Inflated gold prices bring jewellers profits

A bullish outlook on international gold prices could translate into better revenues for the city’s gold and jewellery retailers, according to the industry.
“I predict this year’s business will be better than last year – at least the amount for each transaction will rise due to the inflated gold prices even if the number of transactions remains at the same level as last year,” said Lei Chi Fong, Macau Goldsmith's Guild president.

He declined to comment on whether jewellery shops had more customers, but told Business Daily business “was good so far” this year.
The Macau Goldsmith’s Guild is an association of more than 100 retailers, including Hong Kong-listed jewellery chains Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Co Ltd and Tse Sui Luen Jewellery (International) Ltd.

Chow Tai Fook announced last month that its same-store sales in Macau and Hong Kong rose by five percent year-on-year in the first two months of this year.
But the number of transactions rose by 16 percent, Home energy monitor suggesting the new customers are spending modestly.

Mr Lei also expects more customers will switch from jewellery purchases to gold.
Referring to the government’s recent cooling measures on the local property market, Mr Lei added: “More people are pursuing gold as there is generally no macro-economic measures or hindrance imposed on gold sales or its price.”
“The value of gold nowadays is about three times higher than what it was in the 2000s.

“Sales of gold account over 70 percent of our business right now while the rest is made up by jewellery,” the guild president said.
Official data show imports of gold and jewellery rose by 93 percent year-on-year to 1.54 billion patacas (US$192.5 million) in the first two months of 2013.
Stimulus efforts by several of the world's main central banks helped the value of gold rise for a 12th straight year in 2012, the best run for at least nine decades.

The London gold price, commonly used in Hong Kong and Macau, closed at 1,053.6 sterling pounds (12,751 patacas) an ounce on March 29, rising by 1.1 percent year-on-year.

Some financial analysts,Electricity monitor  however, had been bearish on the price of the precious metal this year as there was no sign of further easing measures in monetary policies elsewhere.
“Confidence in a recovering U.S. economy as well as a strong global stock market has reduced the perceived need for gold,” said Adrian Day, an analyst quoted by Bloomberg News.

But Mr Lei remains bullish, regarding gold as the “best vehicle” against an environment of low interest rates.

The Macau Interbank Offered Rate, which banks here use to lend to each other, was at just 0.57 percent on Thursday.

The guild president also said his association was preparing the city’s first gold testing centre, which could better standardise and regulate gold sold here.
This can also give tourists “more confidence” in the products, Mr Lei added.
He declined to speculate on whether the centre would open this year. “All the hardware is ready but what is lacking at the moment is the software, the professionals in this field.”

The arrest of the three led police to a house in Raub

Maybe it is my imagination, but there seems to be more works than usual on show at the Suter Art Society's autumn exhibition.

In a quick circuit, the pieces that first made me stop for a closer look were the two highly textured mixed media works by Tania Bostock - Heritage (Evidence of the Past) I and II.

The pair were reminiscent of the painting by John Scott that had hung in almost the same prime spot a few weeks before, In home display evoking large metal plates so real you almost wanted to flick them to see what they're made of (I resisted).

The guest artists made quite different statements by volume alone.
Sue Lund exhibited around 40 works compared to the handful by Sarah Walker-Holt.
Lund's work was vivid and energised - multi-coloured paintings, sculptures, textiles and a mannequin. Some were abstract, others city landscapes.
It was hard to find the focus, apart from the repeated use of mosaics of bright colours. It's a display of technique and vast industry, but not one for quiet contemplation.

Walker-Holt's intention is to press for the evolution of jewellery. She takes non-precious domestic objects and makes them into objects that could be brooches and neckpieces.

Though wearable, (perhaps) that use would probably be making more of a statement about the wearer.

As contemplative objects they don't work for me. Utilising an innovative idea does not necessarily lead to art.
Landscapes by Ross Whitlock, Jean Jackson, Lisa Antonelli, Cara Spekreijse, Mags Meechang and Peter Copp.
The spring and autumn exhibitions are among my favourite occasions at the Suter, providing such a range of local work, some good, some not so good. Energy monitor You can see incremental growth in the work of some artists, sudden leaps forward in others.

They sent their jewellery for cleaning but got suspicious when the products returned much “thinner” than before.
It turned out that a syndicate, which worked in groups, offered free jewellery cleaning services but while washing, they used a chemical that erodes gold from the jewellery. The gold dust collected was then sold.
The customers got suspicious, leading to police busting the syndicate with the arrest of three suspects at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) in Sepang last Wednesday.

Seberang Perai Utara (SPU) police chief ACP Abdul Rahman Ibrahim said based on information, a team from the Commercial Crime division began investigating the case.

“And, the trail led to the arrest of two Chinese nationals and a local woman at the LCCT,” he said.

“When police detained the trio, they were about to board a flight to China with gold ingots and jewellery worth about RM70,000,” he told reporters, here yesterday.

The arrest of the three led police to a house in Raub, Pahang, believed to be the syndicate’s base of operation. They have been active for the past two years.
“Inside the house, police found jewellery, equipment used for the crafting of jewellery, gas tube, gas cylinder and cash,” ACP Abdul Rahman said.

It is then flowed through micro-channels in the device

Harvard scientists have developed a new `artificial spleen` to treat bloodstream infections - leading cause of death in critically ill patients and soldiers injured in combat.

The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University said that it was awarded a USD 9.25 million contract from the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to further advance its blood-cleansing technology and help accelerate its translation to humans as a new type of sepsis therapy.

The "Spleen-on-a-chip" device will be used to treat bloodstream infections that are the leading cause of death in critically ill patients, researchers said.

To rapidly cleanse the blood of pathogens, the patient`s blood is mixed with magnetic nanobeads coated with a genetically engineered version of a human blood `opsonin` protein that binds to a wide variety of bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites, and toxins.

It is then flowed through micro-channels in the device where magnetic forces pull out the bead-bound pathogens without removing human blood cells, proteins, fluids, or electrolytes - Home electricity monitor much like a human spleen does. The cleansed blood then flows back to the patient.

"In just a few years we have been able to develop a suite of new technologies, and to integrate them to create a powerful new device that could potentially transform the way we treat sepsis," said Wyss founding director and project leader, Don Ingber.

"The continued support from DARPA enables us to advance our device manufacturing capabilities and to obtain validation in large animal models, which is precisely what is required to enable this technology to be moved towards testing in humans," Ingber said in a statement.

The team will work to develop manufacturing and integration strategies for its core pathogen-binding opsonin and Spleen-on-a-Chip fluidic separation technologies, as well as a novel coating technology called "SLIPS".

SLIPS is a super-hydrophobic coating inspired from the slippery surface of a pitcher plant that repels nearly any material it contacts, researchers said.

By coating the inner surface of the channels of the device with SLIPS, blood cleansing can be carried out without the need for anticoagulants to prevent blood clotting.

This is the most difficult city to decipher on Earth. That's not just us saying it. Try finding it on Google Maps. Home energy management For security reasons, high-resolution satellite pictures are not available, reducing the city to a fuzzy haze. The complexity continues at ground level.

Considering its significance in religious and world history, the area within the walls of the Old City is Lilliputian; covering less than a square half-mile, it's smaller than the University of Pennsylvania campus. Upon entering the Jaffa Gate, a visitor is confronted with an Escher-esque maze of narrow passageways, warrens, and arches, some of them more than 2,000 years old. Maps are of limited use, so we wandered along until we found what we were looking for - or got distracted and sought something else.

Cobblestone paths, worn smooth from centuries of foot traffic, lead up, down, and around corners, past a wide array of vendors selling the hijab - the head covering worn by Muslim women - alongside stands stacked with colorful yarmulkes. A few yards away, Christian prayer shawls were displayed, and, somewhat incongruously, a merchant offered Philadelphia Phillies and Dallas Cowboys T-shirts with the team names in Hebrew.

The public became aware of hydraulic fracturing

In my early career in the oilfield, when I was working on cement and frac crews, I breathed plenty of dust from cement, frac sand, and powdered guar used to make frac gel. Throw in a little xylene and hydrochloric acid, and I think my lungs have experienced plenty of challenges. This week, NPR broadcast a very interesting report about Eric Esswein, a researcher for the National Institute of Occupation Health and Safety, who has been studying health effects on workers on frac crews. Not familiar with hydraulic fracturing, he expected to find the workers exposed to toxics in drilling fluids when he want on location. What he found was very different.

First, a little about hydraulic fracturing, a process that makes oil and gas wells productive, but little understood by people outside of the industry. One of the misconceptions about hydraulic fracturing is that most of the public believe it's something new;In home display that is far from the case. Fracturing has been around for decades, and Halliburton and the old Western company started frac'ing in the 1940s. (BTW, no one in the industry spells it fracking, it's spelled fracing or frac'ing.)

The public became aware of hydraulic fracturing when the shale boom hit about six years ago when pressure pumping trucks began showing up in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. I've written quite a bit about frac'ing that you can read about here, here, and here, but essentially it is the process of pumping gelled water blended with frac sand or ceramic beads into hydrocarbon substrates. When the gel breaks, it is flowed back to the surface, leaving the sand behind. As the fracture in the rock closes, it is propped open by the sand, creating a pathway to the well for oil and gas to flow. If it were not for hydraulic fracturing, something like 90 percent of wells drilled in the U.S. would be unproductive. Hence the necessity and the controversy of frac'ing.

After that explanation, back to the NPR story. Esswein didn't find on location what he thought he would find. Rather than exposure to toxics in drilling fluids, he found excessive particulates in the air, primarily silica dust from the sand being moved from trucks to bins to the blender to be pumped downhole. As I mentioned above, frac jobs involve sand. A lot of sand. Moving that sand causes dust in the air.Home energy monitor Of the air samples Esswein collected, over 79 percent of those samples showed dust in excess of safety standards set by his agency.

The alert also recommended equipment changes such as enclosed cabs for workers, covering components where dust is generated, and others, including screw augers rather than conveyor belts. Improved respirators for workers are also part of the alert.

The industry is also making improvements to equipment to reduce handling, the associated dust, and other hazards. Up until a few years ago, most sand was stored and handled by huge truck pulled bins, called Mountain Movers. They were set on the ground, filled with frac sand, and using a self-contained conveyor, would move sand from the bin to another conveyor that then moved sand to the blender where it was mixed with gel, then pumped downhole.The new system is called a Sand Castle, powered by solar panels, that is brought on location, then raised to vertical, taking up much less space for the same amount of sand. Using sand castles reduces handling of sand and the associated dust.

The reason that hydraulic fracturing has become so controversial is proximity. In traditional oilfields in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, fracs have been performed for decades, usually far away from populated areas, so no one noticed. Now, in areas like Pennsylvania and Ohio, wells are being drilled and frac'ed in backyards. People in these areas have taken a shocking wake-up call from the industry. As a normal response, the industry first dismissed the concerns; now it is responding with new practices and technology. A real advantage of this shale boom is that we are now importing less than 50 percent of our oil from other countries, most of which hate us. The disadvantage is that our drilling and completion technology has outpaced our ability to safely apply it. It's critical for the public and the industry that we keep making strides to make these technologies safer, protecting people and the environment.

Why did Apartheid lessons not inform police action?

On Wednesday, Phiyega’s marathon cross-examination continued, with Bizos for the Legal Resources Centre asking the questions. He was interested in the amount of control Home energy monitor that the commissioner claimed to have of the operation that led to the police killing 34 miners and wounding 78 others on 16 August 2012. It wasn’t just because the commissioner has been shifty about her role, but also that despite the police claiming that Marikana was unprecedented, incidents like it had happened before.

 It followed therefore that history should have informed the police. Bizos quoted Spanish philosopher George Santayana, who said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. He then reminded Phiyega of the Sharpeville Massacre that took place on 21 March 1960 when police opened fire on a crowd, killing 69 people. After that incident, the state president Hendrik Verwoerd praised the police, something which Phiyega did herself hours after the 16 August killings. However, Phiyega said that the Sharpeville victims were not armed, whereas the miners at Marikana were. “With regard to those injuries, and the lack of any injury to any police officer, would you say the action of the police was proportional?” Bizos asked. Phiyega replied: “We are on record as saying indeed police were acting in self-defence.

On the issue of proportionality (of the police's action) I'm hoping that the debates from the experts,Home energy management commanders and the outcome of this commission will give a judgment on that. I am not qualified and I am not comfortable to give an answer on the proportionality.” Bizos then tried to get Phiyega to commit to an opinion, something she had steadfastly refused to do, often to her reputation’s detriment. He said: "Don't the figures mean anything to you, Commissioner? There was not a single scratch on any one of the few hundred police officers and so many [injured protesters]. Do you say that is proportional? “How did they manage to have not a single scratch if there was a threat as they describe? Please come to terms with the question. Was it because of the intelligent hand of the police? Doesn't it sound strange to you?” Phiyega said: “I do want to say the police are trained. The police do their work professionally and I believe it is such elements which assist them to do their work in that manner.”

 Bizos mentioned the 1985 massacre in Uitenhage as well, where the police shot and killed 20 protesters. The minister of law and order at the time said that the police were acting in self-defence, and had no alternative but to shoot. These are words that Phiyega also used to defend the actions of the police at Marikana. “So was that the information you based your support plan on; the fact that there were 3,000 protesters who were armed,” Bizos asked. Phiyega agreed, and said that there were other factors as well. “Do you agree with the allegation made by counsel for the police that the problem was that there were 3,000 belligerent protesters who were armed, resisting any effort to disarm?" After getting an affirmative answer, Bizos continued: “The South African police and their witnesses couldn't make up their minds regarding how many people there were. We have been told that there were 3,000 people. Elsewhere [police advocate Ishmael] Semenya put it to a witness that there were 200 to 300 protesters who were armed. There were others who were peaceful, unarmed, and were left.

 Which of the two versions did you, as commissioner, operate... on?” Phiyega replied: “I would not speculate on those two versions because I have not seen alternative facts. As police, people who are armed are a concern to us. Any number of armed people, be it two or seven, concerns us. The Constitution does allow people to protest peacefully and unarmed.” Bizos then spoke about the impunity that Apartheid police enjoyed, and asked Phiyega if people could be killed with impunity in a democratic South Africa. No, came the reply. When he could not get an answer why the police had no apparent regard for history, he asked if the commissioner was using her lack of police experience as an excuse. Again, Phiyega answered with a denial.

 The advocate then asked Phiyega to clarify that the tactical response team, national intervention unit and special task force units outnumbered the public order police (properly trained in crowd control) by two to one at Marikana on the day of the fatal operation, which she did. “Are you declaring war on this crowd or do you want to control it? Why are all these 'war-like' units invited to Marikana?” Bizos asked. Despite protests from Semenya, Bizos was adamant that the special units brought to Marikana, plus a deputy provincial commissioner’s description of 16 August as ‘D-Day’, meant that the operation was meant to kill people, not arrest or disperse them.

who were bedecked in shiny beads

Last year when the anti-poverty agency, Community Teamwork, Inc., rolled out a new idea to raise funds for the families it serves, organizers took a gamble. Transforming Lowell Memorial Auditorium into an imaginary riverboat, complete with gaming tables, a floor show and roaring '20s theme, was no guaranteed royal flush. But luck be a lady -- or perhaps beginner's luck -- that wager paid off in spades. "People just loved it, especially being transported to another place," said Sharon Shelton, CTI's community relations director.

 "It's a fun adult evening for a critical cause, so I expect that everyone will come back this year with the same enthusiasm with which they left last year." This year's "Night Aboard the Mighty Merrimack Riverboat Queen" takes place from 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday, April 11, at Lowell Memorial Auditorium. Tickets are $50 per person, which includes $1,000 of casino play money, food and entertainment. Organizers are hoping for another full house since proceeds benefit homelessness prevention programs.

To help that along, CTI is dealing out much of what made last year's maiden voyage a jackpot of fun, according to Shelton. That includes the wooden plank that ushered guests, who were bedecked in shiny beads by the riverboat crew, into a whole new world that evoked a little bit of Las Vegas glitz and a lot of another era. Enthusiastically greeting them were Lowell City Councilor Rita Mercier and her granddaughter,Home electricity monitor Jacqueline, who were "all in" as Joan and Melissa Rivers. They're reprising their red carpet roles this year, Shelton said. Also on deck were roaring '20s music, a large array of hors d'oeuvres, cash bar, flappers and gangsters, shiny beads and feather boas, a card magician, the Gentleman Songsters, raffle baskets, silent auction, prizes, casino gaming tables and lots of happy faces. Some were new to gaming, others not so much. Some were in costume, which is optional; others in everyday attire. The gaming tables were such a hit with both new gamers and veterans that "we are adding more this year," Shelton said. "Prizes will be awarded throughout the night -- the more you play the more prizes you can win, plus everyone is eligible for the door prizes." This year's floor show is a Vegas-like Tom Jones tribute band, Shelton said, adding that Kay Ritter of Light Magic Entertainment will also be back. Her green screen photography allows guests to preserve their memories of the evening with photos in front of a riverboat, the Titanic, a saloon and other choices. Jack Malnati of Dracut traveled aboard with his wife, Linda, and some friends. "We had a fantastic time last year. All aspects of the event were great -- the food, the entertainment, the gaming and the silent auction," he said. "We also saw some people there that we had lost touch with several years before and were able to reconnect with them. We can't wait for this year."

 Among those who have been helped with the flexible funds generated from the riverboat and other fundraisers is Domingo Flores,Home energy management a native New Yorker who, shortly after a move to Massachusetts, became homeless, along with his son. "I didn't have any family around here, so I had no one to turn to," he said. He was doing per diem work at a hospital when he turned to CTI. While the state financed a hotel room, Flores participated in CTI programs that taught him interview skills, job search techniques and other vital elements toward self-sufficiency.

Within a couple of months, it paid off. He landed a security position at Lowell Community Health Center and has since been promoted. He earns twice what he made previously and, with CTI's guidance, is now living with his son in a two-bedroom apartment within walking distance of the health center. "There are a lot of families with no one to turn to. I was so lucky to have CTI, for their help and their support," he said. "I could never have accomplished this without them." Malnati and another guest, Ryan Coviello of Lowell, said that helping such families is an important bonus. "The most amazing thing is that all this fun is being accomplished while helping families who are struggling with everyday life in meeting mortgages and rents, putting food on the table for their families and paying for heat and gas," Malnati said.

white pottery have done to Steph

Take, for instance, their Pea and Bacon Barley risotto, which they insist is practical for students on a budget. They are aware that risotto by its lexical content is a rice dish, this is however an ancient idea which is most similar to its Italian counterpart. Slice an onion finely into cubes, this can be done very easily in a food processor, then slice into lardons a few good rashers of streaky bacon. Put a medium sized saucepan onto a brisk heat, then put in a little butter, and when it begins to foam, put in the bacon. When you have rendered some of the fat out, subject the onions to the heat of the pan. They should melt down relatively quickly. In home display When they have, add a splash of cider (Yorkshire as God’s own country has magnificent apples and therefore cider, make use of it) and scrape off all the baked on sediment wherein resides the flavour. Then put in two good handfuls of washed pearl barley. Which is dirt cheap. Cover with stock, or water, and leave on a low heat covered until it’s done in about ten to twenty minutes. Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn't stick. When it’s done, which you will know by tasting the grains and if they are at a point where you would like to eat them, they're done, add a cup of pea puree and serve. This would produce a bright green and delicious dish, which is gorgeous. The pea puree could be last night’s soup rather happily. See here for that recipe or do without and just add a large amount of frozen peas when you add the stock. The news that some students would find the making of pea puree too arduous, shocked and appalled the entire kitchen brigade, needless to say, leading to the divulging of this advice. He says to simply “clean as you go”, which isn’t hard and will make you look as if you know what you’re doing, which eventually with practice will become truth. However, it is rather easier to say that when you have a pot washer to do the washing for you! It is sensible advice nonetheless. On the topic of presentation, I observe that it is obscene how edible their food looks. Hodkins just, with effortless nonchalance, says, it's “utilising the plate well.” Which is easier said than done, but if you do pay attention to height, colour and size (which sounds like the three things that could be a common theme found in the diary of many students) then you should end up with a plate or bowl of food which should look somehow edible. It is at this point that his sous-chef, now in his absence steady hand at the wheel, Steph Walker states, Home energy monitor “And don’t use Old Willow.” I have cleaned that statement up, a lot. I do not know what the manufacturers of that style of blue and white pottery have done to Steph, but evidently it is a great wrong. She does have a point, that clean, white plates best show off the brilliance of producer, chef and pot-washer. Pity the pot-washer. She along with some spirited opinions on crockery also gives a recipe for macaroni cauliflower cheese and bacon; boil salted water, put in four handfuls of macaroni, turn down to a simmer. When five minutes have elapsed add small florets of cauliflower. You can buy them already segmented if you are that lazy, otherwise you can very simply take a small cauliflower and cut it up into neat little flower heads. Remove the leaves first then cut into the stalk diagonally removing the core of the head. From there on you can easily cut out little florets. Perhaps it is because it has so many heads that Mark Twain called it a cabbage with a college education, perhaps because it has a more refined flavour, either way it is suitably cheap for student use. When the pasta and the cauliflower are cooked about seven minutes hence, but check with a fork yourself, drain. Dry the pan and put back on the hob, chop a little bacon into lardons, and fry in a little butter, when it's crisped to your desired brittleness or squididity, sprinkle over enough flour to absorb the fat- ideally you will cook the flour out carefully to pale beige- then add a little milk, stirring all the while to make a white sauce, about 250 ml will do but more or less is probable. When you have a viscous white fluid turn the heat down, add as much cheese as macaroni and stir until it is melted into the sauce. It goes without saying, use a good cheese.