens' business." Siemens is looking toward permissioned blockchain usage in particular, Kind noted.
Blockchain In The Mobility Arena
The cybersecurity and blockchain head mentioned the area of mobility as one of Siemens' particular blockchain application focuses. Siemens has a separate branch devoted to the mobility sector. Siemens Mobility, a daughter company of the German-based Siemens AG, works to provide "transport solutions," relating to the movement of "people and goods" to various locations globally, according to its website.
Carsharing As An Option
Rather than dealing with some of the responsibilities associated with owning a car, such as parking, car payments and insurance, folks who live or work in larger urban areas may often rely on carsharing, Kind explained. Carsharing allows members of the service to use or rent a car for any period of time, even for as short as one hour, according to details on the Enterprise CarShare website. Zipcar is another example of a carsharing operation.
BiKi.com Compares Favorably Against Top Exchanges Binance, OKEx and Huobi
The numbers are in and fast-growing exchange BiKi.com is proving it is no flash in the pan. According to official reports, BiKi.com's revenue figures in the second quarter exceeded USD 15 million, which is a 500% increase when compared to figures from the first quarter. This works out to one-eighth of leading exchange Binance's reported Q2 revenues.
BiKi's June trading fees is also currently 20% of OKEx's. Its total registered users have now reached 1.5 million, with 130,000 daily active users, numbers which are comparable to top tier exchanges like Huobi. The trading platform now provides 220 trading pairs and ranks amongst the top 20 on exchange ranking sites such as Feixiaohao and Mytoken.
BiKi.com has continued to forge an impressive progression since it began in June 2018 and this has attracted investments of nearly USD 10 million the past year from investment institutions and individuals the likes of Du Jun, Zhu Huaiyang (Genesis Capital), FBG Capital, and ChainUp.
Cryptocurrency exchanges generally operate within an extremely competitive environment and many exchanges undertake wash trading to maintain their competitive edge. BiKi.com claims it does not practice wash trading and attributes its success to two factors – project selection and how it gains and retains market share.
Project Selection
BiKi adopts an astute set of criteria when choosing projects to list and one of them requires that all listed projects have strong communities of token holders behind them. This is contrary to cryptocurrency exchanges who charge high listing fees and then have to rack their brains to bring in users to trade. As was the case with FCoin Exchange, the "Transaction Mining" mechanism devised by its team did indeed attract a huge user base within a short period of time. However, once the dividend period was over, it was simply a matter of time before its user base had all but dissipated.
BiKi chooses its projects wisely – listed projects on BiKi have large communities and frequent traders who possess diverse assets. Additionally, BiKi already has 5 Wechat community leaders with over 1 million followers who are community token holders and over 10 Wechat community leaders with over 100,000 followers, which contribute to 80% of the exchange's traffic volume. By leveraging on the strengths of its projects and BiKi's own strong Wechat communities, BiKi has managed to carve out a fast track to gaining liquidity and trading volume.
BiKi's strategy of maintaining long term relationships with venture capitalists and investors ensures that BiKi has opportunities to either list top tier projects on a moment's notice, or be the first exchange to list a certain project. As a result, BiKi's users have access to a wide variety of high quality tokens to trade – clearly a factor why BiKi has emerged as the industry dark horse.
Conversely, projects who list on BiKi see the exchange as a stepping stone to gain a new level of recognition in the industry. Listing on BiKi has become somewhat of a yardstick measure of project quality, aided in no small way by BiKi's 130,000 daily active users who organically generate demand for their tokens.
Gaining and Retaining Market Share
The sustainability of an exchange is actually not dependent on its current profitability, but on its ability to retain its users and effectively recruit new ones. BiKi was the first exchange to acquire users through its 'community fission' model, which is a way of scaling communities using recommendations from present users to attract more users.
Blockchain projects cannot succeed without strong communities, and the network dynamics BiKi uses to acquire users are one of its core competitive advantages. Presently, BiKi has more than 200 official community groups, more than 100,000 community members, and is still growing at a rate of 300 new members per day.
Using its "Community Partners Programme" to attract new users daily, BiKi currently has over 1000 Community Partners and is increasing at a rate of 30 per day. BiKi's targeted 10,000 Community Partners within 2019 is estimated to bring with them 500,000 new users to the exchange.
Similar to Chinese e-commerce platforms Yunji and Pinduoduo, BiKi's Partner Program rewards Community Partners who introduce more active users to the platform. The 'community fission' model shifts the responsibility of customer acquisition to present customers themselves and its inherent network dynamics builds a base of new users that continues to 'grow' other users.
What is important to note, though, is that despite the program restricting the network to only two tiers of membership, the efficacy of this model speaks for itself – BiKi has managed to amass 130,000 daily active users and USD 15 million in Q2.
During a bear market, BiKi.com acquired 1.5 million registered users on the exchange, setting an industry precedent in user acquisition. BiKi's strong base of relationships and users provides a clear value proposition that projects can tap into to reach their milestones. The exchange continues to welcome projects to join the growing community of choice projects currently listed on BiKi.com.
About BiKi.com
Headquartered in Singapore, BiKi.com is a global cryptocurrency exchange that provides a digital assets platform for trading more than 100 cryptocurrencies and 220 trading pairs. Since beginning operations in June 2018, BiKi.com is considered one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency exchanges in the world with an accumulated 1.5 million registered users and 130,000 daily active users, ranking within the top 20 exchanges globally.
BiKi.com Featured in Forbes Top 10 Blockchain Companies in 2019
8th July, Singapore, Singapore – BiKi.com, while still a relatively new cryptocurrency exchange, managed to emerge tops on the Forbes Top 10 listing of blockchain companies to watch in 2019. The highly sought-after listing included 10 blockchain companies from all over the world that have made significant contributions to blockchain becoming more accessible, prominent and mainstream.
Founded in June 2018, BiKi.com began operations in Aug 2018, headquartered in Singapore. Co-founder of Huobi and CEO/founder of established media group Jinse Finance, Du Jun invested USD 5 million in personal funds and served as joint CEO of the infant exchange. The global digital currency trading platform has a strong technical and operations team, committed to creating the safest, most stable and efficient platform for users around the world. Presently, it supports languages such as Chinese, English and Vietnamese, with more in the pipeline, and has served more than 1 million global users in nearly 100 countries and regions.
In under a year, BiKi.com has become one of the fastest growing exchanges in the world. With 1.5 million registered users, 100,000 daily active users and a daily trading volume of 70 million USDT, it has been steadily climbing up the rungs of the global crypto exchange ladder on popular sites like Coingecko, Feixiaohao, Mytoken, Aicoin and will soon join Coinmarketcap. It currently has more than 200 active WeChat communities out of a total of nearly 500 and a buoyant telegraph group. We look at the main factors contributing to BiKi's rapid growth.
Incremental Marketing
Using incremental marketing, BiKi.com has managed to amass many registered users in numerous third- to fifth- tier Chinese cities while simultaneously ushering in new market users from the Chinese and global internet. The exchange's 'transformative way of scaling communities' has successfully accelerated growth in its user acquisition division. BiKi also helps its projects to increase its market users unlike other exchanges such as Huobi, Binance or OKEx.
Community Partner Program
BiKi's attractive Community Partner Program has also been instrumental in boosting the influx of traffic to the platform. By simply holding at least 30,000 worth of BiKi locked-in for 1 year, users are eligible to become Community Partners who earn 10% interest like a time deposit and get 60% cashback on trading fees as well as bonus rewards and token airdrops.
Professional Services
BiKi has professional market-making strategies and a full range of service tools for users through a bull or bear market while providing media exposure support and assistance for partner projects.
Cost-Effective Platform
Compared to the current top exchanges that charge high listing fees, BiKi.com offers very affordable fees and value-added service fees, effectively buffering the effects of a bear market.
BiKi Platform Coin
BiKi's platform coin creates a system of deflationary economics based on its principle of "mining, repurchasing and burning". The initial token issuance of 1 billion will continuously be repurchased and burned till it decreases to 100 million. So far 100% of its platform fees have been used to repurchase and burn the platform currency, with 274 million already burned in the past 6 months. Next, the platform also has plans to launch the BiKi transaction pair, whereby projects will then raise funds in BiKi instead of ETH, again bringing value to the BiKi coin. With its business locks, institutional node locks and user financial locks, BiKi coin circulation is drastically reduced, thereby increasing the value of the BiKi coin.
From its starting price of $0.01384188 in mid April this year to its current price of 0.134539, BiKicoin has charted an impressive upward trajectory, representing an almost 10-fold increase In less than 3 months, a clear indication of investor demand and recognition of the coin's value.
Committed to bringing digital assets to the mainstream market, it is not surprising that Forbes has ranked BiKi.com amongst its Top 10 Blockchain Companies to Watch in 2019. With BiKi's continued focus on incremental marketing and global market expansion, together with improvements in services, community programs and also on its platform, BiKi appears poised to continue its ascent to the top flight of crypto exchanges.
About BiKi.com
Headquartered in Singapore, BiKi.com is a global cryptocurrency exchange that provides a digital assets platform for trading more than 100 cryptocurrencies and 127 trading pairs. Since beginning operations in Aug 2018, BiKi.com is considered one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency exchanges in the world with an accumulated 1.5 million registered users and 100,000 daily active users, ranking within the top 30 exchanges globally.
Tapping tech: RBI arm readying a model blockchain platform for banking needs
The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), an arm of the Reserve Bank of India, is developing a model blockchain platform to cater to the needs of banks.
"We have been working on a model platform for blockchain applications for the government in banking. It will be documented and developed next year," AS Ramasastri, Director, IDRBT, told BusinessLine.
The platform will put up all available blockchain applications with inter-operability, among others.
Though banks and financial institutions have been referring to blockchain of late, real deployment of its applications has not been attempted so far.
"While there is huge scope for deployment of blockchain applications, a cautious approach is very much needed," Ramasastri said.
The apex institute for banking technology is also ramping up activities of the Fintech Forum launched a few months back with the main objective of providing a continuous innovative platform to fintech companies and banks, to enhance the co-innovation and to reduce the on-boarding time for new technologies.
"The dialogue is on and we are expecting good outcomes from this exercise," the Director said. The focus areas of research and innovation include analytics, cyber security, blockchain and payments systems. "Fintech companies are accelerating and reshaping the financial services industry radically," he said adding that banks and financial institutions are realising the value-addition in adopting and adapting various fintech innovations.
There has been lot of start-up innovation in the sector and such a collaboration between banks, research institutions and fintech players will tend to increase not only revenues, but also bring about innovation to benefit the customers, he added.
Graph Blockchain Secures Pilot Project With Ministry of Transportation Canada
Graph Blockchain Inc. ("Graph" or "Company") (CSE: GBLC) is pleased to announce that the Company has secured a contract through its in country partner for the Ministry of Transportation in Seoul, South Korea. The contract is for approximately $55,000 CAD and is a pilot project to store traffic data on the blockchain as part of the Smart City initiative.
"This is an exciting opportunity for our Company to introduce Graph Database Blockchain solutions to the Ministry of Transportation. We look forward to delivering a solution that will streamline and protect data for their smart city initiatives. The team is doing a fantastic job securing new business opportunities with multi-national corporations and government agencies, this will provide a strong foundation as we continue to search for gaming opportunities that will expand and diversify the Company for our shareholders," says Jeff Stevens, CEO of the Company.
About Graph Blockchain Inc.
The Company develops leading-edge private blockchain business intelligence and data management solutions and is a pure play in the graph database technology space. Graph leverages its proprietary integration of the AgensGraph Database engine with Hyperledger Fabric to create a transparent and immutable ledger with near real-time transactional data processing and intuitive data visualization. The Company has secured multiple prototype development contracts with multi-national conglomerates and sells across client subsidiaries as a full enterprise product.
Additional Information on the Company is available at: www.graphblockchain.com
Blockchain Based Crowdfunding Bridges Gap Between Global Investors and Business
The way in which global business owners and shareholders engage continues to adapt to changing market forces, technologies and fiscal appetites, however, the need for strong, stable and transparent investment processes remains key to the success of any project.
With counterparties often frustrated by a lack of transparency and accessibility, the need for a platform that bridges the gap between investor and investee is increasingly important.
Introducing the iOWN Platform – the Blockchain Powered Investment Platform
Whilst it is true that many investors favor a diversified risk portfolio with a range of industry assets, finding strong partners remains a problem – the solution for many lies in community crowdfunding.
Developed in the UAE, iOWN is a blockchain based crowdfunding investment platform that has been specifically designed to bridge the gap between financier and businesses seeking funding. Whether you are an experienced funder or complete beginner, the iOWN global network means that there are accessible opportunities for all with measured risk.
Registered users are able to use the iOWN Token to access the platform, where they will be able to invest into a range of industry sectors including Real Estate, IT, Industrials, Pharma & Healthcare and Energy to name a few.
Overcoming the Challenges of Traditional Investment Risk
iOWN addresses many of the issues currently faced by investors with existing on-the-market financial platforms by creating a secure, transparent and simple to use financial ecosystem that minimises risk through community funding.
Prospective backers are able to select opportunities based on their own preferences including; location, domain and expected ROI with the advantage of having direct access to vetted business opportunities.
iOWN Provides Market Changing Solution for Business Owners & Investors
Both business owners and investors of today will know just how hard it is to find trusted partners and viable projects – iOWN offers just such accessibility and with qualified portfolios, business owners can minimise the risk of time-loss and fundraising fees whilst retaining control of the sale.
The iOWN Token – the Investment Ecosystem
With the iOWN IEO being launched on June 25th, 2019 users will be able to access and invest into the platform with some 60,000,000 tokens being sold on LATOKEN – with low fees and instant transactions, the token is also fully compliant to all international standards.
With a bonus structure of up to 20% and valued at $0.01- tokens are offered for purchase with ETH, BTC, and ERC-20. As an added benefit, iOWN token holders will also be able to use tokens after the IEO to pay for services within the platform.
Smart-Contracts and a cutting edge blockchain powered platform make the iOWN system a one-off – a unique investment platform that offers stability, accessibility and minimises risk.
From startup to established business, iOWN offers unrivaled investment opportunities with measured risk whilst maximising ROI.
About iOWN: iOWN Group is a privately-owned holding company focused on providing a platform for identifying long term investments in the funding process as well as the execution of the funding process, to business owners and investors. For more information please visit our homepage.
Polish Bank Alior Uses Public Ethereum Blockchain For New Document Authentication Feature
Several U.S. banks and global financial institutions have dipped their toes into the blockchain world this year by implementing systems on permissioned ledgers that only invited members can join. Now, one of Poland's 10 largest banks is taking it a step further.
Warsaw-based Alior announced that it is beginning to offer a feature that will allow customers to check on the authentication and integrity of official documents they receive using the public ethereum blockchain that supports the ether cryptocurrency valued at more than $27 billion. While financial institutions have been historically more open to working with permissioned, private blockchains that they have more control over, this use of a public blockchain is among the very first.
"Our mission is to be disruptive, so we want to provide innovative solutions, and we want other banks to follow us as well. We welcome if somebody copied our solution," says blockchain strategy lead Tomasz Sienicki. "We are showing that it's possible to use public blockchain even if some people think it's impossible."
The reason for the unusual position is that Poland has regulations that require banks to provide customers access to documents in the form of a durable medium, and its Office of Competition and Consumer Protection ruled in 2017 that a page on a bank's website which can be easily changed doesn't qualify.
That interpretation pushed Alior to explore new solutions to serve customers, and it established what it calls the Blockchain Center of Excellence last October to complete the project. Sienicki, who worked at the bank as a trader since its inception in 2008 before transitioning to lead the blockchain team, said the blockchain-based system complies with all federal regulations.
"It was born in our innovation lab, but later on, we managed to convince our management that a dedicated team should be set up on just blockchain issues," Sienicki says. "Everybody can copy this code and use it for his or her purposes. We encourage people to do so."
Signature Bank in the U.S. launched its Signet system in December and JPMorgan, America's largest bank, followed suit a couple months later by creating the similar JPM Coin. Both are blockchain-based features to enable real-time payments between institutional clients, but they run on a private ethereum blockchain that limits access to people with special permission to use it. Alior's feature is different in that anybody can join the network, making it more transparent.
"We want people to verify that we did everything right and we don't conceal anything. If we say the documents are actually verified and authentic, everybody can check it and confirm," Sienicki says. "That's not possible using a private blockchain."
Societe Generale, a major French investment bank, issued a $112 million bond in security tokens on the public ethereum blockchain in April, but Alior's management believes it is the first bank to use a public blockchain for a direct customer service solution.
The feature uses a smart contract that stores hashes of documents — a digital signature that maps documents to a unique value — and links them with their name and the block number in which they were published on the blockchain. Customers can search documents they have received on Alior's servers and browse their history to find where those documents are located on the blockchain to ensure that they have not been changed by the bank since they were published.
"We know exactly in which block of ethereum the document with a given hash is published. If we know the block number, we also know the timestamp," says Piotr Adamczyk, Alior's blockchain technology lead who was in charge of writing the code for the project. "We know that the document was published some time ago and hasn't been changed in that time [if the hash stored on the blockchain is identical to the hash calculated from the document], so we can prove it hasn't been replaced on our servers."
Blockchain Company Dispatch Labs "On Life Support" After Burning Almost $13M
A bear market casts a long shadow. Crypto's total value may have doubled since December, but it turns out that some companies in the space are still reeling from the downturn.
One such company is blockchain-agnostic solutions provider, Dispatch Labs, which Crypto Briefing has learned has been running very low on operational capital for months. The company has now been forced to attempt an additional raise so it can bring a working product to market.
The Bay-Area company has twenty members of staff, and CEO Matt McGraw admitted: [W]e are on life support."
It all started so well. Dispatch received initial funding from the executive team; a year later the company raised more than $13M in a series of private rounds from professional investors, including Fenbushi Capital, during the first half of 2018.
But complications arose almost immediately afterwards. The value of their raise dropped considerably in the market downturn in the first quarter of the year. One significant investor provided capital in a coin – he wouldn't name which – that proved very difficult to liquidate.
Although the team quickly recognized the imminent threat posed by the downturn, McGraw claims there simply wasn't the market infrastructure or sufficient OTC availability for them to easily liquidate millions of dollars' worth of cryptocurrency.
"We've been quite open about the financials", McGraw said. But by the time they had successfully converted completely from digital assets, their total remaining investment had fallen by more than half, from $13M to around $6.5M.
Dispatch isn't the first blockchain company to suffer from the market downturn. The crash destroyed the finances of lead Ethereum Classic developer, ETCDev, which was forced to shut up shop in December. ConsenSys drastically cut back the financial support it gave to spokes, spinning out those that wouldn't be able to become revenue-earning fast enough.
Dispatch now wants to raise an additional $600,000 in order to finalize the product and bring it to market. Once they have a full product, McGraw is "mildly confident" the additional revenue will make them cash flow neutral within the next couple of years.
But there's still doubt. Although investor appetite for a protocol is far higher than it was last year, McGraw admitted that it's not a certainty they'll raise the funding. "It's absolutely possible that we could go out of business", he said.
McGraw also spoke about the regret in not trying to raise more money, "We could have raised $100M if we went there", he explained. Although he still maintains their funding target was the "responsible choice", he admitted that if they had raised more, Dispatch may not now be in its current position.
Wheaton Precious Metals leverages blockchain to streamline accounting
Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE: WPM), one of the world's largest precious metals streaming companies, has hired Blockhead Technologies, a software company that creates blockchain-enabled solutions for the global mining sector.
Wheaton will be leveraging Blockhead's technology as part of the streamlining of its metal accounting processes. With a market cap of approximately $9.5 billion, Wheaton has streaming agreements relating to 19 operating mines and nine development projects and produced over 680,000 gold equivalent ounces in 2018.
Blockhead's flagship platform, STAMP, aims to bring secure tracking and source certification into mining value chains. The platform, which the company says is the future of mining technology, enables companies to have greater control over their current data, can integrate with any existing system with a supply chain.
Blockhead implements solutions for simplifying the data management process and provides access to instant data analysis.
Blockhead Technologies has headquarters in Vancouver, Canada, and Perth, Western Australia.
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By Paul Chislett:
The term middle class is in the news a lot these days, usually cast as that downtrodden lot getting hard done by in the economic downturn. But the middle class is not a homogenous group; rather, it is a complex creation of industrial capitalism and some in it are better off financially than others. Blue collar and white collar are a terms going back decades to describe waged workers vs. salaried. Lately, I found it handy to use managerial or professional class to differentiate doctors, teachers, editor and publishers, lawyers, and the like who often gravitate to positions of economic and political power. However, the layers must be further pulled back to expose those at higher executive and CEO level ranks. I think you can see what I am getting at. The further we go we'll find ourselves in the rarefied atmosphere of global elites like Bill Gates, leaders of nations, IMF types, and so on. The air is thin here so let's just dive back closer to where we can pick up the odor of the chlorine in the pools at Water World and Adie Knox in Windsor.
Last evening at city council, itself the privileged domain of the managerial class, the good people of places like South Windsor and Forest Glade saw their dreams come true for a competitive style aquatic centre to be built in the area behind the Art Gallery of Windsor. Sure, it will have other pool features, but much of the discussion last night centered on the needs of local competitive swimmers. Council basically voted on a multi-million dollar power point presentation of pretty pools in a dizzying visual tour of various European cities with aquatic centres. It was baffling because no one knows what the Windsor proposal will look like, and the implication sat as heavy as a wet hound dog that it would look like Dublin; no, Eindhoven; no, Minsk!
The Windsor aquatic centre was the subject of a business plan with various options on how to proceed. The stumbling block was operating expenses for the new facility. Since council has pledged no hike in taxes, it was keen to accept recommendations from city staff (more managerial elites) to close Water World pool, close College Ave. Community Centre, and close the main branch of the library and move it into the new proposed facility. In the motion voted on, the Adie Knox pool was included for closure. Since the library board is independent of city council (even though Ward 10 councillor Al Maghnieh is the chair of the library board) it will deliberate that proposal on its own.
On April 6th council directed city staff to conduct public consultations in affected areas. It did not take long for residents to see that council seemed to have made up its mind already, as the questions residents were supposed to consider all led to the acceptance of the closure of the facilities. Councillor Halberstadt, the only councillor to vote against the plan to take from some so others can have what they want for virtually free, remarked last night about what point was there of having consultations since the residents said clearly not to close their pools and community centre. Council neither cared nor listened. Mayor Francis and council seem desperate to do something with the vacant land known as the Western Super Anchor, bordered by Pitt St. West, Bruce Ave., Church St., and the south side of Chatham St. West. From arenas to canals and now to an aquatic facility, ideas have come and gone. But this one stuck. Why? Who stands to benefit the most? Windsorites are familiar with stories of a London based developer who owns land, a hotel, and car park in the area near the proposed aquatic centre. Might he be influencing the rush to build something?
Opposition to the plan relying on the theft of assets to pay for an aquatic centre which no one has an exact idea of the cost of gained some media traction. In a CBC interview the mayor rebutted critics that the College Ave centre actually does have a future other than closure, since the city was in talks with the Windsor Essex Community Health Centre (WECHC) to take over the space. I should quickly note here, that the WECHC is a provincially funded non-profit entity charged with delivering health care services. The city is attempting to off load its responsibility for city programs, and as questionable as this is, it is by no means a certain deal. WECHC CEO Lynda Monik may be getting caught in the middle of an ugly fight over program delivery in the Sandwich area. Also what must be mentioned is the sheer dereliction of duty displayed by Ron Jones in his refusal to fight for his ward. He was first in line to call for people to do what is best for all of Windsor. His shameful roll over was a capitulation to power and had nothing to do with the best interests of Windsor citizens.
The mayor also claimed misinformation was being spread by critics that the Water World building would be closed. This appeared to be an attempt to show opponents as know-nothings when in fact it was well understood that the pool only was being slated for closure. Where the mayor obfuscates, however, is that it is not clear at all what will replace the pool at Water World other than cement. Ideas floated range from office space to community space for "social enterprise" ie: job skills training already provided by the YMCA and other nearby agencies. The claim is that since the Glengarry community, where Water World is located, is heavily populated by newcomers to Canada the pool is not required, but other programs are. However, council admitted they had no statistics on this. No one knows what the community wants because the city simply barged and said in so many words, 'hey, we're taking the pool out and what would you like to replace it with'. Any reasonable person faced with this would say the same as the residents did in the consultation meetings: we don't want to lose anything. Like the rest of this whole plan, council is relying on assumptions because the facts simply get in the way of what they want to do: develop the Western Super Anchor Lands at all costs.
Council used the suburban middle class, primarily the small population whose children are in competitive swimming, as the weight behind their wrecking ball. It's clear that city council planned from the beginning to co-opt one group of middle class citizens to go along with a long promised aquatic centre, planned how to bully vulnerable residents into first giving up their necessary neighbourhood assets, then just took them regardless of valid arguments to the contrary, and then planned a public relations campaign on the run (from vocal opponents) to paper over the theft by claiming this whole endeavour was in the best interests of all Windsorites.
What is happening in Windsor? Is the railroading of vulnerable populations evidence of a class war? That seems rather evident. Do we need to have a discussion in this city about the difference between working class and middle class? You bet we do. Do we need to discuss the realities of global capitalism and how this fits in with how the city is being run? Right again! Are we in the throes of debating who really owns this city? Absolutely. Battles between neighbourhoods and a council hooked on big ticket developments they argue are needed to increase the tax base, do not bode well for this city. Opponents to this aquatic centre plan argued from the perspective that it is neighbourhoods that are the key to a successful city. Council argued that to think that way means we are only thinking of ourselves rather than what is best for all of Windsor. However, if there are any special interests in this fiasco it is the small competitive swimming population that just wants a 50 metre pool no matter what, and a developer who wants his investments to pay off. The rest of us can politely watch from the sidelines. Neighbourhood organizing to counter the heavy handed methods of council will have to occur – and soon. Windsor, can we talk???


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Back in March I talked with a software company, OneEvent, that showcased its cloud-based predictive analytics engine, OnePrevent, at ISC West. The company started by focusing on predicting fires through monitoring environmental sensors and now it is rolling out a new humidity and temperature sensor which will bring information into its OnePrevent platform.
"When we rolled out the product in February, it was very much around the smoke alarm, the motion alarms, door/windows, and answering the questions of 'Where's the fire? Where did it start? Where is it going? And, where are the people?'" Dan Parent, OneEvent's chief operating officer and VP of engineering, told Security Systems News.
"The algorithms that we put into place around those sensors are extremely flexible, especially around the temperature measurements that we're reading from our smoke alarms," he said. This lead the company to develop the new temperature sensor that also measures humidity. Specifically, the company was looking for "a very accurate, repeatable, resilient, economical sensor that can give us capabilities in other areas."
OneEvent was rolling out a prototype for the temperature and humidity sensor around ISC West 2017 and now the sensor is fully available.
Parent highlighted data centers as a potential market opportunity for the new temperature and humidity center, "One of the biggest problems in an IT data center—other than cybersecurity—is the health of their equipment. … They want to maintain a particular humidity level, and they want to maintain a particular temperature level."
Other potential markets include Residential properties worried about moisture, indoor pool areas, apartment complexes, restaurants and walk-in coolers and freezers, OneEvent's announcement noted.
The temperature and humidity sensor has capabilities in OneEvent's fire detection analytics. "In all NFPA regulations, you have to maintain a particular distance between the cooking apparatus and where the smoke alarm is," Parent said. "We want to put the temperature/humidity [sensor] right over the stove." This would help the analytics engine understand whether smoke could be related to cooking.
"It's incredible; the power of measuring the data and being able to couple that measured data to the individual who impacts the building to create the data," Parent said. OneEvent's also has a multi-sensor smoke/temperature alarm, door/window sensor, multi-sensor presence detector and water sensor.
Honeywell announced today that it has appointed Richard (Rich) Lattanzi as the president of Honeywell's global security business and Dino Koutrouki as the president of Honeywell's global fire business.
In their new leadership roles, Lattanzi and Koutrouki will drive greater customer focus, the press release read, and both will continue to report to Michael Flink, president of Honeywell Security and Fire.
"Serving our customers and growing our business are at the core of everything we do in our security and fire businesses," Flink said in the announcement. "Having two independent teams focused on their business will bring us closer to our customers, maximizing our core strengths and enabling increased efficiencies. I am confident that Rich and Dino will drive performance in their respective businesses to better serve our customers."
As the new president of security, Lattanzi will be responsible for all operations, business strategy and growth for the global security business. He previously served as the vice president and general manager for Honeywell Security and Fire Americas, and prior to that held the position of global vice president and general manager for buildings within Honeywell's Environmental & Energy Solutions (E&ES). Lattanzi joined Honeywell through the acquisition of Elster, where he was president of the global thermal solutions business.
As the new president of fire, Koutrouki will be responsible for all operations, business strategy and growth for the global fire business. He previously served as the vice president and general manager for Honeywell Security and Fire EMEA, and prior to that held the position of vice president and general manager for the Honeywell Scanning and Mobility APAC organization. Koutrouki joined Honeywell as part of the EMS Technologies acquisition, and held a variety of leadership roles across the company.
Honeywell Security and Fire is part of the Home and Building Technologies strategic business group.
Each year, Security Systems News features notable women throughout the industry and we'd really like to hear from you about women we should feature this year.
This has been a great way to highlight women making a name for themselves, to hear about their businesses and focuses, and learn how far the industry has come in terms of diversity and including women in key roles through the physical security space.
One woman is typically featured in each section of our publication—General News, Commercial and Systems Integrators, Monitoring and Residential. If you have a woman in mind, please nominate them by emailing our editor, Paul Ragusa, at [email protected].
By clicking here, you can read about the women featured last year.
BOCA RATON, Fla.—Red Hawk Fire & Security, a provider of fire, life safety and security services based here, is providing resources and integrated systems expertise as a charter donor for the command and control center at the new National Sport Security Laboratory (NSSL) at the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security (NCS4) on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.
The lab officially opened on Sept. 1, bringing to life NCS4's vision to be the world's foremost academic research institution to address sport safety and security risks and threats. Since its inception in 2006, the NCS4 has worked to address the evolving security challenges of the growing $60-billion U.S. sports industry through quality training, research, technology assessments, certifications and professional development.
The new lab is designed to test, evaluate and showcase vendor neutral safety and security solutions as well as to assist the training, research and development needs of venue operators and security professionals at sports settings globally.
"Red Hawk is well-equipped to bring our practical, hands-on experience integrating systems at several prominent stadiums and arenas to enhance the efforts of NCS4 as they do the important work of responding to this significant community safety concern," Rick Tampier, Red Hawk's senior director of sales and product strategy, said in the announcement.
Daniel Ward, the director of the National Laboratory and Training Center, describes the new facility as a living laboratory that gives students, academia, industry and government a place to research and learn.
"The center incorporates cutting-edge technology which provides the university with capabilities to gather, process, analyze, display and disseminate planning and operations data for research and training," said Ward.
The NSSL's new center now connects to the numerous sport facilities on the University of Southern Mississippi's Hattiesburg campus allowing researchers and solutions providers to immerse themselves in a real-life sports safety and security environment.
"Connecting our athletic facilities as part of our laboratory provides amazing opportunities for our students," Dr. Lou Marciani, NCS4 director, said in the announcement. "They will be able to work with professional, intercollegiate, interscholastic and marathon sports organizations and facilities to test theories, translate lessons learned and best practices into real-world solutions while also building the sports safety and security profession for the future."
NCS4 recently earned accreditation for its Certified Sport Security Professional (CSSP) certification program from the American National Standards Institute Personal Certification Accreditation Program (ANSI). CSSP is the nation's first professional security credential designed for those responsible for the planning and overall security operations of sports venues and events.
KANSAS CITY, Kan.—Earlier this week StoneLock, a biometrics company focused on designing and manufacturing access control and identity management solutions, announced that Jim Trani is the company's CTO.
"My job, basically, is to create that vision of what we need to do to take us out of our advanced startup mode into a full-blown, high-tech producer, and to implement that," Trani told Security Systems News.
StoneLock's readers use near-infrared light to see multiple layers of a persons face. "We process a near-infrared image, and from that, we derive our biometric data that is used for match on subsequent verification," Trani said. This process is completed at an edge device, as opposed to leveraging surveillance cameras and servers, he noted.
"[Biometrics] has never really made the inroads that I think it could make. And, I think our introduction of near-infrared, and the performance we get from that, and bringing it out to the edge like we do, really allows facial recognition to emerge as the gold standard for biometrics," Trani said.
He continued, "I believe that over the next three to five years, with the way we've structured ourselves, biometrics can be in every household, and it can affect your life in many more ways than just being a mechanism to get you through a door at some institutional facility."
Trani has "40 years of experience in research and development of engineering solutions," the announcement noted. Trani previously worked with Tyco, Pelco, Infographic Systems and Compass Technologies/Wheelock.
StoneLock was started in 2012. The company, based here, has about 40 employees globally.
Demand for security cameras in the U.S. is projected to increase 7.2 percent annually through 2021 to $2.8 billion, according to a new report entitled Video Surveillance Equipment Market in the U.S. from The Freedonia Group, a Cleveland-based research firm.
The company found that gains will result from a variety of factors that support replacement demand and sales of higher value, upgraded versions, including:• Ongoing product advancements in camera technology.• Increasing affordability of cameras with expanded features, such as internal recording capabilities.• Continued shift toward upgrading existing legacy analog systems to either IP or HD analog systems in order to utilize more feature-rich cameras and systems.• Rising interest in higher value, more niche camera types—such as thermal or explosion resistant—as their prices continue to come down, which will work to expand the base of installed cameras.
In 2016, dome cameras accounted for the largest share of video surveillance camera demand with 42 percent, the report found. "Sales of these products have benefited from developments over the past decade, such as increased durability and higher resolutions," the press release read. "This has allowed for broader use of dome cameras in both indoor and outdoor applications. Dome camera sales have also gained from the rising use of cameras indoors, where these constructions are still highly popular due to their discreet appearance."
Through 2021, sales of all video surveillance products are projected to increase 5.6 percent annually to $4.9 billion, according to the Freedonia Group, which noted that growth "will be driven by the increasing affordability of feature-rich systems that incorporate enhanced capabilities, which will work to expand the base of end users that choose to install video surveillance systems and spur replacement and upgrade demand among existing users."
I am very excited to announce Security Systems News' Cloud+ 2017 conference education program, which can be found here. The show is Nov. 28-29, and back at the beautiful and relaxing Lost Pines Resort in the tech-savvy city of Austin, Texas.
This year's education program is expanded, as we strive to be the education destination for those who are pioneering within the cloud community, which is revolutionizing security today.
As you look through this year's program it will quickly become apparent that "Selling the Cloud" is an underlying theme for the conference, as sessions will look at how integrators, specifiers, dealers, suppliers—anyone looking to increase revenue and profits while providing cost-effective solutions with a high ROI—are leveraging cloud technology and computing with great success. Some of the leading integrators in the industry will uncover how they are transitioning from the traditional sales model to a more managed services model that increases RMR and lowers creation cost.
And subject matter experts from the leading cloud solution and services providers in the industry will not only be there on panels to share best practices and the latest advances and research, but also many will be exhibiting, so you can dive in deeper and get face to face with the top cloud companies working in security today.
There are also cloud-centered sessions looking at the rise of smarter, safer cities and the potential there for the security industry; cybersecurity in the cloud; how to hire IT-savvy employees who can talk cloud; and much more!
Click here to view the program and to register.
Here at Security Systems News, we cover a variety of topics related to the physical security industry. As a result, we get to track trends in the industry; we see when they first come up and we see when they become more prevalent. The matter of false alarms is one that I can say I've been watching since I started with SSN.
Some municipalities have sought to fine alarm companies for users' false alarms. In late 2014, shortly after I joined the publication, I was speaking with the Security Industry Alarm Coalition about the City of Chico, Calif., that passed an ordinance like this. The city then revised the ordinance after a response from SIAC and California Alarm Association.
More recently, Sandy Springs, Ga., also looked to bring fines for false alarms to the dealers.
California has now stepped in to stop alarm companies in the state from being fined for false alarms that the installation or the equipment didn't directly cause. Read more about that here.
Security Systems News' latest monthly News Poll asks about whether false alarm ordinances, particularly the ones that fine alarm dealers and installers, pose a large problem for the industry. Feel free to weigh in on that here. Additionally, feel free to share your thoughts on the best methods for reducing false alarms.
Different areas have taken different approaches to false alarms. In 2015, New Orleans considered outsourcing alarm fine collections to CryWolf, which specializes in issuing and collecting fines, permit fees, and compiling alarm system data. This is a practice that SIAC recommends.
Back in 2014, I spoke with another SIAC's, Steve Keefer, about an interesting approach: using volunteers to reduce false alarm dispatches. These were "regular citizens that just want to help out in the community," Keefer said, by notifying repeat false alarm offenders and discussing ways to reduce false alarms.
The global smart home market is forecast to exceed $14 billion in 2017, with 10 percent of homes globally being smart by 2025, according to an IHS Markit report published this week.
"The smart home market has seen significant growth since 2010, when fewer than 0.5 percent of homes in the Americas region had connected devices such as thermostats, lighting, security and entertainment," Blake Kozak, principal analyst, IHS Technology, said in a summary of the report. "By the end of 2017, nearly 7 percent of households in the region will have a connected home, averaging six devices per home."
According to IHS, The global market for smart homes is currently worth $14.7 billion, with the Americas region representing 48 percent of global revenues, and by 2021, the EMEA region will represent the largest portion of device revenue with a 42 percent global share.
"When excluding large ticket items, such as major appliances, the global market size for smart home devices is forecast to be worth $3.3 billion by the end of 2017, reaching $9.4 billion in 2021," Kozak noted. "Although the EMEA and Americas regions are expected to represent more than 70 percent of revenues for smart devices over the next five years, Asia is expected to dominate in terms of unit shipments. In 2021, the Asia region is expected to represent about 46 percent of unit shipments. Leading the unit shipments in Asia in 2021 will include light bulbs, air quality sensors and video cameras."
The report also found that the top five players account for 36 percent of revenue in the space, including Nest, Amazon, Honeywell, Xiaomi and Netgear, who rounded out the top five for smart home revenue accounting for 36 percent in 2016 when excluding appliances. The top five players for unit shipments in 2016 accounted for 34 percent of global unit shipments and included Xiaomi, Amazon, Honeywell, Nest and Koninklijke Philips N.V.
"Globally, 19 manufacturers had more than 500,000 annual smart home device shipments in 2016," said Kosak, while "46 manufacturers had more than $10 million in revenue in 2016, when excluding appliances."
The top smart home devices to watch in terms of unit shipment growth include radiator valves, air quality sensors, smart speakers and appliances.
"Home audio (smart speakers) will continue to be one of the most disruptive trends in smart home through 2021," Kosak pointed out. "The primary reason voice assistants in the smart home will gain significant traction across all three regions is the ability for these devices to aggregate disparate systems. So instead of using five different mobile applications in order to control the smart home features, voice can be used to aggregate all control, reducing the need to interact with a mobile device once the product is setup."
Although appliances were the fourth largest device type in terms of unit shipments in 2016, they will be the most shipped device type in 2021, according to IHS, which noted that many appliances are already embedded with Wi-Fi capabilities that only need to be turned on by the manufacturer.
ADR Security, a full-service electronic and physical security provider based in New York City, on Aug. 11 announced a new business: ADR Security Monitoring, a joint venture with Security Partners that caters to the specific security needs of high-end jewelers in New York City.
ADR Security services about 4,500 individual sites, offering intercom, intrusion, electronic access, video surveillance, fire and life safety, locksmith and AV cabling among other services. The business, by sales, is 90 percent commercial with 10 percent in high-end residential.
"What we were trying to do was figure out a way to go to market with a solution in the jewelry industry," Peter Goldring, EVP and COO of ADR Security, told Security Systems News. ADR found that working with Security Partners provided the best outcome. "We're going to be able to issue central station certificates here in the New York market, serviced out of New York," said Goldring.
Security Partners operates four redundant, UL listed, TMA Five Diamond monitoring centers throughout the United States; in Lancaster, Pa., Anaheim, Calif., San Antonio and Las Vegas.
Goldring described ADR Security Monitoring as "an extension of a retail business that still has very deep roots into the wholesale, third party business. And, it—of course—will afford the opportunity for the other third party dealers to work with ADR Security monitoring, to partner with us, to issue certificates where necessary."
This business differs from that of a traditional alarm dealer-monitoring center relationship. "ADRSM is the full-circle approach, the operator is able to take service requests, is able to dispatch the runner. Everything is in house, under the roof of Security Partners' facilities, helping us with the day-to-day operation of the business. So, it really is a much more intense relationship, but it truly is a partnership," Goldring said.
"We believe there is a huge, underserved market for certificate service – bigger than ever before – and this is a great opportunity for us to partner with a strong, independent and financially solid company like ADR Security," Patrick Egan, founder of Security Partners, said in a prepared statement.
ADRSM's announcement mentioned the possibility of expanding after establishing a presense in New York's Diamond District, and the company is exploring locations for its next markets. "The next two most significant markets are in California, in Los Angeles, … and then of course there's a fairly large industry in Las Vegas, with a number of jewelry stores and high-end boutiques that often requires the certifications," Goldring said. "Those are probably the next areas that we'll jump into."
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P.T. Barnum is oft attributed with the quote, "There is no such thing as bad publicity" (a phrase which has been turned several ways in the past hundred-odd years). It might be a truism, but sometimes it's hard to read the headlines.
I Won't Let My Son Die
That's what the headline of the July 2nd issue of People Magazine reads on its cover. The line is below a photo of recently diagnosed Jack Osbourne and his talk show host mother. Many, MANY in the MS community are outraged at such a quote, but it is important to note that the headline is not in quotation marks.
I have to save any admonition for the editors of the tabloid rag rather than for a concerned mother. (Bad People Magazine. Bad, BAD People Magazine!). Nowhere in the text of the featured article does Sharon Osbourne come across with such alarm. Rather – a cancer survivor herself – Mrs Osbourne is quoted as saying "God gives good to you, and then he kicks you in the ass and you have to pick yourself up and move on".
That sounds much more like a woman who has faced health issues than the ill attributed headline offers.
The article itself was pretty well written. Only a few things came across as suspect in my reading. Most notably the statement by author Jennifer Garcia that "…tests revealed a [my emphasis] lesion on his brain." We all know that one lesion does not a diagnosis make.
All of us struggle with the image of our disease. "You look so good" "Oh, your life was just getting going" and the like are daily slings and arrows for people living with MS. People didn't do any of us any favors in headlining the issue with ill-informed statements of death.
Still, there are many positive aspects to me noted.
Cover attention in a national mag is hardly a bad thing for the cause. Mr Osbourne himself represented the disease far better than most of us could have at that stage in our course (if even now) when he was a guest on mom's TV program The Talk.
Many in the MS community are calling for Jack Osbourne to be our "Lance Armstrong" or our "Michael J Fox". I say, let Jack be a father. Let him be a husband. Let Jack Osbourne be a newly diagnosed person who learns about his version of this crazy disease. Let him understand what he can and cannot do. No One should be asked to pick up the weighty banner of our cause just three months after hearing the words, "You have Multiple Sclerosis".
A public life does not require (from me, at least) public coping.
If and when he is ready to help where he best can, we will welcome Jack as our guy. Until then, I wish the entire Osbourne family well as they learn how to navigate a new landscape they had never anticipated.
I close, for those who reeled at People's handling of the cover, with a quote more pertinent, in my view, than that which I opened.
"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about." Oscar Wilde
Wishing you and your family the best of health.
Don't forget that you can also follow me via our Life With MS Facebook page, on Twitter, and our new group on MS Connection.org. Check out our bi-monthly blog for the UK and look for our Very Special new monthly blog for the National MS Society.


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12 Apr / Gluten-Free Easter Breakfast
If you prefer to prepare your own Easter Sunday breakfast, there's a great healthy option for you to try – gluten-free waffles with fresh fruit. It's rich, decadent and totally healthy. Even better, it's simple to create!
Here's the scoop:
-Use Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Pancake mix.
-Be sure to use organic/vegetarian fed eggs.
-Try unsweetened almond milk as a healthy milk option. I love Blue Diamond Natural.
-Add organic frozen blueberries (like Cascadian Farm) or fresh strawberries. You can add these to the mix, or serve on the side.
-Slather with Smart Balance butter and organic maple syrup.
-Serve wit herbal tea – peppermint is a fantastic option.
Happy Easter & Happy Eating!