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Mobile Social Networking: Two Great Tastes
John Kemp, Franklin Reynolds - Nokia
14th October 2008
Introduction
In the 1980s, mobile telecommunications was, by some accounts, a wilderness. Along came Short Message Service (SMS). Many thought that SMS would be most useful for things like sending a message to a user saying that she had received a voicemail, and few imagined the extraordinary explosive growth of person to person short messaging. Initial growth of the service though was slow - in 1995 an average of only 0.4 messages per GSM customer per month were sent. But, by 2003, there were apparently 4.2 million active users, and "texting" had entered popular culture. Mobile phones were not perfect for SMS, but the enforced short message size and poor keyboards created an environment where a new language flourished.
With person-to-person calling and text messaging, the mobile environment created a powerful social networking effect.
By contrast with the spare interface presented to the SMS user, modern social networking sites provide sophisticated user interfaces and large numbers of graphical images and other rich media content. Such things are inevitably better handled by computers, with faster processors, relatively large screens and a full keyboard, than by mobile phones.
Is a "mobile social network" nowadays then simply a Web-based social network interface displayed in the Web browser of a mobile phone, or is there something more? How do we engage the still-growing number of people who are more familiar with the mobile phone than they are with the Web?
What's so different about mobile phones?
Phones, mobile and fixed, have historically been person-to-person communication channels - they have not been multicast or “publishing” type communication channels. These are substantive differences which have strongly influenced how mobile phones and the Web have been used for social networking. There are legal implications that arise from these differences such as:
* Who is held accountable for slander or libel?
* What constitutes protected speech?
* What are reasonable expectations for private communication?
Mobile phones also have obvious limitations, such as a small screen size, limited keyboard and often intermittent or poor network connectivity.
Increasingly, however, so-called "smart-phones" have overcome previous limitations of processing power and storage, and provide a powerful computing environment. In addition, mobile phones now provide several advantages over their larger and more stationary computing device cohorts.
Engagement of multiple senses.
Through the use of haptic technologies, the sense of touch can be applied to social networking. Currently, most interaction in social networking is through visual feedback. By using haptic feedback it is possible to provide interaction through touch. Apple's iPhone and other touch-screen phones already provide opportunities for such experimentation. A user interface combining visual interaction with tactile interaction may become both more immersive and more subtle - more socially appropriate.
In my pocket
My mobile phone is always with me. Through its GPS device, it knows quite precisely where I am. It's my music player, so it knows what music I am listening to. This presents both opportunities and challenges. Since a telephone number is a relatively good identifier - it is linked usually only to one person, there are privacy implications of supplying information linked to that identifier, such as geolocation coordinates, or listening habits. As such devices add features, the phone becomes a more complete repository for personal data linked to a single individual.
When worlds collide
As mobile devices become more full-featured, and provide a more complete user interface, there are more opportunities to immerse the user in an environment where the "real" and virtual worlds of the user are linked.
For example, using Semacode or similar technology it is possible for a mobile phone user to photograph a barcode placed on a real-world object, and have that photographed barcode be decoded as a URL, whose associated Web document will then be opened in the phone's Web browser. Applications such as Wikitude where the phone GPS and camera alone (without recourse to barcodes) provide an even more stunning glance at the future of augmented reality.
A distributed architecture for social networking?
In contrast to the increasingly sophisticated capabilities of mobile phones, the fundamental architecture of the Web has not changed much over the past 10 years.
Existing social networks usually employ a "hub and spoke" model, where the website is the hub of all activity within the network, and where there is a "client" and a "server". Since all traffic must pass through the hub, that site may become a bottleneck. Furthermore, each transaction must pass up one spoke to the hub, and then down another spoke, when the people interacting may be much closer to each other (in network terms) than either is to the hub site.
Mobile phones have become quite sophisticated in the features they provide, and offer serious processing power to software applications. There is the opportunity to create an architecture that distributes the load to the devices sitting in our coats and pockets, rather than solely on massively scalable Web sites. Such an architecture would require better interoperability between social networking sites and mobile devices than we have today, and should remove any dependence on an "always-on" network connection.
The multiple-radio capability of some phones (Bluetooth, NFC, WLAN and GSM/GPRS) allows the formation of a social "web of trust" [8] where people physically co-located can "connect" using a near-field radio, and later access each other's phones over the Internet, based on the initial connection of a local radio. This allows the trust that comes from seeing each other to be extended into the virtual world, where we often cannot see each other.
Conclusions
Mobile social networking involves more than simply replicating existing PC browser-based social networking interfaces in a mobile environment. Social networking systems could benefit from some of the context brought by the technology provided in such personal devices, but must become more aware of the social responsibility inherent in taking advantage of these features. Integrating person-to-person calling devices into a socially-networked Web is not the same thing as displaying the socially-networked Web on a mobile phone.
During the next three to five years industry analysts predict another billion new mobile phone users. When we bring Web-based social networking to mobile phones and these new users, it might be useful to consider that most people on the planet have much more experience with phones than the Web.
www.w3.org/2008/09/msnws/papers/nokia-mobile-social-netwo...
Photo caption:
Speech by Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, Co-Founder of Tune Group.
NEWS RELEASE
MELBOURNE – THE WORLD’S MOST LIVEABLE CITY MAY HAVE JUST GOT BETTER!
Tune Hotel Melbourne opening November with A$49* launch rate
KUALA LUMPUR, 17 June 2013 - International hotel group Tune Hotels today announced the pre-opening sale of its first Australian property in Melbourne and that the city will serve as its operational headquarters for the Australia and New Zealand region.
The announcement was made here today by Mark Lankester, the Group CEO of Tune Hotels in the presence of the visiting Premier of Victoria, Honourable Dr Denis Napthine. Also present was Co-Founder of Tune Group, who is also Group CEO of AirAsia, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.
Tune Hotel Melbourne at 609 Swanston Street, Carlton is conveniently located next to the University of Melbourne, just two streets away from popular Lygon Street and minutes to Melbourne’s Central Business District (CBD). The 225-room property will open for customers on 1 November 2013.
To celebrate its arrival, Tune Hotel Melbourne is offering an attractive room rate from just A$49* (US$46 / RM157) per night. The promotion is offered exclusively online at www.tunehotels.com and guests have the option to choose and pay only for amenities that they require.
Bookings can be made from 18 June until 28 June 2013 for stays between 1 November 2013 and 31 March 2014, subject to availability of rooms. A total of 1,000 rooms will be made available at that price.
Dr Napthine said: “Melbourne’s new Tune Hotel would open its doors in Melbourne’s CBD in November to coincide with Victoria’s world-famous Spring Racing Carnival.”
Dr Napthine also welcomed the decision by Tune Hotels to set up its Australia and New Zealand Operational Headquarters in Melbourne. “Together, the investment is expected to create up to 100 jobs.”
The Premier is currently leading around 300 Victorian businesses and 450 delegates on a Super Trade Mission to South East Asia. Kuala Lumpur is the mission’s first stop before moving on to other key Asean cities – Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila, and Hanoi, among others.
In a recent ranking of the world's "most liveable" cities, Melbourne took the number one spot for the second year running. The city was awarded perfect marks for education, healthcare, and infrastructure by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
As Australia’s events capital, Melbourne boasts a rich calendar of theatre, sporting and cultural events. Blockbuster annual events include the Australian Open Tennis Championship, Formula One Grand Prix, Spring Racing Carnival, Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, and more.
Melbourne is a romantic, stylish, cosmopolitan city with a European feel and hidden city laneways and arcades for visitors to discover hidden treasures, cafes, boutiques, bars and restaurants. The city is also the gourmet capital of Australia with award-winning chefs and a diverse cuisine with unique settings, provincial specialties and world class wine regions within easy access of the city.
A range of diverse travel experiences are available within easy reach of Melbourne in regional Victoria. Whether it’s skiing the Victorian Alps, reclining on picture postcard beaches, sampling award-winning wines or unwinding in luxurious day spas, regional Victoria is replete with immersive experiences year-round.
To add to the celebration, long-haul low cost airline AirAsia X is also running a joint promotion where a one-way flight seat from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne is going from as low as RM329**. Guests have until 23 June 2013 to make a booking for travel between 15 November 2013 and 31 March 2014, subject to the availability of seats. Also on offer are Fly Thru services from Jakarta-Melbourne (from IDR 1,459,000** one-way) and Bangkok-Melbourne (from THB 5,890** one-way), allowing guests to seamlessly connect via Kuala Lumpur.
Guests who would like to travel with extra comfort may also fly on AirAsia X’s Premium Flatbed seats from as low as RM2, 299** from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne. AirAsia X was the first long-haul, low fare carrier to introduce Premium Flatbed seats, which have standard business class specifications of 20” width, 60” pitch and stretch out to 77” in full recline position. Premium seat guests also enjoy premium complimentary products and services including Pick A Seat, Priority Check-in, Priority Boarding, Priority Baggage, 25kg Baggage Allowance, Complimentary Meal and Pillow & Duvet. For more information and flight bookings, please visit airasia.com.
Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said: “AirAsia X had been serving the Melbourne route for more than four years now and it is one of our best-selling. I am very pleased that Tune Hotels will now have its presence in Melbourne to give visitors to this wonderful city a truly compelling accommodation alternative. We are sure the Australian market will welcome and embrace Tune Hotels just as they did AirAsia X.”
Commenting on Melbourne as Tune Hotels’ Operational HQ for Australia and New Zealand, Group CEO Mark Lankester said: “We are very excited about Tune Hotel Melbourne as it marks our growing brand’s entry into Australia and New Zealand. Melbourne will be the location for our HQ overseeing Australia and New Zealand operations, working in conjunction with the corporate office in Kuala Lumpur. Given our long term plans for the region, the Australia and New Zealand HQ will be staffed relevantly to oversee and provide central support to Tune Hotels’ properties in Australia and New Zealand.”
“And to celebrate in true Tune Hotels style, we’re offering travellers one of the lowest room rates seen in central Melbourne for years. Tune Hotels is all about offering a great night’s sleep at a great price. Tune Hotel Melbourne will serve domestic business and leisure travellers and visitors from abroad who are looking for great comfort just minutes from Melbourne’s CBD without paying the usual exorbitant rates,” added Lankester.
The basic room rate at Tune Hotel Melbourne is already inclusive of air-conditioning and and/or heating. For an additional A$10, guests will get a pair of towels and toiletry kits and enjoy high-speed wireless broadband and Foxtel TV entertainment.
Tune Hotel Melbourne features an indoor courtyard, a recreational lounge, a restaurant, café/ convenience store, luggage storage, self-service launderette and computer kiosks. It is also equipped with a basement car park, something unusual for city centre hotels in Australia.
The hotel is just two streets away from Lygon Street, more famously known as Little Italy. The central business district, Melbourne Central Train Station and QV Melbourne; one of Melbourne's finest retail, dining and entertainment precincts, is only two tram stops away.
Tune Hotels provides international-class high-quality accommodation which focuses on key essentials but minus the generally underused facilities found in other hotels such as swimming pools, business centres and gymnasiums. By doing away with these costly and high-maintenance facilities, Tune Hotels is able to pass on savings to its guests in the form of super low room rates. Its pay-as-you-use concept lets travellers choose and pay only for amenities that they require to keep costs down, reduce waste and save energy.
All Tune hotels feature space-efficient, streamlined rooms focusing on high-quality basics: 5-star beds and powerful hot showers. The strategically located hotels provide housekeeping services, electronic keycard access into rooms, extensive CCTV systems, and no access into the main lobby without a keycard past midnight for extra security.
The group has received almost five million guests since the opening of its first hotel in Downtown Kuala Lumpur in 2007. Tune Hotels has one hotel in India, 11 in Malaysia, five in the UK, and four each in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. The company is set to open another property in Japan this year while future projects are planned in the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
Tune Hotels is part of Tune Group, a lifestyle business conglomerate co-founded by Tony Fernandes and Kamarudin Meranun, who are the Group CEO and Deputy Group CEO respectively of Asia’s largest low cost carrier AirAsia.
For real-time updates and promotion alerts, guests can stay connected with Tune Hotels via Facebook at www.facebook.com/tunehotelsAUS and on Twitter via www.twitter.com/tunehotels.
For booking and further information, visit www.tunehotels.com.
* Rooms at promotional rates are limited and subject to availability. Promotional rates are limited to double rooms, exclude peak periods, available only on specific dates and only for bookings made via www.tunehotels.com. Advertised rate includes GST and is for room only (excludes comfort package (WiFi, Towel & toiletries and TV) and all optional add-ons). Bookings that are made at the promotional price are strictly non-refundable or changeable. Booking period is 18 June 2013 - 28 June 2013, or until promotional rooms are sold out. Stay period is 1 Nov 2013 to 31 March 2014. No additional charges for booking payments made using PayPal. Additional charges may apply for online bookings paid using credit and debit cards. All amounts are in Australian dollars unless stated otherwise. Refer to www.tunehotels.com for other applicable terms and conditions.
** Promo fares include airport taxes and fees (all-in fares). Flights and fares are subject to availability and are for one-way travel only.
-ENDS-
About Tune Hotels & Tune Group
Tune Hotels is part of the lifestyle business conglomerate Tune Group that was founded by Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Dato’ Kamarudin Meranun. Tune Hotels seeks to innovate and revolutionise the way services are made available and has employed efficient web-based technologies to reach and engage its customers, presenting a unique lifestyle opportunity. All Tune Hotels’ properties feature space-efficient, streamlined rooms focusing on high-quality basics: a five-star bed, powerful hot showers and energy-conserving ceiling fans along with housekeeping services, electronic keycard access into rooms, CCTV surveillance, and 24-hour security. The Tune Group of companies are Tune Air (a substantial shareholder of AirAsia), Tune Hotels, Tune Money (holding company of Tune Insurance), Tune Talk, Tune Box, Tune Studios, Tune Tones, Caterham F1 Team, Queens Park Rangers Football Club (QPR) and Educ8 Group (owner of Epsom College in Malaysia).
About AirAsia X Berhad
AirAsia X is the low-cost, long-haul affiliate carrier of the AirAsia Group that currently flies to destinations in China, Australia, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Nepal and the Middle East. The airline currently serves 14 destinations across Asia (Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Taipei, Beijing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Shanghai and Kathmandu), Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Gold Coast) and the Middle East (Jeddah) with flights to an additional destination, namely Busan, commencing in July 2013. AirAsia X operates a fleet of 10 Airbus A330-300s, each with a seat configuration of 12 Premium Flatbeds and 365 Economy seats. The airline has carried over 9 million guests since it commenced long-haul in 2007. Our vision is to further solidify our position as the global leader in low-cost, long-haul aviation and create the first global multi-hub low-cost carrier network along with other carriers of the AirAsia Group.
More photos can be downloaded from www.flickr.com/tunehotels.
Media enquiries:
MALAYSIA & INTERNATIONAL
Cymantha Sothiar
Mobile: +6012 3153638
Email: cymantha@tunehotels.com
AUSTRALIA
Brenton Gibbs
Tel: +61 (0)419 828 440
Email: brenton@crookgroup.com.au
Photos were captured at the Pacific Slope Archaeological Laboratory on the Oregon State University Campus in Corvallis, Dec. 13, 2016, to accompany the feature story below: "Printing the past: 3-D archaeology and the first Americans." Article online here (and below): goo.gl/viKEZF
Photo + Story by Toshio Suzuki, BLM
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For the first Americans, and the study of them today, it all starts with a point.
A sharp point fastened to a wooden shaft gave the hunter 13,000 years ago a weapon that could single-handedly spear a fish or work in numbers to take down a mammoth.
For a prehistoric human, these points were the difference between life and death. They were hunger-driven, handmade labors of love that took hours to craft using a cacophony of rock-on-rock cracks, thuds and shatters.
They have been called the first American invention, and some archaeologists now think 3-D scanning points can reveal more information about both the technology and the people.
The Pacific Slope Archaeological Laboratory at Oregon State University takes up only a few rooms on the ground floor of Waldo Hall, one of the supposedly haunted buildings on campus.
There are boxes of cultural history everywhere, and floor-to-ceiling wood cabinets with skinny pull-out drawers housing even more assets, but the really good stuff, evidence of the earliest known cultures in North America, lives in an 800-pound gun safe.
Loren Davis, anthropology professor at OSU and director of the lab, thinks 3-D scanning, printing, and publishing can circumvent the old traditions of the field, that artifacts are only to be experienced in museums and only handled by those who have a Ph.D.
“We are reimagining the idea of doing archaeology in a 21st century digital way,” said Davis. “We don’t do it just to make pretty pictures or print in plastic, we mostly want to capture and share it for analysis,” he added.
Nearby in the L-shaped lab, one of his doctoral students is preparing to scan a point that was discovered on Bureau of Land Management public lands in southeast Oregon.
Thousands of points have been unearthed since the 1930s in North America, the first being in eastern New Mexico near a town called Clovis. That name is now known worldwide as representing the continent’s first native people.
More recently, though, other peoples with distinctive points were found elsewhere, and some researchers think it means there was differing technology being made at the same time, if not pre-Clovis.
One such location is the Paisley Caves in southern Oregon ― one of the many archaeologically significant sites managed by the BLM.
The earliest stem point from Paisley Caves was scanned at Davis’ lab and a 3-D PDF was included in a 2012 multi-authored report in the journal Science.
Davis estimates his lab at OSU has scanned as many as 400 points, including others from BLM-managed lands in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
More scans would mean a bigger database for comparing points and determining what style they are.
“Ideally, we want to get as many artifacts scanned as possible,“ said Davis. “The BLM offers a lot of access to public data ― this is just another way of doing it.”
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Transforming a brittle piece of volcanic glass, by hand, into a beautiful and deadly 4-inch-long spear point is a process.
In one hand would be a hard shaping rock, or maybe a thick section of antler, and in the other would be the starter stone, which in addition to igneous could be jasper, chert, or any other chippable rock that creates a hide-puncturing level of sharpness.
After what might be hundreds of controlled strokes and rock rotations, the rough shape of a lance or spear tip would take form. Discarded shards of stone would often result in more points, or other useful tools like scrapers and needles.
Clovis points are distinguished by their length, bifacial leaf shape and middle channels on the bottom called flutes. Eventually the repetitive flaking of the point would stop, and the hunter would use precise pressure points to create the flute on one or each side that likely helped slot the finished product into a spear-like wooden pole.
The hunter was now mobile and ready to roam.
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Prior to 3-D scanning, OSU doctoral student Sean Carroll picks up a can of Tinactin, gives it the obligatory shake, and completely covers “one of the oldest technologies in North America” with antifungal spray.
The talc and alcohol from the athlete’s foot remedy helps the software see even the slightest indents in the point, and it rubs right off afterwards.
“I want to scan all the Clovis I can get my hands on,” said Carroll, who came to OSU because of Davis’ 3-D lab and is using the medium as a big part of his dissertation.
Two random items, a power plug adapter and a ball of clay, are placed on each side of the fluted point to give the camera and light projector perspective. The objects create margins that force the structured light patterns to bend and capture more of the point’s surface detail.
Even so, like the hunter rotating the shaping rock, the archaeologist has to rotate the foam square holding the three items. Each scan takes about six seconds.
Carroll and Davis estimate that the learning curve for this process was about 100 hours. One hundred hours of trial and error -- and a lot of watching YouTube videos -- for a finished product that they think is indisputably worth it.
A completed 3-D scan of a point will have about 40,000 data points per square inch. The measurements are so precise, they can determine the difference between flake marks as thin as a piece of paper.
Davis says no archaeologist with a pair of calipers can come close to measuring the data obtained via 3-D, because simply, “there are some jobs that robots are really good at.”
“If the end game is measurements, well you could spend your whole life with a pair of calipers trying to achieve what we can do in 10 minutes,” said Davis.
---
Last year, the famous human relative nicknamed Lucy had 3-D scans of her 3.2 million year old bones published in the journal Nature.
In 2015, archaeologists from Harvard University completed a 3-D scan of a winged and human-headed stone bull from Mesopotamia that stands 13 feet high at the Louvre Museum.
And the Smithsonian Institution is currently beta testing a website dedicated to publishing 3-D models from its massive collection, including molds of President Abraham Lincoln’s face and the entire Apollo 11 command module.
All of these new-school efforts are based upon the old-school scientific principles of preservation and promotion.
Rock points, fossils, hieroglyphics -- various forms of cultural assets are susceptible to environmental conditions and not guaranteed to be around forever. Three-dimensional scanning is the most accurate way to digitally preserve these items of merit.
Once accurate preservation is done, there are opportunities for promoting not just science, but specific research goals.
In the case of the Lucy bones, scientists hope that crowdsourcing the 3-D data will help get more experts to look at the fossils and prove that the tree-dwelling ape died from a fall.
When it comes to comparing one specific stemmed point to an entire hard drive of scanning data, BLM archaeologist Scott Thomas thinks the work being done at the OSU lab can move archaeology to a new level.
“The 3-D scanning method blows anything we have done out of the water,” said Thomas.
That ability to compare points can lead to insights on how these hunting tools moved over geography, and even expand theories about how native groups learned new technologies.
“It’s going to be a really powerful tool someday -- not too far off,” said Thomas.
While long-term data analysis may not be the sexiest form of archaeology, holding a 3-D printed stem point is a pretty cool educational tool.
Davis of OSU has incorporated 3-D prints into his classes and said his students are able to make a tactile connection with artifacts that otherwise are not available.
“The students really enjoy these printed and digital models and often say that they are almost like the real thing,” said Davis.
---
This spring, Davis is traveling to Magadan, Russia -- aka Siberia -- to inspect and scan some points that may be linked to Clovis peoples.
The goal in Siberia, of course, is to further expand the 3-D database. He is specifically interested in comparing them to stems from a BLM-managed site he excavated in Idaho called Cooper’s Ferry.
As his student, Carroll, begins to clean up and put the scanned points into their individually labeled ziplocked bags, Davis can’t help but mention how much easier international research could be with 3-D scanning.
“You can share cultural resource info with people in other countries and you don’t have to come visit,” he said, adding that Russia isn’t the easiest country to enter.
“It’s as easy as sending an email,” Carroll agreed.
Davis then mentioned his 11-year-old child and how much of school curriculum these days is web-based as opposed to text-based.
“There’s nothing wrong with books, I’m a huge fan of books, but it’s a different way of learning,” said the archaeology professor.
And with that, he made another point.
-- by Toshio Suzuki, tsuzuki@blm.gov, @toshjohn
Best places to find 3-D archaeology online:
-- Sketchfab.com is one of the biggest databases on the web for 3-D models of cultural assets. Institutions and academics alike are moving priceless treasures to the digital space for all to inspect. Two examples: via the British Museum, a 7.25-ton statue of Ramesses II is available for viewing and free download; and via archaeologist Robert Selden Jr., hundreds of 3-D models are open to the public for study, including several Clovis points from the Blackwater Draw National Historic Site in New Mexico.
-- The Smithsonian Institution is bringing the best of American history to a new audience via their 3-D website (3d.si.edu). Amelia Earhart's flight suit? Check. Native American ceremonial killer whale hat? Check. Face cast of President Abraham Lincoln? Check and check -- there are two. And their biggest 3-D scan is still coming: the 184-foot-long space shuttle Discovery.
-- Visitors to Africanfossils.org can filter 3-D model searches by hominids, animals and tools, and also by date, from zero to 25 million years ago.
The sleek website, with partners like National Geographic and the National Museums of Kenya, makes it easy to download or share 3-D scans, and each item even comes with a discovery backstory and Google map pinpointing exactly where it was found.
Photo caption:
From left – Mark Lankester, Group CEO of Tune Hotels; Hon. Dr Denis Napthine, Premier of Victoria; Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, Co-Founder of Tune Group; Stuart Myerscough, Commercial Manager Australia of AirAsia X unveiling the opening price of Tune Hotel Melbourne.
NEWS RELEASE
MELBOURNE – THE WORLD’S MOST LIVEABLE CITY MAY HAVE JUST GOT BETTER!
Tune Hotel Melbourne opening November with A$49* launch rate
KUALA LUMPUR, 17 June 2013 - International hotel group Tune Hotels today announced the pre-opening sale of its first Australian property in Melbourne and that the city will serve as its operational headquarters for the Australia and New Zealand region.
The announcement was made here today by Mark Lankester, the Group CEO of Tune Hotels in the presence of the visiting Premier of Victoria, Honourable Dr Denis Napthine. Also present was Co-Founder of Tune Group, who is also Group CEO of AirAsia, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.
Tune Hotel Melbourne at 609 Swanston Street, Carlton is conveniently located next to the University of Melbourne, just two streets away from popular Lygon Street and minutes to Melbourne’s Central Business District (CBD). The 225-room property will open for customers on 1 November 2013.
To celebrate its arrival, Tune Hotel Melbourne is offering an attractive room rate from just A$49* (US$46 / RM157) per night. The promotion is offered exclusively online at www.tunehotels.com and guests have the option to choose and pay only for amenities that they require.
Bookings can be made from 18 June until 28 June 2013 for stays between 1 November 2013 and 31 March 2014, subject to availability of rooms. A total of 1,000 rooms will be made available at that price.
Dr Napthine said: “Melbourne’s new Tune Hotel would open its doors in Melbourne’s CBD in November to coincide with Victoria’s world-famous Spring Racing Carnival.”
Dr Napthine also welcomed the decision by Tune Hotels to set up its Australia and New Zealand Operational Headquarters in Melbourne. “Together, the investment is expected to create up to 100 jobs.”
The Premier is currently leading around 300 Victorian businesses and 450 delegates on a Super Trade Mission to South East Asia. Kuala Lumpur is the mission’s first stop before moving on to other key Asean cities – Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila, and Hanoi, among others.
In a recent ranking of the world's "most liveable" cities, Melbourne took the number one spot for the second year running. The city was awarded perfect marks for education, healthcare, and infrastructure by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
As Australia’s events capital, Melbourne boasts a rich calendar of theatre, sporting and cultural events. Blockbuster annual events include the Australian Open Tennis Championship, Formula One Grand Prix, Spring Racing Carnival, Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, and more.
Melbourne is a romantic, stylish, cosmopolitan city with a European feel and hidden city laneways and arcades for visitors to discover hidden treasures, cafes, boutiques, bars and restaurants. The city is also the gourmet capital of Australia with award-winning chefs and a diverse cuisine with unique settings, provincial specialties and world class wine regions within easy access of the city.
A range of diverse travel experiences are available within easy reach of Melbourne in regional Victoria. Whether it’s skiing the Victorian Alps, reclining on picture postcard beaches, sampling award-winning wines or unwinding in luxurious day spas, regional Victoria is replete with immersive experiences year-round.
To add to the celebration, long-haul low cost airline AirAsia X is also running a joint promotion where a one-way flight seat from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne is going from as low as RM329**. Guests have until 23 June 2013 to make a booking for travel between 15 November 2013 and 31 March 2014, subject to the availability of seats. Also on offer are Fly Thru services from Jakarta-Melbourne (from IDR 1,459,000** one-way) and Bangkok-Melbourne (from THB 5,890** one-way), allowing guests to seamlessly connect via Kuala Lumpur.
Guests who would like to travel with extra comfort may also fly on AirAsia X’s Premium Flatbed seats from as low as RM2, 299** from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne. AirAsia X was the first long-haul, low fare carrier to introduce Premium Flatbed seats, which have standard business class specifications of 20” width, 60” pitch and stretch out to 77” in full recline position. Premium seat guests also enjoy premium complimentary products and services including Pick A Seat, Priority Check-in, Priority Boarding, Priority Baggage, 25kg Baggage Allowance, Complimentary Meal and Pillow & Duvet. For more information and flight bookings, please visit airasia.com.
Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said: “AirAsia X had been serving the Melbourne route for more than four years now and it is one of our best-selling. I am very pleased that Tune Hotels will now have its presence in Melbourne to give visitors to this wonderful city a truly compelling accommodation alternative. We are sure the Australian market will welcome and embrace Tune Hotels just as they did AirAsia X.”
Commenting on Melbourne as Tune Hotels’ Operational HQ for Australia and New Zealand, Group CEO Mark Lankester said: “We are very excited about Tune Hotel Melbourne as it marks our growing brand’s entry into Australia and New Zealand. Melbourne will be the location for our HQ overseeing Australia and New Zealand operations, working in conjunction with the corporate office in Kuala Lumpur. Given our long term plans for the region, the Australia and New Zealand HQ will be staffed relevantly to oversee and provide central support to Tune Hotels’ properties in Australia and New Zealand.”
“And to celebrate in true Tune Hotels style, we’re offering travellers one of the lowest room rates seen in central Melbourne for years. Tune Hotels is all about offering a great night’s sleep at a great price. Tune Hotel Melbourne will serve domestic business and leisure travellers and visitors from abroad who are looking for great comfort just minutes from Melbourne’s CBD without paying the usual exorbitant rates,” added Lankester.
The basic room rate at Tune Hotel Melbourne is already inclusive of air-conditioning and and/or heating. For an additional A$10, guests will get a pair of towels and toiletry kits and enjoy high-speed wireless broadband and Foxtel TV entertainment.
Tune Hotel Melbourne features an indoor courtyard, a recreational lounge, a restaurant, café/ convenience store, luggage storage, self-service launderette and computer kiosks. It is also equipped with a basement car park, something unusual for city centre hotels in Australia.
The hotel is just two streets away from Lygon Street, more famously known as Little Italy. The central business district, Melbourne Central Train Station and QV Melbourne; one of Melbourne's finest retail, dining and entertainment precincts, is only two tram stops away.
Tune Hotels provides international-class high-quality accommodation which focuses on key essentials but minus the generally underused facilities found in other hotels such as swimming pools, business centres and gymnasiums. By doing away with these costly and high-maintenance facilities, Tune Hotels is able to pass on savings to its guests in the form of super low room rates. Its pay-as-you-use concept lets travellers choose and pay only for amenities that they require to keep costs down, reduce waste and save energy.
All Tune hotels feature space-efficient, streamlined rooms focusing on high-quality basics: 5-star beds and powerful hot showers. The strategically located hotels provide housekeeping services, electronic keycard access into rooms, extensive CCTV systems, and no access into the main lobby without a keycard past midnight for extra security.
The group has received almost five million guests since the opening of its first hotel in Downtown Kuala Lumpur in 2007. Tune Hotels has one hotel in India, 11 in Malaysia, five in the UK, and four each in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. The company is set to open another property in Japan this year while future projects are planned in the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
Tune Hotels is part of Tune Group, a lifestyle business conglomerate co-founded by Tony Fernandes and Kamarudin Meranun, who are the Group CEO and Deputy Group CEO respectively of Asia’s largest low cost carrier AirAsia.
For real-time updates and promotion alerts, guests can stay connected with Tune Hotels via Facebook at www.facebook.com/tunehotelsAUS and on Twitter via www.twitter.com/tunehotels.
For booking and further information, visit www.tunehotels.com.
* Rooms at promotional rates are limited and subject to availability. Promotional rates are limited to double rooms, exclude peak periods, available only on specific dates and only for bookings made via www.tunehotels.com. Advertised rate includes GST and is for room only (excludes comfort package (WiFi, Towel & toiletries and TV) and all optional add-ons). Bookings that are made at the promotional price are strictly non-refundable or changeable. Booking period is 18 June 2013 - 28 June 2013, or until promotional rooms are sold out. Stay period is 1 Nov 2013 to 31 March 2014. No additional charges for booking payments made using PayPal. Additional charges may apply for online bookings paid using credit and debit cards. All amounts are in Australian dollars unless stated otherwise. Refer to www.tunehotels.com for other applicable terms and conditions.
** Promo fares include airport taxes and fees (all-in fares). Flights and fares are subject to availability and are for one-way travel only.
-ENDS-
About Tune Hotels & Tune Group
Tune Hotels is part of the lifestyle business conglomerate Tune Group that was founded by Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Dato’ Kamarudin Meranun. Tune Hotels seeks to innovate and revolutionise the way services are made available and has employed efficient web-based technologies to reach and engage its customers, presenting a unique lifestyle opportunity. All Tune Hotels’ properties feature space-efficient, streamlined rooms focusing on high-quality basics: a five-star bed, powerful hot showers and energy-conserving ceiling fans along with housekeeping services, electronic keycard access into rooms, CCTV surveillance, and 24-hour security. The Tune Group of companies are Tune Air (a substantial shareholder of AirAsia), Tune Hotels, Tune Money (holding company of Tune Insurance), Tune Talk, Tune Box, Tune Studios, Tune Tones, Caterham F1 Team, Queens Park Rangers Football Club (QPR) and Educ8 Group (owner of Epsom College in Malaysia).
About AirAsia X Berhad
AirAsia X is the low-cost, long-haul affiliate carrier of the AirAsia Group that currently flies to destinations in China, Australia, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Nepal and the Middle East. The airline currently serves 14 destinations across Asia (Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Taipei, Beijing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Shanghai and Kathmandu), Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Gold Coast) and the Middle East (Jeddah) with flights to an additional destination, namely Busan, commencing in July 2013. AirAsia X operates a fleet of 10 Airbus A330-300s, each with a seat configuration of 12 Premium Flatbeds and 365 Economy seats. The airline has carried over 9 million guests since it commenced long-haul in 2007. Our vision is to further solidify our position as the global leader in low-cost, long-haul aviation and create the first global multi-hub low-cost carrier network along with other carriers of the AirAsia Group.
More photos can be downloaded from www.flickr.com/tunehotels.
Media enquiries:
MALAYSIA & INTERNATIONAL
Cymantha Sothiar
Mobile: +6012 3153638
Email: cymantha@tunehotels.com
AUSTRALIA
Brenton Gibbs
Tel: +61 (0)419 828 440
Email: brenton@crookgroup.com.au
The basics of the Visual Studio 2012 for Windows Desktop Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for writing, running and debugging your applications for different platforms.
Visual Studio’s help features
Key commands contained in the IDE’s menus and tool-bar
The purpose of the various kinds of windows in the Visual Studio 2012 for Windows Desktop IDE.How to create, compile and execute a simple Visual Basic app that displays text and an image
Introduction-Visual Studio 2012 is Microsoft’s Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for creating, running and debugging applications (also called apps) written in various .NET programming languages.This Study provides an overview of the Visual Studio 2012 IDE Shows how to create a simple Visual Basic app by dragging and dropping predefined building blocks into place.A technique known as visual app development.
VB6 and VB.NET Comparative Detailed StudyVisual Basic, perfect RAD ToolAnalog Clock In Visual Basic 2008/2010/.NETPhone Book Application Program In Visual Basic 2008/2010/.NET
IDE Overview
Once Visual Studio 2012 begins execution, the Start Page displaysThe Start Page contains a list of links to Visual Studio resources and web-based resourcesAt any time, you can return to the Start Page by selecting VIEW > Start Page
The Recent Projects section shows solutions you have been working on
The links in the Get Started tab provide information about the programming languages supported by Visual Studio and various learning resourcesAn Internet connection is required for the IDE to access most of this informationThe IDE also has an internal web browserGo to VIEW > Other Windows > Web Browser
CONTINUE READING »
via IngenuityDias www.ingenuitydias.com/2016/02/microsoft-visual-basic-2012...
Photos were captured at the Pacific Slope Archaeological Laboratory on the Oregon State University Campus in Corvallis, Dec. 13, 2016, to accompany the feature story below: "Printing the past: 3-D archaeology and the first Americans." Article online here (and below): goo.gl/viKEZF
Photo by Matt Christenson, BLM
Story by Toshio Suzuki, BLM
----------------------------------------
For the first Americans, and the study of them today, it all starts with a point.
A sharp point fastened to a wooden shaft gave the hunter 13,000 years ago a weapon that could single-handedly spear a fish or work in numbers to take down a mammoth.
For a prehistoric human, these points were the difference between life and death. They were hunger-driven, handmade labors of love that took hours to craft using a cacophony of rock-on-rock cracks, thuds and shatters.
They have been called the first American invention, and some archaeologists now think 3-D scanning points can reveal more information about both the technology and the people.
The Pacific Slope Archaeological Laboratory at Oregon State University takes up only a few rooms on the ground floor of Waldo Hall, one of the supposedly haunted buildings on campus.
There are boxes of cultural history everywhere, and floor-to-ceiling wood cabinets with skinny pull-out drawers housing even more assets, but the really good stuff, evidence of the earliest known cultures in North America, lives in an 800-pound gun safe.
Loren Davis, anthropology professor at OSU and director of the lab, thinks 3-D scanning, printing, and publishing can circumvent the old traditions of the field, that artifacts are only to be experienced in museums and only handled by those who have a Ph.D.
“We are reimagining the idea of doing archaeology in a 21st century digital way,” said Davis. “We don’t do it just to make pretty pictures or print in plastic, we mostly want to capture and share it for analysis,” he added.
Nearby in the L-shaped lab, one of his doctoral students is preparing to scan a point that was discovered on Bureau of Land Management public lands in southeast Oregon.
Thousands of points have been unearthed since the 1930s in North America, the first being in eastern New Mexico near a town called Clovis. That name is now known worldwide as representing the continent’s first native people.
More recently, though, other peoples with distinctive points were found elsewhere, and some researchers think it means there was differing technology being made at the same time, if not pre-Clovis.
One such location is the Paisley Caves in southern Oregon ― one of the many archaeologically significant sites managed by the BLM.
The earliest stem point from Paisley Caves was scanned at Davis’ lab and a 3-D PDF was included in a 2012 multi-authored report in the journal Science.
Davis estimates his lab at OSU has scanned as many as 400 points, including others from BLM-managed lands in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
More scans would mean a bigger database for comparing points and determining what style they are.
“Ideally, we want to get as many artifacts scanned as possible,“ said Davis. “The BLM offers a lot of access to public data ― this is just another way of doing it.”
---
Transforming a brittle piece of volcanic glass, by hand, into a beautiful and deadly 4-inch-long spear point is a process.
In one hand would be a hard shaping rock, or maybe a thick section of antler, and in the other would be the starter stone, which in addition to igneous could be jasper, chert, or any other chippable rock that creates a hide-puncturing level of sharpness.
After what might be hundreds of controlled strokes and rock rotations, the rough shape of a lance or spear tip would take form. Discarded shards of stone would often result in more points, or other useful tools like scrapers and needles.
Clovis points are distinguished by their length, bifacial leaf shape and middle channels on the bottom called flutes. Eventually the repetitive flaking of the point would stop, and the hunter would use precise pressure points to create the flute on one or each side that likely helped slot the finished product into a spear-like wooden pole.
The hunter was now mobile and ready to roam.
---
Prior to 3-D scanning, OSU doctoral student Sean Carroll picks up a can of Tinactin, gives it the obligatory shake, and completely covers “one of the oldest technologies in North America” with antifungal spray.
The talc and alcohol from the athlete’s foot remedy helps the software see even the slightest indents in the point, and it rubs right off afterwards.
“I want to scan all the Clovis I can get my hands on,” said Carroll, who came to OSU because of Davis’ 3-D lab and is using the medium as a big part of his dissertation.
Two random items, a power plug adapter and a ball of clay, are placed on each side of the fluted point to give the camera and light projector perspective. The objects create margins that force the structured light patterns to bend and capture more of the point’s surface detail.
Even so, like the hunter rotating the shaping rock, the archaeologist has to rotate the foam square holding the three items. Each scan takes about six seconds.
Carroll and Davis estimate that the learning curve for this process was about 100 hours. One hundred hours of trial and error -- and a lot of watching YouTube videos -- for a finished product that they think is indisputably worth it.
A completed 3-D scan of a point will have about 40,000 data points per square inch. The measurements are so precise, they can determine the difference between flake marks as thin as a piece of paper.
Davis says no archaeologist with a pair of calipers can come close to measuring the data obtained via 3-D, because simply, “there are some jobs that robots are really good at.”
“If the end game is measurements, well you could spend your whole life with a pair of calipers trying to achieve what we can do in 10 minutes,” said Davis.
---
Last year, the famous human relative nicknamed Lucy had 3-D scans of her 3.2 million year old bones published in the journal Nature.
In 2015, archaeologists from Harvard University completed a 3-D scan of a winged and human-headed stone bull from Mesopotamia that stands 13 feet high at the Louvre Museum.
And the Smithsonian Institution is currently beta testing a website dedicated to publishing 3-D models from its massive collection, including molds of President Abraham Lincoln’s face and the entire Apollo 11 command module.
All of these new-school efforts are based upon the old-school scientific principles of preservation and promotion.
Rock points, fossils, hieroglyphics -- various forms of cultural assets are susceptible to environmental conditions and not guaranteed to be around forever. Three-dimensional scanning is the most accurate way to digitally preserve these items of merit.
Once accurate preservation is done, there are opportunities for promoting not just science, but specific research goals.
In the case of the Lucy bones, scientists hope that crowdsourcing the 3-D data will help get more experts to look at the fossils and prove that the tree-dwelling ape died from a fall.
When it comes to comparing one specific stemmed point to an entire hard drive of scanning data, BLM archaeologist Scott Thomas thinks the work being done at the OSU lab can move archaeology to a new level.
“The 3-D scanning method blows anything we have done out of the water,” said Thomas.
That ability to compare points can lead to insights on how these hunting tools moved over geography, and even expand theories about how native groups learned new technologies.
“It’s going to be a really powerful tool someday -- not too far off,” said Thomas.
While long-term data analysis may not be the sexiest form of archaeology, holding a 3-D printed stem point is a pretty cool educational tool.
Davis of OSU has incorporated 3-D prints into his classes and said his students are able to make a tactile connection with artifacts that otherwise are not available.
“The students really enjoy these printed and digital models and often say that they are almost like the real thing,” said Davis.
---
This spring, Davis is traveling to Magadan, Russia -- aka Siberia -- to inspect and scan some points that may be linked to Clovis peoples.
The goal in Siberia, of course, is to further expand the 3-D database. He is specifically interested in comparing them to stems from a BLM-managed site he excavated in Idaho called Cooper’s Ferry.
As his student, Carroll, begins to clean up and put the scanned points into their individually labeled ziplocked bags, Davis can’t help but mention how much easier international research could be with 3-D scanning.
“You can share cultural resource info with people in other countries and you don’t have to come visit,” he said, adding that Russia isn’t the easiest country to enter.
“It’s as easy as sending an email,” Carroll agreed.
Davis then mentioned his 11-year-old child and how much of school curriculum these days is web-based as opposed to text-based.
“There’s nothing wrong with books, I’m a huge fan of books, but it’s a different way of learning,” said the archaeology professor.
And with that, he made another point.
-- by Toshio Suzuki, tsuzuki@blm.gov, @toshjohn
Best places to find 3-D archaeology online:
-- Sketchfab.com is one of the biggest databases on the web for 3-D models of cultural assets. Institutions and academics alike are moving priceless treasures to the digital space for all to inspect. Two examples: via the British Museum, a 7.25-ton statue of Ramesses II is available for viewing and free download; and via archaeologist Robert Selden Jr., hundreds of 3-D models are open to the public for study, including several Clovis points from the Blackwater Draw National Historic Site in New Mexico.
-- The Smithsonian Institution is bringing the best of American history to a new audience via their 3-D website (3d.si.edu). Amelia Earhart's flight suit? Check. Native American ceremonial killer whale hat? Check. Face cast of President Abraham Lincoln? Check and check -- there are two. And their biggest 3-D scan is still coming: the 184-foot-long space shuttle Discovery.
-- Visitors to Africanfossils.org can filter 3-D model searches by hominids, animals and tools, and also by date, from zero to 25 million years ago.
The sleek website, with partners like National Geographic and the National Museums of Kenya, makes it easy to download or share 3-D scans, and each item even comes with a discovery backstory and Google map pinpointing exactly where it was found.
Photos were captured at the Pacific Slope Archaeological Laboratory on the Oregon State University Campus in Corvallis, Dec. 13, 2016, to accompany the feature story below: "Printing the past: 3-D archaeology and the first Americans." Article online here (and below): goo.gl/viKEZF
Photo + Story by Toshio Suzuki, BLM
----------------------------------------
For the first Americans, and the study of them today, it all starts with a point.
A sharp point fastened to a wooden shaft gave the hunter 13,000 years ago a weapon that could single-handedly spear a fish or work in numbers to take down a mammoth.
For a prehistoric human, these points were the difference between life and death. They were hunger-driven, handmade labors of love that took hours to craft using a cacophony of rock-on-rock cracks, thuds and shatters.
They have been called the first American invention, and some archaeologists now think 3-D scanning points can reveal more information about both the technology and the people.
The Pacific Slope Archaeological Laboratory at Oregon State University takes up only a few rooms on the ground floor of Waldo Hall, one of the supposedly haunted buildings on campus.
There are boxes of cultural history everywhere, and floor-to-ceiling wood cabinets with skinny pull-out drawers housing even more assets, but the really good stuff, evidence of the earliest known cultures in North America, lives in an 800-pound gun safe.
Loren Davis, anthropology professor at OSU and director of the lab, thinks 3-D scanning, printing, and publishing can circumvent the old traditions of the field, that artifacts are only to be experienced in museums and only handled by those who have a Ph.D.
“We are reimagining the idea of doing archaeology in a 21st century digital way,” said Davis. “We don’t do it just to make pretty pictures or print in plastic, we mostly want to capture and share it for analysis,” he added.
Nearby in the L-shaped lab, one of his doctoral students is preparing to scan a point that was discovered on Bureau of Land Management public lands in southeast Oregon.
Thousands of points have been unearthed since the 1930s in North America, the first being in eastern New Mexico near a town called Clovis. That name is now known worldwide as representing the continent’s first native people.
More recently, though, other peoples with distinctive points were found elsewhere, and some researchers think it means there was differing technology being made at the same time, if not pre-Clovis.
One such location is the Paisley Caves in southern Oregon ― one of the many archaeologically significant sites managed by the BLM.
The earliest stem point from Paisley Caves was scanned at Davis’ lab and a 3-D PDF was included in a 2012 multi-authored report in the journal Science.
Davis estimates his lab at OSU has scanned as many as 400 points, including others from BLM-managed lands in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
More scans would mean a bigger database for comparing points and determining what style they are.
“Ideally, we want to get as many artifacts scanned as possible,“ said Davis. “The BLM offers a lot of access to public data ― this is just another way of doing it.”
---
Transforming a brittle piece of volcanic glass, by hand, into a beautiful and deadly 4-inch-long spear point is a process.
In one hand would be a hard shaping rock, or maybe a thick section of antler, and in the other would be the starter stone, which in addition to igneous could be jasper, chert, or any other chippable rock that creates a hide-puncturing level of sharpness.
After what might be hundreds of controlled strokes and rock rotations, the rough shape of a lance or spear tip would take form. Discarded shards of stone would often result in more points, or other useful tools like scrapers and needles.
Clovis points are distinguished by their length, bifacial leaf shape and middle channels on the bottom called flutes. Eventually the repetitive flaking of the point would stop, and the hunter would use precise pressure points to create the flute on one or each side that likely helped slot the finished product into a spear-like wooden pole.
The hunter was now mobile and ready to roam.
---
Prior to 3-D scanning, OSU doctoral student Sean Carroll picks up a can of Tinactin, gives it the obligatory shake, and completely covers “one of the oldest technologies in North America” with antifungal spray.
The talc and alcohol from the athlete’s foot remedy helps the software see even the slightest indents in the point, and it rubs right off afterwards.
“I want to scan all the Clovis I can get my hands on,” said Carroll, who came to OSU because of Davis’ 3-D lab and is using the medium as a big part of his dissertation.
Two random items, a power plug adapter and a ball of clay, are placed on each side of the fluted point to give the camera and light projector perspective. The objects create margins that force the structured light patterns to bend and capture more of the point’s surface detail.
Even so, like the hunter rotating the shaping rock, the archaeologist has to rotate the foam square holding the three items. Each scan takes about six seconds.
Carroll and Davis estimate that the learning curve for this process was about 100 hours. One hundred hours of trial and error -- and a lot of watching YouTube videos -- for a finished product that they think is indisputably worth it.
A completed 3-D scan of a point will have about 40,000 data points per square inch. The measurements are so precise, they can determine the difference between flake marks as thin as a piece of paper.
Davis says no archaeologist with a pair of calipers can come close to measuring the data obtained via 3-D, because simply, “there are some jobs that robots are really good at.”
“If the end game is measurements, well you could spend your whole life with a pair of calipers trying to achieve what we can do in 10 minutes,” said Davis.
---
Last year, the famous human relative nicknamed Lucy had 3-D scans of her 3.2 million year old bones published in the journal Nature.
In 2015, archaeologists from Harvard University completed a 3-D scan of a winged and human-headed stone bull from Mesopotamia that stands 13 feet high at the Louvre Museum.
And the Smithsonian Institution is currently beta testing a website dedicated to publishing 3-D models from its massive collection, including molds of President Abraham Lincoln’s face and the entire Apollo 11 command module.
All of these new-school efforts are based upon the old-school scientific principles of preservation and promotion.
Rock points, fossils, hieroglyphics -- various forms of cultural assets are susceptible to environmental conditions and not guaranteed to be around forever. Three-dimensional scanning is the most accurate way to digitally preserve these items of merit.
Once accurate preservation is done, there are opportunities for promoting not just science, but specific research goals.
In the case of the Lucy bones, scientists hope that crowdsourcing the 3-D data will help get more experts to look at the fossils and prove that the tree-dwelling ape died from a fall.
When it comes to comparing one specific stemmed point to an entire hard drive of scanning data, BLM archaeologist Scott Thomas thinks the work being done at the OSU lab can move archaeology to a new level.
“The 3-D scanning method blows anything we have done out of the water,” said Thomas.
That ability to compare points can lead to insights on how these hunting tools moved over geography, and even expand theories about how native groups learned new technologies.
“It’s going to be a really powerful tool someday -- not too far off,” said Thomas.
While long-term data analysis may not be the sexiest form of archaeology, holding a 3-D printed stem point is a pretty cool educational tool.
Davis of OSU has incorporated 3-D prints into his classes and said his students are able to make a tactile connection with artifacts that otherwise are not available.
“The students really enjoy these printed and digital models and often say that they are almost like the real thing,” said Davis.
---
This spring, Davis is traveling to Magadan, Russia -- aka Siberia -- to inspect and scan some points that may be linked to Clovis peoples.
The goal in Siberia, of course, is to further expand the 3-D database. He is specifically interested in comparing them to stems from a BLM-managed site he excavated in Idaho called Cooper’s Ferry.
As his student, Carroll, begins to clean up and put the scanned points into their individually labeled ziplocked bags, Davis can’t help but mention how much easier international research could be with 3-D scanning.
“You can share cultural resource info with people in other countries and you don’t have to come visit,” he said, adding that Russia isn’t the easiest country to enter.
“It’s as easy as sending an email,” Carroll agreed.
Davis then mentioned his 11-year-old child and how much of school curriculum these days is web-based as opposed to text-based.
“There’s nothing wrong with books, I’m a huge fan of books, but it’s a different way of learning,” said the archaeology professor.
And with that, he made another point.
-- by Toshio Suzuki, tsuzuki@blm.gov, @toshjohn
Best places to find 3-D archaeology online:
-- Sketchfab.com is one of the biggest databases on the web for 3-D models of cultural assets. Institutions and academics alike are moving priceless treasures to the digital space for all to inspect. Two examples: via the British Museum, a 7.25-ton statue of Ramesses II is available for viewing and free download; and via archaeologist Robert Selden Jr., hundreds of 3-D models are open to the public for study, including several Clovis points from the Blackwater Draw National Historic Site in New Mexico.
-- The Smithsonian Institution is bringing the best of American history to a new audience via their 3-D website (3d.si.edu). Amelia Earhart's flight suit? Check. Native American ceremonial killer whale hat? Check. Face cast of President Abraham Lincoln? Check and check -- there are two. And their biggest 3-D scan is still coming: the 184-foot-long space shuttle Discovery.
-- Visitors to Africanfossils.org can filter 3-D model searches by hominids, animals and tools, and also by date, from zero to 25 million years ago.
The sleek website, with partners like National Geographic and the National Museums of Kenya, makes it easy to download or share 3-D scans, and each item even comes with a discovery backstory and Google map pinpointing exactly where it was found.
IID 435811 Islands Barrier Reef IM0169 Misc Dept No.A4110
Image source: Queensland State Archives Item ID ITM435811 Islands - Barrier Reef
Google is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence,[9] and consumer electronics. It has been referred to as "the most powerful company in the world"[10] and one of the world's most valuable brands due to its market dominance, data collection, and technological advantages in the area of artificial intelligence.[11][12][13] Its parent company Alphabet is considered one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.
Google was founded on September 4, 1998, by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were PhD students at Stanford University in California. Together they own about 14% of its publicly listed shares and control 56% of the stockholder voting power through super-voting stock. The company went public via an initial public offering (IPO) in 2004. In 2015, Google was reorganized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Google is Alphabet's largest subsidiary and is a holding company for Alphabet's Internet properties and interests. Sundar Pichai was appointed CEO of Google on October 24, 2015, replacing Larry Page, who became the CEO of Alphabet. On December 3, 2019, Pichai also became the CEO of Alphabet.[14]
The company has since rapidly grown to offer a multitude of products and services beyond Google Search, many of which hold dominant market positions. These products address a wide range of use cases, including email (Gmail), navigation (Waze & Maps), cloud computing (Cloud), web browsing (Chrome), video sharing (YouTube), productivity (Workspace), operating systems (Android), cloud storage (Drive), language translation (Translate), photo storage (Photos), video calling (Meet), smart home (Nest), smartphones (Pixel), wearable technology (Pixel Watch & Fitbit), music streaming (YouTube Music), video on demand (YouTube TV), artificial intelligence (Google Assistant), machine learning APIs (TensorFlow), AI chips (TPU), and more. Discontinued Google products include gaming (Stadia), Glass,[citation needed] Google+, Reader, Play Music, Nexus, Hangouts, and Inbox by Gmail.[15][16]
Google's other ventures outside of Internet services and consumer electronics include quantum computing (Sycamore), self-driving cars (Waymo, formerly the Google Self-Driving Car Project), smart cities (Sidewalk Labs), and transformer models (Google Brain).[17]
Google and YouTube are the two most visited websites worldwide followed by Facebook and Twitter. Google is also the largest search engine, mapping and navigation application, email provider, office suite, video sharing platform, photo and cloud storage provider, mobile operating system, web browser, ML framework, and AI virtual assistant provider in the world as measured by market share. On the list of most valuable brands, Google is ranked second by Forbes[18] and fourth by Interbrand.[19] It has received significant criticism involving issues such as privacy concerns, tax avoidance, censorship, search neutrality, antitrust and abuse of its monopoly position.
In March 1999, the company moved its offices to Palo Alto, California,[52] which is home to several prominent Silicon Valley technology start-ups.[53] The next year, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords against Page and Brin's initial opposition toward an advertising-funded search engine.[54][22] To maintain an uncluttered page design, advertisements were solely text-based.[55] In June 2000, it was announced that Google would become the default search engine provider for Yahoo!, one of the most popular websites at the time, replacing Inktomi.
In 2003, after outgrowing two other locations, the company leased an office complex from Silicon Graphics, at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California.[59] The complex became known as the Googleplex, a play on the word googolplex, the number one followed by a googol zeroes. Three years later, Google bought the property from SGI for $319 million.[60] By that time, the name "Google" had found its way into everyday language, causing the verb "google" to be added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary, denoted as: "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet".[61][62] The first use of the verb on television appeared in an October 2002 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.[63]
Additionally, in 2001 Google's investors felt the need to have a strong internal management, and they agreed to hire Eric Schmidt as the chairman and CEO of Google.[49] Eric was proposed by John Doerr from Kleiner Perkins. He had been trying to find a CEO that Sergey and Larry would accept for several months, but they rejected several candidates because they wanted to retain control over the company. Michael Moritz from Sequoia Capital at one point even menaced requesting Google to immediately pay back Sequoia's $12.5m investment if they did not fulfill their promise to hire a chief executive office, which had been made verbally during investment negotiations. Eric wasn't initially enthusiastic about joining Google either, as the company's full potential hadn't yet been widely recognized at the time, and as he was occupied with his responsibilities at Novell where he was CEO. As part of him joining, Eric agreed to buy $1 million of Google preferred stocks as a way to show his commitment and to provide funds Google needed.
Google generates most of its revenues from advertising. This includes sales of apps, purchases made in-app, digital content products on Google and YouTube, Android and licensing and service fees, including fees received for Google Cloud offerings. Forty-six percent of this profit was from clicks (cost per clicks), amounting to US$109,652 million in 2017. This includes three principal methods, namely AdMob, AdSense (such as AdSense for Content, AdSense for Search, etc.) and DoubleClick AdExchange.
In addition to its own algorithms for understanding search requests, Google uses technology its acquisition of DoubleClick, to project user interest and target advertising to the search context and the user history.
In 2007, Google launched "AdSense for Mobile", taking advantage of the emerging mobile advertising market.
Google Analytics allows website owners to track where and how people use their website, for example by examining click rates for all the links on a page. Google advertisements can be placed on third-party websites in a two-part program. Google Ads allows advertisers to display their advertisements in the Google content network, through a cost-per-click scheme.[138] The sister service, Google AdSense, allows website owners to display these advertisements on their website and earn money every time ads are clicked.[139] One of the criticisms of this program is the possibility of click fraud, which occurs when a person or automated script clicks on advertisements without being interested in the product, causing the advertiser to pay money to Google unduly. Industry reports in 2006 claimed that approximately 14 to 20 percent of clicks were fraudulent or invalid.[140] Google Search Console (rebranded from Google Webmaster Tools in May 2015) allows webmasters to check the sitemap, crawl rate, and for security issues of their websites, as well as optimize their website's visibility.
Consumer services
Web-based services
Google offers Gmail for email, Google Calendar for time-management and scheduling, Google Maps for mapping, navigation and satellite imagery, Google Drive for cloud storage of files, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides for productivity, Google Photos for photo storage and sharing, Google Keep for note-taking, Google Translate for language translation, YouTube for video viewing and sharing, Google My Business for managing public business information, and Duo for social interaction. In March 2019, Google unveiled a cloud gaming service named Stadia. A job search product has also existed since before 2017, Google for Jobs is an enhanced search feature that aggregates listings from job boards and career sites.
Some Google services are not web-based. Google Earth, launched in 2005, allowed users to see high-definition satellite pictures from all over the world for free through a client software downloaded to their computers.
Software
Google develops the Android mobile operating system, as well as its smartwatch, television, car, and Internet of things-enabled smart devices variations.
It also develops the Google Chrome web browser, and Chrome OS, an operating system based on Chrome.
Hardware
In January 2010, Google released Nexus One, the first Android phone under its own brand. It spawned a number of phones and tablets under the "Nexus" branding until its eventual discontinuation in 2016, replaced by a new brand called Pixel.
In 2011, the Chromebook was introduced, which runs on Chrome OS.
In July 2013, Google introduced the Chromecast dongle, which allows users to stream content from their smartphones to televisions.
In June 2014, Google announced Google Cardboard, a simple cardboard viewer that lets user place their smartphone in a special front compartment to view virtual reality (VR) media.
Other hardware products include:
•Nest, a series of voice assistant smart speakers that can answer voice queries, play music, find information from apps (calendar, weather etc.), and control third-party smart home appliances (users can tell it to turn on the lights, for example). The Google Nest line includes the original Google Home (later succeeded by the Nest Audio), the Google Home Mini (later succeeded by the Nest Mini, the Google Home Max, the Google Home Hub (later rebranded as the Nest Hub), and the Nest Hub Max.
•Nest Wifi (originally Google Wifi), a connected set of Wi-Fi routers to simplify and extend coverage of home Wi-Fi.
Enterprise services
Google Workspace (formerly G Suite until October 2020) is a monthly subscription offering for organizations and businesses to get access to a collection of Google's services, including Gmail, Google Drive and Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides, with additional administrative tools, unique domain names, and 24/7 support.
On September 24, 2012, Google launched Google for Entrepreneurs, a largely not-for-profit business incubator providing startups with co-working spaces known as Campuses, with assistance to startup founders that may include workshops, conferences, and mentorships. Presently, there are seven Campus locations: Berlin, London, Madrid, Seoul, São Paulo, Tel Aviv, and Warsaw.
On March 15, 2016, Google announced the introduction of Google Analytics 360 Suite, "a set of integrated data and marketing analytics products, designed specifically for the needs of enterprise-class marketers" which can be integrated with BigQuery on the Google Cloud Platform. Among other things, the suite is designed to help "enterprise class marketers" "see the complete customer journey", generate "useful insights", and "deliver engaging experiences to the right people". Jack Marshall of The Wall Street Journal wrote that the suite competes with existing marketing cloud offerings by companies including Adobe, Oracle, Salesforce, and IBM.
Internet services
In February 2010, Google announced the Google Fiber project, with experimental plans to build an ultra-high-speed broadband network for 50,000 to 500,000 customers in one or more American cities.[178][179] Following Google's corporate restructure to make Alphabet Inc. its parent company, Google Fiber was moved to Alphabet's Access division.[180][181]
In April 2015, Google announced Project Fi, a mobile virtual network operator, that combines Wi-Fi and cellular networks from different telecommunication providers in an effort to enable seamless connectivity and fast Internet signal.
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, its name comes from the face book directories often given to American university students. Membership was initially limited to Harvard students, gradually expanding to other North American universities and, since 2006, anyone over 13 years old. As of July 2022, Facebook claimed 2.93 billion monthly active users,[6] and ranked third worldwide among the most visited websites as of July 2022.[7] It was the most downloaded mobile app of the 2010s.[8]
Facebook can be accessed from devices with Internet connectivity, such as personal computers, tablets and smartphones. After registering, users can create a profile revealing information about themselves. They can post text, photos and multimedia which are shared with any other users who have agreed to be their "friend" or, with different privacy settings, publicly. Users can also communicate directly with each other with Facebook Messenger, join common-interest groups, and receive notifications on the activities of their Facebook friends and the pages they follow.
The subject of numerous controversies, Facebook has often been criticized over issues such as user privacy (as with the Cambridge Analytica data scandal), political manipulation (as with the 2016 U.S. elections) and mass surveillance.[9] Posts originating from the Facebook page of Breitbart News, a media organization previously affiliated with Cambridge Analytica,[10] are currently among the most widely shared political content on Facebook.[11][12][13][14][15] Facebook has also been subject to criticism over psychological effects such as addiction and low self-esteem, and various controversies over content such as fake news, conspiracy theories, copyright infringement, and hate speech.
Zuckerberg built a website called "Facemash" in 2003 while attending Harvard University. The site was comparable to Hot or Not and used "photos compiled from the online face books of nine Houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the "hotter" person". Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours. The site was sent to several campus group listservs, but was shut down a few days later by Harvard administration. Zuckerberg faced expulsion and was charged with breaching security, violating copyrights and violating individual privacy. Ultimately, the charges were dropped. Zuckerberg expanded on this project that semester by creating a social study tool. He uploaded art images, each accompanied by a comments section, to a website he shared with his classmates.
A "face book" is a student directory featuring photos and personal information. In 2003, Harvard had only a paper version[ along with private online directories. Zuckerberg told The Harvard Crimson, "Everyone's been talking a lot about a universal face book within Harvard. ... I think it's kind of silly that it would take the University a couple of years to get around to it. I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week."[29] In January 2004, Zuckerberg coded a new website, known as "TheFacebook", inspired by a Crimson editorial about Facemash, stating, "It is clear that the technology needed to create a centralized Website is readily available ... the benefits are many." Zuckerberg met with Harvard student Eduardo Saverin, and each of them agreed to invest $1,000 ($1,435 in 2021 dollars[30]) in the site.[31] On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched "TheFacebook", originally located at thefacebook.com.
Six days after the site launched, Harvard seniors Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing that he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com. They claimed that he was instead using their ideas to build a competing product. The three complained to the Crimson and the newspaper began an investigation. They later sued Zuckerberg, settling in 2008 for 1.2 million shares (worth $300 million ($354 million in 2021 dollars[30]) at Facebook's IPO).
Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College. Within a month, more than half the undergraduates had registered.[36] Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes joined Zuckerberg to help manage the growth of the website.[37] In March 2004, Facebook expanded to Columbia, Stanford and Yale.[38] It then became available to all Ivy League colleges, Boston University, NYU, MIT, and successively most universities in the United States and Canada.
In mid-2004, Napster co-founder and entrepreneur Sean Parker—an informal advisor to Zuckerberg—became company president.[41] In June 2004, the company moved to Palo Alto, California.[42] It received its first investment later that month from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. In 2005, the company dropped "the" from its name after purchasing the domain name Facebook.com for US$200,000 ($277,492 in 2021 dollars). The domain had belonged to AboutFace Corporation.
In May 2005, Accel Partners invested $12.7 million ($17.6 million in 2021 dollars) in Facebook, and Jim Breyer added $1 million ($1.39 million in 2021 dollars) of his own money. A high-school version of the site launched in September 2005. Eligibility expanded to include employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft.
Facebook was sued by the Federal Trade Commission as well as a coalition of several states for illegal monopolization and antitrust. The FTC and states sought the courts to force Facebook to sell its subsidiaries WhatsApp and Instagram.[183][184] The suits were dismissed by a federal judge on June 28, 2021, who stated that there was not enough evidence brought in the suit to determine Facebook to be a monopoly at this point, though allowed the FTC to amend its case to include additional evidence. In its amended filings in August 2021, the FTC asserted that Facebook had been a monopoly in the area of personal social networks since 2011, distinguishing Facebook's activities from social media services like TikTok that broadcast content without necessarily limiting that message to intended recipients.
In response to the proposed bill in the Australian Parliament for a News Media Bargaining Code, on February 17, 2021, Facebook blocked Australian users from sharing or viewing news content on its platform, as well as pages of some government, community, union, charity, political, and emergency services.[187] The Australian government strongly criticised the move, saying it demonstrated the "immense market power of these digital social giants".
On February 22, Facebook said it reached an agreement with the Australian government that would see news returning to Australian users in the coming days. As part of this agreement, Facebook and Google can avoid the News Media Bargaining Code adopted on February 25 if they "reach a commercial bargain with a news business outside the Code".
Facebook has been accused of removing and shadow banning content that spoke either in favor of protesting Indian farmers or against Narendra Modi's government. India-based employees of Facebook are at risk of arrest.
On February 27, 2021, Facebook announced Facebook BARS app for rappers.
On June 29, 2021, Facebook announced Bulletin, a platform for independent writers.[197][198] Unlike competitors such as Substack, Facebook would not take a cut of subscription fees of writers using that platform upon its launch, like Malcolm Gladwell and Mitch Albom. According to The Washington Post technology writer Will Oremus, the move was criticized by those who viewed it as an tactic intended by Facebook to force those competitors out of business.
In October 2021, owner Facebook, Inc. changed its company name to Meta Platforms, Inc., or simply "Meta", as it shifts its focus to building the "metaverse". This change does not affect the name of the Facebook social networking service itself, instead being similar to the creation of Alphabet as Google's parent company in 2015.
In November 2021, Facebook stated it would stop targeting ads based on data related to health, race, ethnicity, political beliefs, religion and sexual orientation. The change will occur in January and will affect all apps owned by Meta Platforms.
In February 2022, Facebook's daily active users dropped for the first time in its 18-year history. According to Facebook's parent Meta, DAUs dropped to 1.929 billion in the three months ending in December, down from 1.930 billion the previous quarter. Furthermore, the company warned that revenue growth would slow due to competition from TikTok and YouTube, as well as advertisers cutting back on spending.
Analysts predict a "death spiral" for facebook stock as users leave while ad impressions increase, as the company chases revenue.
On March 10, 2022, Facebook announced that it will temporarily ease rules to allow violent speech against 'Russian invaders'. Russia then banned all Meta services, including Instagram.
White Castle
Harold and Kumar aren't the only loyal customers who keep coming back to White Castle for some of those iconic sliders, and now, there is even an Impossible Slider on the menu.
Boston Market
From the rotisserie chickens to the delectable mac and cheese, Boston Market is always a great stop for a hearty meal. Here are The Best & Worst Menu Items at Boston Market.
Papa John's
Papa John's is always boasting about its better ingredients, and it seems like there are plenty of customers who continue to order these pizzas.
Little Caesars
"Pizza, pizza" has plenty of loyal fans, thanks to the "cheap and fast" vibe of the food. Speaking of pizza, do you know what the most popular pizza topping is in your state?
Starbucks
Starbucks has gathered a reputation for being the go-to place when you're in the mood for a pumpkin coffee drink once fall rolls around. And with their decadent Frappuccinos, there are plenty of sweet treats for non-coffee drinkers, too.
Quizno's
Quizno's offers up classic sandwiches, and who can resist the fresh pepper bar?
Five Guys
While Five Guys has some top-notch burgers and fries, this is a spot for peanut lovers, too. You can munch on peanuts that are available all over the restaurants while you order your meal.
Cold Stone Creamery
This ice cream shop serves up cold customized treats for whatever your heart desires, so it's basically a dream come true, right?
Sonic
Sometimes, you just want one of Sonic's frozen drinks and a burger to go along with it. Yum!
Burger King
While it may not be the most popular dining brand in the country, the King is still a top choice for many. Those Whoppers are still as tasty as ever, especially if you go for the Impossible Whopper.
Want to chow down on more juicy hamburgers? Here's where you can get The Absolute Best Burger in Every State.
KFC
The Colonel is still going strong! Who doesn't want to eat their chicken right out of a bucket?
A&W Restaurants
Yes, the root beer chain sells food! Here are The Best & Worst Menu Items at A&W.
Mrs. Fields
Those giant chocolate chip cookies that just call your name as you're walking by? They are a staple of all Mrs. Fields locations, so we don't blame you for having one now and then.
Subway
People surveyed described this sandwich shop as a "good value for money." If you're a Subway fan, you're not alone! Headed to Subway? Here's Every Subway Sandwich—Ranked for Nutrition!
McDonald's
Are you still McLovin' it? You might've expected Mickey D's to claim a spot closer to the top, but those golden fries and Big Macs seem to have some more competition.
Domino's
Domino's is hailed by fans for being well-made and a good value. With wings and yummy chocolate lava cakes to go alongside a pizza, Domino's is simply beloved.
Popeyes
Plenty of loyal Popeyes fans eat there on the reg, and we know the chicken sandwich was truly worth all the hype.
Panera
From its house-made lemonade to that tasty mac and cheese to those fresh-baked bagels, Panera has it all. No wonder it ranked so highly on YouGov's list!
Taco Bell
This taco joint rings its loyal customers' bells for being "everywhere and good quality." By the way, You'll Never Guess What Taco Bell Uses to Season Its Beef.
Chick-fil-A
Although loyal customers can't satisfy their fried chicken cravings on Sunday, Chick-fil-A still is a top spot to go when you're in the mood for a chicken sandwich and some waffle fries.
Pizza Hut
With a plethora of crusts, cheesy toppings, and grilled veggies to choose from, it's no surprise pizza lovers keep coming back to the Hut.
Arby's
For all the meat-lovers out there, Arby's is your place, especially if you're a fan of their staple, roast beef sandwiches.
Dunkin'
America actually does run on Dunkin', doesn't it? Those Munchkins are rather irresistible.
Cinnabon
No mall trip is ever done without a pit stop at Cinnabon for a warm, gooey, perfectly sticky cinnamon bun.
Wendy's
Ranking higher than McDonald's and Burger King is the beloved redhead! The real question is, which flavor Frosty do you get: chocolate or vanilla?
Krispy Kreme
From the affordably priced cups of caffeine to the hot-out-the-oven classic glazed doughnuts, it's easy to see why Krispy Kreme has such a devoted following.
Baskin-Robbins
Craving ice cream? Baskin Robbins comes in the first-place spot. And they have so many delicious scoop flavors!
Dairy Queen
Majority rules! Customers raved that the fast-food chain is "good quality," "never gets old," and is a "good value for money." That sounds like a winning combo to us! DQ even sold more than 175 million Blizzards the first year they introduced them in 1985—who knew?
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.
Identity design for web-based retail point-of-sale system. Logo, business cards, user-interface design.
Come celebrate with the ONAC community during the ONE PDX launch event and learn more about the Oregon Native Enterprise (ONE) Program at this free event!\nThe ONE Coalition has developed a business development series utilizing the voices of our community and representing our collective wisdom in support of business development and ownership for Native American entrepreneurs across Oregon & SW Washington. We invite you to learn more about this exciting new program and the StartUpOregon Platform as it supports Economic Development opportunities by leveraging web-based technologies to expand your reach.\nONAC is dedicated to working with all members of the community to advance the educational and economic opportunities for Native Americans in Oregon and Southwest Washington. We look forward to having our partners and community advocates come together during this event. Thank you! copyright © 2018 sean dreilinger
Or students will be prompted to work on computer software programs focused on enhancing reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. We primarily use the Read 180 software. However, other programs like Study Island and my own web based projects are available for students to work on.
1: part of copious mucus trail deposited by mucus gland of foot to assist movement over soft substrate.
Full SPECIES DESCRIPTION BELOW
Sets of OTHER SPECIES at: www.flickr.com/photos/56388191@N08/collections/
PDF available at www.researchgate.net/profile/Ian_Smith19/publications
Gibbula magus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Current taxonomy: World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)
www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=141790
Synonyms: Trochus magus (Linnaeus, 1758) [in Jeffreys, and Forbes & Hanley];
Meaning of name: Gibbula = [Latin] a little hump. magus = [shell resembles turban worn by] Persian wiseman/magician.
Vernacular: Turban top shell; Painted top shell; Giant top shell; Large top shell (English); Top môr mawr (Welsh); Geknobbelde tolhoren (Dutch); Peonza maga (Spanish); Zauberbuckel (German)
GLOSSARY below.
Shell description
Usually, breadth to 31mm, height to 25mm 1Gm flic.kr/p/rWEq1q , exceptionally 35mm broad and 30mm high. Shell-walls thick. Sutures deep. Whorls flat or slightly convex, each with an abrupt adapical angle, forming a markedly stepped profile 2Gm flic.kr/p/sbWzjq . Apical angle 80º – 100º. Body whorl angled about 100° at strong peripheral keel. Height about 80% of breadth . Spire small; body whorl height about 70% of shell height. Sculpture of distinct spiral ridges and narrow grooves; ridge on peripheral keel enlarged; on body whorl about seventeen ridges above keel and about twenty-five below 3Gm flic.kr/p/rhekvW . Ridges often smooth on intertidal specimens; often markedly imbricated sublittorally. Several transverse growth lines. Adapical step on each whorl has series of flexed elongate knobs that can form a cable pattern 4Gm flic.kr/p/se5Uxd , but knobs may be inconspicuous when eroded or overlain by a colour pattern 5Gm flic.kr/p/sbWwuY . Large conical umbilicus with wide comma-shaped groove leading into it 6Gm flic.kr/p/sebB3F . Aperture approximately D-shaped; about 40% of shell-height 2Gm flic.kr/p/sbWzjq . Thin, curved, palatal (outer) lip. White columellar lip is basally flat and wide with slight rounded protuberance; narrower where it overhangs umbilicus 4Gm flic.kr/p/se5Uxd . Parietal lip is a pale glaze on body whorl 4Gm flic.kr/p/se5Uxd . Adapical angle of aperture is obtuse; about 160º 2Gm flic.kr/p/sbWzjq .
External ground colour of opaque shell is matt white, often stained yellowish, greenish etc by epiphytic growths 3Gm flic.kr/p/rhekvW , and old shells may become grey as outer layer erodes to reveal interior nacre 7Gm flic.kr/p/rhegr3 . Radiating marks of various shades of red, including red-black 8Gm flic.kr/p/rUUiZD , are found on shells from southern Europe (Greek examples by A.Trifilis) flic.kr/p/7YLoPh and the English channel, but further north in Wales and Scotland the majority of some populations lack red markings. Internally, shell is glossy-white apart from matt-white band bordering lip , often with a pinkish tinge on red-patterned specimens, 8Gm flic.kr/p/rUUiZD & 9Gm flic.kr/p/sbWrDL . No internal red marks. Circular spiral operculum with many narrow coils 6Gm flic.kr/p/sebB3F , transparent horn colour, darkening with age/growth; pale opercular disc usually visible through operculum of live specimens.
Body description
Ground colour of dorsal surfaces of head-foot white, often faintly tinted pinkish or yellowish; overlaid with dense network of brown to purple-black 10Gm flic.kr/p/rhecgu . Large Snout ends in circular yellow tip with a vertical slit mouth with diagonal slit extensions at each end 11Gm flic.kr/p/rWMefH . Exterior surface of snout has transverse brown to purple-black lines, and distal half has dense beard of long bright blue papillae 12Gm flic.kr/p/rWMd2R & 13Gm flic.kr/p/rhe9yq . Cephalic tentacles long, translucent brownish-white, with encircling black and opaque-white jagged rings; unobtrusive, fine, longitudinal, dorsal, black line in slight dorsal groove often only partially visible; coating of dense fine setae visible under magnification. Between bases of cephalic tentacles is a pair of large cephalic lappets with varying amounts of orange or brown 13Gm flic.kr/p/rhe9yq & 14Gm flic.kr/p/rUUd6V , and edged with prominent fringe of often yellowish and blue lobes. Eye on stout peduncle at base of each cephalic tentacle; peduncle orange to dark-brown dorsally and whitish ventrally apart from bright blue terminal area that extends slightly onto dorsum; small black “pupil” in blue area near dorsal edge of truncated tip 12Gm flic.kr/p/rWMd2R & 14Gm flic.kr/p/rUUd6V . Both cephalic lappets pass over base of cephalic tentacle to connect with eye-peduncle. Large neck-lobe behind each eye. Yellowish-white to orange right neck-lobe has smooth edge and is usually curved to form complete bottle-necked siphon for exhalent water, faeces and reproductive products 11Gm flic.kr/p/rWMefH & 15Gm flic.kr/p/sebsmc ; occasionally opened-out flat 16Gm flic.kr/p/se5Hzm . Whitish to orange left neck-lobe has scalloped edge to assist filtering out of large debris from inhalent water. Ventral surface of each neck-lobe has substantial whitish cylindrical peg. Each eye-peduncle is connected to its adjacent neck lobe/epipodium by a connecting flap 17Gm flic.kr/p/se5H5y . Dorsal surface of foot white, often faintly tinted pinkish or yellowish, except peripheral border bright yellow; all overlaid with dense network of brown to purple-black 10Gm flic.kr/p/rhecgu and densely covered with whitish tubercles. Epipodium an extensive veil on each side of foot, united with neck-lobes ; on live animal usually held erect against surface of shell so its ventral surface on view and upper body concealed 10Gm flic.kr/p/rhecgu ; protection from sand abrasion by epipodium allows algae to grow on base of shell 6Gm flic.kr/p/sebB3F . Ventral surface of epipodium has many tubercles 18Gm flic.kr/p/se5GEA ; paler than dorsum of foot as brown reticulated pattern less intense, and large simply white and sulphur-yellow areas lack pattern. When epipodium from each side reaches the metapodium it becomes a free-standing erect crest that meets the other at the posterior to form a 'V'; prominent when foot extended 15Gm flic.kr/p/sebsmc , small when foot contracted 18Gm flic.kr/p/se5GEA . Each epipodium bears three translucent tawny-white or yellow epipodial tentacles with a pale longitudinal dorsal line, and sometimes indistinct pale-brown rings and reticulation 15Gm flic.kr/p/sebsmc . Each tentacle arises from a white jagged sheath with an adjacent white, spiked, sensory lobe 15Gm flic.kr/p/sebsmc & 18Gm flic.kr/p/se5GEA . Opercular lobe, not enclosing any of operculum edge, visible as pale patch through transparent operculum when animal retracted into shell 6Gm flic.kr/p/sebB3F . Sole varies yellow to white, depending on degree of compression/extension; divided by central longitudinal furrow; periphery has fringe of papillae 19Gm flic.kr/p/sebqqD . Mantle dull-yellow. Large, dull-yellow, canoe-shaped ctenidium 20Gm flic.kr/p/seehaP within mantle cavity. Fertilization external, so no penis on males.
Other images of whole animals:
21Gm flic.kr/p/sbWhRL Anterior/left view of whole animal. Source of extract 12Gm flic.kr/p/rWMd2R
22 Gm flic.kr/p/rWCV1S Dorsal view of whole animal. Source of extract 13Gm flic.kr/p/rhe9yq .
23Gm flic.kr/p/rhqxdk Dorsal view of whole animal. Source of extract 14Gm flic.kr/p/rUUd6V .
24Gm flic.kr/p/seebXp Ventral view of whole animal. Source of extract 17Gm flic.kr/p/se5H5y .
25Gm flic.kr/p/se5yqQ Posterior view of whole animal. Source of extract 18Gm flic.kr/p/se5GEA .
26Gm flic.kr/p/se5xC7 Right side view of whole animal.
Key identification features
Gibbula magus
* Opaque white shell 4Gm flic.kr/p/se5Uxd , sometimes with reddish marks 8Gm flic.kr/p/rUUiZD .
* Markedly stepped shell-profile 9Gm flic.kr/p/sbWrDL .
* Large conical umbilicus with wide comma-shaped groove leading into it 6Gm flic.kr/p/sebB3F .
* Snout has transverse brown to purple-black lines 13Gm flic.kr/p/rhe9yq , and distal half has dense beard of long bright blue papillae 12Gm flic.kr/p/rWMd2R .
* Black eye-pupil in blue area on stout peduncle 12Gm flic.kr/p/rWMd2R .
* Mainly sublittoral, but locally common at ELWS in favoured sheltered sites in Scilly Isles, Cardigan Bay, Connemara and Orkney. On stable sand, muddy-sand, maerl and gravel; sometimes on rock.
Similar species
Phorcus lineatus
* Shell, ground colour shades of buff 7Pl flic.kr/p/g3hrww , yellow 8Pl flic.kr/p/g3hsKA , brown 1Pl flic.kr/p/g3hsKJ and/or green 9Pl flic.kr/p/nz3eFr . Darker, more or less zig-zag, transverse streaks of dark-brown, -green, -grey or –reddish purple run across the whorls, parallel to growth lines.
* Shell-profile not stepped.
* Umbilicus completely sealed over by time 5mm wide, often leaving a dip in columella 4Pl flic.kr/p/g3hs4L (Occasionally narrow, open crack 5Pl flic.kr/p/nz3xm7 . Iberian specimens often have open umbilicus).
* Snout black or grey, lacks dense beard of long bright blue papillae 14Pl flic.kr/p/nPuhDb
* Black eye-pupil on red or yellow peduncle 14Pl flic.kr/p/nPuhDb
* Upper rocky shores between Isle of Wight and Llandudno, and most of Ireland.
Gibbula umbilicalis
* Shell always has broad red to reddish-purple bands radiating from apex across the whorls 5Gu flic.kr/p/g3iQgZ .
* Shell always has a large round umbilicus, but no wide comma-shaped groove leading into it 4Gu flic.kr/p/g3iV21 .
* Shell-profile not stepped 2Gu flic.kr/p/g3iVPG .
* Snout short, yellowish or greenish with dense transverse dark purple lines, lacks dense beard of long bight blue papillae 10Gu flic.kr/p/g3iT4d
* Middle levels of rocky shores from Kent along south and west coasts round onto north coast Scotland, with a few records on west coast of Orkney.
Gibbula cineraria
* Shell has grey or bluish grey bands radiating from apex across the whorls 3Gc flic.kr/p/k7Gxot .
* Umbilicus progressively narrows with age. Adult shell may have very restricted 26Gc flic.kr/p/g3ibVA or completely closed umbilicus 27Gc flic.kr/p/g3icEU , but juveniles 27Gu flic.kr/p/g3iMVW may have large round umbilicus.
* Shell profile of fully grown 15mm high G. cineraria may be like traditional bee-hive 6Gc flic.kr/p/kkVBzZ , but not stepped.
* Snout short, yellowish or brownish with transverse brown lines, lacks dense beard of long bright blue papillae 10Gc flic.kr/p/kmaPxE
Gibbula albida
* Opaque white shell, sometimes with reddish marks www.conchology.be/?t=66&species=Gibbula+albida .
* Stepped shell-profile.
* Some shells have umbilicus with comma-shaped groove leading into it, www.animalbase.uni-goettingen.de/zooweb/servlet/AnimalBas... but smaller than G. magus, and often closed by callus. nature22.com/estran22/mollusques/gasteropodes/gasteropode...
* Soft parts resemble G. magus; eye-pupil in blue area on peduncle, and snout has transverse brown lines but lacks dense beard of long bright blue papillae. nature22.com/estran22/mollusques/gasteropodes/gasteropode...
* Brittany southwards; not Britain.
Habits and ecology
Usually on stable sublittoral rough bottoms, muddy sand or gravel. In Britain and Ireland, locally common at ELWS at a few sites with fully marine salinity and shelter from wave action in Scilly Isles, Cardigan Bay, Connemara and northern Scotland. Reported shore substrates include sand (T.Pearman) flic.kr/p/obzrkf , mixed sand and stones, rocks, muddy sand, and maerl www.habitas.org.uk/marinelife/species.asp?item=W1890 .
Respiration, cilia on fringed left neck-lobe vibrate to create inhalent current to large canoe-shape ctenidium within mantle cavity 20Gm flic.kr/p/seehaP . Fringe probably acts as guard against detritus and may sense poor water conditions. Cilia on right neck-lobe create exhalent current for respiratory water, ova or sperm, and faeces; bottle-neck probably increases speed of expulsion. Locomotion enabled by ditaxic direct compression waves on either side of central division on sole 19Gm flic.kr/p/sebqqD ; turning caused by different rates of wave flow on either side of central furrow. Exudes copious mucus to assist movement over soft sediment 1Gm flic.kr/p/rWEq1q . Feeds by grazing microphytes (diatoms etc) from substrate with its radula.Breeds spring and autumn (Plymouth), June (Roscoff); dates vary at different locations. External fertilization occurs as ova released individually via right neck-lobe from mantle cavity. Brief free living trochophore stage; little else known of early stages, but lack of capture in plankton nets suggests weak, or no, planktonic veliger activity.
Distribution and status
Shetland to Canary Islands, Mediterranean and Black Sea, not North Sea or Baltic. GBIF map www.gbif.org/species/5190299 . Common sublittorally in Britain on south and west coasts between Kent and Shetland; not North Sea or Liverpool Bay. Most of Ireland. U.K. map NBN species.nbnatlas.org/species/NBNSYS0000175457
.
Acknowledgements
I thank Florence Cochu, Marc Cochu and Michel Le Quément for use of their images of Gibbula albida.
Links and references
Estran 22, faune et flore de le zone de la balancement de marées en Côtes d'Armor nature22.com/estran22/mollusques/gasteropodes/gasteropode...
Forbes, E. & Hanley S. 1849-53. A history of the British mollusca and their shells. vol. 2 (1849), London, van Voorst. (As Trochus magus; Free pdf at archive.org/stream/historyofbritish02forb#page/522/mode/2up Use slide at base of page to select pp.522-525.)
Fretter, V. and Graham, A. 1962. British prosobranch molluscs. London, Ray Society.
Fretter, V. and Graham, A. 1977. The prosobranch molluscs of Britain and Denmark. Part 2 – Trochacea. Suppl. 3, J. Moll. Stud.
Graham, A. 1988. Prosobranch and pyramidellid gastropods. London.
Grall, J., Le Loc'h, F., Guyonnet, B. & Riera, P. 2006 Community structure and food web based on stable isotopes (δ15N and δ13C) analysis of a North Eastern Atlantic maerl bed Journal of Experimental Marine biology and ecology 338: 1-15 www.researchgate.net/profile/Francois_Le_Loch/publication...(15N_and_13C)_analysis_of_a_North_Eastern_Atlantic_maerl_bed/links/0fcfd500faa2d57c51000000.pdf
Jeffreys, J.G. 1862-69. British conchology. vol. 3 (1865). London, van Voorst. (As Trochus magus; Free pdf at archive.org/stream/britishconcholog03jeff#page/304/mode/2up . Use slide at base of page to select pp.305- 307.
Picton, B.E. & Morrow, C.C. Encyclopedia of marine life of Britain and Ireland.
www.habitas.org.uk/marinelife/index.html
Current taxonomy: World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)
www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=141790
Glossary
adapical – towards the apex of the shell.
aperture – mouth of gastropod shell; outlet for head and foot.
cephalic – (adj.) of or on the head.
cilia – (pl.) vibrating linear extensions of membrane used in feeding or locomotion. (“cilium” singular).
ciliated – (adj.) coated with cilia.
columella - solid or hollow axial “little column” around which gastropod shell spirals; hidden inside shell, except on final whorl next to lower part of inner lip of aperture where hollow ones may end in an umbilicus or siphonal canal.
columellar – (adj.) of or near central axis of spiral gastropod.
columellar lip - lower (abapical) part of inner lip of aperture.
diatom – microscopic aquatic alga with siliceous cell-walls.
ctenidium – comb-like molluscan gill; usually an axis with a row of filaments either side.
ditaxic – (of locomotion waves on foot) double series of waves, out of phase with each other, one series on each side of central furrow on sole.
direct - (of locomotion waves on foot) waves travel from posterior to anterior.
ELWS – extreme low water spring tide (usually near March and September equinoxes).
height – (of gastropod shells) distance from apex of spire to base of aperture.
maerl – substrate consisting mainly of fragments of calcareous seaweed Lithothamnion calcareum.
mantle – sheet of tissue that secretes the shell and forms a cavity for the gill in most marine molluscs.
metapodium – hind part of the foot.
opercular – (adj.) of the operculum.
opercular disc – part of foot that growing operculum rotates on.
opercular lobe – extension of opercular disc round edge of part of operculum.
operculum – plate of horny conchiolin, rarely calcareous, used to close shell aperture.
papilla – (pl. papillae) small cone-shaped protrusion of flesh.
papillate – covered in papillae
periostracum – thin horny layer of chitinous material often coating shells.
plankton – animals and plants that drift in pelagic zone (main body of water).
umbilicus – cavity up axis of some gastropods, open as a hole or chink on base of shell, often sealed over.
setose – bearing many setae.
seta – stiff hair or bristle. (pl. setae)
suture – groove or line where whorls of gastropod shell adjoin.
trochophore – spherical or pear-shaped larvae that swim with aid of girdle of cilia. Stage preceding veliger, passed within gastropod egg in most spp. but free in plankton for limpets, Trochidae and Tricolia pullus.
veliger – shelled larva of marine gastropod or bivalve mollusc which swims by beating cilia of a velum (bilobed flap).
This musical phenomenon comes to Theatr Clwyd for the first time thanks to Tip Top Productions.
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber based on Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot. “Prologue – Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats” additional material written by Trevor Nunn and Richard Stilgoe; ”Memory” additional material written by Trevor Nunn.
The Jellicle Cats come out to play on one special night of the year—the night of the Jellicle Ball. One by one they tell their stories to Old Deuteronomy, their wise and benevolent leader, who must choose one of the Cats to ascend to The Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a whole new Jellicle life. Among the candidates are the aging theatre cat, Gus; the rocker, Rum Tum Tugger; and the once-glamorous Grizabella, now but a faded memory of her former self.
Boasting a score that includes Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats, Mr. Mistoffelees and Memory, this compelling fable takes audiences to a fantastical world that can only exist in the theatre. Cats has been performed worldwide and translated into over 20 languages. The original West End production ran for 21 years and the original Broadway production ran for 18 years
For tickets and more info see:
Mingle Media TV and Red Carpet Report host Cathy Kelley were invited to cover the 39th Annual Gracie Awards, (The Gracies) Honoring Exemplary Women in Media. The event was hosted by Aisha Tyler and was held in the Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Get the Story from the Red Carpet Report Team, follow us on Twitter and Facebook at:
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About the Gracies
The Gracies recognizes exemplary programming created for women, by women, and about women in all facets of media, including radio, television, cable and new media. The awards program also encourages the realistic and multi-faceted portrayal of women in entertainment, news, features and other programs.
The Gracies are presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Alliance for Women that supports educational programs, charitable activities, public service campaigns and scholarships to benefit the public and women in media. The Gracie Awards, established in 1975, honor programming and individuals of the highest caliber in all facets of radio, television, cable and web-based media, including news, drama, comedy, public services, documentary and sports. www.thegracies.org
For more of Mingle Media TV’s Red Carpet Report coverage, please visit our website and follow us on Twitter and Facebook here:
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Follow our host Cathy Kelley : www.twitter.com/CatherineKelley
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.
The tall majestic California Redwoods, but not in California, but in the deep forests of Victoria Australia this tiny grove of trees also grow majestically and silently while many drive on past ...
Check out my Profile Page for more information on my images and my website and contact details
Copyright © 2012 Neal Pritchard Photography
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Welcome to, a web based area of ex-chronics who wish to assist you to shake your marijuana habit for good. The drawback from your opiates could be mitigated with marijuana and coffee, nonetheless it got me many years to find something to aid with cannabis withdrawal after I flipped to weed for
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A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.
National Community College Aerospace Scholars, or NCAS, is an interactive online learning opportunity highlighted by a three-day experience at NASA. Selected students are encouraged to study mathematics, science, engineering and computer science by interacting with engineers at different NASA centers. The project includes preliminary interactive Web-based activities and an onsite experience during the fall or spring at NASA (either Johnson Space Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory).
Teams of students and NASA mentors planned and budgeted a simulated Mars mission, designed and constructed programmable rovers and created details for a fictional corporate infrastructure. They also delivered marketing presentations and demonstrated robotic functionality to a panel of NASA experts.
#NASA_Marshall #NCAS2014 #STEM #NASA
Image Credit: NASA/MSFC/Fred Kepner
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.
ANOREXIA TABLEAU
Damselfly Chair
Reassembled, carved and wood-burned chair bones; mirror platform
Spill
Beaded bracelets created by college students and family members in Kansas, Minnesota, and Illinois
Haunted
Headphones; audio recordings and sound compositions: No One Could Make Me Eat, Frightened to Death, Ana Wants
A skeletal, distressed, cut up wooden chair personifies the painful emptiness experienced by victims of eating disorders.
Spilled on the floor are hundreds of intestine-like, blood red, white and blue beaded bracelets, like those sometimes worn by “Pro-Ana” or “Pro-Mia” members. Fueled by the Internet and social media, this disturbing ‘secret society’ trend presents eating disorders as desirable behavior and simply a “lifestyle choice.” Along with virtual communities, these web-based groups provide effective starvation technique tips and post ‘thinspiration’ images of anorexic celebrities and models. They encourage those battling eating disorders to ‘stick with it,’ and can trigger relapse for those in recovery.
Anorexia is the most deadly mental illness. A person with the disease has a dangerously low body weight and thinks about food constantly, but limits the amount eaten to gain a sense of control over their lives. 12% of people who develop anorexia will die from complications. The mortality rate for eating disorders is 12 times higher than that of all other illnesses for females 15-24 years old. 85% of anorexics and bulimics are female, but the incidence in males is growing. Only one in ten people with an eating disorder receives treatment.
Participants in class, learning, taking notes, and asking questions about the new Just-In-Time web based toolkit that helps managers better provide reasonable accommodations and disability inclusiveness at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), on Tuesday, May 5, 2015, in Washington, D.C. The class covered a wide range of topics, from proper verbal labels, and best strategies for various work place scenarios, to applicable laws, to name a few. The class provided knowledge for employees at all levels. The web-based toolkit was made in collaboration with Cornell University. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.
A stunning sunset over the City of Perth Western Australia
Check out my Profile Page for more information on my images and my website and contact detailsCopyright © 2013 Neal Pritchard PhotographyThis photo may not be used in any form without prior permission. All rights reserved. All images may NOT be used on websites, blogs or in any other form of media print or web based without explicit written permission by Spool Photography
Asian Cultural Center of Vermont (ACCVT) presents the second annual Vermont Samurai Kaiju Festival Saturday and Sunday October 24 and 25. This celebration of Japanese pop culture focuses on two genres of Japanese film: samurai (warriors) and kaiju (mysterious beasts.). The events all take place in downtown Brattleboro and are all free admission with suggested donations gratefully accepted by ACCVT a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. More information at the Festival website, www.vermontsamuraikaiju.org.
Events begin Saturday morning the 24th, 9-11:30am at Marlboro College Graduate School, 28 Vernon Street, with a video game contest featuring Godzilla: Unleashed, a 3-D video game. The game is set during a series of disasters and includes alien invaders and more than twenty kaiju. This event, coordinated by Harvey Nystrom and Carlos Schallenberger, also features a buffet brunch sponsored by Brueggers and Riverview Café. (More about Harvey at www.asianculturalcentervt.org/html/contact.htm.) There will also be a table to Mould Your Own Hero (Or Monster) with clay provided by Beth Meachem of Greater Manchester Arts Council. Everyone will treated like a winner. Prizes (certificates thanks to First Run Video) will be drawn like a raffle. Suggested admission for video game contest and brunch $10 per person.
Saturday afternoon the 24th takes place at the Latchis Theatre, 50 Main Street. At 1:20 pm, Dianne Clouet presents Kamishibai, Japanese folktales told with small pictorial panels. Children and adults gather round the mini theatre to hear and watch. More information is available at www.storybike.com. Free public event, donations appreciated.
Saturday the 24th, 2pm at the Latchis, Ultraman, the original series from 1966 will be shown. The creator of Ultraman, Eiji Tsuriburaya, a pioneer in special effects, was the one who also first brought us Godzilla 12 years earlier. As in many of the earlier kaiju films, the monsters in Ultraman were often actors skilled in martial arts who donned enormous costumes. Ultraman comes from a distant nebula and has martial arts moves, light rays and other tools to defend humans, the ability to teleport himself and to move objects by psychokinesis. His one weakness is his rapid loss of his internal solar energy. Suggested donation for admission: $6 for one film, $10 for both films.
Saturday the 24th, 4pm at the Latchis: Love and Honor (Bushi no Ichibun, in Japanese, with subtitles, 2006, 121 minutes) from renowned director Yoji Yamada. The tale comes from one of Japan’s most revered authors of Samurai fiction, Shuhei Fujisawa. The story features a young warrior in feudal Japan who becomes blind and the heroic loyalty of Kayo, his wife. Samurai are the warriors from Japan for hundreds of years up to the 19th century, but their way of life continues to offer timeless and relevant lessons for today. Samurai code of conduct and values include loyalty and sincerity, stoicism and thrift, self-control and self-reliance, finesse and timing. Suggested donation for admission: $6 for one film, $10 for both films.
Saturday the 25th features a double bill: Gamera the Invincible (1965, 80 minutes) at 2pm and Gamera the Brave (2006, 96 minutes) at 4pm.
In between the two Gamera films, there will be Mould your Own Hero (or Monster) out of clay at a table in the Latchis lobby. Also during the Intermission and before the films, Sean Hartter, creator and donor of the Festival poster series, will be available to autograph the 11x17" posters which will be available for $16 each, $72 for the set of 5,as a fundraiser for the 501(c)(3) non-profit ACCVT. The first fifty people who make a poster purchase will also receive a 4x6 samurai- or kaiju-themed drawing in the in pencil and sharpie on sketchcard by Sean Hartter.
Kaiju or daikaiju is the genre name of films popularized in Japan that are about giant monsters. The word, kaiju, actually means ‘mysterious beast’ in Japanese. Kaiju are typically modeled after conventional animals, insects or mythological creatures. The kaiju genre of Japanese cinema grew from the mid 1950s. Godzilla and other monstrous creatures endanger or save the world and sometimes both in the same movie. In this Brattleboro festival, Two Gamera films will be featured in a double bill Sunday the 25th at 2pm and 4pm.
Putting monsters and warriors together in the same festival celebrates Japanese arts and culture and provides insights into today’s human condition. There is also a connection between art, fictionalized destruction in the kaiju films and dealing with the memories of actual devastation in wartime. Asian Cultural Center of Vermont (ACCVT) is hosting an ongoing exhibit of exquisite rare fabric collage artworks created by young women survivors of the 1940s Hiroshima devastation. The art making was a chance to provide the students with some normalcy in otherwise shattered lives. The kaiju genre took off in Japan in the ‘50s and provided an outlet for people to identify with grief over the devastation and loss, a chance to get in touch with collective grieving.
Events are for all ages. Although the films are rated for general audiences, parents should decide if the monsters in the films might make their children uncomfortable. All Festival films are matinees and show at the Latchis in the wheelchair accessible Ballroom Theatre, upstairs from the main theatre.
Festival events at The Latchis are free admission thanks to the generosity of sponsors, with suggested pay-as-you-wish donations per person greatly appreciated by ACCVT of $6 per film or $10 per matinee double feature or $10 for the Video Game Contest and Brunch.
These events are made possible through a grant from the Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment of the Arts and through the generosity of the Latchis; Darren Goldsmith, Theatre Manager; Marlboro College Graduate School; the Grad Center’s Kelly Fletcher and Kathy Urffer, and the film distributors: Media-Blasters, Mill Creek Entertainment, and Funimation. Also thanks to Steve Bissette at Center for Cartoon Studies and Tony Drapelick at S.I.T./World Learning for promoting the event, and especially to Sean Hartter for donating the amazing poster graphics for the Festival. Thanks also to media sponsors Brattleboro’s Reformer, WKVT and WTSA, and Boston’s Artscope Magazine, and to Vermont Artisan Designs for their ongoing support, and to Steev Lynn, Harry Van Baaren of hvbimaging.com, Alec Silver and Leah Silver for their work on the 30-second youtube video-radio spot which be viewed on the Festival website, vermontsamuraikaiju.org, Zinn Graphics in West Brattleboro for printing the posters and Kadin Maile for the Wii controllers for the Video Game Contest.
Asian Cultural Center of Vermont (ACCVT) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational resources organization based in Brattleboro, VT, and online at www.asianculturalcentervt.org Brattleboro that connects people and institutions through the arts and cultures of Asia by promoting and coordinating festivals, forums, films, exhibitions, presentations, training and workshops, and classes to the public for all ages and with a web-based resource on regional Asian culture events.
epiFlection.epiclectic.com - The Album
Twisted graphic enhancements of mostly found life form images captured from the web-based world, courtesy of the epiPhone camera, Photoshop and the warped mind of the epiclectic.
Disclaimer - If anyone objects to me reprocessing one of their images, please drop me a flickr mail and I will be more than happy to provide a link to your original image - or remove it from my public photo stream.
Call for Images - If you have a photograph you would like to submit for an official epiFlection treatment, send me a flickr mail with a link to your photo. Once posted, you will get credit, a link to your photo, and a great photo for downloading, printing, framing and giving as a wonderful gift to loved ones in your close circle of friends.
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.
Under Secretary of the Army Joseph W. Westphal discusses the Army's Business Transformation and the value of collaborating with industry on best business practices with the Army News Service and Army Broadcasting at the Pentagon, 16 Oct. 2012, Washington, DC. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Bernardo Fuller)
Come celebrate with the ONAC community during the ONE PDX launch event and learn more about the Oregon Native Enterprise (ONE) Program at this free event!\nThe ONE Coalition has developed a business development series utilizing the voices of our community and representing our collective wisdom in support of business development and ownership for Native American entrepreneurs across Oregon & SW Washington. We invite you to learn more about this exciting new program and the StartUpOregon Platform as it supports Economic Development opportunities by leveraging web-based technologies to expand your reach.\nONAC is dedicated to working with all members of the community to advance the educational and economic opportunities for Native Americans in Oregon and Southwest Washington. We look forward to having our partners and community advocates come together during this event. Thank you! copyright © 2018 sean dreilinger
Offices of the Anti Advertising Agency and www.delocator.net
Two exhibitions by the artists' collaboratives the Anti-Advertising Agency and Finishing School will take over the San Francisco Art Institute's Walter and McBean Galleries for the month of April and into May.
The Anti-Advertising Agency (AAA) will transform the McBean Project Space into its temporary headquarters replete with a conference table, desks, chairs, dry erase boards, a water cooler, fluorescent lamps, and cubicle walls in order to plan the Agency's counter-advertising projects for 2005–2006. Artist and educator Steve Lambert founded the Anti Advertising Agency. Co-opting the tools and structures used by the advertising and public relations industries, the Agency was established as a response to the pervasiveness of commercial content in public urban space. As the CEO of the Anti Advertising Agency, Lambert will work from start to finish with the artists selected for Agency support to help realize their projects.
To date, five artists’ projects have been selected for Agency support. All of these projects will have workstations in the gallery/office where they can begin work and present their ideas to the public.
Participating artists include Sara Dierck and Michael Dodge, who will work on engaging the public through sound and radio; Amanda Eicher, who will focus on connecting consumer products with labor; Susan R. Greene, who brings expertise in community-based art making and clinical psychology; Packard Jennings, who will hone the Agency's message through public surveys and target audiences; and Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee, who will use street teams to promote business activity that doesn't rely on advertising. As each of these artists projects evolve, the residual Post It ® notes, reference material, paper scraps, diagrams, and scrawled notebooks will be left in the gallery as part of the exhibition.
Simultaneously, downstairs in the Walter Gallery, the Southern California based artist group Finishing School will create a café/workshop environment to serve as the physical location for the launch of their newest project, the web-based, www.delocator.net. Finishing School is the collective identity of artists Brian Boyer, Ed Giardina, and xtine. For this project the artists have collaborated with computer programmer Vasna Sdoeung to produce their interactive website www.delocator.net. This online interactive database allows patrons to enter and pull comparative information regarding independently owned café and trans-national coffee emporiums.
During the exhibition, Finishing School will transform the gallery into a traditional coffee house environment with the addition of computers and wireless Internet access. Gallery visitors will learn about the delocator project and are invited to add information to a growing online database of independently owned café’s and coffee houses.
Finishing School is the second Nimoy Artist Residency to be funded by Susan Bay and Leonard Nimoy, who established the Nimoy Foundation in 2003. The mission of the Nimoy Foundation is to recognize, encourage, and support the work of contemporary visual and performing artists.
Exhibitions Director Merry Scully finds the entrepreneurial approach taken by both the AAA and the Finishing School reflective of national and international art making trends. "This kind of artistic practice engages the social and political sphere rather than simply representing or commenting upon it," explains Scully. “It invites a rethinking and exchange from the audience that more didactic work does not."
The Walter and McBean Galleries are open Tuesday–Saturday, 11am–6pm. Both exhibitions invite active participation by the audience. The "CEO" of the AAA will be on-site and available to the public Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. The AAA will offer free anti-advertising "consultations" to the public on Wednesdays at 6:30pm, and "focus groups" on Fridays from 4:00pm to 5:00pm. The delocator café/workshop will be open during gallery hours. More information about these projects can be found at www.antiadvertisingagency.com
and www.delocator.net.
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.
Teaching with Video Workshop: Featuring MediaThread [DF; W]
Jonah Bossewitch (Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning)
Michael Preston (Dept. of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Readiness, Columbia University)
Mark Phillipson (Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning)
In this workshop we will review the basic principles, advantages, and pitfalls of teaching with video. The session will feature MediaThread, a web-based multimedia annotation and composition platform developed at Columbia University to support critical scholarship based on multimedia sources. Participants in this workshop will learn how they can use MediaThread or similar annotation tools to deepen analysis of rich media, such as streaming video from various sources on the web. Various curricular models and strategies for the effective use of tools like MediaThread in the classroom and beyond will be explored. Participants will build multimedia compositions based on videos we collectively annotate and analyze, and share results.
Agentic is led by founder Phillip Djwa. Phillip is a certified Internet Marketing specialist and strategist with 20 years experience in the high-technology industry. During this time, Phillip has worked on a wide range of technology and web-integrated communications projects for Fortune 500 companies, high-tech start-ups, and not-for-profit organizations. His clients have included the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, VanCity, BC Ministry of Labour and Citizens’ Services, Community Legal Education Ontario (The Law Foundation of Ontario), First Nations Schools Association, Granville Island (Canada Mortgage and Housing), and many others.
A career-long social entrepreneur, Phillip has provided support to many worthwhile community initiatives, including the First People’s Heritage Council, Friends of Chamber Music, and the First Nations Technology Council. Phillip has a BA from Simon Fraser University in Fine Arts with a concentration in electronic music, and an MFA in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York. Phillip is the Agentic team member responsible for new business and working with our clients on the strategic planning of their online initiatives; and designing, developing and implementing web-based and web-integrated projects for our clients.
Phillip was one of the executives behind the Melting Silos initiative, which is a NFB and Telefilm funded project to match new media companies and filmmakers in an innovative and supportive development process. He also received BC Film grants in 2013 for innovative digital media projects.
He is also a board member of OpenMedia.ca and Webofchange.com as well as an advisor to the national ICT Council. He volunteers for many organizations, including the Vancouver Crisis Centre answering the phone and chat. He has been on juries for Emmys, Canada Media Awards, Dept of Canadian Heritage and many others.
Lastly, he is an active speaker in both technology, digital media and the future of work.
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.
NEWS RELEASE
MALAYSIA’S LARGEST GREEN HOTEL OFFICIALLY OPENS
GBI Gold-Certified Tune Hotel klia2 made an energy-efficiency demonstration project for Malaysian building sector
SEPANG, 25 June 2014 – The newly-opened Tune Hotel klia2 here has received a double recognition for its green technology and energy-efficient features.
Beyond the conventional green products of LED lights and energy-efficient equipment, Tune Hotels has taken its green initiative further by employing a holistic sustainability agenda driven into its building design right from the beginning.
The hotel has been awarded a provisional Gold Rating by the Green Building Index (GBI) Accreditation Panel and subsequently submitted as the first demonstration project under the Building Sector Energy Efficiency Project (BSEEP), a national project implemented by the Public Works Department Malaysia in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and co-funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). BSEEP has for its goal the reduction in the annual growth rate of emissions from buildings in Malaysia by promoting energy conserving designs of new buildings.
Tune Hotel klia2 was officially opened today by the Deputy Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water Malaysia, Dato’ Seri Mahdzir Khalid.
Deputy Minister Dato’ Seri Mahdzir Khalid said: “I am very pleased to be here today to witness a very local homegrown brand making giant efforts in embracing the usage of energy and water efficiency, as well as green technology. Today, the need to care for our environment has never been more crucial. It is no longer a ‘special interest’ but a mission entrusted upon all of us to save our only planet we have got from environmental degradation. It is part of the Government’s objective to accelerate the national economy and promote sustainable development through efficient energy use. We want to improve the quality of life for Malaysians, increase national economic development by means of technology and safeguard the integrity of the environment.”
At the event, the Deputy Minister also presented the Gold GBI certification to Mark Lankester who received it on behalf of Tune Hotel klia2. GBI was represented by its Chairman Ar. Von Kok Leong.
Mark Lankester said: “We are elated with these recognitions. To be the largest hotel to be GBI Gold-certified is a fantastic accomplishment for our Projects team while as an ongoing BSEEP national demonstration project, we are very pleased to showcase how energy-efficient buildings can be operationally very cost effective, and most importantly benefit the bottom line of the business. As we have always said, being more cost effective allows us to pass on benefits to our guests.”
“Nonetheless, the comfort of our guests was our overriding priority when in the design stage for the Tune Hotel klia2. Great emphasis was given on the indoor environment quality, thermal comfort, lighting levels and luminosity, noise control, air quality and daylight availability, on top of energy and water efficiency, amongst many others,” added Lankester.
The construction of the Tune Hotel klia2 has demonstrated various key aspects of energy efficiency in buildings, providing unparalleled opportunities for both government and private sector practitioners in gaining practical information as a result of implementing energy-efficient building projects.
As a BSEEP demonstration project, Tune Hotel klia2 will provide real-time data to illustrate and improve confidence in the feasibility, performance, energy, environmental and economic benefits of energy-efficient building technology applications. It is intended to be an example in supporting the design and construction of other real-life energy efficient buildings.
Faber Group Berhad, through its subsidiary Faber Facilities Sdn Bhd, provided Environmental and Sustainable Design (ESD) Consultancy for the project.
Azmir Merican, Executive Director of Faber Group said, “The benefits of going green for hotels and resorts are obvious for the move would translate into savings in energy and water usage. More importantly though it reflects the proprietor’s commitment towards a sustainable future. With the increase awareness of ESD concept, we hope that more building owners in Malaysia will implement a green strategy and adopt the technology in reducing their carbon footprint.”
On the implementation of ESD for Tune Hotel klia2, Azmir said that during the design stage, extensive simulations were carried out to ensure the Tune Hotel klia2 is energy efficient with a projected Building Energy Intensity (BEI) index of 159KWh/m2/yr.
In Malaysia, the BEI benchmark for similar performance rating is at 200KWH/m2/yr for ‘up to 3-star’ hotels and 290KWh/m2/yr for ‘4-star and above’ hotel categories while the BSEEP benchmark is 187KWh/m2/yr. In comparison to the Australian hotel industry benchmarked ‘best practice’ performance indicator is 208KWh/m2 for accommodation hotels and 292 KWh/m2 for business hotels.
Another key highlight of Tune Hotel klia2 is water efficiency which is estimated at more than 40% water savings compared to a conventionally designed hotel building. This is attributed mainly towards the use of harvested rainwater for the water closet (WC), cleaning and irrigation purposes.
Landscape plant selection also played a key role in that, only native or locally adaptive plants which required minimal or almost no irrigation was planted. Notably, the landscape provision for this project exceeded the local authority requirements by 154%.
The 400-room Tune Hotel klia2 opened for business on 9 May 2014. The hotel is directly connected to the new Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) terminal via a covered walkway and link bridge, allowing easy and convenient access to check-in counters as well as the Gateway@klia2 shopping mall.
Tune Hotels has innovatively transformed the guestroom experience into a modern-style accommodation featuring the all-new room design with a sleek writing table, luggage platform and a 32-inch flat screen LED TV, bringing about an improved, sophisticated but cool ambience throughout the Tune Hotel klia2.
To add to the guest experience and comfort, the hotel’s spacious lobby features a cool casual seating lounge with free wifi and an expansive open-air courtyard lounge, overlooked by a 24-hour restaurant and beverage centre. For guests with further transportation needs, the hotel includes a transport counter for overland transport needs and for flights, two AirAsia self check-in kiosks and klia2’s flight information displays are provided within the lobby for added convenience to hotel guests.
Guests at Tune Hotel klia2 enjoy great connectivity to the Kuala Lumpur city and its surrounding suburbs as the klia2 Terminal boasts not only bus and taxi services but also the Express Rail Link (ERL) train service that connects to and from Kuala Lumpur Sentral. For guests arriving at or departing from the KLIA Main Terminal, they can make use of the scheduled shuttle service via the ERL that costs just RM2 one way and stroll over to the hotel via its covered link bridge.
The hotel also features 167 parking bays which are conveniently located just a few steps away from the airport terminal. A portion of the parking area has been allocated exclusively for green, electric and hybrid vehicles.
With a projected annual capacity of 45 million passengers, the klia2 is the world's largest purpose-built terminal dedicated for low cost carriers (LCCs). The new airport commenced commercial operations on 2 May 2014.
Tune Hotels is part of Tune Group, a lifestyle business conglomerate co-founded by Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin Meranun, who are the Group CEO and Executive Chairman respectively of Asia’s largest low cost carrier AirAsia.
There are currently 45 Tune Hotels available for booking across Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, England, Scotland, Australia, India and Japan.
For real-time updates and promotion alerts, guests can stay connected with Tune Hotels via Facebook at www.facebook.com/tunehotels and on Twitter via www.twitter.com/tunehotels.
For booking and further information, visit www.tunehotels.com.
-ENDS-
About Tune Hotels
Tune Hotels is part of the lifestyle business conglomerate Tune Group that was founded by Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin Meranun. Tune Hotels seeks to innovate and revolutionise the way services are made available and has employed efficient web-based technologies to reach and engage its customers, presenting a unique lifestyle opportunity. All Tune Hotels’ properties high-quality amenities: a five-star bed, powerful hot showers and energy-conserving ceiling fans along with housekeeping services, electronic keycard access into rooms, CCTV surveillance, and 24-hour security. The Tune Group companies are Tune Air (a substantial shareholder of AirAsia), Tune Hotels, Tune Money, Tune Insurance, Tune Talk, the AirAsia BIG Loyalty Programme, Tune Box, Tune Studios, Caterham Group, Queens Park Rangers Football Club (QPR) and the Epsom College in Malaysia.
Photos are available from www.flickr.com/tunehotels.
For more shots of Tune Hotel klia2, pelase click:
www.dropbox.com/sh/5fqpmrh0h5r2bdp/AABNCxeIOygDAHya1jSdMpQka
Media enquiries:
Cymantha Sothiar
Mobile: +6012 315 3638
Email: cymantha@tunehotels.com
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly..
copperstoneclubbiz.com 813-321-7417 The one guaranteed way to improve the overall efficiency of your communication system is to opt for a virtual phone system. With a virtual phone system, you can avail a host of sophisticated features such as call forwarding, find me follow me, conferencing, music-on-hold, caller Id, speed dial, call blocking, auto- attendant, voicemail to email, fax to email, real-time call history etc.
There are four main technologies that make virtual offices work: The Internet, VOIP, Unified Messaging and Cloud Computing Technology. Unless you've been living under a rock, I'm sure at some point in your life you've used or heard of at least one of these forms of technology.
The Internet
Let's face it; the Internet is one form of technology that most of us cannot live without. It's a part of our everyday lives. It's a resource that 85% or more of small business owners use to run their businesses. The Internet allows us to check our email, host our websites, shop online, pay our bills and most importantly use various tools to provide services to our clients.
VOIP - What is it?
VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a technology that gives us the ability to use phone services over the Internet. As a matter of fact, traditional phone lines are slowly being phased out as small, medium and large businesses are reaping the benefits of using VOIP systems. The main benefits of using VOIP are the ability to make long distance phone calls, hold conference calls, use caller ID, call forwarding and other features that traditional telephone companies normally you charge for are available for free. Isn't that AWESOME?
Unified Messaging Systems
Unified Messaging is a technology that works with VOIP systems and is a feature that runs virtual office phone systems. Unified Messaging combines the integration of email, instant messaging, fax, voicemail, video messaging, and text messaging technologies together for storage onto a single system. For example, with traditional communications systems messages are delivered onto several types of storage systems such as Voicemail systems, Fax machines and email servers. Whereas with Unified Messaging Systems all of these different types of messages are stored in one place. This feature simplifies the user experience by giving them one place to check for messages rather than checking multiple places to retrieve messages.
Ultimately, the premise behind creating Unified Messaging Systems was to have a place where all of the above technologies can be brought together onto one platform to make communication as seamless as possible.
Cloud Computing: The Revolution
Cloud Computing Technology is taking the world by storm. You may have heard cloud computing being referred to as "The Cloud". This form of technology allows multiple servers to share resources that run various hardware and software applications over the "Internet" that can be accessed via web browsers. In essence cloud computing features web-based software and hardware applications that run over the Internet. The main benefits of using services in "The Cloud" are:
Cloud services and applications are web-based and can be accessed anytime, anywhere, 24/7 as long as you have an Internet connection from a computer, Smartphone, or tablet device
Cloud applications work with multiple Operating System platforms such as Windows, Linux and Macintosh computers
Cloud applications and services are very inexpensive and allow you to pay as you go to use them
In most cases, there is no need for you to install software or purchase hardware to use cloud services
The most common types of virtual offices for work are home offices, telecommuting centers, mobile offices and hoteling.
A home office can be a room, a portion of a room, a hallway, a garage, or any other space you choose to work in.
Home Offices
The primary advantage of working at home is that it makes it easier for people to run their lives. Those who have to drop children off at school or take care of a sick parent can juggle their personal and professional responsibilities better if they aren't rushing to the office every day on a fixed schedule. Dropping the daily commute may also free up time for other activities such as time with a spouse or children, exercise, or hobbies.
Working at home also means fewer meetings and interruptions. Not surprisingly, this often translates into productivity gains. A study found that 80 percent of work-at-home entrepreneurs say they are more productive at home than they were in a traditional office. An overall increase in control over scheduling can improve your sense of satisfaction and can lead to a higher quality of work. This increased feeling of control over your work and your life cuts down significantly on stress levels.
Telecommuting Centers
A telecommuting center is a type of virtual offices where employees work, usually part-time, outside of a central corporate office. These virtual offices are either used by employees from one company or shared by employees from several different employers.
Telecommuting centers can offer many of the advantages of working in a home office without some of the disadvantages. Centers present fewer distractions than a home office and more opportunity for social and professional interaction. They also can provide access to computer networks, secretarial services, conference rooms, and copiers, which are not always available at home. In addition, some supervisors feel more comfortable with employees working at another office site rather than in the home.
The major barrier to widespread use of such virtual offices is their cost. For obvious reasons, home offices are much less expensive.
Mobile Offices
The term mobile office describes a car, or sometimes even a briefcase, used by people who spend a lot of time on the road. These "road warriors" have all the technology and other tools they need in their mobile office to complete their work without returning to the central office. They complete their work in their mobile office, at a client site, or in a home office, and go to the corporate office only for meetings, to pick up mail, or for support services that are not available elsewhere.
Enabling mobile workers to spend more time with their clients through technology is appealing to employers. The same technology that allows mobile workers to keep in touch enables them to improve productivity and spend more time with clients. At the client's location, mobile workers use computers to access inventory information, process orders, and provide quick turnaround for all kinds of services. Employers also save on real estate costs by having mobile workers do the bulk of their desk work outside of the company office.
Hoteling
Although technically not an office, hoteling is a catch-all term for work arrangements in which corporate employees use desks on an as-needed basis.
Employees in hoteling arrangements do not have assigned offices on a long-term basis. Armed with portable computers and other technology, these employees visit clients and perform administrative tasks on the road or from offices at home. They return to the corporate office for meetings or when they need other support services.
Here is a list of 7 tools that can be used to help you get started with setting up a virtual office that can help you save money on operating expenses and give your business a professional look inexpensively.
1. Online Billing and Invoicing Solution
Online invoicing solutions help you in getting your payment on time. With these invoicing tools, you can send invoices to your clients via email which will help you save money on postage.
2. Online Backup and Recovery Solution
You never know when disaster will strike. When it does, you'll want to be ready for it. Having a backup and recovery system in place is crucial for any business-no matter what size they are. The advantage of using online backup solutions vs. traditional backup services is that you will have access to your important documents and files anytime that you need them. Some companies offer very affordable online disaster recovery solutions that will help get you back up and running again in the event of a catastrophe in your virtual office.
3. Online Fax Solutions
Tired of tying up your phone line to send or receive faxes? If you are, then an online fax service is the perfect solution for you. Online fax services eliminate the need to purchase an expensive fax machine or run to a local store or copy center when you need to send faxes. These services allow you to send and receive faxes over the Internet as PDF files.
4. Online File Sharing and Document Management System
Document management systems lets you store, manage and share your documents online anytime you need them via an Internet browser. This system definitely comes in handy for a small business owner needing quick access to documents even when they are away from their personal computer. You can create different folders to store your documents in them, share files with your employees, team members or business colleagues, post comments regarding specific files you uploaded, and set permissions for specific files and folders that you may or may not want to share. Types of files that you can upload are Microsoft office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access), PDF files, and Executable files and programs.
5. All-In-One Printer, Copier and Scanner
Using an all-in one printer or multifunction device that features a printer, copier and scanner for your business will surely eliminate the need for purchasing other hardware devices separately. The feature I've grown to love most with using an All-in-One printer is the capability of being able to scan documents from the device, download it as a PDF and send it back using an online Fax Service. Isn't this a nice feature for a virtual office?
Some additional obvious benefits of using a multi-function printer include:
You can have almost everything you need in one device since most multifunctional devices are equipped with copiers, scanners, or fax machines.
They are very easy to maintain. Since all-in one printers are standalone devices, there will be less equipment for you to take care of.
You can save a lot of work space. Office equipment can tend to be bulky and take up a lot of space. Multifunction devices aid tremendously in this area.
You can save money. It is more expensive for you to purchase several pieces of beneficial for your company, especially if you are trying to save on your expenses.
6. Online Project Collaboration and Web Conferencing Tools
Online collaboration and web conferencing tools allow you to work with your employees and clients in different locations across the world via one virtual location. With these tools, you can conduct live presentations, host online meetings, do sales presentations and conduct training right from your computer by sharing your computer screen with multiple users over the Internet.
Most web conferencing and project collaboration tools require you to download a desktop sharing application onto your computer to share your screen or send a special link through email to the participants of the meeting. After the participants have received a link to the meeting and have clicked on it, they will be able to join the web conference.
Google Apps is an additional resource that offers free project collaboration and online messaging tools to small business owners. With Google apps, you can use your own customized business email addresses to send and receive email from Google's online email interface, receive 25GB worth of free online email storage, access to mobile email, an online calendar, and instant messaging.
7. Online Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRM)
I will warn you that Customer Relationship Management systems can be a tad bit complex for beginners. Before choosing a CRM for your business, I urge you to make sure that the software vendor that you select has great customer service or online tutorials and other resources available that will give you a step by step guide on how to setup and use the software program.
If you have a business and you are trying to keep expenses at a minimum and you don't want to have to pay someone an hourly wage to do jobs that can be automated, you have likely heart of a virtual office service. The great thing about these services is that you only have to pay for what you use, so there is no hourly wage to pay, as would be the case if you hired a full or even part time employee to do these things for you.
Wondering exactly what a virtual office assistant can do for you? Basically they can do all of the things that would be done by someone who was right in the office for you, except that you're not paying them every day that they come to work, you're only paying for when you use their services/
Some of the virtual office services that you can take advantage of include but are not limited:
- Secretarial support
- Copier and mail services
- Fax services
- Courier and postage services
- Remote reception services
- Automated attendant services
- Unified message that converts voicemail to email
- Live telephone answering service
- Call recording
- Booking ready to use office space
- Providing whiteboards, flip charts, screens and LCD projectors when needed
- Teleconferencing
- Catering arrangements
- Mail and parcel services
- Private locked mailbox services
- Email notification of mail and parcel pick up notices
- Mail and parcel forwarding as needed
This is jut a look at what these amazing services can do for you and your business. Of course not all businesses need these services all the time. This is why virtual office services really do make a lot of sense. When you're trying to reduce the operating budget as much as possible this is the way to go because you are only paying for the services that you need, and nothing more. So, instead of having someone on the books that is sitting there waiting for you to do these things, you simply need to contact the virtual office service when you need them and you're done.
If you need a few of the different services offered you can always choose a package of virtual services that works for you, or you can choose to customize a package that will give you only the services that you need and nothing more. When you customize the package you will not be paying for anything other than the services that you really want or need and even then you'll find that the savings will be substantial. The nice thing is that you can change your package or custom package at any time, if your needs change in any way, which will allow for you to budget for things in advance.
As you can see, working with a virtual office service really is a great option for a wide variety of businesses who don't necessarily need full time services and who want to watch their budget and only pay for what they need. Cracking down and diminishing the budget is always a great idea, and this is a really simple and straight forward way to do it for all different types and sizes of business around the world.
Wedding photography and videography frame a vital piece of the wedding bundle nowadays. Other than live spilling weddings via web-based networking media, another pattern is the 360-degree videography utilizing unique cameras
This project is part of the Ars Electronica Garden Liepāja. Planting a Resort for Mental Ecology is a response to the current overwhelming political, environmental and economic uncertainty of today. Residing in the coastal resort town of Liepāja, the artists and researchers of MPLab are exploring the fragile structure of mental ecology (Guattari 1989) and developing techno-ecological systems and strategies for well-being during the times of change. In the web-based exhibition online visitors will be able to explore physical and virtual gardens planted for self-sustainability, mental exercise and retreat.
For more informations please visit:
ars.electronica.art/keplersgardens/en/mental-ecology/
Credit: Līga Vēliņa dark
One of 4 custom fonts I designed this summer for a web based client. They needed 3 text font (serif, sans, and typewriter) completed from scratch in 2 months time. About the same time another team from the same office commissioned a handwriting font for their web page. Glyphs were flying there for a while!
Pre-show texting warm up at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver where we launched.
Mosio's Text a Librarian enables libraries to set up mobile carrier approved text messaging reference services for their patrons. It works using a web-based interface.
More: www.textalibrarian.com
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish and British English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brought, their usable parts are sold for use in operating vehicles, while the unusable metal parts, known as scrap metal parts, are sold to metal-recycling companies.
Other terms include wreck yard, wrecker's yard, salvage yard, breakers yard, dismantler and scrapheap. In the United Kingdom, car salvage yards are known as car breakers, while motorcycle salvage yards are known as bike breakers. In Australia, they are often referred to as 'Wreckers'.
The most common type of wreck yards are automobile wreck yards, but junkyards for motorcycles, bicycles, small airplanes and boats exist too.
Many salvage yards operate on a local level—when an automobile is severely damaged, has malfunctioned beyond repair, or not worth the repair, the owner may sell it to a junkyard; in some cases—as when the car has become disabled in a place where derelict cars are not allowed to be left—the car owner will pay the wrecker to haul the car away.
Salvage yards also buy most of the wrecked, derelict and abandoned vehicles that are sold at auction from police impound storage lots,and often buy vehicles from insurance tow yards as well.
The salvage yard will usually tow the vehicle from the location of its purchase to the yard, but occasionally vehicles are driven in. At the salvage yard the automobiles are typically arranged in rows, often stacked on top of one another.
Some yards keep inventories in their offices, as to the usable parts in each car, as well as the car's location in the yard. Many yards have computerized inventory systems. About 75% of any given vehicle can be recycled and used for other goods.
In recent years it is becoming increasingly common to use satellite part finder services to contact multiple salvage yards from a single source.
In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly.