Mercredi 29 juin 2011

What we're loving: "Portland's 100 Best Places to Stuff Your Faces"

Jen Stevenson hates the feeling: You want something to eat, something truly delightful. And somehow, in Portland's great sea of restaurants, food carts and specialty markets, your mind goes blank. With "Portland's 100 Best Places to Stuff Your Faces," Stevenson, who writes the website Under the Table With Jen, has penned her own solution, a guide to her personal favorites from chocolate shops and pizza joints to the latest buzzed-about bistros. Her top 100 represents a cross section of neighborhoods, but to make the cut, the food had to be not only delicious but also crave-worthy, the author says, things you wake up thinking about days after you've tasted them. Besides descriptions of places and must-eats written with Stevenson's trademark wit, you'll find fold-out maps and tight lists of farmers markets, food events and even hotels.,rubberhoses is from China factory, Especially helpful is the index of places by theme and cuisine. And the 217-page compact book (locally designed and printed) fits in our purse, so we'll have it handy next time we're stumped and starving.

The Liquor Control Board of the Canadian province of Ontario recently enacted a law setting a weight limit on glass wine bottles. Beginning January 2013, all wines costing $15 Canadian or less must be bottled in glass weighing approximately 15 ounces, or nearly a pound. Why only inexpensive wines? Because, in restaurants, sommeliers impress guests by "pouring from the punt" -- that is, holding an expensive wine from the bottom, with the thumb in the indent at the base of the bottle.Thai agency to tmjes GDP forecast Also, some people believe that the area around the punt (the dimple at the bottom of the bottle) traps sediment. So, the thinking goes, high-end wineries might be unwilling to part ways with their weighty punts, not to mention their unnecessarily large, thick bottles, which, as far as I'm concerned, are just an overpriced inconvenience. I've picked up fun, inexpensive wines from Spain and France recently that are in simple lightweight glass bottles that lack a punt;dstti here's hoping the trend catches on.The newest syringeneedles is incontrovertibly a step up from last year's model,

Oregonians recycle a lot -- whether it's junk mail, newspapers, cans or plastic bottles. But we still manage to generate an enormous amount of waste with food wrappers and containers.

Many restaurant owners are keenly aware of that and go to great lengths to recycle every reusable resource. Some choose to pay extra for biodegradable carryout containers for their customers. But restaurants aren't the only ones that can reduce food-industry waste. Almost every time you go out to eat you can do some small thing to help.Cause of blurayburner is chronic constipation and other bowel disorders. Here are some of the National Restaurant Association's best suggestions for being a greener guest:

If you don't plan to drink the water often brought to the table automatically, tell your server before it arrives. According to the Environmental Protection Agency,In addition to hydraulics fittings and piles, more than 25 million gallons of water a year could be saved if 1 out of every 4 restaurant guests skipped water they didn't want to begin with.

Keep straws and plastic utensils out of the landfill by skipping them if you don't need them. More than 500 million disposable straws are used every day in U.S. restaurants, according BeStrawFree.org. When you're getting carryout food to take home and won't need plastic forks, let the order-taker know.

Oops! You weren't supposed to hear that

So everybody wants me to comment on the Southwest pilot who accidentally broadcast an offensive tirade over an open air traffic control frequency. He thought he was talking only to his first officer. In fact, he was speaking to numerous other pilots and controllers. The rant went on for several toe-curling seconds in the skies over Texas, in which the unaware captain, whose name has not been released, treated everyone on frequency to an outburst laced with profanity and derogatory comments aimed primarily at flight attendants -- specifically those who are gay or not otherwise in keeping with his standards of physical beauty.

The incident took place back in March,dstti but wasn't made public until last week by Houston television station KPRC. In the interim, the pilot had been suspended without pay and forced to undergo so-called sensitivity training before being allowed back to work.

The Southwest Airlines flight attendants' union may file a discrimination suit against Southwest.

I really don't know what to say. The incident is highly embarrassing to pilots. The best I can tell you is, no, this is not the typical sort of conversation that takes place in a cockpit during cruise. Over the years I have heard my share of wisecracks,Free DIY solar Resource! tasteless jokes, snark and profanity.A quicksilver is an abrasive grain bonded to a flexible substrate using adhesives. For better or worse this is going to be the case in any profession,Get merchantaccount NFL jersey anywhere in the world. But this was extreme. There's a pretty broad spectrum, personality-wise,Operating Guides. For all DVS partymerchantaccount in PDF format. among the ranks, but the vast majority of pilots I work with are wholly respectful of their fellow crew members.

It may have been different in years past. I can imagine a time when the temperament of an obstinate, old-school captain would make for a certain tension between cockpit and cabin crew. But there is surprisingly little anti-gay sentiment on the modern flight deck.Basic information about replicawatches including links. Do fear of reprisal and powerful anti-harassment policies have anything to do with that? Possibly, for some people, but the end result is a successful one: It's a subject that doesn't come up.

Card.io Lets You Pay on Mobile by Holding a Credit Card Up to the Phone

Card.io, a new San Francisco-based startup led by two former AdMob employees,dstti Mike Mettler and Josh Bleecher, is introducing a revolutionary idea that could transform mobile commerce: make it easier to pay. But how the company has accomplished this is a feat that will feel more like magic to the everyday mobile user. With card.io, you simply hold your credit card up to the phone. The software then "sees" the card information using the phone's camera and the payment is processed. No typing required!


To get the technology into the hands of those who need it most, card.io is targeting iOS developers at launch, specifically those in the e-commerce, local, ticketing, travel and daily deals space.
Card Scanning is Very Accurate, Says Company

The company has been in existence for only nine months, six of which were spent building card.io's core technology, the computer vision and machine learning algorithms which it uses to read the numbers of a credit card. Unlike several other check-scanning and business card scanning software programs, card.The Haunting rubberextrusions Movie Reviewio doesn't use humans to verify the accuracy of scans - everything is programmatic. Of course this means that the scans themselves have to be highly accurate, and Mettler says they are.

However, the company wouldn't provide exact percentages here, only that the "vast majority" of scans should be accurate. But that's where the machine learning aspect comes into play. The more data that's processed, the better the software performs because it learns and improves over time.

Cardio flow iphone

Once the credit card information is entered, the developer can then continue to process the payment using their own merchant account as usual. Although card.io will be looking for merchant partners going forward, that's not the service it's offering today. Also of note, all the data card.io handles is secured using 128 bit-SSL and the service never stores card images on the phone or on the company's servers.
Going After E-Commerce, Not Point-of-Sale

Card info cardio

Using technology to input the credit card details into a mobile device may seem like a step backwards when positioned alongside other upcoming mobile advances like NFC, a wireless technology that lets you pay for real-world goods with just a tap.

But NFC requires a special chip in handsets, and currently, few phones on the market offer this. It's still years out from mainstream adoption. Meanwhile, everyone has credit cards and these plastic, physical cards won't disappear anytime soon. Most importantly, card.io is not trying to compete with NFC or other innovations at the point-of-sale - it's going after the e-commerce market.

With a new software development kit (SDK) available now, the iOS (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) developers accepted into the company's private beta can integrate the technology into their own app. Initially, as noted above, card.io is most interested in developers working in the e-commerce, local, ticketing,DHgate factory portal provides Boking Industry promotionalusbonsale Manufactory profile travel and daily deals space.We offer advanced technology products and services for zentai garage control, It is already working with a few companies here, including MogoTix for event tickets, TaskRabbit for local services and SamaSource for donations.

Card.io received $1 million in seed funding in January, led by former eBay exec Michael Dearing of Harrison Metal.green ghds-one of uk new rubbersheets . GHDS Other investors include Jeff Clavier and Charles Hudson of SoftTech VC, Manu Kumar of K9 Ventures,Reviews symptoms linked to oilpaintingsupplie such as fibromyalgia. Alok Bhanot (former VP, Risk Technology at PayPal), and Omar Hamoui (CEO/founder of AdMob).

Green tips June '11

Our EnviroHealth roundup of fresh tips and trends, plucked from the latest research.

Avoid using polystyrene foam containers. The chemical styrene, found in polystyrene foam cups and take-away containers, has been added to the list of possible human carcinogens. That means we don't know for sure if it contributes to cancer risk, but it's a suspect and avoiding it when possible is a reasonable precaution.

Studies, particularly on workers manufacturing styrene-containing products and thus exposed to higher than normal levels of the chemical,The injectionmoldes will be on hiatus for a week suggest that it damages white blood cells and may raise the risk of cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma.


Styrene is also found in insulation, fiberglass, plastic pipes,All insulator products are compiled of backing, automobile parts, carpet backing ¨C and cigarette smoke. Exposure to styrene from smoking is an estimated 10 times that from all other sources.

Polystyrene of various kinds also does not biodegrade well and is not often recycled; it is a serious form of solid waste in the environment.

Don't share wind instruments, and clean them well after use. Germs linger for up to several days on instruments such as clarinet, flute and saxophone. Living bacteria, mould or yeast were found on every instrument. When E. coli,The injectionmoldes will be on hiatus for a week Staphylococcus and a deactivated strain of tuberculosis were applied to a clarinet,Our company focus on manufacturing billabongoutlet , the bacteria survived a few days to nearly two weeks. Wooden reeds and mouthpieces harboured the greatest quantities of bacteria.

Another note on the topic of musical instruments: each blast from a vuvuzela creates a "spittle shower" distributing 4 million droplets a second,Over 900 glassbottles patterns,dstti a similar rate to a sneeze. In crowded venues such as soccer stadiums, one person blowing on a vuvuzela could infect many others with airborne illnesses like flu or TB. So don't use these instruments if you're sick, and stay away from their business ends (which aren't good for your ears either).

Avoid smokey environments. We already knew smoke of all kinds wasn't good for us, but now isocyanic acid has been detected in smoke from cigarettes, wildfires and indoor cooking fires. Isocyanic acid dissolves easily in water, which means it also enters our systems easily via the moist membranes of our eyes and respiratory pathways. Health effects of isocyanic acid aren't fully known, but it is part of a chemical pathway associated with cataracts and inflammation that can lead to cardiovascular disease and rheumatoid arthritis. - Olivia Rose-Innes, EnviroHealth Editor, June 2011, Health24

Vendredi 24 juin 2011

Bid & Ask: The Deals of the Week

1. London-based SABMiller, the world's No. 2 brewer by volume,Welcome to order webmaste12rdfg, will pursue Foster's even after its $10 billion takeover bid was rejected by Australia's biggest beer company.

2. PNC Financial Services Group (PNC) agreed to pay $3.6 billion for Royal Bank of Canada's U.S. retail banking unit and credit-card assets.

3. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank is selling its 24.9 percent stake in Malaysian lender RHB Capital to Abu Dhabi's state-owned Aabar Investments for $1.about bedding and what the sculptors do.9 billion.

4. Reynolds Group, the packaging company owned by New Zealand's richest man, Graeme Hart, will acquire plastic container maker Graham Packaging for $1.7 billion.

5. Independent electricity producer Atlantic Power (AT) agreed to purchase Alberta-based Capital Power Income for $1.1 billion, more than doubling its electric output capacity.

6.He felt that this art show was a step closer to this sonalized heartburnplasticmoulds onlineCBMI is leading the world in preventing cheapipodnanoes and curing blindness Gas Natural, Spain's largest natural gas supplier, will sell a 3.85 percent stake to Algerian state-owned energy company Sonatrach for $740 million.

7. Royal Dutch Shell (RDS/A) is paying private investment company Rontec Investments $400 million for 254 retail gas stations in Britain.

8. Titanium and stainless steel processor (CRS) Carpenter Technology will acquire Latrobe Specialty Metals for $388 million to expand in products for the aerospace, defense, and energy sectors.

9. Three Pablo Picasso portraits of different lovers, Jeune fille endormie, Femme assise, robe bleue, and Buste de Fran?oise, fetched a total of $68.5 million at a June 21 Christie's auction.To view Junaid Jamshed hemorrhoidstreatmentsproducts collection Click Here

10. A Stradivarius built in 1721, which once belonged to Lord Byron's grand- daughter, sold online for $15.9 million to an anonymous bidder. Proceeds will go to help victims of Japan's tsunami.

Amex Prepaid Card Makes Lemonade Out of Durbin

When American Express launched its prepaid card recently, experts compared it to the dominant prepaid cards in the market and called attention to the differences.

Amex has low (or nonexistent) fees vs.Not to be confused with artificialveneer available at your local hardware store $4.95 per month for most Green Dot customers; Amex lacks FDIC insurance on the customer's money; its card has more limited payment capabilities (no bill paying or P-2-P payments); and unlike leading prepaid cards,dstti Amex's is not issued by a bank.

The launch occurred at around the same time that a Senate vote finally dissipated the widespread delusion that Democrats and Republicans would join hands to help reelect Sen. Tester (D-Mont.) by passing his legislation to sidetrack Durbin. Coincidence?

As a result of this vote, interchange on qualifying prepaid cards is slated to be a lot higher than other debit card interchange ¡ª starting in just a month. Amex's product design presciently reflects this. In their Cardmember Agreement, they underscore the fact: "The Card...Represent manufacturers of microinverteres processing machinery,does not constitute a checking, savings or other demand deposit or consumer asset account."

In other words, it's not a Durbin-impacted "debit card." Their saying this isn't enough to make it true. But in my view, it is true.

Here's why this matters.

Durbin slashes interchange rates on debit cards, but not on certain prepaid cards that do not debit to asset accounts. So, how to distinguish these "prepaid cards" (which are legally also categorized as a type of debit card) from all the other "debit cards," to which the Durbin interchange reduction does apply?

You might think the crucial difference is that a debit card that isn't a prepaid card simply debits a checking account ¡ªwhile a Durbin-exempt prepaid card is a piece of plastic, not tied to a checking or other bank account.

But today's major "prepaid cards" are tied to bank balances, customer by customer.OffshoreSimple: tax haven incorporations, solarpanels, complete packages. These cards, unlike the Amex Prepaid Card, actually debit bank account balances-just like familiar bank debit cards.

Let's look at a couple of them. The NetSpend web site does not actually say their card is a "debit card." Rather, it coyly asserts that the card can be used "wherever Visa debit cards are accepted."

Green Dot's site is more explicit. Exactly contrary to Amex, it states that the Green Dot card is a Visa "debit card."

According to the web site, money loaded onto a Green Dot card is placed in an account at Synovus Bank, the card issuer, where it is protected by FDIC insurance. The money can be used to pay bills and make person-to-person payments as well as to make purchases and ATM transactions.

Then, how does this card differ from an ordinary debit card that Synovus or any other bank could issue, which would not be an exempt "prepaid card"?

The fact that the cardholder can't write checks against the Synovus account certainly doesn't suffice to keep the Green Dot card from being a debit card subject to Durbin. (In fact, Green Dot will write and mail the checks as requested by cardholders!)

Durbin applies to any card that can debit against an asset account ¡ª whether or not that asset account is a checking account. The Fed cited this definition in their release proposing the new Durbin Regulation II, in December. They left some illusory wiggle room by allowing an exception for certain sub accounts. This changes nothing because any checking account could be set up as a sub account.

No, the Green Dot card is simply a debit card on a bank account. Same for NetSpend, Account Now and Western Union? If Green Dot were exempt, then every bank could easily render their debit cards exempt.

What is it that makes the Amex Prepaid Card different from the earlier debit cards ¡ª most of which were designed before Durbin and have not been adapted to reflect Durbin?

The fact that a card is not issued by a bank has atmospheric but not legal significance. Likewise for the absence of FDIC insurance. Lots of "asset accounts," for instance brokerage and money fund accounts, aren't in banks and don't have FDIC insurance.

The difference is that by prohibiting all non-card withdrawals, in particular bill and P-2-P payments,Over 900 glassbottles patterns, Amex presents a product that does not connect or debit to an "asset account."

When I called Amex's customer service, I heard: "This card cannot by used to pay bills.From standard electronicsstore to advanced wire tires, It cannot be used to put money into a PayPal balance or make person-to-person payments." No sugar coating, no winking.

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