This paint by numbers style of storytelling

Steve Jobs was the heart and soul of Apple. He shepherded the company from the throes of bankruptcy to the technology behemoth that it is today. His story would have to be fascinating, one that focuses on a personality so dynamic that he can drive a company to success seemingly on sheer will.

That is why I was confused when I saw that Ashton Kutcher would be playing the man in the new biopic "Jobs." Why would you cast someone of such low acting caliber to play a man whom one would presume to be dynamic? That's like trying to pass off a Zune for an iPod.

"Jobs" is exactly what you would think it is. It is the story of the history of Apple computers, and more specifically of Steve Jobs' role in the founding and nurturing of the company. It is something that should be engrossing, yet from conception to execution it just seems lacking.

Jobs realizes the potential, so he partners up with Woz and the two launch Apple Computers. After seeing it through a successful birth,All you need to know about In home display. Jobs is ousted from the company by the board of directors because his pet project is hemorrhaging money and he seems unable to rein in either the project or himself.

Jobs then starts another software company, but as Apple begins to flounder under its new management, Jobs is brought back into the fold, allowing him to guide the company into its new era of prosperity.

They briefly touch on Jobs' interest in Buddhism, his aversion to hygiene and shoes, his ruthless aggression, his womanizing,The Home energy monitor market continues to struggle for more traction. his cold-hearted nature, his backstabbing ... each is given a scene or two, then checked off, allowing the movie to methodically move on to the next character trait or important event. This paint by numbers style of storytelling adds an extra blandness to what should have been far more compelling.

The movie wants so badly to be "The Social Network", but all involved are so unprepared that it remains just a shadow of a much better film.

Equally troublesome is Kutcher's portrayal of Jobs. Kutcher is, and I think I'm safe in saying this, a terrible actor. He has managed to ride a disturbing lack of talent to a very lucrative career, much to the befuddlement of struggling actors and producers everywhere. But, to his credit, he looks as though he at least put some effort into this role.

Kutcher has the mannerisms, the body language, even the speech pattern down for Jobs, or at least as best I can tell from the video I've seen of the man. But, as accurate as portrayal may be, it lacks any real soul. It seems simply beyond Kutcher's abilities to infuse the character with anything resembling heart. Impression doesn't equate realism, something that seems to escape the actor.

The movie portrays Jobs as, essentially, a horrible human being who rode the backs of others to great success and wealth. I don't know the man's story that well; I'm told by those who had interaction with him or have heard of such that it is pretty accurate.

But for a movie that I think is trying to humanize the man, it creates instead a sort of inhuman monster. Jobs cheats his partners, cheats on his girlfriend, abandons his friends and backstabs those who helped to carry him to the top. He kicks his girlfriend out when she becomes pregnant, then refuses to acknowledge paternity or have anything to do with his daughter.Find Home Power monitor blood pressure monitor ads in our Miscellaneous Goods category.

When he is rightly removed from day-to-day operations at Apple, he bides his time, then comes back to screw over the very man who gave him a second chance. He doesn't seem to be the actual innovator behind any of the products that he is known for.

There is a bright spot in the film, though. Gad nails the role of Woz, adding humor and energy to an often listless film. It is a bad sign when the most compelling character in a movie is not the one the film is based on, but as I was watching "Jobs," I was thinking how much more interested I would have been to see "Woz."

I realize that "Jobs" was rushed to beat a competing film to theaters, but so little care was taken with the development and telling of the story that it would have been better had the movie never even been made. For a man recognized for his innovations, the movie about him is listless, bland and the furthest thing from the man himself.
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The carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere

One of these days, the tipping point will be reached. No, not the tipping point that leads to a continued warming of the globe. That one, unfortunately, is probably behind us. The even more elusive tipping point is the action,The Home Energy Management System allows utility customers to track their energy. event or increased collective concern that finally prompts Americans to make combatting climate change a national goal akin to winning a world war.

Hurricane Katrina didn’t do it, and neither have Hurricanes Sandy and Irene. So the notion that a slim book and a barnstorming state senator from Iowa will spur the nation to action seems far-fetched. But Sen. Rob Hogg’s book, America’s Climate Century, and his talks across the state this week should move the needle in the right direction.

Hogg, who met with Monitor editors yesterday, makes the convincing case that for the next half-century or more “every aspect of our lives will be affected by human-caused global warming and its resulting climate changes,Find Home Power monitor blood pressure monitor ads in our Miscellaneous Goods category. and by the actions necessary to stop climate change before it devastates the world.”

All citizens should, in their personal life, do what they can to minimize energy use, which can be done without compromising one’s quality of life. Every business should maximize its energy efficiency, both to help spare the planet more drastic changes, and because it’s good for the bottom line. Every household and city should do what it can to minimize the damage from the more violent and erratic weather that occurs when more energy pours into the complex system that is the climate. And every citizen, Hogg said, should lobby elected representatives at all levels to support efforts to reduce the pace of global warming. Among the needed measures are a tax on carbon emissions. He’s right.The Power Cost Monitor and other Energy monitor monitoring products.

Hogg’s visit coincided with the premature release of the fifth report of the United Nations Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change. The vast majority of the world’s scientists now believe that the burning of fossil fuels is driving climate change that will increase sea levels by, in their best estimate, 3 feet by the end of the century. In worst case scenarios predicated on the collapse of one or more ice sheets, sea levels could rise 10 feet or more and drown coastal cities like Boston, New York and Miami.

he current issue of National Geographic, available online now and on newsstands later this month, depicts Lady Liberty up to her knees in the rising waters of New York harbor. If we continue emitting greenhouse gases at our current rate, a scientist quoted in the article says, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, now circling 400 parts per million, will hit 1,000. At that level, which was last seen 50 million years ago, the Earth was ice free and the seas 216 feet higher than they are today.

The carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere, plus additions caused by what Hogg calls “magnifiers” like the methane released from melting permafrost and the added warming caused when solar energy is not reflected by snow and ice but absorbed by land and sea, means temperatures will continue to rise if all fossil fuel use were abandoned tomorrow.

Preventing an even bigger temperature increase will require U.S. leadership, which in turn, require bipartisan support. That support has been wanting among Republicans, but that too may be changing. Earlier this month four former heads of the Environmental Protection Agency, William Ruckelshaus, Lee Thomas, William Reilly and Christine Todd Whitman, authored a joint column in The New York Times. It was called “ A Republican Case for Climate Action.” They wrote, “The only uncertainty about our warming world is how bad the changes will get, and how soon. What is most clear is that there is no time to waste.”
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The Cleveland Police Department posted on its Facebook page

On Thursday, attention focused on Michelle Knight, and rightfully so. The woman who was held longest by Castro and treated the most brutally was also the only one to confront Castro directly in court. Her defiant statement, read between tears, provided a visceral glimpse into to how she, DeJesus, and Amanda Berry had persevered – and at last overcome.

But DeJesus' statement, read by cousin Sylvia Colon, was a picture of grace in an economy of words. It thanked the judge, the prosecutors, the police, "the great City of Cleveland, and too many others to name.You are now a part of our family."

It shared the family grief with the Castros, whom the DeJesuses absolved and, with extraordinary largeness of heart, reached out to them in language bearing the honesty and tenderness of struggle endured: "Continue to love and support one another – we promise you that with this recipe you will be triumphant."

And it finished with an admonition that, for the family, all that matters now is what lies ahead: "Today is the last day we want to think or talk about this. These events will not own a place in our thoughts or our hearts. We will continue to live and love."

It continued: "We stand before you and promise you that our beloved family member thrives. She laughs, swims,Home energy monitor dances, and more importantly she loves and is loved. We are comforted in knowing that she will continue to flourish. She will finish school, go to college, fall in love, and if she chooses, will get married and have children. She is where we will continue to put in our energy. She lives not a victim, but as a survivor. Her insurmountable will to prevail is the only story worth discussing."

Last week, Ms. Berry showed the world what some measure of recovery from such moral depravity looks like. She appeared onstage at the RoverFest music festival in Cleveland and smiled and swayed as she listened to Nelly.

Now, the DeJesuses have shown the world, in a measure, what the beginnings of recovery feel like.

This was apparent, too, when DeJesus' mother, Nancy Ruiz, told the local ABC station what she felt when she heard that Berry had felt confident enough to appear onstage at a music festival. "She had to have been excited, and I'm so glad about her. There is no words to describe because for her to be out and about – I mean, it's awesome. It's their time, and they need this."

Few have been let inside the private worlds of the three women since their release from Castro's house on Seymour Avenue. And that is as it should be. DeJesus should enjoy every moment of her sunbathing. But the few glances the outside world has been allowed speak to the enormous love that has surrounded the women and its effect.

For Berry and DeJesus, perhaps, this is not surprising. Their families had mounted public campaigns to find them, had put up leaflets, had held vigils, had never given up. But even Ms. Knight, who said in court that she felt abandoned, and who said that Castro openly tormented her, saying her family didn't love her, has responded to a decade of physical and emotional torture with uncommon kindness.

The Cleveland Police Department posted on its Facebook page a handwritten "thank you" note Knight penned to the officers. "I am overwhelmed by the amount of thoughts, love & prayers expressed by complete strangers," she wrote.

Then on Friday, Knight visited the neighborhood where she was once held captive and thanked the neighbors for their support. When one woman asked her what she would like to see happen to the house where she was kept prisoner, she answered that she hoped a garden would be put in its place, according to an NBC News report.

And in her statement in court Thursday, Knight spoke of the relationship she found with DeJesus in captivity. "I never let her fall, and she never let me fall," she said.

"This is a woman with incredible resilience and warmth and she took that moment to show her capacity for love," Frank Ochberg, clinical professor of psychiatry at Michigan State University, and a psychiatric expert for the prosecutor, said of Knight, according to a Yahoo report.

That is the story Knight wants to tell going forward. "Writing this statement gives me the strength to be a stronger woman and know that there are more good people than evil," she said Thursday. "I know there's a lot of people going through hard times but they need someone to reach out a hand for them to hold and let them know they are being heard."
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we keep the wheel turning

Dante knew, describing in that great epic Divine Comedy the awfulness of hell aka a visit to The Toy Shop. With kids. "Though me is the way to the city of woe... abandon hope all ye who enter... Here sighs, laments, and deep wailings were resounding through the starless air; wherefore at first I wept thereat. Strange tongues, horrible utterances, words of woe, accents of anger...."

Let's look at the child in the toy shop now, four or so, a little girl all turned out in a fuchsia polyester tutu and with the arms of her plastic tiara firmly tucked behind her ears. A photogenic child. The reason the barren and the seedless spend desperate years in IVF. She is accompanied by a grandparent who pushes a trolley laden with large cardboard boxes filled with the latest Chinese-made plastic. It isn't her birthday and it sure as heavens isn't a July Christmas, of course, but this is the way of modern parenting. The determination to provide the warmest and most generous of childhoods. Something all of us were apparently denied.

At the little girl's home in outer suburban Sydney a room is given to the child's caprices, her whims. Ikea shelves bend under the weight of Fisher-Price, Mattel, Hasbro, Lego, Hot Wheels, Tonka, Dora, Transfomers, Skylanders, Barbie, Playskool and Nerf. An inflatable castle fills the garage.  Plastic walkers with wheels that spin and horns that honk are parked side-by-side along a wall. The gal's bed is a home for vulgar faux-velvet toys, each one rank with spit and old food.

All toys that were madly yearned for, the kid driven crazy by television advertising. It's life or death! Must! Have! But whose pleasures quickly wear out once the box is ripped open, the wires snipped, Electricity monitor,the batteries installed, and the realisation that the toy ain't anything like the magical device so deftly presented on screen.

"I want a new pillow pet! I want a new pillow pet! Nan! Buy me!" The kid holds a gaudy fur toy that resembles road kill tightly to her little breast. She isn't letting go, whatever the oncoming threat.

"You've already got 10 of 'em. I can't get another one," says Nan. But nan's are the softest touch of all, one foot in the grave will do that. And given the proximity of death and the instant love of a child, is their anything wrong with a small indulgence, a touch of gluttony?

"Oh,alright, put it in the trolley," she says. "You're so cute when you want something."

Over at checkout seven, a boy just about to enter puberty, has convinced his mum to sling a 50 at a Call of Duty cartridge for the his Playstation 3. One-hit kills and the ability to gamble online for money. What isn't there to love?

It's a miracle of marketing that a kid of three can recognise a brand that she's seen on TV and then locate it inside the toy shop. She can't read, but she can recognise the familiar logo and the brilliantly arranged graphics.

And it's a miracle of technology that boys, bursting with testosterone and energy, whose genetics make them unsuitable to sit still in a classroom for six hours a day, can remain motionless in front of a monitor playing video games throughout entire weekends.

We are sold a lot of things that stink.. It's part of the Capitalist game. Consumerism, however rank it is, moves the economy. We work, we spend, we generate employment, we keep the wheel turning. Even if it is mostly unnecessary, poorly-made junk that occupies a brief moment in the sun before becoming nature strip fodder, our spending is society's primary driver.
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The green-tie affair in southwest suburban

TORONTO Manulife Asset Management, the investment arm of Canada's largest insurer, swapped most of its Alberta bonds for British Columbia debt amid concern the province's coffers will be slow to recover from historic floods.

The $1-billion Manulife bond fund reduced its allocation of debt from the nation's foremost oil-producing region to 2.2 per cent from the 4.9 per cent it held June 10, while raising its exposure to British Columbia to 10 per cent from 9 per cent.

"British Columbia is in much better shape than Alberta at this time," Terry Carr, who helps oversee $16 billion as head of Canadian fixed-income at Manulife, said in a telephone interview from Toronto last week. "In the near-term, they are in a surplus situation, while Alberta is going to be in a deficit situation."

Alberta's government committed $1 billion to pay for relief from the worst flooding in the province's history as Premier Alison Redford said plans to balance the provincial budget next year would be delayed. Insured losses to the province from the June flooding may total $2.25 billion to $3.75 billion, according to the Bank of Montreal. Uncertainty over the negative financial impact on the province, including its top credit rating and ability to meet its budget goals, is keeping Manulife away, Carr said.

Alberta bonds returned 0.5 per cent through July 18 from June 21 when the province evacuated 75,000 people as water levels rose, while British Columbia bonds gained 0.9 per cent, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch data. British Columbia 10-year bonds outperformed comparable Alberta debt by one to four basis points since June 10, Carr said.

Flooding in Calgary, where most of Canada's oil companies are headquartered, and the province's south will slow growth to 2 per cent from a previously forecast 2.5 per cent, Michael Gregory, senior economist in Toronto at BMO, said in a July 2 note to clients.

As Alberta and its insurers tally the costs of flooding damage, oilsands companies are grappling with the challenges of bringing rising crude production to market amid delays in pipeline projects such as TransCanada Corp.'s $5.3-billion Keystone XL. Canadian energy companies have underperformed U.S. peers by 55 percentage points on Standard & Poor's indexes during the past three years as Western Canada Select oil prices averaged $19.53 a barrel less than the U.S. benchmark, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

Last Thursday, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) launched a new facility designed to develop and harmonize interoperability between electric vehicles and the electric charging infrastructure.

Agreed to in November, 2011, the EV-Smart Grid Interoperability at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Ill., works in concert with the two other interoperability facilities of its kind in Ispra, Italy and The Netherlands, to create global standards and develop technology from the source of the energy all the way down the line to the residential user.

 “[Interoperability Centers] are a gateway to adopting standards and policies that will expand the use of EVs on the road,” said Eric Isaacs, Director of Argonne.

Interoperability means the electrification of vehicles, such as in hybrids, plug in hybrids, and straight evs, can be managed by the power grid without any inconvenience to the end user. The promotional literature states: “Interoperability supports the ideal of universal charging…any plug-in electric vehicle…any electric vehicle supply equipment…anywhere…anytime.”

The Centers establish and develop a system that is followed all through the product life cycle of an electrified vehicle, incorporating applications from auto manufacturers, parts suppliers, public and private charging equipment, power sources, government and consumers.

The green-tie affair in southwest suburban Lemont was a picture of connectivity and harmony, from keynote EU and DOE dignitaries to demonstrations and panels from members of the Big Three automakers, to the energy industry reps to manufacturers in the electronic supply chain. And a whole party of engineers.

Engineers get knocked for their communication skills, yet the minds at the Interoperability Centers are essentially creating a language to be shared by everyone in the twisted net of energy supply, auto manufacturing and policy making, three massive organizations with its own complex, jargon-filled language. Home energy monitor That’s just in the United States. Add the 29 member countries of the European Commission, the prospect of China, and you’re dealing with one of the most complex organisms in mankind. The kind that only an engineer could standardize.

If you’ve ever travelled abroad, you know how problematic outlets and adapters and amps and Hertz and volts and watts can be. Even at home, there are different chargers for different devices. Imagine the same charging inconsistencies with a $40,000 piece of technology.

“The issue is harmonization and interoperability, not necessarily having all the same thing,” explained Phyllis Yoshida, the DOE’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Currently there are three competing EV charging standards: CHADeMO is a DC quick charge protocol originated in Japan and found in the Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi MiEV and a few others; the SAE Combo Coupler used by U.S. and European automakers (and the Interoperability Center) incorporates AC Level 1, Level 2 and DC quick charging; then there’s Tesla, out in Elonland. 

Each standard has its proponents. “From a communications standpoint, the combo coupler can do a lot of smart energy management with that communication protocol,” explained Jason Harper, an electrical engineer in the Center for Transportation Research at Argonne. CHADeMo is only for DC charging, so it would need another communication protocol to communicate with a smart grid.

Mass adoption of electric vehicles would require intensive energy management.

This is where the smart grid comes in. The smart grid essentially means energy management. If you were to look out your backyard or alley, you’d probably see a wire leading from your house to a utility pole with a bigger wire. In residential areas that bigger wire connects to a transformer that supplies power to say 12 houses, depending on where you live and the density of housing. An electric vehicle makes great demand on power supply, much more than refrigeration or air conditioning. So if one person in your web is charging his EV, it’s not a problem. But if the EV market continues to grow, as expected and as promoted by the European Union, the United States and the biggest market in the world, China, then the grid will be correspondingly taxed. So neighbor Bob can charge his car now with no problem, but what will happen if three or five homes that share your transformer are charging at the same time?

“Interoperability will provide standardized devices that are capable of functioning with each other,” said Keith Hardy, Director of the U.S. EV-Smart Grid Interoperability Center at Argonne.

 The devices that tell us how much energy is left in our charge, or how much it would cost to charge a car off-peak or at peak demand, will be the same. A smart grid app on your smart phone (hasn’t “smart phone” gone the way of the “world wide web”?) can show your battery charge, time to end of charge, range left on battery and the ComEd real price of electricity at that moment. If too many cars are charging at the same time, you’ll be notified that you’ve reached “branch load,” explained Hardy. Price can go up, or energy can be redirected in a process called load management, which can save money versus an infrastructure upgrade. It creates an open transaction between supplier and user: you can charge up at peak times and pay more. Or, if you’re not using your EV at peak times, you can sell back that energy into the grid, then recharge later at night to save a buck. It’s like day trading.

“The goal is to align communication as close as possible so everyone knows there will be an open market with free competition,” said Giovanni De Santi, Director of the Interoperability Center in Italy.

With load management, energy becomes an open market commodity where purchasers can make the most informed decision. Smart. Efficient.

This will in turn enable the deregulated energy service providers like ComEd in Illinois or Southern California Edison in Southern California to speak the same language to the same devices that are monitoring and managing energy flow.

The smart grid will also utilize massive energy production coming from intermittent, renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. The uniformity in technological language, how devices speak to each other, and storing and delivering energy from intermittent sources, are best managed by a smart grid. Matched by industry, the DOE has pumped $4.5 billion into smart grid development and boosted the EV industry.
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when everybody else is asking for energy?

At its recent Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft announced its plan for CityNext, an initiative that will utilize its partner network, big data capabilities and Azure, its cloud-based network, to create smarter cities.

"Cities play a vital role in our lives—both now and in the future,” said Laura Ipsen, corporate vice president of Microsoft Worldwide Public Sector in a press release. “Microsoft's CityNext initiative puts people first and builds on this new era of collaborative technology to engage citizens, business and government leaders in new ways."

One Microsoft CityNext partner, Socrata Inc., a cloud software company focused on the shift to data-driven government, leverages Azure to offer governments customizable dashboards, accessible by residents through mobile or Internet to monitor and interact real-time on how their leaders are doing on education, healthcare and job creation.

"The forward-looking CityNext initiative addresses a once-in-a-generation global shift currently taking place in government: opening up government data and using it to enhance citizen services," said Kevin Merritt, CEO and founder at Socrata. "Through simple, familiar apps and devices, governments can now engage everyone, everywhere.”

Currently, Microsoft has enrolled nearly 10 international cities in the program, including: Auckland, New Zealand; Barcelona; Buenos Aires; Hainan Province and Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China; Hamburg, Germany; Manchester, England; Moscow; and Philadelphia.

In the US, Seattle is teaming up with Microsoft to take green building to the next level. Azure will collect hundreds of data points from energy usage to weather conditions. “If you know it’s going to be an extremely hot day, for example, and the wind is blowing at night and the energy is cleaner, doesn’t it make sense to consider pre-cooling your buildings, so that you can use clean energy and you can also use less energy when everybody else is asking for energy?” chief environmental strategist Rob Bernard told KPLU.org.

“You may decide that because of the wind patterns and sun-loads that it turns out the windows on the north side of your building, from floors three to 15, are a problem. So where before you may have replaced everything and spent a lot of capital and disrupted all of your building, Home energy monitor you may be able to be much more intelligent about your renovation.”

"It's sort of like an EKG machine for the human body. You look at certain vitals," added Brian Surratt with Seattle's Office of Economic Development. The goal is to reduce energy use by 10 to 25 percent, even in buildings that are already LEED-certified for efficiency and then make that software available as broadly as possible.

City officials shut off water Tuesday to a pair of Baraboo homeowners who refused to have smart meters installed on their homes.

“The meters, No. 1, are surveillance,” said Audrey Parker of Baraboo, whose water was shut off Tuesday. “They know how many people are in your house. They know what you do throughout the day.”

Parker told members of the city’s Public Safety Committee last fall that new smart meters, installed to monitor her gas and electric usage, had caused her to have heart palpitations. She petitioned to opt out of a city program to install similar devices that would transmit electronic data about water use.

However, city officials balked at her concerns and put her on notice that her water would be shut off if she did not permit the city to install the meter. The meters send a pulse of information to the utility every few hours to report water use.

City officials say the meters require less manpower to track use, and provide other efficiencies, such as more accurate and up-to-date information.

Parker is part of a movement of people who say the meters are the government’s way of keeping tabs on people. They say the meters send out radio frequencies that add to a person’s exposure to radiation.

Baraboo Utility Superintendent Wade Peterson said those concerns are overblown. The meters use a 1-second pulse every four hours to transmit data to a city server, he said, adding that the radiation from that pulse is less than what is emitted by a microwave or cellphone.

The smart meters also typically are installed on the outside of a residence, making them even less of a concern, he said.

In response to a petition from 33 customers of the Madison Water Utility, public health officials from the city of Madison and Dane County conducted a review of literature regarding the potential health risks associated with smart meters. The review found “little evidence” to support an association.

“I’m not in a position to dispute any of that,” said James Sheriff, who also had his water turned off Tuesday. “I’m as medically qualified as a toothpick.”

Sheriff and his wife, Darcy, have aligned with their friend, Parker, to stand against the city’s new smart meter requirement. Even though he says his wife has a health issue that makes access to a running toilet and drinking water necessary, they don’t intend to budge.
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It is urgently needed to restore the system of quality

The essence of Russian space industry reform lies in the human resource management rather than hardware upgrade, a local expert said in the wake of a failed rocket launch.

"A new generation of workers and engineers must come to the industry. We need people who work not as much for money as for being proud of the outcomes of their work," Igor Marinin, editor- in-chief of the Cosmonautic News magazine, told Xinhua on Wednesday.

Those people must be cultivated "gradually and steadily" rather than "purchased" in the labor market in a quick fix way, Marinin said.

A Proton-M rocket carrying three Glonass-M communications satellites exploded shortly after blasting off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, dealing another blow to Russia's disaster-hit space industry.

Since December 2010, Russia has lost five communication satellites and Progress cargo spacecraft carried by Proton-M and Rokot rockets.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said after the explosion that President Vladimir Putin would sign a decree on the reshuffle of the space industry.

Rogozin, Home Energy Management System head of a governmental commission to draft the proposals on how the limping national space industry could be reformed, said the investigation and penalty on the launch failure would be harsh.

"The decisions will be extremely severe toward those responsible for the failures," he said, adding that the Russian space industry must cease to exist in its current shape.

The Russian government was considering a thorough dismantlement of the current management system in the space industry and replacing it with a simple vertically-integrated space-rocket corporation.

Marinin agreed that the space industry has been terribly complicated, multi-layer and self-duplicating. "As a result, everybody's business is nobody's business."

He, however, cautioned against swift changes as the problems have been mounted for decades.

"Reshuffle of the space industry could be difficult because the industry currently may rely only on the 'old timers'," Marinin said.

"The difficulty steams from a fact that the Russian space agency Roscosmos' top management faces strong opposition from exactly these old-generation employees, who remember how reliable the system was during the Soviet times," the expert added.

It is urgently needed to restore the system of quality control in the space industry enterprises. The government's current plans envisage to do that by 2018, but no one can say how many more failures Russian rockets will suffer by that time, the expert said.

He suggested that "every enterprise be attached an independent, outsourced quality control unit, whose employees would be assigned a very good salary, so they have incentive to remain independent."

The employees must also be given authority to "stop the work in a plant if there is a slightest suspicion that the technology is violated, and they must have an authority to severely fine those responsible for malfunctions," Marinin said.
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The seminar will be concluded with a panel discussion

Energy experts are scheduled to join a seminar at the Celylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) auditorium on Friday, July 5 to discuss ways and means to reduce the consumption of energy.

The event, titled ‘Unlocking the benefits of Energy Conservation’ is organized by the CCC and the energy experts will share their knowledge on how energy consumption can be reduced.

Among the experts are: Dr Tilak Siyambalapitiya, Managing Director of the Resource Management Associates (Pvt) Ltd, and Bandula Thilakasena, Additional General Manager, Corporate Strategy Division of the Ceylon Electricity Board. Dr Siyambalapitiya will speak on the current status and future outlook of the electricity sector in Sri Lanka and Mr Thilakasena will elaborate strategies to reduce the Electricity & Fuel Consumption.

These will be followed by three case studies on the industrial, hotel and logistics sectors. These will be delivered by  Iresha Somarathna, Head of Energy and Environment Management of Brandix Lanka Ltd,; Srilal Miththapala, Project Director and Consultant of Greening Sri Lankan Hotels Programme at CCC Solutions (Pvt) Ltd.; and Binupa Liyanage, Director, Logiwiz Ltd.

The seminar will be concluded with a panel discussion and an open forum where the speakers will be joined by two panelists: Harsha Wickremasinghe, Deputy Director General Operations, Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority and Gamini Herath, Deputy Director General, Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka to respond to any queries from the participants.

The recent escalation in electricity tariffs was estimated to increase the electricity bills of most industrial, hotel and commercial enterprises by about 20% - 30%. The tariff change included medium to large consumers in the general purpose category (ie. Non industry and non hotel enterprises) to be levied tariffs under the Time of Day scheme where different tariffs apply based on the time of use of electricity.

Apart from increase in electricity tariffs, the increase in fuel prices made time and again has also led to rise in travel and energy costs. Energy costs have a significant impact on cost of products and services and affect the competitiveness of businesses. Careful management of consumption and use of low energy consuming equipment etc can help businesses to reduce the electricity and fuel bills substantially.

The company late last month secured $5.5 million in Series-A Financing from investors Westly Group and RockPort Capital that is says will enable it to expand its services such as HB Match, an online platform that pairs building owners with qualified building professionals.

HB Match provides an online tool for building services providers to create free, online portfolios of their work, and produces detailed evaluations of these companies based on the project criteria of real estate decision-makers in search of specialists. The result is an efficient process to quickly and thoroughly compare, vet and select the best solution provider for the specific requirements of the project, saving time and resources, Honest Buildings says.

Sitt Asset Management, a New York-based real estate investment firm, used HB Match to compare qualified service providers for multiple capital improvements at 450 Broadway, a turn-of-the-century commercial building in Manhattan for which Sitt is currently executing a complete fa?ade restoration and modernization program in preparation for retail tenancy.

Abe Hedaya, director of operations for Sitt Asset Management, says HB Match saved the company “significant money with no effort on our part.” It also saved time — instead of Sitt Asset Management spending hours searching for firms, Honest Buildings provided the company a list of the most qualified, best-priced options, Hedaya says.

Eneractive Solutions, an energy consulting, engineering and project development firm with offices in the tri-state area, won close to $200,000 in consulting services contracts using Honest Buildings. HB Match includes detailed case studies that show Eneractive Solutions’ work on an array of facilities.

In addition to its HB Match solution, Honest Buildings’ scalable technology is helping municipalities and utilities develop next-generation,Home Energy Management System sustainable buildings and communities.

To date, the states of New York, through its Build Smart NY program, and Connecticut, through its Connecticut Property Assessed Clean Energy or C-PACE program, are using Honest Buildings’ unique HB Platform service to power state-wide online networks that highlight their initiatives, showcase the work being done to improve buildings and provide property owners with tools needed to pinpoint the most qualified vendors for their building projects.
Click on their website www.owon-smart.com for more information.

who have been ravaged by greed

In Youngstown, Ohio, in 1977, the mills close and 5,000 people lose their jobs, and then the shops shutter and the houses burn and people leave in droves. In North Carolina a decade later, Walmart, crack and meth displace local commerce and community. In Washington, D.C., an idealistic public servant arrives expecting to work for the people back home but discovers that big money has taken hold of the city, incentivizing civil servants to cash in and toil for the very entities that they had come to town to fight.

In the everydays of a handful of Americans – including a former auto worker turned community organizer in woefully declining Youngstown, a dreamy entrepreneur in rural North Carolina, and a pol in Washington – there is a window on the big picture of a disillusioned and dispirited nation, torn from its hopes and expectations. This is The Unwinding, the story of our time, the relentless empowerment of the wealthy and the silencing of the great American engines of mobility.

George Packer, a longtime and highly versatile reporter for the New Yorker, travels to the America that politicians and other leaders prefer not to see. In The Unwinding Packer leaves the anomalies of Washington and New York behind and shows how Wall Street, big corporations and the government atomized and polarized us, unspooling “the coil that held Americans together.” In this America, he writes, “everything changes and nothing lasts.”

The reporter’s vision of how things went bad over the past generation covers everything from the fast food-obesity nexus to the loss of localism, the end of cheap oil, the housing collapse and, above all, the death of trust.

Packer’s is a big book, using close portraiture to make huge conclusions about who we’ve become and what we’ve lost. That is the glory of this book, and that is its flaw as well.

When Americans dreamed big, they wrote big, too. From Whitman to Dos Passos, from Mailer and Updike to Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson, novelists and journalists found in the lives of ordinary Americans a hardy, wily individualism and rock-ribbed belief in opportunity, a path out of dark times.

But in this era of diminished resources, extreme inequalities and fraying institutions, the chroniclers of our times suffer from pinched ambition, too. In books, magazines and newspapers, shrunken budgets press writers to devote much of their energy to narrowcasting that tells people what they want to hear.

So it’s a thrill to see a reporter dig deep into the lives of people who have been ravaged by greed, a people who naively kept believing in mobility even as the elites changed the rules. Packer’s character in Youngstown, Tammy Thomas, watches her children move across the country in search of work, and although she resents that the country has changed in ways that splintered her family like that, she understands that they had to go.

In her town, every major institution failed: industry, banks, unions, churches, schools, government.

Packer is at his best when he follows his characters into their daily struggles, when he travels with Dean Price in North Carolina as he tries to come back from bankruptcy by peddling his new scheme to convert restaurants’ waste cooking oil into biodiesel for local schools’ bus fleets, or when Jeff Connaughton, the D.C. public servant, discovers that the civics-class version of how a bill becomes a law has morphed into a rigged game in which all the major players are in the monied establishment’s camp.

The stories of the three main characters are interrupted by staccato headlines from the past two decades; an extended and richly revealing portrait of life in Tampa, epicenter of the foreclosure fiasco; and odd little canned sketches of famous Americans – Newt Gingrich, Sam Walton, Robert Rubin, Jay-Z – who thrived in elite bubbles that feel like an alternate universe compared with the collapse of the rest of the country.

That juxtaposition would have been enough to dramatize the divisions that now define the nation, but Packer is less effective when he slips into angry, sometimes snide generalizations: Tampa “was a torpid apocalypse,” Americans “no longer believed in the future,” and “the real America” is a place of “fallow farms and disability checks and crack.” He’s far better when he lets his reporting work its magic, when he shows how the Obama administration let its focus on the health care bill suck up all the air in Washington after the crash of 2008, leaving his supporters to wonder what had happened to the guy who was going to be their advocate for jobs; or when he connects the dots between the hedge fund manager who makes a $400-million profit on a company in which he invested $14 million even as that company lays off thousands of workers and then rehires a few of them to do double the work at half the pay.

In the end, Packer’s dark rendering of the state of the nation feels pained but true. He offers no false hopes, no Hollywood endings, but he finds power in another strain of American creativity, in the stories of Raymond Carver and the paintings of Edward Hopper, in the dignity and heart of a people who grow deeply lonely as their lives break down, but who somehow retain muscle memory of how to climb back up.
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The other thing is that there is a difference

The Dunkleys Great New Zealand Craft Show seems to be a bit of an institution here in New Zealand, getting to many towns at least once a year, with the usual twice yearly visits at the main centres.

I have been to it four times in the last 12 years, but I came back from the latest show in New Plymouth underwhelmed.

We've always paid for the show which is in itself a difference from other craft markets, and Dunkleys is, when all is said and done, another craft market.

The admission for adults this time was steep - $9 for adults, with only a $1 discount for students and senior citizens. This is a lot of money to pay for a forum where you are expected to go in and purchase stuff.

However, in the past, Dunkleys has always had that "Aha!" factor for me - several exhibitors have had something new and different.

But not this time. There was a lot of doubling up of the stalls.

I can get T-shirts anywhere, and you can only buy so much fudge, scented soap, stamp pads, handmade blouses, scarves and jewellery.

The woodwork and leather stalls had the same old mirrors, chopping boards, belts and (expensive) handbags. The stock was more limited than on previous visits, and there wasn't much that I couldn't find for sale at any larger town craft market.

The other thing is that there is a difference between a "show" and a market. At a show one would expect a certain amount of extra entertainment value, watching people actually working on their chosen craft and being able to marvel at how they make it look so easy.

The Village Blacksmith was a highlight, and it was nice to see someone actually practising their craft, instead of just selling things. And I know knitting is a craft, as is patchworking, but in NZ it is not exactly a dying art, so I please excuse me if I don't get all excited about it.

Maybe I have been spoilt by markets in Nelson, Auckland and Brisbane, but I miss the weaving of cloth and flax, the spinning of the wool that is to be knitted, the jewellery making in front of your eyes, and the leather goods man who makes things to order while you wait.

The first time I went to Dunkleys in New Plymouth 12 years ago the TSB stadium was packed with new and interesting crafts which I still remember.

There were bronze earrings with many Maori themes, particularly those symbols which are not so well known. I think the man who makes cool things out of copper was there for the first time, and his stall was interesting and innovative. This time his stall was not very full, and everything had a tired look about it. I looked for the amazingly painted teapots, and the beautiful woven Maori kite, but none were to be found.

 The 'Cougar Town' star, whose divorce from David Arquette was recently finalised, was joined by her close friends including Isla Fisher, Molly Sims, Laura Dern and Tobey Maguire's jewellery designer wife Jennifer Meyer, at a party in Santa Monica, California.

The former 'Friends' star, who has an eight-year-old daughter, Coco, with David, shared a few pictures from the party on Twitter, including one of her with her famous friends with the caption: "Dancin with my girls. (Sic)"

 She also posted a picture of her with Coco, writing: "Every birthday is perfect with my favourite girl."

Other guests at the bash included Courteney's co-stars Christa Miller and Brian Van Holt, but her close pal Jennifer Aniston was noticeably absent.

Her ex-husband was also not at the party despite Courteney recently insisting that David is still her best friend.

She said: "He's my best friend in the world. I love him.

"I appreciate David more now than I ever did. I mean ... it's hard. I don't recommend divorce in general, but, you know, he is my best friend and we've both grown and changed."

The couple got together after meeting of the set of the first 'Scream' film in 1995 and married in 1999, before separating in October 2010 but only filed for divorce in June 2012 and it was finalised last month.
Click on their website www.owon-smart.com for more information.

who grow up without a father are more likely to suffer

The Wyong Roos scored 26 unanswered points to register their first home win of 2013 when they defeated Manly 26-10 on Sunday.

Played in horrendous conditions, both sides took some time to find their feet, but it was Manly who struck first when Ben Farrar crossed for the visitors.

Not too long after, Manly had their second when James Hasson dived on a grubber kick that was not defused by Wyong in the greasy conditions and with Chisholm's conversion the visitors had scooted out to an early 10-0 lead.

Things were not looking good for the home side early doors however they managed to deny Manly again and again despite conceding ground and possession regularly during the first forty minutes.

The home side got on the board when Levi Pulu charged over and then in the shadows of the first half, Todd Wilson ran onto a beautiful ball to see the sides locked up at 10-10 at the main break.

Whatever Paul Stringer said to his troops at half time appeared to have had its desired affect as his men scored three tries in the opening fifteen minutes of the second half courtesy of Malau, Williams and Uaisele who capped off a brillaint team try.

With the score at 26-10, neither side could add anything further to the scoreboard over the concluding 20 minutes, with the home side in particular probably unlucky not to have added to Manly's woes with a few more tries.

With the win, Wyong has leap frogged Manly on the ladder, and with the two points for the bye this weekend, they may even find themselves in 11th place by rounds end.

Manly will need to regroup quickly as they head across the Tasman to face a reinvigorated Vulcans side on Sunday.

In 50 years, our society has gone from “father knows best” to “father knows nothing” to “who needs a father?” While some may view this as a modern advancement, I see it as a disastrous erosion of how family best operates.

There have always been single moms – women who sacrifice everything for the welfare of their children. In past times, the circumstances were identified as tragic, calling for the support of family and community. When did we make tragedy the accepted norm?

No woman can be mom and dad to her children. Children who grow up without a father are more likely to suffer from a gamut of ills, from poverty to suicide.

Poor examples of fatherhood have, for some, watered down the beauty of a dad’s unique contributions. Nevertheless, fathers provide two specific emotional needs for which Mom, try as she may, cannot completely compensate.

First, fathers provide a sense of security. Unfortunately, some fathers have used their superior physical strength and their booming voice to intimate rather than to protect. However, for generations and throughout cultures, a man’s responsibility has been to protect the women and children under his care. This includes not only physical protection but also financial provision and the display of healthy authority in the home.

Fathers also pass down a blessing to their children. A mom believes her son or daughter is a success no matter what. The child who scratches out “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on a violin is destined for first chair in the New York Philharmonic, according to Mom. Dad’s validation is different. The son or daughter who never receives this blessing may unconsciously spend a lifetime searching for it.

We live in a society of parents who sacrifice to give everything to our children – everything except what matter most. Forgo the soccer team and designer jeans; fight for our kids to have dads.
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which refers to a building

Wearing a hard hat and safety goggles, Stanford University student Derek Ouyang stood in the middle of a partially constructed solar house, which shaded a group of working students from the heat of a sunny May afternoon. A senior studying civil engineering and architectural design, Ouyang looked back-and-forth between the digital blueprint on his laptop screen and the home-to-be around him.

"I'm very interested in making it easier for people to understand how energy works and to make better decisions," he said.

In a bid to bring this understanding to life, Project Leader Ouyang and the first-ever Stanford Solar Decathlon team are building an energy-efficient solar house to participate in a two-year-long competition hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy.

This October, 20 collegiate teams from around the world will transport their completed solar homes to the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Calif., where each team's structure will be open to the public and evaluated by judges in 10 categories such as affordability, energy balance and market appeal.

After hearing about the last Solar Decathlon, held in Washington, D.C., in 2011, Ouyang and a handful of other students were inspired to write a proposal to take part in the competition. In January of last year, the team was officially invited to participate. The department is giving them $100,000 to complete the project, a 1,000-square-foot energy-efficient solar home.

With the help of five carpenters, the team began construction in March and had the framework up within the first two weeks of construction, Ouyang said. He added that the team also has received funding through donations from Stanford and companies such as DIRECTV totaling one million dollars. The money will go towards incentivizing participation in the project as well as travel and other expenses, and the overall projected cost to construct the home is $250,000.

Today, the team is made up of about 40 undergraduate and graduate students in disciplines like civil and environmental engineering, architectural design and computer science, and many of them spend hours every week either volunteering or doing paid construction and design work on the house.

One team member who spends anywhere from 15 to 20 hours a week on the project is Communications Leader Lilly Shi, a junior studying architectural design. She explained that the house, which the team has dubbed Start.Home, is a response to much of the modern-day rhetoric on energy-efficient homes.

"You see a lot of stuff in magazines and articles talking about smart homes that have great technology," she said, "but we didn't just want a smart home. We wanted something where people could interact with it. We envision this as a new lifestyle, a new tradition and a new generation."

In Smart.Home, interactivity takes the form of a built-in software system. A touch screen mounted on an interior wall acts as a control panel for the home, allowing occupants to monitor their energy consumption and turn appliances, and outlets, on or off, Shi said.

"People become an active aspect of the design and a part of the project," she added. "It's not a smart home -- it's really a start. People can start prioritizing awareness through its integration into their every day lives."

Shi noted that the software system is just part of what makes the team's solar home special. She explained that the team has come up with a concept known as the "core," which "condenses a lot of the complicated systems. You have your kitchen and the bathroom and the laundry in the same area so right off the bat there's going to be most of your plumbing.

"This is going to be the powerhouse for your electricity and other things like that, so all of these wires and all of these tubes will run along the walls of the core to power the rest of the house, but it's still a functional architectural space."

Although the team is building their core on-site, Shi said that the team hopes to one day streamline the process by mass-producing cores at a factory. Because the core is a standard, centralized system containing all a solar home needs to function, people can customize their home's design around the core, which "literally plugs into the house," she said.

Because all of the home's pipes will be in one area, the core will also lend itself to easier maintenance and a greater understanding of the inner-workings of the home, leading to a "human-centered design that breaks the barrier between residents and their relationship with energy," Ouyang said.

Ouyang explained that the core of the house is connected to 48 solar panels on the roof. The home also features energy-efficient materials like insulated walls and a wax-like phase-change material found in the ceiling, whose chemical components allow it to store and release heat with external and internal temperature changes.

Ultimately, the team's goal is to create a net-zero home, which refers to a building that produces as much or more electricity than it consumes, Ouyang said.

As far as saving electricity through a reduction in temperature regulation, this particular home was designed with the Palo Alto climate in mind, Ouyang said. The area's characteristic mild-to-warm temperatures and ample sun informed the design of the home, which includes many windows to let in sunlight and folding patio doors that can open up the back of the home, facilitating air circulation.

For now, Shi said, the home is being built in five separate sections that can easily be taken apart. This is because in October, the team will have to disassemble the home and send it down to Southern California on four or five flatbed trucks, she said.
Read the full story at owon-smart web.

who we have trained up through the scheme

Instead of using bows and arrows to take from the rich and give to the poor, she uses the money spent by wealthy people on her expensive handmade pieces to help some of the world's most disadvantaged communities.

With her jewellery selling for as much as ￡70,000 per item, London-based Pippa is in demand with fashion houses like Gucci, Chloe and Nicole Farhi.

Her designs are worn by celebrities including actress Nicole Kidman, and Pippa attends fashion weeks around the world. Yet in stark contrast to such glitz and glamour, she also inhabits a completely different world.

"Just as I was starting the business full-time 10 years ago, I had spent a summer working with Burmese refuges in Thailand, Home energy monitor who were just full of horror stories, horrendous testimonies," she says.

"And I remember coming back to Europe to go to the Paris fashion week, and just being struck dumb by the contrast. I just couldn't reconcile the two completely different realities."

Instead of using bows and arrows to take from the rich and give to the poor, she uses the money spent by wealthy people on her expensive handmade pieces to help some of the world's most disadvantaged communities.

With her jewellery selling for as much as ￡70,000 per item, London-based Pippa is in demand with fashion houses like Gucci,Home energy management  Chloe and Nicole Farhi.

Her designs are worn by celebrities including actress Nicole Kidman, and Pippa attends fashion weeks around the world. Yet in stark contrast to such glitz and glamour, she also inhabits a completely different world.

"Just as I was starting the business full-time 10 years ago, I had spent a summer working with Burmese refuges in Thailand, who were just full of horror stories, horrendous testimonies," she says.

"And I remember coming back to Europe to go to the Paris fashion week, and just being struck dumb by the contrast. I just couldn't reconcile the two completely different realities."

Today Pippa gets 70% of her jewellery made in India, "the world's gold jewellery capital", with the profits she makes from this main part of her business being invested into special collections made in workshops in countries such as Afghanistan,owon-smart  Kenya, Panama and Bolivia from locally sourced materials.

While Pippa admits she has a profitable business and good lifestyle, in all countries she pays at least a 10% premium to ensure working standards are as high as possible, both in sourcing the metals and precious stones she uses, and for the workers who then make the jewellery.

In Bolivia her jewellery is made from gold produced in a mine that is run as a co-operative, and is working towards Fairtrade accreditation through it being run in as an environmentally friendly a way as possible.

In marked contrast, Pippa's Kenya-made jewellery is all made from recycled glass and scrap metal sourced from Nairobi's largest waste tip.

Working with the Made charity, 160 people who live in a slum next to the site are involved in the manufacture of the jewellery.

"They live in completely inhuman conditions, but they are really industrious, going through the garbage seeing what they can sell," says Pippa.

"I know we are only helping a very small number, but it is amazing to see the difference we can make - it is all about giving these people the confidence of having a skill and being able to contribute.

"Within a couple of years, many people who we have trained up through the scheme leave to start their own micro-businesses. That is particularly pleasing."

With two Pippa Small boutiques, one in London and the other in Los Angeles, she plans to continue to grow both the business and her work with disadvantaged groups.

The demand for the precious metal will continue to be robust

NEW DELHI India’s gold imports dropped by 5.7 per cent to 215 tonnes in the January-March period of 2013, even as its demand rose by 27 per cent to 256.5 tonnes, World Gold Council (WGC) said on Thursday.

The demand for the precious metal will continue to be robust in the coming months though the government has imposed some curbs on imports, the WGC said, while cautioning that any further supply controls will activate unauthorised channels, WGC said in its report.

Gold import and demand in India, the world’s largest consumer, stood at 228 tonnes and 202.1 tonnes, respectively, in the year-ago period, it said. “Gold imports were 215 tonnes in the first quarter of 2013 as compared to 228 tonnes in the same period last year.

On the bullion market, gold prices dropped to one-month low by losing Rs500 to Rs26,800 per 10 grams on heavy selling by stockists driven by weak global trend.

This fall was in continuation to a steep fall of Rs600 on Wednesday to hit a level last seen on April 17, after the metal tumbled in overseas markets driven by reports investors cutting their holdings. Imports remained lower as stockists had purchased heavily in the previous quarter in anticipation of rise in import duty,” WGC India Managing Director Somasundaram PR told reporters.

Of the total demand of 256.5 tonnes, the WGC said the country’s jewellery demand rose by 15 per cent to 159.5 tonnes from 138.3 tonnes, while investment demand increased by 52 per cent to 97 tonnes from 63.8 tonnes in the review period.

“Gold demand in India for both jewellery and investment continues to remain strong. The price fluctuations in gold recently have only served to reinforce Indian consumers’ appetite for purchasing physical gold,” Somasundaram said.

Good rabi crop and lower gold prices during February led to higher jewellery demand, the WGC said, adding that “the negative impact of rise in gold import duty in late January was for the most part eliminated by these positive factors”.

Sharing outlook for April-June quarter, WGC India chief said demand for gold would remain robust due to lower prices and higher buying in the ongoing wedding and festive season.

The demand will also be fuelled by an expected rise in rural income on good monsoon projected this year. Besides, there are 20 per cent more auspicious days this year and this will drive demand for the precious metal, he said.

Asked if import curbs will reduce demand, he said: “There is nothing to interrupt buying. Trying to restrict gold demand may not be effective. We believe putting further controls on supply side is not going to reduce demand, instead it might encourage unauthorised channels.”

Due to high current account deficit, the government is seeing gold as an expense, while households look at it as an investment, he added.

He suggested that over 20,000 tonnes of gold is kept idle in India and the government should take measures to monetise it to boost the economic activity.

In terms of value, WGC said India’s gold demand rose by 32 per cent to Rs728.99 billion in the January-March period of this year as against Rs551.49 billion in the year-ago period.

Out of this, gold jewellery demand rose by 20 per cent to Rs453.31 billion from Rs377.39 billion, while investment demand increased by 58 per cent to Rs275.68 billion from Rs174.09 billion in the review period.

The way Hinchcliffe and series officials see it

When he’s not fine-tuning the No. 27 car for team owner Michael Andretti, he’s making promotional appearances for sponsors or trying to sell the sport to non-IndyCar fans. And if he’s not busy doing those things or goofing around with friends and colleagues in Gasoline Alley, Hinchcliffe can almost certainly be found patrolling the Internet as the self-appointed Mayor of Hinchtown.

Somehow, Hinchcliffe has found time to do all of it, still win races and become one of the most popular drivers on the circuit.

“He’s a dream for a sponsor because he’s great out of the car and he’s great in the car, too,” Andretti said Sunday, Home energy monitor the second day of Indianapolis 500 practice. “James has a way of turning it (the racing focus) off, and then turning it back on, which is a real talent.”

The Oakville, Ont., is nothing like the feisty rivals that dominated the sport in its glory days and he doesn’t have the same personality of his team owner, who admittedly came across as standoffish during his career because he was so focused on driving cars.

Instead, the 26-year-old has embraced social media and enjoys life. His unusual list of includes flannel shirts, maple syrup and dog sled racing.

Over the winter, Hinchcliffe and a few other drivers carved out time to dress in fire suits and cut a series of humorous online videos at the IndyCar office. The way Hinchcliffe and series officials see it, there’s no such thing as overexposure.

“When you have someone that has the talent, results, Home energy management personality and understands the business side of IndyCar racing as well as engaging fans, you have a near perfect combination that allows a driver to transcend outside of motorsports,” IndyCar vice-president of marketing Kasey Coler said.

But the attraction goes far deeper than Hinchcliffe’s engaging personality.

A year ago when Hinchcliffe got his big break, replacing Danica Patrick as the driver of the No. 27 car, he immediately started cracking jokes about becoming the first Go Daddy guy. Turns out, he’s just the big man on the IndyCar series this year with two wins in four races — one more win than Patrick had in her IndyCar career. He’s currently fourth in points, trailing leader Takuma Sato of Japan by 24.

What’s different for Hinchcliffe this season? Not much.

“I knew there was always going to be a big gap stepping into the Go Daddy car and following Danica,” Hinchcliffe said. “But I think it was important to make this ride our own and create our own identify, and I think we’ve done that.”

His rapid ascension has been remarkable.

Three years ago, Hinchcliffe came to Indianapolis as a rising star in the Firestone Indy Lights series. A few days after competing in the Freedom 100, he returned to the 2.5-mile oval to help call the better-known Indianapolis 500 on the radio — as an analyst.

By 2011, Hinchcliffe’s exuberant personality helped him land a full-time gig with the once heavyweight team of Newman-Haas Racing. The IndyCar rookie produced three fourth-place finishes and seven top-10s in 16 starts that season, then lost his job when Newman-Haas ceased operations.

Andretti needed a personable driver with oodles of talent to replace Patrick and keep the sponsors happy, but he also wanted somebody who would fit in with an already established team.

Hinchcliffe was the perfect choice, and it showed. Ryan Hunter-Reay wound up winning year’s points title and this year’s second race while Hinchcliffe won the season-opener at St. Petersburg and last weekend’s race at Brazil. Andretti’s son, Power monitor Marco, also is coming to Indy with the best start of his career.

“He is just putting it all together, same as me,” Marco Andretti said. “You could say it’s a team thing because it started last year.”

But Hinchcliffe is not satisfied.

After qualifying second for last year’s 500, a bad pit stop forced him to settle for a sixth-place finish.

He’s come back as this year as one of the hottest drivers in the series and with a team that has dominated the first two months of the season.

It happened again Sunday when the Andretti drivers nearly swept the top five spots on the practice speed chart.

“It never really shuts off,” Hunter-Reay said. “It’s fun and he brings out more in me. It’s a good atmosphere within the team, but he’s fun to work with and as much as he is great in front of the camera, he’s got a lot of obligations. Like now, he’s got to go cut out for the ‘Wind Tunnel’ obligations and he’s fast in a race car, too.”

The track is very sensitive to temperature fluctuations

Nowadays there are only seven Grands Prix in Europe, as F1’s commercial rights holder follows the money and emerging market countries outbid the traditional venues for the right to host a Grand Prix. This process has been exacerbated by the eurozone crisis.

The sport has duly pushed out to new frontiers, particularly in Asia. But the audience has been slow to follow the trend – the core audience for the sport remains in Europe. According to industry monitor Repucom, Europe retains more than 60 per cent of the global television audience, with South America and Asia well behind, on around 15 per cent each.

This European phase of the F1 season runs from May to September, interrupted only by a brief dash to Montreal in June. The racing starts in Barcelona, Spain, which has hosted a Grand Prix for 22 years. In recent years Spain had two Grand Prix events, Home energy monitor with another held around the former America’s Cup yacht-racing base in Valencia, but the financial crisis in Spain has put paid to that. Valencia closed its doors after the 2012 event and now Spain has only one race, aligning it with every other country on the F1 calendar.

Each of the 19 Grand Prix venues has a unique character, but the 4.6km Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona is perhaps the quintessential F1 circuit. It has a mixture of slow, medium and fast corners, and short and long straights. Its layout makes it the best test of a racing car, which is why the circuit has been used by teams as a test venue since its inception in 1991.

Ironically, it is also the circuit that most frustrates the teams, particularly the engineers, many of whom have a love/hate relationship with the place. This is partly because they know it better than any other circuit, due to all the preseason test sessions. Many thousands of kilometres of running are done there and they know every inch of its surface, yet it is in a constant process of change.

The track is very sensitive to temperature fluctuations, so it is constantly evolving. A car that tops the timesheets in the morning can be off the pace in the afternoon without anyone tinkering with the settings. The circuit is also susceptible to sudden gusts of wind that unsettle the cars.

It is also a very tough circuit on the tyres. Turn three, for example, is a long right-hander, taken at 240kph, with the car and driver subjected to 4.5G laterally for up to eight seconds. Home energy management The driver’s neck feels it and so does the right front tyre. Race strategy around Barcelona is usually dictated by how long that tyre lasts.

It adds up to a significant challenge, which is why a win in Barcelona is so rewarding.

“I have won twice in Barcelona and I was on the podium there last year,” says R?ik?nnen, who lies second in the F1 World Drivers’ Championship. “It’s a circuit where you have to get everything exactly right to be at the top. All the teams have tested many times at this circuit, so to get an advantage there is not very easy. The set up is crucial as the track changes with the wind and temperature, so there’s plenty of work for the engineers.”

Another reason why teams and drivers often leave Barcelona disappointed is because they usually bring a substantial upgrade package for their cars to this race – the culmination of 10-12 weeks of research and development work in the wind tunnel and long hours of fabrication.

This package might typically comprise a new front and rear wing, Power monitor new bodywork or perhaps even a new floor. An effective upgrade will bring a performance gain of between three and four 10ths of a second per lap. But often the quixotic nature of the Barcelona track means expectations are not met. Many leave the track scratching their heads.

But all agree Barcelona is the ultimate test of how well a car works and results there are usually a reliable indicator for the rest of the season.

For that reason, although it may not match the glamour and prestige of Monaco or the Singapore night race, it is a race the teams all want to win.

Handpicked Skeptic to Pitch Hardball Questions at Warren Buffett

“It’s fair to say that I’m Daniel in the lion’s den,” Douglas A. Kass, the head of Seabreeze Partners Management, said on Thursday in the middle of his trip to Nebraska. “But I’ve prepared intensely.”

The addition of Mr. Kass, who is Berkshire’s first credentialed bear and is betting that the company’s stock will fall, is the latest adjustment to a formula that has been in place for decades. More than 18,000 shareholders flock to Omaha in early May every year, hoping to listen to what one of the country’s most celebrated investors has to say.

Most years, shareholders have asked a wide range of largely softball questions, from the billionaire’s thoughts on the global economy to his religious beliefs.

But Mr. Buffett has tried to toughen up the questioning at the annual meeting, a 180-degree turn from what the majority of publicly traded companies seek to do. He has asked reporters,In home display  including one from The New York Times, and analysts to ask tougher questions.

Inviting Mr. Kass, 64, is perhaps the boldest move yet. The hedge fund manager is best known for his frequently contrarian positions, often on display in appearances on television shows about business and in his column. Mr. Kass has also pointed to his time working for Ralph Nader while a student.

“See if you can drive the stock down 10 percent,” Mr. Buffett teased his new foil during a CNBC interview in March.

Mr. Kass has repeatedly explored Berkshire’s weaknesses over the years, including a 2008 article. Among his arguments at the time were Mr. Buffett’s advanced age and the company’s slowing growth.

Mr. Kass maintains a short position on Berkshire’s shares, whose size he declined to disclose other than to describe it as average-size for him. But he spent the last month reading up on Mr. Buffett and his company,Home energy management  and as of Thursday was winnowing 25 potential questions down to six.

Two, he contended, would generate big news if Mr. Buffett answers them. The others have not been asked before, he said.

All the while, Mr. Kass said, he has remained an admirer of Mr. Buffett, sometimes referred to as the Oracle of Omaha. Since beginning his research, manager Mr. Kass has found a number of similarities with Mr. Buffett. For example, both have been treated for prostate cancer, and both once collected discarded horse-racing tickets at tracks in their younger days.

For his first trip to the Berkshire meeting, Mr. Kass is bringing his son and a group of friends.

“I’m psyched,” he said. “It’s like the financial World Series to me.”

Apart from Mr. Kass, many elements of previous Berkshire meetings will be in place again this year. Mr. Buffett, 82, is likely to reiterate that his company — a huge conglomerate that counts railroads, private jets and running shoes among its holdings — has a succession plan in place for when he finally hangs up his investor’s hat.

He will also most likely discuss his hunger to strike more big deals, one of his signature corporate moves. Neither of his acquisitions this year appears to qualify for the giant takeovers he craves: Berkshire teamed up with a Brazilian investment firm to buy H. J. Heinz for $23 billion, and it bought the 20 percent of the Israeli tool maker IMC that it did not already own for about $2 billion.

“It’s back to work; Charlie and I have again donned our safari outfits and resumed our search for elephants,” Mr. Buffett wrote in his annual investor letter, referring to his longtime investing partner, Charles T. Munger, Berkshire’s vice chairman.

He is also expected to discuss his recent newspaper buying spree, having bought 28 dailies over the last year and a half for $344 million. While the acquisition campaign is not the most expensive he has ever conducted, Power monitor Mr. Buffett has described himself as an addict who sees value in local news.

It is unclear whether he will be asked about another new move: into social media. On Thursday at 11:20 a.m. Omaha time, Mr. Buffett overcame a famous aversion to technology by posting his first message on Twitter. “Warren is in the house,” he wrote as a camera for Fortune magazine hovered over his shoulder, capturing every tap.

By late afternoon, his post had been reposted more than 25,000 times, and his nascent Twitter account had drawn 176,000 followers. Among them is Mr. Kass, a prolific user of Twitter who has been documenting his passage to Omaha.

The foray was a surprise, given that Mr. Buffett once claimed he missed an important message about Lehman Brothers because he did not know how to check his phone’s voice mail.

“I guess he’s not as much of a Luddite as he professes,” Mr. Kass said.

Mr. Buffett dryly hinted that Twitter had a little more in its favor than other platforms.

“The co-founder came from Nebraska,” he said, in an apparent reference to a Twitter co-founder, Evan Williams. “So it can’t all be bad.”

The accomplished sculptor is often invited to judge international

Finding Pat Galbraith’s home in Belgravia is easy. The artist’s fascination with stone is visible halfway down the older, residential street. That’s because one of her earliest works — a boulder-sized, concrete sculpture she based on the letter “A” and calls Alpha — rests in the front yard.

Pat and her husband Bernie started planning their dream home after recurrent flooding and cracking of the foundation of their 1950s semi-bungalow could no longer be ignored.

Sadly, the day they signed on with a contractor to replace the home, Home energy monitor Bernie received news of a dire cancer prognosis.

“I just thought, why would we not continue? This was something we were both looking forward to,” says Pat, adding that it gave them both something positive to focus on.

The couple proceeded with plans to rent the house across the street, and settled in to watch their vision come to life. They wanted to create a bright, accessible, low-maintenance, energy-efficient home that they could live in “forever.”

“Bernie lived to see the framing of the house,” says Pat.

His dream home included a central airy core, to take advantage of north and south light, and to provide a place for “the dog to run circles around,” adds Pat with a laugh.

The accomplished sculptor is often invited to judge international competitions, and her passion for design and shape is evident throughout the home. For instance, at the large front entryway, Home energy management a striking horizontal line of assorted brushed stainless steel planks screens the central staircase and reflects light.

The main-floor kitchen is dominated by a 15-foot curved island also clad in brushed stainless steel. Its inspiration was a circular bar carved out of ice that caught Pat’s eye at a sculpting competition in Ottawa.

“To accommodate a couple of people and a potential wheelchair, I just took an arch of it and stretched it,” says Pat. A nook at one end provides seating for two on shiny white leather-and-chrome, high-backed stools.

The room is tiled in rectangular, warm mid-grey porcelain that has already proven itself as “amazingly dense” and forgiving when one of her small, but heavy bronze sculptures took a tumble.

The countertops are granite, accented by pomegranate-coloured flecks of industrial garnet embedded in the soft grey-and-brown surface.

The couple designed the home with the help of architect Anneliese Fris, who was “very receptive” to their input. They also consulted friends and other new-home owners.

Pat says everyone they asked loved having a walk-in pantry but universally wished the space was bigger. So the rear room is large enough to include a tall, wooden work bench Pat found at Home Depot. This pantry/workspace is also “perfect” for large appliances, and muted-glass cupboards from Ikea open to reveal clear glass shelves, so everything stored up high is visible from below.

Floor-to-ceiling windows and glass french doors throughout the main floor provide natural light year-round. Deep window ledges are display areas for Pat’s prolific and diverse work along with favourite collections, including sculptures by Charles Hilton.

Afternoon light filtering into her large office casts wonderful shadows from her early pieces and creations,Power monitor  including a bestselling teapot based on a part of the male anatomy.

An elevator installed discretely behind the main staircase ensures that the home is fully accessible. Closet-like doors reveal the small, wood-panelled lift, which Pat uses regularly to shuttle laundry to and from the basement.

In the second-floor master bedroom, a polished sled-style, cherry wood bed — that between moving and storage took Pat seven years to finish — beckons. “I was going to carve angels from the Hansel and Gretel opera at my head and feet, but I never got around to doing that. If I get around to carving it, that’s fine, and if I don’t, that’s fine too.”

Pat tiled the ensuite bathroom herself. A bench in the large, glass, walk-in shower was on Bernie’s “must-have” list. She loves relaxing in the shiny white, claw-foot tub with dainty silver-capped feet.

The vibrant 70-year-old says this floor is where she spends the most time, because it is home to her large studio. Her previous studio was in the garage, where “there was no room left for a breath, let alone an idea.”

This is being celebrated in many quarters

The twice-yearly meetings of CEOs from the major electricity suppliers in Australia has become something of an institution for the industry leaders. They are for a specifically designed as a private forum to raise issues of concern to the industry. In the past, issues such as renewable energy targets, the carbon price, network upgrades have been the focus of attention. In last month’s meeting in Sydney, however,In home display  it was about something more fundamental: the very future of their businesses.

Business models for electricity generators and network operators have been largely untroubled for generations. But here in Australia, and across the globe, they are being challenged by new technologies that take the power (quite literally) of the market out of their hands, and into those of their customers – a trend driven by the plunging cost of solar PV and a whole series of “enablers” such as storage, smart meters and other technologies.

This is being celebrated in many quarters as the “democratisation of energy”. Needless, to say, for the oligarchs that have dominated the industry for decades, it spells nothing but trouble. In Germany, Macquarie Group thinks that the electricity system as it is currently constructed is already “kaput”, and that the impact of rooftop solar is “unstoppable” in several European countries, with major implications for incumbent utilities. UBS , Deutsche and JP Morgan agree that solar PV has become a “no brainer” for customers, even in Europe.
In the US, as Duke Energy (the largest utility) and NRG (the largest generator) both agree, a solar revolution is already at hand.

 “Consumers are realising they don’t need the power industry at all,” said David Crane, the head of NRG.
Curiously, in Australia, with the highest penetration of rooftop solar in the world – more than one million houses now have solar PV – you don’t hear the incumbent network operators heralding such a revolution, Home energy monitor but they are no less obsessed about the potential outcome.
And, as David Roberts from Grist wrote the other day, the challenge of having to reshape their business models has, if you’ll excuse another pun, come as a shock to the system.

“Remember … that these utilities are not Google or Facebook,” Roberts wrote in one of a series of articles that are recommended reading. “They are not accustomed to a state of constant market turmoil and reinvention.
“This is a venerable old boys network, working very comfortably within a business model that has been around, virtually unchanged, for a century. A friggin’ century, more or less without innovation, and now they’re supposed to scramble and be all hip and new-age? Unlikely.”

But that is the challenge at hand. The issues canvassed at last month’s meeting of the old boys’ network in Australia included what many agree is a vicious circle. The networks that they have been encouraged to supersize in the last few years are losing what had been considered to be a “given” in the industry – ever increasing demand, and a dependable rise in revenues.
That has come as a result of a troika of new influences – declining manufacturing capacity, the impact of energy efficiency schemes, and the ability of households to produce some of their own electricity requirements from rooftop solar systems.

Add to this a new phenomenon – the “inelasticity” of rising electricity bills. It was generally believed that people would continue consuming and paying, even with rising bills. But now the customers have an option not to. And while the process of super-sizing the electricity grid has made contributed to a near doubling in electricity prices, the cost of solar PV has fallen by more than 80 per cent.

There is now clearly a cheaper alternative for homeowners with suitable rooftops – as are other options such as investments in technologies such as energy efficient appliances and lighting. As even the US Edison Electricity Institute, a trade grouping of US utilities, noted last week in an echo of Crane’s warning, customers are realising that they may not need the grid any more, or at most as a back-up. This, it says, will cause “irreparable damages to revenues and (the ) growth prospects” of utilities.
What are the networks to do? They complain that the solar PV is eating out revenue during the day but not solving the capacity problems of the evening peaks.

That particular problem may be solved by another technology that is following closely on the heals of solar PV – battery storage. This is considered by some in the solar industry to be the “holy grail” (it used to be socker parity, but we’re past that now). But even if it removes much of the evening peaks, and the need for bigger networks in the future, it doesn’t necessarily help the networks address their major current problem, which is ensuring they get revenue from network investments already made.

As more and more households and businesses turn to solar, and progressively storage, the more revenue networks will need to source from fixed charges and from their remaining clients. This is known as the “death spiral”. The more utilities appear to declare war on their customers, and seek to make solar unattractive by increases in fixed charges, and raising tariffs, and regulatory barriers, the more battery storage and distributed energy seems appealing. The more utilities feel they are competing against their customers, the quicker they will become estranged.

The only reasonable option seems to be to encourage people to consume more. Mandating them to turn on more air conditioning, or re-install wasteful appliances, obviously won’t work. Time to think of something new.

That option could be electric vehicles. EVs are starting to make inroads into the market, inspired by “first users” and those with the money to indulge, and utilities are only playing around at the edges. Encouraging their use – as EV costs inevitably fall – will not just increase demand on the electricity grid, snapping the death spiral scenario and reassuring investors, but could also present socially attractive options such as providing an accelerated and clearer path to a smarter energy system, and reduce Australia’s expensive reliance on imported and dirty fossil fuels. That can then be presented as a hedge against the rising cost of diesel and petrol, and turn the closure of refineries in Australia into a virtue rather than a regret.

The appeal of enhanced home security systems

It’s that time of year again: Flowers are blooming,learn how to choose a Home power monitor. the weather is warmer, and spending an afternoon outside is a pleasant prospect. In addition to more bearable temperatures, spring also motivates many homeowners to begin home improvement projects.

This year, as part of your home upgrade, why not consider smart home technology? Integrating security with advanced technology, a smart home provides protection for you and your family, while giving you the ability to remotely control your home’s thermostat and monitor what’s going on when you’re away – all from your smartphone or tablet.

The Electronic Security Association (ESA),The In home display allows utility customers to track their energy. whose members are leaders in security and integrated technology, offers the following three reasons you should add comfort, convenience and security to your home this spring.The Home Energy Management market continues to struggle for more traction.

Not only is security a critical component of smart home technology, it’s also one of the most popular features among homeowners. A survey released by the Consumer Electronics Association reported that 62 percent of consumers interested in smart home technology were initially intrigued by the security aspect.

The appeal of enhanced home security systems stems from their user-friendly design and convenient lifestyle enriching benefits such as remote monitoring and control. For instance, if your home is equipped with an enhanced security system, you’ll never have to wonder if you armed it or locked the front door. Simply log in on your smartphone, tablet or other web-enabled device, check the status of your home and secure it with the push of a button.

Pull the plug on high energy bills
Whether it’s leaving the lights on, forgetting to adjust the thermostat before your week-long vacation, or those pesky appliances referred to as “energy vampires”, there are many ways energy can be wasted in your home. Fortunately, you don’t have to dine by candlelight to combat high energy bills; you just need a little technology.

Many smart homeowners using technology as an energy management solution have reported up to 30 percent savings on their monthly utility bills. You can keep your home running efficiently by managing your thermostat, lights and appliances via the web. It’s an easy way to conserve energy and save money.

Utilize life-saving home alerts
Fire, burglary and carbon monoxide poisoning are just a few events that can destroy your home or threaten the lives of loved ones. Fortunately, enhanced home security systems give you a warning that can help protect what’s important to you.

Through instant alerts sent directly to your smartphone, you can be notified the moment your security or smoke alarms are activated or bypassed. In addition, you can program surveillance cameras within your home to send a live video feed from the zone in which the alarm has been triggered. This real-time technology allows you to react quickly and stay up-to-date during emergency situations.

No matter how you decide to upgrade the technology in your home this spring, it’s important to find a company that is both qualified and trusted within your community. ESA SECURE+ integrators are home control experts committed to high standards of expertise in enhanced interactive systems. Find a SECURE+ integrator to get started on your system today!

Established in 1948, the Electronic Security Association (ESA) is the largest trade association representing the electronic life safety and security industry. Member companies install, integrate and monitor intrusion and fire detection, video surveillance and electronic access control systems for commercial, residential, industrial and governmental clients.