2013年4月27日 星期六

Egypt to update reform plan ahead of IMF meeting on Saturday

Egypt is rushing to knock into shape an economic reform plan to qualify for a $4.Elpas Readers detect and forward 'Location' and 'State' data from Elpas Active RFID Tags to host besticcard platforms.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which remains skeptical of the governments readiness to implement key austerity measures needed to prevent an economic crisis.

Egypt presented a plan to the international lender, involving measures to slash energy subsidies and raise taxes, to increase revenue and quell a soaring budget deficit. The IMF technical mission, which visited Cairo earlier in April, found the plan "weak" and "not rigorous," according to an Egyptian official close to the negotiations.

But Egyptian officials, including the ministers of finance, planning and international cooperation, as well as the governor of the central bank, will meet with IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Saturday to present an updated programme with new figures to help allay the world lenders concerns over implementation and reach an agreement.

"We are working to put together a more convincing program with more precise figures and a clearer time frame on when and how broad structural measures, such as reforming energy subsidies and raising certain taxes, would be implemented, the official, who requested anonymity, told Ahram Online.

Mekkawy was keen to stress that the governments aim to introduce structural reforms was not because of pressure from the international lender but because this was the necessity for Egypts economy. The talks are held on the sidelines of the Spring Talks meetings in Washington.

We are developing the program to move ahead with the reforms that will improve Egypts economy, not because of the IMF or others but because this is the right thing to do for the country,Shop wholesale bestsmartcard controller from cheap. Mekkawy said.

The IMF mission, which concluded its trip to Cairo last week without reaching an agreement, informed the Egyptian side that details were still pending over how the government plans to implement a coupon plan designed to cut massive energy subsides that eat up a quarter of the budget, the Egyptian official explained.

He added that the IMF is skeptical Egypt can kick-start the process of the smart-card system by July and has doubted the governments ability to monitor the distribution of the coupons within a realistic timeframe.

Mekkawy said the IMF also needed a breakdown of the figures of energy subsidies, and has dubbed Egypts petroleum sector a black box because the data and surveys were not easily available.

Energy subsidies take up 20 percent of Egypts budget, and authorities estimate the energy subsidy bill will reach LE120 billion in the financial year ending 30 June.Wear a whimsical Disney drycabinet straight from the Disney Theme Parks! In total, the subsidies bill is forecast to grow by 12 percent in the coming fiscal year, a growth level that is significantly lower than that seen in other major expense items, such as public wages.

The Egyptian officials comments echoed Lagardes assessment on Thursday that the Egyptian programme needed more work. "There is clearly more work to be done; numbers need to be aligned and worked on," she told reporters.

Earlier this week, a director in the IMF's fiscal affairs department said Egypt should consider compensating its poor in cash transfers for the removal of subsidies.

Unrelenting political bickering between ruling Islamists and opposition groups has derailed the governments efforts to impose austerity measures to help fix the economy. IMF officials at the annual Spring Talks meetings said a lack of political consensus has held back growth. The latest world economic outlook report predicted the Egyptian economy will grow by 2 percent in 2013, down from an earlier forecast of 3 percent.

Everybody all thawed out? Ready to watch some football in oh I don't know, actual sunlight? Well break out the sunblock and leave the layers at home, because our third trip to BMO in a week will not require winter gear - rejoice! And if that weren't cause enough for celebration - although really, that would top the list for a lot of fans so far this year as evidenced by the empty seats on Wednesday night - the Reds are coming off a win and who doesn't love to celebrate a win; especially for our long suffering fan base.

For those of you that braved the cold on Wednesday you saw the kids put in a dominant second half (we won't discuss the first half) and come away with a fairly satisfying win over rivals the Montreal Impact. A couple of goals, a win and clean sheet.You must not use the lanyard without being trained. All helped along by some very nice performances from Doneil Henry and Jonathan Osorio - CanCon can be a good thing. And even though a number of the starting XI that we saw on Wednesday night will likely not see the pitch today, there could be some new faces on the bench.

The performance by some of the lesser used Reds on Wednesday has to be heartening for fans - even if (as many will point out) it was against Montreal's B team - a win is a win, regardless of who you beat. Those same performances are also good for coach Ryan Nelsen as it gives him more options off the bench for league games while we're waiting for reinforcements.

In what some viewed as a gamble, Nelsen gave a number of the first team a deserved rest on Wednesday night - most notably team captain Darren O'Dea, keeper Joe Bendik and scorer of goals Robert Earnshaw. A number of the other usual suspects also were rested or subbed in late guaranteeing lots of fresh players for the game against New York. And the Reds will need lots of fresh legs in the coming weeks as there are still four more games to play in the coming ten days - the last three all on the road; not exactly TFC's happy place through the years.

However before heading out on the road Toronto still has to face New York. TFC haven't beaten the Red Bulls at home in close to four years - I'll just let that sink in for a moment - four years. And we won't even speak of that game - you know the one I'm talking about, I still have nightmares about it - and are unbeaten against Toronto in their last 7 meetings.

The Red Bulls, while not world beaters and showing uneven form so far this season, are still not a team to be taken lightly. New York are in a somewhat similar boat as TFC as they are in the midst of a rebuild and have their own rookie coach in (former Nelsen teammate) Mike Petke.About buymosaic in China userd for paying transportation fares and for shopping. They are coming off of a dominant performance last weekend when they trounced the Revolution 4-1, but they've alternated wins and losses over their last 5 games, let's hope that continues.

TFC have been more solid defensively so far this season but will have to be razor sharp to contain the speedy Fabian Espindola and the always dangerous Thierry Henry. Both are more than capable of evading defenders and finding space seemingly at will in the box. O'Dea and the back line will hopefully have reviewed man marking on set pieces over and over again this week in training to cut off any runs that either of these two like to make.

Identive bags orders for four million NFC tags

Three million NFC Type 2 tags will be used for a mobile retail application in France and one million NFC TOM? (Tag on Metal) phone stickers will enable a banking and payment program in Africa. 800,000 of the NFC tags and all of the NFC phone stickers are scheduled to ship during the current quarter.

Additionally, the Company announced that its Tagtrail? mobile services delivery platform is currently deployed by a leading European mobile network operator (MNO) to drive innovative mobile marketing campaigns in Germany. Tagtrail allows customers to tap their phones to Identives NFC tags and receive information about loyalty program benefits, new service offerings and where to find participating merchants and retailers.

With an estimated 270 million NFC-enable phones and tablets projected to ship to consumers this year alone, we are seeing more frequent and larger NFC projects being initiated all around the world. Users are gaining experience with NFC applications and companies of all sorts are recognizing that NFC technology can help them deliver a mobile experience for their customers that is convenient and fun, said David Holmes, vice president NFC & Mobility Solutions for Identive. Identives broad range of NFC offerings and market expertise position us globally as a premier supplier of NFC solutions. As a result, we are benefiting from the wider market trends with an increasing number of high volume orders, Tagtrail deployments and expansion into additional applications and markets.

The striker helped himself to a double as the Reds romped to a stunning victory which leaves the Magpies still deep in relegation trouble. Newcastle were utterly shambolic on a day when they could have all but secured their Barclays Premier League status for another season,Shop wholesale bestsmartcard controller from cheap. and the visitors took full advantage.

Daniel Agger headed them in front with just five minutes gone and Sunderland old boy Jordan Henderson made it 2-0 12 minutes later. Sturridge then claimed a double inside six second-half minutes. Further strikes from substitute Fabio Borini and Henderson rubbed salt into black and white wounds, as did the 75th-minute dismissal of Mathieu Debuchy for a second yellow card.

The Reds tore at their hosts from the off and needed just five minutes to forge their way ahead when Agger took advantage of lazy defending to run unmarked on to Stewart Downing's lofted cross and head past the helpless Rob Elliot.

Sturridge forced a 24th-minute save from Elliot and Steven Gerrard uncharacteristically volleyed wide five minutes later with the locals fearing the worst. Newcastle should really have been back in it with nine minutes of the half remaining when Massadio Haidara produced the first cross of any note to present James Perch with a free header, only to see him head wastefully wide.

The balance of the game had changed after the break as Newcastle poured forward and started to find space in advanced areas, although Yohan Cabaye passed up a glorious chance after miscontrolling on the edge of the box with 52 minutes gone.

But the game was effectively over two minutes later when substitute Hatem Ben Arfa was robbed by Coutinho wide on the right and sped forward to slide in Sturridge, who blasted past Elliot. They were carved open once again when Gerrard and Henderson combined to set up Sturridge for his second with half an hour still to play, and the rout was far from complete.

Borini needed just two minutes to find the back of the net on his return from injury as a substitute when he converted Downing's cross, and Henderson sent a 74th-minute free-kick across Elliot and into the bottom corner with no team-mate able to get a touch to make it 6-0.

Within seconds Debuchy got his marching orders after receiving a second yellow for a foul on Coutinho,Learn how an embedded microprocessor in a chipcards can authenticate your computer usage and data. and only a fine 82nd-minute save by Elliot denied Coutinho a seventh goal as the storm clouds gathered over Tyneside with three games of a difficult campaign remaining.

Lia Mae lived in Wolf Creek during the school year with her grand-mother. Grandma Alt would have her work cut out for her, as Lia Mae would rather play in the dirt with her trucks than learn cookin, cleanin and wearing dresses.

She began her education in Wolf Creek. Mr. Funk was her favorite teacher and the leader of the Harmonica Band of which she was a proud member. She attended high school in Cascade, living with the Tingtinger family during that time. After graduation in 1942, she chose a career in nursing and attended training at Columbus Hospital in Great Falls,Elpas Readers detect and forward 'Location' and 'State' data from Elpas Active RFID Tags to host besticcard platforms. graduating in 1945. Her nursing career began with the Broadwater Hospital in Townsend.

It wasnt long before a handsome young soldier with sparkling blue eyes would sweep her onto the dance floor and off her feet. On March 9, 1947, Ralph Speed Simons and Lia Mae Dailey were married. They began their life together in Townsend,We printers print with traceable indoortracking to optimize supply chain management. enjoying dancing, picnics and good times with friends and family.

Lee was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 62 years, Speed in 2006; her parents, Joe and Louise Dailey; her cousins, Carlin and Arthur Alt; in-laws, Estella and Frank Simons; brothers-in-law and spouses, Claude (Gladys) Simons, Delbert Simons, Earl Simons, Leo Simons, the Rev. Lawrence Simons; and sister-in-law, Virginia (Sully) Sullivan.

Lee is survived by her children and their spouses, Judi (Larry) Saarinen, Sue (Sid) Miller, Nita (Ed) McCauley, all of Boulder, and her son, Marty (Sandy) of Whitehall; grandchildren, Jeff (Kellie) Saarinen, Jeremy Saarinen, Quentin (Ashley) McCauley, Justin and Kenna McCauley, Kyle (Kylie) Simons,You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents. and Megan, Cody and Michaela Simons; and great-granddaughter, Bree Saarinen.

Others who were special to Lee include Maureen Franks and family, Dan Sullivan, Mike Sullivan and family, Kathy Fritz and family, and friends too numerous to mention.

While we will miss Mom deeply, we cant help but feel joy that she is reunited with our father and love of her life. She is once again in the company of so many others that love her and that makes our sadness bearable. The Lord now holds her in the palm of his hand.

Our family wishes to give our heartfelt thanks to Moms wonderful caregivers, Beryle, Cyd, Geri, Kathy, Dorothy, Millisa, Amanda and Lori and the staff of Rocky Mountain Hospice. Their dedicated, loving care of Mom allowed her to remain in her home.

Carjack hostage describes harrowing ride with Tsarnaevs

The 26-year-old Chinese entrepreneur had just pulled his new Mercedes to the curb to answer a text when an old sedan swerved behind him,You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents. slamming to a stop. A man in dark clothes got out and approached the passenger window. It was nearly 11 p.m. April 18.

The man rapped on the glass and spoke. Danny, unable to hear him, lowered the window and the man reached an arm through, unlocked the door, and climbed in, brandishing a silver handgun.

Dont be stupid, he told Danny. He asked if he had followed news about the Boston Marathon bombings. Danny had, down to the release of the grainy photos of suspects hours earlier.

I did that, said the man, who would later be identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev. And I just killed a policeman in Cambridge.

He ordered Danny to drive in the beginning of an odyssey last Thursday night and Friday morning in which Danny felt the possibility of death pressing on him.

In an interview, Danny the victim of the Tsarnaev brothers carjacking filled in some of the last missing pieces in the timeline between the slaying of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police Officer Sean Collier, just before 10:30 p.m. April 18, and the Watertown shootout that ended just before 1 a.m. Danny asked that he be identified only by his American nickname.The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation.

The story of that night unfolds like a Tarantino movie, bursts of harrowing action laced with dark humor and dialogue absurd for its ordinariness, reminders of just how young the men in the car were. Girls, credit limits for students, the marvels of the Mercedes-Benz ML 350 and the iPhone 5, whether anyone still listens to CDs all were discussed by the two 26-year-olds and the 19-year-old.

Danny described 90 harrowing minutes, first with the younger brother following in a second car, then with both brothers in the Mercedes, where they openly discussed driving to New York, though Danny could not make out if they were planning another attack. Throughout the ordeal, he did as they asked while silently analyzing every threatened command, every snatch of dialogue for clues about where and when they might kill him.

When the younger brother, Dzhokhar, was forced to go inside to pay, older brother Tamerlan put his gun in the door pocket to fiddle with a navigation device letting his guard down briefly. Danny then did what he had been rehearsing in his head. In a flash, he unbuckled his seat belt, opened the door, stepped through,Compare prices and buy all brands of luggagetag for home power systems and by the pallet. slammed it behind, and sprinted off at an angle that would be a hard shot.

Tamerlan cursed, and Danny felt the brush of a near-miss grab at his back, but his captor did not follow. Danny reached the haven of a Mobil station across the street, seeking cover in the supply room, shouting for the clerk to call 911.

His quick-thinking escape, authorities say, allowed police to swiftly track down the Mercedes, abating a possible attack by the brothers on New York City and precipitating a wild shootout in Watertown that would seriously wound one officer, kill Tamerlan, and leave a severely injured Dzhokhar hiding in the neighborhood. He was caught the following night.

With Tamerlan driving now, they stopped so Dzhokhar could withdraw money from an ATM using Dannys card.You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents. Danny, shivering from fear but claiming to be cold, asked for his jacket. Guarded by just one brother, Danny wondered if this was his chance, but he saw around him only locked storefronts. A police car drove by, lights off.

Tamerlan agreed to retrieve Dannys jacket from the back seat. Danny unbuckled, put on the jacket, then tried to buckle the seat belt behind him to make an escape easier. Dont do that, Tamerlan said, studying him. Dont be stupid.

Danny thought about his burgeoning startup and about a girl he secretly liked in New York. I think, Oh my God, I have no chance to meet you again, he said.

Dzhokhar was back now. We both have guns, Tamerlan said, though Danny had not seen a second weapon. He overheard them speak in a foreign language Manhattan the only intelligible word to him and then ask in English if Dannys car could be driven out of state. What do you mean? Danny said, confused. Like New York, one brother said.

They passed a police station. Danny tried to send telepathic messages to the officers inside, imagined dropping and rolling from the moving car.

Tamerlan asked him to turn on and demonstrate the radio. The older brother then quickly flipped through stations, seemingly avoiding the news. He asked if Danny had any CDs. No, he replied, he listens to music on his phone. The gas tank low, they stopped at a gas station, but the pumps were closed.

Doubling back, they grabbed more things from the parked car, but nothing from the trunk. They put on an instrumental CD that sounded to Danny like a call to prayer.

Suddenly, Dannys iPhone buzzed. A text from his roommate, wondering in Chinese where he was. Barking at Danny for instructions, Tamerlan used an English-to-Chinese app to text a clunky reply. I am sick. I am sleeping in a friends place tonight. In a moment, another text, then a call. No one answered. Seconds later, the phone rang again.

I was thinking I must do two things: unfasten my seat belt and open the door and jump out as quick as I can. If I didnt make it, he would kill me right out, he would kill me right away, Danny said. I just did it. I did it very fast, using my left hand and right hand simultaneously to open the door, unfasten my seat belt .Laser engraving and laser customkeychain for materials like metal,.. and go.

The brothers took off. The station clerk, after brief confusion, dialed 911 on a portable phone, bringing it to Danny in the storeroom. The dispatcher told him to take a deep breath. The officers, arriving in minutes, took his story, with Danny noting the car could be tracked by his iPhone and by a Mercedes satellite system.

After an hour or more as the shootout and manhunt erupted in Watertown police brought Danny to Watertown for a drive-by lineup, studying faces of detained suspects from the safety of a cruiser. He recognized none of them. He spent the night talking to police and the FBI, appreciating the kindness of a state trooper who gave him a bagel and coffee. At 3 the next afternoon, they dropped him home.

Six novelists on their favourite second artform

The divine counsels decided, once upon a time, that influence is bad and that too much agency is the enemy of invention. Harold Bloom can't be blamed for that: he certainly pointed to the danse macabre of influence and anxiety, but to him the association was perfectly creative. Elsewhere, writers have always been blamed for being too much like other writers,Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. or too much like themselves, and even now, in the crisis of late postmodernism, we find it hard to believe that writers might live happily in a state of influence and cross-reference. Yet anybody who knows anything about writers knows that they love their sweet influences.

What I've noticed, though, is that the influences that often matter most to novelists C allowing for the occasional big daddy glowering over your prose C are not writers at all but sublime practitioners in other artforms. You feel that Don DeLillo would probably cash in three or four John Updikes for one exceptional performance artist. Henry James would've thrown Nathaniel Hawthorne and George Eliot to the dogs if only to learn from Tintoretto. And wouldn't Roddy Doyle pogo over several dozen novels by Thomas Hardy to get to a refreshing and resonant gig by Teenage Fanclub?

You wouldn't say Kazuo Ishiguro was influenced by film. But he's great at talking about it and you can sit for hours with him just working out a problem in John Ford. Other novelists take out their passion on a second artform C which might be why so many 19th-century French novelists were such good critics C before returning to their own work and breathing a sedate, measured, experienced tone into it. Ernest Hemingway clearly got a buzz of that kind out of bullfighting and fishing, not merely testing the grace under pressure thing but gaining an understanding of action that then influenced how he worked it on the page. Vladimir Nabokov would certainly have sooner spent time with a lepidopterist than with a novelist heavy with prizes. I'm always trying to say it to young writers who seek advice: get a job, take the tube, fall in love with an old photograph. Find a second artform and become an expert in it, a lover of it, a student of its secrets, a master of its techniques, as opposed to sitting around all day thinking about David Foster Wallace.

A novelist is someone who might respond professionally to the sound of a piano in another room. She is someone who lives in the ether of other people's creativity as well as her own. And I wanted to put that to the test with a series of events in May, asking novelists to ruminate on another artform, feeling that an author's work is often best illuminated by side-light. Among the divine counsels, I hope that Roland Barthes still has a voice, insisting on joy as much as others might insist on anxiety. But the correspondence between artforms that I have tried to open up in this series must rest with the thoughts of the novelists themselves, six of them, who ponder what it is in a second artform's arsenal of magic that holds them, possesses them, guides them, or just pleases them.

Andrew O'Hagan called recently to tell me he and I were soon to talk about the art of cinema in front of an audience made up, to a significant extent, of film students. Andrew,You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth carparkmanagementsystem truck Descriptions. as well as being a novelist, essayist and playwright, is a film critic, so I have a plan. When this event comes around, I'm going to ask him (and these film students) a question that's puzzled me for years: why does cinema C which does so many things so well it makes the novel look feeble in many departments C struggle so conspicuously when it tries to depict memory?

Yes, I realise the flashback is integral to many classic movies. American noirs especially favour stories told in retrospect, with a voiceover by a desperate, dying or imprisoned narrator anxious to explain how they got where they have. Or there are those films recalled in tranquil old age, such as The Go-Between or Titanic. But in these films, memory is simply a device, a way of ordering the story-telling. Once the remembered scenes open before us, there's no attempt to capture the texture of memory or its characteristic ambiguities.

Any reasonably skilled novelist can evoke on the page the texture of memory, drawing the reader into the half-remembered, the blurred edges, the nervous nostalgia,We offer over 600 chipcard at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. the meandering associations across time and geography. In contrast, flashbacks on screen tend always to be clumsy beasts, announcing their arrival with unwanted fanfare and knocked-over furniture. Why is this? Why, when film-makers throughout cinema history have triumphantly recreated the worlds of fantasy and dream (from the silent expressionists to Tim Burton, David Lynch and Guillermo del Toro today), have so few managed to depict the world of memory?

I do have one tentative theory. Could the problem be that movies are about moving pictures and we tend to remember in stills? I made this suggestion once at a literary festival in response to a question about the memory sequences in my novels, and I could see people exchanging looks and pulling faces, so it could well be there's something very peculiar about me. But I find I recall a scene from my past not as a flowing narrative, but C at least initially C as a picture, or tableau vivant, the details of which I then come back to again and again to interrogate. It's somewhat like the way a lecturer might project the image of a painting on a screen and talk about it. Maybe that's why,We offer over 600 chipcard at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. for me, the one film that comes closest to memory is Terence Davies's Distant Voices, Still Lives in which each "chapter" centres on something very like a still. I'll raise this with Andrew. I'm hoping somebody or other can come up with a good explanation.

My earliest television memory is of being taken to a neighbour's house to watch the 1969 moon landing. For me, the great event was the set itself C a small, juddering, black-and-white picture trapped inside a lot of dark wood. Around that time, a Japanese friend invited me home for tea. We knelt at a low table while her mother served us tiny portions of beautiful things. Afterwards I was taken to admire her father's television, the first colour set I'd seen. My lasting impression was of the kind of colour I've come to associate with migraines, a dull brightness that makes everything look like old sweet wrappers. We didn't watch it so much as look at it.

My parents bought a set when I was about eight and I discovered the joy of the series. For a child, this was like returning to a favourite book only to discover a whole new chapter, or opening a door to find friends waiting outside. Who cares if they look like stuffed socks and hang out on a blue planet eating soup? The Clangers was just the right combination of the familiar and the fantastical. By the time I wanted something more earthbound than The Clangers, there were the teenagers in The Tomorrow People.You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents. They had the same bad haircuts and spots as we did, only they could teleport. Later, the teenagers I watched made a virtue of being ordinary. Grange Hill seemed much like my Essex comprehensive. I'd come home from school and watch school.

2013年4月23日 星期二

Celtics searching for answers on offense heading into Game 2 against the Knicks

Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett have cast a misleading image over the Celtics offense the last few seasons, as far too many assume that the renown of a teams headliners dictate its capacity to score effectively. But Boston hasnt scrapped together even a league-average offense since 2010,The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation. and over the past two seasons in particular it has plummeted toward the bottom of the NBA rankings in offensive efficiency. That limitation has come to define these most recent Celtics teams as much as their world-beating defense.We have a wide selection of handsfreeaccess to choose from for your storage needs. With such a thorough and consistent offensive weakness, Boston leaves its defense precious little margin for error on a night-to-night basis.

But the Celtics D was good enough on Saturday to steal Game 1 from New York at Madison Square Garden, and for a half its offense followed suit. Jeff Green erupted for 20 first-half points on a series of strong drives and tough jumpers, and the Celtics put up 53 points on just 38 shots (good for 52.6 percent shooting). Thats a strong playoff output in the general sense, but a miraculous achievement for a team so limited offensively that it ranked 20th in points scored per possession during the season. The Celtics managed to slip through the grips of the Knicks defensive coverage for 24 solid minutes, eluding traps with smart passes and conjuring mismatches to exploit through New Yorks propensity to switch pick-and-rolls.

But a sobering second half swung the Celtics offense back to its inefficient norm, in no small part because Mike Woodsons Knicks made a series of very necessary adjustments. Woodson, frankly, has come up short in this regard in recent years, but he quickly directed his team to play to Bostons limitations after an uncomfortable first-half showing.

The easiest change to make was a mere scouting-report refresher. New Yorks various perimeter defenders had allowed Green to drive to his right with perplexing frequency in the first half.Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. When given that avenue, Green can be an effective off-the-dribble scorer big enough to create problems for the undersized wings often tasked with guarding him, and quick enough to push past tweener forwards like Carmelo Anthony and Chris Copeland. All of this would be understandable if Green were even the slightest bit ambidextrous, but his left hand seems to be present solely for symmetry a garnish with little practical value. Once the Knicks began to play him as such, Green turned back into a pumpkin, contributing just six points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field in the second half. Their adjusted coverage looked largely like this.A group of families in a north Cork village are suing a bestplasticcard operator in a landmark case.

Like so many in the Celtics rotation, Green is an imperfect player. He requires the slightest deliberate attention to nip his offensive strengths, leaving both him and Boston to subsist on his wild-card jumper and complementary skills.

With Bostons first-half leading scorer under wraps, New York turned its focus toward defending the post an area that had proved to be a consistent problem in the first 24 minutes. Boston wasnt manufacturing points explicitly out of post-up shot attempts, but rather using the low block as the focal point of its offensive action. It was an area of the floor from which Pierce, Garnett and Green could gain an advantage with relative certainty, helping Boston create without a reliable point guard.

The action on all of those plays is fairly consistent, as a low-block touch for any of Bostons post options would result in a double team to force the ball out of their hands. Thats a reliable strategy against dangerous post threats, but only if the defense on the whole is prepared to adjust to the imbalance.An experienced artist on what to consider before you buy chipcard. On several occasions multiple defenders edged over to help against Pierce on the right block without any plan in place on how to recover once Pierce passed the ball back out, resulting in wide-open cuts for Avery Bradley and some good looks for the Celtics perimeter shooters.

New York was able to get stops on some of Pierces switching sequences, but overall the Knicks coverage was painfully predictable. Because of that, Bostons ball handlers knew exactly what actions would cue which responses a knowledge that put the Celtics in control of the board, free to manipulate matchups as they wished. Pierce exploited those conjured advantages repeatedly, as Boston was allowed to get the ball to its primary scorer against a smaller opponent without even the slightest defensive deterrence. It was an exercise in repetition, and on first-half possession after first-half possession the Knicks were bludgeoned with their own reluctance to change things up.

When faced with such a sequence, many coaches would change up their gameplan completely, forcing their players to adapt to a challenge by altering direction. Yet Woodson stuck to more or less the same plan doubling the post and switching difficult screens by tightening the screws on his teams execution. Those efforts largely started by preempting the Celtics now-predictable play preferences before they happened. In familiar sequences that are designed to set up a Boston player on the block, the Knicks now aggressively played for post position while denying entry passes. That adjustment forced Doc Rivers to move Bradley who was just horrible with his entry feeds on Saturday off the ball more often, offering an offensive player whom the Knicks could cheat off of without much penalty. Watch here how re-routing post feeds through other players mucks up the Celtics spacing, if only because theres no optimal place for Bradley an inconsistent shooter to be.

6 Tips When Investing In Crowdsourcing Projects

The immediacy and global reach of the Internet has given a whole new meaning to making a difference, and crowdsourcing is leading the charge.

For the uninitiated, crowdsourcing is a way for people to support causes they believe in by pledging donations through websites dedicated to funding socially-conscious, creative and innovative projects.

Visitors to crowdsourcing websites like Kickstarter, Microplace, and FirstGiving can view pitches from fledgling inventors and entrepreneurs looking to turn their ideas into actual products or raise money for worthy causes. These and other similar websites facilitate passing the plate through cyber society, allowing users to make direct paymentsCeven as little as $1Cto projects that have set goal amounts and specific deadlines to raise the cash. If a projects funding goal isnt met in the allotted time, donors arent charged for their pledges.

The websites are prolific,You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth carparkmanagementsystem truck Descriptions. sometimes raising millions of dollars in just days. As a result of fundraising efforts on these sites, old theaters have escaped the wrecking ball, Academy Award-nominated films have been produced and community gardens have grown.

One example: actor Seth Rogen has used the Crowdrise website to raise money for Alzheimers research. Current crowdsourcing campaigns are collecting money for things like a mini radiation detector and bluetooth earbuds. Want to support healthy eating? A tiny vegan bakery is tapping into crowdsourcing for help in expanding its distribution.

Theres no denying that crowdsourcing has so far been a boon for noble causes and clever entrepreneurs alike Kickstarter alone has received more than $500 million in pledges from more than 3 million people for more than 35,000 projects in the last four years.The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation. But is it really a smart way for people to donate?

Just as in conventional fundraising, prospective donors should vet each pitch to make sure the needy cause is legit and the money will go directly to the intended project.Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. Prospective donors should look at the links and background information usually provided by project creators with their pitches. And since each must offer contact information, its advisable to ask them questions directly if you are unsure of something.

Each platform has its own unique structure and rules for giving and receiving money. Some websites take a percentage of funds donated if the funding goal is reachedCKickstarter keeps 5 percent, but keeps nothing if the project fails to meet its goal amount. Others charge project creators a fee for using the service whether the goal is met or not. Projects on Rockethub pay the site 4 percent of their successfully completed goals and 9 percent if they fail to attract enough donations. Either way, donor pledges arent taken by the websites unless the project goal amount is reached.

Do-gooders dont always have to reach into their pockets. A website called Sparked offers social business solutions, where donors lend a hand to nonprofits online with things like graphic design, web development and social media marketing.

Some crowdsourcing projects and causes offer donors incentives like a t-shirt, cap, or product sample. But thats usually not the reason for giving. For most, the motive for donating is simply philanthropic and the opportunity to help advance an idea the donor believes in. The real reward for crowdsourcing participation is the chance to give back and be part of a community of giving, a unique opportunity to join together with millions of other like-minded folks looking to make a difference.

Danny, though, had his mighty attributes. The good Lord always sees that the score is evened somehow. Some are pretty, some are smart, some are witty, some are talented, some can throw a football.

Danny could wrestle a math problem and pin it in a second with both hands tied behind him and his eyes shut tight. He never lost a spelling bee that I know of. He was always the last kid standing. And in victory, just like Red Rover defeat, he was good-natured, shrugging his shoulders as though his brilliance was just a fluke.

Me? I was always in the middle of the pack. Never picked first for Red Rover but somewhere halfway down the line in selection. I guess the best I ever did in the spelling bees was maybe fifth and that only happened one time.

I was a champion reader, though. One year it was the fourth grade I read more books than the entire class combined. Like I said: The good Lord makes us all good at something. When graduation from high school and college came, I was somewhere in the middle.Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. Again. I never thought of being the best at anything, just doing decent at everything I tried. In that, I mostly succeeded.

Lately, Ive been thinking that theres too much pressure on kids to be the best at everything. The parents of my generation in my little country school didnt push us to over excel. They preached values, discipline, kindness and courtesy. They encouraged us to play and enjoy childhood. My parents cared only that my homework was done and they never became overwrought if I didnt make a perfect score. I rarely did.

Whenever I brought home a C in math, Mama would sigh as she signed my report card or test paper and say, Youre just like me. I was never any good in math. She knew economics, though. She knew how to make a dollar and she knew how to save one.

Ive been thinking about kids in the middle like me. They usually do pretty well in life. For the most part, if you consider it, the middle-of-the-roaders have pretty good existences. No one expects too much from us so theres not a lot of pressure. Then, if we happen to do well at something,Elpas Readers detect and forward 'Location' and 'State' data from Elpas Active RFID Tags to host besticcard platforms. people are pleasantly surprised and slap us on the shoulders, praising an unexpected accomplishment.

The Larry Brown Discovery Tour

Leslie, our daughter,The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation. is a Larry Brown aficionado. Shes been in love with his writing since college, and in the six years since she graduated,Elpas Readers detect and forward 'Location' and 'State' data from Elpas Active RFID Tags to host besticcard platforms. her enthusiasm has not waned. Rather, its infected the family; my husband and I are nearly as caught up in his work as she is. The three of us are listening to a CD of Father and Son, the novel Brown published in 1996. Ive read Miracle of Catfish, Billy Rays Farm, and Dirty Work. Leslie is way ahead of me; shes been slowly working her way through all his books. Shes read Father and Son, but shes never listened to it. She wants to hear every word; if Rory or I speak while the CD is playing, she rewinds.

One of Leslies English professors, Dr. Jean Cash, has written a biography of Larry Brown. As soon as it became available,You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth carparkmanagementsystem truck Descriptions. Leslie bought a copy. Inside are pictures of Larrys parents; Larry when he was a little boy; Larry wearing his Marine fatigues; the Brown family; the farm operated by his son; Billy Ray; and his grandchildren. There are pictures of the little house he built in the forest, the pond where he fished, and his gravesite. We wont be able to visit the grave. Nor can we see the 10 by 12 foot house he planned to use as a writing retreat. Both the grave and the little house are on private, family-owned property.

Were going to Oxford because we want to walk where Larry Brown walked,Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. drink in the bars where he drank, eat in the restaurants where he ate. Thanks to Leslies research, we have the address of the house where he lived. We plan to drive by, take pictures if we can. Wed like to see the farm where his son runs a dairy business, but we have to tread lightly. We cant intrude.

The Trace is a narrow, national park that extends from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi. From its Tennessee extremity the road winds and twists through farmland and over hills. Herds of bison once moved along this trail, stopping to fill their bellies with grass, to lounge at salt-licks and drink at favorite watering holes. The speed limit on the parkway is never over 55; in places it drops to 40. There are no billboards, gas stations, street lights, or fast-food restaurants.

Tulip poplar and cottonwood trees have begun to turn, though its too early for fall color.Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. The drought is to blame. We pass burned-out cornfields and dusty hayfields dotted with round bales of hay. We visit the gravesite of Meriwether Lewis, the famous explorer who died under mysterious circumstances at a place called Grinders Inn. We picnic by a stream, read historical markers, take pictures of Indian burial mounds. We watch a tractor move among the Pharr Mounds near Tupelo. It stops to disgorge a round bail, then moves on.

When we pull into Oxford four hours later, Glen Davis, the son in Father and Son, has gotten out of jail, killed two people, robbed a tavern, slept with the mother of his unwanted child, and held a gun to the head of his sleeping father. The temperature outside has hit a hundred.

Weve booked rooms at the Downtown Oxford Inn, an old hotel just off the square. The TV in the lobby is tuned to Fox News. I consider asking the man behind the counter to switch to CNN or MSNBC, but weve only just arrived, and he has the right to be conservative if he wants.

I tell him weve come to see the house where Larry Brown lived. Wed like to go to some of the places he frequented, visit the Farmers Market where his son sells milk. He says hes sorry. Hes never heard of Larry Brown.

The first place we visit is Square Books, surely the most famous independent bookstore in America. Just inside the door is a stack of Dr. Cashs book, Larry Brown: A Writers Life. A sign tells us shes coming to sign books in three weeks. Tables and shelves are filled with new releases, many signed by the authors. Robert Olen Butler is scheduled to come in a week. Charles Frazier will visit in October.

Photos of famous writers cover nearly every inch of space not filled with books. On the back wall, opposite the checkout desk, are books by local authors: Barry Hannah, Tom Franklin, Richard Ford, Willie Morris, Howard Bahr, and of course, Larry Brown. In addition to copies of all the Brown books, theres a DVD called The Rough South of Larry Brown. Leslie snatches it up. Shes been trying to get it on Netflix, she says, but they dont carry it. Originally released in 2002, the documentary has been re-edited to include Browns death in 2004.

Leslie snaps another picture, picks up her beer and follows us out to the balcony. Its filled to overflowing. We manage to find a table and three chairs. Evening has brought some relief from the heat, but not much. The beer smells faintly of almonds and theres the hint of a breeze. For the three of us sitting in this bar where Larry Brown spent so many nights, life is good.

The balcony overlooks Oxford Square, Lafayette County Courthouse in the center looking like an antebellum mansion complete with white columns and a confederate soldier standing guard in front. Square Books is to our right, Off Square Books on the other side of the intersection, Square Books Jr. behind the courthouse, as is the bronze statue of Faulkner. The University of Mississippi is a few blocks to the west. Faulkner went to school there; Larry Brown took a course in fiction writing. John Grisham earned his Juris Doctor degree at Ole Miss Law School. Locals say there are more lawyers in Oxford than in any comparable city in the south, and that a disproportionately large numbers are also writers - thank you John Grisham. On this summer evening the tables at City Grocery are filled with beer-drinkers from all walks of life: students, lawyers, teachers, writers, shopkeepers, rednecks, farmers, all gathered on that small balcony.

Someone mentions Cormac McCarthy, and I revel in this antidote to the hotel clerk who never heard of Larry Brown. The topic of conversation at another table is fracking. The epicenter of the 5.8 earthquake that hit the east coast is near fracking sites in West Virginia. Geologists wonder if there could be a connection. This past spring state officials in Arkansas forced two energy companies to stop injecting slick water into the earth; the plethora of earthquakes that had been plaguing the region suddenly stopped.

We sip our drinks and listen to a conversation between an older woman and a younger man. Theyre at different tables, but their chairs are almost touching. She asks his age. 29, he says. Hes an attorney. Hes not married. She takes her iPhone out of her purse and hands it to him. Her daughter is a senior at Ole Miss, she says, and she doesnt approve of the boy her daughter is dating. Would he be interested in meeting her? He takes the phone and looks at the picture. Sure, he says, and he leans back in his chair and hands the phone to the woman.

2013年4月21日 星期日

Kyoto can be fun for kids

Rocks to the left of us, rocks to the right. With the Hozu River rushing in between, our oarsman swung the boat hard, threading the boulders as water splashed overboard and onto my 10-year-old daughters lap.

You never know how kids will react to new experiences, but not to worry. Daddy, my daughter said, beaming as we headed for more rapids, this must be the best summer ever!

But when my wife and I made plans to take our son and daughter to Kyoto, I had a few doubts. Kyoto is one of the highlights of any trip to Japan, an ancient and fascinating city, packed with temples and shrines, a place to savor refined culture.

But can it be kid- and family-friendly? Most definitely, especially if you take advantage of the variety Kyoto has to offer, hop on the citys easy-to-use bus system, and keep your eyes open for some of its surprising travel bargains.

You could spend months visiting temples and shrines in Kyoto. But to kids, they can start to blur. So put some space in between them. Kyoto is best explored on foot, leaving lots of opportunities for stopping off at interesting destinations along the way to antiquity.

One of our favorite stops was the Nishiki-koji market, a short bus ride from downtown, where Kyotoites stocks their refrigerators and kitchen cupboards. Nishiki is a long, narrow street, covered by an arcade and lined with shops selling all sorts of snackable delicacies, like just-baked rice crackers, sashimi on skewers, and croquettes filled with chocolate, as well as wares like chopsticks and gourmet cutlery.Find a great selection of customkeychain deals. Its as interesting to browse here as to eat, and many places give out samples of their edible wares.

Visit the Toei Uzumasa Eigamura (movie village) and you may well see crews filming a samurai flick or television drama. But even if the cameras arent rolling, the village designed to look like the Japan of yore is fun to wander, offering the chance to meet actors in period costume who are happy to pose for photos. Theres also a theater on site, where live-action ninja shows are staged.

We built a day around the 10-mile ride down the Hozu, starting with a short train ride just outside the city and ending in the lovely neighborhood of Arashiyama.You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth carparkmanagementsystem truck Descriptions. Guides pole fiberglass boats seating about 20 people through a deep gorge, where my 8-year-old son spotted turtles, snakes, deer and numerous water birds. Ask your hotel or at the excellent tourist information office inside Kyoto station (tell them you want to go on the Hozu-gawa Kudari) to help you call ahead for a reservation, which is recommended but not required. Tickets cost $42 for adults and $27 for children older than 3 (credit cards not accepted).

Bathing is an almost religious ritual in Japan and can be the centerpiece of a memorable vacation experience. Kyoto is not known for the hot springs that dot much of Japan, but it has a few. We stopped at Sagano Onsen Tenzan-No-Yu, a hot spring spa minutes from Arashiyama on a charming one-car train. A cheaper and more plentiful destination is one of the citys super sentos, public baths with multiple tubs. The tourist office can provide a sheet in English listing these. In either, you wash thoroughly at bathing stations before entering multiple soaking pools, both indoors and out.

Kyoto hosts many festivals throughout the year.The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation.Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. When we visited Kyoto in August, the city was celebrating the weeks around the Tanabata festival with lights and computer-

animated projections on the wall of the citys castle and the launching of thousands of lighted blue plastic balls down the Horigawa, a narrow waterway not far from downtown. In May, the Aoi Matsuri, held at a pair of shrines, features a procession of people in ancient Japanese court costumes. In October, the Jidai Matsuri centers around a parade that highlights various periods in Japanese history.

When youre ready to visit temples and shrines, the challenge is choosing which ones. Kiyomizu temple should be on any itinerary. Yes, its choked with tourists, but worth the trip. The walk uphill to the temple is lined with shops, many giving out samples of the local sweet called nama yatsuhashi, delicious pockets of glutinous rice flour, filled with red bean paste or fruit preserves, dusted with sugar or cinnamon. The temple is famous for its stage, a broad platform that juts over the hillside forest on immense wooden stilts.

We also enjoyed an outing to Fushimi Inari, a shrine known for its gates, which are said to number in the thousands. The shrines main buildings are worth a visit and sit within a minute or two of a train station, but you could spend hours here climbing the forested hill behind the shrine, on paths that lead up through the bright red gates to ancillary shrines, with refreshment stops along the way.

Japan is one of the worlds great food countries. But while Kyoto is known for expensive and delicate kaiseki cuisine, there is a lot more that kids will love and that you can afford. So try a restaurant specializing in okonomiyaki, sort of a dinner pancake, usually cooked on a grill at your table, and filled with meat, vegetables or seafood of your choice. These are casual and reasonably priced places, often popular with students.

Chances are your kids will also like yakitori, a selection of chicken and vegetables, usually sprinkled with salt or brushed with a soy-based sauce,You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth carparkmanagementsystem truck Descriptions. and grilled on bamboo skewers. Its traditionally bar food, but is also often served at some of the chain restaurants that offer wide menus.

And dont forget ramen, the steaming bowls of noodles, with toppings like roast pork, in your choice of broth. We arrived in Kyoto late our first night and ended up on a floor devoted to ramen places in a department store straddling the train station. Most ramen places also serve gyoza, fried dumplings that are hard to resist.

Any kid visiting Japan in warmer months will quickly learn to spot banners touting kaki kori, or shaved ice, doused in a choice of fruit syrups and topped with condensed milk. Japans ubiquitous vending machines sell everything from green tea to sports drinks to hot and cold coffee.

Warren Buffett Speech to University of Georgia Students

Well, good morning and welcome. You're a nice crowd, you certainly got quiet quickly. That surprised me. Can you hear me all right? There in the back? Well, for business school, you know it doesn't get much better than this. Having the world's greatest investor come to your campus is quite an honor.

Warren Buffett is Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, a holding company whose investments range from GEICO Insurance, to American Express and Coca-Cola, to Borsheims jewelry store in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

Mr. Buffett has been described as 'the god of value investors' and 'the Michael Jordon of the investing game.' He began his first investment partnership in the mid-1950s with $100 of his own money. A few years later he began investing in a struggling Massachusetts textile mill called Berkshire Hathaway. Through Berkshire he started putting capital into other businesses, chiefly insurance, which generated cash streams for more investments which have done very well indeed as we all know.Find a great selection of customkeychain deals.

From a share price of about $18 in 1965, Berkshire today trades around $69,100 a share. Think I'm going to go out and buy 500 shares. Over time the company has annualized performances more than double that of S&P 500, and Berkshire today is worth more than $100 billion. But Mr. Buffett is known as much for his unpretentious style as for his lofty success. He has become a champion of investors and is legendary for his aversion to corporate doublespeak. He is rare among CEOs in that he cheerfully admits his mistakes. Three years ago he wrote in his annual report that Berkshire would have done better if he'd simply had gone to the movies. There weren't very many years like that since 1965, believe me.

Berkshire was proudly, even defiantly absent from the dot-com hysteria of the last few years, and now that the bubble has burst as we all know, it's Warren Buffett who's having the last laugh. In his most recent letter to shareholders he wrote, quote, "We've embraced the 21 st century by entering such cutting-edge industries as brick, carpet, insulation, and paint." Try to control your excitement. You know, and personally from reading his letters, I mean it's just a joy. It's a business lesson in itself. I would encourage you, whenever you get an opportunity, to take one aside and read it carefully. You'll learn a tremendous amount.

His wisdom and insights are so valued that some investors buy a share of Berkshire stock just so they can hear him at his legendary annual meeting, or as he calls it, 'Woodstock for capitalists.' He doesn't make speaking appearances often, and we are extremely fortunate to have him with us today. Earl Leonard of Coca-Cola, and our distinguished executive in residence had a lot to with that, Earl, and we're deeply indebted to you for helping to arrange this. Thank you very much.

Our format today will be primarily questions and answers. Mr. Buffett will make some brief remarks at the beginning and then we'll move into your phase. We will have a microphone set up over here. We would like to come around- we're videotaping, so we'd like you to use the microphone, please. So go ahead and begin to line up over there to ask your questions. So would you please give a very warm welcome to the oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett .

Warren Buffett : Testing. 1 million. 2 million. Great, okay. I came in from Nebraska today, and you're probably all familiar with us, mainly by our football team. We have those fellows with the big white helmets with those red 'N's on them. I asked one of our starters the other day, "What's the 'N' stand for?" And he said, "Knowledge." We make it tough on them though. I mean you don't coast through Nebraska just because you're a football player. They major in agricultural economics, and there's a two question final for all of the players. And the first question is, "What did old MacDonald have?" And they were giving that to one of our potential Heisman Trophy winners the other day. He started to sweat. Finally he brightened up, he said, "Farm!" The professor, delighted of course, you don't want to flunk a Heisman candidate. So he said, "Now," he said. "You're halfway home. Just one more question. How do you spell 'farm'?" Now the guy really starts to sweat, and he looks at the ceiling and he looks around. Finally his face brightens up and he says, "Ee-i-ee-i-oh!" So watch for that guy this year, he'll be dynamite.

I really want to talk about what's on your mind, so we're going to do a Q and A in a minute. There are a couple questions I always get asked. You know, people always say,You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth carparkmanagementsystem truck Descriptions. "Well who should I go to work for when I get out then?" I've got a very simple answer, we may elaborate more on this as we go along, but, you know the real thing to do is to get going for some institution or individual that you admire. I mean it's crazy to take in-between jobs just because they look good on your resume, or because you get a little higher starting pay.

I was up at Harvard a while back, and a very nice young guy, he picked me up at the airport, a Harvard Business School attendee. And he said,You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth carparkmanagementsystem truck Descriptions. "Look. I went to undergrad here, and then I worked for X and Y and Z, and now I've come here.The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation." And he said, "I thought it would really round out my resume perfectly if I went to work now for a big management consulting firm." And I said, "Well, is that what you want to do?" And he said, "No," but he said, "That's the perfect resume." And I said, "Well when are you going to start doing what you like?" And he said, "Well I'll get to that someday." And I said, "Well you know, your plan sounds to me a lot like saving up sex for your old age.Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. It just doesn't make a lot of sense."

I told that same group, I said, "Go to work for whomever you admire the most." I said, "You can't get a bad result. You'll jump out of bed in the morning and you'll be having fun." The Dean called me up a couple weeks later. He said, "What did you tell those kids? They're all becoming self-employed." So, you've got to temper that advice a little bit. Play one game a little bit with me for just a minute and then we'll get to your questions.

I'd like for the moment to have you pretend I've made you a great offer, and I've told you that you could pick any one of your classmates- and you now know each other probably pretty well after being here for a while. You have 24 hours to think it over and you can pick any one of your classmates, and you get 10 percent of their earnings for the rest of their lives. And I ask you, what goes through your mind in determining which one of those you would pick? You can't pick the one with the richest father, that doesn't count. I mean, you've got to do this on merit. But, you probably wouldn't pick the person that gets the highest grades in the class.

Oriental Dragon

There is a kind of salty paranoia that strikes me most commonly in a particular type of Chinese restaurant: a fear that however carefully I read the menu, however much I plot and triangulate the found poetry of the dishes against each other, I'm still going to fail to get the best out of the place. I'll order loads of things that sound interesting only to realise at the end that I've merely had the sort of Chinese food you used to get in those grim joints in Hayes circa 1983, where the spare ribs were a Tango shade of orange and the crispy beef really wasn't. 

As it happens we ate brilliantly at Oriental Dragon, which lurks in one of those dark-shadowed, quasi-residential lanes north of Oxford Street, where the air smells softly of unwashed student. Even so, I still have a feeling I didn't do it justice. As we admitted defeat a dish passed by us full of beautifully arranged, bronzed crinkly things en route to a long table occupied by a Chinese family. Though I reject the notion that a good Chinese place is one full of Chinese people C why do so many go to Wong Kei, which serves some of the worst food in Chinatown? C I couldn't shake the sense that this lot Knew Things. 

Oriental Dragon sounds like the name of a cheap Chinese takeaway and it looks like one, too. There are bare functional tables, bare walls and, at the back, an open kitchen basking under bright white strip lights. More important is the chiller cabinet full of fresh seafood, the ingredients for the day's specials. The chefs are apparently from northeast China. One of my so-called restaurant critic rivals informs me that the food is "Shandong style", which means that presentation matters more than in other Chinese styles. I know nothing of this save that the food looks pretty enough. It speaks of serious knifework. What marks it out is an interest in both the red flash of chillies and lots of wobbly offal. 

All of this viscera and heat is contained within one separate menu. There is another full of Cantonese staples which I attempted to ignore by barking "white boy's food" at my companions C an irritating display of pointless machismo for its own sake. Happily I was shouted down. From that menu we ordered salt-and-pepper squid, which arrived fresh from the deep-fat fryer under shifting dunes of garlic minced so finely and fried to such a crisp so delicately that it resembled sand. Happily it tasted nothing like it. This was compelling, shameless, the stuff of a glorious, raging thirst. 

From the seafood specials we chose razor clams, which came diced with ginger and spring onion and fresh chilli, all of it then returned to the shell. They had the zing and bite and spring only found in seafood that was alive until the unlucky moment you ordered it. 

As dish descriptions go, braised dongpo pork hock with brown sauce is never going to win a literary prize. Mind you, it was accurate: a large lump of animal on the bone arrived under a blanket of something brown and sticky. But oh, what brown stickiness. It was umami central,Shop wholesale bestsmartcard controller from cheap. a huge slap of something intense and deep and savoury and powerful and, to be more precise,An experienced artist on what to consider before you buy chipcard. thoroughly yum. Into this, the meat collapsed, as if recognising it had been offered a righteous resting place.We have a wide selection of handsfreeaccess to choose from for your storage needs. A sharper hit of flavour came from barbecued jewels of lamb and pig kidney, on skewers, showered with ground salt, chilli and cumin, to be eaten within seconds of arrival, as the fat was still running. 

There were other things: a passable kung po chicken, some crunchy dry-fried green beans with minced pork and more chilli, and a tangle of broad ribbon rice noodles with beef that held about them the toasty, smoky sear of a hot wok. 

For 30 a head we ate very well indeed. But we didn't eat enough. Not by a long way. There's still the king prawns with brittle cucumber to try. And the stir-fried pig intestines. And the pig kidney with chilli pepper. And oh, you get the idea. The menu at Oriental Dragon remains an unexplored country. I'm going out there; I may be some time. 

How important is phosphate? Every living thing needs it at the cellular level. If farmers dont have it, crops will be stunted. Without plentiful supplies, the wheels will come off modern agriculture, with its bountiful harvests and ability to feed a teeming planet. 

There are no substitutes for phosphate and there isnt any practical way of recycling the compound. Farmers could maintain phosphate levels in soil if they have access to manure, but that isnt practical for most growers without livestock, except perhaps for small-time operators on the organic fringe. 

Adding to the rich tapestry of bullish details is that nearly 75 per cent of world reserves are located in just one country: Morocco and the disputed territory it is occupying in the western Sahara. 

Just as Saudi Arabia does with oil, Morocco acts as the swing producer of phosphate, adjusting its output to stabilize the market at relatively high prices. Its domination creates concerns about security of supply. 

Other countries with major reserves are in North Africa and the Middle East, including Algeria,The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation. Syria, and Jordan, where most investors quite sensibly fear to tread. 

So taking a position in phosphate is a potentially brilliant, long-term investment concept, with one glaring problem: There are hardly any direct ways to play the compound. 

The big, integrated fertilizer producers, such as Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. and Agrium Inc., offer some exposure. But their phosphate production is embedded in sprawling companies where the upside is diluted by the potentially less promising outlooks for their large sales of potash and nitrogen. Of the majors, Mosaic Co. offers the best exposure. 

The big companies have been struggling to maintain production, another negative. In the U.S., output has been on a down slope for the past two decades. In Canada, Agrium announced last year that it was shutting its nearly depleted open pit mine near Kapuskasing, Ont., replacing the output with supplies from Morocco. 

That leaves the juniors, of which there are slim pickings. Unlike gold, where there are thousands of development stage companies to choose from, phosphate exploration is in its earlier days. Last month, Paradigm Capital put out a list of all the juniors in the world with exposure to phosphate deposits. The list contained only 16 names, since shortened by one, when Toronto listed Rio Verde Minerals, with assets in Brazil, was acquired by B&A Minercao SA.Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors.

2013年4月14日 星期日

Where to go to beat the odds

There were plenty of reasons to be outside on a sunny Saturday morning in early April. Yet the inside of a convenience store on Connecticut Avenue in Norwalk was buzzing with activity near the lottery counter,Shop wholesale solarlight controller from cheap. with several people scratching tickets and others calling out strings of numbers to be fed into the terminal for the daily lottery draw in hopes of hitting it big.

If hitting it big is what the folks at One Stop Variety in Norwalk were looking to do, they were in the right place. A Hearst Connecticut Media Group analysis of lottery winners over the last four years shows that the store, which is in a strip mall near exit 14 of Interstate-95, has sold more lottery tickets with prizes of $10,000 or greater than any other store in Southwestern Connecticut.

Between April 2009 and late March 2013, One Stop Variety sold 11 big winners, putting the store in a tie with a Shop Smart in Seymour and a Stop & Shop in Branford for top retailers in the state in that time.

We get the most winners on 10X Cash, he said, walking over to a plastic display case, where the $10 ticket was sitting in a cubby, labeled No. 44 of the more than 50 varieties of tickets the store had for sale.

Victor Figueroa, 47, of Stamford is one of three people who have earned a $10,We have a wide selection of handsfreeaccess to choose from for your storage needs.000 prize as a result of buying that particular ticket at the Norwalk store, in what he called a lucky shot.

Sometimes I stop in that store in the morning, when the guys I work with are grabbing breakfast at the deli in that strip mall, he said Wednesday evening. Its just down the street from where I work, so Ill play a little here or there. Not every day, but if Im there in the morning, Ill probably get a $5 or $10 scratch-off, whatever I have in my pocket.

On Feb. 5, he happened to have $10 in his pocket, and after a few scratches on a 10X Cash, he soon had $10,000. It wasnt the first time Figueroa won big at the store. In October of 2012, he won $10,000 on a $5 scratch-off ticket, purchased at the same store. Still, he says he likes the odds best on 10X Cash.

You know, its funny, believe it or not, my neighbor across the street won $10,000 on 10X in downtown Stamford a couple months before I won on it, he said. Its a good game a lucky one.

In addition to the three $10,000 winners One Stop Variety has sold for that ticket, there have also been smaller winners trickling through the teller on a regular basis, said Memon, who pointed to a string of banners taped to the walls and called out winners who have taken home $550, $2,Shop for streetlight dolls from the official NBC Universal Store and build a fun collection for your home or office.000 and $5,000 from the ticket.

Memon asked if I wanted to try again, but at $10 a pop, and with only $20 in my pocket, one failure was enough for me.An bestrtls is a network of devices used to wirelessly locate objects or people inside a building. A moment later, Gwen Grimes from Bridgeport bought the next ticket in the line.

Nothing so far, she murmured as her hand moved halfway down the card. By the end of the ticket, she declared that she had bought a dud.

While 10X Cash is the winningest scratch-off in the state, during the four years analyzed, with 102 winners claiming $10,An experienced artist on what to consider before you buy chipcard.000 or more, the ticket only pays out a winner once in every 3.95 tickets on average. While One Stop Variety has had more big winners than any other store in the state on the 10X Cash card, Stamford is home to the most large winners on the ticket than any other town.

Stamford has sold more lottery tickets paying out $10,000 or more than any other city in the state, with a total of 51 such payouts in the four-year period, including a $1 million Powerball ticket sold at Shippan Candies, which brought a windfall upon a group of employees at Toyota of Stamford in November 2012 and a $254 million Powerball prize sold nearby at the Shippan Point Getty in November 2011.

The city of Norwalk has sold the second-most big prizes, with 44, thanks in large part to One Stop Variety, and is tied with Bridgeport for the No. 2 spot. Danbury follows at No. 4, with 42 wins, and New Haven rounds out the top 5 with 36 winning tickets paying out $10,000 or more.

Private bus owners in the city are mulling the introduction of smart cards to avoid change woes being experienced by the bus crew and commuters alike. But the real benefits are more. There will be better accountability and facility for advance payment. Over and above all these, this system can be effected with the minimum required personnel.

We would like to switch over to the smartcard-based payment system which will ensure that no money or coin related issues will pop up between the conductor and the commuter. It will be implemented on a trial basis in some of the buses within three months, said M.B.Satyan, president of the Private Bus Owners Federation.

From the users side, all that the passenger has to do is to purchase a smartcard and recharge it once or twice a month. While travelling, its handed over to the conductor who just flashes the smartcard over the specially designed ticketing machine after entering the code of the starting and de-boarding stops.

However, Satyan says small-time bus operators who own only a few buses, are apprehensive of the technological application. They cite the money wont be in liquid form and hence wouldnt be able to meet the day-to-day expenses like employees wages, he said.

Nishant P.R., an engineering graduate who has successfully developed a software for the purpose, said the smartcards could be recharged just like mobile phones from shops or through the ticketing machines of conductors. The cash collected through cards will get transferred to the account of the concerned on a daily basis.

The Motor Vehicle Department too welcomes the initiative. If the KSRTC too implements the system, it will help in realising huge funds in advance. Further, the system would be helping in implementing GPRS services like locating a bus, an official said.