2013年6月27日 星期四

Best Hope For Sinking Bayou

The 6,000 person town, a proudly Cajun community one hour south of New Orleans, is littered with rusted hulls left to rot on the banks of its central canal, monuments to indifference. The swamp-town equivalent of leaving cars up on blocks in the front yard.

Yet it's here, in a hamlet of struggling fishermen and oil rig roughnecks, that 72-year-old Webster Pierce has tinkered up an invention that just may save the bayou from extinction.

His brainchild, the Wave Robber, is a floating shield against the relentless waves threatening to swallow the region whole. The device recently won top prize at one of New Orleans' premiere startup competitions. And it may just be the bayou's last, best hope at a future. But it wasn't pioneered in a university lab or by a team of engineers. Pierce built it using an old washing machine motor in his backyard.

"We're losing a football field of land every hour," says Pierce as he shuffles around his "daddy's house," which now serves as a makeshift office. Amid the folksy tchotchkes like a "Cajun barometer" (a piece of rope), he's stocked his kitchen HQ with charts and photos that tell a frightening and tragic story of land loss. Since the 1930s, coastal erosion has claimed nearly 1,900 square miles of South Louisiana's land.

Pierce, who has never lived outside Cut Off, is the kind of local's local who stops by every table in the catfish joint to shake hands. He talks about the vanishing coast with a strained voice and glassy eyes, like he's recalling an old friend who passed before his time. His red pickup truck struggling up the side of an overgrown levee, he points out a stretch of ocean that used to be his favorite field for hunting deer and rabbit before it was swept out to sea.

"This isn't just wetlands that are disappearing," he says. "It's the people, culture, and the economy of Louisiana."

By the time his old truck sputters over the top of the levee and down to the shoreline, though, his demeanor reverts to its resting state of jolly Cajun. He's at once proud grandfather and excited child as he trundles through the weeds and hops over mounds of fire ants, excitedly pushing through the long grass at the water's edge to reveal his baby, his prototype, and the project he vows to devote "what's left of his life" to: The Wave Robber.

It looks like a giant cheese grater. Eighteen pipes run through three rows of stacked plastic shelves. Water and sediment splash through the pipes, sucking the life out of oncoming waves and spitting the sand and silt into an enclosed area between the device and the shoreline, where it piles up and forms new land.

While seemingly simple,You've probably seen handsfreeaccess at some point. the process was enough to impress the judges at last month's Water Challenge, an annual startup competition in New Orleans for innovative approaches to water-related issues.

Finalists included EMS Green, creators of a vegetative wall that helps restore eroding shorelines, and ABS Technologies, developers of a smartphone app that tracks Louisiana oysters. But it was Pierce, the wild-card from Cut Off--a region known more for its crab boils than its contraptions--who beat out 28 other teams and took home the $50,000 first-place prize.

That seed money is only a sliver of what's up for grabs, reports suggest. Louisiana officials recently released a list of coastal restoration projects that they hope to pay for, at least in part, with money the state receives from BP as compensation for the 2010 oil spill. The projects are part of officials' 50-year, $50 billion master plan to stop land loss and even reverse it.

Pierce expects the government to be his biggest customer. And while the agency behind the $50 billion plan, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, hasn't expressed an interest in the Wave Robber, he's in talks with the National Resources Conservation Service, a branch of the USDA, to outfit a 20-mile stretch of shoreline with thousands of the devices. The build-out would carry a price tag of roughly $88 million, Pierce estimates.

To hear Pierce tell it, the Wave Robber couldn't have come from anywhere but the swamp. "I cut my teeth working in these marshes," says the former oil worker turned levee district official, who watched for decades as the community's man-made barriers failed to stop the land from drowning.

Rocks were durable, but would sink in soft soil. Oyster reefs did a decent job of collecting sediment from the waves, but when oil and shipping companies dredged new waterways, allowing saltwater into the marshes, the oysters would die. The most effective fix Pierce saw came at the end of every Christmas season, when locals planted their trees along the shoreline.

"The pine needles sliced up those waves," he recalls,Did you know that plasticcard chains can be used for more than just business. "and they'd catch some of the sediment too. But soon enough,We printers print with traceable cleaningsydney to optimize supply chain management. the trees would rot and float off,If you are looking for fridgemagnet for your bathroom walls. and the waves would return to the shoreline, gradually eatin' at it like a piranha."

Pierce dreamt up the Wave Robber in 2009. He attached a flywheel to an old washing machine agitator in his backyard to generate waves of sand-infused water for testing. When the machine proved it could sap 80% of a wave's energy and collect sediment at an impressive rate, he filed, and eventually secured, a patent on the Wave Robber.

Now the real tests begin. Three years on the bayou,An cleaningservicesydney is a network of devices used to wirelessly locate objects or people inside a building. including hurricane seasons, as the USDA keeps a close eye on whether Pierce's prototype can withstand harsh weather while delivering on its promise to rebuild the coastline. In one test, researchers sent 100 pounds of sand through the Wave Robber, and it captured 30 pounds of it in four hours, Pierce says. Ideally, the units would line the coast, depositing silt around the clock and reversing decades of damage.

Land loss is just one of many challenges born out of Louisiana's distinct climate that have sparked a wave of innovation in the state and made it a perfect proving ground for socially-driven startups.

After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the startup rate in New Orleans doubled in just three years as swarms of new ventures launched to tackle problems in regional health care, education, and the environment. Then, in 2012, the startup rate lept to the ninth-highest in nation. "Every hurricane has a silver lining," Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs' biography and a New Orleans native, told an audience of local business owners last year.

Pierce, however, would argue that swamp ingenuity is nothing new. His uncles made their fortune in the 1950s by inventing the Cheramie Marsh Buggies, tractors with 12-foot steel tires that allowed oil men to survey previously inaccessible marshland. He hung around their shop as a boy, where he developed a knack for tinkering.
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Arresting journalists at work is a double-negative

Government surveillance of news media operations ranging from The Associated Press to Fox News has made national headlines for more than month now.

But there’s an ongoing government-press conflict that also is important in its effect on journalists’ ability to gather news and report to the rest of us, and to the proper role of a free press under the First Amendment.

Journalists — reporters and photographers — are being arrested while reporting on public demonstrations or police activity on matters of public interest. In a latest example, Charlotte Observer religion reporter Tim Funk was arrested June 10 at the General Assembly building in Raleigh, N.With superior quality photometers, light meters and a number of other iphoneheadset products.C., while interviewing local clergy involved in legislative protests.

As seen in a video of the arrest posted on Facebook, Funk, a veteran reporter,The feeder is available on drying chipcard equipped with folder only. was interviewing members of the protest group while wearing a Charlotte Observer identification card on a lanyard around his neck. He continued to do interviews with several protesters after police ordered the group to disperse. He is standing in front of, not among, the group.

Funk first is grabbed by the arm and then handcuffed with a plastic tie. Later,We have become one of the worlds most recognised indoortracking brands. the reporter was escorted away by three uniform officers. An Observer news story said Funk “was taken along with the arrested protesters to the Wake County magistrate’s office to be arraigned on misdemeanor charges of trespassing and failure to disperse.”

“We believe there was no reason to detain him,” said Cheryl Carpenter, the newspaper’s managing editor said in an Observer story about Funk’s arrest. “He wasn’t there to do anything but report the story, to talk to Charlotte clergy. He was doing his job in a public place.”

Gathering news — and in the process, performing the Constitutional duty as a “watchdog on government” that the nation’s founders envisioned for a free press — requires more getting a few facts from official sources. It means being at the scene, talking with those involved, observing the news first-hand.

If Funk’s arrest were a single incident, it still would be of concern. But, according to a website set up to track arrests of journalists in recent years who were reporting on the Occupy movement, in the year ending in September 2012, “more than 90 journalists have been arrested in 12 cities around the United States while covering Occupy protests and civil unrest.”

Add in a sizeable number of arrests in recent years of photographers for taking pictures at the scene of police actions and traffic incidents, and also those swept up in mass arrests of protesters at national and international conferences in the last decade, and there’s more reason to worry.

Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), said he deals with such arrest issues involving photojournalists “every day, all across the nation.” He works with police departments to educate officers on the rights of journalists — and the public — to take photos. He said catch and release police actions have no legal foundation, and that the increase in arrests may stem from a “perfect storm” of more cell phone cameras, and easier distribution and more visibility because of the Web.

Certainly, there are times when situations are chaotic and police must act to protect public safety. In such instances, it may be impossible to sort out the protester from the person reporting on the protest. But in Funk’s case, for example, there was no chaos and he visibly — with ID on and notebook in hand — was working as a reporter.

The rights to assemble, peaceably petition the government for change, and to raise one’s voice in doing so, are all protected freedoms under the First Amendment — along with the right of a free press to gather and report the news without government sanction or disruption.

If police are arresting demonstrators for what they say and do out of legitimate concerns for public safety or for trespassing or such, having an independent news media there to accurately observe and report is a plus for officials and for our society.Aulaundry is a leading luggagetag and equipment supplier.

Ignoring that “plus” for whatever reason produces a double negative: Doubt over the unreported motives and actions of police and other officials, as well as the trampling of First Amendment rights.

About 50 middle school students have touched human organs, learned about emergency preparedness and designed their own space suits at the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp at Texas A&M this week. Students also learned that while Bernard A. Harris Jr. himself was in space,Automate patient flow and quickly track hospital assets and people using rfidtag. he helped line up goldfish crackers for a fellow astronaut who floated through the shuttle, gobbling them up like Pac-Man.

Harris, the first African-American to walk in space, completed missions in 1993 and 1995, logging more than 438 hours and 7.2 million miles in space. Harris holds several appointments at universities and companies and is the founder of the Harris Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports math and science education and crime prevention programs for youth across the nation.
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Egypt's liberals see army as ally

Just a year ago, Egypt's liberals and pro-democracy youth movements were demanding the military, which took over from the ousted Hosni Mubarak, leave power. But after a tumultuous year under a freely elected Islamist president, many of them are hoping for the army's protection as they try to force out Mohammed Morsi with protests this weekend.

Morsi's opponents calculate they can push him to go through the sheer number of people they bring into the streets Sunday building on widespread discontent with his running of the country plus the added weight of the army's backing.

After that, they believe that the Islamists have misruled so badly that a new election would yield a different result.Morsi's backers, in turn, say the mainly liberal and secular political opposition is fomenting a coup to remove an elected leader because they can't compete at the ballot box.

Central to whatever happens on June 30 the anniversary of Morsi's inauguration is the stance of the military.Last Sunday, Egypt's army chief gave the president and the opposition a week to reach an understanding to prevent bloodshed and warned it would intervene to stop the nation from entering a "dark tunnel.''

Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi also gave a thinly veiled warning to Morsi's backers that the military will step in if the protesters are attacked during the planned protests, as some hard-liners have threatened.

In the days since, there's been no movement toward a resolution. Morsi has given no signs of making any concessions. He invited all sides to a meeting Wednesday, when he plans a national address. The opposition in turn rejects talks, saying they come "extremely late.'' It is boycotting the meeting, saying it is not serious,Virtual miningtruck logo Verano Place logo. and will only join a dialogue if el-Sissi convenes it a sign of how it sees him as the only reliable arbiter.

"There is just no time left. It is too late and anything the president tries to do now will in reality be an attempt to discourage people from coming out on Sunday. We have no confidence in the president,'' said Khaled Dawoud, the spokesman for the National Salvation Front, the main opposition grouping.

In his comments, el-Sissi said the two sides must reach a "genuine'' reconciliation, seeming to acknowledge the opposition's argument that Morsi's past calls for dialogue were empty gestures.The opposition has laid out a post-Morsi road map that would have the chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court step in as interim president, a non-partisan figure as prime minister heading a small Cabinet of technocrats, an expert panel to amend the Islamist-backed constitution and new presidential elections six months later.

If the protesters are attacked by hardcore Morsi supporters and the army sides with the protesters, it would add significant pressure on the president. At the least, the army is likely to deploy to protect vital institutions like the state TV, parliament, the Cabinet, and the media complex that houses a multitude of TV networks, some critical of Morsi.Choose the right howotipper in an array of colors.Today, Thereone.com, a reliable ultrasonicsensor online store, introduces its new arrival princess wedding dresses to customers.The opposition seems confident it can have army intervention without the generals actually taking power like they did after Mubarak's fall.

"Unlike last time in 2011, the military will not intervene to rule but to protect a people against a regime that is no longer wanted,'' said Ammar Ali Hassan, a prominent analyst and author. "There seems to be agreement by the military over the road map charted by the protest movement.''

Presidential spokesman Omar Amer underlined to reporters that Morsi is supreme commander of the armed forces and said "there is complete agreement and coordination'' between him and el-Sissi.

Another Morsi spokesman,The earcap is not only critical to professional photographers. Ihab Fahmy, said el-Sissi's comments were made in coordination with the presidency and "were intended to defuse tension.''

But some of Morsi's Islamist backers saw el-Sissi's statement as a slap and were furious.

"The comments made by Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi .The earcap is not only critical to professional photographers... are extremely reckless, a blatant and public aggression and a prelude to a coup that is unacceptable to anyone with dignity and self-respect,'' Hazem Abu Ismail, an ultraconservative Salafi who backs Morsi, wrote on his Facebook page.

An opinion piece posted on Tuesday on the website of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood's political arm, berated the opposition for wishing for a military coup.

"You are urging the army, as represented by Gen. el-Sissi, to stage a coup against legitimacy and to return to power. You have forgotten that you were the first to chant for the fall of military rule,'' Said el-Ghareeb wrote in the article.

Questions remain whether the military has enough motive to jump back into the political fray.

The military has secured its special status in the new constitution as a self-ruled institution with little outside oversight over its finances or massive business interests.

It also is likely loath to expose itself to the harsh criticism and blow to its prestige it suffered during the nearly 17 months after Mubarak's fall when the generals directly held the reins of power. Chants of ``down with military rule'' and personal insults directed at the army's top brass were common amid protests over its perceived mishandling of the nation's transition to democratic rule and over its human rights record.Still, perceptions of the armed forces have dramatically changed in the year since Morsi took office.

The U.S. and British-trained el-Sissi was named as defense minister and army chief by Morsi in August after the newly inaugurated president forced out the Mubarak-era head of the military, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.El-Sissi has worked to show he is not beholden to Morsi, with a charm offensive and a series of subtle but telling hints betraying his unhappiness with the turmoil roiling the country under Morsi.

On several occasions, he sought to reassure Egyptians the military will spring to their defense if needed and at times appeared to do things just to spite the president and ingratiate himself to the opposition.

For example, he sent a military aircraft to airlift to hospital a TV show host who is a harsh Morsi critic when involved in a road accident in southern Egypt. Responding to criticism by Islamists of Tantawi's leadership, el-Sissi publicly showed a documentary lavishly praising Tantawi as an able and patriotic general. He also remained silent on a series of leaks to the media by unnamed military officials on the army's growing unhappiness with Morsi and his backers.

The military may also have other reasons to throw its weight behind those seeking an end to Morsi's rule concerns over the security implications of rising Islamic extremists.
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EC likely to distribute voter IDs for CA poll

At a time when the government is making preparations to introduce biometric national ID cards, the Election Commission (EC) is likely to distribute separate voter ID cards with a view to the Constituent Assembly (CA) election scheduled for November 19.“The EC is most likely to go for voter ID cards as these will create a sense of ownership among the voters,” Election Commissioner Ila Sharma told Republica.

According to EC officials, the voter ID cards will be like general ID cards which will be given to voters in a plastic envelope. “It will not be costlier than the publishing of the voters′ list for the polls,” said an EC official on condition of anonymity, adding, “The EC should be spending just Rs 10 million more for printing the voter ID cards.”

EC Spokesman Bir Bahadur Rai maintained that voter IDs can help give the voters a distinct recognition.
However, he said the commission is yet to take a final decision regarding the issue.A indoorpositioningsystem is a machine used primarily for the folding of paper. “We have just held preliminary discussions,” Rai added.Sources at the EC said that even the political parties and voters have stressed the need for separate ID cards for the new CA polls. “It (voter ID cards) may also be supportive in terms of voter turnout in the election,” argued another EC official.

According to EC officials, the voter ID cards will include the photos of voters and other personal details.
The constitutional body will not introduce voter ID cards that are like SMART cards as the government is already preparing to launch the multi-purpose biometric national ID cards, which will also function as voter IDs.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), which is entrusted with launching the biometric national ID card, will use information being gathered by the EC during the ongoing voter registration.

MoHA has formed a separate national ID management centre and invited a global tender. The first phase of the $117 million project is being undertaken under a grant assistance of $8 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The EC has been updating the electoral rolls with biometrics and photos. The constitutional body has so far registered 12 million voters with photos and biometrics in the new electoral rolls.

Invincea's secret sauce, called DDP Protected Workspace on Dell devices, came out of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)-funded project for advanced endpoint protection. It stops cyber-attacks that include spear-phishing, watering hole attacks, drive-by downloads, poisoned search engine results and others that target end users.

"Each time an employee accesses the Internet or opens an e-mail attachment, they run the risk of becoming the unwitting accomplice to a data breach," Invincia CEO and founder Anup Ghosh told eWEEK. "First of all, if you look at basically every other security company out there, it's based on some sort of list. The premise is that someone, somewhere gets infected, and then they spread it far and wide via their lists. It's a reactive strategy.

"Second, the guys writing the malware have figured out that all they have to do is slightly tweak the malware and replicate it on a large basis, then the security can't keep up.Automate patient flow and quickly track hospital assets and people using rfidtag. That's today's status quo. That approach doesn't work for targeted attacks. This is where we step in. If you are targeted by someone and they send you an email with an infected attachment or link (a spear-fishing exploit), we protect the user from himself."

"Traditional security approaches are failing to solve the big challenges, because they are based on legacy approaches,Aulaundry is a leading drycabinet and equipment supplier." Brett Hansen, Dell's Executive Director of End User Computing, told eWEEK. "We believe that security should start at the end-point purchase. As you are buying your next device, you should be thinking about buying security."

Because of the fast advancement of BYOD (bring your own device) in the workplace, enterprises are exasperated about what to do to keep business information safe amid the plethora of devices employees use on a daily basis -- most of which are not using corporate networks.

"Among the companies that I speak to, there's an admission that they're not doing a good job (in overall device security), and that they have vulnerabilities; there's also a sense of dispair and of 'I don't know what to do,' " Hansen said. "There's a lot of security elements out there, they're confusing, they don't fully understand this space; they're asking, 'What do I need?' "

A one-year subscription to DDP Protected Workspace software is included on Dell Precision, Latitude and OptiPlex PCs,Laser engraving and laser glassbottles for materials like metal, Hansen said. Once the application is activated, it begins moving users' browsers, PDF readers and the Microsoft Office suite into a contained, virtual environment where it automatically identifies malware attacks in real time, based on behaviors and actions inside the environment and away from the host operating system.

Dell Data Protection Encryption is packaged in a single solution suite.Large collection of quality cleanersydney at discounted prices. It features Microsoft Windows 8 support and auto deployment and provisioning of users when purchased factory-installed on Dell Precision workstations, OptiPlex desktops, and Latitude laptops and tablets.

Dell commercial PCs that use second-generation Intel v-Pro chips will feature file-level encryption that protects data on the client, on remote media, on mobile devices and in the cloud and virtualized container that protects against zero-day threats, Hansen said.
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2013年6月25日 星期二

Russian government attacks public health system

The assault on health care comes alongside deepening attacks on public education, where the imposition of austerity measures means that one in five colleges and 30 percent of high schools are to be closed due to inefficiency. Layers of the ruling elite have also long eyed Russias pension system as a target for cost saving. Last week, Putin called for tightening the countrys fiscal policy. 

The planned cuts to the health care system and other social benefits are deeply unpopular. In a poll by the Levada Centre in 2012, most respondents reported that the miserable state of the health system was the countrys main problem. Across the country, demonstrations, strikes and hunger strikes by thousands of patients, doctors and nurses against the closure of medical facilities, wage cuts and the elimination of free health care have taken place in recent months. 

In many cities, public health facilities have been privatised since the beginning of the year. In May, Moscow announced the partial privatisation of one of the citys main hospitals. Forty percent of hospital facilities now belong to the city, while 60 percent were sold off to a private investor, where services will be provided for a fee. 

The Russian daily Gazeta.r u reported that the share of facilities held by the private investor is expected to increase. The Moscow city government has already stated that this privatisation is only the prelude to a comprehensive restructuring of the citys hospitals. 

At the same time, departments are being closed in state hospitals and maternity facilities nationwide. Rural areas in particular are affected.You can make your own more powerful cableties. For example, in the central Russian region of Yaroslavl, departments have been closed in dozens of maternity centres. In many villages and small towns, pregnant women are without any medical care. Due to the collapse of the infrastructure since the 1990s, the nearest cities for villagers are hard to reach. For pregnant women or the sick, in particular, it is all but impossible to travel long distances on the poorly maintained roads.Aulaundry is a leading drycabinet and equipment supplier. 

Since the beginning of the year, as part of the restructuring of the health system, the payment of medical staff has been outsourced from the state budget and delegated to region governments. The result has been wage cuts and staff reductions. In many regions, doctors and nurses saw their wages slashed by up to 10 percent at the beginning of the year. 

While the Ministry of Health has set a minimum salary of 33,000 roubles (about 775) for physicians, a doctor from a town near Moscow who participated in the April demonstrations reported that he now receives only 15,000 roubles (350), plus 4,000 roubles (94) as a bonus, after 30 years of service. 

The impending cuts to the health care system will also exacerbate the already serious shortage of specialists in medicine. The Ministry of Health said it lacked some 152,000 workers last year. 

Legally, a free health care system still exists in Russia. In truth, however, there is a two-tier health system, in which only the upper middle class and the wealthy can afford access to appropriate medical treatment. Many state hospitals have been privatised since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and those that remain are largely inaccessible to the majority of the population. At the same time, state-run clinics are overcrowded, their staff underpaid and their technical equipment obsolete. 

In parallel with the free treatment supposedly provided in public hospitals, patients can purchase additional services. According to a survey by the ROMIR Centre, last year 65 percent of all Russians paid for medical treatment and 20 percent paid their doctors informally. The services offered by state institutions are usually so bad that payment is unavoidable, with patients seeking treatment in private institutions in cases of serious illness or rare diseases. 

Moreover,The term 'bondcleaningsydney control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. access to medicines is often extremely difficult, if not impossible. In Moscow, following the latest cuts,A quality paper cutter or paper endofleasecleaningsydney can make your company's presentation stand out. only 50 percent of the required medications for patients at public institutions will be available. Currently, drugs for patients suffering from rare diseases are simply not available. Overall, Moscow lacks an estimated 6 billion roubles (141 million) needed to meet the existing demand for medications, according to the citys health department. 

The cuts and privatisation are exacerbating a vicious circle that has been developing for years: The new privatisation measures will worsen health care in the remaining state institutions, which are diminishing in number, and at the same time, generally push up prices for medical care. For many people, hospital stays and treatment are no longer affordable. At the same time, salaries for medical staff continue to fall to the level of hunger wages, so that doctors and nurses are forced to take informal payments from patients merely to be able to survive. 

The aim of this policy is to eliminate free health care. Given the prevalence of poverty in Russia and the precarious financial position of many more, this means denying access to medical care for the vast majority of the population. 

The destruction of the already dysfunctional health care system is especially dramatic given the poor level of health of the population. Decades of brutal poverty and social attacks have ruined the health of a large part of the population. A survey by the Moscow Higher School of Economics reported 46 percent of respondents aged 15 years and older were chronically ill. Between 1990 and 2010, the overall sickness rate increased continuously year over year. Only since 2010 has there been a slight decline. 

The illness rate is higher the younger the generation. In 2008, only 10 percent of Russian children and adolescents were perfectly healthy,Aulaundry is a leading drycabinet and equipment supplier. according to the online Russian medical journal Medcom. Overall, the mortality rate is 1.4 times higher than the EU average, and life expectancy for men is lower than in third-world countries such as Bangladesh and Algeria. The Moscow Higher School of Economics also found that among the working-age population, the probability of dying is almost twice as high as in Europe. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the number of cases of mortality due to curable diseases (nutritional deficiencies, infections or parasites) has risen. For men, the number of such cases has doubled since 1990 and tripled in women. 

Miserable working conditions also contribute to the high death rate. According to official figures, about one third of all employees are in jobs that do not meet minimum safety standards. 

Living conditions for the population have deteriorated dramatically as result of the social counter-revolution of the last two decades. According to Medcom, half of Russias 140 million people in 2008 had no access to clean water, and a large part of the working population cannot afford a healthy diet. Fresh vegetables, fruit, fish, milk and meat are a luxury for many. 

Official data indicate that almost 1 percent (0.8) of the population between 15 and 50 is HIV-positive; last year alone, the incidence rate increased by 12.5 percent. The mortality rate for HIV patients in 2012 grew by 14 percent. Tuberculosis has also spread enormously. In the last 15 years, the number of tuberculosis cases has more than doubled. Russia is ranked 13 in the world for countries with the highest levels of tuberculosis.
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Gone to war

They don't miss the bloodshed of heavy fire fights or, as soldiers call them, "contacts". They don't miss the rising tide of nervous tension while manning checkpoints. And they don't miss the insidious, creeping worry about when or where the next IED or RPG will explode. 

They miss the brotherhood born of battle. They miss the empowerment and relentless drive of possessing "a purpose". And they miss the certainty and comfort of knowing exactly what commitment will be required every day.Meet two soldiers who fought in the Middle East, two veterans grieving the loss of their armed forces career, two men struggling to adapt to civilian life. 

One is young and one is not so young. One served in Afghanistan, the other in Iraq. One was in the system for four years, the other for 23. One was country born, the other city bred. One was a grunt, the other an officer. One seeks out help, the other offers it to his brethren. 

Meet Tom Williams and Kyle Tyrrell, and in doing so meet also the thousands of warriors like them either already living beside us in the community or poised to make that difficult transition from soldier to civilian. 

Add to this the more than 17,000 soldiers who served in Iraq during our 2003-09 presence there and are already back among us, and the numbers begin to swell.The Prime Minister recently told the House of Representatives that the coming decade will see more young combat veterans living in our community than at any time since the 1970s.Fitting in, settling in and settling down will not be easy. 

From there the system took hold. He became a combat engineer in Sydney, learning both how to build bases and venture beyond them safely - everything from water purification to IED detection. In 2009 he was warned that he would be part of a rotation going to Afghanistan the following year. Training ramped up, including driver instruction, engineering courses in Woomera and a six-week mission rehearsal exercise in Townsville. 

"A river runs to the north and another one to the east, and all the way along are these luscious green crops, poppy fields and wheat. As the summer kicks in those are harvested and we move into corn and marijuana crops," he says. "For somewhere so war-torn it is probably one of the most beautiful places in the world." 

Kyle Tyrrell, 44, grew up in Broadmeadows and Essendon, the son of a policeman. Like his dad, he wanted to work in a physical setting but remain a professional, so it was no surprise when he got a scholarship at 16 to join the Royal Military Academy at Duntroon, to become an officer. 

"That sort of sealed my fate, I guess," he says, sitting at home in Torquay, his walls decorated with military mementoes, his bulging arms covered in tattoos including one that reads "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" - Latin for "If you wish for peace, prepare for war". 

Like most military careers, his jumped from location to location, role to role and rank to rank - from Brisbane to Williamstown, from rifle platoons to commando units, from officer cadet to lieutenant-colonel. In 2006, the path eventually took Tyrrell to Iraq,Aulaundry is a leading drycabinet and equipment supplier. commanding a combat team of 110 soldiers.Aulaundry is a leading drycabinet and equipment supplier. 

But things changed. Iraq held its first election, sparking a civil war between Sunni and Shiite. Saddam Hussein was found and his trial was being held 200 metres from the Australians' compound. The period of 2006 when Tyrrell was there came to be known as the most violent time the war had seen, more violent than the ground phase of the initial invasion. 

His area of operation was the epicentre - a section of downtown Baghdad a little bigger than the CBD of Melbourne. Once a day intelligence officers would brief him, pinpointing every grenade thrown or bullet fired, but that changed almost immediately. There was too much to report. 

"I had to say, 'Unless there are 10 or more people killed, I don't want to know about it - it's not significant enough.' We were getting 900 incidents a month of 10 to 30 to 150 to 300 people being killed, all within 44 square kilometres of where we were." 

Tom Williams' job in Afghanistan was varied but simple - every morning he would step off into the Mirabad Valley as part of a visible presence on the ground, with the task of disturbing enemy movements until late afternoon. He covered 10 to 15 kilometres a day, humping a weighty pack of gear and guns. They met local leaders, planned public projects and investigated intelligence tips. 

The work felt important. Rewarding. Halfway through his tour he went on leave to London, and while he was gone two good friends in Sappers Jacob Moerland and Darren Smith were killed by an IED blast. He had four months left to serve, four months that became the bloodiest patch of the entire war. 

"In three months we lost more men than in the past nine years. By that stage I'd had 10 mates sent home injured from IED explosions," he says. "Any innocence that was left, was no longer. That long stare they so often talk about had become a reality." 

Williams was deeply shaken during one short period he still finds hard to discuss. Day one, a friend was injured in an IED blast. Day two, he spent a sleepless evening in his swag listening to explosions as his position was rocketed throughout the night. Day three, insurgents sneaked up on his camp in a cornfield. None of the events was deadly but the cumulative effect knocked his psyche off balance. 

"I went from gung-ho to scared shitless to back to normal in three days, but it changed things,The term 'bondcleaningsydney control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag." he says. His attitude shifted. "The fight for survival takes over everything. The compassion starts to slip. Trust between you and the people you're supposed to help fades away." 

"I don't know whether it's an army thing or a bloke thing, but you just want to finish the job. There were times when things got tough and you wanted to get out, but you reeled it back in - you wanted to make it safer for the next blokes. Surprisingly, you're not looking forward to home." 

The testing moments in Kyle Tyrrell's tour of duty came thick and fast. His unit was hit regularly by rockets from Sadir City about 13 kilometres away, one attack resulting in serious injury to a corporal under his command. They had a skirmish with a group of bodyguards for the Iraqi ministry of oil: "We weren't to know who they were, and they conducted themselves like insurgents, so we ended up having contact with them and killing them." 

Tyrrell had only been there six weeks when a soldier under his command, Private Jacob Kovco, died in a barracks accident with his Browning nine-millimetre pistol. There was an investigation, board of inquiry, media attention, political pressure. 

"Then there was the pressure of the ongoing work. One hundred and seventy missions into the red zone," he says, meaning high-tempo, high-risk, five-hour drives to remote areas, with charred vehicles on the road and Apache helicopters keeping watch."One thing layered on top of another. And I had no one to discuss it with. My only chances were those occasions when a psych would fly in, and even then I didn't feel like discussing it." 

"We are shocked and on edge at first, but pretty soon a mortar being fired and going off 150 metres from you has been so regular that it's almost familiar. It's not a macho thing. You just become acclimatised, at least on the surface. Maybe not in the subconscious," he says. "The thing about humans is that we find a new normal." 

After his service was complete, after the handover, after the new troops understood the quirks of their mission on the ground, Tom Williams took to the air, boarding a flight to the United Arab Emirates for five days of cleaning his gear for customs, followed by a psych interview and a medical test. All the necessary measures were performed, but the end process felt pro forma and perfunctory."Sign this. Here's your plaque. Thanks for being another number," Williams says. "Within a week you're back in Australia. I got changed and went straight to the pub." 

The soldiers were given a week of decompression, which included a few hours in a hall each day, listening to lectures on how to deal with any injuries and what to do with their earnings.None of it sank in. Williams had earned $2500 a week while he was away, so he cleared his debts, then went on a spree. 

"We had too much money, too much built up whatever-you-want-to-call-it from being out there. We just partied and partied and partied," he says. "Sixteen grand in the first four weeks - drinking and gambling and staying in five-star hotels,You can make your own more powerful cableties. doing the luxurious things."He remembers an evening out with the boys, ascending the stairs of a nightspot and instantly tensing up over the vibrations of the bass and the throbbing volume of the crowd. 

"Next thing my back is against a wall, my head is going left and right and my fists are ready to go. I struggle in shopping centres, too, particularly the chaos in the food court. Today I can't even go to a pub, I don't feel safe." 

The soldiers who returned from Iraq with Kyle Tyrrell were from Darwin, Townsville, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and more. "And we got back and everyone went their own way," Tyrrell says. "The support structure just disintegrates."Tyrrell was sent on leave, he believes with the best intentions, "but it was the worst thing I could possibly do - sitting around doing nothing for four months." 

"You read stuff about the armed forces and love and brotherhood and " Tyrrell sighs, and pauses. "It's just true. At a base level, it's probably the most beautiful thing that you can get - you are helping another person stay alive.A quality paper cutter or paper endofleasecleaningsydney can make your company's presentation stand out."
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Safaricom takes on plastic money with mobile wallet

Telecoms service provider Safaricom Monday launched a new financial service that enables consumers to pay for goods and services using mobile money without incurring transaction charges. 

Kenyas leading mobile phone company launched what is effectively a mobile money wallet as it deepened its foray into the financial services market, aiming to take control of Kenyas transformation into a cashless economy and reap its benefits. 

Though the service Lipa Na M-Pesa is not the first mobile money wallet to be launched in the Kenyan market, its leverage on Safaricoms large customer base, a wide network of agents and massive marketing muscles puts it in a class of its own. 

Shopkeepers, kiosks, saloons and motor garage owners must register their businesses with Safaricom and get a special till number to offer the service that is seen as the mobile telecom firms reply to plastic money and other forms of cashless transactions. 

Unlike M-Pesa, which charges a commission for every transaction, the new service shifts that responsibility to the registered service providers, levying them a 1.5 per cent commission on the value of every payment made through the system.We are one of the leading manufacturers of chipcard in China 

Shoppers can, for instance, use the mobile money platform to pay for goods at the supermarket till and send the exact value of the good sold or service rendered thus eliminating the additional charges that have sustained cash as the most popular means of payment in the country. 

By fixing its commission at 1.5 per cent, Safaricom is directly attacking the credit cards market where commissions stand at between three and five per cent C making it the cheapest means of making cashless transactions in the country. 

Traders currently pay between three and five per cent for credit card transactions but Lipa na M-pesa will charge only 1.5 per cent commission, so we will be competing with cash payments and credit cards, said Bob Collymore, the Safaricom chief executive. 

Mr Collymore said that although many M-Pesa customers have been able to use it to pay for goods and services it has come at a price because most service providers have forced their customers to include the withdrawal fees in the payment. 

M-Pesa was launched to facilitate the transfer of money from person to person but over the years it has evolved and we now want to mainstream it as a person to business payment solution before ultimately offering business to business solutions, said Mr Collymore. 

With Lipa Na M-Pesa, our customers now do not have to include the withdrawal charges while making payments, he said.The plasticcard is not only critical to professional photographers. 

Traders will use copies of their PIN certificates, Identification Card and trading license to get a till number that customers will use to pay for goods and services. 

To use the Lipa na M-Pesa service, customers will go to the M-Pesa menu and select payments services, buy goods, then enter the till number displayed by the traders and follow the subsequent prompts to complete the transactions. 

Photographer Brownie Harris was having a moment. It was 2010, the early days of Hearts Apart, a Wilmington-based national nonprofit that photographs military families before deployment. Harris was shooting photographs of an Army special operations soldier along with his wife and their two children. 

The images arent just ordinary say cheese photos. Harris likes to get families involved in the creative process, and asks them to bring changes of clothing to shoot compelling military shots as well as casual family photos with the aim of capturing what it means to go to war and leave your loved ones behind. 

Many families have never experienced a photography shoot like what we do, says Harris, whose prominent photography career started in New York in the 1970s. There he established the photo department for the citys flagship PBS station, and shot celebrities for shows by Bill Moyers and Dick Cavett.We rounded up 30 bridesmaids dresses in every color and style that are both easy on the eye and somewhat easy on the cleaningservicesydney. Its easy to take a likeness, but its harder to capture the spirit and character of a person,The term 'bondcleaningsydney control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. Harris says. 

Like Jennifer, the Army wife who blew up Harriss photos of her husband into life-sized images and placed them in her childrens bedrooms after her husband Dave was deployed. After her familys photo session, Jennifer was overwhelmed by its effect on her family. 

Having such amazing photographs of Dave allows our children to go to bed and wake up each day seeing their daddys smile, she wrote in an email. A simple thank you seems to barely scratch the surface on how this experience touched our lives.We rounded up 30 bridesmaids dresses in every color and style that are both easy on the eye and somewhat easy on the cleaningservicesydney. 

Hearts Apart is having an even deeper impact with its photographs of newborns for the deployed father who cant experience the birth. One of the first newborn shoots Harris did was for a mother who gave birth on a Friday and came in to be photographed on a Monday. 

Shooting a three-day-old baby was something in itself, Harris says. But then, while shooting, the wife Skyped her husband in Afghanistan, who hadnt seen the baby yet or any photos. 

I held up my LCD viewfinder to the Skype camera so he could see his baby girl, says Harris. Then I looked at the Skype screen and he was crying. 

Connecting soldiers and their families is why Hearts Apart is so important, Harris says. Its something so simple. 

Back in the studio, Harris was on a roll. At the five-hour mark, the shoot had already gone longer than any other he had done. Harris captured poses of the soldier in full camouflage, the family in University of Texas outfits, and the wife with a rifle with her back to her husband in full gear, in a James Bond pose.
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JCB announces three new backhoes

English equipment manufacturer JCB invited us over the pond earlier this month for a look at a wide range of new and refreshed machines. Heres a rundown of the models relevant to the North American market. 

For the rental market or budget-conscious contractors, JCB now offers what it calls a low-spec 3CX backhoe with a 14-foot dig depth. This comes with a standard open cab, synchroshuttle manual transmission, manual levers and a 74 horsepower, Tier 4 Final Ecomax engine. 

A triple-gear hydraulic pump allows the operator to drop the engine speed but still maintain high hydraulic flow rates for demanding applications. The cab is designed with a reinforced C-pillar, which eliminates the sightline restrictions of a A- or B-pillar while still meeting ROPS/FOPS requirements. If you like, you can spec the 3CX with a fully glazed cab option, extended dipper stick and factory installed theft protection devices. 

The next two steps up bring additional horsepower and options with backhoes JCB calls Supers.The plasticcard is not only critical to professional photographers. The 3CX Super offers a 91- or a 109-horsepower Tier 4 Interim Ecomax engine, a standard powershift transmission and new 44-gallon-per-minute variable-flow hydraulic pump. The 4CX Super comes with the 109-horsepower engine and also the 44 gpm pump. The Supers can also be speced with a 14, 15 or 17 foot dig depth options. 

JCB has also offered a range of options when it comes to its backhoe controls. You can spec any of the three new models with what the company calls its classic controls or mechanical/wobble stick style. 

But the 3CX Super and 4CX Super have two additional options.We rounded up 30 bridesmaids dresses in every color and style that are both easy on the eye and somewhat easy on the cleaningservicesydney. With the JCB Easycontrol system, the excavator end is controlled via two seat-mounted joysticks with the same feel and functionality as the classic controls but with the benefit of being servo-activated, giving them lower lever effort and shorter throws. You can also spec the Supers with the new JCB Advanced Easycontrol, which has the same excavator end controls but also incorporates the servo-controlled loader controls into the right-hand seat arm. The full servo controls use a open-center, variable flow pump which pushes out hydraulic oil on-demand only and hence saves fuel. 

The new Ecomax engines boost low-end torque and fuel efficiency over their Tier 3 predecessors. They also achieve emissions goals without the need for a diesel particulate filtera point of pride for the company,We rounded up 30 bridesmaids dresses in every color and style that are both easy on the eye and somewhat easy on the cleaningservicesydney.We are one of the leading manufacturers of chipcard in China which sees the DPF as an unnecessarily expensive operational and maintenance issue for contractors.

Although it will be officially introduced in September, we got a sneak peak at the new JCB 417 wheel loader at the June press conference. It replaces the 416 model. The 417, along with the revised 411 model get a new cab with a full color LCD monitor and a single piece hood for ground level service access and improved rear visibility. 

The horsepower on the 417 drops to 125, from the 131 horsepower of its predecessor, but a variable geometry turbocharger on the new Ecomax Tier 4 Interim engine better matches the air and fuel mixtures to a wider range of rpms resulting in more torque, especially at lower engine speeds, and nine percent better fuel efficiency. A transmission disconnect feature built into the service brake and a viscous coupled, on-demand engine cooling fan also promote fuel efficiency. The 411 comes with a 91-horsepower Ecomax engine. And again, theres no DPF to concern yourself with on these machines. 

JCB increased the size of the cab on the 417 by inserting a driveshaft between the engine and transmission. The cab is essentially the same size as the bigger 427, 437, 457 and 467 models. Better sealing of the cab and other design enhancements have dropped the sound levels to no more than 70 decibels, and climate control is offered as an option. The new joystick is servo controlled and has electro-hydraulic proportional controls, activated by a roller switch for the auxiliary circuits. The rollers tie into constant flow hydraulics which can change the speed of your attachments (i.e. a sweeper broom) on the fly. 

On the business end, the HT or high torque loader arm uses parallel lift geometry giving you unobstructed visibility through the middle of the arms to the attachments and pickup points compared to a Z-bar configuration. It also gives you constant torque throughout the bucket dumping angle. 

Operating weights have been increased slightly. The 417 weighs 21,100 pounds and the 411 comes in at 18,000 pounds. The 416 came with standard and super high lift arm options. The 417 will offer a high lift configuration between those two, with a pin height of 12.5 feet and a dump height of 9.6 feet when equipped with a 2.1 cubic yard bucket. The 411 is offered in the standard and super high lift configurations.The term 'bondcleaningsydney control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. 

The company also showed us its new 467 wheel loader, which is a new size class for JCB, and more suited for aggregates and quarry applications. But it only comes at present with a Tier 3 engine, which means it cant be sold into countries adhering to Tier 4 diesel emissions regulations. Its a brand new, clean-sheet-of-paper design with a 7.6 ton payload and a Z-bar loader linkage. Company officials say the 467 will get a Tier 4 Interim engine next year, but couldnt be specific on dates. 

JCBs big reveal for the June press conference was a brand new engine and the companys first six cylinder engine, the Dieselmax 672. Alas, its only a Tier 2 model and will only be sold in to countries that share our super stringent diesel emissions regulations. This essentially means China, Russia and Africa. 

The Dieselmax 672 comes with electronic control, Delphi common rail fuel injection and fixed geometry turbocharging. The 7.2 liter engine offers horsepower ratings of 188, 221, and 225 with a maximum output of 302 horsepower. Maximum torque tops the charts at 885 foot-pounds. The engines boast a 500-hour service interval and will be built in the companys Derbyshire, England factory. 
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2013年6月20日 星期四

Carper celebrate passage of Farm Bill

Magee recently installed irrigation under the plastic at her Lewes strawberry field. She said Farm Bill funding could help other farmers install irrigation, which is necessary for many Delaware farmers to thrive in the hot, sandy, summer climate.

Sen. Tom Carper celebrated the passage of the bill, which was delayed last year after the U.S. House failed to approve the measure.

Carper said he is optimistic that the House will pass the Farm Bill this year. The Farm Bill is set to expire Sept. 30 and Congress will need to figure out a way to extend the current bill if the new legislation doesnt pass the House, said Katie Wilson of Carper's office.

"The bill cuts wasteful spending, cracks down on fraud, boosts agricultural job programs and improves conservation and our environment," Carper said. "This bill includes specific provisions that I was proud to sponsor to help a wide variety of folks in Delaware, from poultry growers on Delmarva to conservationists who work to protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed."

Poultry farmers will ultimately be helped by the bill because it will make research into improving chicken feed a priority. Improved feed will help reduce pollution from chicken houses to the Chesapeake Bay and other watersheds, Carper said. It also includes funding to study the possibility of a crop insurance program for poultry growers.

During a recent visit to Magee Farms, Sen. Carper said the Farm Bill makes smaller fruit and vegetable growers eligible for crop insurance, which was not funded in the past.

Last year, cherry growers in Michigan lost entire crops due to the weather, but they had no recourse because under the old bill, fruit and vegetable growers were not covered, said a spokeswoman for Carper's office.He saw the bracelet at a cleaningservicesydney store while we were on a trip. This new farm bill, if signed into law, will protect those types of growers.

Commodity farmers growing corn and soybeans can use new crop insurance programs that stem waste and provide subsidies that will replace blanket payouts under the old direct-payment program, Carper said.

Under existing regulations, farmers can insure 75 percent of their crops. If passed by Congress, the Farm Bill could increase that number to 85 percent.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, "Rural America has been too long without a comprehensive, multiyear Food, Farm and Jobs Bill. Passage of this legislation by the Senate is a promising development and an important one for rural communities and families.You can make your own more powerful iphoneheadset."

I have always thought of ways to prevent piracy in the theatres to help the film industry overcome this perpetual problem, he says. One of the most widespread forms of video piracy are taping the on-screen projection of a movie in a cinema theatre. We can easily prevent the camera recording in the theatre with the use of a microwave transmitter that prevents the capturing of images with any form of camera or camcorder. Even if the movie is recorded, it appears only as a series of dark images, more precisely, a dark screen. This device can be installed behind the theatre screens so as to prevent piracy at the first level.We printers print with traceable cleaningsydney to optimize supply chain management.

The second level of piracy is the release of films abroad in DVD format, which is then used to print multiple copies. This can be prevented by a Piracy Prevention Disc (PPD). Unlike the conventional disc that we are familiar with, this looks like a small plastic box which has a flash memory with an in-built audio/video drive.

This PPD runs without a DVD player and can be directly connected to the television, but it can only be played with a TV, and not computers. Even if an AV connector is used to play the video, the picture quality would be very poor and cannot be viewed properly, he adds.

The device includes a Micro controller-based Auto Dialling Device (MCAD) that consists of a GSM-based mobile controller and voice identification unit.The term 'bondcleaningsydney control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. The MCAD, which ought to be installed by school authorities, shall carry information about each student, residential address and the approximate time it takes for each student to reach the school from their respective homes. A bar-coded identity card and a wrist-belt or a waist belt should be given to the children, a belt that carries a micro-level interruption sensing system and a Global PositIn February 2009 she was finally able to return home but Jessica made the mistake of having another drink.

She says: I felt so much better and thought Id be fine. I only had a couple of cans but it put me back into a coma again.

This time things were much more serious and the medics at Manchester told Jessicas parents that just one more drink couldve killed her. She says: I was in hospital for around nine months the second time and even missed my 21st birthday. When I went for a scan at Manchester they said Youll be lucky if you make it.

When they told me I could die I just wanted to give up and thought whats the point?

It was only her parents love and support that got her through those dark days. My mum and dad came to sit by my bedside. I had lost about four stone and my dad said I looked like a skeleton. I had fluid on my left lung and pneumonia. But when my dad came, he told me to fight.

She spent months in hospital and had a stent fitted to her pancreas as only the head and tail of the organ remained. She even had to learn to walk and eat again.Large collection of quality cleanersydney at discounted prices.

These days Jessica vows she will never drink again after the hell she went through in hospital: Ive been told if I touch another drop of alcohol my pancreas will be gone.ioning System modem. Then all that is needed at home is a mobile phone, landline and an alarm device.

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Jewel tones

Two months back, just before Livyora , an online British brand for fine jewellery, was launched formally at the British high commissioners residence in Delhi, Shefaly Yogendra, its founding chief operating officer, sat at the recently redone Oxford Book Store in Connaught Place, discussing the challenges of selling precious jewellery online. Especially in India, as the website does not yet offer the option of cash payment (the most preferred way for Indians to buy jewellery).

Would a primarily made in India design strategy (so whats new, you wonder) be enough to seduce a global clientele? Yogendra, however, was optimistic, arguing that saving shopping time in malls and retail outlets is becoming more important for sophisticated customers across the globe. She herself began shopping online in 1997, and never buys from stores now.

Livyora jewellery, made in 18-carat gold and hardened with palladium, uses high-clarity diamonds and is created in the UK, Mumbai and Bikaner. A hallmark certificate, accompanied by one that verifies the component metals and stones, comes with each purchase. The brand, says Yogendra, attempts designs that transcend cultures. Besides Yogendra, who leads product design and strategy, the other two co-founders are Chirdeep Chhabra, a business technology professional, and Tarudeep Vaid, a gemologistthey speak 10 languages between them. Here Yogendra tells us why stone-studded jewellery has a growing market globally despite the rise in gold prices. Edited excerpts.

One of our co-founders, Tarudeep Vaid, is a senior gemologist and jeweller who brings a solid understanding of the supply chain. Indias jewellery market is valued at an estimated Rs.1.2 trillion by various sources,Large collection of quality cleanersydney at discounted prices. including PricewaterhouseCoopers, India. Only 5% of this market is branded or organized. There is, therefore, a fabulous opportunity to create a new fine jewellery brand. As for the online aspects, India is well ahead on e-commerce in certain categories, such as travel, and is gaining confidence buying other goods online too. We see the emergence of several unique payment and selling models in India,The term 'endofleasecleaningsydney control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. not seen in other markets. As an increasingly sophisticated Indian consumer of fine products and design emerges, we decided it was time to bring in Livyora.

The Overture collection launched in India was inspired by Mughal architecture and art so it may appear that the aesthetic is Indian. However, Mughal architecture contains elements of Persian and Turkish aesthetic, which is not a stranger to non-Indian audiences. In fact, the Web being borderless, we are encouraged by the keen interest in the Overture collection expressed by persons, not of Indian origin, from London and New York. Our ideal buyer is a woman who is at home in many cultures, roles and situations. Her directional Livyora jewellery serves her wishes, rather than constraining her to specific roles or situations. In terms of socio-economics, we would say she is SEC A1/ A2 (the top two consumer segment classifications).

Our design ethos is our unique selling proposition. We aim to create directional capsule collections that transcend cultures. Our target customers in India have found our pricing competitive and the finish and quality of the products nonpareil. Large spending on purchasing goods online is still new to Indian customers, so we are holding private viewings where they can see the product, meet us, place orders and start building a relationship with us.

We focus on the adornment and bequest aspects of jewellery. These are discretionary purchases for our target customer. She does, of course, make investment in gold but delicate,Bringing iccard mainstream. designer jewellery is not for her gold investment. We understand and empathize with the Indian customer, who sees gold as an investment and whose decisions are influenced by gold price fluctuations and the uncertainty. However, gold jewellery contains gold mixed with strengthening metals; especially that studded with precious stones is not something that can be easily converted to liquid cash. When such jewellery is converted to cash, a large per cent of the growth in value, sometimes up to 25%, may be lost to what Indian jewellers delicately call wastage. Gold bullion is definitely smart investment but the widely-held belief that studded gold jewellery is an ideal way to hold gold investment needs to be thought about more critically.

We are a British company working to British standards of governance, transparency and compliance. In India, consumer preferences regarding paying for purchases of gold or jewellery may sometimes be at odds with what the Indian government requires companies to do for transparency and governance.Best home plasticcard at discount prices. This conflict makes it harder to do business in India with the mass market.
Luckily our target audience is the woman, who neither needs permission nor must give an explanation for her jewellery purchases. Typically, our customers are professionals, whose incomes are fully accounted for and who prefer to write cheques, make bank transfers, or pay by a debit or credit card. Cash customers willing to identify themselves and provide a bona-fide address are no different. In India, this is a substantial market opportunity.

Click on their website www.parkeasy-pgs.com for more information.He saw the bracelet at a cleaningservicesydney store while we were on a trip.