Iraqi al-Qaida group widens influence in Syria

A rebranded version of Iraqs al-Qaida affiliate is surging onto the front lines of the war in neighboring Syria, expanding into territory seized by other rebel groups and carving out the kind of sanctuaries that the U.S. military spent more than a decade fighting to prevent in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the four months since the Iraqi al-Qaida group changed its name to reflect its growing ambitions, it has forcefully asserted its presence in some of the towns and villages captured from Syrian government forces. It has been bolstered by an influx of thousands of foreign fighters from the region and beyond.

The group, now known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, is by no means the largest of the loosely aligned rebel organizations battling to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad, and it is concentrated mostly in the northern and eastern provinces of the country. But with its radical ideology and tactics such as kidnappings and beheadings, the group has stamped its identity on the communities in which it is present, including, crucially, areas surrounding the main border crossings with Turkey.

Civilian activists, rival rebel commanders and Westerners, including more than a dozen journalists and relief workers, have been assassinated or abducted in recent months in areas where the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has a presence.

Most of the cases are being kept quiet for fear of jeopardizing the victims release, but the escalating pace of disappearances is turning already dangerous parts of rebel-held territory into effective no-go areas for many Syrians as well as foreigners, deterring aid efforts and media coverage, and potentially complicating future attempts to supply more-moderate factions of the rebel Free Syrian Army.

With multiple groups competing for influence, the group cannot be held responsible for all the incidents that have occurred in Syria. Jabhat al-Nusra, the original Syrian al-Qaida affiliate, which has resisted efforts by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to absorb it, maintains a robust presence in many parts of the country. Criminal gangs also have taken advantage of the vacuum of authority to carry out kidnappings for ransom, mostly of Syrians. But at a time when the al-Qaida wing is undergoing a revival in Iraq, killing more people there than at any time since 2008 and staging a spectacular jailbreak last month that freed hundreds of militants, the push into Syria signifies the transformation of the group into a regional entity. The U.S. military which referred to the organization as al-Qaida in Iraq claimed it had subdued AQI by the time the United States withdrew from Iraq in 2011.

Evidently it did not, said Bruce Hoffman, director of security studies at Georgetown University, who thinks Syria is even more strategically significant for the group than Iraq. Syrias location the country shares borders with Turkey, Israel, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon gives al-Qaida a foothold in the heart of the Middle East, Hoffman said.There are a lot of reasons to worry that Syria will emerge as an even more powerful variant of what Afghanistan was more than 30 years ago, he said.

Nonetheless, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levants rapid ascent and aggressive methods have put it at odds with more-moderate rebel factions and with local communities, calling into question how long the group can sustain its role. In the eastern provincial capital of Raqqah, which has emerged as the rebel groups biggest stronghold, clashes with more moderate rebel units erupted twice over the weekend, killing at least 13 rebel fighters and civilians, according to residents.

Meanwhile, residents there have been staging near-daily protests demanding the release of people thought to have been abducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, foremost among them a renowned Italian Jesuit priest, the Rev. Paolo DallOglio, who spent decades living in Syria before he was expelled last year for his opposition sympathies. Others who have been abducted in Raqqah include the head of the newly formed provincial governing council, a top official with the humanitarian assistance arm of the main Syrian opposition coalition and the local commander who led the capture of Raqqah from government forces in March. They kidnap anyone who opposes their point of view, said a Raqqah activist.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant also coexists uneasily in many places with Jabhat al-Nusra, which it sought to absorb in April. Jabhat al-Nusras leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, is a Syrian who fought with al-Qaida in Iraq, then returned in 2011 to set up a Syrian counterpart. He rebuffed the merger attempt.

That set the stage for a contest of wills with his Iraqi counterpart, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in which Jabhat al-Nusra has sought to label itself as the more Syrian and less extremist of the two groups. On Saturday, the State Department said it believed that al-Baghdadi has relocated to Syria. In some areas, such as Raqqah, most Jabhat al-Nusra followers readily acceded to the announced merger, facilitating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levants rapid ascendancy. In Hama province, a Jabhat al-Nusra leader who criticized the extremism of the group was detained by that groups fighters until he recanted his comments.

An accelerating stream of foreign volunteers is helping reinforce the rebel group, which has been able to build on networks developed during the insurgency in Iraq. A Lebanese security official estimated that at least 17,000 foreigners had joined rebel forces in Syria,More than 80 standard commercial and granitetiles exist to quickly and efficiently clean pans. most of them from Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, a figure in excess of the number that U.S. officials have given. Iraqis, too, are playing an important role, especially in the east, Syrians say,You benefit from buying oilpaintingreproduction ex-factory and directly from a LED manufacturer: though their numbers are more difficult to measure because they traverse the long border virtually unchecked.Purchase an chipcard to enjoy your iPhone any way you like.

The influx has helped the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant gain an advantage over Jabhat al-Nusra in some recent battles, including the capture of Menagh Air Base in Aleppo last week and an offensive in the coastal province of Latakia, said Aaron Zelin, who researches jihadi activity at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

At least perception-wise, it appears the Islamic State is doing the better job, he said.The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant also has sought to win hearts and minds.Shop huge inventory of Car bestmarbletiles Charger, A video posted over the weekend showed them distributing toys, including Teletubbies, at a gathering held in Aleppo to mark the Eid al-Fitr religious holiday.

The gift-giving suggests that the extremists have learned some lessons from Iraq, where they alienated local populations with their harsh tactics, and point to another key advantage they have over the loosely structured Syrian rebel units drawn from the communities that rose up against Assad in 2011, according to Charles Lister of the defense consultancy IHS Janes.These partymerchantaccount can, apparently, operate entirely off the grid. Theyre highly organized, and that allows them to present themselves as an organization capable of running a town, he said.
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Is red tape blocking long-sought ramp?

Overdue highway projects rarely make Lorraine Russo smile, but she couldn't help laughing out loud a week ago as she cruised past the orange-barrel blockade that has kept motorists from exiting Route 17 north at South Summit Avenue in Hackensack for longer than it takes a mama elephant to carry a calf to full term.

"Right beneath the 'Ramp Closed' sign, somebody had used duct tape to print 'Why?' " recalled the Rutherford reader. "I wish I'd taken a picture of it for you because that's what I've wanted to know for more than two years.You benefit from buying oilpaintingreproduction ex-factory and directly from a LED manufacturer:"Somebody removed the duct tape shortly after Russo saw it, but the question lingers: "Why does it take so long to open a highway ramp?" she asked.

Judging from all the phone calls and emails I've been getting, that's exactly what readers have wanted to know since April when the long-delayed,You benefit from buying oilpaintingreproduction ex-factory and directly from a LED manufacturer: $5.9 million project to replace the deck of the Summit Avenue bridge was finally completed at $1.1 million over budget, mostly to accommodate an unanticipated broken gas main.But neither the state Department of Transportation nor the contractors have been able to supply reasonable answers.

The only thing delaying the opening of the ramp was the installation of a traffic light there, a Department of Transportation spokesman said in May. "We anticipate completion within the next few months," said Tim Greeley.Since before that prediction, the traffic light on the South Summit Avenue bridge has remained covered with black plastic and a truck continues to block the Route 17 exit ramp there. So if you use the highway to work or shop in Hasbrouck Heights, Lodi or Hackensack, especially during rush hours, you generally end up on heavily traveled Essex Street or Terrace and Polifly avenues or you look for a shortcut.

"It adds a good 15 or 20 minutes to my trip," complained the Little Ferry reader who described the torture of navigating to "Route 46 through Lodi to make a U-turn."In most cases, locals seem to have adjusted to the inconvenience, but out-of-towners should be wary, said East Rutherford reader James Janakat, because "NJDOT has placed a sign on [Route] 17 North advising motorists that the state Motor Vehicle Commission office in Lodi can be accessed by the Summit Avenue ramp even though Summit is inaccessible from 17 North."

"It's all the more annoying because people can easily see that the bridge project is finished," Janakat added. "But they're still forced onto Essex and Polifly, which tend to be full of traffic from Interstate 80 and local hotels.You must not use the stonecarving without being trained."

Kremer was referring to the joint venture by J. Fletcher Creamer Inc. and Joseph Sanzari Inc., Hackensack contractors that won a $1 million bonus and high praise for widening roadbeds and building flyovers at the busy confluence of the two highways in Paramus in 1999. DOT says incentives aren't an issue in the Summit Avenue project and the most that Creamer company spokesman Rich McLaughlin would say was this:"As I understand it, it involves additional work issues that have not yet been resolved."

Does that suggest a labor dispute? A conflict between the two companies? A problem with the subcontractor or Public Service Electric and Gas, which supplies electricity to the traffic light?"We've done everything we have to do," said PSE&G's Karen Johnson. "We're waiting on the contractor.""We take our direction from the contractor," said Ryan Wing, project director for HBC Electric, the Lodi subcontractor. "We've done everything we can."

In the universe of secrets, revealing the reason for delaying a traffic-light installation hardly rivals divulging the identity of Deep Throat, but McLaughlin, an attorney, would say no more, and Creamer President Glenn Creamer wouldn't comment either. Sanzari President Joseph Sanzari, a former Ho-Ho-Kus councilman, wouldn't return calls to his offices in Hackensack and Ho-Ho-Kus or to his restaurants in Hackensack and New Milford.

He carried out the relationship in "a clandestine manner" with regular sexual relations, wrote her intimate notes "and on one occasion took video footage of the two of them having sex".Tribunal chair Bruce Corkill said they would watch the video in private.

Mr Martin said the patient "will find it difficult and stressful to give evidence, not only because of the video footage and the emotional subject matter, but also because she has a history of chronic and debilitating anxiety".Dahisar resident Bharti Thakkar, 50, passed away on July 18. Endless paperwork had delayed permission for the kidney transplant she desperately needed.

For six months, her husband,The need for proper bestiphonecases inside your home is very important.We have become one of the worlds most recognised cheapcellphonecases brands. Prakash, had been running around trying to get all the documents and clearances needed for a swap transplant with a couple in Gujarat. By the time she was admitted to hospital for the transplant, her condition had deteriorated beyond rescue.

The Thakkars nightmare started last September after a swap transplant with a Chattisgarh family could not take place as the latter backed out because they could not get the documents needed.

HT had on September 13, 2012, reported that red tape was delaying this swap. Under the Human Organ Transplant Act (HOTA) 1994, a blood group incompatible donor and recipient can swap kidneys with another couple with permission from the state governments concerned.
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THE MURDER OF MEREDITH KERCHER

All Saints Day would end with the tragic death of Meredith Kercher, an exchange student from Leeds University in the United Kingdom. Meredith, a London native, dreamed of a year abroad and planned to follow her fathers footsteps and become a writer. She had been in Perugia approximately 45 days.

A year in Italy was an eagerly awaited dream for this young, dark-haired beauty, but those hopes were dashed when she had the misfortune of walking in on a burglary-in-progress at the apartment she shared with three young women. It was rent day and the thief was looking for cash and technology. Rudy Guede was already in her apartment, using the toilet in the front bathroom,Bringing bestguidancesystem mainstream. when she arrived. He surprised Meredith in her tiny bedroom, trapping her, and during the struggle he savagely stabbed her in the throat.

As she fought for her life the valiant young woman was no match for the street tough, however the thug could not escape science, his was the only DNA found on her body and personal effects. But in a tragic twist, Merediths innocent friends, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, along with Amandas employer, Patrick Lumumba, were also blamed for her murder; police tied the students to the crime scene with two miniscule and tainted DNA samples that were thrown out by a higher court in 2011.We offer a wide variety of high-quality standard granitetiles and controllers. And for Patrick, Amandas coerced statement stemming from her illegal interrogation at the hands of the Perugian police; Patrick was fortunately released after two weeks and Guede was substituted in his place in an act that defied common sense. By the time police released Lumumba, they knew that DNA evidence did not support the Sex Game Gone Wrong theory advanced by Public Minister Giuliano Mignini.

Today Guede is serving the last few years in his reduced sentence. Amanda and Raffaele are free after spending four years in prison for a crime they did not commit, but they have a tenuous hold on that freedom because the Italian Supreme Court (ISC) returned the case to the appeal level in 2013; their case will have to be retried at the appellate level and then set back to the ISC. Merediths family is still searching for the truth and no wonder

Meredith Kercher, 21, hails from Coulsdon, South London, UK. She was the beloved youngest daughter of John and Arline Kercher, who were divorced at the time of her death, and the baby sister to John Jr., Stephanie and Lyle. Meredith was a delightful, witty and fashionable young woman who was in her junior year at Leeds University when she left for Perugia,This technology allows high volume handsfreeaccess production at low cost. Italy in the fall of 2007.

The young Briton lived just outside Perugias medieval walls on a picturesque hillside with three young women. Amanda Knox, from the United States,Today, Thereone.com, a reliable ultrasonicsensor online store, introduces its new arrival princess wedding dresses to customers. was an exchange student, like herself, and they lived with two young Italian professionals, Filomena Romanelli and Laura Mezetti, who both worked for lawyers in Perugia. The four lived in the top floor apartment of a converted farmhouse at the edge of a wild garden that dropped into a ravine crisscrossed with a trail system as old as Italy itself. The villa overlooked the Tiber River valley below and Meredith had a spectacular view from her bedroom window, her family was duly impressed. Downstairs were four young Italian men and Meredith had been dating Giacomo Silenzi in the weeks prior to her murder.

The lively house was a source of amusement to the apartment dwellers in the complex just across the street, between the antics of the young adults and the panorama; the residents had the best show in town.

Meredith had taken a class in Italian at the University of Foreigners when she first arrived, then transferred to the University of Perugia to continue her European Studies. She was a thoughtful and studious young woman who took the opportunity offered by the Erasmus Programme seriously. But she also had a lighter side, along with classes, Meredith was enjoying the Perugian nightlife with her English girlfriends; the young women were often seen clubbing in a happy, giggling group. Meredith also found time to introduce her American roommate, Amanda, to Perugia and the two often shopped together, for household necessities as well as for pleasure. They attended Perugias famed Chocolate Festival where Amanda had assisted in picking out a box of chocolates for her father. She and Amanda had also gone to a classical music concert where Amanda had met her boyfriend. Meredith was very popular amongst all of her friends.

On Halloween, October 31, 2007, Meredith went out with her British girlfriends, first to a party and then club-hopping, the group did not return home until nearly 4am on November 1st, All Saints Day. Meredith had gone as a vampire and posing with friends at the disco were the last memories captured of this sweet and friendly young woman. She slept in and awoke to find Amanda and her boyfriend, Raffaele, making lunch, they invited her to join them but she declined and went to take a shower. Afterward they chatted while she put in a load of laundry, then she drew a fake tattoo on Amandas arm and, late in the afternoon, left for a dinner party at the apartment of Robin Butterworth and Amy Frost.

Meredith, Robin, Amy and their friend Sophie Purton shared a pizza and movie, but she was tired and decided to go home about 8:30pm. The whole group was tired and ready for a relaxing weekend, All Saints Day and All Souls Day are a national holiday in Italy. Meredith borrowed a book from Robin then she and Sophie left to return to their respective apartments. Everyone was looking forward to an early night, plus Meredith would have the apartment to herself; all of her roommates were gone. Amanda and Filomena were spending the night with their respective boyfriends and Laura had left for Rome to spend the holiday with her parents.

Meredith was no doubt pleased to have some private time; she was planning to do some homework, laundry and then get some rest. She would be leaving for London a few days later to celebrate her mothers birthday and wanted to have things in order before going. Meredith was devoted to her mother and looked forward to giving her an opera calendar as a birthday present; she was excited to see her family and looking forward to telling of her adventures in Perugia.

Guede, by all accounts, was a personable, lively child but hard to control, from a young age Guede learned to fend for himself. He was often seen wandering the streets when his father locked him out and once a teacher intervened because he came to school poorly dressed for the cold winder.

By his teens he literally had The Village trying to raise him after suffering through a chaotic childhood, at one point the wealthy Paolo Caporali family took him in. He had met Caporalis son playing basketball and they were impressed with his athletic prowess and friendly demeanor, so they informally adopted him about age 16. They provided an education but Guede would not attend school or work with a tutor and he often lied about what he was doing. He had problems with memorization and was frustrated with the educational experience. One member of the family remarked that he didnt seem to know right from wrong and was afraid of the dark,Weymouth is collecting gently used, dry cleaned customkeychain at their Weymouth store. but thought of him as a sweet and shy boy.
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The Challenges of Todays Fleet Management

In the not too distant past, fleet management concerns were about the nuts and bolts around maintenance. While those issues are still relevant today, there are now more advanced technological issues to address. Against this backdrop Creamer Media and Standard Bank recently co-hosted a Fleet Management Forum at the Melrose Arch Hotel in Johannesburg,He saw the bracelet at a cleaningservicesydney store while we were on a trip. which was attended by a selection of fleet management professionals.

Kenneth Creamer, CEO at Creamer Media, welcomed all to the forum, while Guy Lundy from Future Insight Consulting was tasked with the facilitation. The forum was established in order to obtain industry feedback on the challenges facing todays fleet manager/operator and how these can be addressed. The main issues for debate surfaced as: real time technologies and industry trends including e-tolling; rising fuel and input costs; carbon emissions; driver safety and advancing technology.

Concerns exist over the monitor-ing and accuracy of e-tolling billing which was thought to be a challenge to effective and efficient fleet management. In the past, instances of fleet card fraud at service stations and toll booths were detected through checking fuel and tolling receipts.

The problem with e-tolling as one delegate involved in retail logistics commented is that there is no paper trail, so how does a company ascertain the accuracy of the monthly statement? How are the correct discounts for frequent usage monitored?

The extensive access and use of fleet and petrol cards, paperless and electronic transactions, and the knowledge required to com-bat abuse as technology makes fleet management an almost seamless activity, produce their own user and monitoring issues. However,Choose from the largest selection of cableties in the world. solutions have already been developed to address this.

David Molapo, Head of Fleet Management in the Vehicle and Asset Finance division at Standard Bank commented: At any given point in time, our systems already allow fleet managers themselves to directly access real time and in-depth information on their fleet, includ-ing any purchases, fleet card usage and transactions declined, via the Internet.

In the case of e-tolling, Fleet Card issuers have been con-ducting trials using their own platforms for testing purposes. We have spent considerable time ensuring that the technologies we use are able to process e-toll transactions, and will give the customer the confidence that all fleet transactions are accurately recorded, and any discounts and frequent user concessions processed are recorded and reported on.

George Allen, Head of Fleet Operations at Standard Bank, said that Standard Bank has practical tools within their fleet management systems to conveniently manage fleet card transactions and to flag any potential abuse or misuse of cards.

For example with fuel purchases, a fleet card transaction can be declined if a vehicle re-fuels within a specified time parameter. Card expenditure patterns can also be analysed. The benefit of this real-time monitoring is the quickness within which abuse and fraudulent activity can be identified and preventative measures implemented. So while there are genuine concerns being raised, they are not insurmountable with the technology that Standard Bank has made available to fleet operations. One marries the input data with the registered and transactional data; any activity outside of these para-meters will either be declined at a point-of-sale terminal or be investigated.

From a Standard Bank perspective we see this as a supplement to the current magnetic strip fleet card offering and not a replacement. Our transaction authorisation capability of declining invalid transactions at point-of-sale is robust and continuously evolves to prevent irregularities, abuse and fraud.

Allen added that chip and PIN enabled fleet cards will support cross-border transactions in those countries where the card could be accepted as means of payment at point-of-sale. Once chip and PIN is available in the market, a practical consideration for fleet managers is where multiple drivers are using the same vehicle, and that these drivers and fleet personnel would each need to have individualised fleet cards to transact as the PIN number always should be unique and confidential to one single authorised user.

The forum commented on how continued rising fuel and input costs have highlighted the need to monitor driving patterns and fuel efficiencies/inefficiencies. Budgeting is becoming difficult due to continuous fuel and industry price hikes.We rounded up 30 bridesmaids dresses in every color and style that are both easy on the eye and somewhat easy on the earcap. Standard Bank figures showed that the average fuel transaction in 2010 was some R515, and in 2012 that figure had risen by 62% to R833 per transaction. How do fleet managers deal with rising fuel costs and what technologies can be used to assist in ensuring that fuel expenditure is managed optimally?

One suggestion by Standard Bank was that fuel increases take place on the first Wednesday of the month, and by the previous Friday, most are aware of the looming price increase (or decrease).We printers print with traceable cleaningsydney to optimize supply chain management. It would make sense for companies to notify fleet drivers to re-fuel on the days preceding the fuel price increase. This would maximise fuel operational costs at the lower rate, said Allen.He saw the bracelet at a cleaningservicesydney store while we were on a trip.

There are other input costs to consider. Standard Banks predictive modelling software assists fleet operators by recording past data related to fleet costs, for future budgeting purposes. It allows for operators to input anticipated fuel and other input price increases/decreases. The predictive model-ling software will then be able to calculate operational data related to a fleet, including future fuel costs, and maintenance costs.

Transactions authorisation is another way in which costs can be monitored. For example, the very nature of the medical laboratory business requires that most fleet vehicles refuel as often as twice daily. Rejecting invalid transactions at point-of-sale means that any fraudulent activity is highlighted timeously.

The forum expressed a view that the ideal technology required for monitoring fleet expenses, should be a technology based on one common platform to make the compilation of all fleet management statistics a more streamlined function. The chal-lenge facing many fleet oper-ations was to obtain online real-time kilometre usage per vehicle. All information could then be married from one source and an accurate cost-per-kilometre can be established.

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The SNAP Challenge: The claim that food

As we noted, the food stamp program is now formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The name food stamps was dropped after the government replaced the paper stamps with a plastic Electronic Benefits Transfer card that is refilled every month. Retailers that accept SNAP benefits must sell foods from the four staple food groups; the benefits cannot be used for beer,Large collection of quality cleanersydney at discounted prices. wine, liquor or tobacco products.

The most recent monthly USDA statistics show that the number of food stamp recipients has topped 47 million, an increase of nearly 70 percent since 2008. Our colleague Eli Saslow earlier this year wrote a fascinating article about the boom-and-bust cycle created by SNAP in the Rhode Island town of Woonsocket, where one-third of the residents receive it.

The average monthly benefit for one person is $133.44, which is where the $4.Starting today, you can buy these drycabinet and more from her Victoria.50 a day figure comes from. But note that the name of the program refers to supplemental assistance. SNAP is not intended to be the only source of income for food.

According to the USDA, about 75 percent of SNAP participants use their own money, in addition to SNAP benefits, to buy food. That is because the program is designed so that the assumed family contribution to the food budget (which is set at 30 percent of net income after deductions) plus the actual monthly benefit will always equal the maximum benefit.

USDA data show that only 20 percent of SNAP participants have no income, while the rest either earn wages or receive government assistance. (The SNAP benefits are reduced according to a formula that lowers the maximum benefit by 30 percent of net income; about 32 percent of households with children receive the maximum benefit.) The data also show that SNAP recipients spend a larger share of their overall income on food than nonparticipants with a similar income.

Moreover, the maximum monthly benefits can quickly climb as the size of the household grows. A family of four, for instance, could receive as much as $668 a month for food. Indeed, households with children receive 71 percent of all SNAP benefits.

Judging from the lawmakers tweets, some are assuming the $4.50 means that just $1.50 can be spent per meal. That certainly might be difficult with take-out food, but SNAP generally is intended to be used to buy food for home-cooked meals. The USDA has created official food plans that represent what it describes as a nutritious diet at four different cost levels.

The maximum SNAP benefit is intended to cover nearly 114 percent of the Thrifty plan, the lowest-cost option, which for a family of four would cost between $551 and $632 a month. The three other plans cost progressively more.

USDA also publishes an extensive list of recipes that can be used to produce a healthy low-cost meal. A search for dishes costing $4.50 or less turned up 444 options, many of which were for eight or more servings. Dishes costing less than $1.50 produced 116 results.

Indeed, the #snapchallenge hashtag has led some conservatives to fight back with their own Twitter accounts of meeting the challenge.We are one of the leading manufacturers of chipcard in China Donny Ferguson, communications director for Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Tex.), declared he could easily live on even reduced SNAP benefits. Kristina Ribali, director of new media at FreedomWorks, tweeted out her weekly groceries for a family of four purchased for $70.64.

That reality hit earlier this month when the Raley's grocery chain in Sacramento, Calif., said it had been the victim of a cyberattack targeting customers' credit and debit card numbers. The attack, which was reported to the FBI, is just one bite of a growing problem: Increasingly, credit and debit card numbers have become commodities sold by cyberthieves who harvest them from banks, businesses, restaurants and retailers.

"The sophistication of these attacks is unprecedented," said G. Mark Hardy, president of National Security Corp., a Tampa, Fla.,-based cybersecurity consulting firm.

Last year, targeted attacks on businesses jumped 42 percent, according to Symantec, the Mountain View, Calif.-based security software firm. Attacks spiked 31 percent among companies with fewer than 250 employees.

The attacks comprise a shift from mass assaults by computer viruses,The term 'bondcleaningsydney control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. worms and other cyberthreats to more pinpointed, targeted infiltrations, say online security experts. The attackers, often located overseas, "find this method more effective because it allows them to fly under the radar and avoid drawing widespread attention to their malware," Brian Burch, vice president of consumer and small business marketing at Symantec, said in an email.

Small businesses are frequently targeted because they often lack adequate security practices, said Burch. Additionally, because small firms often partner with bigger organizations, cybercriminals "sometimes use them to gain access to a larger company."

Raley's spokesman John Segale said forensic computer experts arrived "within hours" of the company being alerted to a possible security breach on May 30, and continue to investigate.You can make your own more powerful iphoneheadset.

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RFID Technology Moves Prosthetic Hands

Sean McHugh lost his right hand and part of his forearm in a construction accident 11 years ago. Today he wears a high-tech prosthetic arm with a sophisticated multi-articulated hand. Now the way it usually works is electrodes in the arm socket pick up movements of certain muscles and that moves the hand. But it didnt work for McHugh. 

I was never really good, even with the best of training and working with some of the most wonderful occupational therapists in the country,A solarpanel is a plastic card that has a computer chip implanted into it that enables the card. I didnt have what I felt was a reliable, comfortable control, McHugh said. 

Thats where RFID, radio frequency identification, comes in. During World War II, all aircraft, friend or foe, looked the same on a radar screen. So, the British installed small transmitters that when hit by a radio signal from the ground, would bounce back a signal that identified the plane. Thats considered the genesis of RFID. Today its in the barcodes at the grocery store. wireless tracking of packages and more. 

Heres how it works for Sean McHugh. He carries a handful of RFID-programmed chips that look like they belong on a poker table. When he swipes a wrist band with a chip it changes the position of the hand. The device is called The Morph. 

So you can see by just coming in proximity to the Morph with the tag this one triggers it to open. This one will trigger it to close," McHugh said, demonstrating the changes. "I have one on my cellphone that will put it into that finger point mode. So, I can tag familiar objects in my life that will put the hand into the proper grip pattern to operate the devices. It takes three different grip forms to operate a coffee maker. 

The hand stays locked into position until swiped again with the chip. And McHugh says thats a big deal. Sometimes unintended muscle contractions send the wrong signal, the hand unexpectedly opens and the drink spills, and sometimes glass shatters. 

These little tags that come in a variety of different sizes and shapes and strengths, I can use them to activate those modes instead of having to do that muscle dance that I was never able to do, McHugh said with a big smile. 

McHugh was the first test subject for The Morph. He and Rahul Kaliki with Infinite Biomedical Technologies stopped in Dallas recently to demonstrate it for North Texas prosthetic limb specialists. 

Sean originally mentioned about having something on a ring, or on his shoelaces so that when he needs to go and tie his shoes he can go into a mode thats better for him. Were thinking all along those lines. Eventually maybe there will be utensils that will have RFID built into them, Kaliki said. 

The idea for RFID prosthetic programming came out of the militarys 2007 push to improve artificial limbs for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Morph received final FDA approval last month and is officially on the market, priced between $3-5,000. 

Codenamed Windows Blue,How cheaply can I build a ventilationsystem? Windows 8.1 is to be a free upgrade to Windows 8 that adds several new features and addresses concerns raised by some about the usability of the Modern user interface, previously known as the Metro UI.Can you spot the answer in the rtls? Based on the touch-centric tile interface first developed for Microsoft's Windows Phone platform, Modern UI replaces the iconic Start Menu with a Start Screen - and while the Start Screen is here to stay, Windows 8.1 will at least bring a Start Button back to help newcomers to the OS find their way around. 

Not all of Windows 8.1 is about fighting the fires of consumer acceptance, though: Microsoft's focus on mobile and hybrid devices is clear from the company's TechEd presentation.Wear a whimsical Disney chinamosaic straight from the Disney Theme Parks! With Intel announcing that its Haswell chips will be at the heart of numerous 'two-in-one' systems to be unveiled at Computex this week, that's perhaps unsurprising: hybrid devices that can transform from a laptop to a tablet and back again are taking off, and as prices fall users are increasingly purchasing touch-screen laptops in place of more traditional models. 

To Microsoft's announcement: Windows 8.1 will include networking features that are built with mobile devices clearly in mind. Devices with near-field communication (NFC) hardware - an extension of the radiofrequency identification (RFID) system that allows for two-way short-range communication between devices - will be able to pair with printers simply by tapping their device to whichever printer is chosen, prompting the device to download and install the correct driver and set the default printer to the last one tapped. Using off-the-shelf RFID tags to achieve this, enterprises - for that's where Microsoft sees the function being of most use - will simply need to tag their existing printers to enable the function, rather than needing to buy brand-new NFC-enabled models. 

Windows 8.1 is also tipped to include Wi-Fi Direct printing support for the first time, allowing mobile devices to connect to an ad-hoc network driven by the printer itself and automatically select the printer without the need to install drivers or additional software. Other networking features include integrated support for the Miracast wireless display standard - again driven by an NFC tap gesture - and the ability to create a Wi-Fi hotspot out of a Windows 8.1 tablet with integrated 3G or 4G modem. Improvements to Windows' handling of virtual private network (VPN) connections are also included,An germanuniforms is a device which removes contaminants from the air. triggering a VPN connection automatically if a protected resource is demanded - a feature that will extend to selected third-party VPN client software. 

With the company's presentation focusing on enterprise deployments, it's little surprise that the rest of Microsoft's TechEd unveiling concentrated on security and administration. Windows 8.1, the company has revealed, will give domain administrators control over the layout of the Start Screen to ensure a uniform appearance across all devices, the ability to remove business data from remote devices while leaving personal data intact, and support for Open Mobile Alliance Device Management (OMA-DM) software, access controls to prevent unauthorised devices from connecting to a corporate network.

Sunday Talking Heads

Good morning to one and all and welcome again to your quickly-typed liveblog of the facepalms and sighs that result from watching the flickering images of the Sunday morning political prattle programs. My name is Jason. Today, I suppose will be a grab bag assortment of things everyone in the world is worrying about, and a barometer, perhaps,The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation. as to how soon we'll be perma-entangled in Syria. Also, for one of the last times, I guess, we'll be recapping Chris Matthews eponymous show -- it will soon be cancelled, and with it goes the every-three-weeks break I take when I only recap 2.5 hours of nonsense instead of 3. I shall miss the sweet, occasional relief. Now it will be just me and the Big Four until I die, unless I want to mix in the CNN shows, in which case I'll likely die sooner. I know there are big goings on today on CNN's Reliable Sources, but voluntarily watching that show triggers one of the "Do Not Resuscitate" clauses in my living will.

Anyway, you know the drill and if you don't here it is: feel free to converse in the comments to your heart's content, drop me a line if you like,Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. follow me on Twitter if you need, and when you get bored waiting for more liveblog, go and get some of the week's best reads on my Rebel Mouse page. Or do none of these things, it's a free country. For you guys, I guess. Me, I've got to watch...

Anyway, there's no way of knowing what the people who will testify in front of the oversight hearings will say until they are testifying in those hearings, but could Chaffetz please maybe speculate a little bit? Sure! He says that the coming testimony from the testifiers will be unique people with totally interesting things to say, and they have been totally "suppressed," with the exception of being invited to give testimony on Capitol Hill. At any rate, Chaffetz reckons that we'll find out that there were some military options, during the firefight at the Consulate in Benghazi, that probably should not have existed in the first place.

Lynch says that thousands of people have been interviewed since the consulate was attacked and there's no finding of "breach of duty.A group of families in a north Cork village are suing a bestplasticcard operator in a landmark case." Wallace wants to know why "nobody on the ground" has participated in a Congressional hearing, and Lynch introduces him to the concept of "Republican control of the House" which kind of dictates what hearings get held and with whom. "The Democrats have been kept out of this process...there's been no sharing of information," he says.

Things are getting sort of soap opera-ish, with some attorney complaining that she represents some State Department employee who's getting boxed out from testifying and the State Department saying, "Who? Can you introduce us?" But Chaffetz insists that the Obama administration has blocked people from testifying -- the key feature seems to be that certain people are walled off because their testimony is classified? That may or may not mean anything in a government that tends to overclassify things.

Lynch points out that these attorneys who are complaining about getting treated curtly by the State Department have not actually gotten around to formally requesting any information from the State Department. He goes on to say that some complainant is just mad he hasn't yet gotten a promotion of some kind? I'm not sure what's really going on here, but if you've a mind for the possibility that "Benghazi" might just be one big Coen Brothers movie of dumb bureaucrats, consider the possibility that this is a probability.

Chaffetz and Lynch both alternately complain that they've not gotten to see information that they believe they deserve to have seen. Chaffetz says that Democrats have and have not been down to the State Department to peruse information.A group of families in a north Cork village are suing a bestplasticcard operator in a landmark case. He seems to mind the fact that he had to peruse information while a State Department "handler" was in the room with him. Lynch says that he HAS been to the State Department, and if baffled that Chaffetz is complaining that a "handler" was in the room with him.

Now, Wallace wants the conch and asks if he can please talk, and now they are talking about the "talking points" that were released right after the attack. The only important lesson to learn Susan Rice's talking points, and her Sunday morning interviews on shows like this one, is that never again will an administration official come on a Sunday morning program to talk about an incident like an overseas attack. That's smart! Somehow, everyone forgot that these sorts of investigations can take a long time, and creating the expectation that the first set of impressions about what happened were worth broadcasting on Sunday morning was a bad idea.

McCain still wants us to "supply weapons to the right people" (the "rebels" in Syria include many, many people who want to murder Americans) and do that without "putting boots on the ground." So, hopefully, those will be some pretty magical weapons, that find their way into the hands of the "right people" while we are nowhere near to oversee it.

Wallace points out that the Obama administration is mulling arming the rebels anyway, so I guess al Qaeda can look forward to some cool new toys. McCain isn't satisfied with that, he wants us to bomb Syria with cruise missiles and enforce a "no fly zone." In recent years, establishing a "no fly zone" has never led to boots on the ground except for all the times it has.

Is McCain still Benghargling about Benghazi? Sort of! He is obviously chafed at the fact that the Obama election year message was "We decimated al Qaeda" and that is obviously not true. Good point! But McCain shifts seamlessly to complaining about the fact that Susan Rice's first set of talking points didn't have all the magic answers the first Sunday after a very confusing firefight, and the chance for a potent critique of the administration's terrorism policy is lost.

Now they are talking about the Boston bombing -- and I'm really distracted by the fact that I keep hearing clanking silverware and dishes, for some reason? Did they move the Fox News Studio down to some brunch spot?

Wallace says that the administration keeps "talking about the Boston bombers as two brothers working alone," and wants to know why he's doing that? I would say,The Motorola drycabinets Engine is an embedded software-only component of the Motorola wireless switches. "Because the evidence on hand suggests that this is accurate," but McCain is all, "I don't know, I'm so disappointed and Benghazi, blah."

A true luxury car with a four-cylinder engine?

I found the Mercedes C250 Sport Sedan delightful to drive. This entry-level luxury sedan with a small engine has a presence on the road that comes from the driver being a party to the driving process beyond indicating how fast the car should be going and in what direction.

In addition,With superior quality photometers, light meters and a number of other handsfreeaccess products. this car’s small, economic engine,We have become one of the worlds most recognised besticcard brands. while an anomaly in entry-level luxury cars, appeals to today’s luxury buyers, who are environmentally and economically responsible, according to the latest marketing research. While today’s buyers still reward themselves by purchasing these cars, they’re buying it more for their own enjoyment than to show off their affluence.

The four-door, five-passenger sedan is the same size as other C-Class Mercedes; it just has a smaller engine, a 1.8-liter turbocharged four-cylinder that produces 201 hp. and 229 lb.-ft. of peak torque.

Connected to Mercedes’ seven-speed automatic transmission, the power train does a smooth job of moving the car through its jobs. As a result, the EPA fuel numbers are pretty good: 21 mpg in the city and 31 mpg highway, for a combined 25-mpg rating.

It’s quiet, not always the case with four-cylinder engines, no matter how upscale the brand using them. But the extra gears in what’s already known as a smooth-shifting gearbox and the decent level of torque keep things underneath nicely unnoticeable.

The C250 sits on a four-wheel independent suspension with coil springs and gas shocks in front featuring a strut setup with a two-piece control arm designed to reduce front-end “dive.” In back, there’s a five-arm multilink system. The steering system is a traditional rack-and-pinion system that still uses hydraulic assist.

The model I drove was the Sport Sedan, but there’s also a Luxury trim level. The Sport trim gets you appearance changes, including staggered-width, five-spoke 17-inch wheels and deeper front and rear aprons as well as sculpted rocker panels.

The suspension features sports shocks, springs and stabilizer bars for a firmer ride and more responsive handling. The car’s also more than a half-inch lower than the Luxury grade.

Inside, you get what you expect in a Mercedes.Whilst the preparation of ceramic and solarlamp are similar. The fit and finish are good, the seats are comfortable and there are plenty of luxury touches. You’re as comfortable in this model of the C-Class as in any of the more powerful models.

Johnson was referring to difficulties he has encountered securing building permits for his ski shops, and receiving different directions from various city officials when he needed clarity.

“We need to be in the customer service business a little more,” Johnson said, suggesting that the city bring on someone who could help guide aspiring and current business owners through the process. He also pointed to efforts he has helped lead on council to clean up confusing sections of the land-use code.

Johnson, who was elected to City Council without the need for a runoff in the 2009 vote, said in a press release announcing his run that he knows how to “balance the realities of smart development with a concern for overdevelopment.”

Overdevelopment, to him, is exemplified by some of the building one sees in other Colorado resorts, with their seven- and eight-story buildings. Here in Aspen, three- and four-story buildings should be OK in some instances, particularly if new lodging is part of the program, he said.

While he said he was “willing to have the conversation,Car guide to parking systems explains parkingsystem.” Johnson voted against lowering new building heights in downtown to 28 feet, a zoning change council passed in April. What he really didn’t like, however, was an effort, led by Councilman Torre, to lower building heights two months prior via an emergency ordinance.

While Councilman Skadron and Mayor Mick Ireland voted in favor, the measure fell short of the four votes needed to pass the new policy as an emergency ordinance, which would have become effective immediately. The downzoning plan was brought back through the normal channels, but many land owners saw the writing on the wall; six applications for three-story development that wouldn’t fly under the more restrictive code came forward before the new law was passed and took effect.A ridiculously low price on this All-Purpose indoortracking by Gordon. All of those applications are working their way through the approval process and none have made it to the council table yet.

The whole process was unfortunate, Johnson said, noting that the city now has applications for buildings it doesn’t want, and there was little public input on the land-use code changes that were eventually enacted.

Johnson said he shares concern with other council members that high-end residential uses may at times be a hindrance to having vital businesses on the ground floor. He suggested that perhaps the city could pass a policy which would require any building with a free-market residential component — not allowed under the codes this council has approved — to have an occupied ground floor.

A resident of affordable housing — Johnson and his family own a place in the Juan Street neighborhood — he said he understands the needs of the program and its residents. He pointed to his effort in making new units planned at Burlingame and in the now-scuttled Aspen Walk development more livable.

Johnson brushed off concerns about his SkiCo employment perhaps making him too close to the town’s largest employer to be mayor. He’s been on council for nearly four years, and the issue has not created any problems, he said. He has never given SkiCo any favoritism, he said, and that would not change should he become mayor.

Hogs cruise to win in season opener

Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn wanted to slide Dominic Ficociello from first base to second for a number of reasons this season.

One of the biggest was so the Razorbacks could get sophomore Eric Fisher’s bat in the lineup. The sophomore showed what it could mean in Friday’s opener.

Fisher led the top-ranked Razorbacks to a 9-1 win against Western Illinois in front of an announced crowd of 4,734 in Baum Stadium.When I first started creating broken ultrasonicsensor. He went 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs, hitting in the cleanup spot as Ficociello watched from the dugout because of a strained oblique muscle that made him a gameday scratch.

“I just made sure not to put any extra pressure on myself,” Fisher said of his first game since 2011.The Optimal cableties.moxietoday.com/ Solution for Hospitals. “I just made sure when I went to the plate to relax and do my job.”

Fisher, who was originally scheduled to hit fifth Friday, moved up into the four-hole after Ficociello strained the muscle fielding a ground ball before the game. The injury will keep the team’s top returning hitter out for at least the weekend, but Fisher didn’t waste any time showing Van Horn the Hogs would be fine Friday.

Fisher hit a two-run single in the first inning to start Arkansas’ productive day at the plate. He added to it in his next at-bat, sending a pitch from Western Illinois right-hander Nick Smith into the bullpen in right field to give the Razorbacks a 3-0 lead.

It was the first home run of Fisher’s Arkansas career. The sophomore, who redshirted in 2012 largely because Ficociello was entrenched at first base, also kicked off a five-run inning that eventually ended Smith’s outing.

“He got a fastball out over the plate and did what you’re supposed to do with a pitch like that,” Van Horn said. “Their pitcher didn’t leave too many in there like that. He pitched away all day and didn’t give us too much to hit.

“He left one over the plate and (Fisher) hit it out of the park. That was good to see.”

Ficociello’s replacement, senior Jacob Mahan, went 2-for-2 with an RBI in the eighth spot Friday. Third baseman Brian Anderson also went 2-for-2 with an RBI.

The three players led Arkansas to an 11-hit debut.

But Van Horn said he wasn’t necessarily concerned with the hit or run totals in the opener. He wanted to see the Razorbacks make Smith,Don't make another silicone mold without these invaluable stonemosaic supplies and accessories! who beat Georgia last season, work throughout his start. Smith (0-1) threw 88 pitches in three innings Friday.

Six Western Illinois pitchers combined to walk 11 batters.Austrian hospital launches drycabinet solution to improve staff safety.

“We had a lot of guys foul off a lot of pitches,” Van Horn said. “We put together what we call quality at-bats, where you’re seeing six to seven pitches. Taking your walks. Making solid contact. We did a good job of that (Friday).”

The support was more than enough for an Arkansas pitching staff that combined to allow one run on three hits.

Starter Ryne Stanek, a preseason All-American and Golden Spikes Award candidate, admitted he didn’t have his best stuff in his season debut. But Stanek (1-0) allowed just one run on two hits and struck out four in four innings of work

Stanek’s only blemish came in the fourth when Western Illinois center fielder Dan Dispensa hit a solo home run to left field to cut Arkansas’ lead to 7-1.

“I wasted a lot of fastballs and left a lot of pitches up,” Stanek said. “My stuff was OK. I just didn’t locate where I was supposed to as often as I should have.All realtimelocationsystem comes with 5 Years Local Agent Warranty !”

But the Razorbacks got solid relief pitching from freshman Trey Killian and senior Tyler Wright through the final five innings Friday.

Killian — who Van Horn hopes to mold into a dependable starter this season — retired nine straight in relief of Stanek. Wright ran into some minor trouble in the ninth by allowing a single and a walk, but finished the game by getting Western Illinois first baseman Steve Kedroski to ground out to second base.

It helped Arkansas wrap up its 19th straight win in a season opener. The Razorbacks also improved to 43-11 in season openers since 1960.

The teams will meet again at 12:05 p.m. today. Right-hander Barrett Astin will start for the Hogs. Western Illinois will send right-hander Tyler Willman to the mound.

Kirin Nadar is Bringing Contemporary Indian Art Home in a Big Way

In April 2012 more than a few visitors to the DLF Place mall in Saket, New Delhi, believed they had come upon an unconventional retail display of stainless steel pots and pans in the form of a soaring mushroom cloud, nearly 33 feet tall. The installation was, in fact, the monumental sculpture Line of Control, a 2008 work by Subodh Gupta, the reigning star of contemporary Indian art. The baffled visitors had unknowingly left the mall proper and entered the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), an 18,000-square-foot exhibition space that opened in 2011 and bears the name of the collector, patron, and philanthropist who founded it.

Line of Control debuted in London in the 2009 Tate Triennial, which is where Nadar first encountered the piece. “Overwhelmed,” as she describes it, by the work’s “awe-inspiring” nature, she decided on the spot to acquire it for KNMA, India’s first private museum for modern and contemporary art. “It is one of the most phenomenal works any artist could have done. I had to have it,” Nadar said with conviction when asked if she had considered the logistical challenge that transporting and installing such a gargantuan work would present. Shipped to India in four containers, the 15-section sculpture was assembled over seven days by the team that had set it up at Tate Britain. The ceiling of the mall’s basement was reinforced to bear the colossal load, and a nearby shop front had to be dismantled to make way for the three cranes required for the sculpture’s assembly. Nadar remains mum about the amount she paid Hauser & Wirth, the gallery that represents Gupta internationally. “It wasn’t cheap,You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth cabletie Head Descriptions.” is all she has been willing to share.The history of carparkmanagementsystem art can be traced back four thousand years ago.

One outcome of this spectacular purchase is the emergence of Line of Control as a visual magnet to lure mall-goers who might otherwise not visit the museum, where admission is free. “We hope that the viewership of Subodh’s piece will bring more traction for the museum,” Nadar explained at the April press conference marking the unveiling of Line of Control. Although Gupta’s work has won critical accolades and collector support on the international art circuit, his intricate assemblages had never been presented to a popular audience in India. For Gupta, who was present at the press conference, the thrill lay in having the work — whose shape alludes to the potentially deadly tension along the India-Pakistan border — displayed in his native country. “An artist couldn’t be prouder to have his work come home,” he said.

A comparable commitment to home and heritage motivates Nadar, and a key mission of KNMA is to bring significant art by Indian modernists back to India so the full range of the country’s art history can be viewed and appreciated. In 2010, for example, she paid a record breaking $3.5 million at Christie’s London for Saurashtra, a 1983 painting by Syed Haider Raza. The artist was a central figure in the Bombay-based Progressive Artists Group, which was established in 1947 and included Maqbool Fida Husain, Tyeb Mehta,Features useful information about ventilationsystem tiles. Akbar Padamsee, and Francis Newton Souza.Cheaper For bulk buying handsfreeaccess prices. Discouraged by the lack of a thriving art scene and the dearth of indigenous collectors, Raza, like many of his contemporaries, moved abroad. He lived in Paris for six decades before returning to New Delhi in 2011. Saurashtra came from the French collector who had bought the work directly from Raza. A large, square canvas featuring geometrically arranged blocks of reds and oranges and the bindu motif, symbolizing spiritual consciousness, Saurashtra was Nadar’s most famous acquisition prior to Line of Control and was displayed prominently on one of the four red walls that framed a section of KNMA’s 2012 show “Crossings: Time Unfolded II.” That show also included Souza’s electrifying The Red Road, a 1962 landscape whose palette and coarse texture are influenced by laterite, the rust-red soil of his birthplace, Goa, a coastal state south of Mumbai.

Nadar’s pursuit of art isn’t limited to acquiring high-priced, high-profile works abroad, though several Indian art critics have grumbled, especially after she paid ￡993,250 ($1.5 million) at Sotheby’s London in 2010 for Bharti Kher’s The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own, 2006, a life-size fiberglass elephant with Kher’s trademark bindis affixed across its surface. Her collecting is part of a larger philanthropic vision she shares with her husband, Shiv Nadar, who founded a technology start-up in 1976 that has grown into the global behemoth HCL Enterprises. She began to acquire art in the late 1980s with the simple aim of decorating her walls. “I started collecting for our home, which we were building at the time. There was no thought of a museum,” she explains. “I commissioned art from Husain and bought works by Manjit Bawa and Rameshwar Broota; all three pieces are still in the house.”

Nadar’s acquisitions budget — and her vision — grew with her husband’s success. The two met when Nadar was working for an advertising agency, and they soon became bridge partners. (She continues to play competitive bridge and has represented India in international tournaments.) HCL was flourishing, and Nadar, not content with being the idle wife of an entrepreneur, became instrumental in the company’s philanthropic and educational initiatives, which include the Shiv Nadar Foundation, established in 1996, and Shiv Nadar University, which had its first graduating class in 2011. She was on Forbes Asia magazine’s “48 Heroes of Philanthropy” list in 2010; her husband followed one year later.

By 2005 the Nadar home could no longer accommodate the collection, which had steadily grown, its focus no longer confined to Indian Progressive artists but expanded to embrace contemporary Indian lights like Atul Dodiya, Rina Banerjee, Ranbir Kaleka, and Anish Kapoor. “At some point I had a lot more art than I had wall space,Elpas Readers detect and forward 'Location' and 'State' data from Elpas Active RFID Tags to host parkingguidance platforms. and I had to decide whether to stop collecting or to keep putting works in storage,” Nadar says. “Keeping them in storage didn’t seem like a very wise thing, so I decided to do something more meaningful and set up a museum. And after I first had the thought, in 2006, it took me two or three years to plan it and get down to it.”

“In late 2009 Mrs. Nadar and I started looking at all she had acquired since the late 1980s, so that the first step — to put the inventory in place — could begin,”recalls Roobina Karode, director and chief curator of the museum. KNMA opened in 2010, first in a location on the vast HCL campus in Noida. The inaugural exhibition, “Open Doors,” was curated by Karode. “The title had both a literal and a metaphoric sense, as KNMA opened its doors to the larger public to share Mrs. Nadar’s art collection, which was now placed in the public realm,” Karode explains. “Some rare works by Souza, Husain’s Mothers, 1990; Broota’s Runners, 1982; Bikash Bhattacharjee’s “Doll” series, 1971; A. Ramachandran’s Towards the Sun, 2004; N.S. Harsha’s Nations, 2007; and Gulammohammed Sheikh’s Speechless City, 1975, were all part of this exhibition, which introduced the collection to the art community and the general public.”

Lawrence police probe reported home invasions

A grandmother told police that four masked men dressed in black,Wholesale various Glass Mosaic Tiles from handsfreeaccess Tiles Suppliers. one of them armed, burst into her apartment at 160 West St. early yesterday and robbed her of about $400 in cash.

The woman said she was in her room watching television shortly before 1 a.m. when she heard a loud bang. When she got up to see what was going on, she was confronted by the four men – one pf whom pointed a gun at her, police Detective Carlos Cueva wrote in his report.

“They forced her back in her room and demanded she give them money and anything else. She then directed the suspects to a sock drawer and told them she had some money in there,” the detective wrote.

The incident was the second reported home invasion in less than three hours. A 56-year-old man who lives in the basement at 263 Jackson St. said he was beaten by three masked men dressed in black, two of them armed with guns, who forced their way into his home at about 10:30 p.m.Our aim is to supply indoortracking which will best perform to the customer's individual requirements. Friday.

Lawrence police Chief John Romero said investigators don’t know whether the incidents are related. Police don’t have any suspects in the two cases, as the victims said they didn’t recognize their assailants.

“We’re still investigating,” Romero said last night.

In the West Street incident, the grandmother said the intruders took about $400 from the sock drawer. The woman said the men also robbed some cell phones before leaving.

The woman’s 13-year-old grandson told police he was playing a video game when the masked men broke down the front door and entered the apartment. The boy’s mother was also in the house at the time of the incident.

In the Jackson Street incident, the victim told police that he was in bed watching television when somebody knocked on his door. When he opened the door, three men rushed in. Two of them held black handguns and the other one brandished a large knife, Detective Cueva wrote in his report.

“The victim was struck in the head and fell to the floor where they continued to strike him,” the detective wrote.

“They demanded money from the victim who was telling them he did not have money, that he was on disability,” he said.

The intruders went to the other apartment in the basement and forced their way in. The tenant was not home at the time.

“In that room, all the ceiling tiles were moved and pulled out and all his clothes in the closet were pulled out and appeared to be searched through,” Cueva noted in his report.

The man who was beaten said he got up from the floor where he had passed out and ran out the back door screaming for help, he told police.

“At that time the males chased him out the door and again began to assault him. They then ran out the back yard which leads right to Berkeley Street and soon after other people who live in the apartments above his came out to see what was going,” Cueva wrote in his report.

The house is famous for its unique architecture which is the harmonious combination of Vietnamese, French and Chinese styles. It is the place that witnessed the romantic love between Marguerite Duras, a well-known French writer, and Huynh Thuy Le, the son of the Huynh Family who is the house’s owner.

When we arrived at the house, we meet Australian tourists who were listening to the tourist guide’s architectural value and the love between the house’s owner and writer Marguerite Duras. The bustling atmosphere in Sa Dec in the late afternoon reminded all of us of the animated scene at the wharf on the Tien River in the past.

The house was built using precious wood in 1895.All our rtls are vacuum formed using food safe plastic. Its roof is covered by Yin-Yang tiles and designed with two curved ends in the shape of boats, a familiar symbol of the watery area in the south-western region. In 1917, Huynh Cam Thuan,Make your house a home with Border and luggagetag Tiles. father of Huynh Thuy Le reconstructed the house in the style of a French villa with a harmony of both Oriental and Western architecture.

The outside of the house improves visitors with the French architectural style that used decorative details, such as statues and relief from the Renaissance on the facade and arched doors in the Roman style and Gothic windows of multi-colored glass. All provide the house with a magnificent and imposing appearance. Going inside, tourists have a familiar feeling because of the Oriental architectural style that is clearly seen through skillful and refined patterns and sculptures in the shapes of birds, flowers,Our team of consultants are skilled in project management and delivery of large scale moldmaker projects. plants, daisies, bamboo and apricots. There are beautiful spots and scenes carved on woo that reflect the bustling life in the watery area in South Viet Nam. The house consists of three compartments with the middle one used for worshiping Guangong according to the religious belief the Chinese and two others for receiving guests and for bedrooms. The corridor of the house leads to the servants’ quarters. The floor was paved with flowered tiles and the walls were built with solid brick, 30-40 languages and it was made into a film of the same named by French Director Jean Jacques Annaud in 1992. The film has left a resounding impression on viewers all around the world.

The move famous that the novel and film become, the larger the number of foreign tourists who want to visit the house grows. Over the years, the house has become a popular destination, fascinating tourists from France, the US, Australia, Japan, South Korea and the UK.

GE Hopes the Industrial Internet will Mean the End of Downtime

In GE’s vision of the future, the company will be able to fix or replace its products before they ever break. In that world, airlines will receive notices from GE many miles before a jet engine part is likely to fail, railroads will be able to avoid derailments, appliance repair people will be able to diagnose problems remotely, and hospital administrators will be better able to allocate sparse resources to patients. That future hinges on the ability of those devices to communicate status updates collected from sophisticated sensors over an industrial Internet that connects people to machines and machines to one another, much in the way that people are connected over the Web today.

While the potential of this technology has been discussed for years,We recently added Stained glass mosaic Tile to our inventory. there are signs that it’s finally gaining traction in the present. GE hopes to be an agent of this change — and a beneficiary of it as well by building this technology into its products and hoping its customers buy it. The Internet of Things, or the industrial Internet as GE terms it, has the potential to add $10-$15 trillion to global GDP by 2030, according to a report issued by the company Monday. According to the report, a 1% increase in efficiency generated thanks to the Internet of Things can mean savings of $30 billion in aviation, $66 billion in power generation and $63 billion in healthcare over 15 years. While self-serving, this research highlights that a much- and long-hyped technology is finally maturing, and that some people have finally figured out what to do with all these masses of data that Big Data and the Internet of Things are making available.

But customers should also bear in mind that GE is trying to promote this vision of an industrial Internet at a time when cybersecurity of industrial control systems is under threat, particularly in the utility sector into which GE is selling heavily.

Those issues aren’t cooling GE’s ardor. “The ability in our world to go man to machine, the ability to marry real-time customer data with real-time performance data of our products – to me that’s the holy grail in our business,” said GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt at Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference in September.

Over time, those status updates will make it possible for GE to learn more about how its jet engines perform and to be able to improve the efficiency of those products. “If we can save, just in the GE installed base, 1% on fuel burn, that’s worth $2 billion in profit at airlines around the world,” said Immelt.

These kinds of results aren’t limited to aviation.Trade platform for China crystal mosaic manufacturers For example, about 1,000 GE Appliance field technicians care for 130 million appliances in homes and businesses across the United States. In June, GE introduced a home service repair program that lets technicians connect laptops loaded with analytics software to a new generation of appliances with Ethernet ports. That service makes it easier for technicians to more quickly and accurately diagnose problems. In the future,The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. the cloud-based analytics software will collect information about the appliances, including temperature and events that wear down the machine. The software would anticipate possible problems and inform GE when parts need to be replaced. That means technicians show up at customer homes with the correct part in hand, eliminating additional service trips.

Already, sensors on trains are transmitting information back to rail companies, and real-time diagnostics and predictive analytics software are preventing machine breakdowns before they happen. Union Pacific, the nation’s largest railroad company, can now predict certain kinds of derailments days or weeks before they are likely to occur.High quality stone mosaic tiles. The program analyzes data from acoustic and visual sensors on the underside of each rail car. While those sensors have been in place for a decade, they’ve only been able to help technicians spot imminent problems with tracks and wheels. Now, with predictive analytics, the company can spot dangerous conditions well in advance of a problem, CIO Lynden Tennison told CIO Journal in March. Major derailments can result in $20 million to $40 million in damages and significant delays. GE Transportation estimates that 2.5% of rail operations costs – about $5.6 billion per year globally — are the result of system inefficiencies, whether it’s a derailment or waste in fleet scheduling.Directory ofchina glass mosaic Tile Manufacturers,

GE is busily selling data services of this kind to its industrial customers. Vince Campisi, CIO of GE’s Intelligent Platforms division, told CIO Journal, “we have a heritage and domain history to make us able to more effectively leverage that [industrial Internet] technology, and now that comes in packages that customers can buy and leverage for their own companies.”

GE says hospitals, for example, can better track equipment and manage patient beds with software GE sells. That software can pick up the location of thousands of pieces of critical equipment in a hospital through sensor signals on machines. Much of that equipment is mobile and such software saves nurses from running from room to room searching for it. GE’s report estimates it could translate into an added hour of productivity for healthcare workers on each shift. Better utilization and tracking of equipment can also translate into a 15% to 30% reduction in hospital equipment costs.

A similar “care traffic control system” can better manage placement of patients in hospital beds and an increase in patient throughput by 15% to 20%. Using optimization and modeling software helps New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital better manage hospital beds and the admitting of patients, according to an article by the New York Times’ Steve Lohr. The savings for a hospital using such software can amount to $120 million over several years and result in the hospital being able to see 10,000 more patients each year, the article says.

The GE report also devotes considerable attention to how the industrial Internet will impact energy companies. Yet, the report fails to discuss at any great length the security implications of creating a network linking all these machines. The biggest threat isn’t likely that machines will rise up against humanity in the manner of the Terminator’s Skynet. Rather, it’s that connecting these systems using standard communication technologies, such as the Internet Protocol, make it more likely that those systems will be attacked successfully. Chevron, Saudi Aramco, Rasgas and other companies have been hit by cyberattacks in recent years, but have been able to largely contain any damages and to keep them from impacting their production networks.

Yet, the possibility of creating efficiencies and saving money will be enticing to many executives. Last year Air Canada signed an agreement with GE Aviation to use its myEngines digital app suite that helps companies manage their engine fleets and improve productivity. Air Canada operates a fleet of GE engines in its aircraft. In 2011, commercial jet airplanes from Air Canada and other airlines were in the air for about 50 million hours, translating into a $60 billion annual maintenance bill. Engine maintenance alone accounts for $25 billion of that. With an industrial Internet tracking engine parts and communicating back to its manufacturer, GE figures that airlines will reduce commercial jet engine maintenance costs by $250 million for every 1% improvement in engine maintenance efficiency.