Just in time for Ludington Library’s one year anniversary of its reopening, I found another hero, and this time he is a Republican: former Haverford Commissioner Charlie Bloom, Esq., who heads up the Lower Merion Library Foundation, raising private funds so that all six of the township libraries can be renovated and/or enlarged, just like Ludington and Bala Cynwyd.
Last week, I met Bloom and Margery Hall, head librarian, at Ludington Library and I felt like Alice in Wonderland. Just like falling down the rabbit hole and landing in a strange new world. That’s how different the Ludington Library is from the place I remembered, thanks to Vitetta Architects.
It starts with what is now the entrance from the parking lot. Instead of stairs, there is a ramp made of flagstone, inside the building, and the space created by the sloping entrance is called “The Gallery.” Paintings hang along one wall, and sculpture and ceramics are behind glass on the opposite wall. The featured artists are from the Center for Creative Works in Lower Merion.
Bloom donates so much of his time and talent that he and his committee have already raised more than half the private funds that he was charged to raise. That means $2.6 million in donations, and only $2.4 million to go. The township is supposed to be paying for the oil painting reproduction, which will total $28 million for all six libraries.
Hall said the crowds were so thick at the grand re-opening of Ludington that the electronic counters lost track. She figures more than 4,000 people came that day. The daily count since then is about 1,000 people.
When you enter the library, the first thing you see is New Books. And Hall showed me the Playaway section - that’s like a book on tape, except it is a small self-contained unit, with headphones. You can “read” the book while exercising, walking, any place any time.
There are Kindle downloads as well as ones for Nooks and the Sony Reader and iPads and any other electronic device you can name. And you can check your books out yourself on the electronic card reader, located just below the portraits of Charles and Ethel Ludington. Charles endowed the small existing library in the 1920s in memory of his wife Ethel. Their descendants, Nick Ludington and Ms. Fytie Drayton, are still around and have participated in the capital campaign. The original portrait of Ethel is by Cecilia Beaux, and that’s in a museum in New England. But Ms. Drayton donated an impressive and beautifully framed print of the original portrait.
There is a community room that is free to all organizations, and it is equipped with any audio-visual gadget you could want. Just beyond the community room is the original library with its beautiful dark walnut paneling. The handsome large oil painting of Independence Hall by Walter Biggs was donated by the Curtis Publishing Company in memory of Charles Ludington, who was an executive with the company.
Hall pointed out that the library had taken pointers from bookstores, and there are sections marked with large signs: gardening, travel, cooking, home improvement, etc.
Bloom is especially proud of the Teen Room, and Hall showed me the shelves of graphic novels. I spotted a table with built-in chess/checkers/backgammon board. Edie Dixon, widow of F Eugene Dixon, endowed the Teen Room in memory of her mother, Sarah Robb, who had served as president of the library’s board of trustees. The Teen Room is for those 12 to 18, and Bloom said that every library is destined to have one.
Bloom was delighted to point out a treasure which not too many libraries have: a complete set of Fortune magazines, courtesy of Stanley Ginsburg, who donated the collection and $25,000 for the shelves to hold them.
When a professor read about the donation, he showed up and was ecstatic. Seems for ten years he had been searching for an August 1946 copy of Fortune, and even the magazine headquarters did not own a copy. He needed it for his research, and he found it at Ludington.
The plaque in the newspaper and periodicals section lets you know that Julie Jensen Brysen donated in memory of her father, the physician James A. Jensen. John Bogle endowed the Business Section.
Upstairs you can see how the addition has doubled the Children’s Library. It now can be divided into two sections, according to age. I loved the C.A.T.T. sign on the wall. Hall explained it stands for “cars, airplanes, trucks and trains.” So any little kid interested in those four topics knows exactly where to go. The beautiful huge phonographs on the wall are the work of Hall’s niece, Jennifer Anist. The mural in the Children’s Room was created during the last renovation and was preserved and re-mounted and forms the backdrop for Story Time.
When oil and pastel painter Sara Qualey attended the John Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, Indiana in the 1960s, abstract art was in. But she didn’t see the world that way. When she saw a peach, she wanted to smell it, touch it, taste it, not throw it against the canvass and watch it go splat. For a time, however, she thought maybe she was lacking in some way. Luckily, she got over it. At 63 going on 64 years old, Qualey’s on a roll. Nothing can stop this woman from being who she is: an intensely concentrated, representational painter who eulogizes tin cans, light bulbs, extension cords, flowers, fruit, or anything that otherwise might end up in the trash or the compost heap.
Read the full products at http://artsunlight.com/!
2013年8月26日星期一
2013年8月19日星期一
Airy abstractions alight this summer
As Gary Lichtenstein took in his fill of the artwork around him in the studio of New York City artist Charles Hinman, he said his gaze settled on a series of watercolor images."I took a look at these works, which had been done many years ago, and I thought, those are really nice," he said of the airy abstract images that were reminiscent of kites.
Lichtenstein, a master printer and artist based in Ridgefield, has collaborated with many artists. He and Hinman first started working together in 2011.As the artist and printer looked a bit more deeply at Hinman's work, a creative concept began to take flight -- their next collaboration would be inspired by these images.
"He never lets any piece go out of the studio without a title," Lichtenstein said of Hinman. "So, he said, `Let's call these kites.' "After months of work, the project has landed at the Silvermine Arts Center in New Canaan. "Kites," which features multiple silkscreen prints, is the second major collaboration between Hinman, a painter who is considered a pioneer in the art of sculpted, three-dimensional canvases, and Lichtenstein. Their first project, "Gems," came out in 2011. As with that exhibition, the two worked to employ color and subtle hand embossments to ensure that the suite of prints would maintain the dynamism of Hinman's sculpted canvases.
"It certainly was not the norm," Hinman said of his practice of repurposing the traditional canvas into a sculptural form, by stretching the canvas over multiple frames, creating contours and employing color for sculptural effect. "I like to make work that is a new experience for me and for others."It is a philosophy he has employed since he first made a splash in the early 1960s when he was in his 30s. At 80, he said he continues to look for new ways to create and express himself.
"He happens to be one of the most inventive individuals I know," said Lichtenstein of Hinman.The duo's collaboration appears to foster respect, breed creativity and spur innovation. Both cite the other's knowledge of color as a crucial connection.
"We love discussing color," said Lichtenstein. "It's fascinating because I love drawing out of an artist colors that they really do love ... I get a lot of enjoyment in the interplay."Lichtenstein can draw on his own experience as an abstract painter who has attracted critical praise for the way he layers multiple colors.
Lichtenstein grew up near Waterbury, but has spent much of his 35-year artistic career in California. In 1978, he opened a printmaking studio, SOMA Fine Art Press, which became a hub of artistic collaborations. About 12 years ago, he returned east and has since worked out of his home studio in Ridgefield.
When he works with Hinman, whether in Ridgefield or New York City, Lichtenstein said it is a fluid experience, as Hinman is open to new ideas and ways of expressing his art."After we've made a few prints ... we'll ask ourselves what if we did this or oil painting reproduction," Hinman said. "Much can arise through experiment. Sometimes, we don't know ourselves where we are headed."
A similar quandary awaits visitors to another of the center's galleries, where works from members of the guild are featured in "Where are We (going)?," Silvermine's second summer exhibition. It also will close Sept. 7.New York City artist Emily Cheng curated the exhibition, using the work of guild members as her starting point. After going over hundreds of images, she settled on Easton artist Susan Sharp's abstract painting "Where are We?" and then got to work finding threads that would tie together multiple artists and media.
"I also was taking into consideration that Charles Hinman would be in the next gallery, so I wanted a show that could be different, but compatible," she said. "I wanted it to feel like a continuation or elaboration of a thought."Sharp's piece is abstract, constructed with multiple panels. It was spurred by a photograph in a magazine, an interplay of shadows and water, that Sharp turned on its side. Suddenly, she was inspired.
"I began to pour layers of paint," Sharp said, of the process that begins all of her works. As shapes formed and colors intersected, a landscape formed, albeit one without the concrete shapes and point of perspective of a more traditional scene."I enjoy this sense of disorientation," Sharp said. "It probes this question of where are we ... and further, where am I and where am I in my life.
"For me, what makes this painting exciting is that you can have different interpretations," she said. "You are not able to nail it down."The exhibition features photographs, prints and paintings. As for the theme, Cheng said "Where are We (going)?" is less a statement about the content of the work and more about the state of mind brought on by viewing it -- it's about what you might find when you peer around the corner.
Read the full products at http://www.artsunlight.com/!
Lichtenstein, a master printer and artist based in Ridgefield, has collaborated with many artists. He and Hinman first started working together in 2011.As the artist and printer looked a bit more deeply at Hinman's work, a creative concept began to take flight -- their next collaboration would be inspired by these images.
"He never lets any piece go out of the studio without a title," Lichtenstein said of Hinman. "So, he said, `Let's call these kites.' "After months of work, the project has landed at the Silvermine Arts Center in New Canaan. "Kites," which features multiple silkscreen prints, is the second major collaboration between Hinman, a painter who is considered a pioneer in the art of sculpted, three-dimensional canvases, and Lichtenstein. Their first project, "Gems," came out in 2011. As with that exhibition, the two worked to employ color and subtle hand embossments to ensure that the suite of prints would maintain the dynamism of Hinman's sculpted canvases.
"It certainly was not the norm," Hinman said of his practice of repurposing the traditional canvas into a sculptural form, by stretching the canvas over multiple frames, creating contours and employing color for sculptural effect. "I like to make work that is a new experience for me and for others."It is a philosophy he has employed since he first made a splash in the early 1960s when he was in his 30s. At 80, he said he continues to look for new ways to create and express himself.
"He happens to be one of the most inventive individuals I know," said Lichtenstein of Hinman.The duo's collaboration appears to foster respect, breed creativity and spur innovation. Both cite the other's knowledge of color as a crucial connection.
"We love discussing color," said Lichtenstein. "It's fascinating because I love drawing out of an artist colors that they really do love ... I get a lot of enjoyment in the interplay."Lichtenstein can draw on his own experience as an abstract painter who has attracted critical praise for the way he layers multiple colors.
Lichtenstein grew up near Waterbury, but has spent much of his 35-year artistic career in California. In 1978, he opened a printmaking studio, SOMA Fine Art Press, which became a hub of artistic collaborations. About 12 years ago, he returned east and has since worked out of his home studio in Ridgefield.
When he works with Hinman, whether in Ridgefield or New York City, Lichtenstein said it is a fluid experience, as Hinman is open to new ideas and ways of expressing his art."After we've made a few prints ... we'll ask ourselves what if we did this or oil painting reproduction," Hinman said. "Much can arise through experiment. Sometimes, we don't know ourselves where we are headed."
A similar quandary awaits visitors to another of the center's galleries, where works from members of the guild are featured in "Where are We (going)?," Silvermine's second summer exhibition. It also will close Sept. 7.New York City artist Emily Cheng curated the exhibition, using the work of guild members as her starting point. After going over hundreds of images, she settled on Easton artist Susan Sharp's abstract painting "Where are We?" and then got to work finding threads that would tie together multiple artists and media.
"I also was taking into consideration that Charles Hinman would be in the next gallery, so I wanted a show that could be different, but compatible," she said. "I wanted it to feel like a continuation or elaboration of a thought."Sharp's piece is abstract, constructed with multiple panels. It was spurred by a photograph in a magazine, an interplay of shadows and water, that Sharp turned on its side. Suddenly, she was inspired.
"I began to pour layers of paint," Sharp said, of the process that begins all of her works. As shapes formed and colors intersected, a landscape formed, albeit one without the concrete shapes and point of perspective of a more traditional scene."I enjoy this sense of disorientation," Sharp said. "It probes this question of where are we ... and further, where am I and where am I in my life.
"For me, what makes this painting exciting is that you can have different interpretations," she said. "You are not able to nail it down."The exhibition features photographs, prints and paintings. As for the theme, Cheng said "Where are We (going)?" is less a statement about the content of the work and more about the state of mind brought on by viewing it -- it's about what you might find when you peer around the corner.
Read the full products at http://www.artsunlight.com/!
Change is in the air
It's the sky. In Myanmar, it dominates the horizon and dwarfs you, whether you are passing through the green fields or on the Irrawaddy. And it's a watercolour. It can never be an oil painting. The luminescence of the light will not allow it to be. From the airplane window, Myanmar is spread out like a Kashmiri carpet, all the pastel hues, an orderly pattern of beiges and greens. The sky is big even in Yangon, a city that feels like Rangoon, but not for long.A hotel room under $100 a night in Yangon is a steal. Rents in Yangon are “more expensive than Manhattan,'' says a diplomat. In Golden Valley in Bahan township, a leafy, posh diplomatic area, even the UN has moved out. “It is all the oil money,'' says an embassy official. An expat family recently moved out when their landlord upped their rent to $10,000 a month.
“Traffic jams,'' says Rajeev Rawal, associate director at Dr Reddy's Laboratories in Myanmar, when asked what has changed in the country. “Four years ago, you never had any.” When the Rawals moved in, the junta was in control. “The army could come and check your house at midnight,'' he says. Mentioning anything political was risky.This seems firmly the past today. The chaos of democracy may not be a reality at the moment, with the junta just playing the game, but there seems to be a freshness in the air.
At red lights in Yangon, hawkers can barely hold the newspapers they are selling. There are now more than 30 of them. Most of the newspapers are in Burmese and have been launched recently. An English daily is due to start soon.New flyovers are being built. “You pass something every day thinking one day you will return to take a picture,'' says Anne Celeste, who left Paris for Myanmar, 12 years ago, after a trip to Bagan, the land of the thousand pagodas. “Then, it disappears. Yangon is changing so fast,” she says.
But, it still retains some from the old. The two worlds have not collided as yet. It is chaotic, yet peaceful. Surprising, yet predictable. There are five-star hotels. Even dance bars. But, the image of a monk in deep maroon, walking with an umbrella, oil painting reproduction. That picture, which has come to symbolise the country, the colonial stereotype, is common enough. Women and men with their face covered with a thick paste of tanakha [a cosmetic preparation] still amble along the streets that are lined with hoardings advertising face-creams. Men still wear longyis. Chai stalls dot every street corner. It looks as if time has stood still.
“It is like the India of the 1950s,'' says Anil Vishwakarma, project director of Essar, which handles several projects in Myanmar. There are malls, but they have not really become a way of life. A holiday is still a time for people to stroll down the lake, holding hands. Children play on jungle gyms. Couples armed with huge umbrellas sit with their back to the world, hiding behind the span of the brollies. But that is only half the picture. There is also the skyscraper that is coming up next to Inle Lake hotel, a condominium with a coffee shop. Another shop sells cappuccino and wine, right next to a stall of Aung San Suu Kyi merchandise.
Air traffic is busy, with Myanmar all set to be the next hot destination. The golden triangle of Bagan, Mandalay and Yangon is connected by four flights a day. As one taxi driver puts it, “Myanmar is booming.”Pansodan Gallery, hidden behind a flyover and up a dingy staircase, is reflective of this change. Piled up with old posters, pictures and paintings, the gallery is a treasure trove for those looking for something beautiful from the past or wanting to invest in bolder strokes of new artists. “This was the first window for artists,'' says Aung Soe Min, the owner. “Now, they get paid better than actors.”
Myanmar isn't simple. It is superstitious. Former dictator Gen. Ne Win shot his reflection in the mirror as an astrologer had predicted that he would be shot. International roaming may still not be available—though in Yangon in some places there was signal—yet at a simple restaurant, the waitress will take your order on a tablet.
The junta can willingly 'relinquish' power to start a democracy. The military has donned the civvies and is on the road to democracy. But, “There is not one official in the director level who is an ethnic. Chief ministers of every state are ex-military,'' says a diplomat. Myanmar has a secret police, one of the most efficient in the world. George Orwell apparently got the idea of 1984 from his stint in the country. Yet, trust is something that is handed out like candy. You can leave your bag with jewellery somewhere, even in a taxi, and will get it back.
Identities are complicated in Myanmar. Your family can have lived here for generations, yet you can be identified as Indian on your national ID. “The whole national movement was against the British,'' says Harn Yawnghwe, executive director of Euro Burma Office. “We don't want any foreigners. This feeling carried on with south Asians and even Indians, who came with the British and stayed on. These elements have not been dealt with. We need to revisit history,” he says.
Yawnghwe is back after 48 years in exile, to help cobble together a peace settlement with the armed ethnic groups. His father, Sao Shwe Thaik, the first president of Burma, died in prison. His brother was shot dead by the army in the coup by Ne Win. There are many such stories of suffering.But in Myanmar, you don't speak of suffering.
Than Win Htut, the planning editor of the Democratic Voice of Burma, too, is back, to start a television talk-show, the first of its kind in Myanmar. There is heated discussion about the format. “We interviewed this couple in which one partner was Buddhist and the other Muslim,'' he says. “I suddenly got a call from a Buddhist monk who told me I was a sympathiser.” These issues still simmer. And will determine the country's future. “My friends have told me to be careful. This whole thing may still be an act by the government. This is new for us. Earlier, we were not allowed to interview officials. Now we can,” says Htut.
The feeling that change may not be everlasting, at least when it comes to politics, comes up in conversations. Do not bring up politics on your own, is what the guide book tells you. But, in Myanmar, politics is like the rain, it is a constant companion. “The government has lied to us for years. They may be lying again,'' says Zarni Mann, a reporter at The Irrawaddy Magazine, who lived in Delhi for seven years.
Democracy may not change the fortunes of the country, but economics will. The biggest challenge for the country will be capacity building. “Money is not a problem. It is flowing into the country like the Irrawaddy,'' says an Indian diplomat. Post-1964, all the teaching in schools was done in Burmese.
Convent schools were shut and foreign teachers were asked to leave. “It is a fairly literate country. But, English is a problem, even for engineers and doctors,'' says a diplomat.
Every city has a story, the kind that defines it. In Bombay, it would be a rags-to-riches story. Delhi has its share of crazy drivers. Or the loud Punjabis who insist that you come for a meal to their house without ever specifying the date. But in Yangon, it will be probably be about generosity. It is the kind of city where you can go into a restaurant, order a soup, get it spectacularly wrong, and not get charged for it. Not because you asked. But the waiter noticed you had not touched it.
Read the full products at http://www.artsunlight.com/!
“Traffic jams,'' says Rajeev Rawal, associate director at Dr Reddy's Laboratories in Myanmar, when asked what has changed in the country. “Four years ago, you never had any.” When the Rawals moved in, the junta was in control. “The army could come and check your house at midnight,'' he says. Mentioning anything political was risky.This seems firmly the past today. The chaos of democracy may not be a reality at the moment, with the junta just playing the game, but there seems to be a freshness in the air.
At red lights in Yangon, hawkers can barely hold the newspapers they are selling. There are now more than 30 of them. Most of the newspapers are in Burmese and have been launched recently. An English daily is due to start soon.New flyovers are being built. “You pass something every day thinking one day you will return to take a picture,'' says Anne Celeste, who left Paris for Myanmar, 12 years ago, after a trip to Bagan, the land of the thousand pagodas. “Then, it disappears. Yangon is changing so fast,” she says.
But, it still retains some from the old. The two worlds have not collided as yet. It is chaotic, yet peaceful. Surprising, yet predictable. There are five-star hotels. Even dance bars. But, the image of a monk in deep maroon, walking with an umbrella, oil painting reproduction. That picture, which has come to symbolise the country, the colonial stereotype, is common enough. Women and men with their face covered with a thick paste of tanakha [a cosmetic preparation] still amble along the streets that are lined with hoardings advertising face-creams. Men still wear longyis. Chai stalls dot every street corner. It looks as if time has stood still.
“It is like the India of the 1950s,'' says Anil Vishwakarma, project director of Essar, which handles several projects in Myanmar. There are malls, but they have not really become a way of life. A holiday is still a time for people to stroll down the lake, holding hands. Children play on jungle gyms. Couples armed with huge umbrellas sit with their back to the world, hiding behind the span of the brollies. But that is only half the picture. There is also the skyscraper that is coming up next to Inle Lake hotel, a condominium with a coffee shop. Another shop sells cappuccino and wine, right next to a stall of Aung San Suu Kyi merchandise.
Air traffic is busy, with Myanmar all set to be the next hot destination. The golden triangle of Bagan, Mandalay and Yangon is connected by four flights a day. As one taxi driver puts it, “Myanmar is booming.”Pansodan Gallery, hidden behind a flyover and up a dingy staircase, is reflective of this change. Piled up with old posters, pictures and paintings, the gallery is a treasure trove for those looking for something beautiful from the past or wanting to invest in bolder strokes of new artists. “This was the first window for artists,'' says Aung Soe Min, the owner. “Now, they get paid better than actors.”
Myanmar isn't simple. It is superstitious. Former dictator Gen. Ne Win shot his reflection in the mirror as an astrologer had predicted that he would be shot. International roaming may still not be available—though in Yangon in some places there was signal—yet at a simple restaurant, the waitress will take your order on a tablet.
The junta can willingly 'relinquish' power to start a democracy. The military has donned the civvies and is on the road to democracy. But, “There is not one official in the director level who is an ethnic. Chief ministers of every state are ex-military,'' says a diplomat. Myanmar has a secret police, one of the most efficient in the world. George Orwell apparently got the idea of 1984 from his stint in the country. Yet, trust is something that is handed out like candy. You can leave your bag with jewellery somewhere, even in a taxi, and will get it back.
Identities are complicated in Myanmar. Your family can have lived here for generations, yet you can be identified as Indian on your national ID. “The whole national movement was against the British,'' says Harn Yawnghwe, executive director of Euro Burma Office. “We don't want any foreigners. This feeling carried on with south Asians and even Indians, who came with the British and stayed on. These elements have not been dealt with. We need to revisit history,” he says.
Yawnghwe is back after 48 years in exile, to help cobble together a peace settlement with the armed ethnic groups. His father, Sao Shwe Thaik, the first president of Burma, died in prison. His brother was shot dead by the army in the coup by Ne Win. There are many such stories of suffering.But in Myanmar, you don't speak of suffering.
Than Win Htut, the planning editor of the Democratic Voice of Burma, too, is back, to start a television talk-show, the first of its kind in Myanmar. There is heated discussion about the format. “We interviewed this couple in which one partner was Buddhist and the other Muslim,'' he says. “I suddenly got a call from a Buddhist monk who told me I was a sympathiser.” These issues still simmer. And will determine the country's future. “My friends have told me to be careful. This whole thing may still be an act by the government. This is new for us. Earlier, we were not allowed to interview officials. Now we can,” says Htut.
The feeling that change may not be everlasting, at least when it comes to politics, comes up in conversations. Do not bring up politics on your own, is what the guide book tells you. But, in Myanmar, politics is like the rain, it is a constant companion. “The government has lied to us for years. They may be lying again,'' says Zarni Mann, a reporter at The Irrawaddy Magazine, who lived in Delhi for seven years.
Democracy may not change the fortunes of the country, but economics will. The biggest challenge for the country will be capacity building. “Money is not a problem. It is flowing into the country like the Irrawaddy,'' says an Indian diplomat. Post-1964, all the teaching in schools was done in Burmese.
Convent schools were shut and foreign teachers were asked to leave. “It is a fairly literate country. But, English is a problem, even for engineers and doctors,'' says a diplomat.
Every city has a story, the kind that defines it. In Bombay, it would be a rags-to-riches story. Delhi has its share of crazy drivers. Or the loud Punjabis who insist that you come for a meal to their house without ever specifying the date. But in Yangon, it will be probably be about generosity. It is the kind of city where you can go into a restaurant, order a soup, get it spectacularly wrong, and not get charged for it. Not because you asked. But the waiter noticed you had not touched it.
Read the full products at http://www.artsunlight.com/!
2013年7月31日星期三
Susan Winter’s “Connecting Impressions” Opens
Winter was born on a large farm in rural Monmouth County where she had few playmates outside of her family. And yet her paintings, even her landscapes, invariably include human figures. “I suppose it is this lonely background that lends itself to the themes of most of my work; I enjoy painting people either interacting with others or in quiet reflection” she says.
Now living in Hightstown, where, since 1983, she’s part of the Art Station Studio, which she describes as “a wonderful studio setting where other artists are available for both critique and oil painting reproduction.” A certified teacher, she has taught art at the Peddie School, at Artworks in Trenton, and elsewhere throughout central New Jersey for over 35 years.
Her influences derive from Master Classes with Nelson Shanks and studies with Daniel Greene, Robert Sakson, Rhoda Yanow, Richard Pionk, Christina DeBarry, and Stephen Kennedy. One of her paintings was chosen to be included as part of the White House Collection and her painting “Ole Freehold” is owned by Bruce Springsteen
Inspired also by Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent, and, she says, awed by “their genius and value to the art community,” she is a charter member of the New Jersey Pastel Painters Society and a member of numerous galleries and arts councils including the West Windsor Arts Council.Her recent exhibitions include works on paper at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, and one-woman shows at Bordentown’s Farnsworth Gallery, Trenton’s Gallery on Lafayette, and Princeton’s Triumph Brewery.
Interviewed by phone, the artist shared her excitement at this new exhibition, titled “Connecting Impressions.” “The Plainsboro show is a perfect opportunity for me to express my love of people, and let my viewers see how important my personal connections with humanity are to me,” she says.
The artist’s rural upbringing figures heavily in her art, and although she works predominantly with landscapes, people play a critical role in the theme of each piece. But it wasn’t always so. From 1985 to 1996, she worked as a freelance artist with Greater Media Newspapers. “For 10 years I did nothing but paint portraits of houses; after that I did landscapes because that’s what galleries were interested in, but now I include people in my paintings and that’s what excites me about this show,” she says.
“Connecting Impressions” will feature oils, oil/collages, and pastels, paintings of seemingly ordinary scenes that are awash with light and color. Look for her lively park scene, Girl with the Yellow Balloon and The Washing, her rendering of women washing clothes in the Ganges.
In a statement of her artistic philosophy, Ms. Winter says: “I try to capture the beauty of my life: impossible; to try to capture the beauty in each extraordinary moment is only possible through the artist’s eye and imagination. This is my goal with each new painting.”
Combining photography and oil painting, Triburgo captures stirring portraits of transgender men. He poses his subjects with their chins held high -- a marker of 19th century portraiture, creating heroic depictions that demonstrate just how far-reaching the spectrum of masculinity can be.
The project centers around the concept of socially constructed ideals, particularly notions of shared gender identities. To enforce this idea, Triburgo painted decadent landscape backdrops to accompany his stark models. Using instructions from Ross' "The Joy of Painting," he points out that even our ideas of nature are constructed.
"The photographs represent my personal relationship to gender and photography, drawing a parallel between the (mis)perception of the 'photographic record' devoid of social construct and gender," Triburgo writes in his artist statement. "In 'Transportraits' I invite the viewer to question the construct of portraiture (and masculinity) while simultaneously depicting a sincere heroism."
Taken together, the resulting photographs are a visual journey through diverse transgender experiences. It took Triburgo four years to complete and ended with over 30 portraits of volunteer individuals.
“I'm so grateful I could find men who were interested in being out and interested in being photographed," Triburgo explained to Slate. "As a trans man myself, I don't have to be out. I could go my whole life and never tell anyone, but for me it's important to be out and create imagery that creates positive representations of trans men."
First commissioned to decorate the sacristy ceiling, the 27-year-old Veronese so impressed his patrons that he was turned loose on the entire church. He filled the space, lining the apse with stories from the life and martyrdom of the church's titular saint. (A captain of the Praetorian Guard, Sebastian was tied to a tree and shot full of arrows during Diocletian's persecution of Christians; rescued and nursed back to health by Irene and her handmaiden, he then berated the emperor personally, resulting, not surprisingly, in his being bludgeoned to death.) Veronese expanded on the story on the walls of the church, in frescoes and tempera paintings, now being worked on. On one side, archers aim their arrows across the nave. Opposite, Sebastian stands before Diocletian, boasting of his survival.
Save Venice, which earlier funded structural repairs, hopes eventually to restore the entire church, including the facade and floor. We'll have to wait for that, and for the conservation team to complete its work and remove the scaffolding in the nave, to revel in the full splendor and complexity of the decoration. But in the meantime, since San Sebastiano remains open during the restoration, we can study the radiant, recently cleaned ceiling.
There, elaborately carved, gilded and painted coffers frame large scenes from the story of Esther, with smaller panels of garlands and putti, monochrome Virtues, and "bronze" Winged Victories. Why Esther? Because she intervened to save the Jewish people, she was seen as a precursor of the Virgin Mary. (Sebastian's return to life after being shot with arrows was seen as a parallel of the Resurrection.) But the iconography of the glowing ceiling is unusual. The story of Esther's discovery and revelation of the evil counselor Haman's plot to destroy the Jews is collapsed into three rather peripheral scenes: the banishment of the Persian king Ahasuerus's first wife, Vashti, whom Esther replaced; the crowning of Esther by Ahasuerus; and the triumph of Esther's uncle Mordechai, celebrating the defeat of Haman.
Read the full products at http://artsunlight.com/.
Now living in Hightstown, where, since 1983, she’s part of the Art Station Studio, which she describes as “a wonderful studio setting where other artists are available for both critique and oil painting reproduction.” A certified teacher, she has taught art at the Peddie School, at Artworks in Trenton, and elsewhere throughout central New Jersey for over 35 years.
Her influences derive from Master Classes with Nelson Shanks and studies with Daniel Greene, Robert Sakson, Rhoda Yanow, Richard Pionk, Christina DeBarry, and Stephen Kennedy. One of her paintings was chosen to be included as part of the White House Collection and her painting “Ole Freehold” is owned by Bruce Springsteen
Inspired also by Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent, and, she says, awed by “their genius and value to the art community,” she is a charter member of the New Jersey Pastel Painters Society and a member of numerous galleries and arts councils including the West Windsor Arts Council.Her recent exhibitions include works on paper at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, and one-woman shows at Bordentown’s Farnsworth Gallery, Trenton’s Gallery on Lafayette, and Princeton’s Triumph Brewery.
Interviewed by phone, the artist shared her excitement at this new exhibition, titled “Connecting Impressions.” “The Plainsboro show is a perfect opportunity for me to express my love of people, and let my viewers see how important my personal connections with humanity are to me,” she says.
The artist’s rural upbringing figures heavily in her art, and although she works predominantly with landscapes, people play a critical role in the theme of each piece. But it wasn’t always so. From 1985 to 1996, she worked as a freelance artist with Greater Media Newspapers. “For 10 years I did nothing but paint portraits of houses; after that I did landscapes because that’s what galleries were interested in, but now I include people in my paintings and that’s what excites me about this show,” she says.
“Connecting Impressions” will feature oils, oil/collages, and pastels, paintings of seemingly ordinary scenes that are awash with light and color. Look for her lively park scene, Girl with the Yellow Balloon and The Washing, her rendering of women washing clothes in the Ganges.
In a statement of her artistic philosophy, Ms. Winter says: “I try to capture the beauty of my life: impossible; to try to capture the beauty in each extraordinary moment is only possible through the artist’s eye and imagination. This is my goal with each new painting.”
Combining photography and oil painting, Triburgo captures stirring portraits of transgender men. He poses his subjects with their chins held high -- a marker of 19th century portraiture, creating heroic depictions that demonstrate just how far-reaching the spectrum of masculinity can be.
The project centers around the concept of socially constructed ideals, particularly notions of shared gender identities. To enforce this idea, Triburgo painted decadent landscape backdrops to accompany his stark models. Using instructions from Ross' "The Joy of Painting," he points out that even our ideas of nature are constructed.
"The photographs represent my personal relationship to gender and photography, drawing a parallel between the (mis)perception of the 'photographic record' devoid of social construct and gender," Triburgo writes in his artist statement. "In 'Transportraits' I invite the viewer to question the construct of portraiture (and masculinity) while simultaneously depicting a sincere heroism."
Taken together, the resulting photographs are a visual journey through diverse transgender experiences. It took Triburgo four years to complete and ended with over 30 portraits of volunteer individuals.
“I'm so grateful I could find men who were interested in being out and interested in being photographed," Triburgo explained to Slate. "As a trans man myself, I don't have to be out. I could go my whole life and never tell anyone, but for me it's important to be out and create imagery that creates positive representations of trans men."
First commissioned to decorate the sacristy ceiling, the 27-year-old Veronese so impressed his patrons that he was turned loose on the entire church. He filled the space, lining the apse with stories from the life and martyrdom of the church's titular saint. (A captain of the Praetorian Guard, Sebastian was tied to a tree and shot full of arrows during Diocletian's persecution of Christians; rescued and nursed back to health by Irene and her handmaiden, he then berated the emperor personally, resulting, not surprisingly, in his being bludgeoned to death.) Veronese expanded on the story on the walls of the church, in frescoes and tempera paintings, now being worked on. On one side, archers aim their arrows across the nave. Opposite, Sebastian stands before Diocletian, boasting of his survival.
Save Venice, which earlier funded structural repairs, hopes eventually to restore the entire church, including the facade and floor. We'll have to wait for that, and for the conservation team to complete its work and remove the scaffolding in the nave, to revel in the full splendor and complexity of the decoration. But in the meantime, since San Sebastiano remains open during the restoration, we can study the radiant, recently cleaned ceiling.
There, elaborately carved, gilded and painted coffers frame large scenes from the story of Esther, with smaller panels of garlands and putti, monochrome Virtues, and "bronze" Winged Victories. Why Esther? Because she intervened to save the Jewish people, she was seen as a precursor of the Virgin Mary. (Sebastian's return to life after being shot with arrows was seen as a parallel of the Resurrection.) But the iconography of the glowing ceiling is unusual. The story of Esther's discovery and revelation of the evil counselor Haman's plot to destroy the Jews is collapsed into three rather peripheral scenes: the banishment of the Persian king Ahasuerus's first wife, Vashti, whom Esther replaced; the crowning of Esther by Ahasuerus; and the triumph of Esther's uncle Mordechai, celebrating the defeat of Haman.
Read the full products at http://artsunlight.com/.
2013年7月24日星期三
How to Catch an Art Thief When the Evidence Has Been Torched
Stolen art is tough to get rid of. A collector doesn’t want to invest in a painting that will be turned over to the authorities. In the mid-nineties, outside Philadelphia, three crooks broke into the country home of William Penn and snagged around fifty artifacts; when the theft made the papers, they threw the art in plastic bags and dumped them into the Delaware River. Three years ago, five paintings were stolen from the Musée d’Art Moderne, in Paris, and the burglar decided to stash them in a dumpster. Just his luck: the bin was picked up by a trash compactor, which munched thoughtlessly on Picasso, Matisse, and Modigliani, with Braque and Léger for dessert.
Last October, seven works of art were swiped from the Kunsthal museum, in Rotterdam: Picasso and Matisse, again, plus two Monets, a Gauguin, a Meyer de Haan, and a Lucian Freud. The entry set off an alarm, but when police arrived at the scene, the culprit had already vanished. This past January, investigators arrested a Romanian man named Radu Dogaru on charges of carrying out the heist.
His mother, Olga Dogaru, was understandably upset. She began to think of things that other mothers of art thieves have considered in the name of protecting their sons. In 2001, Mireille Breitwieser, the mother of the notorious French art thief Stéphane Breitwieser, dispensed with her son’s stolen goods by tossing them in the Rhine-Rh?ne canal, chopping them up into pieces, and incinerating a few items. In February, Olga Dogaru told the police that she had put the evidence of her son’s crime in the stove, and set it aflame.
One month later, forensic specialists collected the ashes from her house. Romanian scientists began sifting through charred refuse from Olga Dogaru’s stove using optical and electronic microscopy—a “screening process, essentially,” to recover tiny particles of oil painting reproduction, said Tom Tague, a chemist at Bruker Optics and a member of the advisory board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “There has been such an awakening in the art community to use this kind of analysis,” which has existed since 1990 or so, he explained.
Upon arrival at a crime scene, if investigators were to find nothing more than black ash, analyzing any of it would be impossible. “But fortunately, that’s never really the case,” Tague said. “If things are charred, then you can typically identify which artist would have generated the art.”
It’s a delicate process. The eye can only see something as small as seventy-five microns, or about the width of a strand of hair. “You’re looking for particles much smaller than that,” Tague said. “So it’s tedious, really tedious. And you don’t want to disturb a crime scene. So it could take weeks or months just to recover the particles.” Even just two or three microns of dust could be the key to identifying the signature of Picasso.
“From a forensic standpoint, for evidence, you’re going to be looking for specific components of a painting,” said Robert Wittman, who joined the F.B.I. in 1988 and helped start the bureau’s Art Crime Team. Wittman says he has recovered three hundred million dollars worth of art in his career, which he describes in a book, “Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures.” He told me, “In an oven, you’re going to be looking for things like metal, fasteners, nails, trace elements of the paints. There were some early paints that had lead in them. There was toxic yellow paint that French Impressionists used that had arsenic in it, and arsenic is a compound that doesn’t break down in a fire.” Dr. Ernest Oberlander-Tarnoveanu, the director of Romania’s National History Museum, said that analysts found “small fragments of painting primer, the remains of canvas, the remains of paint,” as well as copper and steel nails, according to the Associated Press. He told me by e-mail that they also found “fragments of painting with imprints of the canvas.” Gheorghe Niculescu, the head of the team from Romania’s National Research Investigation Center in Physics and Chemistry, told Reuters that they uncovered “Prussian Blue, a paint pigment discovered around 1715 and used on a large scale by painters from around 1750.”
After sorting out the relevant particles, the Romanian team used X-ray-fluorescence and X-ray-diffraction techniques to identify which elements the fragments contained. This isn’t ideal for organic materials, but it’s a common first step for forensic analysis, Tague said, and “it could work reasonably well because many of the pigments are inorganic-based.”
“You can visually see what is there,” he went on, “but you don’t know what it is without doing spectroscopy.” Infrared and Raman microspectroscopy, which study the way molecules interact with light, are used for the purpose of authentication. By collecting both the infrared and Raman spectrums of a painting, an analyst can compare the molecules of the evidence to original works from the same period. “No two molecules interact with light the same way, so it’s really specific,” Tague said. “These are common tools in every art institute and forensics lab.”
On Monday, Olga Dogaru appeared before the court in Romania, alongside her son, and told a panel of three judges that, actually, she did not burn the art. According to the New York Times, she testified that it had all been a lie: “I believed that what I said before was the best thing at the moment, that this was the right thing to do.”
Meanwhile, Niculescu, of the Romanian investigative team, assured Reuters that they had “gathered overwhelming evidence that three (of the seven) paintings were destroyed by fire.” But he could not say which of the stolen paintings they had identified, or how he could be certain that these were the works lifted from the Kunsthal museum, which declined to comment on the police investigation. The forensic scientists are continuing to complete their report, and the Dogarus’ trial is set for next month. “Our task was to establish if the ash samples provided by the public prosecutor [contained] traces of substances and implements used to make paintings—for example, nails used to fix the canvas on chassis, substances used to prepare the painting primes, and pigments used by professional painters to prepare the oil colors,” Oberlander-Tarnoveanu told me. “So far, we were not asked to do authentications.” The museum confirmed to me that “the expertise just aims to establish if remains which may originate from nineteenth-to-twentieth-century paintings were identified in the investigated material.”
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com.
Last October, seven works of art were swiped from the Kunsthal museum, in Rotterdam: Picasso and Matisse, again, plus two Monets, a Gauguin, a Meyer de Haan, and a Lucian Freud. The entry set off an alarm, but when police arrived at the scene, the culprit had already vanished. This past January, investigators arrested a Romanian man named Radu Dogaru on charges of carrying out the heist.
His mother, Olga Dogaru, was understandably upset. She began to think of things that other mothers of art thieves have considered in the name of protecting their sons. In 2001, Mireille Breitwieser, the mother of the notorious French art thief Stéphane Breitwieser, dispensed with her son’s stolen goods by tossing them in the Rhine-Rh?ne canal, chopping them up into pieces, and incinerating a few items. In February, Olga Dogaru told the police that she had put the evidence of her son’s crime in the stove, and set it aflame.
One month later, forensic specialists collected the ashes from her house. Romanian scientists began sifting through charred refuse from Olga Dogaru’s stove using optical and electronic microscopy—a “screening process, essentially,” to recover tiny particles of oil painting reproduction, said Tom Tague, a chemist at Bruker Optics and a member of the advisory board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “There has been such an awakening in the art community to use this kind of analysis,” which has existed since 1990 or so, he explained.
Upon arrival at a crime scene, if investigators were to find nothing more than black ash, analyzing any of it would be impossible. “But fortunately, that’s never really the case,” Tague said. “If things are charred, then you can typically identify which artist would have generated the art.”
It’s a delicate process. The eye can only see something as small as seventy-five microns, or about the width of a strand of hair. “You’re looking for particles much smaller than that,” Tague said. “So it’s tedious, really tedious. And you don’t want to disturb a crime scene. So it could take weeks or months just to recover the particles.” Even just two or three microns of dust could be the key to identifying the signature of Picasso.
“From a forensic standpoint, for evidence, you’re going to be looking for specific components of a painting,” said Robert Wittman, who joined the F.B.I. in 1988 and helped start the bureau’s Art Crime Team. Wittman says he has recovered three hundred million dollars worth of art in his career, which he describes in a book, “Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures.” He told me, “In an oven, you’re going to be looking for things like metal, fasteners, nails, trace elements of the paints. There were some early paints that had lead in them. There was toxic yellow paint that French Impressionists used that had arsenic in it, and arsenic is a compound that doesn’t break down in a fire.” Dr. Ernest Oberlander-Tarnoveanu, the director of Romania’s National History Museum, said that analysts found “small fragments of painting primer, the remains of canvas, the remains of paint,” as well as copper and steel nails, according to the Associated Press. He told me by e-mail that they also found “fragments of painting with imprints of the canvas.” Gheorghe Niculescu, the head of the team from Romania’s National Research Investigation Center in Physics and Chemistry, told Reuters that they uncovered “Prussian Blue, a paint pigment discovered around 1715 and used on a large scale by painters from around 1750.”
After sorting out the relevant particles, the Romanian team used X-ray-fluorescence and X-ray-diffraction techniques to identify which elements the fragments contained. This isn’t ideal for organic materials, but it’s a common first step for forensic analysis, Tague said, and “it could work reasonably well because many of the pigments are inorganic-based.”
“You can visually see what is there,” he went on, “but you don’t know what it is without doing spectroscopy.” Infrared and Raman microspectroscopy, which study the way molecules interact with light, are used for the purpose of authentication. By collecting both the infrared and Raman spectrums of a painting, an analyst can compare the molecules of the evidence to original works from the same period. “No two molecules interact with light the same way, so it’s really specific,” Tague said. “These are common tools in every art institute and forensics lab.”
On Monday, Olga Dogaru appeared before the court in Romania, alongside her son, and told a panel of three judges that, actually, she did not burn the art. According to the New York Times, she testified that it had all been a lie: “I believed that what I said before was the best thing at the moment, that this was the right thing to do.”
Meanwhile, Niculescu, of the Romanian investigative team, assured Reuters that they had “gathered overwhelming evidence that three (of the seven) paintings were destroyed by fire.” But he could not say which of the stolen paintings they had identified, or how he could be certain that these were the works lifted from the Kunsthal museum, which declined to comment on the police investigation. The forensic scientists are continuing to complete their report, and the Dogarus’ trial is set for next month. “Our task was to establish if the ash samples provided by the public prosecutor [contained] traces of substances and implements used to make paintings—for example, nails used to fix the canvas on chassis, substances used to prepare the painting primes, and pigments used by professional painters to prepare the oil colors,” Oberlander-Tarnoveanu told me. “So far, we were not asked to do authentications.” The museum confirmed to me that “the expertise just aims to establish if remains which may originate from nineteenth-to-twentieth-century paintings were identified in the investigated material.”
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com.
2013年7月18日星期四
Napa's Grande Dame
It was 2009 and Mrs. Mondavi's husband, famed vintner Robert Mondavi, had died the year before. After 25 years of living in a storied Napa Valley estate, in an 11,500-square-foot home best known for the swimming pool in its living room, she was ready to downsize.
The Ruin was the first house her real-estate agent showed her. Mrs. Mondavi recalls the 3,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, five-bathroom house as being dark, with a roof that leaked and walls that blocked the views. That was before she looked at 25 other listings, which she describes as "horrors"; she decided to return to the Ruin a second time. On her third visit, she brought along friend and architect Howard Backen to ask his opinion of the house and 9 acres that sit off a narrow, winding road on a hillside overlooking the Napa Valley.
"He said 'Take it, I'll do it, you'll never get a view like that,' " she remembers. And so she took it, on the condition that Mr. Backen, whose clients have included Robert Redford, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steve Jobs and numerous Napa wineries, would design the house.
"Margrit said, 'Can you make this beautiful?' and I said, 'You can make anything beautiful, but—' and she turned to the real-estate lady and said, 'I'll take it because he can make it beautiful.' I had a 'but' there, but she cut me off. I didn't finish the sentence and then I was committed," he says.
Mr. Backen can now elaborate on his "but": The windows were wrong. The space was too broken up. There was no connection between the house and the view or the outdoor space. Mrs. Mondavi wanted a pool off of her bedroom, but that meant building it 15 feet off the ground.
Originally from Switzerland, Mrs. Mondavi met her future husband in 1967 while working as a tour guide at the winery that he founded in 1966 and turned into an iconic brand. She went on to become director of public relations, starting programs such as the winery's summer music festival, which has brought artists like Ella Fitzgerald and Harry Belafonte to Napa.
Mr. and Mrs. Mondavi were married for 28 years and beyond the winery—which Constellation Brands acquired in 2004—were well-known philanthropists, donating $35 million to the University of California at Davis to establish the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts and the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science. Their Wappo Hill home was known as a place that brought together a who's who of wine, food and art.
Wappo Hill, which was originally asking $25 million, sold for an undisclosed amount in 2011 to Jean-Charles Boisset, proprietor of Boisset Family Estates, which owns a collection of wineries in France and California, and his wife, Gina Gallo, a winemaker at her family's E. & J. Gallo Winery. Mr. Boisset says they weren't just attracted to the architecture of the Cliff May-designed home, but also the property's history, oil painting reproduction.
Mrs. Mondavi declines to say what she paid for her home or how much she spent on the renovation. Agi Smith, a real-estate agent with Pacific Union International-Christie's International Real Estate, who saw the property before it was redone, says a home like this would go for at least $4.5 million. Nearby, a 5,000-square-foot home on 5? acres with a pool is listed for $6 million.
If Mrs. Mondavi was ready to downsize, it doesn't mean she was ready to slow down. She starts each day with a 50-minute workout in the solar-heated, salt water infinity pool just off the master bedroom, as she had envisioned. She still regularly goes to her office at the winery some 35 minutes away in her convertible.
With two bedrooms and 2? baths, the modern, one-level house has been kept simple. The floor is a neutral travertine. The walls and ceilings are Backen White (Mr. Backen's personal formula, which he describes as a "warm white"). The entrance hall disappeared to enlarge the living room.
Mr. Backen eliminated as many walls as possible. On the west side of the house, facing the view of the valley, he added walls of glass doors out onto the terrace. On the east side of the house, glass doors open onto the garden.
To create a connection between indoors and out, landscape designer Claudia Schmidt and Mr. Backen created a "Zen garden" off the dining room, which includes a seating area and a dining area on a raised terrace. The Chinese pistache tree shades the area from the sun and Ms. Schmidt added a small fountain. It is now a favorite spot of Mrs. Mondavi's and is easily accessible from the kitchen, where she spends much of her time.
Ms. Schmidt also created the "laundry garden." The house came with a clothesline that Mrs. Mondavi wanted to keep (she uses it), but Ms. Schmidt surrounded it with Mrs. Mondavi's cutting and vegetable garden. Mrs. Mondavi chose the cutting roses. As with the interiors, Ms. Schmidt describes the palette of the garden as "subtle and calming" with shades of gray, green, white, purple and blue throughout.
Mrs. Mondavi replaced the lawn surrounding the entrance with gravel and olive trees. Nestled there are 90 stone mushrooms, eight to 12 inches tall, made by a local artist. She gave them to her husband for his 90th birthday. "What are you going to give a man who has everything?" she asks.
For the interiors, Mrs. Mondavi brought in Thomas Bartlett, a designer in Napa who has known her for more than 40 years and advised on her previous home. They used much of the furniture from that home, including the living room sofas that Mrs. Mondavi had made up 18 years ago in heavy, cream colored cotton. "She had virtually everything and I spent a number of days pushing and pulling until everything felt right," says Mr. Bartlett.
For the interiors, Mrs. Mondavi brought in Thomas Bartlett, a designer in Napa who has known her for more than 40 years and advised on her previous home. They used much of the furniture from that home, including the living room sofas that Mrs. Mondavi had made up 18 years ago in heavy, cream colored cotton. "She had virtually everything and I spent a number of days pushing and pulling until everything felt right," says Mr. Bartlett.
Echoing the home's neutral palette of fabrics, Mrs. Mondavi's closet also tends toward muted colors. "I don't look good anymore in prints. I wear black, brown, navy. Color ages you."
Inside the house, the neutral background serves as a gallery for works by Picasso, Giacometti, Diebenkorn, Frankenthaler, Tamayo, Oliveira and Mrs. Mondavi's friend Wayne Thiebaud. There are also oil lamps from Jerusalem, betel-nut boxes from Myanmar and masks from Africa. There are Russian icons, Roman glass and antiques from Laos and Morocco.
The heart of the home is the kitchen, where Mrs. Mondavi likes to paint so she can hear her soups cooking. She stands at the marble counter with her brushes, her watercolors and a large pad of watercolor paper. She used to do oils, but grew tired of carrying around all the accouterments that go with oil painting. Her dog, Luce, a Bichon Frise who has only one eye after an unfortunate run-in with a bigger dog, sleeps in a flower-shaped bed at the end of the counter.
Click on their website http://www.artsunlight.com/.
The Ruin was the first house her real-estate agent showed her. Mrs. Mondavi recalls the 3,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, five-bathroom house as being dark, with a roof that leaked and walls that blocked the views. That was before she looked at 25 other listings, which she describes as "horrors"; she decided to return to the Ruin a second time. On her third visit, she brought along friend and architect Howard Backen to ask his opinion of the house and 9 acres that sit off a narrow, winding road on a hillside overlooking the Napa Valley.
"He said 'Take it, I'll do it, you'll never get a view like that,' " she remembers. And so she took it, on the condition that Mr. Backen, whose clients have included Robert Redford, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steve Jobs and numerous Napa wineries, would design the house.
"Margrit said, 'Can you make this beautiful?' and I said, 'You can make anything beautiful, but—' and she turned to the real-estate lady and said, 'I'll take it because he can make it beautiful.' I had a 'but' there, but she cut me off. I didn't finish the sentence and then I was committed," he says.
Mr. Backen can now elaborate on his "but": The windows were wrong. The space was too broken up. There was no connection between the house and the view or the outdoor space. Mrs. Mondavi wanted a pool off of her bedroom, but that meant building it 15 feet off the ground.
Originally from Switzerland, Mrs. Mondavi met her future husband in 1967 while working as a tour guide at the winery that he founded in 1966 and turned into an iconic brand. She went on to become director of public relations, starting programs such as the winery's summer music festival, which has brought artists like Ella Fitzgerald and Harry Belafonte to Napa.
Mr. and Mrs. Mondavi were married for 28 years and beyond the winery—which Constellation Brands acquired in 2004—were well-known philanthropists, donating $35 million to the University of California at Davis to establish the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts and the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science. Their Wappo Hill home was known as a place that brought together a who's who of wine, food and art.
Wappo Hill, which was originally asking $25 million, sold for an undisclosed amount in 2011 to Jean-Charles Boisset, proprietor of Boisset Family Estates, which owns a collection of wineries in France and California, and his wife, Gina Gallo, a winemaker at her family's E. & J. Gallo Winery. Mr. Boisset says they weren't just attracted to the architecture of the Cliff May-designed home, but also the property's history, oil painting reproduction.
Mrs. Mondavi declines to say what she paid for her home or how much she spent on the renovation. Agi Smith, a real-estate agent with Pacific Union International-Christie's International Real Estate, who saw the property before it was redone, says a home like this would go for at least $4.5 million. Nearby, a 5,000-square-foot home on 5? acres with a pool is listed for $6 million.
If Mrs. Mondavi was ready to downsize, it doesn't mean she was ready to slow down. She starts each day with a 50-minute workout in the solar-heated, salt water infinity pool just off the master bedroom, as she had envisioned. She still regularly goes to her office at the winery some 35 minutes away in her convertible.
With two bedrooms and 2? baths, the modern, one-level house has been kept simple. The floor is a neutral travertine. The walls and ceilings are Backen White (Mr. Backen's personal formula, which he describes as a "warm white"). The entrance hall disappeared to enlarge the living room.
Mr. Backen eliminated as many walls as possible. On the west side of the house, facing the view of the valley, he added walls of glass doors out onto the terrace. On the east side of the house, glass doors open onto the garden.
To create a connection between indoors and out, landscape designer Claudia Schmidt and Mr. Backen created a "Zen garden" off the dining room, which includes a seating area and a dining area on a raised terrace. The Chinese pistache tree shades the area from the sun and Ms. Schmidt added a small fountain. It is now a favorite spot of Mrs. Mondavi's and is easily accessible from the kitchen, where she spends much of her time.
Ms. Schmidt also created the "laundry garden." The house came with a clothesline that Mrs. Mondavi wanted to keep (she uses it), but Ms. Schmidt surrounded it with Mrs. Mondavi's cutting and vegetable garden. Mrs. Mondavi chose the cutting roses. As with the interiors, Ms. Schmidt describes the palette of the garden as "subtle and calming" with shades of gray, green, white, purple and blue throughout.
Mrs. Mondavi replaced the lawn surrounding the entrance with gravel and olive trees. Nestled there are 90 stone mushrooms, eight to 12 inches tall, made by a local artist. She gave them to her husband for his 90th birthday. "What are you going to give a man who has everything?" she asks.
For the interiors, Mrs. Mondavi brought in Thomas Bartlett, a designer in Napa who has known her for more than 40 years and advised on her previous home. They used much of the furniture from that home, including the living room sofas that Mrs. Mondavi had made up 18 years ago in heavy, cream colored cotton. "She had virtually everything and I spent a number of days pushing and pulling until everything felt right," says Mr. Bartlett.
For the interiors, Mrs. Mondavi brought in Thomas Bartlett, a designer in Napa who has known her for more than 40 years and advised on her previous home. They used much of the furniture from that home, including the living room sofas that Mrs. Mondavi had made up 18 years ago in heavy, cream colored cotton. "She had virtually everything and I spent a number of days pushing and pulling until everything felt right," says Mr. Bartlett.
Echoing the home's neutral palette of fabrics, Mrs. Mondavi's closet also tends toward muted colors. "I don't look good anymore in prints. I wear black, brown, navy. Color ages you."
Inside the house, the neutral background serves as a gallery for works by Picasso, Giacometti, Diebenkorn, Frankenthaler, Tamayo, Oliveira and Mrs. Mondavi's friend Wayne Thiebaud. There are also oil lamps from Jerusalem, betel-nut boxes from Myanmar and masks from Africa. There are Russian icons, Roman glass and antiques from Laos and Morocco.
The heart of the home is the kitchen, where Mrs. Mondavi likes to paint so she can hear her soups cooking. She stands at the marble counter with her brushes, her watercolors and a large pad of watercolor paper. She used to do oils, but grew tired of carrying around all the accouterments that go with oil painting. Her dog, Luce, a Bichon Frise who has only one eye after an unfortunate run-in with a bigger dog, sleeps in a flower-shaped bed at the end of the counter.
Click on their website http://www.artsunlight.com/.
2013年7月11日星期四
Exhibit by artist battling Parkinson's on display
Gail Paggiola was about 3 years old she met Dona Greaney Winners in preschool. As the two grew up together in Manchester, Paggiola recognized and admired Winners' keen artistic ability."We were in the Craft Club at Manchester High School," said Paggiola. "She would make wonderful jewelry." As an adult, Winners was gifted in quilting, knitting and gardening. But her true flair comes out through her paintings.
Vibrant colors, simple shapes grouped into complex arrangements, shades that sharpen and fade. Each canvas is riotously different, but all are joined by a graceful, unique style. It is all the more remarkable that the artist produced the works while battling Parkinson's disease.Paggiola brought a collection of Winners' works to the South Windsor Public Library, where an exhibit will be on display through the end of July across from the children's section. Winners has resided in Manchester, East Hampton, South Windsor and East Windsor, and now lives in Powhatan, Va.
"She used to be an oil painter until the shaking stopped her," said Paggiola. Winners turned to a new medium: tissue paper oil painting reproduction. Tissues are dyed, allowed to dry, and then torn into shapes which she arranges into floral patterns, animals and other shapes. Browsing through her works reveals that hydrangeas, wisterias, roses and foxgloves are among her floral muses; giraffes, elephants, swans, foxes and hummingbirds are among her animal ones. Some works are 3D, popping off the surface, while in others, the tissue is so flat it appears to be part of the canvas.
Paggiola said that when an art teacher taught Winners tissue paper painting, he was so impressed by her adoption of the method that he urged her to write a book about it, which she did and hopes to publish.Paggiola reports that her friend's case is worsening. "She had deep brain surgery," said Paggiola. "She has tremors on both sides of her brain." Medication once gave her a 20-minute window during which she could do her art. "But now I don't think she even has that," said Paggiola.
The exhibit at the library is a way for Paggiola to recognize Winners' talent. "I'm doing this to validate her as an artist," she said. The art also stands as testimony that those with debilitating illnesses can break free from their restrictions. "Mary [Etter] from the library said it shows that people with Parkinson's don't have to give up everything," Paggiola said.
One shelf displays paintings Winners did for Christmas cards and wedding invitations for family members. Many of the works have special significance to Paggiola, including the occasional inside joke.
Fourteen-year-old Nick Metz says he’s intrigued by art’s ever-changing transformation from one style to the next, referencing the transition from Figurative Impressionism to Abstract art that occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The same can be said about his own work, which has evolved throughout grade school from molding a black-and-brown-spotted gray leopard seal out of clay to sketching Japanese cartoons and "fun, random things."
Nick’s most recent work — and most professional — includes Paul Cezanne-esque still life oil paintings and a pastel, Amedeo Modigliani-inspired self-portrait that won the young artist first place in the Sargent Art Brighter World Art Contest this past spring. The national competition is open to students in Grades K-12 and grants the winning child a trip to New York City art museums with a parent and his or her art teacher.
"I had a lot of fun making it," says the humble artist and Hillsdale resident of the drawing, adding it is his favorite artwork to date, and the victory his first big win. Like many artists who reflect nonchalantly on their award-winning masterpiece, Nick says he was just a seventh-grader in his art class having fun when he depicted himself clad in an orange beret with his hand to his chin — his spectacles magnify his blue eyes.
Nick’s portrait, as well as his other award-winning artworks, will be on display at his first exhibit at the Hillsdale Public Library throughout July, with a meet the artist reception on July 16 at 6:30 p.m.Another artwork in the exhibit is "Still Life Study in Glass and Light," which won Nick the Ridgewood Art Institute’s (RAI) "Instructors’ Scholarship" at the 54th Annual Young Artists Show last month.
"I like how you can express so many different things in so many different ways," says Nick about his interest in art. His influences include Spanish Catalan painter Joan Miró and French pointillist painter Georges-Pierre Seurat.
Nick recently graduated from George G. White Middle School from where he earned the Gold Medal in Art. The first artist in his family after his grandmother — who does china painting — Nick says his artistic talent is innate, and a love that he incorporates into his studies at school. Many of his reports have involved some aspect of art, including a paper he wrote on the start of Modern Art for his Language Arts class, and art and clothing in Japan for a Social Studies paper.
The artist, who is also a member of Hillsdale Boy Scout Troop 109 and the Stonybrook Swim and Dive teams, hones his skills at RAI at which he currently takes oil painting lessons. His painting, "Kettle," is also part of his collection currently on display at the library. The artwork, which, despite something Nick’s father, Al, says was his son’s second attempt at oil painting, won him the Scholastic Art Silver Key in the 90th Annual Scholastic National Art Competition held at a reception at the Montclair Art Museum earlier in the year.
Click on their website artsunlight.com.
Vibrant colors, simple shapes grouped into complex arrangements, shades that sharpen and fade. Each canvas is riotously different, but all are joined by a graceful, unique style. It is all the more remarkable that the artist produced the works while battling Parkinson's disease.Paggiola brought a collection of Winners' works to the South Windsor Public Library, where an exhibit will be on display through the end of July across from the children's section. Winners has resided in Manchester, East Hampton, South Windsor and East Windsor, and now lives in Powhatan, Va.
"She used to be an oil painter until the shaking stopped her," said Paggiola. Winners turned to a new medium: tissue paper oil painting reproduction. Tissues are dyed, allowed to dry, and then torn into shapes which she arranges into floral patterns, animals and other shapes. Browsing through her works reveals that hydrangeas, wisterias, roses and foxgloves are among her floral muses; giraffes, elephants, swans, foxes and hummingbirds are among her animal ones. Some works are 3D, popping off the surface, while in others, the tissue is so flat it appears to be part of the canvas.
Paggiola said that when an art teacher taught Winners tissue paper painting, he was so impressed by her adoption of the method that he urged her to write a book about it, which she did and hopes to publish.Paggiola reports that her friend's case is worsening. "She had deep brain surgery," said Paggiola. "She has tremors on both sides of her brain." Medication once gave her a 20-minute window during which she could do her art. "But now I don't think she even has that," said Paggiola.
The exhibit at the library is a way for Paggiola to recognize Winners' talent. "I'm doing this to validate her as an artist," she said. The art also stands as testimony that those with debilitating illnesses can break free from their restrictions. "Mary [Etter] from the library said it shows that people with Parkinson's don't have to give up everything," Paggiola said.
One shelf displays paintings Winners did for Christmas cards and wedding invitations for family members. Many of the works have special significance to Paggiola, including the occasional inside joke.
Fourteen-year-old Nick Metz says he’s intrigued by art’s ever-changing transformation from one style to the next, referencing the transition from Figurative Impressionism to Abstract art that occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The same can be said about his own work, which has evolved throughout grade school from molding a black-and-brown-spotted gray leopard seal out of clay to sketching Japanese cartoons and "fun, random things."
Nick’s most recent work — and most professional — includes Paul Cezanne-esque still life oil paintings and a pastel, Amedeo Modigliani-inspired self-portrait that won the young artist first place in the Sargent Art Brighter World Art Contest this past spring. The national competition is open to students in Grades K-12 and grants the winning child a trip to New York City art museums with a parent and his or her art teacher.
"I had a lot of fun making it," says the humble artist and Hillsdale resident of the drawing, adding it is his favorite artwork to date, and the victory his first big win. Like many artists who reflect nonchalantly on their award-winning masterpiece, Nick says he was just a seventh-grader in his art class having fun when he depicted himself clad in an orange beret with his hand to his chin — his spectacles magnify his blue eyes.
Nick’s portrait, as well as his other award-winning artworks, will be on display at his first exhibit at the Hillsdale Public Library throughout July, with a meet the artist reception on July 16 at 6:30 p.m.Another artwork in the exhibit is "Still Life Study in Glass and Light," which won Nick the Ridgewood Art Institute’s (RAI) "Instructors’ Scholarship" at the 54th Annual Young Artists Show last month.
"I like how you can express so many different things in so many different ways," says Nick about his interest in art. His influences include Spanish Catalan painter Joan Miró and French pointillist painter Georges-Pierre Seurat.
Nick recently graduated from George G. White Middle School from where he earned the Gold Medal in Art. The first artist in his family after his grandmother — who does china painting — Nick says his artistic talent is innate, and a love that he incorporates into his studies at school. Many of his reports have involved some aspect of art, including a paper he wrote on the start of Modern Art for his Language Arts class, and art and clothing in Japan for a Social Studies paper.
The artist, who is also a member of Hillsdale Boy Scout Troop 109 and the Stonybrook Swim and Dive teams, hones his skills at RAI at which he currently takes oil painting lessons. His painting, "Kettle," is also part of his collection currently on display at the library. The artwork, which, despite something Nick’s father, Al, says was his son’s second attempt at oil painting, won him the Scholastic Art Silver Key in the 90th Annual Scholastic National Art Competition held at a reception at the Montclair Art Museum earlier in the year.
Click on their website artsunlight.com.
2013年7月4日星期四
Agriculture exhibit opens at New Visions Gallery
New Visions Gallery invites visitors to experience cultural stories of the agricultural landscape of this beautiful country as told through the eyes of artists at the 27th annual Culture & Agriculture exhibit, opening Sunday.
Artists throughout the United States offer unique and thoughtful interpretations of this rural theme and help us remember the rich culture and diversity that surrounds agricultural life. More than 90 works of art will be on display in New Visions Gallery from July 7 to Aug. 30.An opening reception is scheduled from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday and will feature live music, refreshments and an opportunity to meet represented artists. The event is free and open to the public.
Every Culture & Agriculture exhibit brings a new collection of work by a variety of artists, each of whom brings a fresh interpretation of technique, media, process and subject matter on agricultural themes. Participating artists hail from Idaho to North Carolina and other points throughout the United States, including Wisconsin. Artists offer everything from traditional paintings, fiber creations, classic renderings, breathtaking photography, mixed media sculpture and more. Artwork in the exhibit is selected by a jury.
Participating Marshfield artists include R. Christian Egger — photography and ceramics; Kenneth Flanagan — oil; and Rita M. Hollingsworth — fiber.“Each year, it is so inspiring to see the various interpretations on the agricultural theme,” said Betsy Tanenbaum, New Visions Gallery director, “Every artist’s story is different and, collectively, they comprise the cultural story of this place and time. …These stories will be a glimpse for our children and our children’s children into the agricultural life of 2013.”
The opening reception will include an artist meet and oil painting reproduction, the toe tapping sounds of Brady Perl and the Kinfolk Choir and delicious food and refreshments that celebrate the edible bounty this great state has to offer. The opening reception is free and open for the public to attend — all are invited.
Culture and Agriculture may be viewed from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. New Visions Gallery is in the main lobby of Marshfield Clinic. Admission is free thanks to donations from Art Partners. Exhibit space and other support is donated by Marshfield Clinic.
On Wednesday afternoon Clark County art educator Rebecca Anstine and Washougal art commissioner Janice Ferguson unwrapped and hung a selection of artwork in preparation for the opening of the Clark County: Living the Good Life art exhibit.The 6th Floor Gallery exhibit, which opens Friday, July 5, features the work of three Clark County residents: painter Marilyn Hocking, silkscreen artist Jon Brittingham and textile artist Sally Sellers. Through three different mediums, the artists have interpreted various aspects of life in southwest Washington, from the urban architecture to the rural nature and waterways.
On a quick glance, it might be easy to mistake Marilyn Hocking's paintings for photographs. In fact, she admitted when she does a show she often has to put up a sign to clearly label her works as pastel art.Hocking's pieces are reflective of her hometown, Ridgefield, as well as her southern roots in Louisiana. Stunningly realistic landscape pastels and oil paintings capture snippets of the county's quiet rural lifestyle, summer swims on the Lewis River and the Ridgefield Fourth of July parade.
"I like to do nostalgic pieces that are a nod back to the old city roots of Clark County," Hocking said. "Like the Lewis River swimming people where kids have been going for decades. If that's not Clark County culture then I don't know what is."
She describes her style as realistic yet idealistic. Though photos and memory are typically the basis for her artwork, she likes to take the real and make it into something better and more beautiful. In her depiction of Clark County pastoral life, for example, "there are no power lines, there are no weeds and there are no mole hills."
"Someone once told me that Norman Rockwell used the same idealism technique to make his works balanced and finished," Hocking said. "He never had an ideal life so he painted an ideal life."
It was an event in Hocking's life that pushed her to seriously pursue her passion for painting. A teacher, a mother and a wife, Hocking always planned to explore herinterest in art someday. But when she was diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago, she realized she shouldn't delay her passion any longer.
"Fighting that battle with breast cancer woke me up real fast," Hocking said. "It made me realize not to put things off to someday, because nobody ever knows what their someday might be. Since then I've been painting and painting and painting and I haven't looked back."
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com.
Artists throughout the United States offer unique and thoughtful interpretations of this rural theme and help us remember the rich culture and diversity that surrounds agricultural life. More than 90 works of art will be on display in New Visions Gallery from July 7 to Aug. 30.An opening reception is scheduled from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday and will feature live music, refreshments and an opportunity to meet represented artists. The event is free and open to the public.
Every Culture & Agriculture exhibit brings a new collection of work by a variety of artists, each of whom brings a fresh interpretation of technique, media, process and subject matter on agricultural themes. Participating artists hail from Idaho to North Carolina and other points throughout the United States, including Wisconsin. Artists offer everything from traditional paintings, fiber creations, classic renderings, breathtaking photography, mixed media sculpture and more. Artwork in the exhibit is selected by a jury.
Participating Marshfield artists include R. Christian Egger — photography and ceramics; Kenneth Flanagan — oil; and Rita M. Hollingsworth — fiber.“Each year, it is so inspiring to see the various interpretations on the agricultural theme,” said Betsy Tanenbaum, New Visions Gallery director, “Every artist’s story is different and, collectively, they comprise the cultural story of this place and time. …These stories will be a glimpse for our children and our children’s children into the agricultural life of 2013.”
The opening reception will include an artist meet and oil painting reproduction, the toe tapping sounds of Brady Perl and the Kinfolk Choir and delicious food and refreshments that celebrate the edible bounty this great state has to offer. The opening reception is free and open for the public to attend — all are invited.
Culture and Agriculture may be viewed from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. New Visions Gallery is in the main lobby of Marshfield Clinic. Admission is free thanks to donations from Art Partners. Exhibit space and other support is donated by Marshfield Clinic.
On Wednesday afternoon Clark County art educator Rebecca Anstine and Washougal art commissioner Janice Ferguson unwrapped and hung a selection of artwork in preparation for the opening of the Clark County: Living the Good Life art exhibit.The 6th Floor Gallery exhibit, which opens Friday, July 5, features the work of three Clark County residents: painter Marilyn Hocking, silkscreen artist Jon Brittingham and textile artist Sally Sellers. Through three different mediums, the artists have interpreted various aspects of life in southwest Washington, from the urban architecture to the rural nature and waterways.
On a quick glance, it might be easy to mistake Marilyn Hocking's paintings for photographs. In fact, she admitted when she does a show she often has to put up a sign to clearly label her works as pastel art.Hocking's pieces are reflective of her hometown, Ridgefield, as well as her southern roots in Louisiana. Stunningly realistic landscape pastels and oil paintings capture snippets of the county's quiet rural lifestyle, summer swims on the Lewis River and the Ridgefield Fourth of July parade.
"I like to do nostalgic pieces that are a nod back to the old city roots of Clark County," Hocking said. "Like the Lewis River swimming people where kids have been going for decades. If that's not Clark County culture then I don't know what is."
She describes her style as realistic yet idealistic. Though photos and memory are typically the basis for her artwork, she likes to take the real and make it into something better and more beautiful. In her depiction of Clark County pastoral life, for example, "there are no power lines, there are no weeds and there are no mole hills."
"Someone once told me that Norman Rockwell used the same idealism technique to make his works balanced and finished," Hocking said. "He never had an ideal life so he painted an ideal life."
It was an event in Hocking's life that pushed her to seriously pursue her passion for painting. A teacher, a mother and a wife, Hocking always planned to explore herinterest in art someday. But when she was diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago, she realized she shouldn't delay her passion any longer.
"Fighting that battle with breast cancer woke me up real fast," Hocking said. "It made me realize not to put things off to someday, because nobody ever knows what their someday might be. Since then I've been painting and painting and painting and I haven't looked back."
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com.
2013年7月2日星期二
Lack of proper authentication overseas led
In the wake of rising frauds in the payments space, Reserve Bank of India has said that money gets siphoned off from accounts in India by fraudsters in overseas locations through cloning of debit cards.This may be because there is no authentication process for securing transactions overseas.
“The problems relating to illegal debit card transactions happened because we are inter-linked, and the two-factor authentication and the other security measures did not exist in overseas market where these cards were cloned and used,” said G. Padmanabhan, Executive Director, RBI, at an event organised to announce a tie-up between Western Union Money Transfer and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
According to him, “Technology has enabled an inter-linked world and payment infrastructure. While this is welcome…please also remember that you are as good as the weakest link.”Urging Kotak and Western Union to put systems in place to address these concerns, Padmanabhan said some violations have started happening particularly in the area of money transfer.
Recently, some customers of private sector Axis Bank had complained of cash getting withdrawn from their accounts from overseas locations.In its investigation, the law enforcement agencies found out that fraudsters had fixed skimming devices on some ATMs so that information on the cards can be skimmed and cloned. The information was loaded on to a cloned card to make fraudulent withdrawals in Greece.
He said while the RBI is taking many new preventive measures, the system is looking for a first mover to answer “is moving to EMV chip and pin is the only solution to fraud in card transactions or are there better solutions?”Giving other suggestions, Padmanabhan said if card as a payments instrument can be replaced by mobile-based options, then cloning may not be possible. He also asked banks to aggressively explore the NEFT technology.
In the immigration bill there is a “Trojan Horse” clause known as the mandatory E-Verify system which requires all Americans to carry a “tamper-proof” social security card. Sounds to me much like we are heading into the RFID debate debate soon.
So before you can legally begin your new job, American citizens will have to show “their papers” to their prospective employer, who will have to verify their identity and eligibility to hold a job in the US by running the information through the newly-created federal E-Verify database. This does not sound so awful as we already have to provide proof of oil painting reproduction! But wait there is more!
The database which will contain photographs taken from passport files and state driver’s licenses will most likely be . The law gives federal bureaucrats broad discretion in adding other “biometric” identifiers to the database. It also gives the bureaucracy broad authority to determine what features the “tamper proof” card should contain.
One of the uses will be chip in this card that will undoubtedly also keep track of when you punch in to work and when you leave and where/when you apply for jobs. Someone could easily use this information to rob your house or know your trends. Its a complete violation of privacy. The thing is if you create a system for one use that sounds good it can easily be used for other uses that are not so good. Just look at the Patriot Act and NDAA.
Just think what has our government done write in the last 30 years? What one bill are you proud of? With a 9% approval rating what does that qualify the government to be in charge of? Why would we let the government decide who and where you work.
“Regardless of one’s views on immigration, the idea that we should have to ask permission from the federal government before taking a job ought to be offensive to all Americans. Under this system, many Americans will be denied the opportunity for work. The E-Verify database will falsely identify thousands as “ineligible,” forcing many to lose job opportunities while challenging government computer inaccuracies. E-Verify will also impose additional compliance costs on American businesses, at a time when they are struggling with Obamacare implementation and other regulations.
According to David Bier of Competitive Enterprise Institute, there is nothing stopping the use of E-Verify for purposes unrelated to work verification, and these expanded uses could be authorized by agency rule-making or executive order. So it is not inconceivable that, should this bill pass, the day may come when you are not be able to board an airplane or exercise your second amendment rights without being run through the E-Verify database. It is not outside the realm of possibility that the personal health care information that will soon be collected by the IRS and shared with other federal agencies as part of Obamacare will also be linked to the E-Verify system.
Those who dismiss these concerns as paranoid should consider that the same charges were leveled at those who warned that the PATRIOT Act could lead to the government collecting our phone records and spying on our Internet usage. Just as the PATRIOT Act was only supposed to be used against terrorists but is now used to bypass constitutional protections in matters having noting to do with terrorism or national security, the national ID/mandatory E-Verify database will not only be used to prevent illegal immigrants from gaining employment. Instead, it will eventually be used as another tool to monitor and control the American people.
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com for more information.
“The problems relating to illegal debit card transactions happened because we are inter-linked, and the two-factor authentication and the other security measures did not exist in overseas market where these cards were cloned and used,” said G. Padmanabhan, Executive Director, RBI, at an event organised to announce a tie-up between Western Union Money Transfer and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
According to him, “Technology has enabled an inter-linked world and payment infrastructure. While this is welcome…please also remember that you are as good as the weakest link.”Urging Kotak and Western Union to put systems in place to address these concerns, Padmanabhan said some violations have started happening particularly in the area of money transfer.
Recently, some customers of private sector Axis Bank had complained of cash getting withdrawn from their accounts from overseas locations.In its investigation, the law enforcement agencies found out that fraudsters had fixed skimming devices on some ATMs so that information on the cards can be skimmed and cloned. The information was loaded on to a cloned card to make fraudulent withdrawals in Greece.
He said while the RBI is taking many new preventive measures, the system is looking for a first mover to answer “is moving to EMV chip and pin is the only solution to fraud in card transactions or are there better solutions?”Giving other suggestions, Padmanabhan said if card as a payments instrument can be replaced by mobile-based options, then cloning may not be possible. He also asked banks to aggressively explore the NEFT technology.
In the immigration bill there is a “Trojan Horse” clause known as the mandatory E-Verify system which requires all Americans to carry a “tamper-proof” social security card. Sounds to me much like we are heading into the RFID debate debate soon.
So before you can legally begin your new job, American citizens will have to show “their papers” to their prospective employer, who will have to verify their identity and eligibility to hold a job in the US by running the information through the newly-created federal E-Verify database. This does not sound so awful as we already have to provide proof of oil painting reproduction! But wait there is more!
The database which will contain photographs taken from passport files and state driver’s licenses will most likely be . The law gives federal bureaucrats broad discretion in adding other “biometric” identifiers to the database. It also gives the bureaucracy broad authority to determine what features the “tamper proof” card should contain.
One of the uses will be chip in this card that will undoubtedly also keep track of when you punch in to work and when you leave and where/when you apply for jobs. Someone could easily use this information to rob your house or know your trends. Its a complete violation of privacy. The thing is if you create a system for one use that sounds good it can easily be used for other uses that are not so good. Just look at the Patriot Act and NDAA.
Just think what has our government done write in the last 30 years? What one bill are you proud of? With a 9% approval rating what does that qualify the government to be in charge of? Why would we let the government decide who and where you work.
“Regardless of one’s views on immigration, the idea that we should have to ask permission from the federal government before taking a job ought to be offensive to all Americans. Under this system, many Americans will be denied the opportunity for work. The E-Verify database will falsely identify thousands as “ineligible,” forcing many to lose job opportunities while challenging government computer inaccuracies. E-Verify will also impose additional compliance costs on American businesses, at a time when they are struggling with Obamacare implementation and other regulations.
According to David Bier of Competitive Enterprise Institute, there is nothing stopping the use of E-Verify for purposes unrelated to work verification, and these expanded uses could be authorized by agency rule-making or executive order. So it is not inconceivable that, should this bill pass, the day may come when you are not be able to board an airplane or exercise your second amendment rights without being run through the E-Verify database. It is not outside the realm of possibility that the personal health care information that will soon be collected by the IRS and shared with other federal agencies as part of Obamacare will also be linked to the E-Verify system.
Those who dismiss these concerns as paranoid should consider that the same charges were leveled at those who warned that the PATRIOT Act could lead to the government collecting our phone records and spying on our Internet usage. Just as the PATRIOT Act was only supposed to be used against terrorists but is now used to bypass constitutional protections in matters having noting to do with terrorism or national security, the national ID/mandatory E-Verify database will not only be used to prevent illegal immigrants from gaining employment. Instead, it will eventually be used as another tool to monitor and control the American people.
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com for more information.
2013年6月30日星期日
How the Temps Who Power Corporate Giants Are Getting Crushed
In cities all across the country, workers stand on street corners, line up in alleys or wait in a neon-lit beauty salon for rickety vans to whisk them off to warehouses miles away. Some vans are so packed that to get to work, people must squat on milk crates, sit on the laps of passengers they do not know or sometimes lie on the floor, the other workers’ feet on top of them.
This is not Mexico. It is not Guatemala or Honduras. This is Chicago, New Jersey, Boston.The people here are not day laborers looking for an odd job from a passing contractor. They are regular employees of temp agencies working in the supply chain of many of America’s largest companies – Walmart, Macy’s, Nike, Frito-Lay. They make our frozen pizzas, sort the recycling from our trash, cut our vegetables and clean our imported fish. They unload clothing and toys made overseas and pack them to fill our store shelves. They are as important to the global economy as shipping containers and Asian garment workers.
Many get by on minimum wage, renting rooms in rundown houses, eating dinners of beans and potatoes, and surviving on food banks and taxpayer-funded health care. They almost never get benefits and have little opportunity for advancement.
Across America, temporary work has become a mainstay of the economy, leading to the proliferation of what researchers have begun to call “temp towns.” They are often dense Latino neighborhoods teeming with temp agencies. Or they are cities where it has become nearly impossible even for whites and African-Americans with vocational training to find factory and warehouse work without first being directed to a temp firm.
In June, the Labor Department reported that the nation had more temp workers than ever before: 2.7 million. Overall, almost one-fifth of the total job growth since the recession ended in mid-2009 has been in the temp sector, federal data shows. But according to the American Staffing Association, the temp industry’s trade group, the pool is even larger: Every year, a tenth of all U.S. workers finds a job at a staffing agency.
The proportion of temp workers in the labor force reached its peak in early 2000 before the 2001 slump and then the Great Recession. But as the economy continues its slow, uneven recovery, temp work is roaring back 10 times faster than private-sector employment as a whole – a pace “exceeding even the dramatic run-up of the early 1990s,” according to the staffing association.
The overwhelming majority of that growth has come in blue-collar work in factories and warehouses, as the temp industry sheds the Kelly Girl image of the past. Last year, more than one in every 20 blue-collar workers was a temp.
Several temp agencies, such as Adecco and Manpower, are now among the largest employers in the United States. One list put Kelly Services as second only to Walmart.
“We’re seeing just more and more industries using business models that attempt to change the employment relationship or obscure the employment relationship,” said Mary Beth Maxwell, a top official in the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division. “While it’s certainly not a new phenomenon, it’s rapidly escalating. In the last 10 to 15 years, there’s just a big shift to this for a lot more workers – which makes them a lot more vulnerable.”
The temp system insulates the host companies from workers’ compensation claims, unemployment taxes, union drives and the duty to ensure that their workers are citizens or legal immigrants. In turn, the temps suffer high injury rates, according to federal officials and oil painting reproduction, and many of them endure hours of unpaid waiting and face fees that depress their pay below minimum wage.
The rise of the blue-collar permatemp helps explain one of the most troubling aspects of the phlegmatic recovery. Despite a soaring stock market and steady economic growth, many workers are returning to temporary or part-time jobs. This trend is intensifying America’s decades-long rise in income inequality, in which low- and middle-income workers have seen their real wages stagnate or decline. On average, temps earn 25 percent less than permanent workers.
Rosa, a 49-year-old Mexican immigrant with thin glasses and a curly bob of brown hair, has been a temp worker for the better part of 12 years. She has packed free samples for Walmart, put together displays for Sony, printed ads for Marlboro, made air filters for the Navy and boxed textbooks for elite colleges and universities. None of the work led to a full-time job.
Even though some assignments last months, such as her recent job packaging razors for Philips Norelco, every day is a crapshoot for Rosa. She must first check in at the temp agency in Hanover Park, Ill., by 4:30 a.m. and wait. If she is lucky enough to be called, she must then take a van or bus to the worksite. And even though the agency, Staffing Network, is her legal employer, she is not paid until she gets to the assembly line at 6 a.m.
In Kane County, Ill., where Rosa lives, one in every 16 workers is a temp. Such high concentrations of temp workers exist in Grand Rapids, Mich.; Middlesex County, N.J.; Memphis, Tenn.; the Inland Empire of California; and Lehigh County, Pa. In New Jersey, white vans zip through an old Hungarian neighborhood in New Brunswick, picking up workers at temp agencies along French Street. In Joliet, Ill., one temp agency operated out of a motel meeting room once a week, supplying labor to the layers of logistics contractors at one of Walmart’s biggest warehouses. In Greenville County, S.C., near BMW’s U.S. manufacturing plant, one in 11 workers was a temp in 2011. A decade before, it was one in 22.
In temp towns, it is not uncommon to find warehouses with virtually no employees of their own. Many temp workers say they have worked in the same factory day in and day out for years. José Miguel Rojo, for example, packed frozen pizzas for a Walmart supplier every day for eight years as a temp until he was injured last summer and lost his job.
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com for more information.
This is not Mexico. It is not Guatemala or Honduras. This is Chicago, New Jersey, Boston.The people here are not day laborers looking for an odd job from a passing contractor. They are regular employees of temp agencies working in the supply chain of many of America’s largest companies – Walmart, Macy’s, Nike, Frito-Lay. They make our frozen pizzas, sort the recycling from our trash, cut our vegetables and clean our imported fish. They unload clothing and toys made overseas and pack them to fill our store shelves. They are as important to the global economy as shipping containers and Asian garment workers.
Many get by on minimum wage, renting rooms in rundown houses, eating dinners of beans and potatoes, and surviving on food banks and taxpayer-funded health care. They almost never get benefits and have little opportunity for advancement.
Across America, temporary work has become a mainstay of the economy, leading to the proliferation of what researchers have begun to call “temp towns.” They are often dense Latino neighborhoods teeming with temp agencies. Or they are cities where it has become nearly impossible even for whites and African-Americans with vocational training to find factory and warehouse work without first being directed to a temp firm.
In June, the Labor Department reported that the nation had more temp workers than ever before: 2.7 million. Overall, almost one-fifth of the total job growth since the recession ended in mid-2009 has been in the temp sector, federal data shows. But according to the American Staffing Association, the temp industry’s trade group, the pool is even larger: Every year, a tenth of all U.S. workers finds a job at a staffing agency.
The proportion of temp workers in the labor force reached its peak in early 2000 before the 2001 slump and then the Great Recession. But as the economy continues its slow, uneven recovery, temp work is roaring back 10 times faster than private-sector employment as a whole – a pace “exceeding even the dramatic run-up of the early 1990s,” according to the staffing association.
The overwhelming majority of that growth has come in blue-collar work in factories and warehouses, as the temp industry sheds the Kelly Girl image of the past. Last year, more than one in every 20 blue-collar workers was a temp.
Several temp agencies, such as Adecco and Manpower, are now among the largest employers in the United States. One list put Kelly Services as second only to Walmart.
“We’re seeing just more and more industries using business models that attempt to change the employment relationship or obscure the employment relationship,” said Mary Beth Maxwell, a top official in the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division. “While it’s certainly not a new phenomenon, it’s rapidly escalating. In the last 10 to 15 years, there’s just a big shift to this for a lot more workers – which makes them a lot more vulnerable.”
The temp system insulates the host companies from workers’ compensation claims, unemployment taxes, union drives and the duty to ensure that their workers are citizens or legal immigrants. In turn, the temps suffer high injury rates, according to federal officials and oil painting reproduction, and many of them endure hours of unpaid waiting and face fees that depress their pay below minimum wage.
The rise of the blue-collar permatemp helps explain one of the most troubling aspects of the phlegmatic recovery. Despite a soaring stock market and steady economic growth, many workers are returning to temporary or part-time jobs. This trend is intensifying America’s decades-long rise in income inequality, in which low- and middle-income workers have seen their real wages stagnate or decline. On average, temps earn 25 percent less than permanent workers.
Rosa, a 49-year-old Mexican immigrant with thin glasses and a curly bob of brown hair, has been a temp worker for the better part of 12 years. She has packed free samples for Walmart, put together displays for Sony, printed ads for Marlboro, made air filters for the Navy and boxed textbooks for elite colleges and universities. None of the work led to a full-time job.
Even though some assignments last months, such as her recent job packaging razors for Philips Norelco, every day is a crapshoot for Rosa. She must first check in at the temp agency in Hanover Park, Ill., by 4:30 a.m. and wait. If she is lucky enough to be called, she must then take a van or bus to the worksite. And even though the agency, Staffing Network, is her legal employer, she is not paid until she gets to the assembly line at 6 a.m.
In Kane County, Ill., where Rosa lives, one in every 16 workers is a temp. Such high concentrations of temp workers exist in Grand Rapids, Mich.; Middlesex County, N.J.; Memphis, Tenn.; the Inland Empire of California; and Lehigh County, Pa. In New Jersey, white vans zip through an old Hungarian neighborhood in New Brunswick, picking up workers at temp agencies along French Street. In Joliet, Ill., one temp agency operated out of a motel meeting room once a week, supplying labor to the layers of logistics contractors at one of Walmart’s biggest warehouses. In Greenville County, S.C., near BMW’s U.S. manufacturing plant, one in 11 workers was a temp in 2011. A decade before, it was one in 22.
In temp towns, it is not uncommon to find warehouses with virtually no employees of their own. Many temp workers say they have worked in the same factory day in and day out for years. José Miguel Rojo, for example, packed frozen pizzas for a Walmart supplier every day for eight years as a temp until he was injured last summer and lost his job.
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com for more information.
2013年6月27日星期四
Mandela still critical, improved overnight
Nelson Mandela's health improved overnight and although his condition remains critical it is now stable, the South African government said Thursday. One of the former president's daughters said he was still opening his eyes and reacting to the touch of his family even though his situation was precarious.
The report that the health of the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader had taken a turn for the better came amid a growing sense in South Africa that Mandela was approaching the end of his life. Well-wishers have delivered flowers and messages of support to the Pretoria hospital where he is being treated, and prayer sessions were held around the country on Thursday.
President Jacob Zuma's office said in a statement that he received the encouraging update from the medical team that is treating Mandela. Zuma had canceled an international trip on Thursday, instead visiting Mandela for the second time in two days.
"I canceled my visit to Mozambique today so that I can see him and confer with the doctors," Zuma said in the statement. "He is much better today than he was when I saw him last night."
In April, Zuma gave an overly upbeat assessment about Mandela's condition. At that time, state television broadcast footage of a visit by Zuma and other political leaders to Mandela's home. Zuma said at the time that Mandela was in good shape, but the footage showed him silent and unresponsive, even when Zuma tried to hold his hand.
Mandela, who was imprisoned for 27 years during white racist rule and became president in all-race elections in 1994, was taken to a hospital on June 8 for what the government said was a recurring lung infection.
The president's office said it was disturbed by what it called rumors about Mandela's health and appealed for respect for the privacy and dignity of the former leader. Unconfirmed reports about Mandela have swirled on social media and other forums.
Mandela's condition is acknowledged to be grave. He is on life support systems, according to a few television networks that quote anonymous sources, and presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj has declined to confirm or deny those reports.
Makaziwe Mandela, one of Mandela's daughters, echoed the criticism, saying foreign media coverage of her father's illness had become intrusive, particularly at the Pretoria hospital where many
"There's sort of a racist element with many of the foreign media, where they just cross boundaries," she said in the SABC interview. "It's like truly vultures waiting when a lion has devoured a buffalo, waiting there for the last carcasses. That's the image that we have, as a family."
In comments posted on the SABC web site, Makaziwe Mandela said "anything is imminent" because her father, referred to affectionately by many South Africans as "Tata," or "Father," is in a very critical state.
"I want to emphasize again that it's only God who knows when the time to go is," she said. "So we will wait with Tata. He's still giving us hope by opening his eyes, he's still reactive to touch, we will live with that hope until the final end comes."
Beginning a trip to Africa, President Obama said in Senegal on Thursday that his thoughts and prayers were with South Africans and in particular the Mandela family. He said he was inspired, as a law school student in the early 1990s, to see Mandela step forward after decades of imprisonment to help deliver democracy in a spirit of reconciliation with his former captors.
"It gave me a sense of what is possible in the world when righteous people, when people of good will, work together on behalf of a larger cause," said Obama, who described Mandela as a personal hero."And if and when he passes from this place, one thing I think we'll all know is that his legacy is one that will linger on throughout the ages," Obama said.
In Jerusalem, the visiting archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said Mandela has been in his thoughts and prayers."We're praying constantly for President Mandela, especially for his family, for the people of South Africa and for peace in their hearts and minds of what must be a very traumatic time for them," he said at an interfaith meeting.
Mandela's 95th birthday is on July 18, an occasion ahead of which South African organizers and others around the world are planning humanitarian acts to honor the legacy of the former president. Samson Divhula, a statistician in Pretoria, said he hoped Mandela would live to celebrate his day.
Seems like not much has changed in the world of Chick-fil-A. After the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act on Wednesday, the restaurant chain's president and chief operating officer, Dan Cathy, apparently tweeted an anti-gay response to the ruling.
The court ruled Wednesday morning that DOMA, which barred the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, even in states where the union has already been legalized, is unconstitutional. Following the decision, the Supreme Court also dropped the case for Proposition 8, California's same-sex marriage ban.
Upon hearing the news, some celebrated for equality while others complained about how society has changed for the worse. Cathy, who made headlines last summer for saying his company supports the "biblical definition" of marriage, stood with the latter camp.
The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy reporter Charles Passy was the first to report that Cathy reportedly tweeted an anti-gay marriage statement following the DOMA verdict. A reader sent Passy the tweet, which said it was a "sad day" for the nation and that the "founding fathers would be ashamed." The post has been deleted.
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com for more information.
The report that the health of the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader had taken a turn for the better came amid a growing sense in South Africa that Mandela was approaching the end of his life. Well-wishers have delivered flowers and messages of support to the Pretoria hospital where he is being treated, and prayer sessions were held around the country on Thursday.
President Jacob Zuma's office said in a statement that he received the encouraging update from the medical team that is treating Mandela. Zuma had canceled an international trip on Thursday, instead visiting Mandela for the second time in two days.
"I canceled my visit to Mozambique today so that I can see him and confer with the doctors," Zuma said in the statement. "He is much better today than he was when I saw him last night."
In April, Zuma gave an overly upbeat assessment about Mandela's condition. At that time, state television broadcast footage of a visit by Zuma and other political leaders to Mandela's home. Zuma said at the time that Mandela was in good shape, but the footage showed him silent and unresponsive, even when Zuma tried to hold his hand.
Mandela, who was imprisoned for 27 years during white racist rule and became president in all-race elections in 1994, was taken to a hospital on June 8 for what the government said was a recurring lung infection.
The president's office said it was disturbed by what it called rumors about Mandela's health and appealed for respect for the privacy and dignity of the former leader. Unconfirmed reports about Mandela have swirled on social media and other forums.
Mandela's condition is acknowledged to be grave. He is on life support systems, according to a few television networks that quote anonymous sources, and presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj has declined to confirm or deny those reports.
Makaziwe Mandela, one of Mandela's daughters, echoed the criticism, saying foreign media coverage of her father's illness had become intrusive, particularly at the Pretoria hospital where many
"There's sort of a racist element with many of the foreign media, where they just cross boundaries," she said in the SABC interview. "It's like truly vultures waiting when a lion has devoured a buffalo, waiting there for the last carcasses. That's the image that we have, as a family."
In comments posted on the SABC web site, Makaziwe Mandela said "anything is imminent" because her father, referred to affectionately by many South Africans as "Tata," or "Father," is in a very critical state.
"I want to emphasize again that it's only God who knows when the time to go is," she said. "So we will wait with Tata. He's still giving us hope by opening his eyes, he's still reactive to touch, we will live with that hope until the final end comes."
Beginning a trip to Africa, President Obama said in Senegal on Thursday that his thoughts and prayers were with South Africans and in particular the Mandela family. He said he was inspired, as a law school student in the early 1990s, to see Mandela step forward after decades of imprisonment to help deliver democracy in a spirit of reconciliation with his former captors.
"It gave me a sense of what is possible in the world when righteous people, when people of good will, work together on behalf of a larger cause," said Obama, who described Mandela as a personal hero."And if and when he passes from this place, one thing I think we'll all know is that his legacy is one that will linger on throughout the ages," Obama said.
In Jerusalem, the visiting archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said Mandela has been in his thoughts and prayers."We're praying constantly for President Mandela, especially for his family, for the people of South Africa and for peace in their hearts and minds of what must be a very traumatic time for them," he said at an interfaith meeting.
Mandela's 95th birthday is on July 18, an occasion ahead of which South African organizers and others around the world are planning humanitarian acts to honor the legacy of the former president. Samson Divhula, a statistician in Pretoria, said he hoped Mandela would live to celebrate his day.
Seems like not much has changed in the world of Chick-fil-A. After the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act on Wednesday, the restaurant chain's president and chief operating officer, Dan Cathy, apparently tweeted an anti-gay response to the ruling.
The court ruled Wednesday morning that DOMA, which barred the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, even in states where the union has already been legalized, is unconstitutional. Following the decision, the Supreme Court also dropped the case for Proposition 8, California's same-sex marriage ban.
Upon hearing the news, some celebrated for equality while others complained about how society has changed for the worse. Cathy, who made headlines last summer for saying his company supports the "biblical definition" of marriage, stood with the latter camp.
The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy reporter Charles Passy was the first to report that Cathy reportedly tweeted an anti-gay marriage statement following the DOMA verdict. A reader sent Passy the tweet, which said it was a "sad day" for the nation and that the "founding fathers would be ashamed." The post has been deleted.
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com for more information.
2013年6月25日星期二
Helping hands reach out
Soon after a storm ripped through the Calvary Church in Muscatine, tearing apart the ceiling and auditorium and leaving a path of destruction in its wake, church members began showing up to help rebuild. Volunteers were on the scene even before emergency service personnel.
Austin Newton, an audio/visual employee for the church, was at the church during the storm — one of only four who were at the church at that time. About 10 minutes before it hit, he was in the auditorium, testing the sound equipment."The scary thing to think of is I was in the epicenter of where everything happened only moments before," Newton said. "There was no warning. I can't explain how fast everything happened."
By the time the rain began pouring and the winds began to pick up, Newton and a maintenance employee were in the nursery, but quickly ran to the bathroom for safety as the weather intensified. "When we emerged, we heard running water and saw the damage that was done to the building," Newton said. "We found two ladies in the office and helped them get to a safe place."
Soon after the storm cleared, Newton said he helped turn off the power and utilities. Newton said the first person he saw was congregation member Luke Noble, who helped clear computers and office supplies out of the building."Community Bank of Muscatine, the bank that owns the building previously held by Blockbuster (across the street from the church), is allowing us to store some equipment there as we clean up," Newton said.
Ty Thomas, lead pastor at Calvary Church, said he's thankful the church was closed on Mondays and only a few people were in the building at the time.Throughout the oil painting reproduction, fire sprinklers were ripped out, causing around six inches of water to flood the church. Church members from ages 6 to 80 were volunteering to help clean up.
"At least 100 people showed up last night to help clean up debris from the building," Thomas said. "People showed up early Tuesday, too, to help continue cleaning."
Church staff member Susan Orvis said at least 100 people signed up as volunteers Tuesday morning, cleaning up debris in and outside the church, drying the carpet in the building and clearing out damaged furniture and supplies.Thomas said that a few members of the church even volunteered to stay the night to prevent looting.
"There's no church here, but church is more than a building, it's where the people gather," Thomas said, adding that they've rented a tent to hold services outside this Sunday at 10 a.m. in the parking lot. "We're blessed that nobody was hurt."
Monday's storm, which the National Weather Service said included a tornado, left a path of destruction which brought down tree limbs inside the city, as well as traveling along the Douglas King Memorial Expressway, leaving building debris along the way en route to rural Muscatine, where it ravaged Judy and Kenny Connor's farm at 2876 New Era Road.
Judy wasn't home at the time, but she said her husband was."He said he was looking out the window and all of a sudden the barn was gone," Judy said.The family lost two machine sheds, a silo, grain bins and a barn. No livestock was lost, according to Kenny.
"All of our neighbors and family were here soon after the storm passed to help begin cleaning up," Judy said. "There were a couple of amateur storm chasers here [Monday] night who said that when wood is lodged in the ground and you can't get it out, that winds could have reached up to 180 miles per hour."
Kenny said that as soon as he was able to, he began cleaning up, putting wood in piles to burn and metal in piles to be collected."We're just making it so we can maneuver around," Kenny said. "Some of these buildings were from the 1950s. Sixty years of stuff gone in an instant."
Download progress is shown right there on the screen, with a progress bar right on the tile of the game. And once a game is downloaded it is automatically installed and made ready to play. Originally that was a two step process.
There are a lot of other issues that have been improved. Supposedly there'll be prepaid currency cards available for people who don't want to attach a credit card to their Ouya account. There are rudimentary parental controls in there now (a passcode, basically) though the company plans to continue to improve that system. And you can finally turn the thing off from the controller.
Of course the hardware doesn't matter if the games aren't any good. While I feel like the Ouya library is continually improving, it's still a definite weak point (though I'm hoping we'll see some big launches today); there are still a lot of pretty rough 8-bit style games quickly put together by small teams in the library and you're going to have to open a lot of oysters to find the pearls in there. The good news is that every game (and Ouya claims on their website that there are 168 games in there) has a free component so you can sample them all before spending a dime.
Ouya CEO Julie Urhman did an interview with Polygon yesterday that's worth reading if you're on the fence and want to get an idea of what direction the company is headed in. For instance there are really no social elements (Friend lists, leaderboards, etc) on the Ouya now and adding these features is a pretty big priority for the company.
So should you buy an Ouya today? I think it really depends on how adventurous you are. If you want a game system with a nicely curated list of highly polished games then no, skip the Ouya for now. But if you're the type of gamer who is interested to see what kinds of crazy things Indie game developers can come up with, then you'll probably get your $100 worth of enjoyment out of it.
Austin Newton, an audio/visual employee for the church, was at the church during the storm — one of only four who were at the church at that time. About 10 minutes before it hit, he was in the auditorium, testing the sound equipment."The scary thing to think of is I was in the epicenter of where everything happened only moments before," Newton said. "There was no warning. I can't explain how fast everything happened."
By the time the rain began pouring and the winds began to pick up, Newton and a maintenance employee were in the nursery, but quickly ran to the bathroom for safety as the weather intensified. "When we emerged, we heard running water and saw the damage that was done to the building," Newton said. "We found two ladies in the office and helped them get to a safe place."
Soon after the storm cleared, Newton said he helped turn off the power and utilities. Newton said the first person he saw was congregation member Luke Noble, who helped clear computers and office supplies out of the building."Community Bank of Muscatine, the bank that owns the building previously held by Blockbuster (across the street from the church), is allowing us to store some equipment there as we clean up," Newton said.
Ty Thomas, lead pastor at Calvary Church, said he's thankful the church was closed on Mondays and only a few people were in the building at the time.Throughout the oil painting reproduction, fire sprinklers were ripped out, causing around six inches of water to flood the church. Church members from ages 6 to 80 were volunteering to help clean up.
"At least 100 people showed up last night to help clean up debris from the building," Thomas said. "People showed up early Tuesday, too, to help continue cleaning."
Church staff member Susan Orvis said at least 100 people signed up as volunteers Tuesday morning, cleaning up debris in and outside the church, drying the carpet in the building and clearing out damaged furniture and supplies.Thomas said that a few members of the church even volunteered to stay the night to prevent looting.
"There's no church here, but church is more than a building, it's where the people gather," Thomas said, adding that they've rented a tent to hold services outside this Sunday at 10 a.m. in the parking lot. "We're blessed that nobody was hurt."
Monday's storm, which the National Weather Service said included a tornado, left a path of destruction which brought down tree limbs inside the city, as well as traveling along the Douglas King Memorial Expressway, leaving building debris along the way en route to rural Muscatine, where it ravaged Judy and Kenny Connor's farm at 2876 New Era Road.
Judy wasn't home at the time, but she said her husband was."He said he was looking out the window and all of a sudden the barn was gone," Judy said.The family lost two machine sheds, a silo, grain bins and a barn. No livestock was lost, according to Kenny.
"All of our neighbors and family were here soon after the storm passed to help begin cleaning up," Judy said. "There were a couple of amateur storm chasers here [Monday] night who said that when wood is lodged in the ground and you can't get it out, that winds could have reached up to 180 miles per hour."
Kenny said that as soon as he was able to, he began cleaning up, putting wood in piles to burn and metal in piles to be collected."We're just making it so we can maneuver around," Kenny said. "Some of these buildings were from the 1950s. Sixty years of stuff gone in an instant."
Download progress is shown right there on the screen, with a progress bar right on the tile of the game. And once a game is downloaded it is automatically installed and made ready to play. Originally that was a two step process.
There are a lot of other issues that have been improved. Supposedly there'll be prepaid currency cards available for people who don't want to attach a credit card to their Ouya account. There are rudimentary parental controls in there now (a passcode, basically) though the company plans to continue to improve that system. And you can finally turn the thing off from the controller.
Of course the hardware doesn't matter if the games aren't any good. While I feel like the Ouya library is continually improving, it's still a definite weak point (though I'm hoping we'll see some big launches today); there are still a lot of pretty rough 8-bit style games quickly put together by small teams in the library and you're going to have to open a lot of oysters to find the pearls in there. The good news is that every game (and Ouya claims on their website that there are 168 games in there) has a free component so you can sample them all before spending a dime.
Ouya CEO Julie Urhman did an interview with Polygon yesterday that's worth reading if you're on the fence and want to get an idea of what direction the company is headed in. For instance there are really no social elements (Friend lists, leaderboards, etc) on the Ouya now and adding these features is a pretty big priority for the company.
So should you buy an Ouya today? I think it really depends on how adventurous you are. If you want a game system with a nicely curated list of highly polished games then no, skip the Ouya for now. But if you're the type of gamer who is interested to see what kinds of crazy things Indie game developers can come up with, then you'll probably get your $100 worth of enjoyment out of it.
2013年6月23日星期日
Hands across the gap
AS I suggested in a recent posting, Pope Francis said something quite profound, and provocative, when he declared in his folksy way that the atheist and the believer could "meet each other" by doing good. In almost every democracy, there is a lot of hard debate about the terms on which people of different religions and none can or should co-operate to achieve common goals, which might be social, political or humanitarian.
A British think-tank, Theos, is plunging into this discussion. Theos is a body that commands attention, and not just by virtue of its name, which is the Greek for God. It was launched with some fanfare in 2006 by the leaders of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. From an office a stone's throw from the Palace of Westminster, it opines on the public role of faith in a country that combines Christian institutions and public symbols, an intensely secular intelligentsia and a messy multi-faith reality.
The body's latest report is a clarion call for "political friendships across difference" in which people of various faiths and no faith form local coalitions to attain their ends. The author, David Barclay, starts with a couple of points on which many secular thinkers would agree. Public endeavours of any kind are likely to be coalitions, in a country where not only churches but political parties and trade unions have seen a tumble in membership. And "state multiculturalism"—helping religious and ethnic groups to assert their distinctiveness—is widely seen as a dangerous failure, at risk of turning the nation into self-contained blocks that hardly touch.
The answer? People with contrasting ideas about the ultimate can get to know and respect one another by working together to change everyday reality in big and small ways. The author acknowledges his debt to the Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, who has said faith groups should stand "side by side" at a common coal-face rather than face to face. But in his report, "Making Multiculturalism Work", Mr Barclay goes on to challenge some secularist thinking about broad coalitions. He insists that religious partners in any project should be free to talk about their motives; otherwise friendships will be superficial. As an example of secularist thinking which in his view demands too much, he cites a contributor to a Labour website who puts her case like this:
The question for me is, would I be a friend with someone who thinks my sexuality, or right of access to contraception or abortion is inherently wrong? I would not. Why are making these exceptions seen as not a problem when we deal with faith groups?
Mr Barclay says this seems "a truly extraordinary view of friendship" because it could ultimately "rule out the possibility of being friends with anyone who disagrees on anything of fundamental importance."
Which point of view is closer to real life? It is both difficult, and sometimes necessary, to establish friendships with people whose views on fundamental matters are at odds with our own. What makes the difference, in general, is the strength of the incentive to collaborate. Often the best glue for a coalition is the negative sort—the desire to overcome a common foe or to stop something undesirable. The biggest street demonstration in British history (against the imminent Iraq war, in February 2003) was mainly organised by two small, pragmatic groups whose world-views are utterly at odds: the (Trotskyist) Socialist Workers' Party and the Muslim Association of Britain. Women in hijab marched alongside comrades who sported piercings and tattoos. In the local politics of several European cities there is ad-hoc co-operation between devout Muslims and gay-rights advocates; both groups gravitate towards city centres, and both feel historically disadvantaged.
Against a common adversary, almost any combination of human beings can be friends. In the street protests now raging in Turkey, bohemians and liberals march alongside some devout Muslims, Turkish nationalists share the street with advocates of ethnic minorities. Rage with the existing order can be a wonderful unifier. Bringing diverse people together for some more constructive cause is harder, but not impossible if everybody really wants to get the job done.
Venezuela has operated currency controls for a decade, and restricted access to dollars at the official rate of 6.3 bolivars are a major gripe for local businesses and a cause of the OPEC member's slowing growth rate.
The Finance Ministry source said the government of newly-elected President Nicolas Maduro will in July allow a renewal of the so-called Sicad system. In a first round in March of this year, dollars were sold to businesses for reportedly as much as 14 bolivars apiece.
After another Sicad auction, authorities will then allow a revival of a system prohibited since 2010, under which dollars are sold by private brokers at a floating rate determined by a complicated formula linked to bond prices, the source added.
One local think-tank, Ecoanalitica, estimates that some 140 billion U.S. dollars have left the country illicitly since the currency controls were first put in place by Chavez's government in 2003.
Maduro argues that private businessmen and capitalist "speculators" have been deliberately hoarding consumer products and sabotaging the economy in order to undermine his rule.
In the first quarter of this year, the state currency board Cadivi opened investigations into more than 2,400 companies and suspended more than 200 for what it termed foreign exchange "irregularities."
Until it was shuttered by the government in May 2010, scores of brokerages had reaped a lucrative trade in foreign exchange through bond swaps in what was known as the "parallel market."
That amounted to a $30 billion a year market and provided dollars for, by some estimates, at least a quarter of imports, before the authorities raided many of the brokerages, which the Chavez government had accused of illegal money laundering and unchecked speculation.
With inflation running at a record monthly high of 6.1 percent in May and growth slowing to just 0.7 percent in the first quarter despite high oil prices, Maduro has inherited economic headaches only two months into his new job.
Next month's revival of Sicad is unlikely to bring quick relief. Only $200 million was sold at the auction in March, while economists estimate that the Venezuelan economy needs around $100 million per day to cover the imports it needs.
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com for more information.
A British think-tank, Theos, is plunging into this discussion. Theos is a body that commands attention, and not just by virtue of its name, which is the Greek for God. It was launched with some fanfare in 2006 by the leaders of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. From an office a stone's throw from the Palace of Westminster, it opines on the public role of faith in a country that combines Christian institutions and public symbols, an intensely secular intelligentsia and a messy multi-faith reality.
The body's latest report is a clarion call for "political friendships across difference" in which people of various faiths and no faith form local coalitions to attain their ends. The author, David Barclay, starts with a couple of points on which many secular thinkers would agree. Public endeavours of any kind are likely to be coalitions, in a country where not only churches but political parties and trade unions have seen a tumble in membership. And "state multiculturalism"—helping religious and ethnic groups to assert their distinctiveness—is widely seen as a dangerous failure, at risk of turning the nation into self-contained blocks that hardly touch.
The answer? People with contrasting ideas about the ultimate can get to know and respect one another by working together to change everyday reality in big and small ways. The author acknowledges his debt to the Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, who has said faith groups should stand "side by side" at a common coal-face rather than face to face. But in his report, "Making Multiculturalism Work", Mr Barclay goes on to challenge some secularist thinking about broad coalitions. He insists that religious partners in any project should be free to talk about their motives; otherwise friendships will be superficial. As an example of secularist thinking which in his view demands too much, he cites a contributor to a Labour website who puts her case like this:
The question for me is, would I be a friend with someone who thinks my sexuality, or right of access to contraception or abortion is inherently wrong? I would not. Why are making these exceptions seen as not a problem when we deal with faith groups?
Mr Barclay says this seems "a truly extraordinary view of friendship" because it could ultimately "rule out the possibility of being friends with anyone who disagrees on anything of fundamental importance."
Which point of view is closer to real life? It is both difficult, and sometimes necessary, to establish friendships with people whose views on fundamental matters are at odds with our own. What makes the difference, in general, is the strength of the incentive to collaborate. Often the best glue for a coalition is the negative sort—the desire to overcome a common foe or to stop something undesirable. The biggest street demonstration in British history (against the imminent Iraq war, in February 2003) was mainly organised by two small, pragmatic groups whose world-views are utterly at odds: the (Trotskyist) Socialist Workers' Party and the Muslim Association of Britain. Women in hijab marched alongside comrades who sported piercings and tattoos. In the local politics of several European cities there is ad-hoc co-operation between devout Muslims and gay-rights advocates; both groups gravitate towards city centres, and both feel historically disadvantaged.
Against a common adversary, almost any combination of human beings can be friends. In the street protests now raging in Turkey, bohemians and liberals march alongside some devout Muslims, Turkish nationalists share the street with advocates of ethnic minorities. Rage with the existing order can be a wonderful unifier. Bringing diverse people together for some more constructive cause is harder, but not impossible if everybody really wants to get the job done.
Venezuela has operated currency controls for a decade, and restricted access to dollars at the official rate of 6.3 bolivars are a major gripe for local businesses and a cause of the OPEC member's slowing growth rate.
The Finance Ministry source said the government of newly-elected President Nicolas Maduro will in July allow a renewal of the so-called Sicad system. In a first round in March of this year, dollars were sold to businesses for reportedly as much as 14 bolivars apiece.
After another Sicad auction, authorities will then allow a revival of a system prohibited since 2010, under which dollars are sold by private brokers at a floating rate determined by a complicated formula linked to bond prices, the source added.
One local think-tank, Ecoanalitica, estimates that some 140 billion U.S. dollars have left the country illicitly since the currency controls were first put in place by Chavez's government in 2003.
Maduro argues that private businessmen and capitalist "speculators" have been deliberately hoarding consumer products and sabotaging the economy in order to undermine his rule.
In the first quarter of this year, the state currency board Cadivi opened investigations into more than 2,400 companies and suspended more than 200 for what it termed foreign exchange "irregularities."
Until it was shuttered by the government in May 2010, scores of brokerages had reaped a lucrative trade in foreign exchange through bond swaps in what was known as the "parallel market."
That amounted to a $30 billion a year market and provided dollars for, by some estimates, at least a quarter of imports, before the authorities raided many of the brokerages, which the Chavez government had accused of illegal money laundering and unchecked speculation.
With inflation running at a record monthly high of 6.1 percent in May and growth slowing to just 0.7 percent in the first quarter despite high oil prices, Maduro has inherited economic headaches only two months into his new job.
Next month's revival of Sicad is unlikely to bring quick relief. Only $200 million was sold at the auction in March, while economists estimate that the Venezuelan economy needs around $100 million per day to cover the imports it needs.
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com for more information.
2013年6月20日星期四
EMV Migration Forum to address ATM
The EMV Migration Forum, an independent cross-industry organization, was formed to address issues that require broad cooperation and coordination across the payments space in order to successfully introduce secure EMV contact and contactless technology in the United States. Forum membership has grown to 135 member organizations from the entire payments industry, including global payment brands, financial institutions, merchants, processors, acquirers, regional debit networks, industry suppliers and industry associations.
"The tremendous growth of our membership and their broad cross-industry participation in the working committees has allowed us to create new committees to address additional challenges that are critical to a successful move to EMV," said Randy Vanderhoof, director of the EMV Migration Forum. "Having committees dedicated to providing input, solutions and expertise to address challenges with ATM and card-not-present transactions will complement our other projects and allow even more individuals and organizations to have a voice in U.S. EMV migration."
The two new committees have quickly aligned around goals and initial projects. They join the Communications and Education, Debit, U.S. Coordination, and Certification and Testing Working Committees in carrying out the work and the vision of the Forum.
The goal of the ATM Working Committee is to create a more positive EMV migration experience for consumers. To achieve this, the committee will explore the challenges of EMV migration for the U.S. ATM industry, work to identify possible solutions to challenges, and facilitate the sharing of best practices with the various industry constituents.
The goal of the Card-Not-Present Fraud Working Committee is to create a comprehensive best practices strategy to mitigate card-not-present fraud in the new EMV chip card environment, using a balanced approach considering all key stakeholders - issuers, consumers, merchants, acquirers, networks and third parties.
The upcoming June meeting will update attendees on the progress being made by the working committees and include working sessions for attendees to explore in more detail the key challenges that the payments industry faces in moving to EMV. In addition, there will be several stakeholder updates and EMV educational sessions to provide members with the latest EMV information.
And so, the taekwondo black belt who has been participating in that sport as well as training in MMA since his age was in single digits is set for a bigger opportunity. Pegg (5-1) is now headlines Friday's Resurrection Fighting Alliance 8 card in Milwaukee against notable flyweight prospect Sergio Pettis (7-0).
Without much time, Pegg hurried this week to cut weight and prepare for a fight that he considers an opportunity he couldn't pass up. Instead, like many MMA fighters are forced to do, he stayed prepared for a chance that might or might not come, quickly took care of the short-notice fighting responsibilities and got to Wisconsin to get himself ready.
Fights are set up with little notice all the time, but not every spectator understands all the elements that are involved for a fighter. Aside from the weight cuts, there are physicals and blood work and other responsibilities.
He grew up in Ohio with a family that expanded when his parents divorced and then remarried, so he now has seven brothers and sisters. His parents recognized he was better at individual activities, so at 9 years old they got him involved in taekwondo.
The school, about 20 minutes away from his home, ended up being a perfect place for him to develop his skills, he said.
Because the instructor happened to be large and imposing at the same time, everyone listened, and Pegg stayed involved. He trained in taekwondo for about six years, but then he moved away from his training as he got into high school and found some other interests – and "got a little rowdy, kind of a party, crazy kid," he said.
He stayed away from martial arts for several years, in part because he didn't find competitions that interested him. Then he, like many others, found the interest in MMA exploding and wanted that kind of competition.
"In my first MMA class, I go in there thinking I'm this taekwondo black belt with a chip on my shoulder and that it's going to be no problem," he said. "Then I got my ass kicked. That first day, they took it to me."
That made for a steep learning curve, but it was one Pegg relished. He was balancing his training with his full-time work in construction, and he knew he wanted to fight.
Pegg compiled about 14 amateur fights by the time he became a professional in 2011, though he likes to say that those don't count the number of significant matchups he faced in his training. Using a philosophy that would come back full circle this week, he felt it wasn't more preparation that was needed, but experience.
"If you're ready to fight, then you're ready to fight," he said. "It doesn't matter how long you've been training or what you've been doing. You just have to be ready."
So, he stayed ready, compiling an impressive early record. It had been tough training for his most recent fight on June 7, so he was ready to take a break. Then he got the call from a teammate who said a slot had opened up on the RFA 8 card, and he wanted Pegg to take it.
His first reaction, admittedly, was "Aw, [expletive]." But it didn't take long, he said, for him to realize an opportunity like this was worth the second weight cut in a short time and the quick turnaround.
That's life in MMA. Because lineups can change quickly, it's even more important for fighters to stay sharp and be ready for a short-notice phone call. That's how Pegg is approaching his latest opportunity.
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com for more information.
"The tremendous growth of our membership and their broad cross-industry participation in the working committees has allowed us to create new committees to address additional challenges that are critical to a successful move to EMV," said Randy Vanderhoof, director of the EMV Migration Forum. "Having committees dedicated to providing input, solutions and expertise to address challenges with ATM and card-not-present transactions will complement our other projects and allow even more individuals and organizations to have a voice in U.S. EMV migration."
The two new committees have quickly aligned around goals and initial projects. They join the Communications and Education, Debit, U.S. Coordination, and Certification and Testing Working Committees in carrying out the work and the vision of the Forum.
The goal of the ATM Working Committee is to create a more positive EMV migration experience for consumers. To achieve this, the committee will explore the challenges of EMV migration for the U.S. ATM industry, work to identify possible solutions to challenges, and facilitate the sharing of best practices with the various industry constituents.
The goal of the Card-Not-Present Fraud Working Committee is to create a comprehensive best practices strategy to mitigate card-not-present fraud in the new EMV chip card environment, using a balanced approach considering all key stakeholders - issuers, consumers, merchants, acquirers, networks and third parties.
The upcoming June meeting will update attendees on the progress being made by the working committees and include working sessions for attendees to explore in more detail the key challenges that the payments industry faces in moving to EMV. In addition, there will be several stakeholder updates and EMV educational sessions to provide members with the latest EMV information.
And so, the taekwondo black belt who has been participating in that sport as well as training in MMA since his age was in single digits is set for a bigger opportunity. Pegg (5-1) is now headlines Friday's Resurrection Fighting Alliance 8 card in Milwaukee against notable flyweight prospect Sergio Pettis (7-0).
Without much time, Pegg hurried this week to cut weight and prepare for a fight that he considers an opportunity he couldn't pass up. Instead, like many MMA fighters are forced to do, he stayed prepared for a chance that might or might not come, quickly took care of the short-notice fighting responsibilities and got to Wisconsin to get himself ready.
Fights are set up with little notice all the time, but not every spectator understands all the elements that are involved for a fighter. Aside from the weight cuts, there are physicals and blood work and other responsibilities.
He grew up in Ohio with a family that expanded when his parents divorced and then remarried, so he now has seven brothers and sisters. His parents recognized he was better at individual activities, so at 9 years old they got him involved in taekwondo.
The school, about 20 minutes away from his home, ended up being a perfect place for him to develop his skills, he said.
Because the instructor happened to be large and imposing at the same time, everyone listened, and Pegg stayed involved. He trained in taekwondo for about six years, but then he moved away from his training as he got into high school and found some other interests – and "got a little rowdy, kind of a party, crazy kid," he said.
He stayed away from martial arts for several years, in part because he didn't find competitions that interested him. Then he, like many others, found the interest in MMA exploding and wanted that kind of competition.
"In my first MMA class, I go in there thinking I'm this taekwondo black belt with a chip on my shoulder and that it's going to be no problem," he said. "Then I got my ass kicked. That first day, they took it to me."
That made for a steep learning curve, but it was one Pegg relished. He was balancing his training with his full-time work in construction, and he knew he wanted to fight.
Pegg compiled about 14 amateur fights by the time he became a professional in 2011, though he likes to say that those don't count the number of significant matchups he faced in his training. Using a philosophy that would come back full circle this week, he felt it wasn't more preparation that was needed, but experience.
"If you're ready to fight, then you're ready to fight," he said. "It doesn't matter how long you've been training or what you've been doing. You just have to be ready."
So, he stayed ready, compiling an impressive early record. It had been tough training for his most recent fight on June 7, so he was ready to take a break. Then he got the call from a teammate who said a slot had opened up on the RFA 8 card, and he wanted Pegg to take it.
His first reaction, admittedly, was "Aw, [expletive]." But it didn't take long, he said, for him to realize an opportunity like this was worth the second weight cut in a short time and the quick turnaround.
That's life in MMA. Because lineups can change quickly, it's even more important for fighters to stay sharp and be ready for a short-notice phone call. That's how Pegg is approaching his latest opportunity.
Click on their website www.artsunlight.com for more information.
2013年6月8日星期六
Whether mobile payments can prop up small businesses
UK businesses add billions to the economy but lately it seems the odds are stacked against them. The economy is still floundering and the banks continue to reduce the amount they are lending. Just In the first three months of this year, the latest figures from the Bank of England show that loans have dropped by ￡300 million- making it even harder for businesses to set up in the first place- let alone grow to become contributors to the economy.
The government is trying to improve the situation. National insurance contributions will be slashed next year, which will help small and medium sized businesses save nearly ￡1.8 billion by 2018. The push to shop locally and to embrace the big society is also being by touted by government as a means support the community and the businesses that cater for them.
On the ground, however, businesses complain that their hands are tied and they are not getting the support they need to really make a difference to their profits. Without bank lending the chance of many new businesses setting up is unlikely, but what about the ones already in operation?
One of the biggest obstacles in their way is the process of taking payments. Cheques may be on their way out, but credit card payments involve fees that need to be paid per transaction as well as monthly rental payments for card reading equipment. Yet the trend for consumers to prefer cards over cash continues to grow. According to the Payment Council UK’s payment statistics for 2012, almost three quarters (71 per cent) of all spending in the UK retail sector (including automotive fuels) was made using oil painting reproduction.
Our own research shows that the combination of small retailers wishing to avoid punitive charges and their customers preferring the convenience of cards is having a detrimental effect on business. We found that over 120 million transactions are lost each year in the UK through people leaving shops because they can’t pay by card. A further 92.8 million opportunities to sell are lost through people avoiding shops because they don’t accept card payments.
Over one in five (21 per cent) consumers said that they had left a store in the past six months without making a purchase because the store didn’t take cards. Almost the same number (19 per cent) had avoided a store altogether because they couldn’t use their card to pay.
The biggest problem is that card payment equipment has not kept pace with technology. It’s become too expensive and technically complicated for many to use, which is why there are so many small retailers who don’t take cards and prefer to stick to cash. Mobile payment technology is developing to unblock the payment impasse. However, some of the propositions on offer from banks continue to involve monthly fees to rent equipment, which doesn’t really help.
The mobile payment technologies that will succeed are the ones that are aimed at small business and don’t require an equipment to set up or payment up front. Small businesses want technology that’s easy to use-and doesn’t cost the earth. If small businesses are the engine of recovery, they need all the help they can get to ensure they don’t miss out on sales to the growing number of – especially younger – consumers who prefer to pay by card. By removing the barrier of expensive and cumbersome payment technology, retailers can ensure that they never lose a sale again.
Legal settlements usually settle disputes, but a proposed $7.25 billion class-action settlement involving Visa and MasterCard appears to be erupting into a whole new battle over the fees retailers have to pay when consumers pull out their plastic.
Scores of angry retailers — from Walmart and Starbucks to Target and Domino’s Pizza — opted out of the historic settlement by the recent deadline and filed formal objections for U.S. District Judge John Gleeson in Brooklyn to consider. Some, such as Target Corp. and Macy’s Inc., already have struck back with a new lawsuit seeking damages.
They are walking away from what’s regarded as the largest private antitrust class-action settlement in U.S. history, one that involves more than 7 million U.S. businesses — just about every entity that swiped a Visa or MasterCard credit or debit card since 2004.
“It’s extraordinarily rare for a class settlement to be rejected because of concerns raised by class members,” said David Fink of Fink and Associates Law in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., who specializes in class-action litigation.
At the heart of the battle are allegations that Visa, MasterCard and a group of card-issuing banks illegally colluded since 2004 to fix the swipe fees merchants pay to process cards. The interchange fees average about 2 percent of every purchase at the register, and total about $30 billion a year.
Many retailers say the swipe fees rival their health care costs as a significant operating expense. The National Retail Federation estimates the swipe fees drive up consumer costs by more than $250 a year per average household.
The government is trying to improve the situation. National insurance contributions will be slashed next year, which will help small and medium sized businesses save nearly ￡1.8 billion by 2018. The push to shop locally and to embrace the big society is also being by touted by government as a means support the community and the businesses that cater for them.
On the ground, however, businesses complain that their hands are tied and they are not getting the support they need to really make a difference to their profits. Without bank lending the chance of many new businesses setting up is unlikely, but what about the ones already in operation?
One of the biggest obstacles in their way is the process of taking payments. Cheques may be on their way out, but credit card payments involve fees that need to be paid per transaction as well as monthly rental payments for card reading equipment. Yet the trend for consumers to prefer cards over cash continues to grow. According to the Payment Council UK’s payment statistics for 2012, almost three quarters (71 per cent) of all spending in the UK retail sector (including automotive fuels) was made using oil painting reproduction.
Our own research shows that the combination of small retailers wishing to avoid punitive charges and their customers preferring the convenience of cards is having a detrimental effect on business. We found that over 120 million transactions are lost each year in the UK through people leaving shops because they can’t pay by card. A further 92.8 million opportunities to sell are lost through people avoiding shops because they don’t accept card payments.
Over one in five (21 per cent) consumers said that they had left a store in the past six months without making a purchase because the store didn’t take cards. Almost the same number (19 per cent) had avoided a store altogether because they couldn’t use their card to pay.
The biggest problem is that card payment equipment has not kept pace with technology. It’s become too expensive and technically complicated for many to use, which is why there are so many small retailers who don’t take cards and prefer to stick to cash. Mobile payment technology is developing to unblock the payment impasse. However, some of the propositions on offer from banks continue to involve monthly fees to rent equipment, which doesn’t really help.
The mobile payment technologies that will succeed are the ones that are aimed at small business and don’t require an equipment to set up or payment up front. Small businesses want technology that’s easy to use-and doesn’t cost the earth. If small businesses are the engine of recovery, they need all the help they can get to ensure they don’t miss out on sales to the growing number of – especially younger – consumers who prefer to pay by card. By removing the barrier of expensive and cumbersome payment technology, retailers can ensure that they never lose a sale again.
Legal settlements usually settle disputes, but a proposed $7.25 billion class-action settlement involving Visa and MasterCard appears to be erupting into a whole new battle over the fees retailers have to pay when consumers pull out their plastic.
Scores of angry retailers — from Walmart and Starbucks to Target and Domino’s Pizza — opted out of the historic settlement by the recent deadline and filed formal objections for U.S. District Judge John Gleeson in Brooklyn to consider. Some, such as Target Corp. and Macy’s Inc., already have struck back with a new lawsuit seeking damages.
They are walking away from what’s regarded as the largest private antitrust class-action settlement in U.S. history, one that involves more than 7 million U.S. businesses — just about every entity that swiped a Visa or MasterCard credit or debit card since 2004.
“It’s extraordinarily rare for a class settlement to be rejected because of concerns raised by class members,” said David Fink of Fink and Associates Law in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., who specializes in class-action litigation.
At the heart of the battle are allegations that Visa, MasterCard and a group of card-issuing banks illegally colluded since 2004 to fix the swipe fees merchants pay to process cards. The interchange fees average about 2 percent of every purchase at the register, and total about $30 billion a year.
Many retailers say the swipe fees rival their health care costs as a significant operating expense. The National Retail Federation estimates the swipe fees drive up consumer costs by more than $250 a year per average household.
2013年6月5日星期三
Signature Card Services Makes EMV Migration Easy and Affordable
Industry-leading payment processing services provider, Signature Card Services, is offering free EMV-enabled terminals to its merchants in the U.S. to make their transition to the EMV standard as economical and effortless as possible. The company has chosen Ingenico’s EMV terminals to be installed for interested merchants starting June 15, 2013. Ingenico (Euronext: FR0000125346 – ING) is a global leading provider of payment solutions with more than 20 million terminals deployed in 125 countries and deep experience in EMV migration.
EMV, a chip-based payment standard, reduces counterfeit fraud and increases security by providing card authentication protocol. With all major card brands supporting the US migration to EMV, Signature Card Services is preparing its merchants for an easy and affordable transition. In addition to free terminals, they are providing support and education to help merchants embrace the change.
Signature Card Services has chosen Ingenico’s Telium2 series payment devices for its EMV terminals. The company partners with Ingenico for its high-quality products and services, as well as the knowledge and expertise that Ingenico brings, having supported EMV transactions in Europe and Canada for over two decades.
Signature Card Services recognizes that the migration to EMV is a significant undertaking. By facilitating early conversion to the EMV system with training and support, the company is committed to making the shift much easier for its merchants.
“Partnering with Ingenico offers tremendous advantages to our merchants,” says Anthony Urquidez, VP of Operations for Signature Card Services. “We are committed to helping merchants embrace the change and will continue to spearhead education and support. It is great to have a partner who shares our vision and provides an unparalleled product.”
“We are excited to be collaborating with Signature Card Services to provide EMV-enabled devices for its entire merchant network,” says Rhonda Boardman, Vice President for U.S. Acquiring Sales for Ingenico North America. “Through our partnership, we can empower merchants to be EMV ready and we are dedicated to supporting them every step of the oil painting reproduction.”
The legal team representing dealers fighting the Wynn Resorts Ltd. tip pooling policy ran into skeptical questioning as the long-running dispute came before the Nevada Supreme on Wednesday.
The company and the employees that fall under the class action lawsuit have been clashing with each other since the policy went into effect in September 2006 — just more than a year after Wynn Las Vegas opened — requiring dealers to share their tips with box persons at the craps tables and what are called customer service team leaders, who track players, help with lines of credit, take care of disputes on the casino floor and act as a concierge.
Tip pooling has long been legal as long as the company does not tap into the money for its “direct benefit.”
Wynn had won most of the most the battles, including a 2010 ruling by then Nevada Labor Commissioner Michael Tanchek that validated the tip pooling system. Last year, however, Clark County District Judge Kenneth Cory sided with the dealers in holding that Wynn improperly benefited from the tip pooling essentially by giving them a raise using the tips.
In court papers appealing the decision, Wynn said the tip pooling, backed by the commissioner’s opinion, did not provided a financial boost to the company or allow them to cut pay for the two groups of employees in return for tips.
The case drew unusually high interest, with about a dozen pro-dealer picketers carrying Transport Workers Union Local 721 signs, with which Wynn has signed a collective bargaining agreement, standing outside the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas. Company Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn attended arguments but did not comment afterward.
Justice Michael Cherry cited papers filed by the Culinary Workers Union that predicted tip pooling cases “will become big business” for the courts if judges start to jump into interpreting them. In this instance, replied dealers attorney Leon Greenberg, Culinary was just taking its position on behalf of Wynn.
Justice Nancy Sitta noted that she was “admittedly having a hard time” seeing how the Wynn company benefited from tip pooling.
The answer, said Greenberg, was that tip pooling raised the pay of the supervisory positions from about $60,000 a year. By contrast, Wynn dealer make about $90,000 a year including tips.
In court papers, Wynn cited the gap between supervisors and dealers as a reason to institute the tip pool, which continues in effect today. In addition, the company said people have resisted moving into supervisory roles due to the pay cut.
However, Greenberg proposed that tip pooling be based on the concept that “the economic benefit remaining with the people who provide the service for which the customer gave the tip.” That would mean dealers that players liked, while a tip to a customer service person who landed show tickets would fall in a separate bucket.
EMV, a chip-based payment standard, reduces counterfeit fraud and increases security by providing card authentication protocol. With all major card brands supporting the US migration to EMV, Signature Card Services is preparing its merchants for an easy and affordable transition. In addition to free terminals, they are providing support and education to help merchants embrace the change.
Signature Card Services has chosen Ingenico’s Telium2 series payment devices for its EMV terminals. The company partners with Ingenico for its high-quality products and services, as well as the knowledge and expertise that Ingenico brings, having supported EMV transactions in Europe and Canada for over two decades.
Signature Card Services recognizes that the migration to EMV is a significant undertaking. By facilitating early conversion to the EMV system with training and support, the company is committed to making the shift much easier for its merchants.
“Partnering with Ingenico offers tremendous advantages to our merchants,” says Anthony Urquidez, VP of Operations for Signature Card Services. “We are committed to helping merchants embrace the change and will continue to spearhead education and support. It is great to have a partner who shares our vision and provides an unparalleled product.”
“We are excited to be collaborating with Signature Card Services to provide EMV-enabled devices for its entire merchant network,” says Rhonda Boardman, Vice President for U.S. Acquiring Sales for Ingenico North America. “Through our partnership, we can empower merchants to be EMV ready and we are dedicated to supporting them every step of the oil painting reproduction.”
The legal team representing dealers fighting the Wynn Resorts Ltd. tip pooling policy ran into skeptical questioning as the long-running dispute came before the Nevada Supreme on Wednesday.
The company and the employees that fall under the class action lawsuit have been clashing with each other since the policy went into effect in September 2006 — just more than a year after Wynn Las Vegas opened — requiring dealers to share their tips with box persons at the craps tables and what are called customer service team leaders, who track players, help with lines of credit, take care of disputes on the casino floor and act as a concierge.
Tip pooling has long been legal as long as the company does not tap into the money for its “direct benefit.”
Wynn had won most of the most the battles, including a 2010 ruling by then Nevada Labor Commissioner Michael Tanchek that validated the tip pooling system. Last year, however, Clark County District Judge Kenneth Cory sided with the dealers in holding that Wynn improperly benefited from the tip pooling essentially by giving them a raise using the tips.
In court papers appealing the decision, Wynn said the tip pooling, backed by the commissioner’s opinion, did not provided a financial boost to the company or allow them to cut pay for the two groups of employees in return for tips.
The case drew unusually high interest, with about a dozen pro-dealer picketers carrying Transport Workers Union Local 721 signs, with which Wynn has signed a collective bargaining agreement, standing outside the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas. Company Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn attended arguments but did not comment afterward.
Justice Michael Cherry cited papers filed by the Culinary Workers Union that predicted tip pooling cases “will become big business” for the courts if judges start to jump into interpreting them. In this instance, replied dealers attorney Leon Greenberg, Culinary was just taking its position on behalf of Wynn.
Justice Nancy Sitta noted that she was “admittedly having a hard time” seeing how the Wynn company benefited from tip pooling.
The answer, said Greenberg, was that tip pooling raised the pay of the supervisory positions from about $60,000 a year. By contrast, Wynn dealer make about $90,000 a year including tips.
In court papers, Wynn cited the gap between supervisors and dealers as a reason to institute the tip pool, which continues in effect today. In addition, the company said people have resisted moving into supervisory roles due to the pay cut.
However, Greenberg proposed that tip pooling be based on the concept that “the economic benefit remaining with the people who provide the service for which the customer gave the tip.” That would mean dealers that players liked, while a tip to a customer service person who landed show tickets would fall in a separate bucket.
2013年6月4日星期二
Intel Launches the New Haswell CPU at Computex Taipei 2013
A wave of new Ultrabook and emerging 2-in-1 devices that deliver a PC when you need it and a tablet when you want it, Intel Corporation today introduced its ground-breaking 4th generation Intel Core Processor family.
Speaking at Computex Taipei 2013, Executive Vice President Tom Kilroy said Intel has more than 50 different 2-in-1 designs in the pipeline across a range of price points, including premium Ultrabook 2-in-1s powered by the new Intel Core processors, and other designs powered by forthcoming processors based on the company’s 22nm Silvermont microarchitecture.
“Today we deliver on the vision set forth 2 years ago to reinvent the laptop with the introduction of our 4th generation Intel Core processors that were designed from the ground up for the Ultrabook and serve as the foundation for a new era of 2-in-1 computing,” said Kilroy. “We made one of the most seismic changes to our roadmap ever to build these new Core processors that deliver the stunning performance of the PC and the mobility of a tablet in one device. The new processors power the most exciting 2-in-1 designs to-date.”
Designed first and foremost with the Ultrabook in mind and based on the company’s flagship 22nm Haswell microarchitecture, the 4th generation Intel Core processors deliver a 50 percent increase in battery life in active workloads over the previous generation1. This is the largest generation-over-generation gain in the company’s history, equating to over 9 hours of battery life in active workloads1 for some Ultrabooks based on the new processors.
Intel’s newest Core processors are the first SoCs for PCs with stunning performance, and power a variety of innovative devices, including Ultrabook, 2-in-1 and portable all-in-one designs. Systems based on the quad-core version of the new Core processors are available now, with additional versions available in the coming months.
The 4th generation Intel Core processors also have built-in graphics that deliver discrete-level performance, or up to 2 times the performance of Intel’s prior generation. Offered on select versions of the new Intel Core processors, Intel? Iris? graphics bring the Ultrabook and other mobile PCs to life with built-in, eye-popping visual experiences.
Select Ultrabooks powered by 4th generation Intel Core processors will deliver the Intel performance people expect combined with the mobility and responsiveness of a tablet, making them the premium, ultra-versatile 2-in-1 devices. With touch capability and a keyboard, the system adapts to the user and also offers full application compatibility. People can lean forward to work and lean back to relax using just one device.
Kilroy also showcased progress in bringing human-like senses to 2-in-1 and other Intel-based devices through the addition of touch, voice and facial recognition and other technologies. Called perceptual computing, these technologies take advantage of Intel processing power to make interaction with devices natural, intuitive and immersive.
He demonstrated immersive, short-range gesture and voice-based interaction by giving new Intel Core-based Ultrabook 2-in-1 devices “eyes” with the Creative Senz3D* peripheral camera, noting general availability for the camera starting next quarter. Looking to the future, he said Intel is working on an integrated solution to build 3-D depth camera technology directly into future Intel-based devices targeted for the second half of 2014.
Intel’s 22nm low-power, high-performance Silvermont microarchitecture is enabling the company to accelerate and significantly enhance its tablet and smartphone offerings.
For tablets on shelves for holiday 2013, Intel’s next-generation, 22nm quad-core Atom SoC (“Bay Trail-T”) will deliver superior graphics and more than two times the CPU performance of the current generation. It will also enable sleek designs with 8 or more hours2 of battery life and weeks of standby, as well as support Android and Windows 8.1.
For the first time, Kilroy demonstrated Intel’s 4G LTE multimode solution in conjunction with the next-generation 22nm quad-core Atom SoC for tablets. The Intel XMM 7160 is one of the world’s smallest3 and lowest-power multimode-multiband LTE solutions and will support global LTE roaming in a single SKU.
With a number of phones with Intel silicon inside having shipped across more than 30 countries, Kilroy previewed what’s coming. He showed for the first time a smartphone reference design platform based on “Merrifield,” Intel’s next-generation 22nm Atom SoC for smartphones that will deliver increased performance and battery life. The platform includes an integrated sensor hub for personalized services, as well as capabilities for data, device and privacy protection.
Until Roline ships the new or retreaded tires to customers, it stores them in racks located within its warehouse. Last year, the company began working with Ferm RFID to develop a solution that could identify the tires on the racks, says Hans Jorg, Roline's project manager. Additionally, the firm began investigating other ways in which the technology could be used to manage the retreading process, as well as enable customers to manage their own vehicle fleets via the tires' RFID tags.
Before being approached by Roline, Ferm RFID had already worked with Smart Res to develop an RFID tag in the form of a rubber patch that can be permanently bonded to the exterior surface of a tire's rubber sidewall, says Jos Uijlenbroek, Ferm RFID's international program manager. Tire companies Vredestein and LeCont were both trialing the patches. Therefore, when Roline explained its requirements to Ferm RFID, the two businesses agreed to develop a solution employing a permanent tag for use on retreads, along with a disposable RFID label for new tires.
The resulting solution consists of a permanent rubberized patch tag for retread tires, a disposable adhesive RFID tag for new tires, and handheld and fixed readers to track the tires through the retread and storage processes. According to Jorg, the software that manages the RFID data, supplied by ABP Dynamics, is integrated with Microsoft's Dynamics-NAV solution, enabling Roline to generate reports that identify recurring issues. The system was taken live at the end of 2012, he reports. Click on their website www.artsunlight.com for more information.
Speaking at Computex Taipei 2013, Executive Vice President Tom Kilroy said Intel has more than 50 different 2-in-1 designs in the pipeline across a range of price points, including premium Ultrabook 2-in-1s powered by the new Intel Core processors, and other designs powered by forthcoming processors based on the company’s 22nm Silvermont microarchitecture.
“Today we deliver on the vision set forth 2 years ago to reinvent the laptop with the introduction of our 4th generation Intel Core processors that were designed from the ground up for the Ultrabook and serve as the foundation for a new era of 2-in-1 computing,” said Kilroy. “We made one of the most seismic changes to our roadmap ever to build these new Core processors that deliver the stunning performance of the PC and the mobility of a tablet in one device. The new processors power the most exciting 2-in-1 designs to-date.”
Designed first and foremost with the Ultrabook in mind and based on the company’s flagship 22nm Haswell microarchitecture, the 4th generation Intel Core processors deliver a 50 percent increase in battery life in active workloads over the previous generation1. This is the largest generation-over-generation gain in the company’s history, equating to over 9 hours of battery life in active workloads1 for some Ultrabooks based on the new processors.
Intel’s newest Core processors are the first SoCs for PCs with stunning performance, and power a variety of innovative devices, including Ultrabook, 2-in-1 and portable all-in-one designs. Systems based on the quad-core version of the new Core processors are available now, with additional versions available in the coming months.
The 4th generation Intel Core processors also have built-in graphics that deliver discrete-level performance, or up to 2 times the performance of Intel’s prior generation. Offered on select versions of the new Intel Core processors, Intel? Iris? graphics bring the Ultrabook and other mobile PCs to life with built-in, eye-popping visual experiences.
Select Ultrabooks powered by 4th generation Intel Core processors will deliver the Intel performance people expect combined with the mobility and responsiveness of a tablet, making them the premium, ultra-versatile 2-in-1 devices. With touch capability and a keyboard, the system adapts to the user and also offers full application compatibility. People can lean forward to work and lean back to relax using just one device.
Kilroy also showcased progress in bringing human-like senses to 2-in-1 and other Intel-based devices through the addition of touch, voice and facial recognition and other technologies. Called perceptual computing, these technologies take advantage of Intel processing power to make interaction with devices natural, intuitive and immersive.
He demonstrated immersive, short-range gesture and voice-based interaction by giving new Intel Core-based Ultrabook 2-in-1 devices “eyes” with the Creative Senz3D* peripheral camera, noting general availability for the camera starting next quarter. Looking to the future, he said Intel is working on an integrated solution to build 3-D depth camera technology directly into future Intel-based devices targeted for the second half of 2014.
Intel’s 22nm low-power, high-performance Silvermont microarchitecture is enabling the company to accelerate and significantly enhance its tablet and smartphone offerings.
For tablets on shelves for holiday 2013, Intel’s next-generation, 22nm quad-core Atom SoC (“Bay Trail-T”) will deliver superior graphics and more than two times the CPU performance of the current generation. It will also enable sleek designs with 8 or more hours2 of battery life and weeks of standby, as well as support Android and Windows 8.1.
For the first time, Kilroy demonstrated Intel’s 4G LTE multimode solution in conjunction with the next-generation 22nm quad-core Atom SoC for tablets. The Intel XMM 7160 is one of the world’s smallest3 and lowest-power multimode-multiband LTE solutions and will support global LTE roaming in a single SKU.
With a number of phones with Intel silicon inside having shipped across more than 30 countries, Kilroy previewed what’s coming. He showed for the first time a smartphone reference design platform based on “Merrifield,” Intel’s next-generation 22nm Atom SoC for smartphones that will deliver increased performance and battery life. The platform includes an integrated sensor hub for personalized services, as well as capabilities for data, device and privacy protection.
Until Roline ships the new or retreaded tires to customers, it stores them in racks located within its warehouse. Last year, the company began working with Ferm RFID to develop a solution that could identify the tires on the racks, says Hans Jorg, Roline's project manager. Additionally, the firm began investigating other ways in which the technology could be used to manage the retreading process, as well as enable customers to manage their own vehicle fleets via the tires' RFID tags.
Before being approached by Roline, Ferm RFID had already worked with Smart Res to develop an RFID tag in the form of a rubber patch that can be permanently bonded to the exterior surface of a tire's rubber sidewall, says Jos Uijlenbroek, Ferm RFID's international program manager. Tire companies Vredestein and LeCont were both trialing the patches. Therefore, when Roline explained its requirements to Ferm RFID, the two businesses agreed to develop a solution employing a permanent tag for use on retreads, along with a disposable RFID label for new tires.
The resulting solution consists of a permanent rubberized patch tag for retread tires, a disposable adhesive RFID tag for new tires, and handheld and fixed readers to track the tires through the retread and storage processes. According to Jorg, the software that manages the RFID data, supplied by ABP Dynamics, is integrated with Microsoft's Dynamics-NAV solution, enabling Roline to generate reports that identify recurring issues. The system was taken live at the end of 2012, he reports. Click on their website www.artsunlight.com for more information.
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