After reading the 2013/14 financial year Budget, I realised that it’s high time Uganda initiated some contemporary forms of project financing. Our country has pressing infrastructure needs which must be addressed by enhanced performance in key primary growth-stimulating sectors that will aid fundamental growth. Can Uganda singly finance her major development “conduits” in the short run? Whereas this is what any pro-development Ugandan would quest for, the answer is a big No!
So, if we cannot singly finance our development programmes from the local revenue least the population would stride for insurrections against Uganda Revenue Authority’s Allen Kagina for “over squeezing water from a rock, moreover in a dry season, does it mean our development programmes should lag behind or we wait for three to four years when the first barrel of oil is expected? We have many options awaiting our hard work.
Let me shed some light on this modern way of project financing that presses minimal burden on the government and taxpayer - the fundamental concept of Public-Private Partnerships PPPs, and the different rationales for their use.
PPPs have been defined in various ways but I will point out a generic definition: “A contractual arrangement between the government and private sector provider in which the two parties enter into a long-term agreement, up to 20 to 30 years, to build a new infrastructure facility or to rehabilitate an existing one for the purpose of undertaking a public service on behalf of the government.
The private party is required, under the terms of the project agreement, to take responsibility to mobilise finance equity as well as debt in order to complete the facility according to agreed specifications and schedule and the latter would benefit by way of i compensation from a revenue fund, ii charges or fees collected by the private party from users or customers, or iii a combination of compensation and charges or fees.
The private party is liable for the risks arising from the performance of its function; and offshore merchant account, equipment or other State resources may be transferred or made available to the private party.” A thorough reading of my definition will certainly point the readers to public entities as key engines to drive Uganda to the next level so as to be in consonance with Vision 2040.
Based on the definition above, it is obvious that PPPs can cover many different sectors and also include different levels of risk-transfer/ risk-sharing between the public and private sectors. This flexibility on the issue of “what is considered as PPP” can allow numerous innovations and variations in structuring projects, as long as they further the overall goal of PPPs, namely, to provide more available and high quality public services that are affordable, and which provide better value for money to both government and end-users without necessarily overstraining the government and the taxpayer.
Specifically, the most important reason behind PPPs is that while the public sector is accountable for ensuring that public services get delivered, it is not, in many cases, the best service provider in terms of cost, quality and ability to manage commercial risks. This limited ability of the public sector to manage commercial performance well is aggravated by the accelerating demand for infrastructure in developing economies of which Uganda is no exception.
PPPs offer better value for public money throughout the entire life of the project by: allocation of each of the project’s risks to the party that is best placed to manage each risk, harnessing of private sector’s incentives for better innovation, and commercial management expertise by involving the private sector more directly in the provision of public services, more efficient project delivery based on performance-based management principles, often transferring of financing responsibility to the private sector, thus freeing up limited public sector capital budgets to address other pressing social and developmental priorities. Some multilateral development partners, as one of the measures to ensure project viability, make institutionalisation of PPPs a pre-requisite for governments to qualify for funding.
The Uganda Government PPP Framework Policy, which Cabinet approved on March 10, 2010, gives mandate to relevant government departments to be responsible for implementation of PPPs while working closely with the Ministry of Finance’s PPP Unit. Implementation of PPPs, however, imposes financial commitment on the government’s future Budgets, thus requiring approval from Ministry of Finance.
My interpretation, therefore, is not meant to cause unnecessary exhilaration to the accounting officers of some of the entities as PPP regime requires a lot of planning, feasibility analysis, project screening and stakeholder management strategies. It is not uncommon for PPPs, despite their justification, to collapse on the shoulders of their initiators during the planning and procurement stages due to lack of proper planning when a lot of resources both human and financial have been wasted.
Reports have begun to circulate that you are linked with a move to Liverpool. As each day turns into night, the coverage on your transfer has grown stronger. People close to Shakthar say your arrival at Anfield is imminent. I hope they are right. I hope that every newspaper that has linked you to Liverpool proves accurate. You see – we don’t really boast a good track record with players linked with us. A prime example was last year when Tottenham hijacked our moves for Clint Dempsey and Gussi Sigurdsson, who if had joined Liverpool, we would have possibly finished in the top 4. With you, it could be different. At least I hope so faithfully. There are rumors linking you elsewhere which simultaneously propel my sanguinity towards pleading you to join the Reds.
You could wonder – why a club that was once the most illustrious is in dire need of your services. You are right to question our so called ascent to the Champions League. Since we finished second to United about five years ago, we have rarely posed a threat in the Premier League to the “New Top 4”. Henrikh, even our coaching staff, once the most stable position in English Football, has switched as often as the value of the British pound.
Kirkby, arguably dubbed to be the magma of producing the greatest talents in British Football, is enduring a meager revival after a dry, unfertile spell. Three years ago, our record was greater than Manchester United. Today, we are the benign interest of the Red Devils’ mockery. Our trophy cabinet has been heaved with dust since the end of the Kenny Dalglish’s first managerial spell at Liverpool. The more and more I dwell into our misfortunes, you might consider not coming at Anfield to don the Liverbird on your chest.
Read the full story at austpay.com!
2013年6月30日星期日
2013年6月27日星期四
PayPal beating Square at its own game in UK
PayPal Here launched to much hype last year in the U.S. (Disclosure: I own stock in PayPal parent $EBAY.) The product, a triangular dongle, allows small merchants to take credit cards in the United States. It was very much a catch-up move by the payments giant to compete with San Francisco-based Square.
Now PayPal is leaping ahead with an EMV version of its PayPal Here reader, which is a better fit for many international markets. I was recently in London and had the chance to get a demo from PayPal’s Narik Patel, director of mobile merchant services. You can see a video demo here.
Some context for U.S.-based readers: although magnetic stripe is the predominant technology in the U.S. for credit cards, that’s not the case in much of the world. In Europe, Chip and PIN is dominant. Each credit card has an electronic chip on it. In order to authorize a transaction, the customer slides the card into the chip reader and then enters a 4-6 digit PIN. This has the effect of significantly reducing fraud.
Chip and PIN readers require much more complex hardware than the magnetic stripe technology used in the U.S. This makes life a bit more difficult for vendors of payments solutions.
The reader and its packaging are beautifully designed. “The number of iterations the hardware has gone through is in double digits as we wanted to make sure it was as intuitive as possible as well as having that ‘premium’ PayPal branded look and feel. The blue back has gone through at least eight versions to get to the blue finish we wanted,” Patel said. ”We have also stress tested it under several conditions – drop, number of card reads/inserts, battery management, how easy it is to press any key on its keyboard, etc.”
The device connects to a phone using Bluetooth. Setting up Bluetooth is often a sore spot, even for experienced users. PayPal built a nice tutorial to help guide customers through the process.
The reader is currently in testing at the Greedy Goat ice cream stand in London’s Borough Market. (I highly recommend their raspberry chili ice cream.) A number of merchants near PayPal’s London offices are also testing it.
It’s a small but important step and shows that PayPal president David Marcus is intent on reforming the commonly held belief that PayPal is slow and bureaucratic. Marcus is personally involved in design reviews, Patel said. PayPal’s move may become even more important as rules in the U.S. change over the next several years and the U.S. moves closer to the European model.
Despite a forecast that predicted just a light sprinkling for the early starters, the touring professional for the stunning Maynooth venue was completely unperturbed by some heavy rainfall as he carded a five-under-par 67 to share second place with Hoey, Jean Baptiste Gonnet of France, American rookie Peter Uihlein and Dutchman Joost Luiten.
As 29-year old Swede Oscar Floren shrugged off a niggling foot injury to fire an immaculate, six-under-par 66 to head the field, the rain did little for the attendance on the roomy Montgomerie Course.
Lowry and Hoey certainly did their bit but it was another bitterly disappointing day for world No 2 Rory McIlroy, who struggled to a two-over 74 alongside the Offaly man and 2006 champion Thomas Bjorn of Denmark.
The 24-year old from Holywood drove the ball poorly again and with his putter still in the deep freeze, he will need to shoot a sub-par round today just to make the halfway cut.
McIlroy confessed that he is “a little lost at the moment”, which will do little to assuage the fears of the tournament organisers over his presence in the draw tomorrow.
“He played brilliant,” said Bjorn, who shot a 68. “You can see he believes he can play this golf course and he played really well and solid, and just kept plodding away and took his chances when he got them. I thought he played really nice today.”
Bidding to make history by becoming the first player to win the same event on the European Tour as both an amateur and a professional, he drove into sand and dropped a shot at the tough 10th, but then birdied the 13th, 14th and 15th and then followed a great chip and putt birdie at the par-five 18th with two more birdie fours at the fourth and eighth.
“I got off to a shaky enough start with a bogey on 10 which wasn’t ideal but I knew my golf was good enough coming into the week,” Lowry said. “I’m really happy with the way I followed up that bogey to start and I could have birdied my last hole to shoot 66.
“I made a nice up and down to birdie the 13th, the short par four, after hitting a pretty bad tee shot right. But birdied there and birdied 14 straight away by hitting an eight-iron into about six feet. Then I got up and down and birdied the 15th for three in a row to get to two under and started cruising from there.
Read the full story at austpay.com!
Now PayPal is leaping ahead with an EMV version of its PayPal Here reader, which is a better fit for many international markets. I was recently in London and had the chance to get a demo from PayPal’s Narik Patel, director of mobile merchant services. You can see a video demo here.
Some context for U.S.-based readers: although magnetic stripe is the predominant technology in the U.S. for credit cards, that’s not the case in much of the world. In Europe, Chip and PIN is dominant. Each credit card has an electronic chip on it. In order to authorize a transaction, the customer slides the card into the chip reader and then enters a 4-6 digit PIN. This has the effect of significantly reducing fraud.
Chip and PIN readers require much more complex hardware than the magnetic stripe technology used in the U.S. This makes life a bit more difficult for vendors of payments solutions.
The reader and its packaging are beautifully designed. “The number of iterations the hardware has gone through is in double digits as we wanted to make sure it was as intuitive as possible as well as having that ‘premium’ PayPal branded look and feel. The blue back has gone through at least eight versions to get to the blue finish we wanted,” Patel said. ”We have also stress tested it under several conditions – drop, number of card reads/inserts, battery management, how easy it is to press any key on its keyboard, etc.”
The device connects to a phone using Bluetooth. Setting up Bluetooth is often a sore spot, even for experienced users. PayPal built a nice tutorial to help guide customers through the process.
The reader is currently in testing at the Greedy Goat ice cream stand in London’s Borough Market. (I highly recommend their raspberry chili ice cream.) A number of merchants near PayPal’s London offices are also testing it.
It’s a small but important step and shows that PayPal president David Marcus is intent on reforming the commonly held belief that PayPal is slow and bureaucratic. Marcus is personally involved in design reviews, Patel said. PayPal’s move may become even more important as rules in the U.S. change over the next several years and the U.S. moves closer to the European model.
Despite a forecast that predicted just a light sprinkling for the early starters, the touring professional for the stunning Maynooth venue was completely unperturbed by some heavy rainfall as he carded a five-under-par 67 to share second place with Hoey, Jean Baptiste Gonnet of France, American rookie Peter Uihlein and Dutchman Joost Luiten.
As 29-year old Swede Oscar Floren shrugged off a niggling foot injury to fire an immaculate, six-under-par 66 to head the field, the rain did little for the attendance on the roomy Montgomerie Course.
Lowry and Hoey certainly did their bit but it was another bitterly disappointing day for world No 2 Rory McIlroy, who struggled to a two-over 74 alongside the Offaly man and 2006 champion Thomas Bjorn of Denmark.
The 24-year old from Holywood drove the ball poorly again and with his putter still in the deep freeze, he will need to shoot a sub-par round today just to make the halfway cut.
McIlroy confessed that he is “a little lost at the moment”, which will do little to assuage the fears of the tournament organisers over his presence in the draw tomorrow.
“He played brilliant,” said Bjorn, who shot a 68. “You can see he believes he can play this golf course and he played really well and solid, and just kept plodding away and took his chances when he got them. I thought he played really nice today.”
Bidding to make history by becoming the first player to win the same event on the European Tour as both an amateur and a professional, he drove into sand and dropped a shot at the tough 10th, but then birdied the 13th, 14th and 15th and then followed a great chip and putt birdie at the par-five 18th with two more birdie fours at the fourth and eighth.
“I got off to a shaky enough start with a bogey on 10 which wasn’t ideal but I knew my golf was good enough coming into the week,” Lowry said. “I’m really happy with the way I followed up that bogey to start and I could have birdied my last hole to shoot 66.
“I made a nice up and down to birdie the 13th, the short par four, after hitting a pretty bad tee shot right. But birdied there and birdied 14 straight away by hitting an eight-iron into about six feet. Then I got up and down and birdied the 15th for three in a row to get to two under and started cruising from there.
Read the full story at austpay.com!
2013年6月25日星期二
Shakopee looks forward to business boost from Emerson
The owner of Turtle’s Bar & Grill in Shakopee won’t have a ringside seat for the coming arrival of a new and very large factory outside the downtown core, but Bryan Turtle says there’s little doubt his business will feel the impact.
“Anytime you bring in new jobs you see increased spending in the community,” said Turtle, whose family-run bar, restaurant and banquet center has operated in Shakopee’s old downtown district since 1990.
Turtle said he’s fired up by the recent news that a division of St. Louis-based multinational Emerson Electric will bring 500 jobs to an empty 500,000-square-foot building kitty-corner from Valleyfair.
Turtle’s enthusiasm is shared by the city, whose effort to lure Emerson Process Management Rosemount began about six months ago. The business already has about 1,500 employees in Chanhassen and began scouting the Twin Cities area for another site late last year.
The project, which involves taking over a partly completed building once planned as a complex for ADC Telecommunications, will take about five years to complete and will benefit from more that $6 million in state and local subsidies.
When fully staffed, Emerson will rank among the largest employers in Shakopee. Scott County and Canterbury Park’s seasonal workforce currently are at the top of the list, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
The average annual salary for the Emerson jobs is expected to by around $65,000. Samantha DiMaggio, Shakopee’s economic development coordinator, said the addition of Emerson, combined with the existing workforce at Seagate Technology, will result in a significant pool of highly paid engineering jobs in the city.
In addition to Emerson employees, the company’s move to Shakopee is expected to generate more than 800 spin--off jobs for firms that will do business with Emerson, according to Greater MSP, a regional development partnership.
“You bring 500 more people into a community and there’s going to be 500 more lunches that get served,” said Mayor Brad Tabke. “There’s the added business for firms that clean buildings, do landscaping and supply food service within that building. There are benefits for businesses as diverse as gas stations, dry cleaners,third party payment gateway.”
Turtle said the arrival of another large employer, SanMar Corp., already has given him a preview of the bump in business he could get from Emerson. He said he has noticed an increase in lunch and catering business since early this year after SanMar, a clothing manufacturer, opened a distribution facility with about 150 employees.
Greater MSP also has calculated that the Emerson project will generate more than 300 construction and construction-related jobs.
Shakopee Chamber of Com-merce President Angie Whit-comb says the feedback from members largely centers on relief that the long-vacant ADC site will finally be occupied. “Here’s a beautiful building that’s been sitting empty for about 10 years now, and to have somebody come in and take it over is fantastic,” she said.
Dave Menke, a senior vice president of Opus Development Corp. of Minnetonka, said Emerson’s move to the property removes uncertainty over its future, a factor than could draw other development to the area near Hwy. 169 and County Road 101. He said Opus expects to close on its purchase of the entire 110-acre site in July and will sell about half of it — including the partly completed building — to Emerson.
Opus already has announced preliminary plans for a 200,000-square-foot industrial building it will construct on the other portion of the site, which will be adjacent to the Emerson building. It will be a speculative project. Menke said his company believes there is significant demand for industrial space in the Shakopee area, especially for large blocks of space.
Opus’ long-term plans include constructing several other industrial buildings and possibly some office buildings.
Menke said it’s difficult to measure the specific impact of Emerson’s presence on development prospects for Opus’ site but said, “A company like Emerson committing to the property only bodes well for the future development that we have planned.”
Tabke said development of the former ADC site also will help the city move ahead with plans to transform a nearby former rock quarry into Quarry Lake Park. The 105-acre site currently lacks the public access road that had been expected to come with the ADC development.
“Anytime you bring in new jobs you see increased spending in the community,” said Turtle, whose family-run bar, restaurant and banquet center has operated in Shakopee’s old downtown district since 1990.
Turtle said he’s fired up by the recent news that a division of St. Louis-based multinational Emerson Electric will bring 500 jobs to an empty 500,000-square-foot building kitty-corner from Valleyfair.
Turtle’s enthusiasm is shared by the city, whose effort to lure Emerson Process Management Rosemount began about six months ago. The business already has about 1,500 employees in Chanhassen and began scouting the Twin Cities area for another site late last year.
The project, which involves taking over a partly completed building once planned as a complex for ADC Telecommunications, will take about five years to complete and will benefit from more that $6 million in state and local subsidies.
When fully staffed, Emerson will rank among the largest employers in Shakopee. Scott County and Canterbury Park’s seasonal workforce currently are at the top of the list, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
The average annual salary for the Emerson jobs is expected to by around $65,000. Samantha DiMaggio, Shakopee’s economic development coordinator, said the addition of Emerson, combined with the existing workforce at Seagate Technology, will result in a significant pool of highly paid engineering jobs in the city.
In addition to Emerson employees, the company’s move to Shakopee is expected to generate more than 800 spin--off jobs for firms that will do business with Emerson, according to Greater MSP, a regional development partnership.
“You bring 500 more people into a community and there’s going to be 500 more lunches that get served,” said Mayor Brad Tabke. “There’s the added business for firms that clean buildings, do landscaping and supply food service within that building. There are benefits for businesses as diverse as gas stations, dry cleaners,third party payment gateway.”
Turtle said the arrival of another large employer, SanMar Corp., already has given him a preview of the bump in business he could get from Emerson. He said he has noticed an increase in lunch and catering business since early this year after SanMar, a clothing manufacturer, opened a distribution facility with about 150 employees.
Greater MSP also has calculated that the Emerson project will generate more than 300 construction and construction-related jobs.
Shakopee Chamber of Com-merce President Angie Whit-comb says the feedback from members largely centers on relief that the long-vacant ADC site will finally be occupied. “Here’s a beautiful building that’s been sitting empty for about 10 years now, and to have somebody come in and take it over is fantastic,” she said.
Dave Menke, a senior vice president of Opus Development Corp. of Minnetonka, said Emerson’s move to the property removes uncertainty over its future, a factor than could draw other development to the area near Hwy. 169 and County Road 101. He said Opus expects to close on its purchase of the entire 110-acre site in July and will sell about half of it — including the partly completed building — to Emerson.
Opus already has announced preliminary plans for a 200,000-square-foot industrial building it will construct on the other portion of the site, which will be adjacent to the Emerson building. It will be a speculative project. Menke said his company believes there is significant demand for industrial space in the Shakopee area, especially for large blocks of space.
Opus’ long-term plans include constructing several other industrial buildings and possibly some office buildings.
Menke said it’s difficult to measure the specific impact of Emerson’s presence on development prospects for Opus’ site but said, “A company like Emerson committing to the property only bodes well for the future development that we have planned.”
Tabke said development of the former ADC site also will help the city move ahead with plans to transform a nearby former rock quarry into Quarry Lake Park. The 105-acre site currently lacks the public access road that had been expected to come with the ADC development.
2013年6月23日星期日
An open letter to John Kerry
Comprehensive immigration reform is important and necessary for the United States, but it must be done wisely. There are serious concerns about the current immigration Bill. The legislation, in its present form, would impact the business execution model for US corporations.
It will also prove damaging to the US economy, costing a tremendous number of high quality jobs and doing significant damage to international diplomatic and business relationships. We don't believe that most policymakers want these unintended consequences.
India's IT industry has serious concerns about the provisions in the proposed Senate Immigration Bill that arbitrarily singles out a group of multinational info-tech companies. These proposals amount to discriminatory and punitive treatment of the Indian IT industry and will necessarily restrict thousands of US companies from continuing to use their services.
This will obviously be to the detriment of the US companies. Top companies across all sectors rely on global talent to help them run and improve their busines-ses. They depend on the world-class minds that IT service providers bring to the table as well as efficiencies that enable them to invest in the future. The Senate Bill could undermine some of this.
The contributions of Indian industry in particular are through IT services, business process management, product development, engineering research and design and global in-house centres. These services help US businesses to be more competitive, build innovative products and solutions for global markets, and enter emerging markets globally. By contributing to the innovation, agility and growth, global IT services companies are unsung heroes of the US economic recovery.
There will also be a loss of flexibility and cost efficiency for the US companies as they may be forced to hire additional employees on their payroll adding to increased costs and losing the aspect variability to their cost structure.
In fact, the companies will likely need to divert focus from their core business to the associated IT activities to the extent that they are forced to source their IT work internally. This will not allow the US companies to access best-of-breed techno-logy and expertise, which they could otherwise get from global third party service providers.
All this has a spiralling effect. The lack of US companies' ability to bring in global talent will result in increased offshoring of work. Additionally, the limitations and fees in the new visa regime will inhibit their ability to select IT partners, which in turn will lead to the services being concentrated in the hands of a few service providers, leading to increased costs and loss of flexibility.
Global IT service providers have invested billions of dollars in the US and have been increasing these investments rapidly. They support employment of over 2,00,000 American citizens and pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes through their corporations and their employees. They also contribute significantly to academic institutions and their communities.
Concerns around unemployment in the technology sector are also distant from reality. Various studies have shown that computer science is the highest paid college degree and compu-ter programming jobs are growing at twice the national average, but fewer than 2.4% of US college students graduate with a degree in computer science - a trend that is actually declining.
Additionally, by 2020, there will be one million more jobs in the US related to computer science than there are students graduating with a computer science degree and the vacancy rate for jobs in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) is three to four times the rate of other sectors. Put simply, the US education system is not producing enough STEM-capable students to keep up with demand, both in traditional STEM occupations and in other sectors across that demand similar competencies.
Finally, we are concerned that the Senate Bill could strain the US-India strategic partnership and trade, with potentially harmful consequences for both economies. The IT industry is one of the many strong and mutually beneficial areas of commerce between India and the US.
American exports of non-military commercial services to India grew 12% from 2010 to 2011 and 351% since 2000. Ten of the top 15 technology companies operating in India are American. US exports to India have grown significantly, increasing 12.4% in 2011 and 491% since 2000.
Discriminatory policies that differentiate between and among companies bias the free marketplace and unfairly confer competitive advantage on some companies at the expense of others. Policies enacted should not pick winners or losers but should apply to all companies in a fair and equitable manner.
We understand that immigration reform is important and fortunately a much better approach is under consideration in the House of Representatives. The HR 2131 Issa-Goodlatte SKILLS Visa Act more effectively balances the need to increase jobs for Americans while giving US businesses favourable conditions to compete and grow; encouraging investments that benefit the US economy, and protecting strategic international relationships.
We hope that you will express your support for the House of Representatives' approach, rather than the Senate Bill on the matter of H-1B and L-1 visas, so that the India-US bilateral relationship will continue to flourish and benefit both of our countries and economies.
Just as President Obama has described the US-India relationship as "one of the defining partnerships of the 21st Century", trade and collaboration between our nations in advanced IT solutions and services are one of the defining catalysts of US-India business and economic success.
Click on their website austpay.com for more information.
It will also prove damaging to the US economy, costing a tremendous number of high quality jobs and doing significant damage to international diplomatic and business relationships. We don't believe that most policymakers want these unintended consequences.
India's IT industry has serious concerns about the provisions in the proposed Senate Immigration Bill that arbitrarily singles out a group of multinational info-tech companies. These proposals amount to discriminatory and punitive treatment of the Indian IT industry and will necessarily restrict thousands of US companies from continuing to use their services.
This will obviously be to the detriment of the US companies. Top companies across all sectors rely on global talent to help them run and improve their busines-ses. They depend on the world-class minds that IT service providers bring to the table as well as efficiencies that enable them to invest in the future. The Senate Bill could undermine some of this.
The contributions of Indian industry in particular are through IT services, business process management, product development, engineering research and design and global in-house centres. These services help US businesses to be more competitive, build innovative products and solutions for global markets, and enter emerging markets globally. By contributing to the innovation, agility and growth, global IT services companies are unsung heroes of the US economic recovery.
There will also be a loss of flexibility and cost efficiency for the US companies as they may be forced to hire additional employees on their payroll adding to increased costs and losing the aspect variability to their cost structure.
In fact, the companies will likely need to divert focus from their core business to the associated IT activities to the extent that they are forced to source their IT work internally. This will not allow the US companies to access best-of-breed techno-logy and expertise, which they could otherwise get from global third party service providers.
All this has a spiralling effect. The lack of US companies' ability to bring in global talent will result in increased offshoring of work. Additionally, the limitations and fees in the new visa regime will inhibit their ability to select IT partners, which in turn will lead to the services being concentrated in the hands of a few service providers, leading to increased costs and loss of flexibility.
Global IT service providers have invested billions of dollars in the US and have been increasing these investments rapidly. They support employment of over 2,00,000 American citizens and pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes through their corporations and their employees. They also contribute significantly to academic institutions and their communities.
Concerns around unemployment in the technology sector are also distant from reality. Various studies have shown that computer science is the highest paid college degree and compu-ter programming jobs are growing at twice the national average, but fewer than 2.4% of US college students graduate with a degree in computer science - a trend that is actually declining.
Additionally, by 2020, there will be one million more jobs in the US related to computer science than there are students graduating with a computer science degree and the vacancy rate for jobs in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) is three to four times the rate of other sectors. Put simply, the US education system is not producing enough STEM-capable students to keep up with demand, both in traditional STEM occupations and in other sectors across that demand similar competencies.
Finally, we are concerned that the Senate Bill could strain the US-India strategic partnership and trade, with potentially harmful consequences for both economies. The IT industry is one of the many strong and mutually beneficial areas of commerce between India and the US.
American exports of non-military commercial services to India grew 12% from 2010 to 2011 and 351% since 2000. Ten of the top 15 technology companies operating in India are American. US exports to India have grown significantly, increasing 12.4% in 2011 and 491% since 2000.
Discriminatory policies that differentiate between and among companies bias the free marketplace and unfairly confer competitive advantage on some companies at the expense of others. Policies enacted should not pick winners or losers but should apply to all companies in a fair and equitable manner.
We understand that immigration reform is important and fortunately a much better approach is under consideration in the House of Representatives. The HR 2131 Issa-Goodlatte SKILLS Visa Act more effectively balances the need to increase jobs for Americans while giving US businesses favourable conditions to compete and grow; encouraging investments that benefit the US economy, and protecting strategic international relationships.
We hope that you will express your support for the House of Representatives' approach, rather than the Senate Bill on the matter of H-1B and L-1 visas, so that the India-US bilateral relationship will continue to flourish and benefit both of our countries and economies.
Just as President Obama has described the US-India relationship as "one of the defining partnerships of the 21st Century", trade and collaboration between our nations in advanced IT solutions and services are one of the defining catalysts of US-India business and economic success.
Click on their website austpay.com for more information.
2013年6月20日星期四
Nvidia Gives Project Shield Portable Gaming Device A $50 Price Drop
With gamers still talking about the complete 180 Microsoft has taken with its next gen Xbox One console, Nvidia is making news in the portable games space today with its own next gen device. The technology giant has lowered the price of its Tegra 4-powered Project Shield portable gaming device by $50 to $300. The gaming system launches June 27.
The device debuted at CES in January and had a big display at both GDC and E3, allowing developers, analysts and journalists to get hands on with a full catalog of exclusively modified games designed for the console-like controllers and the 5-inch screen. The success of everything from the iPhone to the Samsung Galaxy tablets has revolved around touch-based gaming. Although there are new controller peripherals available for Android phones and now Apple devices, Nvidia has designed a gaming device with everything built-in running on its new Tegra 4 chip.
“You have to remember before things like Nvidia’s Project Shield all these mobile games were touch device games,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. “It will take some time for developers to really embrace the idea of controller-based mobile gaming, but it’s a really fun experience and I hope to see a lot of great games for it.”
There are already multiple Unreal Engine 3 games running on Project Shield, including Real Boxing (which in my opinion stands up to the Fight Night console games) and Hawken (a very cool free-to-play Mech shooter).
Developer High Voltage Software is celebrating 20 years of game development. The majority of that time was spent working on console games. But the advent of powerful chips like NVIDIA Tegra 3 and Tegra 4 has opened up new opportunities for the San Francisco-based game studio. Eric Nofsinger of High Voltage Software, explains why his studio is now committed to mobile gaming in this exclusive interview.
Bill Wagner, chief production officer at Meteor Entertainment, said the interesting thing about Hawken is that way back when Adhesive Games was first thinking about the game, they were thinking about it as an Xbox 360 title. The game has always been able to run on a console controller.
“Right now it’s a free-to-play PC game and it’s played with a mouse and keyboard, but the truth is anybody could actually plug an Xbox 360 controller into their PC and play the game just fine,” said Wagner. “There isn’t a lot of difference in terms of gameplay between Project Shield and the PC version because it was already set up to run with a console controller.”
I’ve been able to get hands-on with multiple Project Shield games and the device is very comfortable in your hands and the games really stand out on the screen. The device gives Sony’s PS Vita a run for the money, especially given the mobile pricing for the games once you invest in the hardware. The lower price point is nice, but I think it probably needs to be shaved more to get more gamers on board. Expensive phones like the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4 can get service subsidies to lower the price of hardware, which is something Nvidia doesn’t have the ability to do.
One of the cooler aspects of the Shield is the connected home experience that gamers who also own a GeForce GTX 650 or higher graphics card can experience. I’ve demoed this at E3 with Gearbox Software’s Borderlands 2 streaming straight from a PC to the Shield’s touch screen. Gamers can also connect the Shield to an HD TV via HDMI and see the full power of Tegra 4 on a very big screen. Many of these new portable games are getting to the quality of current gen games in my opinion.
Shield has attracted console and PC developers like High Voltage Software. Developer Eric Nofsinger said it was seamless to enhance the Wii game, The Conduit, and bring it to the portable device. They utilized the multi-core technology to up-rez the graphics, add more shader effects and improve the geometry of the sci-fi espionage shooter.
Not everyone is impressed with the device. Michael Pachter, video game analyst for Wedbush Securities, told me, “I don’t understand it at all and I don’t think there is a market for it. It reminds me of the Nokia N-Gage.”
I don’t see a correlation between the N-Gage, which was designed as a gaming phone, rather than a game system; and Project Shield, which is a pure gaming device. But everyone is allowed to have an opinion.
The price drop is a step in the right direction for Nvidia’s new foray into game hardware. The company is facing off, in a way, with Ouya, the $99 Android gaming device, as well as more high-priced gaming tablets from companies like Wikipad and Razer. And of course, all of these devices are competing with Nintendo’s portables and Sony PS Vita.
For this reason, Daniel Smalley, a graduate student at the school's Media Lab, used a much smaller crystal of material called lithium niobate and, just beneath the surface, created microscopic channels known as waveguides, which confine the light traveling through them. Onto each waveguide, he deposited a metal electrode capable of producing an acoustic wave.
Because each waveguide corresponds to one row of pixels in the final image, the waveguides with their individual electrodes can be packed mere micrometers apart from each other, unlike the Mark-II, which demanded the tellurium dioxide crystal be big enough that the acoustic waves producing the separate lines of the hologram were insulated from each other.
Beams of red, green and blue light are then sent down each waveguide in Smalley's device, and the frequencies of the acoustic wave passing through the crystal determine what colors pass through and what colors are filtered out. This way, combining, for example, red and blue to make purple doesn't require a separate waveguide for each color; rather, it only requires a difference acoustic-wave pattern.
Click on their website austpay.com for more information.
The device debuted at CES in January and had a big display at both GDC and E3, allowing developers, analysts and journalists to get hands on with a full catalog of exclusively modified games designed for the console-like controllers and the 5-inch screen. The success of everything from the iPhone to the Samsung Galaxy tablets has revolved around touch-based gaming. Although there are new controller peripherals available for Android phones and now Apple devices, Nvidia has designed a gaming device with everything built-in running on its new Tegra 4 chip.
“You have to remember before things like Nvidia’s Project Shield all these mobile games were touch device games,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. “It will take some time for developers to really embrace the idea of controller-based mobile gaming, but it’s a really fun experience and I hope to see a lot of great games for it.”
There are already multiple Unreal Engine 3 games running on Project Shield, including Real Boxing (which in my opinion stands up to the Fight Night console games) and Hawken (a very cool free-to-play Mech shooter).
Developer High Voltage Software is celebrating 20 years of game development. The majority of that time was spent working on console games. But the advent of powerful chips like NVIDIA Tegra 3 and Tegra 4 has opened up new opportunities for the San Francisco-based game studio. Eric Nofsinger of High Voltage Software, explains why his studio is now committed to mobile gaming in this exclusive interview.
Bill Wagner, chief production officer at Meteor Entertainment, said the interesting thing about Hawken is that way back when Adhesive Games was first thinking about the game, they were thinking about it as an Xbox 360 title. The game has always been able to run on a console controller.
“Right now it’s a free-to-play PC game and it’s played with a mouse and keyboard, but the truth is anybody could actually plug an Xbox 360 controller into their PC and play the game just fine,” said Wagner. “There isn’t a lot of difference in terms of gameplay between Project Shield and the PC version because it was already set up to run with a console controller.”
I’ve been able to get hands-on with multiple Project Shield games and the device is very comfortable in your hands and the games really stand out on the screen. The device gives Sony’s PS Vita a run for the money, especially given the mobile pricing for the games once you invest in the hardware. The lower price point is nice, but I think it probably needs to be shaved more to get more gamers on board. Expensive phones like the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4 can get service subsidies to lower the price of hardware, which is something Nvidia doesn’t have the ability to do.
One of the cooler aspects of the Shield is the connected home experience that gamers who also own a GeForce GTX 650 or higher graphics card can experience. I’ve demoed this at E3 with Gearbox Software’s Borderlands 2 streaming straight from a PC to the Shield’s touch screen. Gamers can also connect the Shield to an HD TV via HDMI and see the full power of Tegra 4 on a very big screen. Many of these new portable games are getting to the quality of current gen games in my opinion.
Shield has attracted console and PC developers like High Voltage Software. Developer Eric Nofsinger said it was seamless to enhance the Wii game, The Conduit, and bring it to the portable device. They utilized the multi-core technology to up-rez the graphics, add more shader effects and improve the geometry of the sci-fi espionage shooter.
Not everyone is impressed with the device. Michael Pachter, video game analyst for Wedbush Securities, told me, “I don’t understand it at all and I don’t think there is a market for it. It reminds me of the Nokia N-Gage.”
I don’t see a correlation between the N-Gage, which was designed as a gaming phone, rather than a game system; and Project Shield, which is a pure gaming device. But everyone is allowed to have an opinion.
The price drop is a step in the right direction for Nvidia’s new foray into game hardware. The company is facing off, in a way, with Ouya, the $99 Android gaming device, as well as more high-priced gaming tablets from companies like Wikipad and Razer. And of course, all of these devices are competing with Nintendo’s portables and Sony PS Vita.
For this reason, Daniel Smalley, a graduate student at the school's Media Lab, used a much smaller crystal of material called lithium niobate and, just beneath the surface, created microscopic channels known as waveguides, which confine the light traveling through them. Onto each waveguide, he deposited a metal electrode capable of producing an acoustic wave.
Because each waveguide corresponds to one row of pixels in the final image, the waveguides with their individual electrodes can be packed mere micrometers apart from each other, unlike the Mark-II, which demanded the tellurium dioxide crystal be big enough that the acoustic waves producing the separate lines of the hologram were insulated from each other.
Beams of red, green and blue light are then sent down each waveguide in Smalley's device, and the frequencies of the acoustic wave passing through the crystal determine what colors pass through and what colors are filtered out. This way, combining, for example, red and blue to make purple doesn't require a separate waveguide for each color; rather, it only requires a difference acoustic-wave pattern.
Click on their website austpay.com for more information.
2013年6月18日星期二
G-ma's Rack Pack to race for cure
The group of 38 members has several options for the race: the 5k competitive run, the 5k untimed run or the one-mile walk.
Besides participating in these events, the team will be donating funds they have raised in the past calendar year to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which helps women in the St. Louis area with cancer treatment and offers free mammograms.
Eight years ago, in 2005, Licking resident Pam Creech battled breast cancer. After winning her battle, Creech decided that she wanted to be a part of Race for the Cure.
In 2006, Creech and daughter, Kassi Smith-Ramsey, went to St. Louis and participated with the team of a family friend. The event had a huge impact on them, and the following year Creech and Ramsey founded their own team—G-ma Pam’s Rack Pack.
“Being at Race for the Cure is a feeling you can’t describe. The atmosphere is amazing. Everyone is celebrating and present for third party payment gateway,” said Ramsey.
“We wanted for local family and friends to be able to take part in such an awesome experience. The walk is always packed with people, more than you can imagine, streaming out for miles in the distance. Survivors of breast cancer, those who are still battling the disease, family and friends, and people ranging in age from small children to the elderly are present. It’s a massive crowd of pink.”
Along with Creech and Ramsey, Gary Hassel, Ginger Smith and Gloria Schembra (who also survived breast cancer) were very active in helping to get G-ma Pam’s Rack Pack started, and it has been a major success.
For the last six years, the Rack Pack has held fundraisers and garnered an amazing amount of support from the community to help the organization. Each year, more members join the team and more fundraisers are participated in.
Fundraisers held by the Rack Pack have included bake sales, silent auctions, the selling of pink ribbon trinkets and a cookbook, silicone “Save the Boobies” bracelets, Pampered Chef parties and the selling of t-shirts, which has been by far the most popular.
There were two options available for shirts this year: a solid black with pink deer antlers, emblazoned with the words “Save the Rack,” and a solid black with a row of ribbons showing the words “Hope,” “Courage” and “Strength.”
A 50-inch Toshiba LED HDTV 1080P television was raffled off, as well, and pink-ribbon items (such as clothing from previous years, bandanas, glowsticks, rubber ducks, lotion-stuffed purses and leftover cookbooks) were sold at the Rack Pack’s booth during the Licking PRCA Rodeo Days.
Ramsey and the team are constantly brainstorming to come up with fresh fundraising ideas, one of which will be incorporated during the holidays this year.
Arlene Clouse has made pink-ribbon plates, which the team will load with baked goods and pass through the community. If you receive a plate, you are asked to donate five dollars, refill the plate and pass it along to someone else, who will then also be expected to donate.
“Working together fundraising is always fun, as we can get together and act silly. Being able to witness when first-time members discover the magnitude of the event is also great. Our team has a tradition now, where each year we gather together and take photos in front of a fountain that is dyed pink for the occasion. We have a photo from each year and looking at the differences between them is very neat,” Ramsey said.
However, those who are interested in supporting the team but do not have time to participate in fundraisers or to be a member can still help out.
“There are many ways to donate and be active in G-ma Pam’s Rack Pack, “ said Ramsey. “We have a running account set up at First National Bank. Donations can be made directly to a team member, and there are donation cans placed throughout businesses in the area, such as at Right Away.”
The wearable tech band continuously updates the users using a combination of visual and tactical cues according to Kickstarter. The tech band made of Silicone comes with a push button inside. The users need to press a specific but ordinary spot on the band and the Embrace+ gets activated. It then automatically connects itself with the other apps of the smartphone via Bluetooth connectivity.
However, the band does not support WhatsApp and Viber tweaks at present. But might be included later on, claims the manufacturer.
The band has high longevity and it is much more safe to wear when compared to any other plastic bands that are often found causing skin eruptions.
As soon as the notification appears, the band’s colour changes to a specified colour set for that particular app. Not just the notifications, the band also sends out alerts about phone battery getting low and other things the wearer would like to stay updated on. The user can use the tech band even at the poolside or under shower as Embrace+ claims to be water resistant.
The band paired with a micro-USB charging cable can be connected to any laptop or any generic charging adapter with USB port and gets fully charged within 10 minutes. However, this band cannot be paired with the Windows phone as of now.
Besides participating in these events, the team will be donating funds they have raised in the past calendar year to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which helps women in the St. Louis area with cancer treatment and offers free mammograms.
Eight years ago, in 2005, Licking resident Pam Creech battled breast cancer. After winning her battle, Creech decided that she wanted to be a part of Race for the Cure.
In 2006, Creech and daughter, Kassi Smith-Ramsey, went to St. Louis and participated with the team of a family friend. The event had a huge impact on them, and the following year Creech and Ramsey founded their own team—G-ma Pam’s Rack Pack.
“Being at Race for the Cure is a feeling you can’t describe. The atmosphere is amazing. Everyone is celebrating and present for third party payment gateway,” said Ramsey.
“We wanted for local family and friends to be able to take part in such an awesome experience. The walk is always packed with people, more than you can imagine, streaming out for miles in the distance. Survivors of breast cancer, those who are still battling the disease, family and friends, and people ranging in age from small children to the elderly are present. It’s a massive crowd of pink.”
Along with Creech and Ramsey, Gary Hassel, Ginger Smith and Gloria Schembra (who also survived breast cancer) were very active in helping to get G-ma Pam’s Rack Pack started, and it has been a major success.
For the last six years, the Rack Pack has held fundraisers and garnered an amazing amount of support from the community to help the organization. Each year, more members join the team and more fundraisers are participated in.
Fundraisers held by the Rack Pack have included bake sales, silent auctions, the selling of pink ribbon trinkets and a cookbook, silicone “Save the Boobies” bracelets, Pampered Chef parties and the selling of t-shirts, which has been by far the most popular.
There were two options available for shirts this year: a solid black with pink deer antlers, emblazoned with the words “Save the Rack,” and a solid black with a row of ribbons showing the words “Hope,” “Courage” and “Strength.”
A 50-inch Toshiba LED HDTV 1080P television was raffled off, as well, and pink-ribbon items (such as clothing from previous years, bandanas, glowsticks, rubber ducks, lotion-stuffed purses and leftover cookbooks) were sold at the Rack Pack’s booth during the Licking PRCA Rodeo Days.
Ramsey and the team are constantly brainstorming to come up with fresh fundraising ideas, one of which will be incorporated during the holidays this year.
Arlene Clouse has made pink-ribbon plates, which the team will load with baked goods and pass through the community. If you receive a plate, you are asked to donate five dollars, refill the plate and pass it along to someone else, who will then also be expected to donate.
“Working together fundraising is always fun, as we can get together and act silly. Being able to witness when first-time members discover the magnitude of the event is also great. Our team has a tradition now, where each year we gather together and take photos in front of a fountain that is dyed pink for the occasion. We have a photo from each year and looking at the differences between them is very neat,” Ramsey said.
However, those who are interested in supporting the team but do not have time to participate in fundraisers or to be a member can still help out.
“There are many ways to donate and be active in G-ma Pam’s Rack Pack, “ said Ramsey. “We have a running account set up at First National Bank. Donations can be made directly to a team member, and there are donation cans placed throughout businesses in the area, such as at Right Away.”
The wearable tech band continuously updates the users using a combination of visual and tactical cues according to Kickstarter. The tech band made of Silicone comes with a push button inside. The users need to press a specific but ordinary spot on the band and the Embrace+ gets activated. It then automatically connects itself with the other apps of the smartphone via Bluetooth connectivity.
However, the band does not support WhatsApp and Viber tweaks at present. But might be included later on, claims the manufacturer.
The band has high longevity and it is much more safe to wear when compared to any other plastic bands that are often found causing skin eruptions.
As soon as the notification appears, the band’s colour changes to a specified colour set for that particular app. Not just the notifications, the band also sends out alerts about phone battery getting low and other things the wearer would like to stay updated on. The user can use the tech band even at the poolside or under shower as Embrace+ claims to be water resistant.
The band paired with a micro-USB charging cable can be connected to any laptop or any generic charging adapter with USB port and gets fully charged within 10 minutes. However, this band cannot be paired with the Windows phone as of now.
2013年6月16日星期日
Rahm Emanuel is losing control of his city
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel cakewalked into office, from his former position as the White House chief of staff to President Obama, to succeed the two-decade reign of Richard M. Daley. Like Daley, Emanuel faced weak opponents who grumbled at his supersize war chest, thickly padded by financiers from Hollywood to Wall Street. But unlike Daley, Emanuel promised two things Chicagoans do not hear often: pledges for more government transparency, and to make “tough choices” to fix the city’s ballooning budget deficit.
Now, midway into his inaugural term, the honeymoon is over. Emanuel faces scrutiny from groups Daley never alienated: public sector unions, liberal progressives and minority coalitions on the city’s South and West side. Since his election, Emanuel’s approval numbers started dropping, and some are charging him as racist — a “murder mayor” deaf to the marginalized swaths of Chicago suffering from escalating street violence, inadequate transit and the largest mass school closing in U.S. history. While he reigns as mayor in a city traditionally ruled by Democrats, many consider him a Republican in donkey blue clothing, who, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), swept into office and immediately hauled out the budget cleaver.
“Daley didn’t make enemies of labor unions, but now, the police, the fire, everybody essentially is now in opposition to Rahm and that didn’t have to happen,” says Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman who now teaches political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
To the surprise of no one familiar with his Washington reputation, many see the mayor as combative, refusing to take public input seriously, and allied so closely to his tight pool of corporate benefactors that the nickname “Mayor 1%” and Twitter hashtag #OneTermMayor have gone viral. Even some members of his party — a tribe that rarely breaks ranks — are scratching their heads in public. Most notable: Cook County board president Toni Preckwinkle, who told the Chicago Reader two weeks ago that his decision to close so many schools was “a terrible idea” and “demoralizing.”
The numbers reflect the many confrontations Emanuel has faced these past two years: his proposal to reduce public library hours and staff; a contentious teacher strike that was the city’s first in 25 years; escalating gun violence that entered national headlines since last summer; a five-month renovation project that will shut down a major transit line on the South Side, primarily affecting black commuters; lackluster efforts to better the city’s unemployment rate that remains above 10 percent; and conflicting agendas on spending priorities, like the controversial announcement that 50 public schools will be shuttered in the city’s neediest neighborhoods to help shore up funds. That announcement happened to come the same week as another to spend $300 million in public money to build a new basketball arena and renovate Navy Pier, projects Emanuel promises will create 10,000 construction jobs, but others are calling white elephants in the making.
“He’s been an excellent CEO, he gives orders and things happen,” says Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman who now teaches political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “His weakness is that he’s not so good on democracy.”
In his campaign for mayor, Emanuel was scrutinized by his opponents as not being “from Chicago,” a technicality that his legal team ultimately dismantled, but a contention that still lingers as the mayor strives to show that he feels the pain of his constituents, even if a growing number may not fully believe he feels as sharp a sting.
Example: Daley left office on the heels of a $1.15 billion privatization deal involving selling the city’s 36,000 parking meters to a consortium owned, in part, by Morgan Stanley. The deal was not only later debunked as a financial catastrophe for the city — the city’s inspector general later said it was valued for $974 million more — but one that became a hot button issue for residents, as it cost them nearly triple to park on city streets, and made parking costly in some neighborhoods where meters previously didn’t exist. Since day one in office, Emanuel made it clear he understood the political liability of not doing something to rectify the situation. But critics say what he is proposing feels shaky.
After Morgan Stanley delivered the city a bill for an extra $49 million in fees — it turns out few city council alderman read the fine print that mentioned being charged for lost revenue from street festivals or disabled parking — Emanuel is proposing a new deal that once again made Sunday parking free, in exchange for allowing the company to extend parking hours, up to 10 p.m., in some neighborhoods. Emanuel’s talking point for selling the swap is “trying to make a little lemonade out of a big lemon.” But many aldermen, spurred by local media reports that Emanuel’s numbers were flawed — and worried their constituents will run them out of town on a rail — are demanding hard data from city hall to determine if, indeed, the numbers add up in their favor.
It doesn’t look good: A recent Tribune analysis concluded that Morgan Stanley would actually reap more under Emanuel’s new deal, to the tune of $517 million in additional revenue above meter fees. John Arena, a freshman alderman in the city’s 45th Ward, has been one of the few in the city council to demand accountability for the new deal, and he says the parking meter fight is an example of the mayor not coming clean about whose side he’s ultimately on.
“Transparency is the one thing the mayor was very vocal about in his campaign, and that’s been something he’s not fully lived up to,” Arena says. “Of course, when you’re in power, some of those promises may change, but my point of view is, transparency is more important now after the Daley years when it was a very closed circle of confidants and advisers and it’s led us into a bad place.”
Politically, the swap has the potential to test the patience of an electorate that the Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows is already on the wane: 52 percent of voters believe Emanuel has not kept his campaign pledge to rid government of insider deals, an increase from 39 percent last year.
If there is a legacy issue that may determine whether Emanuel’s reform agenda is best for Chicago, or a debacle in the making, it’s likely his decision in May to permanently shutter 50 public schools. Among his top reasons why: The school district must close its $1 billion deficit and the number of schools is disproportionate to the district’s population loss.
Again, many dispute his data. Between 2000 and 2013, the city says it lost 145,000 students according to census data, an 18 percent drop; however, school enrollment dropped much less, just 6 percent. Also, the $1 billion in savings the city says it will generate from the school closings is not likely to happen considering the district admits that the majority of that money will get redirected into the receiving schools as capital investments — which means the budgetary nightmare will still remain as frightful. Read the full story at austpay.com!
Now, midway into his inaugural term, the honeymoon is over. Emanuel faces scrutiny from groups Daley never alienated: public sector unions, liberal progressives and minority coalitions on the city’s South and West side. Since his election, Emanuel’s approval numbers started dropping, and some are charging him as racist — a “murder mayor” deaf to the marginalized swaths of Chicago suffering from escalating street violence, inadequate transit and the largest mass school closing in U.S. history. While he reigns as mayor in a city traditionally ruled by Democrats, many consider him a Republican in donkey blue clothing, who, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), swept into office and immediately hauled out the budget cleaver.
“Daley didn’t make enemies of labor unions, but now, the police, the fire, everybody essentially is now in opposition to Rahm and that didn’t have to happen,” says Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman who now teaches political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
To the surprise of no one familiar with his Washington reputation, many see the mayor as combative, refusing to take public input seriously, and allied so closely to his tight pool of corporate benefactors that the nickname “Mayor 1%” and Twitter hashtag #OneTermMayor have gone viral. Even some members of his party — a tribe that rarely breaks ranks — are scratching their heads in public. Most notable: Cook County board president Toni Preckwinkle, who told the Chicago Reader two weeks ago that his decision to close so many schools was “a terrible idea” and “demoralizing.”
The numbers reflect the many confrontations Emanuel has faced these past two years: his proposal to reduce public library hours and staff; a contentious teacher strike that was the city’s first in 25 years; escalating gun violence that entered national headlines since last summer; a five-month renovation project that will shut down a major transit line on the South Side, primarily affecting black commuters; lackluster efforts to better the city’s unemployment rate that remains above 10 percent; and conflicting agendas on spending priorities, like the controversial announcement that 50 public schools will be shuttered in the city’s neediest neighborhoods to help shore up funds. That announcement happened to come the same week as another to spend $300 million in public money to build a new basketball arena and renovate Navy Pier, projects Emanuel promises will create 10,000 construction jobs, but others are calling white elephants in the making.
“He’s been an excellent CEO, he gives orders and things happen,” says Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman who now teaches political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “His weakness is that he’s not so good on democracy.”
In his campaign for mayor, Emanuel was scrutinized by his opponents as not being “from Chicago,” a technicality that his legal team ultimately dismantled, but a contention that still lingers as the mayor strives to show that he feels the pain of his constituents, even if a growing number may not fully believe he feels as sharp a sting.
Example: Daley left office on the heels of a $1.15 billion privatization deal involving selling the city’s 36,000 parking meters to a consortium owned, in part, by Morgan Stanley. The deal was not only later debunked as a financial catastrophe for the city — the city’s inspector general later said it was valued for $974 million more — but one that became a hot button issue for residents, as it cost them nearly triple to park on city streets, and made parking costly in some neighborhoods where meters previously didn’t exist. Since day one in office, Emanuel made it clear he understood the political liability of not doing something to rectify the situation. But critics say what he is proposing feels shaky.
After Morgan Stanley delivered the city a bill for an extra $49 million in fees — it turns out few city council alderman read the fine print that mentioned being charged for lost revenue from street festivals or disabled parking — Emanuel is proposing a new deal that once again made Sunday parking free, in exchange for allowing the company to extend parking hours, up to 10 p.m., in some neighborhoods. Emanuel’s talking point for selling the swap is “trying to make a little lemonade out of a big lemon.” But many aldermen, spurred by local media reports that Emanuel’s numbers were flawed — and worried their constituents will run them out of town on a rail — are demanding hard data from city hall to determine if, indeed, the numbers add up in their favor.
It doesn’t look good: A recent Tribune analysis concluded that Morgan Stanley would actually reap more under Emanuel’s new deal, to the tune of $517 million in additional revenue above meter fees. John Arena, a freshman alderman in the city’s 45th Ward, has been one of the few in the city council to demand accountability for the new deal, and he says the parking meter fight is an example of the mayor not coming clean about whose side he’s ultimately on.
“Transparency is the one thing the mayor was very vocal about in his campaign, and that’s been something he’s not fully lived up to,” Arena says. “Of course, when you’re in power, some of those promises may change, but my point of view is, transparency is more important now after the Daley years when it was a very closed circle of confidants and advisers and it’s led us into a bad place.”
Politically, the swap has the potential to test the patience of an electorate that the Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows is already on the wane: 52 percent of voters believe Emanuel has not kept his campaign pledge to rid government of insider deals, an increase from 39 percent last year.
If there is a legacy issue that may determine whether Emanuel’s reform agenda is best for Chicago, or a debacle in the making, it’s likely his decision in May to permanently shutter 50 public schools. Among his top reasons why: The school district must close its $1 billion deficit and the number of schools is disproportionate to the district’s population loss.
Again, many dispute his data. Between 2000 and 2013, the city says it lost 145,000 students according to census data, an 18 percent drop; however, school enrollment dropped much less, just 6 percent. Also, the $1 billion in savings the city says it will generate from the school closings is not likely to happen considering the district admits that the majority of that money will get redirected into the receiving schools as capital investments — which means the budgetary nightmare will still remain as frightful. Read the full story at austpay.com!
2013年6月8日星期六
Samsung Galaxy S3 vs iPhone 5
When the Samsung Galaxy S3 was revealed in June last year it hit the charts and has been popular ever since. The Apple iPhone came out after it, but did it do anything to change the success of the Samsung handset? Both devices have been on the market for some time now, so how have they compared?
Apple never brags about what they put in their handsets. Meaning that it makes it very hard to compare. However the processor in the device does beat that of the phones predecessor as it has twice the speed. This however is down to the fact that it comes with the A6 processor; it is not a quad core device.
The Apple iPhone 5 took 5 million pre-orders when it came out. The Samsung Galaxy S3 sold around 20 million handsets in the first 100 days and even today it sells very well.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 has a weight of 133g and also is 136.6×70.6×8.6mm. The Apple iPhone 5 is 112g in weight and 123.8×58.6×7.6mm. Thanks to its lightness and also thinness and innovative design, the iPhone 5 wins this category.
The Apple iPhone has a display of 4 inches and this is a retina display. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has the 4.8 inch display and this has Gorilla Glass protection with the resolution of 1280 x 720. DisplayMate compared the displays of both handsets and they said that the Samsung Galaxy S3 had the more advanced display as it came with the full gamut, while the Apple iPhone 5 had 72%. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is the winner as it comes with the best display and the third party payment gateway.
Both devices offer LTE, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, while the Samsung Galaxy S3 comes with support for microUSB. Apple has changed their connector and so you do need to get an adapter in order to be able to use your older accessories. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has a charging port that is standard and as it also comes with more connectivity choices, it is our winner.
Both handsets are offered in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB version and they come with 1GB of RAM. This of course is based on the international version of the handset. Over in the US this is 2GB of RAM. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has support for SD card to expand storage and so it wins.
Both have a camera of 8MP and they support LED flash, autofocus and they record video at 1080p. They come with image stabilisation. The Samsung Galaxy S3 also has smile recognition; however it cannot beat the BSI sensor of the Apple iPhone 5. The Apple iPhone 5 camera is best in low light and only beaten by the Nokia Lumia 920, so it is the winner here.
There is the A6 processor in the Apple iPhone 5 and this is 1.3Ghz, there is also the triple core PowerVR SGX 543MPS. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has the Exynos processor with four Cortex A9 processors at 1.4GHz. It also has the Mali 400 GPU. If you are a game player and want to play 3D games, you should go for the Samsung Galaxy S3. The Samsung Galaxy S3 comes with dual cores and 2GB, so it wins.
There is a battery of 1440mAh battery with the Apple iPhone 5 and you should get around 8 hours talk time. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has the 2100 mAh battery, which should offer around 8 hours when talking on 3G. Both of the devices draw here.
The Apple iPhone 5 has iOS 6 while the Samsung Galaxy S3 runs on ICS which has now been updated to Jelly Bean 4.1. Which OS is the best is down to your personal choice? However if you want to customise you are better with Android. iOS is easier to use.
The Apple iPhone 5 is the best for the design as the Samsung Galaxy S3 has been made of plastic.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 wins for processor, display and memory. The Apple iPhone 5 wins thanks to its camera, dimensions and design. The handsets draw for their battery life and the OS. The Samsung Galaxy S3 does happen to be the more advanced of the two, but it is a close call. When it comes to choosing it could come down to the OS.
Alberola is among a growing percentage of standouts in a country with 27-percent unemployment—56 percent for those less than 25 years old. Their success also is forging a path for the euro region’s fourth-largest economy to emerge from a sixth year of recession.
Spanish exports climbed to a record €223 billion, or roughly $291 billion, last year as a drought in orders at home pushed companies to upgrade products and go abroad. It was another step away from a decade of growth fueled by mass construction and tourism.
“There’s a qualitative change in exports toward more value-added products,” said Pedro Nueno Iniesta, a professor of entrepreneurship at IESE Business School in Barcelona in a telephone interview. “Spain will always export wine, olive oil, traditional products but it’s logical that there are other more sophisticated products such as pharmaceutical ones or car components that will play a bigger role in the economy.”
The “painful” reforms undertaken by debt-strapped countries “are starting to bear fruit,” European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said in a May 23 speech in London. It’s visible in “the impressive improvement in export performance in Ireland, Spain and Portugal.”
Apple never brags about what they put in their handsets. Meaning that it makes it very hard to compare. However the processor in the device does beat that of the phones predecessor as it has twice the speed. This however is down to the fact that it comes with the A6 processor; it is not a quad core device.
The Apple iPhone 5 took 5 million pre-orders when it came out. The Samsung Galaxy S3 sold around 20 million handsets in the first 100 days and even today it sells very well.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 has a weight of 133g and also is 136.6×70.6×8.6mm. The Apple iPhone 5 is 112g in weight and 123.8×58.6×7.6mm. Thanks to its lightness and also thinness and innovative design, the iPhone 5 wins this category.
The Apple iPhone has a display of 4 inches and this is a retina display. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has the 4.8 inch display and this has Gorilla Glass protection with the resolution of 1280 x 720. DisplayMate compared the displays of both handsets and they said that the Samsung Galaxy S3 had the more advanced display as it came with the full gamut, while the Apple iPhone 5 had 72%. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is the winner as it comes with the best display and the third party payment gateway.
Both devices offer LTE, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, while the Samsung Galaxy S3 comes with support for microUSB. Apple has changed their connector and so you do need to get an adapter in order to be able to use your older accessories. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has a charging port that is standard and as it also comes with more connectivity choices, it is our winner.
Both handsets are offered in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB version and they come with 1GB of RAM. This of course is based on the international version of the handset. Over in the US this is 2GB of RAM. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has support for SD card to expand storage and so it wins.
Both have a camera of 8MP and they support LED flash, autofocus and they record video at 1080p. They come with image stabilisation. The Samsung Galaxy S3 also has smile recognition; however it cannot beat the BSI sensor of the Apple iPhone 5. The Apple iPhone 5 camera is best in low light and only beaten by the Nokia Lumia 920, so it is the winner here.
There is the A6 processor in the Apple iPhone 5 and this is 1.3Ghz, there is also the triple core PowerVR SGX 543MPS. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has the Exynos processor with four Cortex A9 processors at 1.4GHz. It also has the Mali 400 GPU. If you are a game player and want to play 3D games, you should go for the Samsung Galaxy S3. The Samsung Galaxy S3 comes with dual cores and 2GB, so it wins.
There is a battery of 1440mAh battery with the Apple iPhone 5 and you should get around 8 hours talk time. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has the 2100 mAh battery, which should offer around 8 hours when talking on 3G. Both of the devices draw here.
The Apple iPhone 5 has iOS 6 while the Samsung Galaxy S3 runs on ICS which has now been updated to Jelly Bean 4.1. Which OS is the best is down to your personal choice? However if you want to customise you are better with Android. iOS is easier to use.
The Apple iPhone 5 is the best for the design as the Samsung Galaxy S3 has been made of plastic.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 wins for processor, display and memory. The Apple iPhone 5 wins thanks to its camera, dimensions and design. The handsets draw for their battery life and the OS. The Samsung Galaxy S3 does happen to be the more advanced of the two, but it is a close call. When it comes to choosing it could come down to the OS.
Alberola is among a growing percentage of standouts in a country with 27-percent unemployment—56 percent for those less than 25 years old. Their success also is forging a path for the euro region’s fourth-largest economy to emerge from a sixth year of recession.
Spanish exports climbed to a record €223 billion, or roughly $291 billion, last year as a drought in orders at home pushed companies to upgrade products and go abroad. It was another step away from a decade of growth fueled by mass construction and tourism.
“There’s a qualitative change in exports toward more value-added products,” said Pedro Nueno Iniesta, a professor of entrepreneurship at IESE Business School in Barcelona in a telephone interview. “Spain will always export wine, olive oil, traditional products but it’s logical that there are other more sophisticated products such as pharmaceutical ones or car components that will play a bigger role in the economy.”
The “painful” reforms undertaken by debt-strapped countries “are starting to bear fruit,” European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said in a May 23 speech in London. It’s visible in “the impressive improvement in export performance in Ireland, Spain and Portugal.”
2013年6月7日星期五
Spokane parking meters to accept plastic
After several exploratory studies over the past decade, Spokane plans to roll out parking meters that will accept credit card payments as well as coins at 800 parking spaces downtown. The City Council is expected to review a contract with Milwaukee-based Duncan Solutions for the new meters later this month.
The Downtown Spokane Partnership, which represents the interests of downtown businesses, has worked with the city on plans to improve the convenience of downtown parking. The group’s president, Mark Richard, said new meters will do just that.
Plans to update downtown meters have hit snags in the past. The city originally contracted with a French company named Parkeon in 2011 to install a handful of multispace kiosks requiring drivers to walk up the block to pay for their parking. Those units didn’t test well, Richard said.
“Part of the challenge was you’d have to traipse halfway down the block and climb into a snow bank to pay for your parking,” Richard said.
Single-space units proved more popular. Duncan won a bidding war to supply Spokane with new meters, releasing a model that will cost the city $800 for each machine, making the total cost around $640,000, according to the city. Duncan provides parking services for Atlanta and Houston, among other cities.
The installation will occur in two phases. Parking crews have already removed about 100 credit card meters from downtown streets and will replace them with Duncan machines in the next few weeks. In September, another 700 meters will be installed in the core of downtown, an area roughly bounded by Spokane Falls Boulevard, First Avenue and Monroe and Washington streets.
The city also hopes to lower the transaction fee charged for paying with a card, spokeswoman Julie Happy said. The city charges 30 cents now but hopes to reduce that figure to around 10 cents in the near future.
Richard said the new meters represent a first step in improving the parking experience in downtown. In November, the city rebranded its parking enforcement department to include conflict resolution training and hospitality services. Sensors embedded in the new meters will be able to detect vehicles, allowing the city to collect information on traffic volume and potentially develop an app that would direct drivers to vacant spots.
Some changes, including allowing drivers to receive alerts on their phones when their meter has almost expired and pay for 30-minute extensions, would require cooperation from the city, Richard said. An ordinance prohibits drivers from plugging meters beyond posted time limits.
The Marines have tried curfews, drinking restrictions and plain old jawboning to cut down crime and controversy on Okinawa, a key center of U.S. military power in the Pacific. Now they’re handing out reminder cards.
The more than 20,000 Marines stationed in the Pacific region will get wallet-sized cards that promote core values of “honor, courage and commitment,” and remind Marines of the battles fought and price paid by earlier generations.
“We are forward-deployed in the region, and we call this place home,” says Lieut. General Kenneth Glueck, commander of the Okinawa-based III Marine Expeditionary Force. The card “serves as a constant reminder of our heritage, our traditions and the ideals that have made the corps what it is today.”
Glueck went on a speaking tour of bases last year after a series of crimes by U.S. servicemen on Okinawa sparked large-scale protests and led to curfews and restrictions on alcohol consumptions for Marines and other U.S. forces. The Marines’ V-22 Osprey also has been the target of protests over noise and safety concerns.
Gang members will crowd customers withdrawing cash to read their four-digit PIN, then distract them to steal the card. In some cases they install a simple metal sleeve in the slot which means the card is not returned to the user.
Someone reads the PIN over the victim’s shoulder and then, when they have moved away, retrieves the card. Once the thieves have the card and PIN they can go on a shopping spree or use a hole in the wall machine to empty their victim’s account.
Pensioner Jacqueline Fletcher was watched by two thieves while she withdrew cash from an ATM outside her local supermarket in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire.
When the 80-year-old emerged from the shop, one of the men asked her for change and stole her bank card while pretending to help her with her purse.
‘It frightened me and it gutted me to think that I’d been stupid enough and that they’d been attacking vulnerable people, young or old,’ she said.
Last month a woman in Cheltenham had her cards stolen in a supermarket car park as she was distracted by a man asking for directions. She believes the criminals, who siphoned ￡1,000 from her account, spotted her using her PIN at a store till.
Meanwhile, victims are finding it increasingly difficult to get their stolen cash refunded. A number of banks have introduced rules which means they can deny a refund if they believe the customer has failed to protect their PIN and card.
The theft figures were revealed by Financial Fraud Action, which is responsible for tackling plastic card fraud on behalf of banks. Chip and PIN cards were introduced by the industry in 2005 with the aim of reducing fraud. Click on their website austpay.com for more information.
The Downtown Spokane Partnership, which represents the interests of downtown businesses, has worked with the city on plans to improve the convenience of downtown parking. The group’s president, Mark Richard, said new meters will do just that.
Plans to update downtown meters have hit snags in the past. The city originally contracted with a French company named Parkeon in 2011 to install a handful of multispace kiosks requiring drivers to walk up the block to pay for their parking. Those units didn’t test well, Richard said.
“Part of the challenge was you’d have to traipse halfway down the block and climb into a snow bank to pay for your parking,” Richard said.
Single-space units proved more popular. Duncan won a bidding war to supply Spokane with new meters, releasing a model that will cost the city $800 for each machine, making the total cost around $640,000, according to the city. Duncan provides parking services for Atlanta and Houston, among other cities.
The installation will occur in two phases. Parking crews have already removed about 100 credit card meters from downtown streets and will replace them with Duncan machines in the next few weeks. In September, another 700 meters will be installed in the core of downtown, an area roughly bounded by Spokane Falls Boulevard, First Avenue and Monroe and Washington streets.
The city also hopes to lower the transaction fee charged for paying with a card, spokeswoman Julie Happy said. The city charges 30 cents now but hopes to reduce that figure to around 10 cents in the near future.
Richard said the new meters represent a first step in improving the parking experience in downtown. In November, the city rebranded its parking enforcement department to include conflict resolution training and hospitality services. Sensors embedded in the new meters will be able to detect vehicles, allowing the city to collect information on traffic volume and potentially develop an app that would direct drivers to vacant spots.
Some changes, including allowing drivers to receive alerts on their phones when their meter has almost expired and pay for 30-minute extensions, would require cooperation from the city, Richard said. An ordinance prohibits drivers from plugging meters beyond posted time limits.
The Marines have tried curfews, drinking restrictions and plain old jawboning to cut down crime and controversy on Okinawa, a key center of U.S. military power in the Pacific. Now they’re handing out reminder cards.
The more than 20,000 Marines stationed in the Pacific region will get wallet-sized cards that promote core values of “honor, courage and commitment,” and remind Marines of the battles fought and price paid by earlier generations.
“We are forward-deployed in the region, and we call this place home,” says Lieut. General Kenneth Glueck, commander of the Okinawa-based III Marine Expeditionary Force. The card “serves as a constant reminder of our heritage, our traditions and the ideals that have made the corps what it is today.”
Glueck went on a speaking tour of bases last year after a series of crimes by U.S. servicemen on Okinawa sparked large-scale protests and led to curfews and restrictions on alcohol consumptions for Marines and other U.S. forces. The Marines’ V-22 Osprey also has been the target of protests over noise and safety concerns.
Gang members will crowd customers withdrawing cash to read their four-digit PIN, then distract them to steal the card. In some cases they install a simple metal sleeve in the slot which means the card is not returned to the user.
Someone reads the PIN over the victim’s shoulder and then, when they have moved away, retrieves the card. Once the thieves have the card and PIN they can go on a shopping spree or use a hole in the wall machine to empty their victim’s account.
Pensioner Jacqueline Fletcher was watched by two thieves while she withdrew cash from an ATM outside her local supermarket in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire.
When the 80-year-old emerged from the shop, one of the men asked her for change and stole her bank card while pretending to help her with her purse.
‘It frightened me and it gutted me to think that I’d been stupid enough and that they’d been attacking vulnerable people, young or old,’ she said.
Last month a woman in Cheltenham had her cards stolen in a supermarket car park as she was distracted by a man asking for directions. She believes the criminals, who siphoned ￡1,000 from her account, spotted her using her PIN at a store till.
Meanwhile, victims are finding it increasingly difficult to get their stolen cash refunded. A number of banks have introduced rules which means they can deny a refund if they believe the customer has failed to protect their PIN and card.
The theft figures were revealed by Financial Fraud Action, which is responsible for tackling plastic card fraud on behalf of banks. Chip and PIN cards were introduced by the industry in 2005 with the aim of reducing fraud. Click on their website austpay.com for more information.
2013年6月5日星期三
Starbucks Finds Success in Simplicity
When we hear of using smartphones to pay for goods, we often think about Google Wallet, ISIS, PayPal‘s new initiatives, or Square, but Starbucks is the rising star and one that has found success in this emerging, yet volatile, market. The retail coffee chain’s app, which is used to pay for beverage and food purchases at many of Starbucks locations, is now driving the bulk of the $500 million worth of transactions in North America.
“The vast majority of these payments were made using Starbucks’ phenomenally successful smartphone app,” a recently published report from Berg Insights reads, “whereas mobile wallets that can be used at multiple merchants have yet to gain traction.”
Part of the reason for Starbucks’ success could be attributed to the app’s simplicity. The app, which works much like a gift card, allows users to show their Android or iPhone at Starbucks, where the phone will display a bar code that can be scanned at the point of purchase. The transaction amount is immediately deducted, and users can re-load the virtual card through their phone or at a retail location at any time. In addition, Starbucks offers a loyalty program that rewards frequent visitors with free drinks, refills, and food.
“Value-added services that enable new shopping experiences before, during and after payments will be what truly distinguish mobile wallets from the traditional payment instruments”, said Lars Kurkinen, telecom analyst, Berg Insight.
Whereas Google Wallet and ISIS requires both an NFC radio on the consumer’s phone and an NFC-equipped reader on the merchant side, an app that has either a scannable barcode or QR code doesn’t require additional hardware. Starbucks could roll out incentives too as part of its app experience in real time with push notifications and free iTunes music and app downloads through the iPhone version of the experience. PayPal’s credit card scanners as well as the Square card readers have been enabling small businesses to do more, but lack the loyalty and rewards program that Starbucks delivers as part of its app experience. On the other hard, Square and PayPal Here allows users the use of a single credit card that could be used practically anywhere whereas the Starbucks digital experience is limited to Starbucks locations.
And part of the Starbucks simplicity is perhaps why Apple is still not yet adopting NFC on its phones. By using iCloud and its Passbook service, which is in many ways like the Starbucks app, Appletickets allows users to be able to use their phones without additional hardware and merchants could readily accept loyalty cards, boarding passes, , and third party payment gateway as they already have barcode scanners so no new, expensive hardware is required.
Any as no additional hardware is required, Starbucks and Apple do not have to go through carriers for approval, Most carriers in the U.S. block Google Wallet from accessing the NFC chip on the phone as they want a cut of the profits for handling these transactions, much like how credit card companies get a processing fee from the merchant. Perhaps, if Google initially sold a reloadable Google prepaid debit card, like a Starbucks gift card, that is then tied into the Google Wallet app, and the Internet giant relied on a QR code for scanning rather than an NFC tag, then adoption may be simpler. The risk here is that a QR code isn”t as secure as an NFC tag and may not bode well for more expensive transactions.
Fresh off the production line, the Bolton outfit has sent in the 3XS Z87 Performance GTX for evaluation. Priced at ￡1,200 in its default configuration, the high-performance rig is a direct replacement for the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge variants of years gone by.
As was the case with previous models, Scan's attempt to strike an optimum balance between price and performance has led the company to skip right past the top-of-the-line Core i7 chips and settle on the best of the Core i5 bunch, the four-core, four-thread 4670K.
It seems this 3.4GHz part is going to be the chip of choice for system integrators putting together gaming-orientated builds, but how much of an overclock we're likely to see remains something of a question mark. Our own Haswell frequency shenanigans delivered mixed results, making us wonder how far the likes of Scan would be willing to push their warranty-covered machines.
We've seen one SI play it safe and ship the Core i5-4670K at 4.2GHz, but Scan's engineers are feeling more adventurous and have the 3XS Z87 Performance GTX ramped up higher to 4.4GHz. The fact that a 44x multiplier almost feels like dangerous territory tells you everything you need to know about our faith in Haswell's overclockability, and Scan's recent history provides an interesting metric in itself.
The Performance GTX system shipped with a Core i5-2500K overclocked to 4.7GHz during the Sandy Bridge era, and a Core i5-3570K was bumped up to 4.6GHz for last year's Ivy Bridge. And both those machines used air cooling. This time around, Scan has employed a Corsair Hydro H60 liquid cooler to help keep the fourth-gen Intel chip running as comfortable as possible.
Making the most of recent product launches, graphics are provided by Nvidia's GeForce GTX 770 - which, as you know, is ultimately a faster variant of last year's GTX 680 - and it all sits atop of an LGA1150-supporting Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3 motherboard.
Scan, as always, has a wide range of configuration options available, though we suspect most consumers will find little need to stray from the default specification. This includes 8GB of Corsair Vengeance LP memory, a 250GB Samsung 840 Series SSD, a 2TB Seagate Barracuda hard disk, a Samsung DVD Writer, a dedicated Asus Xonar DGX sound card and a 600W Corsair GS-Series power supply all wrapped inside a Corsair Carbide Series 300R Windowed chassis.
When we hear of using smartphones to pay for goods, we often think about Google Wallet, ISIS, PayPal‘s new initiatives, or Square, but Starbucks is the rising star and one that has found success in this emerging, yet volatile, market. The retail coffee chain’s app, which is used to pay for beverage and food purchases at many of Starbucks locations, is now driving the bulk of the $500 million worth of transactions in North America.
“The vast majority of these payments were made using Starbucks’ phenomenally successful smartphone app,” a recently published report from Berg Insights reads, “whereas mobile wallets that can be used at multiple merchants have yet to gain traction.”
Part of the reason for Starbucks’ success could be attributed to the app’s simplicity. The app, which works much like a gift card, allows users to show their Android or iPhone at Starbucks, where the phone will display a bar code that can be scanned at the point of purchase. The transaction amount is immediately deducted, and users can re-load the virtual card through their phone or at a retail location at any time. In addition, Starbucks offers a loyalty program that rewards frequent visitors with free drinks, refills, and food.
“Value-added services that enable new shopping experiences before, during and after payments will be what truly distinguish mobile wallets from the traditional payment instruments”, said Lars Kurkinen, telecom analyst, Berg Insight.
Whereas Google Wallet and ISIS requires both an NFC radio on the consumer’s phone and an NFC-equipped reader on the merchant side, an app that has either a scannable barcode or QR code doesn’t require additional hardware. Starbucks could roll out incentives too as part of its app experience in real time with push notifications and free iTunes music and app downloads through the iPhone version of the experience. PayPal’s credit card scanners as well as the Square card readers have been enabling small businesses to do more, but lack the loyalty and rewards program that Starbucks delivers as part of its app experience. On the other hard, Square and PayPal Here allows users the use of a single credit card that could be used practically anywhere whereas the Starbucks digital experience is limited to Starbucks locations.
And part of the Starbucks simplicity is perhaps why Apple is still not yet adopting NFC on its phones. By using iCloud and its Passbook service, which is in many ways like the Starbucks app, Appletickets allows users to be able to use their phones without additional hardware and merchants could readily accept loyalty cards, boarding passes, , and third party payment gateway as they already have barcode scanners so no new, expensive hardware is required.
Any as no additional hardware is required, Starbucks and Apple do not have to go through carriers for approval, Most carriers in the U.S. block Google Wallet from accessing the NFC chip on the phone as they want a cut of the profits for handling these transactions, much like how credit card companies get a processing fee from the merchant. Perhaps, if Google initially sold a reloadable Google prepaid debit card, like a Starbucks gift card, that is then tied into the Google Wallet app, and the Internet giant relied on a QR code for scanning rather than an NFC tag, then adoption may be simpler. The risk here is that a QR code isn”t as secure as an NFC tag and may not bode well for more expensive transactions.
Fresh off the production line, the Bolton outfit has sent in the 3XS Z87 Performance GTX for evaluation. Priced at ￡1,200 in its default configuration, the high-performance rig is a direct replacement for the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge variants of years gone by.
As was the case with previous models, Scan's attempt to strike an optimum balance between price and performance has led the company to skip right past the top-of-the-line Core i7 chips and settle on the best of the Core i5 bunch, the four-core, four-thread 4670K.
It seems this 3.4GHz part is going to be the chip of choice for system integrators putting together gaming-orientated builds, but how much of an overclock we're likely to see remains something of a question mark. Our own Haswell frequency shenanigans delivered mixed results, making us wonder how far the likes of Scan would be willing to push their warranty-covered machines.
We've seen one SI play it safe and ship the Core i5-4670K at 4.2GHz, but Scan's engineers are feeling more adventurous and have the 3XS Z87 Performance GTX ramped up higher to 4.4GHz. The fact that a 44x multiplier almost feels like dangerous territory tells you everything you need to know about our faith in Haswell's overclockability, and Scan's recent history provides an interesting metric in itself.
The Performance GTX system shipped with a Core i5-2500K overclocked to 4.7GHz during the Sandy Bridge era, and a Core i5-3570K was bumped up to 4.6GHz for last year's Ivy Bridge. And both those machines used air cooling. This time around, Scan has employed a Corsair Hydro H60 liquid cooler to help keep the fourth-gen Intel chip running as comfortable as possible.
Making the most of recent product launches, graphics are provided by Nvidia's GeForce GTX 770 - which, as you know, is ultimately a faster variant of last year's GTX 680 - and it all sits atop of an LGA1150-supporting Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3 motherboard.
Scan, as always, has a wide range of configuration options available, though we suspect most consumers will find little need to stray from the default specification. This includes 8GB of Corsair Vengeance LP memory, a 250GB Samsung 840 Series SSD, a 2TB Seagate Barracuda hard disk, a Samsung DVD Writer, a dedicated Asus Xonar DGX sound card and a 600W Corsair GS-Series power supply all wrapped inside a Corsair Carbide Series 300R Windowed chassis.
2013年6月4日星期二
New MacBook Pro, MacBook Air rumors spread
More and more rumors are spreading about the products that the Cupertino based Apple will be introducing during the World Wide Developers Conference beginning June 10. Though nothing is crystal clear as yet, nonetheless there is hope that many a new products will be showcased during the event and as far as we know it includes new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air versions.
But the occasion is known more for software and operating system upgrades than hardware updates and so there is apprehension in the minds of people about hardware upgrades. Then there are people who suggest that Apple may even introduce a next generation iPhone 5S version during the event besides smaller tablet with retina display, iPad Mini 2. But to be true, this seems very far fetched as not just Apple, even its manufacturing partners or even top blogs that have successfully predicted Apple products in the past are keeping mum on the issue.
Nonetheless there are credible reports that Apple may actually showcase new MacBook Pro and MacBook air 2013 version during the Apple developers conference. MacBook Pro with Retina Display was billed as the best Mac ever, and the pundits nodded their heads in agreement. The MacBook Pro has been the laptop of choice for ‘serious’ professionals. The kind that does a lot of photo and video editing, the kind that do a lot of design work and like their laptops to be a fast and efficient beast. Every generation the Pro line brings in improvements, if in nothing else in weight and thickness but usually in much more than that.
Apple made the laptop a lot enticing and attractive besides a lot more powerful than its earlier avatar. Last year it added a retina display. Usually MacBook Pros shipped with a 1440x900p resolution displays, which was fine enough for most purposes. Well, apple took that and doubled it. The MacBook with Retina display shipped with 2880×1800 screen. An eye popping number which made for an eye popping screen. Apple did a couple of more things. It removed the optical drive, quite rightly I believe, because, who uses an optical drive anymore? It added a couple of thunderbolt ports and a couple of USB 3.0 ports. It also slimmed down the whole things a bit. It wasn’t quite in the MacBook Air territory yet, but it was getting there. The only downside was the nosebleed inducing price tag. Just the base model started with $2199. Add to this warranty costs, adapter or a more storage space (the base model comes with 256 GB flash memory) and the price starts to touch $3000 mark.
But if rumors are to be believed, this very fine and top quality product is going to be a lot more improved. Now, rumors have it, this beast of a machine is in for a upgrade. What more are they planning to put on it? The most prominent upgrade centers around support for NVIDIA Geforce GTX Titan graphics card, a premium graphics card which can support a resolution of 5,760-by-1,080-pixel across three screens. Along with this there would be improved drivers, and perhaps a new version of the OSX operating system. It is almost certain that should Apple choose to introduce a new MacBook Pro, it would come with the latest CPU from Intel, which means a Haswell chip. KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in a note to investors speculated that the new MacBook Pro might also feature an improved front facing camera capable of 1080p video and a slimmer profile.
Making it even more slim and consequently lighter will help the tech giant all the more enticing. If indeed the Pro should get slimmer, it would mean that Apple would be one step closer to the moment of truth, what exactly would be left to differentiate the MacBook Air line if the Pro starts to get just as slim? As noted before, this is all just rumors for the time being. We have to wait for the next week to know for which way Apple decided to go. All taken together this would still constitute a minor upgrade, which brings the Pro up to date with the latest CPU, gives it a better camera, better graphics card and a slimmer profile, but as of now, nothing ground breaking. So things are really looking very exciting for Apple fans.
RBS and Lloyds ‘much safer’, insists Bank: Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group were not “let off the hook” after a six-month review by the Bank of England into their capital strength ended without either bank issuing new equity.
Hedge fund in insider trading case to lose billions: The hedge fund at the centre of an American insider trading investigation was preparing for investors to withdraw around $3.5 billion.
Setting out a route to growth: The sustainable management of Britain’s forest and woodland areas will top the agenda at a meeting in Cumbria hosted by Forest Research, an agency of the Forestry Commission.
Amazon customers at risk over contactless payments: Amazon has been urged to use a simple security measure to protect millions of its customers from a flaw found in “contactless” credit and debit cards. Such a card — there are 30 million in the U.K. — lets the Owner pay amounts under ￡20 in a shop by tapping it at the till without a PIN or signature.
Mark Carney given dose of retail therapy as recovery starts to gain strength: Strengthening retail sales and manufacturing output suggest that Britain’s springtime recovery is spilling over into summer, even as economic clouds linger over large parts of Europe. The retail sector defied poor weather to register an annual 3.4% rise on total sales last month, an improvement on the long-run average of 2.5%, the British Retail Consortium said.
Halted trials causes Oxford Biomedica plunge: Shares in Oxford Biomedica plunged 28% as the biopharmaceutical company put some of its trials on hold after discovering “potential impurities” in one of its raw materials.
Concerns over flagship credit scheme as banks tighten belts to tune of ￡300 million: Some of Britain’s biggest banks were forced on to the defensive on Monday as the latest Bank of England figures revealed more disappointment from its flagship initiative to boost lending.
New N Brown Chief could earn ￡4 million in 3 years: Angela Spindler, the new Chief Executive of N Brown, has been awarded a “golden hello” that could boost her total earnings to almost ￡4 million over the next three years.
Hammersmith flyover kicks off Costain’s ￡200 million TfL deal: London commuters who suffered the nightmare of last year’s five-month closure and lane restrictions on the Hammersmith flyover must hope that the ￡60 million strengthening contract awarded to Costain causes far less disruption.Read the full story at austpay.com!
But the occasion is known more for software and operating system upgrades than hardware updates and so there is apprehension in the minds of people about hardware upgrades. Then there are people who suggest that Apple may even introduce a next generation iPhone 5S version during the event besides smaller tablet with retina display, iPad Mini 2. But to be true, this seems very far fetched as not just Apple, even its manufacturing partners or even top blogs that have successfully predicted Apple products in the past are keeping mum on the issue.
Nonetheless there are credible reports that Apple may actually showcase new MacBook Pro and MacBook air 2013 version during the Apple developers conference. MacBook Pro with Retina Display was billed as the best Mac ever, and the pundits nodded their heads in agreement. The MacBook Pro has been the laptop of choice for ‘serious’ professionals. The kind that does a lot of photo and video editing, the kind that do a lot of design work and like their laptops to be a fast and efficient beast. Every generation the Pro line brings in improvements, if in nothing else in weight and thickness but usually in much more than that.
Apple made the laptop a lot enticing and attractive besides a lot more powerful than its earlier avatar. Last year it added a retina display. Usually MacBook Pros shipped with a 1440x900p resolution displays, which was fine enough for most purposes. Well, apple took that and doubled it. The MacBook with Retina display shipped with 2880×1800 screen. An eye popping number which made for an eye popping screen. Apple did a couple of more things. It removed the optical drive, quite rightly I believe, because, who uses an optical drive anymore? It added a couple of thunderbolt ports and a couple of USB 3.0 ports. It also slimmed down the whole things a bit. It wasn’t quite in the MacBook Air territory yet, but it was getting there. The only downside was the nosebleed inducing price tag. Just the base model started with $2199. Add to this warranty costs, adapter or a more storage space (the base model comes with 256 GB flash memory) and the price starts to touch $3000 mark.
But if rumors are to be believed, this very fine and top quality product is going to be a lot more improved. Now, rumors have it, this beast of a machine is in for a upgrade. What more are they planning to put on it? The most prominent upgrade centers around support for NVIDIA Geforce GTX Titan graphics card, a premium graphics card which can support a resolution of 5,760-by-1,080-pixel across three screens. Along with this there would be improved drivers, and perhaps a new version of the OSX operating system. It is almost certain that should Apple choose to introduce a new MacBook Pro, it would come with the latest CPU from Intel, which means a Haswell chip. KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in a note to investors speculated that the new MacBook Pro might also feature an improved front facing camera capable of 1080p video and a slimmer profile.
Making it even more slim and consequently lighter will help the tech giant all the more enticing. If indeed the Pro should get slimmer, it would mean that Apple would be one step closer to the moment of truth, what exactly would be left to differentiate the MacBook Air line if the Pro starts to get just as slim? As noted before, this is all just rumors for the time being. We have to wait for the next week to know for which way Apple decided to go. All taken together this would still constitute a minor upgrade, which brings the Pro up to date with the latest CPU, gives it a better camera, better graphics card and a slimmer profile, but as of now, nothing ground breaking. So things are really looking very exciting for Apple fans.
RBS and Lloyds ‘much safer’, insists Bank: Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group were not “let off the hook” after a six-month review by the Bank of England into their capital strength ended without either bank issuing new equity.
Hedge fund in insider trading case to lose billions: The hedge fund at the centre of an American insider trading investigation was preparing for investors to withdraw around $3.5 billion.
Setting out a route to growth: The sustainable management of Britain’s forest and woodland areas will top the agenda at a meeting in Cumbria hosted by Forest Research, an agency of the Forestry Commission.
Amazon customers at risk over contactless payments: Amazon has been urged to use a simple security measure to protect millions of its customers from a flaw found in “contactless” credit and debit cards. Such a card — there are 30 million in the U.K. — lets the Owner pay amounts under ￡20 in a shop by tapping it at the till without a PIN or signature.
Mark Carney given dose of retail therapy as recovery starts to gain strength: Strengthening retail sales and manufacturing output suggest that Britain’s springtime recovery is spilling over into summer, even as economic clouds linger over large parts of Europe. The retail sector defied poor weather to register an annual 3.4% rise on total sales last month, an improvement on the long-run average of 2.5%, the British Retail Consortium said.
Halted trials causes Oxford Biomedica plunge: Shares in Oxford Biomedica plunged 28% as the biopharmaceutical company put some of its trials on hold after discovering “potential impurities” in one of its raw materials.
Concerns over flagship credit scheme as banks tighten belts to tune of ￡300 million: Some of Britain’s biggest banks were forced on to the defensive on Monday as the latest Bank of England figures revealed more disappointment from its flagship initiative to boost lending.
New N Brown Chief could earn ￡4 million in 3 years: Angela Spindler, the new Chief Executive of N Brown, has been awarded a “golden hello” that could boost her total earnings to almost ￡4 million over the next three years.
Hammersmith flyover kicks off Costain’s ￡200 million TfL deal: London commuters who suffered the nightmare of last year’s five-month closure and lane restrictions on the Hammersmith flyover must hope that the ￡60 million strengthening contract awarded to Costain causes far less disruption.Read the full story at austpay.com!
2013年6月2日星期日
How a Bizarre Obsession Advanced Science
Already years before the Nazis came to power, German scientists were propagating theories about blood purity. Though this obsession led to bizarre and dangerous theories about superiority and personality traits, it also led to medical breakthroughs.
For the majority of humanity, the outbreak of World War I was a catastrophe on an unprecedented scale. But for Ludwik Hirszfeld, it turned out to be a stroke of good fortune.
Together with his wife, Hanna, the German doctor ran a bacteriology lab in Thessaloniki, Greece, where he had nearly unlimited access to human test subjects -- the French, British, Italian, Russian and Serbian soldiers who made up the multinational Army of the Orient, stationed in this port city in northern Greece and hemmed in by German troops during the so-called Balkans Campaign of the war.
In the interest of conducting one of the largest field studies in medical history up to that point, Hirszfeld approached these languid POWs with a needle and a request to draw their blood. The doctor knew just how to approach each of the different nationalities to sweeten the deal and get a soldier to participate in his large-scale experiment.
"With the English, it was enough simply to comment that this was being done for scientific purposes," Hirszfeld recalled in his memoirs. For his "French friends," on the other hand, the resourceful doctor offered tips on whom they could "sin with impunity" with based on their blood type. He also found it easy to convince the Senegalese soldiers who were there as colonial troops in the French army. "We told them the test might be connected with possible time on leave," Hirszfeld wrote. "And black hands stretched toward us in no time at all."
In the space of just a few months, Hirszfeld enthused, it had been possible to achieve what would otherwise have taken years -- the identification of the blood types of around 8,000 soldiers from a wide range of countries. Once the doctor, long based in the western German city of Heidelberg, had analyzed his data, he believed he had made a groundbreaking discovery: "Blood group A was associated mainly with the white, European 'race,' while blood group B was attributed to the dark-skinned 'races,'" writes Swiss historian Myriam Sp?rri in a recently published book on the cultural history of blood-group research.
Hirszfeld and his colleague Emil von Dungern had developed the blood type groupings A, B, AB and O, now in wide use internationally, in 1910. Before them, in 1901, it was Karl Landsteiner who first discovered that red blood cells possess a variety of antigens.
The Nazis forced Hirszfeld, a Jew, into the Warsaw Ghetto in 1941, although he survived. The blood researcher has generally been free of any suspicion that racist motivations guided his work. Sp?rri, though, reaches a different conclusion.
The fields of research Hirszfeld founded were "eugenically charged" from the start, the Swiss historian concludes. Even during his internment, Sp?rri writes, Hirszfeld gave lectures in which he stated "that blood group distributions among Jews and the 'host peoples' they lived among were nearly identical."
The researcher, originally from Warsaw, was not alone in this choice of words, which seems so appalling from a modern-day perspective. Berlin-based serologist Fritz Schiff, for example, insisted in the academic journal Jüdische Familienforschung (Jewish Genealogical Research) that differences in the blood types of various Jewish groups could be seen "as an 'convergence' to become more like the respective 'host people.'"
Ludwik and Hanna Hirszfeld had begun spreading dubious theories in the 1920s. And, as Sp?rri writes: "The idea of 'pure blood' first expressed by the Hirszfelds held on tenaciously and was never challenged, despite new findings."
Nearly all researchers of the period shared this obsessive preoccupation with the idea of blood purity. Years before the Nazis seized power, both Jewish and non-Jewish blood-group researchers were searching for racial characteristics and signs of racial mixing in the blood, assuming the existence of such things as a matter of course.
It seems astonishing from a present-day point of view, but these extremely different players in the blood research scene were very often in agreement. In 1929, for example, Landsteiner, who had by this time emigrated to New York, took the time during a visit back to Germany to meet with the obscure race researcher Reche. In a letter to a colleague, the racist scientist who later became an admirer of Hitler, vacillated between mistrust and admiration of Landsteiner: "He is a tall, slim, good-looking man with a proud fencing scar on his left cheek; his racial type is not very apparent ? he has produced a number of very good ideas."
Hitler, too, had an ardent interest in the subject, although he obtained his information from crude sources. His inspiration for the "Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor," passed in 1935 as one of the Nuremberg Laws, was an unsavory 1917 pulp novel called "The Sin against the Blood."
Read the full story at www.airdow.com!
For the majority of humanity, the outbreak of World War I was a catastrophe on an unprecedented scale. But for Ludwik Hirszfeld, it turned out to be a stroke of good fortune.
Together with his wife, Hanna, the German doctor ran a bacteriology lab in Thessaloniki, Greece, where he had nearly unlimited access to human test subjects -- the French, British, Italian, Russian and Serbian soldiers who made up the multinational Army of the Orient, stationed in this port city in northern Greece and hemmed in by German troops during the so-called Balkans Campaign of the war.
In the interest of conducting one of the largest field studies in medical history up to that point, Hirszfeld approached these languid POWs with a needle and a request to draw their blood. The doctor knew just how to approach each of the different nationalities to sweeten the deal and get a soldier to participate in his large-scale experiment.
"With the English, it was enough simply to comment that this was being done for scientific purposes," Hirszfeld recalled in his memoirs. For his "French friends," on the other hand, the resourceful doctor offered tips on whom they could "sin with impunity" with based on their blood type. He also found it easy to convince the Senegalese soldiers who were there as colonial troops in the French army. "We told them the test might be connected with possible time on leave," Hirszfeld wrote. "And black hands stretched toward us in no time at all."
In the space of just a few months, Hirszfeld enthused, it had been possible to achieve what would otherwise have taken years -- the identification of the blood types of around 8,000 soldiers from a wide range of countries. Once the doctor, long based in the western German city of Heidelberg, had analyzed his data, he believed he had made a groundbreaking discovery: "Blood group A was associated mainly with the white, European 'race,' while blood group B was attributed to the dark-skinned 'races,'" writes Swiss historian Myriam Sp?rri in a recently published book on the cultural history of blood-group research.
Hirszfeld and his colleague Emil von Dungern had developed the blood type groupings A, B, AB and O, now in wide use internationally, in 1910. Before them, in 1901, it was Karl Landsteiner who first discovered that red blood cells possess a variety of antigens.
The Nazis forced Hirszfeld, a Jew, into the Warsaw Ghetto in 1941, although he survived. The blood researcher has generally been free of any suspicion that racist motivations guided his work. Sp?rri, though, reaches a different conclusion.
The fields of research Hirszfeld founded were "eugenically charged" from the start, the Swiss historian concludes. Even during his internment, Sp?rri writes, Hirszfeld gave lectures in which he stated "that blood group distributions among Jews and the 'host peoples' they lived among were nearly identical."
The researcher, originally from Warsaw, was not alone in this choice of words, which seems so appalling from a modern-day perspective. Berlin-based serologist Fritz Schiff, for example, insisted in the academic journal Jüdische Familienforschung (Jewish Genealogical Research) that differences in the blood types of various Jewish groups could be seen "as an 'convergence' to become more like the respective 'host people.'"
Ludwik and Hanna Hirszfeld had begun spreading dubious theories in the 1920s. And, as Sp?rri writes: "The idea of 'pure blood' first expressed by the Hirszfelds held on tenaciously and was never challenged, despite new findings."
Nearly all researchers of the period shared this obsessive preoccupation with the idea of blood purity. Years before the Nazis seized power, both Jewish and non-Jewish blood-group researchers were searching for racial characteristics and signs of racial mixing in the blood, assuming the existence of such things as a matter of course.
It seems astonishing from a present-day point of view, but these extremely different players in the blood research scene were very often in agreement. In 1929, for example, Landsteiner, who had by this time emigrated to New York, took the time during a visit back to Germany to meet with the obscure race researcher Reche. In a letter to a colleague, the racist scientist who later became an admirer of Hitler, vacillated between mistrust and admiration of Landsteiner: "He is a tall, slim, good-looking man with a proud fencing scar on his left cheek; his racial type is not very apparent ? he has produced a number of very good ideas."
Hitler, too, had an ardent interest in the subject, although he obtained his information from crude sources. His inspiration for the "Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor," passed in 1935 as one of the Nuremberg Laws, was an unsavory 1917 pulp novel called "The Sin against the Blood."
Read the full story at www.airdow.com!
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