PEC to reopen

After the Physical Education Centre (PEC) officially closed three years ago, plans are in the works to have parts of the building reopened by December.

Physical Plant Services (PPS) had conducted an assessment over the summer for a $1.4 million renovation of the former athletics complex.

Renovations began earlier this month and will include installing a new roof and ventilation system, as well as new heating system and fixing electrical issues.

The aesthetics of the building will also be addressed, with new interior paint and flooring.

Before the proposal to reopen the PEC came forward, last year’s AMS executive team put forward plans to renovate MacGillivary-Brown Hall in order to increase intramural and club space on campus.

In the summer of 2011, the building was flooded and renovations were put on hold.The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility.

“Throughout the research for our campaign, it was apparent to us that the space demands on campus exceeded the capacity of initiatives like the MacGillivray-Brown renovation,Buy Natural china glass mosaic Tiles online with our price beat promise.” Tristan Lee, AMS vice-president of operations, said.

The decision to reopen the PEC came about as a result of the AMS executive’s platform initiative that would see more space for intramural sports on campus, Doug Johnson, AMS president,Have you ever wondered about the mold making process? said.

The AMS submitted their proposal to the Provost for an assessment in March. Queen’s Student Affairs and the University Registrar also submitted proposals to the Provost calling for more space on campus.

“During our campaign we did research and found that a lot of people needed more space on campus,” Johnson, ArtSci ’12, said. “We got enormous amounts of support from students to find a way to do this.”

The AMS won’t directly pay for the cost of renovations to reopen the building, Johnson said.

Student Affairs has gathered some funding for the renovations from grants, Johnson said.

“One of the biggest concerns was that a lot of people thought [the PEC] was condemned,” he said, “but it’s not as bad as everyone thinks; there are no major renovations that need to be done.”

In 2011-12, the waitlist for intramural sports teams at Queen’s exceeded 1,000 students.

The reopening of the PEC will bring three more gyms in addition to the two housed in the Athletics and Recreation Centre, allowing more students to participate in intramural sports.

Johnson added that having these added facilities available for exam period will make it easier for students to ask professors questions during their exams.

“[When the PEC closed] it became much more difficult if you had a question for a prof, they had to go back and forth,” he said.

The University has spent upwards of $50,000 a year in proctor fees because of the number of different rooms exams are held in, Johnson said.

The reopening could also see more commercial opportunities between Queen’s and other groups in Kingston in need of athletic facilities, Johnson said, adding that Queen’s currently allows Kingston Collegiate Vocational Institute access to Tindall Field in exchange for their gym facilities.

“We saw the PEC could also do that with other groups throughout the city,Find a cry stalmosaic Manufacturer and Supplier.” he said.

The PEC will also house additional space for Queen’s Health, Counselling and Disability Services, as well as other clubs on campus.

Duane Parliament, coordinator of intramural and summer leagues at Queen’s Athletics, said the planning process to incorporate more intramural teams hasn’t yet started.

“It’s great news for us obviously with the extra space that we’re going to get,” he said.Welcome to the Perth china kung fu school. “We’re just sort of finding out about this and starting there and we hope to expand as quick as we can.”

Parliament hopes to have a detailed plan ready for December.

“We’re over 500 intramural teams total now because of the extra space we have at KCVI,” he said. “It’s great news and we hope to continue to expand.”

Arena Parking in Play

Some Brooklyn parking garage owners are jacking up prices and preparing special event rates in preparation for the thousands of people who may defy the warnings of city officials and drive to the Barclays Center when it opens Friday.

One lot on the corner of Atlantic and Grand avenues—more than half a mile from the arena—is advertising a $30 flat rate for Barclays events,Sinotruck Hongkong International is special for howo truck. said owner Moe Rahmati. Another nearby garage on Washington Avenue will offer a special event rate, though the price hasn't been decided, said Megan Kian, a spokeswoman for Enterprise Parking Systems.

"We're looking forward to the future concerts and basketball games," said Anthony Pansini, who is considering a shuttle service between the Barclays Center and two lots he supervises on Underhill and St. Marks avenues eight blocks away.

Kicking off with the first of eight Jay-Z concerts on Friday night, the Barclays Center opening this weekend will present a test for the premise that most patrons will get there by subway, bus or Long Island Rail Road—all of which converge on a traffic-choked section of Brooklyn at Atlantic and Flatbush avenues.

Only about 650 on-site parking spaces—including 150 for VIPs—were set aside, with the purpose of discouraging driving to Nets games,Purelink's real time location system protect healthcare workers in their daily practices. concerts and other events at the 18,000-seat capacity arena. Another 700 will be available through arrangements with private garages.

But there are about 1,400 other available spots in private garages within a half-mile of the arena on any given night, according to the engineering firm of former city traffic commissioner, Sam Schwartz, who has served as a traffic consultant to the Barclays Center. A little farther away, there are several more garages, many of which are considering advertising openly for Barclays events.

"We are looking into offering parking reservations for our customers," said Ms. Kian of Enterprise Parking Systems, whose closest garage is about a half-mile from the arena.We offer mining truck system, She said the decision would depend on demand.

Mr. Schwartz said the parking garage owners should hedge their bets. "I don't want parking garage owners to be counting their chickens before they park," he said. "If I were investing, I would not invest in a parking lot in Downtown Brooklyn because of the Barclays Center. I don't think they are going to be full."

There are also about 9,395 street parking spots within a half-mile of the arena, according to the city Department of Transportation. Residents of the quickly gentrifying neighborhood have raised concerns about eventgoers taking up all the street parking and causing a traffic nightmare before and after Nets games. Mr. Schwartz said he thought neighborhood residents would have "gobbled up" all the street parking before nighttime events. Only about 100 would be taken by Barclays Center patrons, he estimated.

A spokesman for the Barclays Center developer, Forest City Ratner, said arrangements were made with lots that would diOur guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs.rect traffic away from the arena. For instance, shuttle service is being offered from a lot in Brooklyn Heights about nine blocks away"What we're doing…is encouraging people to use public transportation and directing them to parking garages that won't impact the [area]," said the spokesman, Joe DePlasco.

Arena officials are trying to keep people like Corey Tillery from parking on the street nearby. And it might work. The 38-year-old is planning to drive to the Jay-Z concert Monday night, but he would likely park in Crown Heights and take the train or a cab from there. He said it takes too long to ride the subway all the way from his home in Brooklyn's Canarsie neighborhood.

"I can't see myself driving to the arena or in the general vicinity of the arena," Mr. Tillery said. "I don't want to deal with the traffic or the parking."

Some parking garage owners said they would test the Barclays market gingerly. Edison ParkFast has three garages within about eight blocks of the arena. Michelle Langsam, marketing manager for Edison ParkFast, said they are still deciding whether a special event rate makes financial sense.

"I think it's really going to depend on the usage," she said. "If we see that we are filling up during events and that we are getting that overflow, of course we are going to raise our rates.Huge range of polished tiles including polished tiles,"

A Crystal Ball Captures Solar Energy

Imagine a giant crystal ball capable of concentrating sunlight and moonlight, harnessing them and increasing solar cell energy efficiency by up to 10,000 times.

For many years scientists have been researching ways of obtaining more power from solar energy cells. Andre Broessel, a German-born architect based in Barcelona, Spain – who has loved playing with light since he was a child – made exciting new breakthroughs in solar energy, developing a spherical glass energy generator that’s said to improve solar panel cell efficiency by more than 35% in building integration.

The spherical glass orb, when filled with water, acts as a regular lens -but has unique features- concentrating diffusing daylight and moonlight – with the help of an optical tracking mechanism – into a solar cell from which electricity can be harvested. While he studied the airy disk center and transmissions he chose the full moon as a diaphragm to reduce the intensity of light. In fact moonlight is reflected sunlight. If you concentrate it you harvest energy.

“I started with a project in Germany, working with clients within my generation. We had a special situation – I was living in a house where we had very little sunlight and no panoramic view,” he explains, “I was playing with light in the sky, developing and discussing methods for renewable applications, by creating panoramic skylight,Airgle has mastered the art of indoor tracking, a concept of using a single-lens reflex camera.”

Broessel started his career late in life, attending the Dusseldorf University in Germany.Sinotruck Hongkong International is special for howo truck. After, moving to Berlin he studied architecture and the flow of light. Berlin was an exciting city at that time, as the East and West were just integrating.The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility.

Even living in a big city, Broessel had a dream about taking his vision to another level. He decided to leave Germany and take on an experimental project in Barcelona, Spain. “I was already involved in technology, and Spain would allow my vision and imagination to grow,” Broessel said. “This big city gives you new input and new visions.”

At the time, Spain was filled with a lot of new projects in energy and power plants. For anyone interested in the field of solar energy, it was a good place to be. As an architect, Broessel always had a passion for renewable energy. During his time in Barcelona, he started learning more about light and how it travels through architectural structures.

That was his starting point. Broessel had the idea of working with special elements to help reduce the loss of light in reflective materials. Simply put, these complex materials have photovoltaic (PV) properties and the effect of using them, he describes, is the conversion of light into an electric current. “Photovoltaic” means electricity from light (photo = light; voltaic = electricity).

One way to visualize this is to think of light as a stream of photons, where each photon carries a quantum of energy. Each photon carrying energy is associated with one wave length frequency, like the visible spectrum of a rainbow, where every color has its own wave length and the frequencies are sometimes shorter or longer. When these frequencies of light enter a semiconductor, they produce a kind of band gap also known as an electrical field.

When sunlight is absorbed by these PV materials, the solar energy knocks electrons loose from their atoms, allowing the electrons to flow through the material to produce electricity. This process of converting light (photons) into electricity (voltage) is called the photovoltaic (PV) effect.

“If you look further into it, we can play with the wave lengths and different materials that have the capacity to absorb light,” he said. “And then you will find out why they are producing multi-junction cells which are used in this type of process. Also known as high physics.”

Broessel argues that,The indoor positioning industry is heavily involved this year depending on the material used and the frequency of the light passing through it during the absorption process,The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility. multi- junction cells can be created. More than one band gap and more than one junction are referred to as "multi-junction" cells. Multi-junction devices are capable of achieving higher total conversion efficiency because they can convert more of the energy spectrum of light to electricity. In simple terms, the design of Multi-Junction Cells is created to manage the wavelengths of light in staked layers.

Broessel said he has been studying photovoltaics in conjunction with architecture for more than 20 years. “My visions of architecture and light meshed hand in hand.” He explains, “I love to play with light and structures. The idea of life and nature reflects on everything that surrounds us.”

A leading maritime intelligence agency cautions

Pirate operatives have awoken from their hibernation to venture forth from safe havens and launch long-range mothership-enabled pirate operations with the first confirmed attack in the Arabian Sea on Monday this week.

Following three months of very limited deployments constrained to the Southern Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and sheltered areas along the Omani coast, Dryad Maritime predicted that, despite industry optimism of 2012, the end of the South West monsoon season will see the resumption of pirate attacks. The first attack of the pirate season came on Monday when an Omani dhow was attacked near the port of Salalah.Find detailed product information for sino howo tipper truck.

“Somali pirates are not out of business, even if times are hard when compared to the success of earlier years. The pirate business has suffered a few setbacks, but the threat remains a very real one; the capability is intact and the motivation of those engaged is unlikely to have been diminished to the point of defeat. The message is clear - complacency is the greatest threat and constant vigilance, the greatest weapon in the fight against Somali pirates”.

Dryad Maritime’s combination of monitoring and regular observation of environmental conditions has confirmed that, over recent weeks, wind speeds and wave heights across the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea have decreased heralding the approach of the inter-monsoonal period. This will create the optimum conditions for pirates to test the water further afield, no longer constrained by adverse weather conditions.

However, various international maritime bodies have heralded the end of this year’s monsoon season as ‘pivotal’ going so far as to champion cautious optimism. Indeed recent statistics would support this approach. The relative calm of recent weeks has been a reflection of the suppressive operations conducted by naval forces in waters normally featuring pirate activity (Gulf of Aden and Southern Red Sea) in previous South West monsoon periods. Only a few months ago the US Navy issued a report which showed acts of piracy in the treacherous waters around the Horn of Africa had fallen sharply. This was supported by a similar paper issued by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB). The numbers are astounding and encouraging - only 46 pirate attacks occurred in the area in 2012 compared with 222 in 2011 and 239 in 2010. Only nine of the piracy attempts this year have been successful, a significant decrease set against 34 successful attacks in 2011 and 68 in 2010 (See Dryad’s Pirate activity graph 2010-11).

“In the face of such figures, we could be forgiven for thinking that it is ‘game over’ for Somali pirates, beaten into submission by coalition maritime forces and frustrated by the layered defence of predictive intelligence, armed guards and effective physical protection. To do so, however, would be a big mistake because so little has changed when viewed through the eyes of the maritime criminals in question”.

Ian Millen, Director of Intelligence,Natural Chinese turquoise beads at Wholesale prices. Dryad Maritime

This sea-change is largely attributed to both aggressive patrolling by international forces and increased vigilance by the commercial shipping industry. Commercial vessels are increasingly carrying armed security teams and no vessel with such a team on board has yet been hijacked.

Even Superyachts with their superior speed and maneuverability carry armed guards when transiting through the high risk Gulf of Aden area.

Similarly, 2012 has seen a number of well reported high profile counter-piracy raids conducted by US and European forces. Some experts believe this is acting as a deterrent to potential hostage- takers. March saw the release of Judith Tebbutt who had been held since September 2011; July, Deborah Calitz and Bruno Pelizzari held for seventeen months and in August, the crew of the MV Albedo who had been held since November 2010. Dryad concur with security commentators that for the first time in many years there are no cruising sailors known to be held captive by pirates.

The most striking fact is that there have been no successful pirate attacks on large merchant vessels since May and none attempted since the end of June. Although this is normal and expected in open ocean areas during the monsoon season, it is the longest gap in pirate attacks in the last five years in the Horn of Africa.

But this optimism must be tempered, piracy remains rife in the waters around Somalia meaninHOWO is a well-known tractor's brand and howo tractor suppliers are devoted to designing and manufacturing best products.g that the most popular and natural route for recreational sailors is still firmly off limits and all cruising sailors are still advised in the strongest possible terms to avoid the North Western Indian Ocean.

Based on the changing trends a transiting yacht may appear a far more attractive target (despite meagre pickings) than a commercial vessel.

Despite the interventions carried out by international naval forces which act as a preventive measure to contain pirate motherships and skiffs in harbour; with well over 1000 miles of Somali coastline to launch from, Dryad predicts that pirates will manage to get to sea and evade military patrols in the area.Different Sizes and Colors can be made with different stone mosaic designs.

Similarly, following the end of the South West monsoon, Dryad advise that the sheer vastness of the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean will open up for pirate business. It is extremely difficult for international naval forces to comprehensively patrol such a sizeable threat area and responding to incidents in such open ocean areas is by no means instantaneous. Although there are plenty of statistics and reports to show months of inaction, Dryad Maritime have issued guidance to caution against complacency - the biggest threat to vessels at sea.Find solar panel from a vast selection of Solar Panels. Somali pirates only have to get lucky once to carry out the next successful hijacking.

Harbes Tweaks Onsite Parking

After a year working with the Southold Town Planning Board, Ed Harbes said he’s ready for a busy 2012 fall harvest with a better parking / traffic flow plan at all three of his agritainment sites on the North Fork.

Harbes, founder of the Harbes farm stand complexes in Mattituck and Jamesport and a 12th generation of Harbes to farm on the North Fork,Sinotruck Hongkong International is special for howo truck. has implemented measures such as placement of fencing, directional signage, the creation of new grass parking areas, and staff to direct drivers to those parking lots in order to alleviate roadside parking and minimize haphazard pedestrian road crossing — a situation that caused traffic jams and potentially dangerous public safety issues during last year’s harvest.

Traffic control is a concern especially at the Sound Avenue complex in Mattituck, where Harbes agritainment activities take place on both sides of the narrow road — one of two main corridors into and out of the North Fork. Harbes has several “no parking” and directional signs to interior parking lots in place and has moved a wooden fence at Patty’s Berries on the south side of the road closer to the roadside, which has created a more organized section for parking.

A pedestrian crossing corridor is also well-marked and will have a Harbes staffer in place for the next four weekends to direct pedestrian traffic during pumpkin-picking and harvest mania of late September and the duration of October.

“We’re trying to do everything within our power as business owners to make it better — we can’t change traffic regulations such as speed limits and such, but we have a lot of signage in place and are funneling people where we feel it’s safest,” Harbes told Patch during a tour of all three agritainment sites Tuesday afternoon. “And we will work hard this season to make people aware that alternative parking area exists away from the street.”

Early on, the Harbes family tried to make a go at potato and cabbage farming to little financial yield. Throughout the 1980s,Features useful information about glass mosaic tiles, the Harbes transitioned into retail farming, adding sweet corn, tomatoes and other types of produce to their repertoire.

In 2003, they planted five acres of chardonnay and merlot grapes. Today, the Mattituck family farm stand and wine tasting room crowds during the warmer months, with people seeking fresh fruits and vegetables, outdoor games, hay rides and other farm-related activities for their children, and samples of Harbes' wines.

Two years ago, Harbes converted a production patch of sweet corn into an apple orchard further west on Sound Avenue in Jamesport. That site boomed with business earlier this month during its first-annual Apple Festival, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Boy Scouts of Suffolk County Council.It is intended for use by ventilation system designers, The orchard is a high trellis orchard — the apples hang from tree branches like grapes on a vine, making it easy pickings for children and adults.

“As far as I know,Find detailed product information for sino howo tipper truck. we are the only North Fork farmers using the trellis orchard system,” Harbes said. “There is an inordinate amount of consumer interest in apples, and if people can find a closer alternative than traveling upstate and save some gas money, that’s what they will do these days.”

Harbes said that for years, he’s been well aware of the mass appeal his business has and the problems — such as traffic flow — that can come with great success.

“I saw attention build for this type of thing 20 years ago, and that’s why we opened in Jamesport, and now we have the orchard and another U-pick — this is not only to ease the pressure off of the Mattituck site but to keep things exciting for people,” he said. “The busy season is really only four weekends in the fall, and you want to provide as many different activities for people as possible.”

The Jamesport Harbes location on Route 25 also has a completely different feel this year — it’s now branded as the “Harbes Western Farm,” with a definite Wild West theme and a new wine tasting room. Harbes converted an old ice cream shack that used to belong to J&R Steakhouse in Calverton for the tasting room.

“We are trying hard this year to differentiate each location this year, trying to give each a different appeal,” said Barbara Sheryll, marketing manager for Harbes. “Because it can get confusing for people coming out here.”

Sheryll said that the Mattituck location sees a lot of people from New York City and Nassau County, and Harbes Western Farm seems more appealing to those traveling from the South Fork — “We’re right around the corner from 105,” she said.

Harbes employs 40-plus people during the busy season he’s about to enter into and continues to be one of the most recongnisable names in business on the North Fork.

“I’ve seem tourism and traffic increase on the North Fork, little by little, over the past 30 years,Wholesale Agate beads from Low Price agate beads, and people might become aggravated over the next four weekends, but the fact is — everyone wants what we have, especially during the fall,” Harbes said. “And the fact that we haven’t had major development here, that we are able to keep our farm and maintain this quality of life on the North Fork — that’s wonderful too.

Grey Art Gallery and Fales Library

The paintings of Frank Moore perform a brash balancing act. Poised at the unstable juncture of art, kitsch, and propaganda, they sometimes slide into shrill didacticism or shameless bad taste. Mostly, though, Moore remains aloft, hurling bolts of colour and light, surveying a woeful panorama with an eye for teeming detail. From those heights, he spies enough beauty to counterbalance his despair.

A prolific and preternaturally articulate member of New York’s downtown art scene, Moore was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1987 and died of Aids in 2002, at 48. He spent that diseased decade and a half painting furiously, fusing realism, allegory and rage into monumentally intricate paintings such as “Wizard.”

That vast and wrathful landscape takes one cue from Hieronymus Bosch and another from Thomas Moran. We gaze over a valley, which at first glance could be the sublime Hudson River’s, except that a moment later it resolves into a hellish vista of brown sludge swelling into mountains of pills and bones. Syringes poke up amidst the clutter of vials, pill bottles, tubes and beakers.We offer mining truck system, The magus of the title, the celebrated Aids doctor Jean-Claude Chermann, wears a white coat and leads a parade of rodents down a reddish brick road. A naked man with mottled skin and a long tail – the patient as lab rat – scurries across the cursed landscape. A glowing pile of coins rests atop a puddle of blood.

“Toxic Beauty”, the first retrospective of Moore’s work, straddles two New York University venues, the Grey Art Gallery and Fales Library. It’s big enough to light up his variable virtuosity and the full range of his concerns. He railed against the dangers of genetically modified food, the spread of environmental poisons, the corruption of the medical establishment, the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, and the venom of homophobia.

Agenda-driven art can get tiresome, but much of Moore’s work inhabits a misty, fertile zone between fantasy and nightmare. In “Lullaby” (1997), he transcribed a dream he had of tiny bison meandering across the snowy tundra of his bed. It’s a hopeful vision, in which the confining sickbed becomes an open prairie and a beast once doomed to extinction has regenerated. In “Lullaby II”, the idyll turns gruesome. A pair of polar bears lolls on mountainous pillow; a third has just murdered a penguin,parkingsystem and the predator’s bloodied mouth and paw streak the bedsheet in gore. The victim’s eyes remain as wide as the gash in its flesh. There is no judgment here: rather than idealise wildlife, Moore simply registers its amorality.

Yet there’s something bleakly hopeful about Moore’s observations. Life is parasitical, feasting on the flesh of the dying; nature is a zombie cannibal – but at least every death nourishes new bursts of vigour. In “Release” (1999), an arm stretches across a horizontal canvas, extending a hand that liberates a kaleidoscope of butterflies.Looking for the Best air purifier? The lone limb bears marks of Kaposi’s sarcoma, but out of these dark blotches sprout mushrooms, grass and flowers.

Moore’s art is all about complexity and contradiction. He depicted nature as the victim of human barbarity, yet he also recognised that his health depended on the toxic chemicals he swallowed. The Aids drugs that kept him alive were the products of genetic engineering – a technology he loathed as environmentally destructive. He also understood that the sale of those remedies lined greedy pockets, fuelling an economy that exploited the ill. “I had the same reaction to taking toxic drugs to suppress opportunistic infections as I had to using chemical sprays in the garden to get rid of aphids or gypsy moths,” he wrote.

Moore nurtured a similar ambivalence to the medical establishment. His “Hospital” (1992) is a heart-shaped bay jammed with ice floes, each one bearing a single bedridden patient. Ruptured arteries rear up, volcano-like,Find detailed product information for shamballa crys talbeads wholesale, and the surface is strewn with bones. How can the sick get better, severed from the world and from each other? The hospital’s chill environment heals but also destroys, crushing love and leaching poetry from those who need it most.

Moore handled ambivalence with aplomb. It’s when he couldn’t muster enough whimsy to temper his anger that he got himself into trouble. The least successful works in “Toxic Beauty” are the bitterest and least nuanced. “Oz”, for instance, mocks agribusiness, apathy and middle-American greed in garish colours and a cartoonish composition that wouldn’t have been out of place in a 1970s Mad magazine spread.

When Moore committed acts of vulgarity, he did so enthusiastically. He grasped the difference between good taste and bad, and often chose the second as the truer mirror of an appalling world. Tastefulness was an indulgence he felt he could not afford, a technique that served to aestheticise – and anaesthetise – suffering. Instead he deployed crudeness the way George Grosz did: to draw attention to brutality. He wasn’t afraid to inspire disgust when necessary, which in his brief and bitter experience, was most of the time.

In the mid 1990s, the New Yorker writer Arlene Croce coined the term “victim art” for work she considered beyond honest judgment.Sinotruck Hongkong International is special for howo truck. A critic, she felt, could never get enough professional distance from the art that Aids sufferers made about the disease. Moore considered Croce’s position, and decided that he didn’t care whether his paintings transcended his immediate fury. “If a critic felt that he/she could not properly judge the work in this context, so be it,” he wrote. “With time the real value of this work, or its lack of value, would emerge.”

Travel charges that sneak up on you

Your carefully planned vacation budget? Out the window. We have all learned by now that the travel industry loves a surcharge, and most of us have adapted accordingly. On planes we bring our own headphones, snacks, pillow, blanket. At hotels we know not to drink the pricey bottled water in the room. Fine. For anyone taking a trip in 2012, certain perks might seem like legitimate extras.

But as I peruse some of my latest bills,Looking for the Best air purifier? the a la carte add-ons do not feel like small pleasures; they feel like things that ought to be included in the basic price. More to the point: they feel like sneaky ways to pluck a few more dollars from my pocket.

In the last few months I’ve unwittingly paid for newspapers plopped outside my Starwood hotel-room door (review your bill before you check out) and rental-car fees with vague, perplexing names like “airport concession recovery" and “facility charge."

And I have been taken aback by fees for hotel beach chairs, umbrellas and parking.

These were on top of fees I knowingly paid for preferred seating on planes, in-flight Internet, changing tickets and simply printing boarding passes.

The growing list of add-on fees would be comical were they not at our expense.Looking for the Best air purifier? There are now charges for reservations, cancellations, boarding early, departing early, holding bags, checking bags, and using the gym, the business center and the safe in your room. And thanks to the latest high-tech minibars, you cannot even touch an Almond Joy to read the calorie count without a charge on your bill (along with a “restocking" fee).

Some fees are mandatory; you must learn to factor them into your vacation budget. Others are optional. And then there are the charges that you’re welcome to opt out of — if you can figure out that you’ve been billed for them in the first place.

A record $1.85 billion in fees and surcharges was collected last year for hotels alone (up from $1.2 billion in 2000), according to Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of the Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University. He expects that figure to climb to $1.95 billion in 2012.

‘Feeling of a shakedown’

Airlines, meanwhile, collected more than $3.3 billion in baggage fees and more than $2.3 billion in reservation cancellation and change fees last year, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Rental car companies and cruise ships also take a share, with extra charges for child seats and navigation systems, as well as certain onboard snacks, activities and excursions.Find detailed product information for shamballa crys talbeads wholesale,

“There is this increasing feeling of a shakedown," said Jonathan Turley, who, as a leading expert on constitutional and tort law, frequently travels for work. Turley said he actually laughed during a recent visit to the Waldorf-Astoria when he was told that it would cost him $15 a day for Wi-Fi on one device, say an iPad, plus $15 for each additional device. “Then you go across town to the Days Inn and they have Wi-Fi for free," he said. “As someone who teaches law and economics you expect to have some predictable market response to this need, and it’s actually flipped. You get a higher level of these services at lower-end hotels."

And don’t get him started about plane tickets, which he likens to tickets at Disney World. “You pay this upfront cost, but then you find out that everything in the park is designed to eke out a little bit more of your money," said Turley, 51, who thinks the travel industry is actively trying to lower consumer expectations by charging separately for even the most basic services. “I get the feeling that the airline industry is really waiting for my generation to die," he said. “We’re the cranky, loud ones because we have a higher expectation. Every day, fewer people remember what it used to be like."

Added fees and surcharges emerged as an industry practice in the late 1990s with resort fees that claimed to be for things like beach towels and housekeeping, then spread to airlines, cruise lines and car rental companies. Hotel fees, for one, are highly profitable and, according to Hanson, have increased every year except for the periods following the economic downturns in 2001 and 2008 when lodging demand declined. Despite the fees, hotel rates “are still not back to 2007 levels,Argo Mold limited specialize in Plastic injection mould manufacture," Hanson said, adding that going forward, the industry will most likely focus on raising room prices because ultimately it’s more profitable than fees.

Even cruise lines are adding fees, among them Carnival Cruises, which is in the midst of a pilot program that, for $49.95, will allow everyone in your stateroom to board the ship early.

Yet many obligatory charges are easy to miss and hard to understand. In January, Transportation Department regulations took effect requiring airlines and ticket agents to “include all mandatory taxes and fees in published airfares." Baggage fees must also be disclosed.

In July, the department fined Travelocity $180,000 for violating the rule on full-fare advertising “by failing to include fuel surcharges and other fees in advertised airfares." That same month the department fined TripAdvisor $80,000 for violating the rules on full-fare advertising.

And last month, a class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court, claiming that up until late last year,The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility. Spirit Airlines actively misrepresented fares booked by its customers by unbundling certain fees, including something it calls a “passenger usage fee" that can be avoided only by purchasing tickets at Spirit’s airport counters.

Robert Josefsberg and Katherine Ezell of the Podhurst Orseck firm in Miami, lawyers for the plaintiffs, said that since filing the suit, hundreds of passengers have contacted them to say that they thought they had bought the lowest fares available yet ended up paying more because the passenger usage fee adds $17.98 to $33.98 to a round-trip flight. “It’s fairly insulting," Josefsberg said. “You want to put your head out the window and scream ‘I’m not going to take it anymore.’" Alicia Jao, vice president of Travel Media at NerdWallet, a website that offers personal-finance and credit-card advice, said that from 2008 to 2011 the fee generated $142 million for Spirit.

Saint Agnes School is 135 years old

It was raining hard in Towanda 135 ago on Sept. 6, 1877, when the first group of Religious Sisters of Mercy arrived at the Towanda Depot to establish a convent and school in Towanda. In an account of one of the sisters who arrived in the first group, "It was raining and continued to rain for more than a week. It seemed as if the heavens were weeping because of their arrival."

The Sisters were invited to Towanda by the Pastor of SS. Peter and Paul’s parish Rev. Charles F. Kelly. The Sisters of Mercy were not his first choice, as he had previously asked the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus from Sharon, Pa., to return to Towanda and establish a parochial school. The Sisters of the Holy Child had opened a school in Towanda in 1862. The Holy Child group stayed in Towanda for two school years and then moved to Sharon. They had no interest in returning to Towanda, so Father Kelly then sought out the Sisters of Mercy.

In his plan to establish a school for the children of his large parish, Father Kelly purchased the estate of Christopher Longstreet Ward. The Ward property would lend itself well to be a convent and a school for the children.

The Sisters arrived at their new convent to find carpenters, bricklayers, housecleaners and other workmen busily engaged in preparing suitable conveniences for them. The convent was the Ward mansion, which had been occupied by the Ward family since their arrival in Towanda in 1838; the house was originally owned and built by Charles Toucey. The Wards called their palatial home "Tredinnock," which means "the house on the hill."

The Sisters were accompanied to Towanda by Mother Mary Regina. She stayed with the band of sisters for several days before her departure. The naming of the convent was discussed and the name of Saint Agnes was fixed upon. The new mission from thence was under the patronage of the Holy Child Saint Agnes. Mother Regina left Sister Mary Clement Confer in charge of the new convent and school. Under her charge was Sister Mary Ildefonse, Sister Mary Sylverius, Sister Mary Imelda and Sister Mary Bernadette.

SS. Peter and Paul’s parish in 1877 consisted of Towanda, Ulster, Wyalusing, Pond Hill, Durell, Long Valley, Barclay (where the Catholic population was so large they had their own church, Saint Patrick’s), State Road and Rummerfield. Before the mines at Barclay closed, the parish numbered 5,000 members. One can see why Father Kelly was so anxious to open a school, as he needed assistance in the religious education of the children of this very large rural parish.

The original school rooms were constructed in a carriage house on the Ward property, and it was in these rooms that the first day of school began on Oct. 1, 1877. The first group of Sisters consisted of five. Three of the Sisters were to teach school, and the other two were to run the convent. The number of students far surpassed the 100 that were expected to attend the new school, and two more sisters were sent from Pittsburgh to join the others in running the school.

Saint Agnes School continued on in the outbuildings of the Ward estate until 1898, when a new school building that was being constructed on the property was completed. The new Saint Agnes School was dedicated on April 14, 1898. The building stood on the site of the present gymnasium of the current Saint Agnes School. It was of red pressed brick and Hummelstown granite, 119 feet long and 67 feet wide, with two stories and a basement. The basement contained a kitchen, banquet hall, two large play rooms and a boiler room. On the first floor were five school rooms. Also on this floor were the teachers’ and ladies’ rooms.

The second floor was a large entertainment hall with a seating capacity for 900, a complete stage, drop curtains, wings, etc. The proscenium arch of the stage was of white pine lumber, covered with relief work. The auditorium had flexible sliding rollback doors.

The building was lighted by electricity. In all halls, school rooms, entertainment hall, society and ante rooms, banquet room and rear entrance, the wainscoting was of Southern pine, moulded cap, while in the front entrance the wainscoting was paneled. The ceiling was of paneled iron. The vestibules and staircases, exposed to view, were of paneled steel.

Ventilation came from studded partitions extending from the basement through the attic to the ventilating tower floor. The building was heated by steam radiators of neat design in each room. The building cost $25,000.

Saint Agnes had been a grade school until 1897 when a three-year high school program was added. The first high school graduation took place in 1900. There were six graduates in the class. The high school continued as a three-year program until 1915 when the first class of four-year high school students graduated.

In 1899, Rev. J.J. Coroner succeeded Father Kelly as pastor. He was confronted with a debt of $5,000 on the school. Father Coroner was successful in reducing this debt. During the time of Father Coroner the convent was enlarged when a third floor was added to the building, bringing the number of rooms in the convent to 43. The addition to the convent was necessary as the Sisters took rural girls in as boarders so that they could attend Saint Agnes School.

In 1945, Very Rev. Maurice Hughes was appointed pastor of SS Peter and Paul’s parish. He turned his attention to the 47-year-old St. Agnes School. He had new floors placed in many of the classrooms, and realizing the need for a gymnasium, organized successful parish parties to raise a sum of $10,000 for that purpose. The auditorium in the school was converted into a multipurpose gym and auditorium.

Rev.Kitchen floor tiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles. Joseph A. Griffin (later Monsignor) became the pastor of SS. Peter and Paul’s on Sept. 16, 1953. The condition of the school required continuous renovations and the State Fire Inspectors aroused by a disastrous fire in Chicago condemned Saint Agnes School. The entire second floor had to be sealed off and was not available for any use.

A fundraising campaign was started in January of 1961; the minimum goal was to raise $125,000. The goal was met and ground was broken on May 16, 1962. The new school building was built behind the old St. Agnes School, where the students continued on until February of 1963. The classroom section of the new school was blessed by His Excellency, The most Reverend Jerome D. Hannon, D.D. Bishop of Scranton, on Sunday Feb. 23, 1963. The new school was opened on Monday, Feb. 25, 1963.

I can remember that day well. We assembled in the old school and each carried what we could to the new school. The old school was torn down and the rest of the school building and parish center was completed. The cornerstone for the entire project was laid on Dec. 8, 1963. The new school was completed at a cost of $492,000. A one-story structure of contemporary architecture has nine classrooms, a lobby, library, science rooms, administrative offices, a completely equipped kitchen and storage area,Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. a student store, gymnasium with bleacher seating, storage and locker rooms, and a stage with dressing rooms. The elementary and high schools were separated by the library.The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility.

The large marble statue of Saint Agnes erected by Father Kelly in 1898 was moved to a new location near the main stairway that leads from Third Street to the school.

In 1967,Kitchen floor tiles at Great Prices from Topps Tiles. during the last semester of the school year, Very Reverend Joseph Shaughnessey, pastor of SS. Peter and Paul’s parish, announced that Saint Agnes would close its high school department at the end of the semester. This was not accepted easily in the parish, as so many of the parishioners made great sacrifices to donate to build the school and were told at the time of the fund drives that the high school was going to continue.

In June of 1967, 12 senior students received their diplomas at the last commencement of Saint Agnes High School.

Saint Agnes opened in September of 1967 as an elementary school consisting of eight grades. The elementary classes, until this time, had been doubled in classrooms. Now each grade could have its own room. Sister Susanne Stutz, R. S. M. was the first principal of Saint Agnes elementary school, a role she served in for the next four years.

In 1977 the Sisters of Mercy celebrated 100 years in Towanda. A Pontifical Mass was celebrated followed by a reception and dinner. Many of the Sisters who taught in Towanda over the years returned for the celebration along with Towanda natives and Saint Agnes graduates who entered the religious order.

The Sisters moved from the Ward Mansion to 100 Third Street, the old Burchill Home, in 1971. The old convent, which was very hard to heat and maintain, was scheduled to be torn down, but this did not happen,The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility. as the building burned in May of 1972. As time passed the number of Sisters teaching at Saint Agnes dwindled, and in 1992 when Sister Rose de Lima Moran left Towanda, the convent was closed. The Sisters of Mercy after 115 years no longer has a presence in Towanda.

Hong Kong cyclists stuck at government red light

On Hong Kong's traffic-heavy streets, horns blare as speeding red taxis, double-decker buses and public minivans shuttle people to-and-from work. But there is one thing missing -- bicycles.

Cities around the world have seized on cycling as a cheap, healthy and environmentally friendly way of getting around,Where can i get a reasonable price dry cabinet? with New York the latest major hub to announce a bike-share scheme.

But not Hong Kong. Its government designates cycling as a leisure activity -- not a mode of transport -- and refuses to encourage commuting by bike in busier urban areas because of the risk of accidents.

Martin Turner, the chairman of the Hong Kong Cycling Alliance,This page list rubber hose products with details & specifications. believes it is about time the city got in gear.

"Hong Kong needs cycling. We have transportational gridlock, air quality problems, health problems. Cycling is the solution to all of those," the 50-year-old, who is originally from Surrey in England, said.Sinotruck Hongkong International is special for howo truck.

"But there is a bureaucratic immobility. The plan for getting people around is trains and buses. There's never been any real consideration of making cycling a part of the transport infrastructure."

When it comes to riding around the city streets, the majority of two-wheelers are men on rickety contraptions with improvised front and back crates, carrying everything from gas cannisters to live fish.

Scottish songwriter David Byrne, of Talking Heads, a cycling activist who wrote a book about pedalling through various global cities, described Hong Kong as the "worst city for cyclists that I have encountered in the whole world".

The number of cyclists killed in Hong Kong rose from 10 in 2010 to 19 last year,We Specialise in cable tie, according to police figures, while the number of accidents involving bicycles was up from 1,914 to 2,348.

That compares to 16 killed on the streets of London and 21 in New York, cities where the number of cyclists is much higher.

Like many of Hong Kong's seven million people, Will Soo never rode a bike as a child.

But after learning how to cycle a few years ago, the 44-year-old now glides sedately through the traffic on his Brompton, dressed in a short-sleeve shirt and suit trousers.

In his office there are 2,000 people -- only three of them cycle to work.

"I don't want to wear a body-tight jersey or travel at 50 kilometres an hour," he says. "I want the people in their cars or in the bus to say, 'He's an ordinary guy and he can do that, I want to do that too.'"

However, drivers are not used to sharing the road with bicycles.

"They have the mindset that 'I'm the king of the road and you cyclists should go to the cycling track'," says Soo.

Hong Kong does have pedigree when it comes to sports cycling, with Sarah Lee Wai-Sze snatching a bronze on the track at the London Olympics this summer, becoming the city's third-ever medallist.

And Britain's David Millar, a five-time Tour de France stage winner, spent his teenage years in Hong Kong riding around its country parks, although he wrote in his autobiography that the double-decker buses were "always a hazard" and likely to knock riders off.

Sean Godley, of cycle shop Sky Blue Bikes, said keen cyclists will resort to nocturnal riding just to escape the traffic.

But it is not just the drivers who can be a danger. The shop abandoned a weekend group ride-around partly because some of the cyclists themselves were unsafe.

"Only a certain number of people have any idea about road rules. For example, they will stop to let a car make a right hand turn," Godley, from Melbourne in Australia, said.

He believes Hong Kong should have bicycle education for the young, like the UK's cycling proficiency test, but concedes there is often a lack of space to do it.

Another factor keeping riders off the roads is pollution.

The government revised its air quality objectives for the first time in 25 years in January, after university research showed pollution-related illnesses killed more than 3,000 residents a year.

Patrick Fung, campaign manager at the Clean Air Network, says the main source of pollution is traffic emissions. But his organisation is reluctant to make the promotion of cycling one of its primary goals.

"We have to be practical. There aren't many bikers in Hong Kong and the roads are not really suitable for bikers for daily commuting," he says.

He concedes it is a Catch 22 situation. People do not want to ride because of the pollution, but unless they get in the saddle the air quality is less likely to improve.

Potential cyclists, who may be put off by the lack of bicycle parking and workplace showers,The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility. will also be tempted by Hong Kong's ultra-efficient transport system, which includes metros, buses and trams.

The transport department says cycling only counts for a "very small fraction" of commuter journeys, while pointing out that it has provided 200 kilometres (125 miles) of cycle tracks in outlying new towns "for short distance travel and recreational activities".

"Since the general road traffic in Hong Kong is heavy and road space is limited, the administration does not encourage the use of bicycles as a transport mode in the urban areas based on road safety consideration," it said.

Turner rides into the legislative council complex and points to a newly installed bike rack. The provision of this type of parking is progress, he said, although he noted it was empty.

He does not believe Hong Kong should think of itself as a special case, pointing out that other more bike-orientated cities also have heavy traffic, pollution, hills and heat.

"It's about policy, coordination, planning, awareness. There's such a lack of awareness in what cycling means and how it would work," he said.

"The rest of the world is pushing ahead and making their cities cycle-friendly, improving the quality of people's lives. We can do it too."

A pair of security guards approach, apparently concerned by the two-wheeled presence.

"Cyclists are always treated with so much suspicion here," Turner said. "The premise is that cyclists are not responsible."

DC Taxi Commission Still Gunning for Uber

As I chronicled in the Atlantic six months ago, upstart limo dispatch service Uber is embroiled in a long-running war with the DC taxi commission. Uber allows you to order a sedan service from your smartphone, and is much beloved by affluent DC DINKs. It is also a favorite of the limo drivers, who like being able to get rides at good pay rates, and without paying kickbacks to the dispatchers.Find solar panel from a vast selection of Solar Panels. A couple of nights ago, I took an Uber to a work event (you still can't reliably get a cab in my neighborhood), and the driver told me that he'd just bought the shiny new Lincoln he was driving to strike out on his own. Uber is what made that happen, according to him; under the old system, it was hard for drivers to go solo, because there are network effects in black car services-; large services tend to get most of the clients. He was beaming as I inspected his brand new wheels, as proud of that car as if he'd baked it himself.Huge range of polished tiles including polished tiles,

However, Uber is not beloved of DC taxi drivers. As Bob McNamara of the Institute for Justice told me, "Like any other business, taxi drivers think it would be great if no one could compete with them.” Taxi drivers and owners provided a lot of support for our current Mayor, Vincent Gray, in his hotly contested primary race with former Mayor Adrian Fenty. (They also seem to have offered some illegal support to the city council staff; one member's former aide got jail time for accepting bribes.) The commission has become quite cosy with the industry incumbents in recent years, to the point of issuing a de-facto moratorium on new taxi and limo licenses. The election did nothing to reverse that relationship.

The taxi commission has been gunning for Uber since last year, when they launched a "sting" featuring Commission head Ron Linton, which ended in the unlucky driver having his car impounded. Originally they said the service was illegal because you couldn't use a black car to charge for time and distance; when Uber's supporters pointed out that the taxi code contained a "sedan" designation that seemed to allow black cars to do just that, they suddenly came up with a new rationale: Uber was illegal because it didn't offer you a paper receipt. I was unable to find an Uber customer who expressed any desire to have a paper receipt, but perhaps they are out there, frantically lobbying the taxi commission.

As I reported in the piece, Uber beat back the initial crackdown by mobilizing its dedicated fans. A couple of months ago,Buy Natural china glass mosaic Tiles online with our price beat promise. new rules the city council came back with new rules which would have prevented Uber from competing on a cost-basis with taxis (currently, the service is about 50-100% more expensive); Uber again mobilized its customers, and the matter was tabled.

Now they're trying to do it again, as the taxi commission proposes yet another set of rules. Among other things, the rules would prevent any sedan company with fewer than 20 vehicles from operating in the district, force companies to have an office in the district (Uber does, some like competitors don't), and require, yes, printed receipts.

I'm a sometime customer of Uber's (in a nice reversal of the usual conflict-of-interest statement, I pay them, rather than the other way around), and I've always found their service exemplary. I've been completely stonkered by the relentless drive to regulate Uber in ways that would degrade its value to customers and drivers, wtihout even the customary pretense that DC citizens are suffering real harms that the regulations will finally alleviate. No one's even really bothering to pretend that there is any problem--other than the obvious fact that DC taxi drivers don't like competition.

According to Greater Greater Washington, Commissioner Linton "vehemently denies" that he's trying to hamper Uber's business, but his excuses for these rules are pretty thin. They can't have small car service operators, he says, because it would up the commission's workload. Given the number of employees I saw sitting or standing around, like the security guard whose sole job is apparently to prevent anyone from entering, or taking pictures of, the offices, I would suggest that the commission's workload problem seems to be administrative rather than volume driven.The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility. If the taxi commission really hasn't been capable of processing a new application in almost four years, perhaps we should outsource their work to the folks at the Apple Store,Save up to 80% off Ceramic Tile and plastic moulds. or for that matter, the DC DMV, both of which seem able to process thousands of applications a week.

The printed receipts claims are even more ridiculous; Commissioner Linton says they are necessary to keep people from being cheated by drivers who let Uber's "meter" run. But you get a bill with your time and dropoff location right on it. And Uber drivers depend on ratings to get their next ride; drivers with low ratings get kicked off the system. It's particularly ludicrous given that DC taxi drivers currently don't give printed receipts; half of them still hand out blank forms. Linton claims that they've "gotten complaints" about Uber not having printed receipts, but if so, why not start by cracking down on the cab drivers who are abetting expense and tax fraud?

Safety Policy Creates Prison-like New York City Schools

When Minerva Dickson first saw her high school she thought it looked like a prison. After her first week she realized how right her initial impressions were.

Every day when she arrived at the Thomas Jefferson Campus in Brownsville, Brooklyn, she waited in a line that snaked out onto Pennsylvania Avenue. She would shuffle up two steps passing beneath words from Abraham Lincoln inscribed on the neo-classical pediment: “Let Reverence for the Laws Become the Political Religion of the Nation.”

Next, she reached into her pocket for her identification card and slid it through a machine. When it recognized her, it blurted an approving beep and a green light would flash. When it didn’t, the machine made an abrasive buzzing noise and lit up red.

Clear of the reader, she headed to the metal detectors. There, at least a half dozen school safety agents waited. School safety agents, who answer to the New York City Police Department, wear a police uniform and a shield. A pair of handcuffs dangles from their belts.

Under their gaze, Dickson would remove her jewelry, hairpins, and shoes. She would place her purse and her backpack on the conveyor belt and wait for an agent to nod her through. Another would run a security wand around her diminutive frame while she stood arms out, legs spread.

More than the arrests, the summonses, and the substitution of detention halls with jail cells, critics of the burgeoning police presence in public schools point to the corrosive daily experiences of students like Dickson to explain why the system needs to change. Students have grown to see school as a joyless place where they are treated like perps instead of pupils, critics say.

With the growth of the police presence in New York City in the last decade, students’ have seen their confidence erode not only in school, but other civic institutions, too. Critics worry that poor and minority students more and more see education as extension of a burgeoning police state, one that seems to disproportionately target them.Browse the Best Selection of buy mosaic and Accessories with FREE Gifts. Whether with stop-and-frisks in the streets or in “the Riker’s Island treatment” on their way to class, students say they feel like the government’s push to make them secure in school has left them feeling like inmates instead. And with authority for school safety lodged in the most powerful police department in the world, educators feel like they are helpless to change it.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?

On its own,Features useful information about glass mosaic tiles, the 5200 school safety agents in the NYPD’s School Safety Division, and the additional 190 armed officers — stationed in the halls of some of the city’s 1700 schools make up a force bigger than the police departments of Boston, Las Vegas, Detroit or Washington,Capture the look and feel of real stone or ceramic tile flooring with Alterna. D.C. If removed from the NYPD, the division would be the fifth biggest police force in the country. And like members in the NYPD, the agents have full arresting power on and off school grounds, both in the city and the state.

Prospective agents are trained for 14 weeks in the police academy, only a fraction of the six months of training police officers receive. They leave as peace officers, which includes the power to use handcuffs and, when necessary, deadly force.

The New York Civil Liberties Union has a federal lawsuit against the city alleging the agents make wrongful arrests, use excessive force, and detain and handcuff students in violation of their Fourth Amendment rights. Johanna Miller, the Assistant Advocacy Director, hopes the courts will limit the School Safety Division’s authority and give educators control over discipline.

She said recent data reveals a system that targets poor and minority students. There were 2,548 students arrested or cited for a summons for the 216 high school and 209 middle school days from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012 — 11 students a day. Of those, 95 percent were either black or Latino.

She said agents often arrest a child instead of trying to de-escalate a tense situation, contributing to what she calls a school-to-prison pipeline. Poor, minority students oftenIn December, 2010, after languishing in various committees, the City Council unanimously passed the School Safety Act. The act mandates that the NYPD release reports on police activity in the schools. For the first time in the country, disciplinary activity of students would be made public as a matter of law. Advocates hope the act serves as a model for reform.

But people in the system say even the most transparent reporting system misses the point. Dickson said there is no way to quantify what she went through attending a high school outfitted like a fortress. She said you can’t put a number on four years of being searched, and scanned, of turning a hallway corner to see a cop staring back.

Although it did not comment on this story, the NYPD’s position on school safety has been clear. In mid-August,This page list rubber hose products with details & specifications. in response to the first public release of school arrests, the NYPD’s chief spokesman, Paul Browne, said in interviews with numerous publications that the NYCLU, “persists in smearing school safety agents and police officers who do good work professionally and in an unbiased manner.” get arrested for behavior that would be treated as a school matter in a wealthier schools.

Malta ‘smiling in the midst of the euro-storm’

This is the advice of Italy’s business paper, Il Sole 24 Ore which printed a mostly laudatory article about Malta in its weekend magazine.

Christian Benna wrote that in the midst of the euro-storm all over the Mediterranean, the island-state 83 kilometres away from Sicily has become a safe haven for those escaping the tsunami of the spreads. The queues of private citizens and companies who have sought refuge on the shores of the island have grown and grown.

Benna also said that what has attracted investments and new residents are not just the intense blue colour of the sea and the sun’s rays for 300 days a year, but above all a very light fiscal regime, defined by EU rules and thus all legal. Until a few years ago, Malta, with only 430,000 inhabitants, resembled a small Caribbean island in the heart of the Mediterranean: the smallest European economy, the only one in the continent to speak a Semitic language and able to dialogue – even in English, its second official language – with different worlds such as the Arab,Airgle has mastered the art of indoor tracking, the Latin and the Anglo-Saxon worlds, was mainly based on tourism, real estate and business, not always of the most transparent sort, as transparent as its sea.

Benna wrote that in 2008, after a difficult referendum, the country entered the eurozone and it has since become a low-cost financial hub that is both acknowledged and respected.

The government has reformed the economy, through the privatisation of State companies, has cut down on public spending and has also approved a law about divorce, to move with the times.

In exchange, Malta has obtained from the EU the possibility of using a privileged fiscal system that today is particularly welcomed by private citizens and financial companies.

As the economic crisis spread, between spending reviews about everything and searchlights pointed at tax evaders who park money outside the eurozone (Monaco, Andorra and Switzerland), Malta offers a safe (and legal) haven to investors.

As from this year, the red and white flags with the Cross given by King George, flutter over the biggest fleet in Europe,Find detailed product information for Hot Sale howo spareparts Radiator. with over 25 million tons, who travel on a Maltese passport.

At Valletta they register not only merchant ships and tankers and ships with containers from all over Europe but also luxury yachts. Over the past 12 months, some 300 super-yachts have taken on Maltese citizenship.

The lightweight fiscal regime also attracts online gaming companies, from Texas hold’em onwards. The Maltese gaming authorities have issued more than 400 licences for as many operators. In Europe, one in every three online gaming company is registered in Malta. In some countries, such as Denmark, the percentage goes up to 60%. This is heaven-sent to the Maltese state, which, being deprived of natural resources, receives and thanks.

Besides these, physical persons are also arriving in Malta – the expatriates now number some 20,000, increasing by some 3,000 every year.

Who purchases a residence also gets Maltese residence. And with residence one also gets a guarantee of paying just 15% income tax. It is now not only British pensioners (the most numerous foreign residents) but also Germans, Italians and French who come to spend their winters in Malta aiming to preserve what they have saved over the years in an attractive climate.

The 28 local banks, more than half of which have foreign capital, have become safes, full of money coming from abroad. Banking assets today amount as much as eight times the Gross Domestic Product, a record in Europe, second only to Ireland. In all, financial activities amount to €60,000m.

The Maltese financial sector continues to grow. The number of managers and officials who work in the sector amount to almost 10,000, with more than 55 investment funds (mostly hedge funds) relocated to Malta from the continent, managing tens of thousands of millions of euros. Some,HOWO is a well-known tractor's brand and howo tractor suppliers are devoted to designing and manufacturing best products. like Fmg from the US, have relocated even from the Cayman Islands. Others have come here from London, to escape from national regulations that are becoming stricter and stricter and high management costs.

Benna also referred to Reuben Buttigieg, chairman of the Malta (Institute of) Management, who is reasonably optimistic about the future of his country: “Over the past years, Malta has managed to create opportunities from the crisis. In fact, if we look at the performance of the financial sector we cannot not see an astounding growth”, with a value added of 8% in GNP. “This is a unique growth rate in Europe where the financial and banking sectors are suffering very much.”

According to Mr Buttigieg, “apart from a favourable fiscal system, there are also advantages deriving from human capital, a base of high-quality professionals and a management cost of investment funds that is generally 40% lower than that found in other European countries.

“Malta also continues to grow also through investments from Middle East countries that use Maltese structures to enter in Europe.”

Italians too are coming to Malta. There are more than 4,000 in Malta – restaurateurs, financial sector persons, managers, construction managers. There is a bit of everything, with growth rates of over 30% a year.

Among these there is also the financial ‘preacher’, Eugenio Benetazzo, who was right from the beginning with Beppe Grillo, who from 2008 foresaw the financial collapse, the new depression and the imminent arrival of a financial Middle Ages in Italy.Where can i get a reasonable price dry cabinet?

Benetazzo, the author of a brand-new book, Neurolandia, is a Malta-enthusiast without any shade of doubt.The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility. “Here,” he says, “everything works perfectly. The financial services authority is the second in the world as to efficiency, beaten only by the British one. Sovereign debt is not over 70% of GDP, a spread that is below the Italian one and which is held not by foreign institutions but directly by the Maltese. The island is a real bunker in times of crisis.”

Public-safety network gets trial run

For the telecom world, the biggest lesson of the GOP convention wasn’t political — it was that a nationwide interoperable broadband network could actually work.

The convention in Tampa, Fla., marked the first time law enforcement personnel were able to use the type of system envisioned by policymakers since the Sept. 11 attacks highlighted critical weaknesses in first-responder communications. Vendors and public safety officials hope the lessons can be applied nationwide.Browse the Best Selection of buy mosaic and Accessories with FREE Gifts.

The communications system used during the convention, which relied on several vendors and often used off-the-shelf technology, allowed coordination for the public safety network over some 15 jurisdictions, all for a high-profile event that had the added complication of a passing hurricane,Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. public safety and industry officials involved in the effort told POLITICO.

Sgt. Dale Moushon of the St. Petersburg Police Department intelligence unit said it allowed police to operate faster and more efficiently than they could have using their old-style primary system.

“From an operational perspective, it’s huge,” Moushon said. “To be able to communicate that much data with the Tampa P.D. or the Clearwater P.D. is a huge help.”

Moushon said the network put law enforcement on the same footing as the bad guys who now use all the fancy, high-tech gear that is commercially available. Police officers in departments like his often use their own personal equipment for texting and other such applications, even though it’s unsecured.

“I could text the same information to the next jurisdiction, but it’s off the grid,” Moushon said.

A consortium of companies, including Cisco, Raytheon, Nokia Siemens Networks, Reality Mobile and Amdocs proved for the first time in Tampa that the multivendor interoperable Public Safety LTE network could work.

It also was the first time federal, state and local first responders have simultaneously used a 700-MHz D-block broadband network for what is called a National Special Security Event. The network was deployed under special temporary authority from the Federal Communications Commission.

In effect, it provided a field trial of a multivendor integrated LTE system in advance of the $7 billion deployment of the National Public Safety Broadband Network, said Kevin McFadden, Cisco’s customer solutions and business development manager.

“It was a first look at First Net,” McFadden said. “It helps us understand where First Net needs to go.”

The new First Responder Network Authority is an independent authority within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration that will hold the spectrum license for the network, and is charged with taking “all actions necessary” to build, deploy and operate the network, in consultation with federal, state, tribal and local public safety entities,Find a cry stalmosaic Manufacturer and Supplier. and other key stakeholders.

“Communications is critical during such a large-scale event as the Republican National Convention,” 2012 Republican National Convention CEO William Harris said in a statement. “Thanks to our partners and official providers, we had complete interoperability between the convention leadership team and our security planning partners on the federal, state and local levels, which allowed us to have a safe and successful event.”

Using the system, security officials were able to get a high-definition look at a parking citation and use facial recognition to determine that a rowdy individual was just that.

“To be able to see that in HD quality in real time allowed the detective to determine there was not a threat and move on,Different Sizes and Colors can be made with different stone mosaic designs.” Harris said.AeroScout is the market leader for rtls solutions and provide complete wireless asset tracking and monitoring. “This just opens up a world of [possibilities] for the cop on the street for what the technology can do.”

Ford hopes its new Fusion will be Camry crusher

The Fusion has become Ford's best-selling car since it went on sale in 2005, and it's one of the top sellers in the country. But Ford hopes the sexier styling, improved fuel economy and features like automatic parallel parking on the 2013 version will help it pass the perennial leader, the Toyota Camry.

Ford is enlisting "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest to introduce the redesigned sedan alongside CEO Alan Mulally in New York's Times Square Tuesday. It also is holding events in Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, and on the lawn of its headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.

The publicity blitz underscores the importance of the Fusion to Ford, which is rolling out the car to U.S. dealerships later this month. The midsize car segment is the biggest in the U.S., making up half of all car sales so far this year. It's also one of the most hotly contested. Three of the Fusion's biggest rivals — the Honda Accord, Nissan Altima and Chevrolet Malibu — are also new this fall.

Here's more about the 2013 Fusion:

PRICE: The Fusion starts at $21,700, which is less than the current Camry and in line with the new Altima and Accord. But the price rises quickly. A top-of-the-line Fusion with Ford's automatic parking system, lane departure warning,Save up to 80% off Ceramic Tile and plastic moulds. navigation and other goodies is $34,580. An Altima with similar features is $31,950.

POWER: The base engine, a 2.5-liter four-cylinder that gets up to 33 miles per gallon on the highway,Huge range of polished tiles including polished tiles, is carrWhere can i get a reasonable price dry cabinet?ied over from the old Fusion. But there are four new engine choices: a 1.6-liter, four-cylinder EcoBoost that's expected to get 37 mpg; a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder EcoBoost in its top-of-the-line Titanium model; a hybrid that gets an industry-best 47 mpg in the city; and a plug-in hybrid, called the Fusion Energi, which runs for longer on the battery and should get the equivalent of more than 100 mpg.

EXTERIOR DESIGN: The Fusion has a more aggressive look, borrowing the chiseled, aerodynamic profile of Ford's other new cars, the Fiesta and Focus. Its shuttered grille is gone, replaced by a diamond-shaped one at the end of a sharply creased, pointed hood.

Ford wanted the car to have a premium feel, so it took the extra — and more expensive — step of embedding the Ford badge in the hood instead of attaching it to the grille. Designer Chris Hamilton said the company wanted the car to look like it was worked on by hand.

Ford also incorporated feedback from global focus groups, since the Fusion will be sold all over the world. It redesigned the headlights,The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility. for example, after Chinese customers found them too sinister.

INTERIOR: The 2013 has more rear-leg room thanks to thinner seats up front. Ford says it has used better, softer materials. Among the options are Ford's Sync voice-controlled entertainment system and its My Ford Touch dashboard screen, which has had some glitches but it still cited by many customers as the reason they buy a Ford, since the technology is far ahead of some rivals.

OPTIONS: Options include a lane-keeping system, which uses cameras to monitor whether a driver is staying in his lane and alerts him if he swerves off course. There's also a system that parallel parks the car automatically,Find solar panel from a vast selection of Solar Panels. a blind-spot warning system and a cross-traffic alert monitor that beeps if traffic is coming while the car is backing out of a parking space. Toyota only offers a blind-spot monitor on the Camry. The 2013 Accord has lane-departure warning and a forward collision warning system. Neither has the automatic parking feature.

CHEERS: Analysts and fans were wowed by the design when Ford showed the car at the Detroit auto show earlier this year. The Fusion is likely to follow the success of other recent Ford redesigns, including the hot-selling Ford Explorer SUV.

JEERS: The Fusion can get expensive fast when buyers pile on options. It's unclear if Ford will see much demand for the hybrid and plug-in hybrid, since sales of the previous Fusion hybrid were anemic.

A Victim of the System

My arrest at sunset on Saturday, August 18, 2012 with two of my sons continues to generate concerns among the public, perhaps of what I am as a person with quiet bearing and unassuming character, and or what I stand for in keeping with my moral and professional obligations as a journalist.

Disappointingly, under our current dispensation of democratic government, my arrest on that quiet Saturday evening remains without explanation, with no one - neither Judge, Juriy or arresting officers - willing or able to help me understand the reason(s) for their decision and subsequent action against me.

There were seven police officers in a pick-up marked LNP/PSU #12 who disembarked and immediately handcuffed my two sons and me without acquainting us of what wrong we committed or who ordered for our arrest and public humiliation.

The story became complex when the seven police officers were overheard as saying "we have accomplished the mission for which we were paid." This became amazing to me as the police and an unscrupulous-looking person who apparently demanded for my arrest was visibly seen dividing money among the officers and promising to do more should they (police) continue their spree of arrests. Liberians refer to this pay-out activity as "cash violence", the act of using cash to induce or reward certain persuasions or activities - such as my arrest - by an entity pursuing a specific, ususally ulterior motive.

Another point of interest introduced itself when the self proclaimed complainant, who has yet to be identified, told the police squad to make enough photo copies of whatever instrument (Arrest Order) obtained from the court for "future implementation" i.e. to use them against whoever they would want to arrest without the least information.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?

My attention was drawn to these interactions, but there was nothing I could do at the time, since my sons and I were already their captives, destined for detention in the inner cell at the headquarters of the Liberia National Police (LNP) on Capitol Hill in Monrovia.

The scenario started exactly at 6:31 P.M. when the three of us, (my two sons and I) were leisurely walking, greeting neighbors in the Kpehkphe/Kpelleh town of the Johnsonville belt, where I live. Little did we know the police was against peaceful citizens, such as we, without acquainting us of our Miranda rights upon arrest. They pounced on us and tied us together with their handcuffs. Not only did they handcuff us, they paraded us through the bush path of Johnsonville and into the swampy areas where we were made to walk inside the water and over the narrow bridges amidst the laughter of on-lookers as the man in control of the police smoked his cigar in my face.

At some point, I tried to introduce myself as a Daily Observer senior reporter assigned at the Executive Mansion, but the police and their "financier" refused to listen. Instead, they referred to me as a "criminal", but with no charge sheet. My accuser (yet to be identified) was heard saying, "I am a state witness." That statement is ambiguous as the question abounds: "state witness" to what?

Their action sparked serious concern in the media community when it was gathered that neither me, nor my two sons arrested with me, were served a warrant at the time of our arrest, nor were we informed of our Miranda rights, or given a specific reason as to why we were arrested and jailed at the Police Headquarters. Until now, the complainant remains at large, prompting questions about the motives of the police officers and other individuals, who some times could be pursuaded in the like manner.

Once at the LNP Headquarters, I was allowed to make one brief phone call to anyone, informing them of my arrest. I called my bosses, the management of the Daily Observer newspaper, at 8:19 p.m. that day to inform them that my two sons Prince and Menker, and I had been arrested nearly two hours earlier in the Johnsonville community where we were being handcuffed and taken to the headquarters of the Liberia National Police in Monrovia, without any knowledge of the reason for our arrest.

When Bai Best, Daily Observer's marketing manager and the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) president,This page list rubber hose products with details & specifications. Peter Quaqua arrived at the LNP headquarters to find out more about the arrest, police desk sergeant Stephen K. Jallah,Features useful information about glass mosaic tiles, who had processed our inter cell detention papers, refused to explain the situation and to further listen to my boss and the PUL president, as they (police) quickly demanded us (the arrested persons) to declare our personal effects before being jailed at the inside cell among other suspected criminals. Up to present,Capture the look and feel of real stone or ceramic tile flooring with Alterna. neither the police nor the court has produced an indictment citing any reason(s) for my arrest.Browse the Best Selection of buy mosaic and Accessories with FREE Gifts. By that, it signals that the police might be arbitrarily using assigned vehicles especially PSU #12 to rather harass and intimidate peaceful citizens.

No problem! Just use your phone

With no public fanfare, Salt Lake City has just taken a big step into a possible cash-free world.

When drivers pay for parking downtown, they no longer need coins or even a credit card in their pocket. A smart phone will do, or even a dumb one.

"What the public will notice is a very streamlined way to pay for parking," said Robin Hutcheson, Salt Lake City's transportation director.

City officials haven't even announced the system yet because they're still testing it. But technologically savvy drivers have already started downloading and using a phone app called "Quick Pay."

The app is a new way to pay for on-street parking at spaces in downtown Salt Lake City that formerly had parking meters. Salt Lake City pays a portion of each parking fee to owners of Quick Pay, but there is no additional cost to drivers.

"You are not paying any more to pay by phone,Airgle has mastered the art of indoor tracking," Hutcheson said.

The city is using feedback from early users to troubleshoot and refine the system. Hutcheson said the testing is "going quite well" and she expects a roll-out of the new system in about a week.

The Quick Pay app is provided by a San Francisco company free of charge to anyone who wants to download it to a phone. Versions are available for iPhone as well as Android phones.

"If you don't have a smart phone,Find detailed product information for Hot Sale howo spareparts Radiator." Hutcheson said, "there's a text application that will work that will allow you to pay by (other phones) as well."

When a driver uses the Quick Pay app for the first time, it requires the entry of a credit card number and the driver's license plate number. Quick Pay remembers that data so it doesn't have to be re-entered.

When the driver parks his car, he activates the Quick Pay app and points the phone at a barcode symbol near each parking place. In a second or two, Quick Pay recognizes the barcode and asks the driver how long he wants to park. The program then charges the correct amount to the driver's previously entered credit card.

During the time the car is parked,Where can i get a reasonable price dry cabinet? the driver can check his phone at any moment to see how much parking time is left. When just five minutes remain, Quick Pay sends an email message to warn the driver. Once time has expired,The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility. the app sends the driver a credit card receipt via email.

Quick Pay is one of a number of new apps moving consumers away from cash and plastic credit cards and into the realm of digital money.

Some retailers in Utah already take payments via phone. Blue Star Juice and Coffee Shops, for example, uses an app called Square. In a second, or two, Square charges the transaction to the customer's credit card.

Whether a customer is paying for coffee or parking time, ultimately, trust is required because personal credit card information has to remain on file somewhere in cyberspace.

"You should not worry," Hutcheson said.HOWO is a well-known tractor's brand and howo tractor suppliers are devoted to designing and manufacturing best products. "This is a very secure transaction, the same way you would use your card on any other internet transaction."

City officials said the credit card information collected by Quick Pay is not used to collect fines for overtime parking or for unpaid parking fees. "There is no automatic citation," said city spokesman Art Raymond. "It still requires an enforcement officer to find the violation."

Modeling performance after evaluation criteria

It's one of those things that would appear so very logical that we rarely, if ever, do it. Think back to the first few days of work at your most recent place of employment. Did you even think of asking your boss to share with you the criteria with which you will be evaluated one year hence?

It's my contention that when it comes to career advancement there may be nothing more important. As a matter of fact, if coached properly it would behoove one to broach the subject during the latter stages of the interview process. I would certainly recommend that this piece of business be high on the priority list -- if not first -- when accepting a new position.

The reality is that usually a year out you will be sitting down with your boss, and he or she will present you with a document entitled "Performance Evaluation." For most, it will be the first time any such formal assessment of your skills by the company will be unveiled. You really can't afford to be caught by surprise.

If you wish to secure the actual forms, you should ask the person to whom you report. However, it shouldn't surprise you to find out they may not be able to accommodate you. Such details are often left to the human-resources professional responsible for the business unit.Browse the Best Selection of buy mosaic and Accessories with FREE Gifts.

The fact is that until that time of year rolls around, it's the last thing on a manager's mind. Usually, the HR professional ends up chasing the evaluator to submit their report on time. Therefore, it would be in your best interest to be proactive and request this information. It's your prerogative to view this material.

It becomes of paramount importance to have knowledge of this criterion if you've negotiated a six-month salary review in lieu of a higher rate of compensation. Due to challenging economic times, this phenomenon happens to be more commonplace. Simply stated, if it affects your bottom line, you need to keep both eyes on the prize.

There is a movement afoot to increase the number of evaluations to two per year or one every six months. It has to do with the motivation and satisfaction of the employee as it pertains to retention. Companies in today's market, more than ever before, covet high-achieving employees. So be sure to question how often these ratings will be doled out.

Oh yeah, and ask also if a self-evaluation is encouraged. This is certainly worthwhile and can go a long way to foster a strong relationship with your boss. Being on the same page at the start is a good thing. And occasionally, a well thought-out personal evaluation may influence the hiring manager in a positive way.

The actual evaluation form will likely consist of a definition of the ratings. Sometimes a number system, say categories 1-5,Features useful information about glass mosaic tiles, may be employed. But most often a word-based scenario is the choice.The indoor positioning industry is heavily involved this year

For example, something like "FE" pertaining to "far exceeds" goals in all areas would indicate exceptional performance while "CE,Capture the look and feel of real stone or ceramic tile flooring with Alterna." or "consistently exceeds" goals, is considered superior. These might be followed by "SM," or "sometimes meets" goals, equals expected/successful performance and "PM," meaning "partially meets" goals, shows fair performance. "DNM," or "does not meet" agreed-upon goals, would be considered poor performance and rounds out the ratings scale.

Key areas of responsibilities for the job vary by discipline but usually consist of somewhere between three and five specific standards. They're graded per the above scale.

If your company is on top of its game, it will measure your performance against a well-defined success profile based on information derived by the various assessment tools at its disposal. The more detailed the explanation of these competencies, the better your capability to perform to the specific model.

Normally, there are anywhere from five to 10 areas to be rated. One of the usual suspects is technical competence, measuring your technical knowledge in several functional areas and your ability to translate such information.HOWO is a well-known tractor's brand and howo tractor suppliers are devoted to designing and manufacturing best products.

Similarly, some combination of initiative/drive rating helps the employer determine managerial maintenance levels along with ones so called "think-out-of-the-box" potential.