Earnings Call Transcript

Thank you, very much [Ork]. Good morning, everyone and thanks for coming so many of you again to join us for the presentation results for the year into June 2013. For us the overwriting theme of the year is seeing the momentum of the results credit to sticking to our long term strategy. So that starts for us with the fact that we are now in the seventh year of the focus on customer satisfaction and I will go into a moment, we've seen that at record high in this period, but most importantly see those highs translate into momentum in terms of increase in products for customer growth and the balance sheet.

We've seen a productivity culture, enabling investment. So the long term focus on making the prices more efficient, making the whole group more efficient, enabling us to continue to invest. On that theme of high risk merchant account, what we've seen in this period is a couple of things.

Number one, the completion of the sixth year co-bank modernization program. So that team has now been dispended. The 1500 people working on that in fact doing other things that is now completed and we are now shifting our focus to leverage -- continuing to leverage that and innovating on the back of that core and finally the benefit of just sticking with a considerable bit of setting. So we came into considerable bit of settings.

You will see in the presentation that they have been further strengthened. So the customer focus, the productivity, the technology the conservatism, these are common themes and the results for the period show that they are continuing to produce good results.

In terms of the themes business by business, the retail banks 13% cash impact growth was a very, very strong result. One of the features of this result is ongoing strength in the top line and it starts with the retail bank. So income there up 8%, against that strong income growth, expense is very well managed 3% growth year-on-year.

You can see on the more negative side that 11% decrease in deposit income and you got to hear across multiple businesses for me and from David, no doubt for those of you speaking to group executives this common theme that as a result of ongoing deposit competition and the low rate environment, we got ongoing [pitch] on deposit income and you can see that in the retail bank.

Business and private bank net profit after tax down 2%. The standout feature here, first of all we did see strong balance sheet growth. So all those system growth and business lending can be quite high to major against any major system growth of 4% balance sheet growth in that Business Bank exceed system growth while credit quality has been maintained. Expenses were flat, so real focus on productivity in that business. Again you can see a lower net interest margin, again the story of a low interest rate environment and competition flowing through into deposits.

This is the latest in a series of announcements for SNAPCAM, after it was unveiled as a 'Hero' launch app by Stephen Elop for the new Nokia Lumia 1020, while it recently revealed its partnership with printing giant Xerox.

SNAPCAM is the disruptive photo app that allows users to create digital photo albums, which can then be shared, printed and delivered as physical albums.

Users can organise pictures into 'events' and share these with friends and family, who can add their own shots too. In a few clicks, these can be transformed into full colour, printed photo albums and delivered to many countries across the world.

The app integrates directly with third party photo sources, including Facebook. It also offers photo enhancement, offshore merchant account, edit, crop and add finishing touches to their photos before sending them to print.

The partnership will see SecureTrading processing payments from across the globe, with the service going live in 40 countries. On top of the payment gateway, SecureTrading will also provide a suite of bespoke counter-fraud services.

"Steve Hayward, CEO at SNAPCAM said: "By working with SecureTrading we have brought to life our 'thinking globally, acting locally' ethos and developed it beyond having an environmentally sensitive product. By being able to provide competitive, locally sensitive pricing in local currency to all our territories, we are helping to drive the physical photo revival globally."

Justin Fraser, head of sales and marketing said: "SNAPCAM is one of the few apps that has immediate global appeal. There's no doubt it is going to explode in popularity, and we're relishing the opportunity to support SNAPCAM and add value to the business throughout its growth."

Dex Media Management Discusses

Good morning, and welcome to Dex Media's Second Quarter 2013 Conference Call. With me today are Peter McDonald, Chief Executive Officer; and Dee Jones, Chief Financial Officer. The statements made by the company today during this call, are forward-looking statements. These statements include the company's beliefs and expectations as to future events and trends affecting the company's business and are subject to risks and uncertainties.

The company advises you not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and to consider them in light of the risk factors set forth in reports filed by Dex Media and its predecessor companies with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This was an eventful quarter with the completion of the merger between Dex One and SuperMedia on April 30. The combination of these companies is good for shareholders, third party merchant account, our clients and the future of our employees. I again recognize and thank the Boards of Dex One and SuperMedia, as well as our advisors, lenders and shareholders for your support.

We are now 3 months into integration, and we have accomplished a lot. While the merger was consummated 4 months later than originally planned, all of the planning that had been done prior to the closing date is paying off, and we are seeing the benefits in best practices, strengthened management teams and synergies.

I'm very pleased with how the teams are working together, and I can say we are on track in that regard at this point. We have evaluated nearly all the jobs in the company. We have made some tough decisions and have identified and put in place our top 127 managers in just the first 2 months of integration. It is interesting and significant that our management team consists of nearly an even split of people from both predecessor companies.

I'm very pleased with the talent in the new company. It is important to get leadership team in place so that we can make the decisions necessary to drive the business forward. This has been a distracting time as people needed to get the "me questions" resolved. With nearly 5,000 people now in place in 135 locations, we are anxious to continue to make progress.
The HR and legal teams have done an outstanding job of getting this work completed. In each of the functional departments, we have quality leadership in place and are moving forward each day to improve this business. Marketing team is working on migrating the best products across the entire footprint and leveraging best practices. The bundles Dex One used will be rolled out to the former SuperMedia footprint, and the former SuperMedia digital bundles will be rolled into the former Dex One markets.

Over the second half of 2013 and into 2014, we look forward to rolling out additional products across our entire combined footprint. Getting all the systems ready to accommodate these new products is high on our list of priorities as we migrate our customer base to the digital world. As we get deeper into this combination, it is clear that a lot of quality work was done in each organization prior to the merger.

Today’s consumers are increasingly relying on credit cards and innovative payment methods to make purchases. As leaders in the global payment sector, Visa (NYSE: V) and MasterCard (NYSE: MA) are both poised to continue benefiting from this trend.

In 1958, the first-ever large-scale credit card program was launched by Bank of America in Fresno, Calif. The company sent out plastic “BankAmericards” with $300 credit limits to 60,000 of its customers. Bank of America soon began to license its third party payment gateway system to banks in other U.S. states. In 1970, the various issuers of the cards created an alliance to operate the program, and later renamed the company Visa.

In 2008, Visa went public in what was the highest-valued IPO in history at the time. Visa now operates in more than 200 countries and in virtually every currency. It is the largest retail electronic payments network company in the world, with over $6.5 trillion in total transactions completed last year.

In 1966, in an effort to compete with Visa, a rival credit card was created by a cooperative of California banks under the name “Master Charge: The Interbank Card.” The card had a unique Venn diagram logo, and in 1979, its name was changed to MasterCard.

In 2012, MasterCard processed 34 billion transactions with a value of $3.6 trillion. The company operates in over 210 countries and in 150 different currencies. While Visa has nearly twice as many cards in circulation, MasterCard has been growing its revenue at a faster rate of late.

Both Visa and MasterCard generate revenue primarily by collecting fees from merchants and banks based on the number and dollar value of the transactions that they process. Unlike competitors such as American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) and Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), they do not actually extend credit to their customers. The banks that issue the credit cards take on the credit risk, while Visa and MasterCard act only as middlemen, charging fees for facilitating consumer transactions.

In addition to credit cards, the companies also offer debit cards. While credit cards offer users the ability to borrow money and pay for purchases at a later date, debit card payments are immediately transferred from the cardholder’s bank account to the merchant.
In recent years, both Visa and MasterCard have also been expanding into emerging markets where most transactions have traditionally been completed in cash. As these countries continue to develop, consumer spending should increase, as will the demand for credit.

An increasingly competitive area for both companies is the Internet payment segment, where eBay’s (NASDAQ: EBAY) PayPal unit has been a leading innovator. PayPal’s customers make online payments using any card or bank account of their choice. Both Visa and MasterCard generate additional transaction volumes through PayPal, but the latter is now becoming more of a direct competitor. Last August, PayPal reached an agreement with Discover to give shoppers access to their online accounts in physical retail stores.

Based on Friday’s closing price of $184.00, Visa has a market value of $119 billion. The stock trades at a multiple of 21 times 2014 earnings estimates, while the company is expected to grow profits by 19 per cent over the next five years. MasterCard last traded at $645.57, implying a market value of $78 billion. While the stock also trades at a forward earnings multiple of 21 times, the company is expected to grow at a slightly slower rate. MasterCard’s shares are up 31 per cent this year, while Visa’s stock has gained 21 per cent.

Did the Constitution Betray the Revolution?

The standard American myth celebrates the Constitution as the triumphant culmination of the American Revolution. This is largely untrue and misleading.

The alleged "critical period" between the end of the Revolution and the Constitution's adoption was not dominated by economic depression, political turmoil, and international peril, jeopardizing the independent survival of the American experiment in liberty. Those who assembled at the Philadelphia Convention to write a new Constitution were not disinterested demigods, nor did they intend to establish a federal system of divided government powers. The Constitution did not have the support of most Americans. And finally, rather than representing the culmination of the previous Revolution, the Constitution represented a reactionary counter revolution against its central principles.

The American Revolution, like all great social upheavals, was brought off by a disparate coalition of competing viewpoints and conflicting interests. At one end of the Revolutionary coalition stood the American radicals-men such as Samuel Adams, third party merchant account, Thomas Paine, Richard Henry Lee, and Thomas Jefferson.

Although by no means in unanimous agreement, the radicals objected to excessive state power in general and not simply to British rule in particular. Spearheading the Revolution's opening stages, they were responsible for the truly revolutionary alterations in the internal status quo: the abolition of slavery in the northern states, the separation of church and state in the southern states, the rooting out of remaining feudal privileges everywhere, and the adoption of new, republican state constitutions containing written bills of rights that severely hemmed in government power.

At the other end of the Revolutionary coalition were the American nationalists-an array of mercantile, creditor, and landed interests. The nationalists went along with independence but opposed the Revolution's libertarian thrust. They sought a strong American state with the hierarchical features of the 18th-century British state, only without the British.

The Revolution started out as a struggle against taxation. What passed among the newly independent American states for a central government, the Second Continental Congress, did not have access even to this usual state power. For revenue, Congress initially had to rely on requisitions from the state governments, which could not get away with very extensive taxation themselves.

Yet the military strategy adopted by Congress required large expenditures. Military conservatives such as George Washington induced Congress to focus the Revolutionary effort on a costly conventional force, the Continental Army, rather than the militias. By the 1781 Yorktown campaign, popular disgust at the army's continuing hand-to-mouth existence gave the nationalists uncontested control of Congress. They proceeded to implement a financial program that gave the central government much more power.

Already, the Revolution had taken an important step in this direction with the drafting of the Articles of Confederation, a written constitution. Here we encounter the first distortion in America's constitutional myth. The Articles left Congress not too weak, as defenders of the Constitution claim, but too strong: the Articles made the third party payment gateway; and an influential nationalist faction-land speculators-delayed ratification until Congress was given direct jurisdiction over the states' western lands. The Articles' only saving grace was that they failed to give Congress any authority to collect taxes or regulate trade.

At the time of the Articles' adoption, the most powerful nationalist in Congress was Robert Morris, a wealthy Philadelphia merchant. Congress appointed him head of the newly created Department of Finance, from which post he became a virtual financial dictator. The central government's functions were concentrated within his and other new executive departments, which Morris filled with his allies and partners.

The linch pin of Morris's financial system was the power of taxation. Only thus could the nationalists' desired centralization of power be consummated. An amendment to the Articles granting Congress the power to impose an import duty looked in 1782 like it would receive the required unanimous approval of the states, but tiny Rhode Island held out.

Morris and the nationalists made a last-ditch effort in March 1783 to coerce the states with the Continental Army, then encamped at Newburgh, New York. They encouraged a plot among Washington's officers, and a military coup loomed on the horizon. The radical suspicion of standing armies stood fully vindicated, for never has the United States been closer to succumbing to an American Caesar. At this point, however, Washington, although firmly endorsing nationalist goals, balked. His personal intervention caused the Newburgh conspiracy to disband.

Peace unraveled Morris's financial and military program. As the war wound down, the financial pressure on the national government, and the apparent need to grant taxing power to Congress, diminished. The nationalists lost control of Congress in late 1783, and Morris resigned his post after an incriminating investigation into his financial machinations. Congress wisely discharged most of what was left of the Continental Army.

Unfortunately, the war-induced nationalization of the Northwest lands had shifted the burden of policing that territory from the states to a national force. So Congress authorized a small frontier constabulary to be raised from the state militias for fixed periods. (The still-unceded Southwest territory got along fine without congressional attention.) Eastern land speculators, however, found the Northwest force insufficient to protect their vast claims from Indians, squatters, and foreign intrigue. They looked forward instead to a strong standing army.

Overdraft Fees Cost Consumers $16.7 Billion

In recent years, many banks and credit unions have encouraged new checking account customers to accept two items: a debit card that replaces cash transactions and a “protection” known as overdraft coverage. Overdraft programs automatically pay for transactions not covered by available funds; the bank then repays itself the overdraft amount along with fees – often hefty ones – from the customer’s next deposit.

However what many unsuspecting consumers soon discover is that this so-called protection from banks comes at an extremely high cost. In 2011, financial institutions charged consumers $16.7 billion in overdraft fees, affecting more than 36 million Americans’ checking accounts.

High-Cost Overdraft Practices, the latest installment in the Center for Responsible Lending’s high risk merchant account, The State of Lending, found that debit cards trigger the most disproportionate fees. On debit card purchases, the median overdraft charge is $35 for a $20 overdraft. Further, debit card and ATM transactions account for at least 35 percent of all overdraft fees charged.

The high share of fees generated by debit cards is ironic, since banks and credit unions can simply decline these transactions at no cost to the consumer – and some institutions do. For banks that continue this pernicious practice, the consequences for their customers can be severe.

The report states, “Abusive overdraft programs drive consumers out of the banking system; indeed they are the leading reason consumers lose their checking accounts.”

Today, three-fourths of the nation’s largest banks and large numbers of smaller banks and credit unions charge fees on debit card purchases, ATM withdrawals, or both. Moreover, these overdrafts and associated fees are assessed without regard to a consumer’s ability to repay them.

In response to widespread criticism surrounding overdraft programs, the Federal Reserve Board made a 2010 regulation that required institutions to obtain a customer’s ‘opt-in’ for overdraft coverage on debit card purchases and ATM withdrawals before fees would apply. Additionally and in the same year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s guidance advised that more than six overdraft fees within a 12-month period was excessive for any account holder.

However, CRL and others have found that many financial institutions aggressively market their overdraft programs, pushing customers most likely to generate the most fees to “opt-in” for coverage. Customers with small and no cushions in their accounts may initially view overdraft coverage as a way to save money. But as overdraft fees are assessed per transaction, the costs can quickly become burdensome, leaving fewer available dollars for the next month.

“Over time, the repeated fees strip away consumers’ cash assets, leaving them financially worse off than when they first over-drafted and unable to meet obligations they otherwise could have met even with no overdraft coverage at all,” says CRL.

Some major banks have heeded consumer concerns and improved their overdraft practices. For example, offshore merchant account, the nation’s largest debit card issuer, stopped charging overdraft fees on debit card purchases. HSBC also stopped charging overdraft fees on debit card purchases as well as at ATMs. Citibank has never charged overdraft fees on debit card or ATM transactions, and JP Morgan Chase does not charge them on ATM transactions.

Recent related findings by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) show that the Fed’s opt-in rule has not eliminated the substantial harm inflicted by overdraft fees triggered by debit cards. CFPB determined that involuntary account closures were more than twice as likely for customers that opted in to overdraft than those who did not.

“Banks and credit unions have long defended overdraft fees by saying they protect customers from bounced checks, which typically trigger insufficient funds (NSF) fees and potentially merchant fees,” states the CRL report. “But the same justification could not be made for debit card purchases, since there is no NSF or merchant fees charge for debit card transactions that are declined at check-out when the customer’s account is short.”

CRL offers a set of policy remedies to halt overdraft’s harmful features. Highlights include banning overdraft fees on debit cards, ATM transactions and on pre-paid cards. CRL also advocates banning banks from manipulating the order of consumers’ checking transactions to increase fees.

Concluded CRL, “Without substantive reform of the product, the fees overdrafts generate provide financial institutions too powerful an incentive to ensure that customers continue to incur overdraft fees – an incentive that will continue to outweigh even the best disclosures.”

The Dixie Group Reports

Commenting on the results, Daniel K. Frierson, chairman and chief executive officer, said, "The second quarter was one of strong performance both residentially and commercially. Dixie had a year-over-year sales improvement of 26% with sales growth in all areas of the business. Our sales growth in the residential business was 27% as compared to the same period a year ago. We believe the residential market grew during the quarter in the high single digits with the market strengthening as the quarter progressed. It appears that the residential carpet market is now being positively impacted by the increase in the housing sector that began in 2012. Sales for our commercial products increased 21% versus the second quarter of 2012. This increase was in comparison to the commercial market being up only slightly in our estimation.

"Our continued growth in excess of 20% in 2013 is a result of the investments we have made over the last several years in new products and sales coverage. The residential growth was a combination of strong results in our mass merchant area, continued growth of our Stainmaster(R) TruSoft(R) and SolarMax(R) products, strength in our wool business and momentum gained from the integration of the Gulistan products purchased late last year. The shift to softer products, as demonstrated by the growth of our Stainmaster(R) TruSoft(R) products, continued throughout the quarter. In addition, the success of our high performance Stainmaster(R) SolarMax(R) products has led us to expand manufacturing capacity to fulfill rising demand. Sales for all of our residential brands were up for the quarter and all retail channels are showing strength early in the third quarter. In the commercial market, we had growth in both our modular carpet tile and broadloom product categories. Our market strength in the store planning sector was of particular note during the high risk merchant account.

The response to our SPEAK modular carpet tile and FIT office remodel collections has been very favorable. These high performance products give us added breadth in our line and fulfill the need for high styled modular and broadloom carpet products in today's market. We implemented the planned expansion of both our residential and commercial sales forces in the first half of the year to give us more strategic focus in select markets. Avant Contract, our newest commercial brand, launched its first series of products during the quarter. The Avant Contract brand is primarily focused on the fastest growing commercial segment, the modular office market. The initial impressions of Avant's edgier use of patterns, textures and colors combined with the marketing campaign promoting local and regional Artisans is being well received by the Architectural and Design community. We expect Avant to positively impact our sales in 2014. Our continued investment in products, processes and people has positioned us to continue to outperform the industry at the high end of the marketplace.

"The quarter had a gross profit margin of 26.7% and an operating income of 3.9% of net sales. Our growth initiatives begun in 2012 resulted in increased operating utilization but also added expense as we responded quickly to the increased demand. The additional costs from our Roanoke yarn expansion, the Crown Rug and Colormaster continuous dye house integrations, and the higher sampling costs as we accelerated our investment in new products in 2013, negatively impacted our operating income by over $1 million during the quarter. Our tax rate was 27% for the period.

"Working capital increased by $8,851,000 during the quarter due to higher receivables and inventory to support our higher level of sales. Our inventory turns improved 11% versus the same period in the prior year. Capital leases and expenditures were $3,441,000, while depreciation and amortization was $2,559,000 for the period. We anticipate capital leases and expenditures to be $13,500,000 and depreciation and amortization to be $10,300,000 for the entire year of 2013. Total debt increased $7,873,000 during the quarter. Availability under our credit lines was $25.0 million at quarter end. Subsequent to quarter end, we amended and extended our senior credit facility to accommodate the growth in working capital as we continue to grow our sales. In addition, in early July we completed the acquisition of Robertex Associates, a maker of fine wool products.

"We are pleased to see residential industry growth in the second quarter as this signals to us that the recovery in the housing sector has finally impacted the carpet market. Despite potential macro-economic issues, we believe that conditions in the upper-end residential portion of our industry will continue to improve during 2013. The commercial market appears to be stable with the highest growth in the modular carpet tile segment. We continue our commitment to growing our market share with innovative products, refinement of our manufacturing processes and investment in our people," Frierson concluded.

After taking into account the $5.3 million, preferred interest in net income attributable to the offshore merchant account of the 24,655,554 outstanding Class B Convertible Preferred Units as of June 30, 2013, which were issued during the second quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013 (the "Class B Units" and the "Class B Unitholders"), the result for the quarter ended June 30, 2013, was $0.48 net income per limited partnership unit, which is $0.20 higher than the $0.28 net income per unit of the previous quarter ended March 31, 2013, and $0.49 higher than the $0.01 net loss per unit in the second quarter of 2012.

Operating surplus for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 was $56.6 million, which is $34.0 million higher than the $22.6 million from the first quarter of 2013, and $39.7 million higher than the $16.9 million of the second quarter of 2012. The operating surplus adjusted for the payment of distributions to the Class B Unitholders was $51.4 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2013. Operating surplus is a non-GAAP financial measure used by certain investors to measure the financial performance of the Partnership and other master limited partnerships. Please refer to the section "Appendix A" at the end of the press release, for a reconciliation of this non-GAAP measure to net income.

Revenues for the second quarter of 2013 were $41.8 million compared to $37.8 million in the second quarter of 2012.

Total expenses for the second quarter of 2013 were $30.8 million compared to $25.7 million in the second quarter of 2012 due to higher operating expenses incurred as a result of the higher number of vessels in our fleet. Vessel operating expenses for the second quarter of 2013 amounted to $13.4 million, compared to $11.2 million in the second quarter of 2012. The total expenses for the second quarter of 2013 also include $12.8 million in depreciation and amortization, compared to $12.0 million in the second quarter of 2012. General and administrative expenses for the second quarter of 2013 amounted to $3.4 million, which include a $1.6 million non-cash charge related to the Partnership's Omnibus Incentive Compensation Plans.

In the second quarter of 2013, we reported a gain of $32.0 million related to the sale to a third party of the Partnership's claims against OSG and certain of OSG's subsidiaries regarding the long term bareboat charters of three of the Partnership's product tanker vessels.

Excluding the gain of $32.0 million, total other expense net for the second quarter of 2013 amounted to $3.6 million compared to $8.8 million for the second quarter of 2012. The decrease in the interest expense and finance cost for the second quarter of 2013 reflects the expiration of all interest rate swaps and the reduction of the Partnership's total debt when compared to the second quarter of 2012.

This is an English translation of the SONA

That is why various government initiatives are in place to help free our fisherfolk from the broad net cast by poverty. An example would be our initiative for Bataraza in Palawan. The waters here brim with fish. But because the fish cannot be brought to the merchants on time, still fresh, the fishermen end up having to dry the fish and sell tuyo instead. It is such a waste, because every three kilos of lapu-lapu is only equivalent to one kilo of tuyo. What if the freshness of the fish could be preserved in a cold storage facility? You could go to the merchant and still sell your catch at full price. You would exert the same amount of effort, but you would receive the right compensation for it. That is why the cold storage facility in Bataraza has already been built. In addition, we are also constructing new piers in strategic areas to raise productivity and income. We are constructing and adding new roads, bridges, and other kinds of infrastructure, including various services, for our fisherfolk.

The DILG, BFAR, and Coast Guard are also tightly monitoring irresponsible and unrestrained forms of fishing; this I ask of our fishermen: allow our fish to repopulate. I ask for your solidarity in caring for your own livelihood. As you no doubt see, the state has already opened up opportunities for you, but the result is in your hands.

If there is one topic my name is often associated with, that would have to be Hacienda Luisita. I would like to inform you that back in February, in compliance with the decision of the Supreme Court, the Department of Agrarian Reform has completed the list of qualified beneficiaries for the land in Luisita. According to Secretary Gil de los Reyes, the process to determine the beneficiaries’ lots began last week, and the turnover of these lots will begin in September of this year.

As for other large tracts of land: We have long tasked the third party merchant account, DENR, LRA, and Land Bank to develop a framework for speeding up the parceling out of land. I would like to remind everyone: Correct data is the first step to the orderly implementation of CARPER. But we inherited a land records system that is problematic and defective. This is why, from the start, the DOJ, LRA, DENR, and DAR have worked to fix this system, and now we are at a point where we can guarantee that in the next year, all notices of coverage will have been served for lands covered by comprehensive agrarian reform.

It is clear: The state was established to serve you. If you have health problems, the government must care for you; in times of illness, it should be there to give aid and support. What has our government done in this regard?

Our goal to extend PhilHealth coverage to more of our countrymen has been achieved. When we began, 62 percent of Filipinos were enrolled; now, that number stands at 81 percent. The remaining number still not on our lists are those we are seeking to identify, including those in the informal settlers’ and indigenous people’s sectors. We are counting on the cooperation of our local governments to ensure that all of our countrymen are enrolled in the system.

It is not just PhilHealth’s roster of enrollees that is growing: so is its scope of services. The past year saw the launch of the Z Benefit Package. This past February, this was upgraded with the Expanded Z Benefit Package. The poorest of the poor can now get free medical care at public hospitals for more medical conditions than ever before. Last year, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and acute leukemia were included on the list of covered conditions; today, coronary bypass, and corrective surgery for holes and defective blood vessels in the heart, are also included in the package.

All these health benefits would go to waste if our health care facilities are substandard, or inaccessible to our countrymen in the provinces. This is why we have gone all-out in funding health care infrastructure projects: These past three years, we have budgeted a total of 33 billion pesos for the improvement and modernization of 4,518 hospitals, rural health units, and barangay health stations nationwide. Among these are Region 1 Medical Center in Dagupan City, which has successfully completed five kidney transplants in the last year; the Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital in Legazpi; the Vicente Sotto Medical Center in Cebu; and the Northern Mindanao Medical Center in Cagayan de Oro, which, according to Secretary Ike Ona of the DOH, now have the capacity to perform open heart surgery due to upgraded facilities and equipment. There is also the Davao Regional Hospital in Tagum City, the first cancer center outside Metro Manila.

Regarding disaster preparedness: Our goal to develop mechanisms to protect the Filipino people from natural calamities, we have also achieved. Among these are the effective services brought about by the joint forces of the Geohazard Mapping and Assessment Program and Project NOAH of the DOST. This past year, we completed a multihazard mapping of the 28 most vulnerable locations in the country. A similar endeavor for the Greater Metro Manila Area will be completed by 2014. Geohazard maps for 496 cities and municipalities have also been completed. The remaining 1,138 covering every last corner of the country will be finished before the end of 2015. Not only have these maps increased in number, they are also more detailed and refined, which is why we will be able to more accurately identify high-risk areas.
From the time Project NOAH was launched, a total of 525 automated water level monitoring stations and automated rain gauges have been installed in 18 major river basins throughout the country. We also continue to modernize our weather detection technology, with Doppler radars, tsunami detectors, and alerting sirens.

But simply distributing high-tech equipment and new technology is not enough. We also need to train the end-users of this equipment in understanding, using, and disseminating the information gained. When the weather is bad, they no longer rely solely on wind speed for their forecasts; they can also predict the volume of rainfall, and they can provide correct and timely warnings so our communities can prepare accordingly.

We are also remedying the problem of flooding in Metro Manila. Imagine: When Ondoy hit, an estimated 3,600 cubic meters per second of rainfall flowed down from the Sierra Madre. But the capacity of the channels through which these flowed can only support 1,000 cubic meters per second. Where would the difference of 2,600 cubic meters per second go? These are the sudden torrents of water that overflow into low-lying areas and become flash floods.

Haven’t we all heard before that “waterways are inalienable?” What this means is that the channels through which water passes should be for that purpose alone. The problem is, in addition to the lack of adequate drainage, certain structures are built, obstructing these drainage systems, a situation compounded by the trash of those living around it. To solve this problem, we are coordinating with our LGUs to safely and successfully relocate our informal settlers. In addition, a legal team led by Secretary Leila de Lima is preparing to file cases against those who have closed or obstructed our waterways.

We are not content with simply passing the blame and pointing fingers. Our action: an allocation of 6.2 billion pesos to prevent flooding throughout Metro Manila. This includes the construction of the Blumentritt Interceptor Catchment area. The entire project is 3.3 kilometers in length; and once it is completed, it will be able to catch the equivalent of 14 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water. When the rains hit, the rainwater now has somewhere to go, and will no longer accumulate on our streets. This project was started in March, and we aim to complete it by next year.
Government has been fulfilling its obligation to the people, but let us ask ourselves: How have I contributed to the solution? If someone dumps trash into a river, confront them; if you see a building being built above a creek, report it to the correct authorities. We will only drown in our problems if we do nothing.

Even after the storms have passed, our work to restore normalcy to the lives of calamity-struck families does not end. Through the cooperation of the government, and the private sector, 9,377 houses have been erected for the victims of typhoon Sendong. An additional 4,374 homes will be built before the end of the following year. We ask for patience and understanding, the process has been delayed because of the complex process of land acquisition; in truth, if discussions on other tracts of land go well, we will be able to construct an additional 2,719 houses.

We also aim to turn over a total of 53,106 homes to our countrymen who were left homeless by the onslaught of typhoon Pablo. We began to hand over houses in May; and we will complete another 17,609 homes by the end of the year. And by the time we finish the 35,447 homes still to be completed by 2014, all the families who felt nature’s wrath will once again find shelter under their own roofs.
Still on the subject of housing, this time for our men and women in uniform: More than a year ago, we had already built 21,800 housing units for our police force and soldiers. For Phase II of this project, we have already built an additional 26,050 homes out of our target of 31,200, and the rest will be completed by next month.

Apart from housing, livelihood projects are being implemented for the benefit of our troops. Several thousand hectares of land in three of our military camps—namely, Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, Camp Kibaritan in Bukidnon, and Camp Peralta in Capiz—will be the venues for these livelihood projects, which will give our soldiers additional income through plantations of bamboo, coffee, cacao, and palm oil. If before, soldiers were concerned solely with defending us, now, even military retirees can participate in improving our economy.

But our quest to find solutions to all the other problems we inherited regarding national defense does not stop here. Consider this: In 1986, there were an estimated 250,000 policemen and soldiers protecting a total of 55 million Filipinos. Today, we still have an estimated 250,000 policemen and soldiers, who protect 95 million Filipinos. Our population has almost doubled, while the number of our protectors has not changed.

We are sure to have critics who will say “Is this really a problem? Just add more policemen and soldiers. You can even reduce unemployment that way.” If only it were that simple. Let us look at the situation. The common pension scheme works like this: both members and employers contribute to the pension. Their contributions serve as capital for reinvestment, and the gains of these investments will in turn fund the retiring members’ pensions. But what is the true situation of the AFP and PNP pensions? No contributions have been made, but there are payments to make. Apart from this, the pensions of retirees have been indexed to the salaries of active personnel. This means that if the salaries of those in the service increase, so too will the pensions received by retirees or qualified families. Yearly, there are more and more men and women retiring, so, naturally, the obligations that must be paid out also increase. What is worse is that funds from the national budget are being used for these growing obligations: In 2012, 54.48 billion pesos were spent on soldiers’ and policemen’s pensions. This year, that figure will rise to 61.29 billion. By 2016, it will be at 80.64 billion. Our pension deficit will keep growing and growing and growing, eating into the budget allocation for other social services. How then do we add more servicemen, given such a context?

We need a system that fulfills our civic obligations to our policemen and armed forces; and it is likely that we will request the assistance of the GSIS in this regard. We are currently studying the feasibility of using reclaimed land to generate funds that will form part of the solution. After all, we cannot surprise the GSIS and ask them to account for the entirety of our needs, which is why an even more thorough study will be conducted to create a fair, sustainable, and clear mechanism for the pensions of PNP and AFP personnel. I call on Congress today: Let us review PD 1638 and RA 8551 to ensure that these pensions are timely, and balanced against national needs.

We see an equivalent solution for the problems that the SSS pensions will soon face. Consider that, since 1980, across-the-board pension increases occurred 21 times, but actual pension contribution increases only occurred twice. As a result, the SSS has accumulated an estimated 1.1 trillion pesos in unfunded liability. According to a study done in 2011, this shortfall will increase by 8 percent per annum, eventually resulting in the complete consumption of the fund 28 years from now. If this happens, the next generation is certain to suffer.

We believe that it is time to amend the SSS Pension Scheme. We must establish measures that remedy the outflow of funds. If we add 0.6 percent to the contribution rate, it will immediately deduct 141 billion pesos from the unfunded liability of the SSS. If we begin to invest in our future today, no further problems will be handed down to the next generation of Filipinos.

When it comes to our national police, our goal to strengthen their capabilities so that they may better fulfill their mandate: accomplished. Beginning this 2013, 30,000 policemen will finally be able go back to doing police work because we will be hiring civilian personnel who will focus on administrative work. After all, the skills and abilities of our police would be put to waste if we keep them imprisoned in the four corners of an office.

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Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak Becomes Consultant

Now in his early seventies, the often controversial but ever ebullient Ehud Barak has moved into another stage in his professional career, which in the last fifteen years has revealed from being Prime Minister of Israel to the world of international business and back to politics as defence minister in Binyamin Netanyahu’s second government. A post that he held from 2009 to 2013.

When Barak announced before the recent elections of Israel that he would be winding down his career in politics, the general feeling within the Israeli establishment that a return to the world of business was imminent.

Now this speculation has grown to be correct with Ehud Barak announcing that he has taken up the role of special consultant for the Israeli branch of the internationally known and respected Julius Baer private banking group.

One of Switzerland’s largest and longest-running banking groups , with an estimated cash management portfolio of around $300 billion and a client list that numbers among them the richest, the most famous and the most powerful people in the world from the fields of business, entertainment and sport . Now Baer has targeted Barak to be their top level account seeker in Israel, thanks to his unique connections that transfer both the world of business and politics as well as having extensive contacts in the global defence industry.

As many years involved in the country’s defence, often acting undercover when he was leader of the elite patrol group of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Barak is very well known for being to keep his cards very close to third party payment gateway.

Was born on Kibbutz Mishmar Hasharon in the centre of Israel, with his parents being Holocaust survivors. After an outstanding military, Barak made his first moves into politics, rising through a number of posts under the tutelage of the late Yitzhak Rabin to become Prime Minister, a post that he held from 1999 to 2001.

After losing the elections in 2001, he resigned from politics to enter the world of business, returning in 2008 to become eventual leader of the Labour Party, and eventually going full circle, returning to the role that he favored best, that of Defence Minister.

Even during his high-profile army career, Barak, famous for having one of the most analytical minds in Israel , found the time to study , graduating with a degree in physics and mathematics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem going on to study economics at Stanford University.

Barak hosted the distinction of being the joint most decorated soldier in Israeli history, having been awarded a Medal of Distinguished Service as well as four Chief of Staff citations for courage in the field and operational excellence.

The bank’s history goes back to the late 19th century when Julius Bar, joined up with the other partners to establish an exchange office in Zurich. Within a few years Bar’s partners decided that the world of banking was not for them, and Bar was left to soldier on on his own. A task which he succeeded in doing, building the bank up to become an international concern, through their mixture  of skills in wealth management and investment consultancy, as well as securities and foreign exchange trading.

The grandson of founder  Alfred J. B?r is known to be a particular supporter of Israel with a special affinity  for the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. In honor of his decades-long dedication to the Technion, where he established the  Marion and Alfred B?r Chair in Engineering.

In addition B?r played a very active  role in establishing  the Swiss Technion Society more than thirty years ago as well as serving as its president till 2009 , in gratitude, Mr. B?r was recently awarded a   philosophy degree from the Technion.

Credit cards have the most-robust fraud protections. Legally, a credit card holder is responsible for no more than $50 in unauthorized purchases, and you’ll have no liability if you report a lost or stolen card before a thief can use it. That said, American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa take full responsibility for unauthorized purchases. Plus, under the Fair Credit Billing Act, if you have a billing problem with a merchant, a credit card issuer must investigate and resolve your complaint, and you can withhold payment until then.

Debit cards tied to checking accounts are subject to a different set of rules. Report a missing debit card before unauthorized charges take place and you won’t lose any money. If you report loss or theft within two business days, you’re liable for up to $50. You could lose up to $500 if you report the problem after two days but before 60 days have passed, and you may have unlimited liability thereafter. Even so, many banks will refund any fraudulent charges if you report the problem promptly and the bank has no reason to think you’re falsely reporting fraud. Plus, Visa and MasterCard generally extend their zero-liability protections to signature transactions as opposed to punching in your PIN on debit cards with their logos.

Prepaid cards, in general, do not have federal consumer protection against unauthorized transactions, although payroll cards that employers use to disburse wages are subject to the debit card rules. Still, many prepaid card issuers will reimburse you for fraudulent activity as long as you report it quickly. Register your prepaid card to make sure you’re eligible for fraud protection, and look for a card that lists at least a couple months’ worth of your past transactions when you log into your account online. Regularly check your account for suspicious activity.

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Indian banks not yet ready to issue EMV standard cards

Credit/debit card skimming is one of the major concerns of the financial industry's and often results in forms of identity theft, credit card fraud or bank fraud. The magnetic stripe credit and debit cards store a user's financial data in static format. This data is vulnerable to be copied during offline transactions by skimming devices, which can be used to create a clone card and make unauthorized offline transactions.

Following a surge in credit card frauds in the country on the account of cards being lost/stolen, data being compromised and cards skimmed/counterfeited, the Reserve Bank of India issued a directive to Indian banks to move to the EMV standard by June 30 of this year.

The RBI guidelines doesn't say that all the customers debit/credit cards need to be replaced with the EMV standard cards, says B R Bhat, CIO, Corporation Bank. He adds that Corporation Bank will start issuing EMV cards only to customers who have done international transaction in past one to two years.

"We have issued 10 million debit/credit cards and all these can't be replaced at one go," Bhat says. "The cost of issuing a EMV card is five times higher than Master/Visa Card, which has to be borne by the banks." He adds that transferring money to a foreign country from India, doing e-commerce translation, does not constitute an international transaction. An international transaction is one if a debit/credit card has been used in a foreign market.

A Surendran, Head- Retail and International Banking, Federal Bank says that bank will initially, replace all the magstripe cards that have been used for international transaction with EVM chip based cards. Hereafter, new cards issued for international usage will also be chip based. If any customer prefers to upgrade from the magstripe card to EMV chip based cards, their requirement will be met. Replacing all magstipe cards with EMV chip cards will be examined based on the additional security and convenience features the cards will be providing to customers.

In order to benefit from EMV, and avoid skimming and fraud, the debit/credit cards need to be upgraded to an EMV chip card from the regular magnetic strip cards. At present, a majority of banks in India have already started issuing EMV chip cards to their third party payment gateway, says Hon Kuan Lee, regional director of Gemalto, a digital security company that helps banks in migrating to the EMV standard.

The success of the migration exercise is exemplified by the case of Malaysia, which fully converted to EMV chip ATM cards by end-2005. Card fraud was reduced by 85 per cent from $5.9 million in 2003 to $0.3m in that year alone.

Lee adds that the RBI has been working toward putting in place a system to make both credit card and debit card transactions safer. With its latest directive for banks and financial institutions to migrate to the EMV technology by June 30, 2013, RBI is pushing banks to implement safety measures and eliminate cases of fraud, thereby ensuring secure transactions.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is emerging as the infrastructure provider for the banking system. Its entry has enabled bank accountholders free usage of any ATM in the country. Its Rupay card promises to save the country foreign exchange paid out to multinational giants as service charges for card payments. It is also providing the technology backbone for direct cash transfer which will replace government subsidies. In an interview with TOI, NPCI MD & CEO A P Hota speaks of how the payment landscape will evolve.

Our main achievement is that we are "cardifying" customers of those banks who have never seen a card. Until Rupay came hardly 50-60 banks were issuing cards. Now the number of banks issuing cards is 106. We plan to reach out to 500 to 600 banks in a year for issuance of cards. Out of 58 rural banks, 50 have started issuing Rupay cards which can be used in any ATM or for retail payments and ecommerce.


Of the 9 lakh point of sales (POS) terminals, 2.10 lakh are active on Rupay. Three banks—HDFC Bank, ICICI Merchant Services and Axis Bank—account for 80% of POS terminals in the country. We are talking to all three. We expect that 90% of the terminals would be active by September-end. Among public sector banks, SBI is the largest and we have already activated 85,000 of their POS machines. In e-commerce, we have made a beginning by tying up two banks out of 17. We are targeting the remaining. There are about 12,000 merchants in online space and we are working to get them to accept Rupay. Merchants will have to make a small change of providing one more link to Rupay payments.

This 1.4 million number has been arrived at by calculating two terminals per village for each of the six lakh villages in the country and remaining two lakhs for the cities. The micro ATMs are similar to point of sales terminals with biometric authentication. Under the UIDAI scheme, banks would be reimbursed cost of the terminals to the extent of Rs 15,000 the moment they reach 2000 transactions. The financial support is linked with the volume of transactions. Nabard has said that it will provide Rs 25,000 per terminal if they are set up by rural banks. Regional rural banks (RRBs) are dependent on sponsor public sector banks. This gives an opportunity to PSU banks to leverage RRBs to reach out to rural areas for financial inclusion.

There seems to be some debate over whether cards should have chip-and-pin based authentication or Aadhaar-based biometric authentication?

It is not debate between Aadhaar and chip and pin. The market is very large and the potential of Aadhaar is in taking needs of another segment. If everyone has to move to cashless transaction in a secure mode that will need the coexistence of both. As against average cost of Rs 20 for a magnetic stripe card, the cost is around Rs 80 for a chip card. For financial inclusion, Aadhar is a better option because in villages maintaining the confidentiality of PIN is difficult as this would require a certain degree of understanding of the risk associated with it.

There have been a number of frauds in ATMs of late. As their network provider what are you doing to cut frauds?

We are asking banks to go in for fraud-risk mitigation (FRM) system. FRM system is a neural system that can identify suspect transactions. RBI has also recommended that banks should put in closed circuit cameras in all ATM locations. But because cloning has become so easy, sooner or later the country will have to migrate to a chip and pin or Aadhar based authentication.

There are over 5 crore accountholders registered for IMPS (instant mobile-based payment service). When will the usage take off?

If IMPS has to cover everybody it is possible only if usage goes beyond those with smartphones. It needs to cover Rs 1,000 handsets as well. For such handsets, the only option is SMS or USSD. But SMS is unsecure as the PIN is exposed so the best system is a server-based one. So USSD is the answer. But this requires partnership with telecom companies. The telcos want bank to pay charges on behalf of customers, but if banks do this tomorrow there may be a demand from customers that bank pay data charges for mobile and internet.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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 Tricks They Perform

Ladies and Gentlemen, if you’d be so very kind as to direct your attention this way while our lovely assistant straps herself into this sinister looking box, you’ll see we have nothing up either sleeve and perhaps you’d like to pick a card -- any card…? With Louis Leterrier’s magician heist movie “Now You See Me” opening in theaters this weekend, we’ve been thinking a bit about the long fascination that movies have had with magicians -- not Gandalfs or Harry Potters or Merlins, but the stage-bound theatrical type who are more showman than shaman. Since way, way back, when perhaps a proto-nickelodeon shared a stage with a strong man, a pair of Siamese twins and a conjurer, the two disciplines have had their ties -- both borne of a kind of lowest-common denominator desire for entertainment and escape. And while both have progressed to unimagined levels of sophistication since their humble beginnings, there’s still some level on which every movie is just a magic trick. The movies, after all, fool us every day into believing that 24 still photographs flashed up in quick succession constitute a moving image, and what is a master filmmaker if not someone who’s simply better at concealing the wires and levers that precariously suspend our disbelief?

Really though, it’s just fun to be fooled, and as many magician films deal in meta-commentary on the nature of filmmaking and deception, probably three times that number are just aiming to be a silly lark. Representing both camps, then, we’ve pulled from a top hat a string of ten knotted-together films featuring prestidigitators good and bad, mad and sane, in celebration of the art of misdirection, sleight of hand and illusion. Believe your eyes!

Widely regarded as “lesser Bergman,” “The Magician” may not contend in the weightiest way with the great Swede’s intellectual preoccupations, but it’s still a gloriously shot, enigmatic and enjoyable meditation on the nature of showmanship, and the science vs. supernatural debate. Starring Bergman regulars Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin and Bibi Andersson, the film’s tonal shifts from bawdy comedy to horror to talky think piece in which People stand for Ideas, would be more of an issue if it wasn’t all smoothed over by looking so crisply composed and amazing. As it is, the tale of a traveling magician and his troupe getting waylaid and investigated by police and medical authorities is light enough to be a pleasant watch that can be filed away again after, but has plenty of thought-provoking undercurrents if you care to tease them out.

Directed by Arthur Penn, yes, the Arthur Penn who directed “Bonnie & Clyde” (even the mighty fall at the end of their career), this satirical 1989 black comedy was a favorite of ours in our youth (or for a least the older Playlist members who saw it), but holy shit has it aged poorly and.... maybe was terrible to begin with? Starring magicians Penn & Teller (you might first remember them from the Run DMC video, “It’s Tricky”), the paper-thin premise begins with the two illusionists -- who are constantly playing elaborate, borderline brutal jokes on each other -- on national television and Penn declaring that he wishes someone would try and kill him. It’s part of a dumb gag where the always-silent, mime-like Teller slits his throat, but after the show is over and their pranks on each other begin to escalate into irresponsible territory, they soon discover that the public has taken their wish seriously and is actually trying to kill them.

But half the time, these would-be attacks are just pranks from one another so it’s difficult to tell what danger is a reality and what is a gag (cult favorite David Patrick Kelly plays a sociopath out to get them). Somewhat creepy and disturbing as the hi-jinks continue to worsen, the film ends in tragedy with the Bee Gees’ ascending “I Started A Joke” playing to thick and dripping irony (as if they heard the song and then built the whole premise around the movie). Painfully dated, with groan-worthy humor arriving at every moment, the movie is even worse in that while based on a buddy dynamic, Teller can’t speak, so the insufferably loud-mouthed and obnoxious Penn takes over most of the movie (and Teller is no Chaplin). If "Penn & Teller Get Killed" is still appreciated, it must be by die-hards only. Just remember if this does spur you to revisit the film (YouTube only, not available on DVD with good reason), you can’t ever get that tedious 89 minutes of your life back.

With Touchstone Pictures showing admirable restraint in not marketing this as Batman vs. Wolverine, this offering from Christopher Nolan is actually a perfect example of his oeuvre: popular films with a pensive streak running amidst all the action. “The Prestige” offered the director a break between “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight,” and it’s a smaller film in size and scale, but no less ambitious. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman star as Alfred Borden and Robert Angier, two dueling magicians in 19th century London whose rivalry extends beyond the stage to cause devastation in their personal lives. “The Prestige” is a complex, plot-and-character-driven film that improves upon the Christopher Priest novel it was based on, thanks to a strong adaptation from Nolan and his brother Jonathan, typically gorgeous cinematography from Wally Pfister and as a solid cast. As if the leads weren’t enough, Bale and Jackman are joined by Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Andy Serkis and – in a bit of genius casting as inventor Nikola Tesla – David Bowie. We also love the inclusion of real-life magician and actor Ricky Jay in the film’s early scenes. The psychological drama gets better with multiple viewings after its major illusions are revealed in the final act.

What's The Act? Borden and Angier one up each other throughout the film, but their signature acts are The Transported Man and The New Transported Man, respectively. We'll risk getting blacklisted by the Magician's Alliance – and *SPOILER* haters – to reveal how the two illusions work: Borden's Transported Man makes the magician appear to be going in one door and stepping out of another across the length of a stage, which is wow-inducing until you realize that it's Borden's twin walking out of the second door. The New Transported Man involves a Tesla-created contraption that actually does transport Angier – or a spontaneously created version of himself – across the theater. The original Angier drops below the stage to drown, while his newly-made counterpart takes a bow and basks in the applause.Read the full story at www.airdow.com!

Schulze hoping for Big Break

The 1996 Northern Lebanon graduate applied for and was awarded a spot on the Golf Channel's TV reality competition series "Big Break Mexico," which consists of six men and six women competing as three mixed-gender teams for a spot in a tournament on the PGA or LPGA Tour in Mexico in November. On the 11-episode weekly show that is aired Mondays at 9 p.m., the players earn points for their team by winning golf-based challenges, eventually eliminating players until there is just one person left standing.

Schulze, who now lives in Cockeysville, Md., where he was a PGA apprentice, applied monthly for over a year for a spot on the show, and he finally got the call to come to Florida at the end of October to meet with the show's producers.

"It was an idea I had," he said. "I couldn't let go of the idea. I knew I could at least get an interview."

Twice he received an offer to interview for the show. The first time, he was only given one day to travel to Arizona, and that didn't fit his schedule. The second time he was allowed a month to plan his trip to Florida.

 "They wanted somebody who's a little flamboyant," said Schulze, who went on to play golf at Division I American University in D.C. for one year after high school before settling in at Millersville University where he is a member of the school's Hall of Fame.

Taping for the show in Riviera Maya, Mexico, was done from the end of January through the middle of Ventilation system. But what transpired in terms of the show during those two and a half weeks south of the border can not be revealed by Schulze.

 On the first episode, each member of the team had to break a pane of glass from about 30 yards away that sat roughly six feet off the ground. The first person in the group to break the glass earned three points for their team, the second received two and the one who didn't got one.

After all four players tried at the shot, the team with the highest point total earned immunity for the rest of the day. The two remaining teams then competed in a separate competition called an advanced challenge - in episode 2 they played a game of blackjack on the course where the players had to hit their shots onto areas marked with playing card designations trying to earn as close to 21 without busting - in an effort to give their team half of a stroke.

 Then in the third and final competition of the day, the same two teams again go head-to-head. In one episode, two members from each team played in an alternate-shot three-hole match, with the members being picked by the opposing team.

With one team having a half-stroke advantage going into the third event, the team with the lowest combined score of the alternate-shot competition avoids getting a strike for their team.

In the second show, Schulze's team won the immunity challenge in the morning and they were done for the day. It could make for a short day, but if you end up playing all day, it also means plenty of intense shot-making.

"There could be days where I only take one swing," Schulze said. "Even Lorena Ochoa (guest star of the show and LPGA star) said it's the most stressful thing she's ever done."

Schulze, who at age 34 is one of the older golfers on the show, has emerged as a bit of a character in the first three episodes. He is shown talking to himself during his shots, and when he makes a clutch putt, he'll pull out his "happy dance."

The players on the show have resumes similar to Schulze's. For instance, his teammates are Jay Woodson, who has been competing on mini-tours for the past nine years; Liebelei Lawrence, who is from Luxembourg and has competed on the Ladies European Tour in 2011 and 2012; and Taylor Collins, who is in her second season playing on the minor-league Symetra Tour.

Diane Abbott MP asked during a Commons speech last year about black and ethnic minority achievement: "Why do black children fail?" The answer, she said, "is partly to do with poverty in an absolute sense, although all the research shows … black children systematically do less well than children of other ethnicities. There is no question but that poverty is an issue. Nowadays there is also increasing peer-group pressure." Such peer pressure was a factor in this case. Earlier that day, the boy told me, he had two choices - go to boxing training or go on the rob with his friend as he had done before. He chose the latter.

Peer pressure isn't the whole story. Abbott spoke of black boys "who throughout their education have engaged only with women and have never seen a man as an educational role model. More male teachers are important." He told me he hadn't done well at school, couldn't concentrate – again hardly a surprise. Abbott said: "If we abandon a cross-section of the community in our inner cities, they have a way of bringing themselves back into the political narrative – a way that is not good for them or for society." That, maybe, is what happened one dismal evening on the Hornsey Road.

The victim liaison officer asked how I felt after the theft. Wary, I said, careful not to use my phone in a dodgy neighbourhood (such as, it turns out, the one in which I live). "You shouldn't have to think like that," said the boy, shaking his head. "You should feel OK using an expensive phone in the street." But thanks to him I'm not. It was about the only time during the interview where I got cross. I think he was disappointed that I wasn't more angry during our hour together. If so, good – I didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

Rather, I wanted to give him something worse, crueller even – pity. He suffered much more than me, I said repeatedly. I showed him my daughter's drawing as if to stress how loving and solid a family I have. A low blow. He told me about his family – how furious his mother had been, that his dad was so angry he wouldn't visit him in jail, how his nan was ashamed of him. He told his nephew that the thing he has around his leg is a hi-tech watch – just so he doesn't learn his uncle's a tagged criminal. I felt sorry for his mum, who couldn't come to the meeting, for his dad, who wouldn't, and – a little – for their son.

The order bans him from going inside the M25 for six months. It means he can't see his mother, unless accompanied by his case worker. He now lives with his dad in Kent.

At court, he readily accepted the terms of the order rather than go back to Feltham Young Offenders' Institution, where he'd already spent a month, to serve an 18-month sentence. In Feltham, he said, he was OK because he knew gang members who could protect him. But their protection was a double-edged sword – it meant he would still associate with people who might lure him back into committing crimes. The order, then, gives him a chance to remake his life in a way that jail may not have. He's away from gangs, away, perhaps, from greater risks of recidivism. He attends boxing training and in September goes to college to train as plumber or mechanic.

As the case worker drove him back to his dad's house to fulfil his curfew, I returned to the city from which he is banned, thinking about this boy, both victim and perpetrator of the crime. He said he would write to me and when he does, I hope he'll tell me he's doing something worthwhile with his life, because it doesn't do either of us any good for him to remain what he is to me now, an object of pity.

From now, it's going to be speed

Many e-commerce websites in India are grappling with precisely this question two years after Flipkart offered that game-changing option to its buyers. Now, CoD is like a hygiene factor in the business. You either do it or you are not there at all.

Consider the stakes. Global e-commerce sales for 2013 are expected to rise 19.4 per cent over 2012 to $963 billion, according to eMarketer. Consumers will be purchasing everything from Rs 200 shampoo bottles to Rs 5,000 handbags - maybe even Rs 80 lakh homes - online. And the speed of ordering and delivery is what is going to move consumer decision. Yes, whether you can reach that shiny new package at the customer's doorstep within, say, 24 hours.

Amazon (Amazon Prime), eBay (eBay Now) and a few other retailers already offer same-day delivery for certain categories of products, and in some parts of the US. Google joined the gang earlier this year with its Google Shopping Express, which initially provided same-day delivery of food and grocery products bought online by consumers in San Francisco and suburbs located south of the city. Online reports suggest Google is already planning to expand into neighbourhoods it had left out in the first round. The company says the delivery service has been doing well enough and the kinks have been worked out for it to consider expanding "a little more". Besides local merchants, even big retailers such as Target and Walgreens are said to be enlisted in Google's delivery service.

Of course, for Google the imperative was quite different from the others. At the time of launch, it said, the delivery service is part of the internet search leader's effort to increase people's reliance on the internet, so it will have more opportunities to show online ads, which generate most of its revenue. But for the other retailers, the speed of delivery will likely be the make or break factor. Just look at the kind of things they are working on to show how serious they are. eBay Now has just introduced an iPhone app that allows for orders to be placed and delivered in an hour for a flat $5 fee. Of course, it is doing this on a small scale and working with a select set of suppliers. But it is obvious that from now, the differentiator may not necessarily be the product or the service on offer, or even the discount that you promise, but the speed at which you can execute that order.

I don't know if any of the Indian e-commerce companies are working on something like what an Amazon or an eBay is doing; most likely they are - they have shown remarkable agility in picking up signals from the Air purifier, identifying the open spaces and moving in quickly.

Take CoD. For e-commerce players like Flipkart, CoD was a leap of faith - literally as well as figuratively. India is primarily a cash-driven economy - plastic card penetration is extremely low in India (less than one per cent). So if these companies wanted to initiate customers to the convenience of e-buying, they had to do it. Most importantly, because customers wanted it. It really didn't matter if the customer is using CoD because he\she mistrusts e-commerce start-ups, or whether he\she mistrusts online transactions per se, or he\she just doesn't have the cards. The bottom line is there is customer behaviour that you can influence, and behaviour that you cannot. So as a business, e-commerce firms had to adapt to it sustainably, if only to help customers shop in the easiest possible fashion.

And then, every player in the business cottoned on to the idea. As a next step, many e-commerce companies began experimenting with a free return policy. Having a solid return policy inspires confidence in buyers and shows the e-commerce firm is committed to customer service. The thinking is that even if a customer is unhappy with the product you've sent him\her in that nicely-branded box, handling the return professionally will ensure his\her continued patronage.

While consumers are sure to love this development - the accent on speed - real threat, again, will be the corner store. See, it has done this all along - that is, reach all that you have ordered on the phone the same day itself and accepted the payment after delivery. In fact, one argument that you will hear during any argument on traditional versus internet commerce is that your friendly neighbourhood store will give you credit, that is, you can pay off at the end/beginning of the month; something you don't get when you buy online. Plus, this speed will come at a price - eBay's Now, for instance, attracts a $5 premium.