Teburu, a newly launched tablet-based online and mobile ordering system for restaurants, is now live with a handful of restaurant chains in the Southern U.S, including?Gondolier Pizza, Pita's Republic, and Little Greek?Restaurant, and it has also recently signed a contract with a large, undisclosed Middle Eastern restaurant management company with 600 locations.
Apparently Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) didn?t listen when Wolverine told them to, ?Go fuck yourself,? because Hugh Jackman is reportedly in negotiations to reprise his role in the sequel, X-Men: Days of Future Past. A brief, but fan-favorite moment in Matthew Vaughn?s X-Men: First Class, the gruff response from Logan when asked to join the X-Men was spot-on for his character and delivered by the face of the franchise in Jackman. With the director of two of the original films, Bryan Singer, now directing the sequel, it?s even more likely that we?ll get to see another classic moment. Hit the jump for more.?
Heat Vision reported that Jackman was in talks to reprise his role for a cameo in?X-Men: Days of Future Past.?He would join other?X-Men?stars, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, as we reported earlier. The?First Class?sequel not only occurs before the events of the original?X-Men?trilogy, its source material also includes two alternate timelines, which makes it feasible for the casts of both series to appear in the same film. In Chris Claremont?s?Days of Future Past?arc, an alternate future saw surviving mutants held in concentration camps while giant robot Sentinels patrolled the land; ?most of the X-Men had been killed. It fell upon heroes of a prior timeline to stop a key event from happening that would lead to the alternate future. How the two versions of Professor X and Magneto are going to be used in the film remains to be seen.
It?s also unclear at this time just how much screentime Jackman would see. With him wrapping on?Wolverine?(which focuses quite a bit on the hero?s struggle with immortality), he could do press for his upcoming film, Les Miserables, and still be in fighting shape by the time cameras start rolling on the sequel early next year. Whether he?ll have a ten-second cameo or a more integral role in the film, we?ll just have to wait and see.
So, for those of you who are keeping score,?X-Men: Days of Future Past?is set to star Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult?and Hugh Jackman. Crazy.
X-Men: Days of Future Past is set to open July 18, 2014.
Ed Rodriguez, the father of two school-aged kids in Otisville, N.Y., had high hopes of? winning the $580 million Powerball jackpot last night. Either way, he figured at least some of?the money went to a good cause.
"Some of it goes to education," he said after buying a ticket Wednesday at a Citgo station on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey. With many school budgets in his area facing tight budgets, "it helps a lot."
He'd be disappointed on both counts. He didn't win the largest Powerball drawing in history, which went to ticket holders in Arizona and Missouri. And the money doesn't do as much good for education?as he thinks.
About 72 cents of every state lottery dollar goes somewhere else. About 60 cents goes to the winner. Some goes to run the lottery. A piece of it goes to a private, Italian-based conglomerate that operates lotteries and slot machines in 50 countries around the world.
Depending on what state you live in, that leaves as little as 11 cents left to pay for the government services these games were created to help.
Critics argue that, aside from being an inefficient way to raise money, paying for government services with lottery sales?also?shifts a larger portion of?the overall tax burden to those who can least afford it.
?It?s a very regressive tax," said Lucy Dadayan, a senior policy analyst at the Rockefeller Institute of Government. ?And any time a government relies on a regressive tax it's not the best policy option.?But it?s easier for state officials to promote gambling rather than to increase income taxes or sales taxes.?
State-run lotteries have been around since the U.S. was founded, but the modern era of government games dates to the 1960s. Since then, they?ve spread to 44 states, which took in nearly $69 billion in sales in the 2012 fiscal year.
After paying the winners and covering?operating expenses, the roughly $19 billion in remaining?proceeds went to fund a long list of state and local programs and services, from education to social services,?according to ?David Gale, ?Executive Director, North American Association of State and Provincial?Lotteries.
?If lotteries were not in existence those programs and services would be cut or they would have to be funded through another source,? he said.
The bulk of the money collected from tickets ? about 60 cents of every dollar on average - goes back to the winners, said Gale. After expenses ? everything from advertising, fees paid to vendors selling tickets and salaries for lottery commission staff - ?the amount left over varies widely from state to state.
In Rhode Island, just 11 cents in net profits was returned to the 2012 state budget to support a variety of programs, from education to social services. Oregon?s lottery, the most profitable in the country, generated 50 cents in profits for each?dollar of ticket sales last year to help pay for education, economic development and natural resource programs.
Profits can vary for a number of reasons, said Pierce. Some states use some of the revenues to pay for gambling addiction counseling programs. Some states have?laws governing how much money can be spent on advertising.
To try to boost the take, a handful of states are considering turning over their lottery operations to private companies, like GTECH, which already provides a variety of services ? from computer systems to retail terminals ? to about half the states. ?Illinois and Indiana have signed on and New Jersey officials are considering the move, according to Robert Vincent, a company spokesman
"They?re saying, 'We think we can make more money for good causes if we put this in the hands of a private manager,'" he said. ?We think we can drive more sales over the course of the contract.?
With revenues of more than $1 billion last year, GTECH is owned by Lottomatica Group, an Italian-based global gaming giant with 8,000 employees in more than 50 countries worldwide. Vincent said many state-run lotteries simply have don?t have the expertise to maximize their profits and boost tickets sales.
?You?re competing with Altoids,? he said. ?You?re on the counter of a convenience store and it's an impulse purchase whether you?re going to buy a lottery ticket or buy something else that?s there competing for your attention. That?s a very different environment than other government agencies that are there to protect, collect and manage infrastructure.?
States' hard-pressed tight budgets can use all the tickets sales they can get, which has increased pressure on lottery commissions to raise more money.?
But critics of the reliance on lotteries to fund government argue that it shifts the funding burden unfairly onto the poor and working class.
The link between lottery sales and low-income purchasers has been fairly well established. In 2004, three Cornell economists reviewed 10 years of data from 39 states and found a strong correlation between lottery sales and poverty rates.
?State o?cials laud the bene?ts of lottery proceeds and promote the fun and excitement of participation,? the researchers wrote. ?This entertainment value is one explanation for lottery demand by the poor: individuals with lower incomes substitute lottery play for other entertainment.?
By contrast, the researchers found little correlation between poverty rates and sales of movie tickets.
In some cases, lottery revenues have been used to cut income and sales taxes, further shifiting the burden of paying for state services to the poor, according to Patrick?Pierce, a political scientist and author of "Gambling Politics: State Government and the Business of Betting."
Pierce found that in the early stages of initiating a lottery, spending on services like education went up for a few years, but then began to level off as the new lottery winnings eventually replaced taxes collected as general revenue.
?Governors could then take the political credit for no tax increases or tax cuts while they were governors,? he said. ?The only reason they were able to do it was because of the lottery. They didn?t make state government more efficient. They didn?t do anything other than benefit from this voluntary tax that state residents were paying.?
State officials have found another reason to rely more heavily on lottery revenues. While revenues from sales and income are slowly recovering from the 2007 recession and weak recovery, profits from state lotteries have bounced back sharply ? up 37 percent in the past two years.
Despite high unemployment and little or no wage growth, lottery ticket buyers are durable customers.
?When their situation becomes more desperate because of the economy, you get some folks playing the lottery precisely because their situation is more desperate,? said Pierce. ?And this is the only route they see to escaping the situation that they?re in.?
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2013 Ford Indianapolis, IN 2013 Ford Greenwood, IN 2013 Ford Plainfield, IN
This isn't the first time we've seen the Jaguar F-Type-- the two seat ragtop first debuted at the Paris Motor Show. But the open air sports car sure makes more sense to us here in sunny Southern California. The front engine/rear drive F-Type will be priced at $69,000 for the V6 variant, $81,000 for the higher spec S version, and $92,000 for the 5 liter supercharged V8 S model, which scoots to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds. Maybe we're biased, but we're having an easier time visualizing this spunky ragtop cruising Sunset Boulevard than we are imagining it traipsing across the Champs-?lys?es.
QUITO (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is suffering from a chronic lung ailment that could worsen at any time and is being checked regularly by doctors, the Andean country's ambassador to Britain said on Wednesday.
Assange, 41, whose website angered the United States by releasing thousands of secret diplomatic cables, has been holed up inside Ecuador's embassy in London since June to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations. Assange has denied any wrongdoing.
"He has a chronic lung complaint that could get worse any time. The Ecuadorean state is covering Mr Assange's medical costs and we have arranged for regular doctor visits to check on his health," Ambassador Ana Alban told a local TV network during a visit to Quito.
British authorities say Assange will be arrested if he sets foot outside the embassy. The building, located just behind London's famed Harrods department store, is under constant police surveillance.
Ecuador said last month it is worried about Assange's health and asked Britain to guarantee him safe passage to hospital from the embassy if he needs medical treatment.
That would allow him to return to the embassy after treatment with refugee status.
Assange took refuge in the embassy after running out of legal options to avoid being sent to Sweden. Ecuador granted him asylum in August and said it shared his fears that he could be sent from Sweden to the United States to face charges over WikiLeaks' activities.
U.S. and European government sources say the United States has issued no criminal charges against him, nor launched any attempts to extradite Assange.
Assange is said to be living a cramped life inside the modest diplomatic mission. He eats mostly take-out food and uses a treadmill to burn off energy and a vitamin D lamp to make up for the lack of sunlight.
On Tuesday, the Australian former computer hacker accused "hard-right" U.S. politicians of pressing European credit card firms to block more than $50 million (31.2 million pounds) in donations to WikiLeaks, and said that had forced the website to reduce the volume of documents it posted online.
Speaking to reporters in the embassy's gilt-corniced conference room, Assange said his stay there had been "difficult in many ways" and that any resolution of the standoff would be "a matter of diplomacy."
He refused to comment on his health or how long he may have to stay in the embassy, declaring those subjects "off-topic."
In late August, Assange said he expected to wait six months to a year for a deal that would allow him to leave the embassy.
Cast member Martin Freeman, left, embraces director Peter Jackson at the premiere of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," at the Embassy Theatre, in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/SNPA, Ross Setford) NEW ZEALAND OUT
Cast member Martin Freeman, left, embraces director Peter Jackson at the premiere of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," at the Embassy Theatre, in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/SNPA, Ross Setford) NEW ZEALAND OUT
Cast member Andy Serkis, left, and his wife Loraine Ashbourne pose on the red carpet at the premiere of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," at the Embassy Theatre, in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/SNPA, Ross Setford) NEW ZEALAND OUT
Cast members Barry Humphries, left, who plays Great Goblin, his wife Lizzie Spender, center, and Sylvester McCoy who plays Radagast, on the red carpet at the premiere of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," at the Embassy Theatre, in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/SNPA, Ross Setford) NEW ZEALAND OUT
Cast members James Nesbitt who plays Bofur, left, and Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly pose on the red carpet at the premiere of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," at the Embassy Theatre, in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/SNPA, Ross Setford) NEW ZEALAND OUT
Elijah Wood who plays Frodo poses on his arrival for the premiere of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," at Embassy Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/SNPA, Ross Setford) NEW ZEALAND OUT
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) ? Wearing elf ears and wizard hats, sitting atop their dad's shoulders or peering from balconies, tens of thousands of New Zealanders watched their favorite "Hobbit" actors walk the red carpet at the film trilogy's hometown premiere.
An Air New Zealand plane freshly painted with "Hobbit" characters flew low over Wellington's Embassy Theatre, eliciting roars of approval from the crowd.
Sam Rashidmardani, 12, said he came to see Gollum actor Andy Serkis walk the red carpet ? and he wasn't disappointed.
"It was amazing," Rashidmardani said of the evening, adding his Gollum impression: "My precious."
British actor Martin Freeman, who brings comedic timing to the lead role of Bilbo Baggins, said he thought director Peter Jackson had done a fantastic job on "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey."
"He's done it again," Freeman said in an interview on the red carpet Wednesday. "If it's possible, it's probably even better than 'The Lord of the Rings.' I think he's surpassed it."
While it is unusual for a city so far from Hollywood to host the premiere of a hoped-for blockbuster, Jackson's filming of his lauded 'LOTR' trilogy and now "The Hobbit" in New Zealand has helped create a film industry here. The film will open in theaters around the world next month.
One of the talking points of the film is the choice by Jackson to shoot it using 48 frames per second instead of the traditional 24 in hopes of improving the picture quality.
Some say the images come out too clear and look so realistic that they take away from the magic of the film medium. Jackson likens it to advancing from vinyl records to CDs.
"I really think 48 frames is pretty terrific and I'm looking forward to seeing the reaction," Jackson said on the red carpet. "It's been talked about for so long, but finally the film is being released and people can decide for themselves."
Jackson said it was strange working on the project so intimately for two years and then having it suddenly taken away as the world got to see the movie.
"It spins your head a little bit," he said.
Aidan Turner, who plays the dwarf Kili in the movie, said his character is reckless and thinks he's charming.
"I don't get to play real people it seems, I only get to play supernatural ones," he said. "So playing a dwarf didn't seem that weird, actually.
Perhaps the most well-known celebrities to walk the carpet were Cate Blanchett and Elijah Wood, who reprise their roles in the LOTR in the "Hobbit."
"Mostly I came here to see everyone. I like them all," said fan Aysu Shahin, 16, adding that Wood was her favorite. She said she wanted to see the movie "as soon as possible. I'm excited for it."
At a news conference earlier in the day, Jackson said many younger people are happy to watch movies on their iPads.
"We just have to make the cinema-going experience more magical and more spectacular to get people coming back to the movies again," he said.
Jackson said only about 1,000 of the 25,000 theaters that will show the film worldwide are equipped to show 48 frames, so most people will see it in the more traditional format. The movie has also been shot in 3D.
A handful of animal rights protesters held signs at the premiere.
The protest by the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals comes after several animal wranglers said three horses and up to two dozen other animals had died during the making of the movies because they were housed at an unsafe farm.
Jackson's spokesman earlier acknowledged two horses had died preventable deaths at the farms but said the production company worked quickly to improve stables and other facilities and that claims of mistreatment were unfounded.
"No mistreatment, no abuse. Absolutely none," Jackson said at the news conference.
No, i didnt get the idea from the Nickleback song....but it does kinda fit....
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This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?--Saving Me--?. Anything posted here will also show up there.
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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup. This is where i would like all of my cursed to explain in full and plain language what your curse is specifically and how it affects you and the people around you.
I am going to use medusa for an example.
"I was cursed for my vainity, for my beauty, and it was taken away. Now i cannot look in the mirror, and i cannot look at others for fear of turning them to stone due to my curse."
(Its short because its pretty self explanatory)
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A nudist outside San Francisco's city hall, protesting passage of the anti-nudity ordinance.
Photo by Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images
Ever since gay marriage became a plausible idea, opponents have predicted it would unravel society. There?d be runaway polygamy, bestiality, and public nudity. In 2008, as Californians debated a gay-marriage ballot measure, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality said it was ?no coincidence that the man who took it upon himself four years ago to illegally and radically redefine marriage,? then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, was promoting an event featuring ?rampant public nudity.? This year, the Family Policy Institute of Washington warned that Referendum 74, which proposed to legalizing same-sex marriage in Washington state, would ?make marriage genderless? and lead to men using women?s locker rooms. The National Organization for Marriage, capitalizing on a nudist?s stunt, ran the headline: ?The ?Naked Cowboy? Comes Out for Gay Marriage.? The Iowa Republican depicted same-sex marriage as a gateway to nudity, incest, and necrophilia.
The predictions haven?t panned out. Instead, gays have drawn a line. While voters in Washington and three other states endorsed same-sex marriage this month, residents of San Francisco?s Castro district, possibly the most gay-friendly place on Earth, persuaded the city?s board of supervisors to pass an ordinance restricting public nudity. The rise of same-sex households isn?t making society queer. It?s making gay people bourgeois.
San Francisco is famous for tolerating nudity. Men in chaps, jockstraps, and sometimes less stroll around at annual festivals such as the Gay Pride Parade, the Folsom Street Fair, and the Bay-to-Breakers street run. But what used to be a confined, occasional indulgence has become a chronic nuisance. Certain men, known as ?the naked guys,? walk the streets and hang out daily a busy Castro intersection, offending bystanders. It?s exactly what critics of same-sex marriage predicted.
What happened next, however, didn?t fit the prediction. The offended bystanders?most notably, gay men?asked the district?s representative, Supervisor Scott Wiener, to stop the naked guys. Last week, Wiener persuaded his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors to pass an ordinance making it illegal for anyone to "expose his or her genitals, perineum or anal region on any public street, sidewalk, street median, parklet or plaza.?
The proposed ban outraged nudists and libertarians. Many of them showed up at the board?s Nov. 5 and Nov. 20 meetings to charge Wiener with attacking free expression and trying to ?Peoria-ize San Francisco.? They borrowed the rhetoric of the gay marriage movement, preaching ?freedom,? ?diversity,? ?acceptance,? and ?civil rights.? They accused the ban?s proponents of ?hate,? ?bigotry,? ?shame,? ?intolerance,? ?fascism,? ?dehumanization,? and ?a war on gay men.? They said making people wear clothes was like making women wear burqas. They compared opponents of nudity to segregationists and Nazis.
Opponents of same-sex marriage have heard this language before. But this time, the libertarians weren?t up against the Christian right. They were up against the gay mainstream.
If you want to know what the gay mainstream looks like, watch the hearings, which the board of supervisors has posted online. You?ll see old men and middle-aged moms, gentlemen in suits and dudes in T-shirts, stepping to the microphone to say enough is enough. There?s the well-appointed yuppie who says he and his partner just want ?our neighborhood back.? The representative from the local merchants association who says 17 of 20 nearby businesses, many of them gay-owned, have reported that the naked guys are hurting sales. The hairdresser outraged at the outdoor ?nudist living room? that?s alienating his clients who ?complain to me when they come into the salon. They are offended by the visual display, and some are hesitant to return.?
The speakers don?t say whether they?re straight or gay. What they share is a sense of decorum. A former art student says that while he loves nude beaches, what?s going on in the Castro ?is a sexualized version of nudity that also sexualizes the bystander without consent.? A neatly ?groomed man in a dress jacket argues, ?If nudists want to live their lives, the Bay Area Naturists have a marvelous organization with venues and events. I don?t think my backyard is where I want to see you. This is not about expressing yourself. This is about misbehavior.? A foppish man with a fanny pack says the Castro nudists? ?genital decoration? signals a ?further escalation to standards being yielded.? He concludes tartly: ?Let?s keep nudity to those private occasions where nakedness receives its true reward.?
There?s a lot of talk about kids. The president of a neighbors association says, ?As a gay woman, I have a partner. We have grandchildren. And we do not like seeing the naked guys.? A middle-aged man in a dress shirt pleads, ?I would like to have the freedom to take my two nieces that visit me from Texas to an animated film at the Castro and not have them come out of the theater and be exposed to naked men. I think we should have the right to introduce nudity to our children when we decide to [do] so.? Another woman testifies:
I am a lesbian, I am a mother, and I am a volunteer leader in a girl?s leadership organization. I drive my children to school through the Castro several times a week. On those drives, the children have seen naked men on the sidewalk several times from the car. It has been upsetting and confusing to them. ? As a mother, it is my job to teach them the value of boundaries. ? If my child sees this as normal on the street, it puts her at risk for not knowing what is safe behavior from herself and especially from others. ? People who expose themselves in public in non-designated events are committing a form of nonconsensual sexual behavior ? The Castro is my neighborhood, it is my family?s neighborhood, it is home to community, and I want it to feel safe and comfortable for my daughter and our friends and family.
These voices weren?t a majority of the speakers who came to testify. Nudists, after all, are less shy about standing in front of a crowd (and yes, some took off their clothes). But according to Wiener, the naked guys are the number one problem he hears about from constituents?exceeding homelessness and transportation?and the people who complain most frequently are homosexual men. If you read the gay press and comments from longtime activists, you?ll see similar expressions of support for the ordinance. It hasn?t become law yet, and none of the witnesses who testified for it have legal recognition from the state for their same-sex marriages. But these people are the future of gay America. For them, being a husband, mom, uncle, or resident isn?t about tearing down the community. It?s about protecting it.
William Saletan's latest short takes on the news, via Twitter:
To understand why the?retail?sector will continue to be such an investment minefield consider just two phrases: Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The latter, the mock tradition of buying stuff online when the boss isn't watching on the Monday after Thanksgiving, is emblematic of the forces challenging a?retail?industry much of which was built for a US-centred cars, parking lots and box store paradigm which makes less and less sense every day.
Black Friday began to be so called in the 1980s because it marks the kick-off of the holiday shopping season during which retailers are thought to move from the red ink of annual loss into the black of profit.
That such an insider term, the kind of language favoured by analysts and investors, came into general use says a lot about the age of consumption and speculation which began in the 1980s. After all why should a shopper, other than one who thinks we can all get rich by buying things and investing in?stocks, care about when a store moves to profitability?
But underlying the term Black Friday is a?business?model reality, which, once examined, poses real problems, especially given the impact of the internet. Physical stores are not simply a combination of assets, labour and merchandise, they are systems, ones with a lot of sunk costs.
Why after all do stores even stay open during slack periods if in fact they only are truly profitable during the holiday rush and other peak periods?
They do so because there are huge upfront costs to setting up a physical retail outlet and once you've made those investments in people, facilities and everything else, the economics dictate that you sweat those assets, work them as hard as possible in order to gain as much revenue as you can to recoup fixed costs.
Just as airplanes on the ground are hemorrhaging money for their owners, so are shuttered stores. And, to the extent that retail has an advantage over internet distribution, and there are real ones, it is in part speed and availability.
If JC Penney starts closing on Tuesdays, or in September, they are training their customers to use the internet, a bad thing for a retailer with a big physical investment.
As sales via the internet grow and steal market share from physical retailing those fixed costs will only hang more heavily on businesses with large existing retail networks.
A GROWING SHARE
Black Friday and Cyber Monday made quite a contrast this year, and the data clearly points to a growing market share for virtual retailing. While footfall on Black Friday rose by 3.5 per cent, according to ShopperTrak actual sales decreased by 1.8 per cent to US$11.2 billion ($13.7 billion).
This may in part reflect the way in which mobile internet access allows shoppers to use stores as display galleries, viewing merchandise in person but nabbing the lowest price available on the internet.
In contrast to the retail till shrinking, online sales surged 26 per cent to $1.04 billion, a record for the day. Tracker ComScore expects Cyber Monday online sales to hit a record of about US$1.5b.
And it is not just over the holidays that online growth is outpacing physical retail. Data from the Census Bureau shows that online sales rose 11.8 per cent this year through October, against a 5.5 per cent gain in physical retail sales.
With online comprising 8.6 per cent of all sales that's significant, but as the sector grows the pain for retailers will become more acute.
Forrester Research predicts that US consumers will increase online spending to US$1738 each by 2016, a 44 per cent increase over 2011. Some of that surely will come from a growing pie, but much will come out of physical retail's market share.
Physical shopping won't ever end, and will always probably comprise a majority of retail sales. But the journey from the current cost structure and approach to one which is profitable and sustainable will be difficult. Managing decline is never fun and investing in it, with the rare but inevitable value bargains excepted, is even worse.
The growth of "pop-up" stores, which open in empty retail space for a short time, is emblematic of the industry's attempt to get in front of this curve.
So too are companies such as Apple which have moved into vertical integration of distribution. If you both manufacture and distribute you can capture more of the profits, benefit from the exposure and?advertising?that a retail outlet represents and be in a better position to bear the fixed costs.
It works a lot better, though, if you can charge premium prices, as opposed to selling coats or books.
This is a big and long-running trend, and as such there will be huge variation of outcomes. Many will do well in physical retail but those who do will be beating the odds.
- James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Human waste can map two millennia of history and climate change in a remote, Arctic settlement in Norway, according to a new study.
The findings suggest that human waste deposits could help researchers untangle the effects of natural and human-caused climate changes.
"We're able to really effectively disentangle what's human and what's natural," said study co-author Robert D'Anjou, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts. "We're able to date the onset of human settlement in the area and also look at agricultural practices and settlement history alongside the changing environment."
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The report was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Poop through the years
Archaeologists have used traces of ancient feces to re-create the history of specific archaeological sites: For instance, determining whether a latrine was ever used, D'Anjou told LiveScience. But nobody had used human waste to track the arc of human settlement and its effect on the environment. [ Through the Years: A Gallery of the World's Toilets ]
To do so, D'Anjou's team drilled several sediment cores from the bottom of the frigid Lake Liland on Vestvagoya Island, part of an archipelago of Norwegian islands north of the Arctic Circle. Since the Iron Age, people have farmed around this lake, and one of the largest Viking longhouses of the Arctic sits by the lake's frigid waters.
A 9.2-foot (2.8-meter)-long core captured about 7,000 years of time in the region, as well as 1.5-foot (45-centimeter)-long core containing sediments from about 2,300 years to 200 years ago.
The team analyzed coprostanol, a chemical component of human waste, as well as chemicals found in the waste of cows, sheep and other livestock. To tie human population levels to climatic changes, they also measured polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), a fingerprint of burning vegetation.
Levels of human and livestock waste byproducts jumped sharply around 2,300 years ago, when people first settled by the lake. At the same time, levels of PAH rose, probably because the new settlers burned forests to make way for grazing land and farming, D'Anjou said.
But from A.D. 650 to 850, human poop output dropped and the grassland gradually became reforested ? possibly because settlers left the shores of Lake Liland for the newly discovered territory of Iceland.
Another drop in human waste corresponded to the plague's peak during the late 1300s, when about 80 percent of the population moved from these areas or died off, D'Anjou said.
During the Little Ice Age, which lasted from the 1500s to the 1800s, PAH levels increased while the amount of coprostanol remained constant, indicating the settlers were probably burning much more wood to stay warm.
"In the Arctic, it's going to be very cold, so we see an increase in burning wood to keep warm," D'Anjou said.
Odd methods
The new study reveals how the climate and agriculture were intertwined, D'Anjou said.
"Slight variation in the growing season for agriculture greatly influenced the settlement and the population alongside this lake," D'Anjou said.
When the weather turned too cold for farming, settlers may have abandoned their farms for the coasts, where they fished for cod, he added.
But it also reveals a new way to piece together the history of the recent past, he said. Many times, researchers look only for specific compounds in sediments, but that limits their ability to re-create history, D'Anjou said.
"They have blinders on to what could be a really cool story in the strangest of locations," he said. "This one happened to come from poop."
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Bristol is once again braced for downpours today, after a month's worth of rain fell in just one weekend.
Firefighters worked through the night to divert flood water away from 40 to 50 homes in Worle, and 10 fire crews attended ponds at Lanthony Close and Autumn Mews, where flood water was just an inch away from homes.
Home-owners should contact their insurer immediately and make a note of all damaged items
For affected home-owners, organising an insurance claim will be the top priority. Find out who to call, what to ask and what to do next with our flood insurance claim guide:
My home has flooded ? what do I do now?
- If you own your own home contact your insurance company straight away. Many have emergency contact centres working 24 hours a day.
Note: you may have one insurance policy to cover damage to the structure of your home, like walls, ceilings and floors, and another to cover its contents. If you have policies with two different insurance companies, you should phone them both.
- If you live in rented accommodation contact your landlord to make sure they have contacted the company that insures your home.
You?ll need to contact your insurance company if you have contents insurance.
What questions should I ask my insurer?
- If flooding has caused damage to large parts of the country, you may have to wait for a loss adjuster to visit you. Ask how long it will be before the loss adjuster visits to survey the damage.
Note: immediate emergency pumping and repair work to protect the property from further damage can be undertaken without insurer approval, but remember to get receipts.
- Ask if you are to clean your property or if they will get a company to do it for you. Check whether they?ll pay for redecorating also.
- Ask if they will help pay for repairs that will reduce potential flood damage and therefore reduce the costs if it happens again.
- Ask who will be your contact for your insurance claim at the company.
What next?
- Be sure to mark the water levels on the walls for reference using a permanent ink pen, and photograph or video all flood damage.
- List the damage to your property and belongings.
- If your insurance policy covers you for loss of perishable goods, make a list of all the foods you throw away. Include any food touched by flood water and anything in your fridge or freezer ruined by loss of power.
- Keep a record of all correspondence with insurers after the flood. Make a note of all telephone calls: record the date, the name of the person you spoke to and what was agreed, and keep copies of all letters, emails and faxes you send and receive. Keep receipts too.
- Don?t rush to throw away damaged items - unless they are a danger to health - as these may be able to be repaired or restored. Your insurer will advise.
What if I need to organise emergency repairs?
- You can arrange for emergency repairs to be carried out to stop any damage getting worse. However, you must keep receipts, as these will be needed for your insurance claim. You should also tell your insurer about the emergency repairs.
Get advice where detailed, lengthy repairs are needed. Beware bogus tradesmen and always check references.
Your insurer can give advice on reputable tradesmen, or you can check out Which? Local for recommendations.
It may be worth using a builder recommended by your insurer from their ?approved list?. As the standard of work from an approved builder will have been monitored, it will be acceptable to your insurer.
And if any problems do arise it will be easier for you to deal with these with the help of your insurer.
- Keep all receipts of any emergency repair work you have done, like fixing electric fittings, so you can claim back the money. Also keep a detailed record of phone calls to anyone cleaning or repairing your home.
How do I organise alternative accommodation?
- If you need to move out of your home while it is being repaired, check with your insurers - most policies will cover the cost of alternative accommodation up to a specified limit.
- Ask your insurance company or landlord if they will provide you with temporary accommodation, such as a nearby bed and breakfast or a rented house.
You don?t have to accept the first place you are offered, but if flooding has affected many people, the choice of accommodation may be limited.
- If you are out of your home for only a short period, ?reasonable costs? in respect of hotel accommodation are usually acceptable. Such costs will usually be reimbursed as soon as it is practical.
However, if you require long-term accommodation, the loss adjuster may locate a property. Some insurers may arrange to pay these bills directly.
- Make sure your family, neighbours and insurance company knows where to contact you if you have to move out of your home.
- Consider what valuables and essential items you may be able to take with you.
- Lock your doors and windows if possible.
- Take emergency contact details with you, including mobile phone numbers and email addresses.
I don?t know the name of my insurance company ? what should I do?
Speak to your broker, insurance adviser, mortgage lender or bank - direct debit/standing order payments can be used by them to identify your insurer - who may be able to provide details.
If you?re in rented accommodation, speak to your landlord or local authority.
Help - I know the name of my insurance company but I can?t find my policy
Call directory enquiries or look on the internet for your insurer. When you call your insurer, give them as many details as you can.
They are likely to be able to find your policy details from your personal information and your postcode.
I want to make a complaint
If you have a complaint about the way your claim is being handled by your insurance company and/or loss adjuster you should telephone or write to your insurer, keeping a note of what you have said. Your policy will contain details of your insurer's full complaints procedure.
If the problem is not resolved to your satisfaction you can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service, who will investigate the complaint within their terms of reference.
If you have a complaint about the builder appointed by your insurance company to undertake repair work, call the claims department of your insurer as soon as possible.
Keep a note of what the problems are. If they are not resolved to your satisfaction, write to the claims manager of your insurance company.
I don?t have insurance ? what help is available?
If you don?t have insurance, your local council should be able to provide information on hardship grants or charities that may be able to help you.
Who can I contact for help and advice?
For insurance advice: Association of British Insurers www.abi.org.uk Tel 020 7600 3333
For information about loss adjusters: The Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters www.cila.co.uk Tel 020 7216 7580 ? loss adjusters should be members
Dependant on the property contract, you or another party may be responsible for repairs and/or re-accommodation . You should consult your contract. The Citizens Advice Bureau may be able to advise www.citizensadvice.org.uk Tel 08444 111 444
For flood warnings and information on flood defences: Environment Agency Floodline www.environment-agency.gov.uk Tel 0845 988 1188 (open 24hrs)
? Flooding and insurance FAQs (Association of British Insurers)
? Flooding information (Bristol City Council)
? Flooding - availability and coverage of insurance (Association of British Insurers)
Doxie makes going paperless easy with their new Doxie One personal scanner. ?It’s about the size of an empty paper towel roll, so it fits into a desk drawer or your gear bag. ?You can scan anywhere, and the scans will be stored onto an SD card. ?When you get back to your computer (Mac [...]
CMU and CTC to develop robotic laser system to strip paint from aircraftPublic release date: 26-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Byron Spice bspice@cs.cmu.edu 412-268-9068 Carnegie Mellon University
System will save money, time and the environment
PITTSBURGHCarnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) and Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) of Johnstown, Pa., are working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and Ogden Air Logistics Center 309 AMXG to develop and demonstrate a robotic system that uses high-powered lasers to remove coatings from fighter and cargo aircraft.
In a two-year project sponsored by the National Defense Center for Energy and Environment, CTC, under Prime Contract W91ZLK-10-D-0005 with NREC as a subcontractor, will build six autonomous mobile robots, each with a laser coating remover, and deploy them to work in teams to remove paint and other coatings from aircraft at Hill Air Force Base in northern Utah.
The demonstration at Hill AFB is the latest phase of development for the Advanced Robotic Laser Coating Removal System (ARLCRS). Earlier, CTC and NREC developed a prototype of the robot, which is undergoing testing at CTC's facilities.
CTC's laser coating remover uses a continuous wave laser to strip paint and other coatings from aircraft. It replaces the abrasives or chemical paint removers used in traditional coating removal processes, which generate significant hazardous wastes and air emissions. The laser can selectively remove coatings. A custom HEPA system safely collects debris as it is removed from the aircraft, minimizing its impact on the environment.
The use of autonomous mobile robots developed at NREC makes it possible to automate and precisely control the stripping process, while protecting workers' eyes from hazardous laser light. The robots work in teams, with the size of each team varying based on the size of the aircraft. The robots keep the laser beam properly angled against the aircraft skin, adjusting to the shape of each area of the airframe. The robots also control the speed of the beam over the surface to ensure that it is slow enough to ensure complete stripping, but not so slow that the aircraft surface is unnecessarily heated.
Paint removal is performed as part of the normal programmed depot maintenance process for aircraft. The robotic paint stripper system promises to be environmentally superior to traditional methods while simultaneously reducing processing time, decreasing workload and supporting 24/7 operations at Air Logistics Centers (ALCs).
"Automated laser decoating is expected to significantly reduce labor, waste volume, environmental risk, and overall cost," said Jim Arthur, CTC principal process engineer and project manager.
The autonomous mobile robots built at the NREC under the direction of Tony Stentz, principal investigator and NREC Director, make extensive use of commercial, off-the-shelf parts to reduce costs, simplify maintenance and make future upgrades easier.
"A team of robots wielding laser paint strippers can work cooperatively to quickly and efficiently remove paint and coatings from aircraft," said Stuart Lawrence, the NREC program manager.
Two robots might be used for a fighter, while four robots might be used for a large cargo plane. The system generates stripping plans based on the type of aircraft and can dynamically update the plan while stripping is under way.
Maintenance personnel do not need to physically mask areas that should not be stripped. The system can virtually mask these areas, causing the robot to avoid them. This saves time and manpower. The robots' advanced sensors also detect, classify and record the condition of the aircraft surfaces as stripping proceeds.
Future applications for ARLCRS could include applying paint and coatings, inspecting aircraft, and performing basic maintenance and repair tasks.
###
The views, opinions, and/or findings contained in this report (paper) are those of the author(s) and should not be construed as an official Department of the Air Force/Army position, policy, or decision unless so designated by other official documentation.
About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 11,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university is in the midst of "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
CMU and CTC to develop robotic laser system to strip paint from aircraftPublic release date: 26-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Byron Spice bspice@cs.cmu.edu 412-268-9068 Carnegie Mellon University
System will save money, time and the environment
PITTSBURGHCarnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) and Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) of Johnstown, Pa., are working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and Ogden Air Logistics Center 309 AMXG to develop and demonstrate a robotic system that uses high-powered lasers to remove coatings from fighter and cargo aircraft.
In a two-year project sponsored by the National Defense Center for Energy and Environment, CTC, under Prime Contract W91ZLK-10-D-0005 with NREC as a subcontractor, will build six autonomous mobile robots, each with a laser coating remover, and deploy them to work in teams to remove paint and other coatings from aircraft at Hill Air Force Base in northern Utah.
The demonstration at Hill AFB is the latest phase of development for the Advanced Robotic Laser Coating Removal System (ARLCRS). Earlier, CTC and NREC developed a prototype of the robot, which is undergoing testing at CTC's facilities.
CTC's laser coating remover uses a continuous wave laser to strip paint and other coatings from aircraft. It replaces the abrasives or chemical paint removers used in traditional coating removal processes, which generate significant hazardous wastes and air emissions. The laser can selectively remove coatings. A custom HEPA system safely collects debris as it is removed from the aircraft, minimizing its impact on the environment.
The use of autonomous mobile robots developed at NREC makes it possible to automate and precisely control the stripping process, while protecting workers' eyes from hazardous laser light. The robots work in teams, with the size of each team varying based on the size of the aircraft. The robots keep the laser beam properly angled against the aircraft skin, adjusting to the shape of each area of the airframe. The robots also control the speed of the beam over the surface to ensure that it is slow enough to ensure complete stripping, but not so slow that the aircraft surface is unnecessarily heated.
Paint removal is performed as part of the normal programmed depot maintenance process for aircraft. The robotic paint stripper system promises to be environmentally superior to traditional methods while simultaneously reducing processing time, decreasing workload and supporting 24/7 operations at Air Logistics Centers (ALCs).
"Automated laser decoating is expected to significantly reduce labor, waste volume, environmental risk, and overall cost," said Jim Arthur, CTC principal process engineer and project manager.
The autonomous mobile robots built at the NREC under the direction of Tony Stentz, principal investigator and NREC Director, make extensive use of commercial, off-the-shelf parts to reduce costs, simplify maintenance and make future upgrades easier.
"A team of robots wielding laser paint strippers can work cooperatively to quickly and efficiently remove paint and coatings from aircraft," said Stuart Lawrence, the NREC program manager.
Two robots might be used for a fighter, while four robots might be used for a large cargo plane. The system generates stripping plans based on the type of aircraft and can dynamically update the plan while stripping is under way.
Maintenance personnel do not need to physically mask areas that should not be stripped. The system can virtually mask these areas, causing the robot to avoid them. This saves time and manpower. The robots' advanced sensors also detect, classify and record the condition of the aircraft surfaces as stripping proceeds.
Future applications for ARLCRS could include applying paint and coatings, inspecting aircraft, and performing basic maintenance and repair tasks.
###
The views, opinions, and/or findings contained in this report (paper) are those of the author(s) and should not be construed as an official Department of the Air Force/Army position, policy, or decision unless so designated by other official documentation.
About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 11,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university is in the midst of "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Teburu, a newly launched tablet-based online and mobile ordering system for restaurants, is now live with a handful of restaurant chains in the Southern U.S, including?Gondolier Pizza, Pita's Republic, and Little Greek?Restaurant, and it has also recently signed a contract with a large, undisclosed Middle Eastern restaurant management company with 600 locations.
Jackman was in talks to reprise his role for a cameo in?X-Men: Days of Future Past.?He would join other?X-Men?stars, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, as we reported earlier. The?First Class?sequel not only occurs before the events of the original?X-Men?trilogy, its source material also includes two alternate timelines, which makes it feasible for the casts of both series to appear in the same film. In Chris Claremont?s?Days of Future Past?arc, an alternate future saw surviving mutants held in concentration camps while giant robot Sentinels patrolled the land; ?most of the X-Men had been killed. It fell upon heroes of a prior timeline to stop a key event from happening that would lead to the alternate future. How the two versions of Professor X and Magneto are going to be used in the film remains to be seen.
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Public release date: 26-Nov-2012
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