There’s a revolution happening on the selling floor. It’s Mobile
Point-of-Sale, and it’s changing the way brick-n-mortar retailers do
business. Since announcing Cloud 9 Mobile POS in 2011, sales of Cloud 9
Mobile POS have been brisk, with over 25 retail brands implemented in
over 500 retail stores, nearly $100 million dollars in sales, over 1.4
million transactions, and 6,000 transactions/day during December. This
state-of-the-art retailing advancement costs far less than the
cumbersome cash registers of traditional POS, and it meets many
retailers’ go-forward strategy to increase customer-interaction and
minimize and/or eliminate traditional POS from the store floor.
The
demand has been overwhelming with Apple’s intuitive technology from
industry leader VeriFone Global Bay and KWI’s advanced solution set on
the iPod Touch. Totally unplugged and completely customer-centric, it
transforms every sales associate into a full-service customer management
expert and checkout station, allowing product and customer knowledge at
their fingertips combined with uninterrupted transactions that deepen
customer relationships.
There’s a revolution happening on the
selling floor. It’s Mobile Point-of-Sale, and it’s changing the way
brick-n-mortar retailers do business. Since announcing Cloud 9 Mobile
POS in 2011,Do you know any howo spare parts
wholesale supplier? sales of Cloud 9 Mobile POS have been brisk, with
over 25 retail brands implemented in over 500 retail stores, nearly $100
million dollars in sales, over 1.4 million transactions, and 6,000
transactions/day during December. This state-of-the-art retailing
advancement costs far less than the cumbersome cash registers of
traditional POS, and it meets many retailers’ go-forward strategy to
increase customer-interaction and minimize and/or eliminate traditional
POS from the store floor.
The demand has been overwhelming with
Apple’s intuitive technology from industry leader VeriFone Global Bay
and KWI’s advanced solution set on the iPod Touch.Get the best deal on solar panel
in the UK and use our free tools. Totally unplugged and completely
customer-centric, it transforms every sales associate into a
full-service customer management expert and checkout station, allowing
product and customer knowledge at their fingertips combined with
uninterrupted transactions that deepen customer relationships.
There
are many reasons why you might want to take your teenage daughter for
an afternoon at the spa – a bit of bonding time,Product information for
Avery Dennison cable ties
products. some specialised care for troubled teen skin, destressing
before or after exams – but I hadn’t thought that ‘catching up on sleep’
might be one of them.
Yet when I took my girls Molly, 17, and
Beth, 16, to the spa at the Runnymede-on-Thames hotel at Egham in
Surrey, sleep was high on the agenda.
Given that I’m a beauty
journalist, you might expect my daughters to be spa veterans, but
somehow, even though they’ve each helped me write a book on teen beauty,
Molly and Beth had never before seen the inside of a spa and, in their
view,All our plastic moulds are vacuum formed using food safe plastic. that was a serious omission.
Not
quite on a par with a restaurant critic who’d never taken her kids out
for a meal, but you’ll see their point. Until recently, most spas
wouldn’t accommodate under-18s.
But the Runnymede is a
forward-looking place and its spa, which has been awarded the top ‘five
bubbles’ rating by the Good Spa Guide, has recently added facials and
massages for teen girls and boys to its menu of treatments.Do you know
any howo spare parts wholesale supplier?
The
idea is to give them a good grounding in skin care, with a bit of
pampering thrown in. In contrast with its cutesy-sounding name and
pretty, Thames-side location, the Runnymede is a large, Seventies
brick-built creation within yards of the M25.
After an overhaul
three years ago, it’s chic and slick inside and so is the spa, where the
girls and I were taken to the private, underground Acquitaine Suite.
The girls settled in on the huge, right-angled sofa and Molly, worn out
by exams, rowing training and partying, fell asleep straight away.
2013年1月13日 星期日
Ely bakery finds success with Crapola granola
A party joke has grown into a serious
venture -- or as serious as you can be, when you've named your signature product
Crapola granola -- for Brian and Andrea Strom, the husband-and-wife team behind
Brainstorm Bakery in Ely, Minn.
The Stroms had never owned a business or given it much thought before Brian's late-night wisecrack about making cranberry-apple granola and calling it Crapola. They ended up pursuing the idea, however,Shop the web's best selection of precious gemstones and gemstone beads at wholesale prices. getting the name trademarked and eventually testing recipes in their wood-fired kitchen stove.
"The business kind of followed the idea of the granola," said Brian Strom, who also likes to be known as chief cereal officer. "This is what happens when you follow that dream."
Initial sales at a local farmers market and arts festival were encouraging, and an on-air mention by Jay Leno just a few months after the product launched in 2007 generated wider interest. Flush with that early success, Crapola now is in more than 100 retail locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, California and Oregon.Cheaper For bulk buying crys talbeads wholesale prices. Local retailers include Linden Hills Co-op, Kowalski's Markets and Electric Fetus.
Crapola combines five organic grains, nuts, dried cranberries and apples, sweetened with maple syrup and honey, promising, according to the package, that it "makes even weird people regular." The other Brainstorm Bakery granolas, the cranberry-orange variety evocatively named Number Two and the recently added Red, White and Blueberry, also are available from retailers and the company's website.
The Stroms mix their granola by hand in small batches, oven-roast it and package it in their small Ely production facility. They're the only employees aside from seasonal help. Last year's sales topped $200,000.For the world leader in injection molds base services and plastic injection products.
Their experience as apprentices on small organic farms near Ely, the northern Minnesota town where they've lived for 10 years, helped the Stroms source ingredients. Before going full-time into the granola business, the Stroms had worked in a variety of jobs. Andrea Strom was employed at a pet clinic while her husband had done construction work, painted houses and served as a guide, given their location in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
The Stroms developed the brand on their own and have kept it personal, dressing up for an "American Gothic" parody on the Crapola package.
In a few cases, the Crapola name has met with skepticism from retailers. In others, it helps the granola sell as a novelty item or gag gift. Regardless, the edgy approach means the granola inside the package has to be good, Strom said.
"If we had just called it Brian and Andrea's Delicious Granola, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be having this conversation," he said. "We would have already peaked. But the granola market is so saturated that the name brand has helped us stand out, I think, and continues to as more and more people learn about it."
To help more retailers and customers learn about their granola, the Stroms are transitioning from largely marketing the product themselves to working with brokers, distributors and representatives who can help them get it into stores, Strom said. On several occasions, customer requests have persuaded grocers to stock Crapola.
As demand grows, one challenge the couple is addressing is how to scale up production, what equipment they'll need and how to finance that expansion -- all while maintaining the product's homespun appeal. The Stroms also are considering product extensions and exploring interest from overseas markets.
"We're making an artisan-quality, premium product," Strom said. "We're trying to steer it away from the assembly-line atmosphere and keep it real, made by hand, made by a person."
Crapola, available packaged and in bulk, is a top seller at the 7,400-member Linden Hills Co-op in Minneapolis, said Allie Mentzer, member services manager.
"It's lightly sweet, and it definitely tastes wholesome," said Mentzer, noting that customers who want to increase Omega 3 fatty acids in their diets appreciate that it contains organic flax seed. "In a lot of granolas you'll find in conventional stores, you'll find fake berries or artificial flavors. We don't allow that stuff in our store, and it's always good when a local company can provide us with the real deal."
Crapola enjoyed strong holiday sales and steady recurring sales at Kowalski's Markets in the Twin Cities, according to Debbie Leland, natural and specialty foods buyer.
"We ran out over the holidays," Leland said. "We had a run on it as a gag gift. On the other side, it's also still a very nice, all-natural, healthy product. Natural granola has pretty much overtaken the natural cereal segment but not all of them taste good,You can buy mosaic Moon yarns and fibers right here as instock. and they're not all healthy and clean. This one is local, it's healthy, it's clean and it tastes good. I'm a Crapola fan."
Anita Nelson, president of IN Food Marketing & Design, a marketing communications agency in Minneapolis that specializes in working with food-related companies, said getting into reputable retailers and building a significant customer base has been a significant accomplishment for the Stroms.You can buy mosaic Moon yarns and fibers right here as instock.
An edgy brand such as Crapola can work, Nelson said, as long as everything the company does is consistent with that playful, self-deprecating approach. She suggested refreshing the packaging and changing the name and logo to "Crappola," with an extra 'p' to strengthen the tie to the cranberry-and-apple recipe.
"It's a premium product, and with a premium product you do want the name and the packaging to be consistent," Nelson said. "It may be a challenge if the nature of the product does not align with the name and the packaging. I can't think of any food products that are this self-deprecating. Obviously, something is working for them, but my recommendation for them is making sure that the premium nature of the product is also coming through with the packaging."
The Stroms had never owned a business or given it much thought before Brian's late-night wisecrack about making cranberry-apple granola and calling it Crapola. They ended up pursuing the idea, however,Shop the web's best selection of precious gemstones and gemstone beads at wholesale prices. getting the name trademarked and eventually testing recipes in their wood-fired kitchen stove.
"The business kind of followed the idea of the granola," said Brian Strom, who also likes to be known as chief cereal officer. "This is what happens when you follow that dream."
Initial sales at a local farmers market and arts festival were encouraging, and an on-air mention by Jay Leno just a few months after the product launched in 2007 generated wider interest. Flush with that early success, Crapola now is in more than 100 retail locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, California and Oregon.Cheaper For bulk buying crys talbeads wholesale prices. Local retailers include Linden Hills Co-op, Kowalski's Markets and Electric Fetus.
Crapola combines five organic grains, nuts, dried cranberries and apples, sweetened with maple syrup and honey, promising, according to the package, that it "makes even weird people regular." The other Brainstorm Bakery granolas, the cranberry-orange variety evocatively named Number Two and the recently added Red, White and Blueberry, also are available from retailers and the company's website.
The Stroms mix their granola by hand in small batches, oven-roast it and package it in their small Ely production facility. They're the only employees aside from seasonal help. Last year's sales topped $200,000.For the world leader in injection molds base services and plastic injection products.
Their experience as apprentices on small organic farms near Ely, the northern Minnesota town where they've lived for 10 years, helped the Stroms source ingredients. Before going full-time into the granola business, the Stroms had worked in a variety of jobs. Andrea Strom was employed at a pet clinic while her husband had done construction work, painted houses and served as a guide, given their location in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
The Stroms developed the brand on their own and have kept it personal, dressing up for an "American Gothic" parody on the Crapola package.
In a few cases, the Crapola name has met with skepticism from retailers. In others, it helps the granola sell as a novelty item or gag gift. Regardless, the edgy approach means the granola inside the package has to be good, Strom said.
"If we had just called it Brian and Andrea's Delicious Granola, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be having this conversation," he said. "We would have already peaked. But the granola market is so saturated that the name brand has helped us stand out, I think, and continues to as more and more people learn about it."
To help more retailers and customers learn about their granola, the Stroms are transitioning from largely marketing the product themselves to working with brokers, distributors and representatives who can help them get it into stores, Strom said. On several occasions, customer requests have persuaded grocers to stock Crapola.
As demand grows, one challenge the couple is addressing is how to scale up production, what equipment they'll need and how to finance that expansion -- all while maintaining the product's homespun appeal. The Stroms also are considering product extensions and exploring interest from overseas markets.
"We're making an artisan-quality, premium product," Strom said. "We're trying to steer it away from the assembly-line atmosphere and keep it real, made by hand, made by a person."
Crapola, available packaged and in bulk, is a top seller at the 7,400-member Linden Hills Co-op in Minneapolis, said Allie Mentzer, member services manager.
"It's lightly sweet, and it definitely tastes wholesome," said Mentzer, noting that customers who want to increase Omega 3 fatty acids in their diets appreciate that it contains organic flax seed. "In a lot of granolas you'll find in conventional stores, you'll find fake berries or artificial flavors. We don't allow that stuff in our store, and it's always good when a local company can provide us with the real deal."
Crapola enjoyed strong holiday sales and steady recurring sales at Kowalski's Markets in the Twin Cities, according to Debbie Leland, natural and specialty foods buyer.
"We ran out over the holidays," Leland said. "We had a run on it as a gag gift. On the other side, it's also still a very nice, all-natural, healthy product. Natural granola has pretty much overtaken the natural cereal segment but not all of them taste good,You can buy mosaic Moon yarns and fibers right here as instock. and they're not all healthy and clean. This one is local, it's healthy, it's clean and it tastes good. I'm a Crapola fan."
Anita Nelson, president of IN Food Marketing & Design, a marketing communications agency in Minneapolis that specializes in working with food-related companies, said getting into reputable retailers and building a significant customer base has been a significant accomplishment for the Stroms.You can buy mosaic Moon yarns and fibers right here as instock.
An edgy brand such as Crapola can work, Nelson said, as long as everything the company does is consistent with that playful, self-deprecating approach. She suggested refreshing the packaging and changing the name and logo to "Crappola," with an extra 'p' to strengthen the tie to the cranberry-and-apple recipe.
"It's a premium product, and with a premium product you do want the name and the packaging to be consistent," Nelson said. "It may be a challenge if the nature of the product does not align with the name and the packaging. I can't think of any food products that are this self-deprecating. Obviously, something is working for them, but my recommendation for them is making sure that the premium nature of the product is also coming through with the packaging."
2013年1月9日 星期三
Kapalua now in a different golf landscape
Steve Stricker was just starting to pull himself out of a deep slump
in 2006 when he was reminded by his daughter, Bobbi Maria, how long it
had been since he last won on the PGA Tour. She was 8 at the time and
won a tournament for juniors at their home club in Wisconsin, no more
than three or six holes.
Stricker was the one who had to win a tournament for them to go to Kapalua to start a new season,Cheaper For bulk buying crys talbeads wholesale prices. and he did that the following year.
As traditions go in golf, starting the year on the rugged coast of Maui is relatively new. The Tournament of Champions began in Las Vegas in 1953, moved to La Costa Resort north of San Diego in 1969 and stayed there 30 years until coming to Kapalua.
This was the 15th year the tour has started at Kapalua, and there has never been another year like this one. A tournament that was supposed to end on Monday didn’t start until Monday because of three days of powerful wind – one gust measuring 48 mph – that had the locals drawing comparisons with a 100-year storm.
About the only good that came out of such freak weather was that it took attention away, however briefly, from the PGA Tour winners who stayed home and missed out on the endless days – the top four players in the world ranking, for starters, led by Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods.
It’s not a new problem, but it’s still a problem. And it contributes to a future as cloudy as Molokai at sunrise.
Hyundai’s three-year deal as the title sponsor of the Tournament of Champions expires this year, even though corporate officials sounded optimistic about renewing and there are strong signs it will happen.
It doesn’t help that Mother Nature was in a bad mood this week. Few things in golf cause a knee-jerk reaction like bad weather.
There were suggestions to move the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am to the end of the West Coast Swing after the tournament was canceled by rain in 1996, completed nearly seven months after it started in 1998 because of rain, and shortened to 54 holes a year later because of – you guessed it – rain.
The rain was so bad in California in 2005 that the Nissan Open at Riviera went five days to get in 36 holes. The next week, the Match Play Championship at La Costa was postponed one day because the entire course looked like a water hazard. Woods wondered if it might not be better for the PGA Tour to spend February in Florida and March in California. It sounded like a reasonable idea until a Champions Tour in Florida was shortened to 36 holes because of rain.
“We are not terribly concerned about it,” said Steve Shannon, vice president of marketing for Hyundai. “I think there is that aspect of it’s the start of the year, so even if it’s literally not the first PGA Tour event, there’s something about the start of the year, and there’s something about this location.”
Kapalua tends to get the brunt of the bad weather. There can be what the locals call “pineapple showers” along this portion of the coast, while only 20 miles away there is abundant sunshine and less wind.Bottle cutters let you turn old glass mosaic and wine bottles into bottle art! Still, the Plantation Course is the only course in Hawaii that Golf Digest ranks among the greatest 100 courses in America (No. 97). It’s unlike any course the PGA Tour plays all year with dramatic changes in elevation and stunning views of the Pacific, such as humpback whales breaching and surfers at Honolua Bay.
Woods hasn’t been back since 2005, when he started taking uninterrupted breaks in the winter. Phil Mickelson stopped coming a decade ago, suggesting the wind and slope allowed bad habits to creep into his swing. Adding to the list of absentees is Europe producing some of the best players. The European Tour season stretches deep in November, and some players simply want a long break going into the new season.
The 30-man field this year was hardly a disaster, and the leaderboard going into the final round featured a top five of Dustin Johnson, Stricker, Masters champion Bubba Watson, FedEx Cup champion Brandt Snedeker and former PGA champion Keegan Bradley. A lot of tournaments would love to have a leaderboard like that.
Years ago, an idea was tossed around to expand the field by offering a two-year exemption to the Tournament of Champions and include all past champions of the event, with the idea of getting Els and Sergio Garcia to the event because they didn’t win the year before. Sure,We offer the largest range of porcelain tiles online. having them at Kapalua would have helped. But the biggest mistake golf can make is to change rules around any one player, even a player like Tiger Woods.
Actually, don’t “enter” UC at all; the concept has been around since we started trying to extend and enhance Private Branch Exchange (PBX) units at the end of the 1980s or thereabouts.A collection of natural startup stone mosaic offering polished or tumbled finishes and a choice of sizes. But these days we also see that UC incorporates newer forms of technology such as Interactive White Boards (IWB), speech recognition, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and even Digital Signage Communications (DSC). New services yes, but the comms industry still loves its acronyms, doesn’t it?
Regardless of heritage and history, we now have a deeply rich pool of UC services to bring to bear and both cloud computing and mobility have a leading role to play in terms of how the next wave is played out.
Mobility matters because users will demand an ubiquitous connection to all these new services in the palm of their hands. Mobility in this sense doesn’t just mean dialling up the office on a smartphone either; it also means the option to use mobile virtual desktop services and the ability to “sign in” to a host of other options from voicemail upwards.
Cloud matters for UC for two main reasons. Firstly, it opens the door to virtualised data services from email to document management (for example SharePoint,Find Complete Details about howo tractor Truck. Google Docs etc.) and video web conferencing (such as WebEx and others). Secondly, the cloud model offers customers a route to these services without initial upfront investment in hardware. It’s almost a “try before you buy (too much) in case you don’t find it commercially productive” arrangement.
Stricker was the one who had to win a tournament for them to go to Kapalua to start a new season,Cheaper For bulk buying crys talbeads wholesale prices. and he did that the following year.
As traditions go in golf, starting the year on the rugged coast of Maui is relatively new. The Tournament of Champions began in Las Vegas in 1953, moved to La Costa Resort north of San Diego in 1969 and stayed there 30 years until coming to Kapalua.
This was the 15th year the tour has started at Kapalua, and there has never been another year like this one. A tournament that was supposed to end on Monday didn’t start until Monday because of three days of powerful wind – one gust measuring 48 mph – that had the locals drawing comparisons with a 100-year storm.
About the only good that came out of such freak weather was that it took attention away, however briefly, from the PGA Tour winners who stayed home and missed out on the endless days – the top four players in the world ranking, for starters, led by Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods.
It’s not a new problem, but it’s still a problem. And it contributes to a future as cloudy as Molokai at sunrise.
Hyundai’s three-year deal as the title sponsor of the Tournament of Champions expires this year, even though corporate officials sounded optimistic about renewing and there are strong signs it will happen.
It doesn’t help that Mother Nature was in a bad mood this week. Few things in golf cause a knee-jerk reaction like bad weather.
There were suggestions to move the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am to the end of the West Coast Swing after the tournament was canceled by rain in 1996, completed nearly seven months after it started in 1998 because of rain, and shortened to 54 holes a year later because of – you guessed it – rain.
The rain was so bad in California in 2005 that the Nissan Open at Riviera went five days to get in 36 holes. The next week, the Match Play Championship at La Costa was postponed one day because the entire course looked like a water hazard. Woods wondered if it might not be better for the PGA Tour to spend February in Florida and March in California. It sounded like a reasonable idea until a Champions Tour in Florida was shortened to 36 holes because of rain.
“We are not terribly concerned about it,” said Steve Shannon, vice president of marketing for Hyundai. “I think there is that aspect of it’s the start of the year, so even if it’s literally not the first PGA Tour event, there’s something about the start of the year, and there’s something about this location.”
Kapalua tends to get the brunt of the bad weather. There can be what the locals call “pineapple showers” along this portion of the coast, while only 20 miles away there is abundant sunshine and less wind.Bottle cutters let you turn old glass mosaic and wine bottles into bottle art! Still, the Plantation Course is the only course in Hawaii that Golf Digest ranks among the greatest 100 courses in America (No. 97). It’s unlike any course the PGA Tour plays all year with dramatic changes in elevation and stunning views of the Pacific, such as humpback whales breaching and surfers at Honolua Bay.
Woods hasn’t been back since 2005, when he started taking uninterrupted breaks in the winter. Phil Mickelson stopped coming a decade ago, suggesting the wind and slope allowed bad habits to creep into his swing. Adding to the list of absentees is Europe producing some of the best players. The European Tour season stretches deep in November, and some players simply want a long break going into the new season.
The 30-man field this year was hardly a disaster, and the leaderboard going into the final round featured a top five of Dustin Johnson, Stricker, Masters champion Bubba Watson, FedEx Cup champion Brandt Snedeker and former PGA champion Keegan Bradley. A lot of tournaments would love to have a leaderboard like that.
Years ago, an idea was tossed around to expand the field by offering a two-year exemption to the Tournament of Champions and include all past champions of the event, with the idea of getting Els and Sergio Garcia to the event because they didn’t win the year before. Sure,We offer the largest range of porcelain tiles online. having them at Kapalua would have helped. But the biggest mistake golf can make is to change rules around any one player, even a player like Tiger Woods.
Actually, don’t “enter” UC at all; the concept has been around since we started trying to extend and enhance Private Branch Exchange (PBX) units at the end of the 1980s or thereabouts.A collection of natural startup stone mosaic offering polished or tumbled finishes and a choice of sizes. But these days we also see that UC incorporates newer forms of technology such as Interactive White Boards (IWB), speech recognition, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and even Digital Signage Communications (DSC). New services yes, but the comms industry still loves its acronyms, doesn’t it?
Regardless of heritage and history, we now have a deeply rich pool of UC services to bring to bear and both cloud computing and mobility have a leading role to play in terms of how the next wave is played out.
Mobility matters because users will demand an ubiquitous connection to all these new services in the palm of their hands. Mobility in this sense doesn’t just mean dialling up the office on a smartphone either; it also means the option to use mobile virtual desktop services and the ability to “sign in” to a host of other options from voicemail upwards.
Cloud matters for UC for two main reasons. Firstly, it opens the door to virtualised data services from email to document management (for example SharePoint,Find Complete Details about howo tractor Truck. Google Docs etc.) and video web conferencing (such as WebEx and others). Secondly, the cloud model offers customers a route to these services without initial upfront investment in hardware. It’s almost a “try before you buy (too much) in case you don’t find it commercially productive” arrangement.
Changes at town’s beaches debated
While a structural engineer has determined that storm-damaged
buildings at the town’s two beaches can be repaired, officials are
trying to plot the best course of action to ensure that beach facilities
are sustainable.
Recreation Director Paul Duffy reviewed the engineer’s findings from a study of Westerly Town Beach, also known as the old town beach, and Wuskenau Beach, known to some as the new town beach, with the Town Council on Monday.We open source indoor tracking system that was developed with the goal of providing at least room-level accuracy. Earlier in the evening he made a similar presentation to the Public Works Committee, which advises the Council on town infrastructure projects.
Duffy said all beach-related rebuilding should start with a focus on restoring and preserving the beach itself. Both town beaches lost substantial amounts of the beach face, as their dunes were leveled and washed away by Superstorm Sandy.
Town Engineer Paul LeBlanc has developed a plan for moving the dunes at the old town beach about 15 to 20 feet farther from the water than they were before the storm. The move would create more space on the beaches but would reduce the number of parking spaces. To compensate for the lost parking spaces, LeBlanc and Duffy are both suggesting the use of town-owned land across the street from the two beaches.
Duffy recommended moving the Frank P. “Shorty” Comforti Pavilion at the Westerly Town Beach farther from the water, onto new pilings, but that suggestion met with some resistance. Robert Gingerella, a member of the Recreation Board, said the 45-year-old structure was not worth moving. He suggested construction of a new building.
Town Manager Steven Hartford called the plan for the Westerly Town Beach “a good middle ground plan” that would provide a building for the summer of 2013. The new pilings, Hartford and others said, could serve as the foundation for a new building in the future.Buy today and get your delivery for £25 on a range of ceramic tile for your home.
St. Jean Engineering LLC of East Greenwich determined that the Comforti Pavilion could be repaired for about $73,000, not including the cost f a new septic system, and that the facilities at Wuskenau Town Beach could be repaired for about $132,000.
The Town Council asked Duffy and LeBlanc to research the cost of both wood pilings and concrete pilings, which officials said are generally preferred in the construction field but are more expensive. Based on the use of wooden pilings, Duffy estimated that moving the building and the cost of the pilings would be about $100,000.
Repairs that would return the town facilities to the condition they were before the storm are eligible for 75 percent reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The agency also reimburses for improvements, in some cases, as part of a hazard mitigation program. LeBlanc said he would submit a hazard mitigation plan for the Westerly Town Beach.
To save the town’s popular beach concert series for 2013, Duffy is recommending the use of “geomats,” an interlocking flooring system designed for uneven surfaces. The mats or some other surface is necessary because the decks surrounding much of the pavilion were ripped off and swept away during the storm
For Wuskenau Town Beach,Creative glass tile and stone mosaic tile for your distinctive kitchen and bath. Duffy is recommending a “less is more” approach that entails tearing down the snack bar portion of the building at the beach. Duffy said the snack bar is too low and could cause the entire building to collapse during a storm with heavier winds then those during Superstorm Sandy.
Restrooms and changing rooms that were ripped off the building would not be replaced under Duffy’s plan, and portable restrooms would be a permanent solution. Two apartments that are about 22 feet tall would remain. Gingerella asked that the apartments be removed and not rebuilt, saying the town received no benefit from the apartments, but Duffy said they generate about $35,000 per year in rental fees. Gingerella said he doubted that the apartments made money when the cost of insurance and utilities are accounted for. Leaving the apartments would “handicap” efforts to re-establish the dunes, Gingerella said.
Councilor Jack Carson said the council must ensure that a quality product is delivered during the rebuilding process. “If it’s a facility that town people enjoy and demand then I think it’s incumbent on us to do it right and do it right the first time,” he said.
Councilor Patricia Douglas said she would prefer a smaller building at the Westerly Town Beach. She said the council should focus its energy on the Westerly Town Beach since the Wuskenau Beach operates as a public beach. She also recommended a careful approach to ensure adequate funding is available to the town.Creative glass tile and stone mosaic tile for your distinctive kitchen and bath.
Councilor Caswell Cooke Jr., who asked that the beach and other Misquamicut matters be put on the agenda for Monday’s meeting, urged a speedy but careful approach. He also said the council should decide soon on whether to keep the apartments at Wuskenau Beach.Add depth and style to your home with these large format polished tiles.
Hartford asked residents and officials to be patient. Superstorm Sandy is the most damaging storm the town has faced since 1954, when Hurricane Carol struck, Hartford said.
“There has been overwhelming devastation for our town. We’re going to be a long way toward recovery when the summer comes, but we’re not going to be there all the way — but we will be open for business on Memorial Day,” Hartford said.
The town will likely have to tap its financial surplus or rainy day fund to pay for some of the repairs, Hartford said. Expenditure of the funds, which amount to nearly $9 million, must be approved by the council, Hartford said.
The Discover Pass parking lot exemption enjoyed only at Fort Worden State Park ended on Dec. 31 as Washington State Parks continues to deal with a budget crisis.
The Legislature initiated the Discover Pass vehicle parking pass fee in July 2011 to offset the elimination of state general fund money from State Parks’ budget. Not only has the pass failed to meet revenue expectations, at Fort Worden it is blamed for a drop in visitation – which, in turn, generally means less money for State Parks.
Exemptions, however, had been in place here for campus partners that had events already scheduled prior to July 1, 2011. Centrum, the arts and education entity with programs that draw more guests than any other business, books events two years in advance. Communicating those exemptions and the Discover Pass rules in general has been confusing for all involved – and the Jan. 1, 2013 exemption change may or may not make it easier.
Recreation Director Paul Duffy reviewed the engineer’s findings from a study of Westerly Town Beach, also known as the old town beach, and Wuskenau Beach, known to some as the new town beach, with the Town Council on Monday.We open source indoor tracking system that was developed with the goal of providing at least room-level accuracy. Earlier in the evening he made a similar presentation to the Public Works Committee, which advises the Council on town infrastructure projects.
Duffy said all beach-related rebuilding should start with a focus on restoring and preserving the beach itself. Both town beaches lost substantial amounts of the beach face, as their dunes were leveled and washed away by Superstorm Sandy.
Town Engineer Paul LeBlanc has developed a plan for moving the dunes at the old town beach about 15 to 20 feet farther from the water than they were before the storm. The move would create more space on the beaches but would reduce the number of parking spaces. To compensate for the lost parking spaces, LeBlanc and Duffy are both suggesting the use of town-owned land across the street from the two beaches.
Duffy recommended moving the Frank P. “Shorty” Comforti Pavilion at the Westerly Town Beach farther from the water, onto new pilings, but that suggestion met with some resistance. Robert Gingerella, a member of the Recreation Board, said the 45-year-old structure was not worth moving. He suggested construction of a new building.
Town Manager Steven Hartford called the plan for the Westerly Town Beach “a good middle ground plan” that would provide a building for the summer of 2013. The new pilings, Hartford and others said, could serve as the foundation for a new building in the future.Buy today and get your delivery for £25 on a range of ceramic tile for your home.
St. Jean Engineering LLC of East Greenwich determined that the Comforti Pavilion could be repaired for about $73,000, not including the cost f a new septic system, and that the facilities at Wuskenau Town Beach could be repaired for about $132,000.
The Town Council asked Duffy and LeBlanc to research the cost of both wood pilings and concrete pilings, which officials said are generally preferred in the construction field but are more expensive. Based on the use of wooden pilings, Duffy estimated that moving the building and the cost of the pilings would be about $100,000.
Repairs that would return the town facilities to the condition they were before the storm are eligible for 75 percent reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The agency also reimburses for improvements, in some cases, as part of a hazard mitigation program. LeBlanc said he would submit a hazard mitigation plan for the Westerly Town Beach.
To save the town’s popular beach concert series for 2013, Duffy is recommending the use of “geomats,” an interlocking flooring system designed for uneven surfaces. The mats or some other surface is necessary because the decks surrounding much of the pavilion were ripped off and swept away during the storm
For Wuskenau Town Beach,Creative glass tile and stone mosaic tile for your distinctive kitchen and bath. Duffy is recommending a “less is more” approach that entails tearing down the snack bar portion of the building at the beach. Duffy said the snack bar is too low and could cause the entire building to collapse during a storm with heavier winds then those during Superstorm Sandy.
Restrooms and changing rooms that were ripped off the building would not be replaced under Duffy’s plan, and portable restrooms would be a permanent solution. Two apartments that are about 22 feet tall would remain. Gingerella asked that the apartments be removed and not rebuilt, saying the town received no benefit from the apartments, but Duffy said they generate about $35,000 per year in rental fees. Gingerella said he doubted that the apartments made money when the cost of insurance and utilities are accounted for. Leaving the apartments would “handicap” efforts to re-establish the dunes, Gingerella said.
Councilor Jack Carson said the council must ensure that a quality product is delivered during the rebuilding process. “If it’s a facility that town people enjoy and demand then I think it’s incumbent on us to do it right and do it right the first time,” he said.
Councilor Patricia Douglas said she would prefer a smaller building at the Westerly Town Beach. She said the council should focus its energy on the Westerly Town Beach since the Wuskenau Beach operates as a public beach. She also recommended a careful approach to ensure adequate funding is available to the town.Creative glass tile and stone mosaic tile for your distinctive kitchen and bath.
Councilor Caswell Cooke Jr., who asked that the beach and other Misquamicut matters be put on the agenda for Monday’s meeting, urged a speedy but careful approach. He also said the council should decide soon on whether to keep the apartments at Wuskenau Beach.Add depth and style to your home with these large format polished tiles.
Hartford asked residents and officials to be patient. Superstorm Sandy is the most damaging storm the town has faced since 1954, when Hurricane Carol struck, Hartford said.
“There has been overwhelming devastation for our town. We’re going to be a long way toward recovery when the summer comes, but we’re not going to be there all the way — but we will be open for business on Memorial Day,” Hartford said.
The town will likely have to tap its financial surplus or rainy day fund to pay for some of the repairs, Hartford said. Expenditure of the funds, which amount to nearly $9 million, must be approved by the council, Hartford said.
The Discover Pass parking lot exemption enjoyed only at Fort Worden State Park ended on Dec. 31 as Washington State Parks continues to deal with a budget crisis.
The Legislature initiated the Discover Pass vehicle parking pass fee in July 2011 to offset the elimination of state general fund money from State Parks’ budget. Not only has the pass failed to meet revenue expectations, at Fort Worden it is blamed for a drop in visitation – which, in turn, generally means less money for State Parks.
Exemptions, however, had been in place here for campus partners that had events already scheduled prior to July 1, 2011. Centrum, the arts and education entity with programs that draw more guests than any other business, books events two years in advance. Communicating those exemptions and the Discover Pass rules in general has been confusing for all involved – and the Jan. 1, 2013 exemption change may or may not make it easier.
Pakistan kiln laborers hemmed in by debts they can't repay
The mounds of clay are so heavy that they have warped Shahbaz's
creaky wooden cart. The 10-year-old boy's spindly arms struggle with the
weight, about 45 pounds. He teeters as he wheels cartload after
cartload to his mother, a waifish woman crouched on the ground who is
turning the wet clay into bricks at a rate of three per minute.
A few feet away, 12-year-old Shahzad matches his mother brick for brick. Without the help of the two boys, their daily brick yield wouldn't be high enough to feed a family of seven.
"I hate this," says the mother, Nazira Bibi, slapping a clod of mud into the brick mold and flipping it over with a thump. "I hate the fact that my kids have to do this work, that they're not in school. When I see other kids going to school, I wish my kids were those kids.
The Pakistani Taliban's brutal attack on teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai provided the world a window on the insurgent group's long-running campaign against "un-Islamic" schools in the country's northwest.
But in much of the rest of the country, one of the most entrenched barriers to education comes from moneyed landowners, brick kiln operators, carpet makers and other businesspeople who rely on a form of indentured servitude known as bonded labor.
Among the victims are millions of children such as Shahbaz and Shahzad, who cannot read or write and are likely to spend the rest of their lives tethered to debt they inherited — and can never repay.
In Punjab province, bonded labor is a way of life at thousands of brick kilns that for generations have ensnared workers in a hopeless cycle of loans and advances. The workers don't earn enough to survive, so they're forced to accept loans from the kiln owners. The meager pay keeps them from being able to repay the loans. When they die, the debt is passed on to their children.
From the brick kilns and tanneries of the Punjab heartland to the cotton fields of the southern province of Sindh, millions are doomed to bonded labor. Kashif Bajeer, secretary of Pakistan's National Coalition Against Bonded Labor, says there are no statistics on bonded laborers in Pakistan, but most estimates put the number at up to 8 million.
Pakistan officially outlawed bonded labor in 1992,Do you know any howo spare parts wholesale supplier? but enforcement has been almost nonexistent in the face of the financial and political clout wielded by southern Pakistan's wealthy landlords and kiln owners, who provide payoffs to keep police and administrative officials at bay.
Bajeer estimates that 70% of bonded laborers in Pakistan are children, few of whom attend school. Pilot projects in eastern Punjab province have put children from 8,000 kiln families into classrooms, but those efforts have yet to be expanded to the rest of the province.
"The government is supposed to provide schooling to these children, but it doesn't take the issue seriously," Bajeer says. "Most parents in bonded labor don't have national ID cards, and so they don't have the right to vote.Product information for Avery Dennison cable ties products. And because of that, they are not a big priority for local lawmakers."
Many bonded laborers live in impoverished regions where few people obtain birth certificates, which are required for a national ID card.
At the kiln where Bibi, 30, and her boys work, the acrid odor of chemicals from a fertilizer plant next door hangs over a dirt field where dozens of families toil amid the ceaseless clapping of brick molds as they hit the ground. Bibi's husband, Mohammed Sadiq, also 30, readies the day's supply of trucked-in clay by adding buckets of water and trudging through it to knead it into the right consistency.
Life at a brick kiln is all Bibi and her husband have ever known. Both are children of kiln laborers; Bibi began working at a kiln when she was 10, Sadiq when he was 12. Their debt to kiln owner Akram Arain built up shortly after they got married more than a decade ago. They took out a loan to pay for their wedding, more loans to pay for the births of their five children, and still more to get through the annual monsoons, when kiln work shuts down and no one gets paid. Arain declined a request for an interview.
Their current debt stands at 20,000 rupees — about $200, but to Bibi and Sadiq it might as well be $2 million. The family gets 500 rupees, about $5, for every 1,000 bricks it produces. That's about $7.50 for a grueling eight hours of work. At midday, the family sits together for a few minutes to eat what usually serves as its lunch: a few fist-sized plastic bags of boiled orange lentils and a small wheel of bread.
Bajeer estimates that 70% of bonded laborers in Pakistan are children, few of whom attend school. Pilot projects in eastern Punjab province have put children from 8,000 kiln families into classrooms, but those efforts have yet to be expanded to the rest of the province.
"The government is supposed to provide schooling to these children, but it doesn't take the issue seriously," Bajeer says. "Most parents in bonded labor don't have national ID cards, and so they don't have the right to vote. And because of that, they are not a big priority for local lawmakers."
Many bonded laborers live in impoverished regions where few people obtain birth certificates, which are required for a national ID card.
At the kiln where Bibi, 30, and her boys work, the acrid odor of chemicals from a fertilizer plant next door hangs over a dirt field where dozens of families toil amid the ceaseless clapping of brick molds as they hit the ground. Bibi's husband, Mohammed Sadiq, also 30, readies the day's supply of trucked-in clay by adding buckets of water and trudging through it to knead it into the right consistency.
Life at a brick kiln is all Bibi and her husband have ever known. Both are children of kiln laborers; Bibi began working at a kiln when she was 10, Sadiq when he was 12.Get the best deal on solar panel in the UK and use our free tools. Their debt to kiln owner Akram Arain built up shortly after they got married more than a decade ago. They took out a loan to pay for their wedding, more loans to pay for the births of their five children, and still more to get through the annual monsoons, when kiln work shuts down and no one gets paid. Arain declined a request for an interview.
Their current debt stands at 20,000 rupees — about $200, but to Bibi and Sadiq it might as well be $2 million. The family gets 500 rupees, about $5, for every 1,All our plastic moulds are vacuum formed using food safe plastic.000 bricks it produces. That's about $7.50 for a grueling eight hours of work. At midday, the family sits together for a few minutes to eat what usually serves as its lunch: a few fist-sized plastic bags of boiled orange lentils and a small wheel of bread.
As a practical measure, don't dial down more than about 10 degrees unless doing it for a longer period of time, such as the entire weekend.
Fegan also cautioned that if you have an older house with poor insulation,Do you know any howo spare parts wholesale supplier? don't dial down too far and risk freezing water pipes located near outside walls.
Dialing down could add up to $80 or more in savings during the winter. But you have to have a programmable thermostat or dial it yourself all the time.
"You can't just do it once in a while and think you're going to save any money," Fegan said.
Another option: Some experts say consumers can cut an electric bill by $60 a year if they replace standard bulbs in their five most frequently used light fixtures with the Energy Star compact fluorescent light bulbs. Fegan said new CFL bulbs are less expensive and offer better lighting than early products.
Find free checking either via direct deposit or a community bank or credit union with no strings attached.
Other fees: Are you paying $10 a month for credit card protection plans or credit-monitoring services? Here's another way to save $120 a year: Ditch those plans.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says that many consumers unknowingly signed up for ID theft plans and insurance coverage for credit card debt. Often, they don't understand the restrictions of credit-related insurance plans.
Do you pay $4 to $5 a pop to use an ATM not connected to your bank? Save $60 a year, if you pay that fee once a month.
Also check with your utility to see what types of rebates might be offered on energy-efficient furnaces.
Dorothy Barrick, financial counselor and group manager for GreenPath Debt Solutions, a national non-profit credit counselor, said consumers can save in a variety of areas that aren't essential. Color your own hair to save $80 or more, she said. Or think of removing a movie channel from your cable line. Avoid wasting gas in a long drive-through lane. Go inside the bank or restaurant if there's a long line or you have a larger order.
Is there a way to cut your phone bill? Do you really need that land line when everyone reaches you on your cellphone? Can you opt for a prepaid cell plan with fewer bells and whistles? What about the cost of your Internet plan? It does not hurt to comparison-shop plans — and ask for a lower price with existing providers.
A few feet away, 12-year-old Shahzad matches his mother brick for brick. Without the help of the two boys, their daily brick yield wouldn't be high enough to feed a family of seven.
"I hate this," says the mother, Nazira Bibi, slapping a clod of mud into the brick mold and flipping it over with a thump. "I hate the fact that my kids have to do this work, that they're not in school. When I see other kids going to school, I wish my kids were those kids.
The Pakistani Taliban's brutal attack on teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai provided the world a window on the insurgent group's long-running campaign against "un-Islamic" schools in the country's northwest.
But in much of the rest of the country, one of the most entrenched barriers to education comes from moneyed landowners, brick kiln operators, carpet makers and other businesspeople who rely on a form of indentured servitude known as bonded labor.
Among the victims are millions of children such as Shahbaz and Shahzad, who cannot read or write and are likely to spend the rest of their lives tethered to debt they inherited — and can never repay.
In Punjab province, bonded labor is a way of life at thousands of brick kilns that for generations have ensnared workers in a hopeless cycle of loans and advances. The workers don't earn enough to survive, so they're forced to accept loans from the kiln owners. The meager pay keeps them from being able to repay the loans. When they die, the debt is passed on to their children.
From the brick kilns and tanneries of the Punjab heartland to the cotton fields of the southern province of Sindh, millions are doomed to bonded labor. Kashif Bajeer, secretary of Pakistan's National Coalition Against Bonded Labor, says there are no statistics on bonded laborers in Pakistan, but most estimates put the number at up to 8 million.
Pakistan officially outlawed bonded labor in 1992,Do you know any howo spare parts wholesale supplier? but enforcement has been almost nonexistent in the face of the financial and political clout wielded by southern Pakistan's wealthy landlords and kiln owners, who provide payoffs to keep police and administrative officials at bay.
Bajeer estimates that 70% of bonded laborers in Pakistan are children, few of whom attend school. Pilot projects in eastern Punjab province have put children from 8,000 kiln families into classrooms, but those efforts have yet to be expanded to the rest of the province.
"The government is supposed to provide schooling to these children, but it doesn't take the issue seriously," Bajeer says. "Most parents in bonded labor don't have national ID cards, and so they don't have the right to vote.Product information for Avery Dennison cable ties products. And because of that, they are not a big priority for local lawmakers."
Many bonded laborers live in impoverished regions where few people obtain birth certificates, which are required for a national ID card.
At the kiln where Bibi, 30, and her boys work, the acrid odor of chemicals from a fertilizer plant next door hangs over a dirt field where dozens of families toil amid the ceaseless clapping of brick molds as they hit the ground. Bibi's husband, Mohammed Sadiq, also 30, readies the day's supply of trucked-in clay by adding buckets of water and trudging through it to knead it into the right consistency.
Life at a brick kiln is all Bibi and her husband have ever known. Both are children of kiln laborers; Bibi began working at a kiln when she was 10, Sadiq when he was 12. Their debt to kiln owner Akram Arain built up shortly after they got married more than a decade ago. They took out a loan to pay for their wedding, more loans to pay for the births of their five children, and still more to get through the annual monsoons, when kiln work shuts down and no one gets paid. Arain declined a request for an interview.
Their current debt stands at 20,000 rupees — about $200, but to Bibi and Sadiq it might as well be $2 million. The family gets 500 rupees, about $5, for every 1,000 bricks it produces. That's about $7.50 for a grueling eight hours of work. At midday, the family sits together for a few minutes to eat what usually serves as its lunch: a few fist-sized plastic bags of boiled orange lentils and a small wheel of bread.
Bajeer estimates that 70% of bonded laborers in Pakistan are children, few of whom attend school. Pilot projects in eastern Punjab province have put children from 8,000 kiln families into classrooms, but those efforts have yet to be expanded to the rest of the province.
"The government is supposed to provide schooling to these children, but it doesn't take the issue seriously," Bajeer says. "Most parents in bonded labor don't have national ID cards, and so they don't have the right to vote. And because of that, they are not a big priority for local lawmakers."
Many bonded laborers live in impoverished regions where few people obtain birth certificates, which are required for a national ID card.
At the kiln where Bibi, 30, and her boys work, the acrid odor of chemicals from a fertilizer plant next door hangs over a dirt field where dozens of families toil amid the ceaseless clapping of brick molds as they hit the ground. Bibi's husband, Mohammed Sadiq, also 30, readies the day's supply of trucked-in clay by adding buckets of water and trudging through it to knead it into the right consistency.
Life at a brick kiln is all Bibi and her husband have ever known. Both are children of kiln laborers; Bibi began working at a kiln when she was 10, Sadiq when he was 12.Get the best deal on solar panel in the UK and use our free tools. Their debt to kiln owner Akram Arain built up shortly after they got married more than a decade ago. They took out a loan to pay for their wedding, more loans to pay for the births of their five children, and still more to get through the annual monsoons, when kiln work shuts down and no one gets paid. Arain declined a request for an interview.
Their current debt stands at 20,000 rupees — about $200, but to Bibi and Sadiq it might as well be $2 million. The family gets 500 rupees, about $5, for every 1,All our plastic moulds are vacuum formed using food safe plastic.000 bricks it produces. That's about $7.50 for a grueling eight hours of work. At midday, the family sits together for a few minutes to eat what usually serves as its lunch: a few fist-sized plastic bags of boiled orange lentils and a small wheel of bread.
As a practical measure, don't dial down more than about 10 degrees unless doing it for a longer period of time, such as the entire weekend.
Fegan also cautioned that if you have an older house with poor insulation,Do you know any howo spare parts wholesale supplier? don't dial down too far and risk freezing water pipes located near outside walls.
Dialing down could add up to $80 or more in savings during the winter. But you have to have a programmable thermostat or dial it yourself all the time.
"You can't just do it once in a while and think you're going to save any money," Fegan said.
Another option: Some experts say consumers can cut an electric bill by $60 a year if they replace standard bulbs in their five most frequently used light fixtures with the Energy Star compact fluorescent light bulbs. Fegan said new CFL bulbs are less expensive and offer better lighting than early products.
Find free checking either via direct deposit or a community bank or credit union with no strings attached.
Other fees: Are you paying $10 a month for credit card protection plans or credit-monitoring services? Here's another way to save $120 a year: Ditch those plans.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says that many consumers unknowingly signed up for ID theft plans and insurance coverage for credit card debt. Often, they don't understand the restrictions of credit-related insurance plans.
Do you pay $4 to $5 a pop to use an ATM not connected to your bank? Save $60 a year, if you pay that fee once a month.
Also check with your utility to see what types of rebates might be offered on energy-efficient furnaces.
Dorothy Barrick, financial counselor and group manager for GreenPath Debt Solutions, a national non-profit credit counselor, said consumers can save in a variety of areas that aren't essential. Color your own hair to save $80 or more, she said. Or think of removing a movie channel from your cable line. Avoid wasting gas in a long drive-through lane. Go inside the bank or restaurant if there's a long line or you have a larger order.
Is there a way to cut your phone bill? Do you really need that land line when everyone reaches you on your cellphone? Can you opt for a prepaid cell plan with fewer bells and whistles? What about the cost of your Internet plan? It does not hurt to comparison-shop plans — and ask for a lower price with existing providers.
Immigration and Education Reform
President Obama’s second term is an opportunity to sculpt a legacy
unencumbered by reelection concerns. Today’s political climate, with
persistent economic weakness and divided government, suggests that
policies providing economic growth and bipartisan appeal could provide
relatively open opportunities for the administration. Immigration and
education reform, in particular, are two policy issues in desperate need
of lasting change that would benefit from support on both sides of the
aisle.
Immigration has always been a strength of the U.S., but economic hardship and an intense election have unleashed divisive language. Discussions focus on two primary points: the issue of undocumented workers currently in the U.S., and the volume and caliber of future immigrants. President Obama must reassert the importance of immigration to our society, and his ability to clearly narrate its value across all spectrums of the economy will be just as key to reform as negotiating with Congress. He included immigration reform in his 2008 campaign promises but has not yet delivered. This is a fact that Hispanic voters, who represent a large and growing bloc of voters that traditionally vote Democratic, have not forgotten. It is especially prudent for him to recommit to the issue now.
There are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., the majority of whom assume low-wage functions. Studies contradict the popular narrative that immigrants steal American jobs and increase crime, instead suggesting that they perform tasks that Americans are unwilling or unable to do and actually correlate with low violent crime rates. Immigrants also tend to be more entrepreneurial, creating the new businesses and relationships that are crucial to the modern economy. Since they are here illegally, they do not have full access to our legal and economic system, making every aspect of life more fraught with uncertainty and open to abuse, by both employee and employer.
It is increasingly clear that deporting undocumented workers en masse would be cruel, costly,You can buy mosaic Moon yarns and fibers right here as instock. economically destructive, and in all certainty impossible to execute. By accepting the critical role they play in our economy, Washington must provide a clear path toward attaining legal status and citizenship. Clear expectations will help to standardize the transition out of the shadow economy for millions of workers, as well as give them legal access to worker protection and recourse against contract abuse. Increasing the amount of activity that takes place within the confines of our laws will help to protect everyone.For the world leader in injection molds base services and plastic injection products.
Some cities, such as Los Angeles, are already experimenting with ways to bring undocumented workers into some type of legal framework. While commendable, these attempts are hardly clear or comprehensive. Having a national framework can bring best practices acquired across different state approaches together and reduce the confusion of myriad different rules, structures, and level of enforcement. Immigration is a federal issue, and President Obama needs to demonstrate again that Washington can take the leadership role that is required of it.
Today’s political climate offers an opportunity. Stakeholders across the political spectrum, such as human rights activists, labor-intensive industries, religious organizations, and minority groups, are increasingly vocal about the importance and justice of immigration reform. When even stalwart conservative commentators can use the word “amnesty”, the potential for a broad coalition of support is high.
Looking beyond the millions of undocumented, unskilled workers already in the U.S., the nation needs to reaffirm its role as the premiere destination for the world’s highly educated and highly skilled looking for a new home. American universities are still the standard for those seeking the best education in the world, but other countries and institutions are catching up. Increasingly, foreign students find returning to their country of origin after graduation more appealing and less complicated than trying to stay in the U.You can buy mosaic Moon yarns and fibers right here as instock.S.
This reverse brain drain is especially prevalent among the highly educated Indian community in the U.S., where many come to the U.S. to seek opportunities in higher education,Cheaper For bulk buying crys talbeads wholesale prices. but return to capitalize on the dynamism of their emerging market homeland. Increasingly, it is seen as a competitive advantage to be educated in India and America, a sign that our universities are losing some of the broad appeal they once had.
Global companies,Shop the web's best selection of precious gemstones and gemstone beads at wholesale prices. both foreign- and U.S.-based, are chasing minds wherever they go and valuing the global background of these individuals who are easily able to handle cross-cultural situations in the workplace. Making it easier for those who come to study in the U.S. to stay and contribute both to the economy and the diversity that strengthens liberal society will signal to the global community that America understands that the key factor to economic growth is human capital. Attracting and retaining top talent who will thrive in the U.S.’s entrepreneurial environment should be a high priority across industry and government.
Welcoming the highly skilled does not mean abandoning the government’s commitment to increasing educational opportunities to Americans, but it does mean preparing them to compete in a globalized world that shows no signs of slowing in interconnectedness. Whereas immigration requires a clear hands-on policy approach, improving higher education will depend on the government largely taking a back seat and instead incentivizing increasingly affordable and accessible learning.
Low test scores, persistent high school and college dropout rates, rising college tuition costs, and slipping competitive advantage are just a sampling of concerns that need to be addressed. Whereas improving our educational system and making it more widely accessible is a goal shared by every policymaker, there is very little agreement on how best to achieve this. Exactly because of this uncertainty, new ideas and innovative technology must be allowed to permeate our educational systems. The administration should encourage policies and frameworks that make both easier to implement. Innovation and experimentation will enable education in the U.S. to adapt to the needs of the modern economy and enjoy unprecedented democratization of access.
The “College to Careers” initiative in the City Colleges of Chicago illustrates one way that educational innovation is emphasizing employable skills. The program partners city colleges and local industry leaders to help develop curricula to provide knowledge and skills that better align with business needs. Growing industries, such as information technology, hospitality, and advanced manufacturing in turn gain access to potentially tens of thousands of students and future employees.
In fact, industry partners commit to interviewing or hiring students who successfully complete the curriculum that they helped to design. Such partnerships promise to tie education more closely to the skills needed in our rapidly changing economy. Increased opportunities for hands-on learning, internships, and professional guidance will help to ensure that students continue to learn marketable skills and gain valuable industry-specific experience. This also leads to more predictable and stable hiring, beneficial for company forecasting and employee confidence in job placement. Programs such as these can and should be replicated in other cities.
However, opportunities for education are not by any means limited to major urban areas. Access to inexpensive and quality educational material has never been better. Online education is still in its infancy, but its growth and maturation promises to radically democratize all levels of learning. At the university level, for-profit companies such as Coursera are earning media attention and investment by aggregating quality online classes from the best universities. MIT has been an early proponent of increasing the amount of free material online, and they cut out the middleman by offering courses directly through their OpenCourseWare platform. MIT’s leadership has inspired other well-known institutions around the world to provide additional content, providing a breadth of global perspectives.
Coursera, OpenCourseWare, and other providers of online education are opportunities for Americans to gain new applicable skills and knowledge that lead to employment, as well as a window to explore other areas of interest without the same costs and commitment of a traditional college education. The potential for cross-disciplinary learning to encourage collaboration is the exact recipe for new ideas and business ventures that will drive economic progress.
Accreditation and other issues need to be resolved before such courses can legitimately compete with brick-and-mortar educational programs, but the government can help by mostly staying out of the way. A Minnesota state law passed last fall regarding educational institutions caused some confusion over whether residents could legally take advantage of Coursera offerings. Although the issue was quickly resolved, states and the federal government should be proactive in assuring that quality and free online offerings are by default free of fettering regulation.
Immigration has always been a strength of the U.S., but economic hardship and an intense election have unleashed divisive language. Discussions focus on two primary points: the issue of undocumented workers currently in the U.S., and the volume and caliber of future immigrants. President Obama must reassert the importance of immigration to our society, and his ability to clearly narrate its value across all spectrums of the economy will be just as key to reform as negotiating with Congress. He included immigration reform in his 2008 campaign promises but has not yet delivered. This is a fact that Hispanic voters, who represent a large and growing bloc of voters that traditionally vote Democratic, have not forgotten. It is especially prudent for him to recommit to the issue now.
There are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., the majority of whom assume low-wage functions. Studies contradict the popular narrative that immigrants steal American jobs and increase crime, instead suggesting that they perform tasks that Americans are unwilling or unable to do and actually correlate with low violent crime rates. Immigrants also tend to be more entrepreneurial, creating the new businesses and relationships that are crucial to the modern economy. Since they are here illegally, they do not have full access to our legal and economic system, making every aspect of life more fraught with uncertainty and open to abuse, by both employee and employer.
It is increasingly clear that deporting undocumented workers en masse would be cruel, costly,You can buy mosaic Moon yarns and fibers right here as instock. economically destructive, and in all certainty impossible to execute. By accepting the critical role they play in our economy, Washington must provide a clear path toward attaining legal status and citizenship. Clear expectations will help to standardize the transition out of the shadow economy for millions of workers, as well as give them legal access to worker protection and recourse against contract abuse. Increasing the amount of activity that takes place within the confines of our laws will help to protect everyone.For the world leader in injection molds base services and plastic injection products.
Some cities, such as Los Angeles, are already experimenting with ways to bring undocumented workers into some type of legal framework. While commendable, these attempts are hardly clear or comprehensive. Having a national framework can bring best practices acquired across different state approaches together and reduce the confusion of myriad different rules, structures, and level of enforcement. Immigration is a federal issue, and President Obama needs to demonstrate again that Washington can take the leadership role that is required of it.
Today’s political climate offers an opportunity. Stakeholders across the political spectrum, such as human rights activists, labor-intensive industries, religious organizations, and minority groups, are increasingly vocal about the importance and justice of immigration reform. When even stalwart conservative commentators can use the word “amnesty”, the potential for a broad coalition of support is high.
Looking beyond the millions of undocumented, unskilled workers already in the U.S., the nation needs to reaffirm its role as the premiere destination for the world’s highly educated and highly skilled looking for a new home. American universities are still the standard for those seeking the best education in the world, but other countries and institutions are catching up. Increasingly, foreign students find returning to their country of origin after graduation more appealing and less complicated than trying to stay in the U.You can buy mosaic Moon yarns and fibers right here as instock.S.
This reverse brain drain is especially prevalent among the highly educated Indian community in the U.S., where many come to the U.S. to seek opportunities in higher education,Cheaper For bulk buying crys talbeads wholesale prices. but return to capitalize on the dynamism of their emerging market homeland. Increasingly, it is seen as a competitive advantage to be educated in India and America, a sign that our universities are losing some of the broad appeal they once had.
Global companies,Shop the web's best selection of precious gemstones and gemstone beads at wholesale prices. both foreign- and U.S.-based, are chasing minds wherever they go and valuing the global background of these individuals who are easily able to handle cross-cultural situations in the workplace. Making it easier for those who come to study in the U.S. to stay and contribute both to the economy and the diversity that strengthens liberal society will signal to the global community that America understands that the key factor to economic growth is human capital. Attracting and retaining top talent who will thrive in the U.S.’s entrepreneurial environment should be a high priority across industry and government.
Welcoming the highly skilled does not mean abandoning the government’s commitment to increasing educational opportunities to Americans, but it does mean preparing them to compete in a globalized world that shows no signs of slowing in interconnectedness. Whereas immigration requires a clear hands-on policy approach, improving higher education will depend on the government largely taking a back seat and instead incentivizing increasingly affordable and accessible learning.
Low test scores, persistent high school and college dropout rates, rising college tuition costs, and slipping competitive advantage are just a sampling of concerns that need to be addressed. Whereas improving our educational system and making it more widely accessible is a goal shared by every policymaker, there is very little agreement on how best to achieve this. Exactly because of this uncertainty, new ideas and innovative technology must be allowed to permeate our educational systems. The administration should encourage policies and frameworks that make both easier to implement. Innovation and experimentation will enable education in the U.S. to adapt to the needs of the modern economy and enjoy unprecedented democratization of access.
The “College to Careers” initiative in the City Colleges of Chicago illustrates one way that educational innovation is emphasizing employable skills. The program partners city colleges and local industry leaders to help develop curricula to provide knowledge and skills that better align with business needs. Growing industries, such as information technology, hospitality, and advanced manufacturing in turn gain access to potentially tens of thousands of students and future employees.
In fact, industry partners commit to interviewing or hiring students who successfully complete the curriculum that they helped to design. Such partnerships promise to tie education more closely to the skills needed in our rapidly changing economy. Increased opportunities for hands-on learning, internships, and professional guidance will help to ensure that students continue to learn marketable skills and gain valuable industry-specific experience. This also leads to more predictable and stable hiring, beneficial for company forecasting and employee confidence in job placement. Programs such as these can and should be replicated in other cities.
However, opportunities for education are not by any means limited to major urban areas. Access to inexpensive and quality educational material has never been better. Online education is still in its infancy, but its growth and maturation promises to radically democratize all levels of learning. At the university level, for-profit companies such as Coursera are earning media attention and investment by aggregating quality online classes from the best universities. MIT has been an early proponent of increasing the amount of free material online, and they cut out the middleman by offering courses directly through their OpenCourseWare platform. MIT’s leadership has inspired other well-known institutions around the world to provide additional content, providing a breadth of global perspectives.
Coursera, OpenCourseWare, and other providers of online education are opportunities for Americans to gain new applicable skills and knowledge that lead to employment, as well as a window to explore other areas of interest without the same costs and commitment of a traditional college education. The potential for cross-disciplinary learning to encourage collaboration is the exact recipe for new ideas and business ventures that will drive economic progress.
Accreditation and other issues need to be resolved before such courses can legitimately compete with brick-and-mortar educational programs, but the government can help by mostly staying out of the way. A Minnesota state law passed last fall regarding educational institutions caused some confusion over whether residents could legally take advantage of Coursera offerings. Although the issue was quickly resolved, states and the federal government should be proactive in assuring that quality and free online offerings are by default free of fettering regulation.
2013年1月7日 星期一
Tanker ship strikes Bay Bridge tower
A 750-foot oil tanker collided with a tower of the Bay Bridge this
morning, and sustained damage, but no oil has been detected in San
Francisco Bay.
"We're still keeping an eye out to make sure. We're keeping our fingers crossed for a best-case scenario," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Barry Bena. "But as of right now, initial reports from the pilot, the Coast Guard and local agencies show no pollution has hit the water."
Coast guard officials said the ship was not carrying a oil as a cargo, but that it had thousands of gallons of bunker fuel in its fuel tanks.
The ship, which was anchored Monday afternoon between Treasure Island and Alcatraz island, was sailing from the Shell refinery at Martinez, according to the ship's course, as recorded by its transponder and posted on vessel tracking websites. It headed south, past Alcatraz, then sailed under the Bay Bridge, did a U-turn and sailed back north, hitting a bridge tower. It then came to rest off Treasure Island.
Bena said that the extent of the damage to the vessel is unclear, and he doesn't know yet what caused the collision. He said the "Echo Tower" of the Bay Bridge — which sits between San Francisco and Treasure Island — was hit by the ship, with the fender of the tower sustaining some damage.
Bena said visibility was at about a quarter mile at 11:18 a.m. when the accident occurred.
Charlie Goodyear, a spokesman for the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association, said there were foggy conditions on the bay at the time.
'It was so foggy that when I got to Pier 9 at about 11:30 I could not see Treasure Island," he said. "Fog is not going to be the only factor here, but visability was poor.We mainly supply professional craftspeople with crys talbeads wholesale shamballa Bracele ,"
Goodyear said the pilot on board the ship was an 8-year veteran. He would not disclose his name. The pilot is scheduled to be interviewed by the Coast Guard tomorrow, he said, adding that he will also report to the Board of Pilot Commissioners investigations unit.
"I don't have authority to provide his name," Goodyear said. "He has been a bar pilot since 2005. He is an experienced mariner.We mainly supply professional craftspeople with crys talbeads wholesale shamballa Bracele ,Posts with indoor tracking system on TRX Systems develops systems that locate and track personnel indoors."
Goodyear said the ship's hull was not breached and that it did not deploy floating boom, commonly used in oil spill cleanups.
That an oil tanker — which is similar in size to the Exxon Valdez — hit a bridge in San Francisco Bay alarmed environmentalists, who called it a narrow miss.
"With a quarter mile of visibility, they probably should not have been transiting the bay. This was a close call," said Deb Self, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper, who was in a boat on the water. "The ship's capacity is 505,000 barrels of oil. Luckily it was empty. Or we could have had a real disaster."
The accident is similar to an incident that caused the last major oil spill in San Francisco Bay.
On Nov. 7, 2007, the 901-foot Cosco Busan, headed from Oakland to South Korea,This is my favourite sites to purchase those special pieces of buy mosaic materials from. sideswiped the Bay Bridge's "Delta Tower" — adjacent to the tower hit Monday — in dense morning fog.
The incident ripped a 211-foot-long gash in the Cosco Busan's hull and dumped 53,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the bay. No people were injured or killed, but the spill significantly oiled 69 miles of shoreline . Estimates from state and wildlife agencies put the total number of birds killed at 6,849, based on animals recovered and models predicting how many died but were never found.
The local bar pilot who was guiding the ship, John Cota, 64, of Petaluma, pleaded guilty in 2009 to federal water pollution charges and served 10 months in jail.
Pilots are local mariners who board oil tankers, freighters and other large ships as they enter San Francisco Bay.Best howo concrete mixer manufacturer in China. They stand on the bridge of the vessels, helping captains maneuver. Because of the high level of risk — some ships are the size of the Exxon Valdez and come within a few dozen yards of the Golden Gate Bridge towers, the Bay Bridge, Alcatraz and other hazards — shipping companies are required under state law to pay pilots.
Following the Cosco Busan spill, state and federal officials took numerous steps to reduce the risk of a collision by a large ship with the Bay Bridge. In addition to causing potential environmental disasters, such mishaps can be costly. In September 2011, state and federal authorities announced a $44.4 million settlement with the Cosco Busan's owner, Regal Stone Ltd., and its operator, Fleet Management Ltd., both based in Hong Kong.
Cota's crash was the largest spill in the bay since 1988, when a storage tank at the Shell refinery in Martinez ruptured, sending 432,000 gallons into the bay.
An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board found that the Cosco Busan accident happened because Cota was impaired due to taking numerous medications — including Darvon, Vicodin and Zoloft — for sleep apnea and other ailments. The NTSB also concluded there was poor communication between Cota and the captain and that Fleet Management, which had taken over management of the ship only two weeks earlier, failed to adequately train the crew.
The investigation also found that as they approached the bridge with less than one-quarter mile visibility, Cota and the ship's captain, Mao Cai Sun, were confused by a red triangle on an electronic chart. Cota asked the captain if it was the center of the bridge span and he said yes, according to audio recordings from the bridge. But the red triangles actually were buoys marking the location of the bridge towers. So Cota steered the ship directly at the tower, thinking he was sailing between the supports.
The crew, who all spoke Mandarin as a primary language, had never sailed together before the incident, and Fleet Management had provided an English-only safety manual for the ship.
The NTSB also criticized the Coast Guard for not warning the ship that it was on a collision course with the bridge even though officials at the Coast Guard's Vessel Traffic Service at Yerba Buena Island were watching on radar and talking with Cota on the radio. The Coast Guard also was criticized for having reauthorized Cota's mariner's license without adequately considering his medical problems. It has since cancelled the license.
She always had a really dry sense of humor. Even in the pilot, she has really, really dry, great lines. But I think as time went on and I got to hang out with the writers more and they kind of got my sense of humor -- which is pretty similar -- they just started writing more and more. The fun thing about being the brain of the group is she's kind of the truth-teller. There are two truth-tellers: One is Spencer, who figures it all out, and then there's Hanna, who doesn't really have a filter and can kind of say anything. And that's what's amazing about what Ashley [Benson] does as Hanna. So you have these two characters who can call anybody on their BS at any time and it's always pretty funny.
It's going to have a huge effect. I remember it was actually very funny. We were reading the first episode where she's back and I'm having to interact with her, the girl that tried to throw me off of a cliff not three months before. I was talking to the writers and I said, "This is ludicrous! I would have a restraining order. It is awful that this is happening! How is this possible?" They looked at me and they said, "That's exactly what Spencer's going through." So I was like, "Oh. Well, OK." [Laughs.] It was just kind of fun to play the incredulity of this scenario. One of our directors, Norman [Buckley], said, "What I love about the show is that the circumstances are so completely fantastic and yet, the emotions are all real." So it's like, imagine a world where you can't get protection from the person that attempted to take your life and in fact, she's just your study partner. [Laughs.] That's what gives the world its humor and also its darkness.
"We're still keeping an eye out to make sure. We're keeping our fingers crossed for a best-case scenario," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Barry Bena. "But as of right now, initial reports from the pilot, the Coast Guard and local agencies show no pollution has hit the water."
Coast guard officials said the ship was not carrying a oil as a cargo, but that it had thousands of gallons of bunker fuel in its fuel tanks.
The ship, which was anchored Monday afternoon between Treasure Island and Alcatraz island, was sailing from the Shell refinery at Martinez, according to the ship's course, as recorded by its transponder and posted on vessel tracking websites. It headed south, past Alcatraz, then sailed under the Bay Bridge, did a U-turn and sailed back north, hitting a bridge tower. It then came to rest off Treasure Island.
Bena said that the extent of the damage to the vessel is unclear, and he doesn't know yet what caused the collision. He said the "Echo Tower" of the Bay Bridge — which sits between San Francisco and Treasure Island — was hit by the ship, with the fender of the tower sustaining some damage.
Bena said visibility was at about a quarter mile at 11:18 a.m. when the accident occurred.
Charlie Goodyear, a spokesman for the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association, said there were foggy conditions on the bay at the time.
'It was so foggy that when I got to Pier 9 at about 11:30 I could not see Treasure Island," he said. "Fog is not going to be the only factor here, but visability was poor.We mainly supply professional craftspeople with crys talbeads wholesale shamballa Bracele ,"
Goodyear said the pilot on board the ship was an 8-year veteran. He would not disclose his name. The pilot is scheduled to be interviewed by the Coast Guard tomorrow, he said, adding that he will also report to the Board of Pilot Commissioners investigations unit.
"I don't have authority to provide his name," Goodyear said. "He has been a bar pilot since 2005. He is an experienced mariner.We mainly supply professional craftspeople with crys talbeads wholesale shamballa Bracele ,Posts with indoor tracking system on TRX Systems develops systems that locate and track personnel indoors."
Goodyear said the ship's hull was not breached and that it did not deploy floating boom, commonly used in oil spill cleanups.
That an oil tanker — which is similar in size to the Exxon Valdez — hit a bridge in San Francisco Bay alarmed environmentalists, who called it a narrow miss.
"With a quarter mile of visibility, they probably should not have been transiting the bay. This was a close call," said Deb Self, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper, who was in a boat on the water. "The ship's capacity is 505,000 barrels of oil. Luckily it was empty. Or we could have had a real disaster."
The accident is similar to an incident that caused the last major oil spill in San Francisco Bay.
On Nov. 7, 2007, the 901-foot Cosco Busan, headed from Oakland to South Korea,This is my favourite sites to purchase those special pieces of buy mosaic materials from. sideswiped the Bay Bridge's "Delta Tower" — adjacent to the tower hit Monday — in dense morning fog.
The incident ripped a 211-foot-long gash in the Cosco Busan's hull and dumped 53,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the bay. No people were injured or killed, but the spill significantly oiled 69 miles of shoreline . Estimates from state and wildlife agencies put the total number of birds killed at 6,849, based on animals recovered and models predicting how many died but were never found.
The local bar pilot who was guiding the ship, John Cota, 64, of Petaluma, pleaded guilty in 2009 to federal water pollution charges and served 10 months in jail.
Pilots are local mariners who board oil tankers, freighters and other large ships as they enter San Francisco Bay.Best howo concrete mixer manufacturer in China. They stand on the bridge of the vessels, helping captains maneuver. Because of the high level of risk — some ships are the size of the Exxon Valdez and come within a few dozen yards of the Golden Gate Bridge towers, the Bay Bridge, Alcatraz and other hazards — shipping companies are required under state law to pay pilots.
Following the Cosco Busan spill, state and federal officials took numerous steps to reduce the risk of a collision by a large ship with the Bay Bridge. In addition to causing potential environmental disasters, such mishaps can be costly. In September 2011, state and federal authorities announced a $44.4 million settlement with the Cosco Busan's owner, Regal Stone Ltd., and its operator, Fleet Management Ltd., both based in Hong Kong.
Cota's crash was the largest spill in the bay since 1988, when a storage tank at the Shell refinery in Martinez ruptured, sending 432,000 gallons into the bay.
An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board found that the Cosco Busan accident happened because Cota was impaired due to taking numerous medications — including Darvon, Vicodin and Zoloft — for sleep apnea and other ailments. The NTSB also concluded there was poor communication between Cota and the captain and that Fleet Management, which had taken over management of the ship only two weeks earlier, failed to adequately train the crew.
The investigation also found that as they approached the bridge with less than one-quarter mile visibility, Cota and the ship's captain, Mao Cai Sun, were confused by a red triangle on an electronic chart. Cota asked the captain if it was the center of the bridge span and he said yes, according to audio recordings from the bridge. But the red triangles actually were buoys marking the location of the bridge towers. So Cota steered the ship directly at the tower, thinking he was sailing between the supports.
The crew, who all spoke Mandarin as a primary language, had never sailed together before the incident, and Fleet Management had provided an English-only safety manual for the ship.
The NTSB also criticized the Coast Guard for not warning the ship that it was on a collision course with the bridge even though officials at the Coast Guard's Vessel Traffic Service at Yerba Buena Island were watching on radar and talking with Cota on the radio. The Coast Guard also was criticized for having reauthorized Cota's mariner's license without adequately considering his medical problems. It has since cancelled the license.
She always had a really dry sense of humor. Even in the pilot, she has really, really dry, great lines. But I think as time went on and I got to hang out with the writers more and they kind of got my sense of humor -- which is pretty similar -- they just started writing more and more. The fun thing about being the brain of the group is she's kind of the truth-teller. There are two truth-tellers: One is Spencer, who figures it all out, and then there's Hanna, who doesn't really have a filter and can kind of say anything. And that's what's amazing about what Ashley [Benson] does as Hanna. So you have these two characters who can call anybody on their BS at any time and it's always pretty funny.
It's going to have a huge effect. I remember it was actually very funny. We were reading the first episode where she's back and I'm having to interact with her, the girl that tried to throw me off of a cliff not three months before. I was talking to the writers and I said, "This is ludicrous! I would have a restraining order. It is awful that this is happening! How is this possible?" They looked at me and they said, "That's exactly what Spencer's going through." So I was like, "Oh. Well, OK." [Laughs.] It was just kind of fun to play the incredulity of this scenario. One of our directors, Norman [Buckley], said, "What I love about the show is that the circumstances are so completely fantastic and yet, the emotions are all real." So it's like, imagine a world where you can't get protection from the person that attempted to take your life and in fact, she's just your study partner. [Laughs.] That's what gives the world its humor and also its darkness.
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