2012年5月31日星期四

Introduce Foreign Manufacturing Licensing Program in 2012

Olde World Stone and Tile Molds, Inc. has been manufacturing and marketing concrete products and molds to make concrete stone, pavers, cement tile, brick veneer, and other garden and home improvement products for over twenty years.All RUBBER MATS is comprised of all types of mats. About eight years ago, they started marketing their products directly to consumers here in the United States via their TheMoldStore website. As a result of their marketing efforts, their customer base has expanded far beyond the shores of the USA rapidly. Regarding that fact, Olde World’s Founder and President John Panagos said, “While our sales have grown dramatically here in the States each year since opening our online eStore, as has our foreign shipments, I firmly feel that we have not even scratched the surface of the potential foreign consumer market. We have such strong demand for our products from consumers internationally, but unfortunately the shipping costs present a hardship for many of them. As a result, about 30% of our foreign orders are cancelled due to the high cost of shipping.Every Mold Maker job on the web.”

Mr. Panagos then adds, “So – we are currently working on a program to expand the manufacturing of our molds under a licensing program for entrepreneurs or existing businesses in other countries. Basically, we plan to export a complete business start-up package that includes training, master molds, the technology and systems information we currently use, on-going support, and everything necessary to start and operate a foreign operation duplicating our USA based TheMoldStore business model. And since we pride ourselves on the fact that all raw materials used in our manufacturing process are ‘Made in America’, our suppliers will benefit greatly from this expansion overseas as well.”

In addition to hard assets, there will be a central on-line support and training web site for the Licensee's customers. It will be an exact duplication of what we offer in the United States, and include videos, tutorials, and photos. The Licensee will create and manage their on-line eStore, and service that country or Master License area. Any foreign orders received by TheMoldStore USA operation will be forwarded to the originating country Licensee, if one exists.

According to Panagos, “We hope to have our Licensing Program finalized shortly,Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network. and have our new Licensees committed by the end of 2012. In summary, we plan to offer a manufacturing License to make and supply our molds and other products to specific licensed countries.What is a real time Location system ? The Licensee will receive mold masters, the technology and complete training, instructions and guidance in the manufacturing and marketing process, as well as ongoing support. They will operate a clone of TheMoldStore business model, as well as our Olde World Stone Business Opportunity business model. This will enable them to set up small concrete products manufacturers through the sale of Business Start-up Packages, as we do here.” According to Mr. Panagos,Distributes and manufactures RUBBER SHEET. his business model is designed to provide a wholesale mold and chemical customer base for the Licensee. This is in addition to the retail base acquired through the Licensees’ TheMoldStore eStore. License fees will be based on population and business potential, as well as factors like the amount of time and help needed in setting up their business.

So much's cooking underground

Basements have personalities. Individual, obstinate, defiant. Small bands begin here, fuelled by ambition, cheap coffee and cold pizza. Artists, designers and DJs are encouraged by their cheap rents. Also underground bars, cheeky cafes and rebellious night clubs.

However, nothing stays bohemian for long. Today, a slew of trendy chefs operate from basements. The challenges are unchanged, however. No windows offering natural light. An unshakably brooding character. Logistical difficulties at every step, starting with providing an outlet for kitchen smoke.

Newly opened ‘Fresca by Sandy's' ingeniously embraces these impediments, allowing them to mould the restaurant's character. The basement restaurant, run by engineer-turned- owner-chef Sandesh Reddy is cool, dim and smoky. Its spirit of laissez faire is evident when the door swings open, revealing a room done in deep reds and chocolate browns, rife with the sound of jazz, shouts of laughter and smoky scent of baking pizza. We sit beside its bustling open kitchen, facing a blackboard on which the day's ‘specials' are scrawled with coloured chalk.

This is Sandesh's seventh opening, and it has a smooth self-confidence that comes from lessons learned the hard way. He's best known for Sandy's, an ambitious café-restaurant particularly popular with the city's ‘smart-set' who pop by for bespoke salads and macchiatos. Fresca replaces Maya, his attempt at creating a fine dining space showcasing the food of Nellore, his hometown. The stodginess of this basement location worked against it.Chinese Plastic mould manufacturer in southeast of China. Incredibly,Can't afford a third party merchant account right now? the very same space is an asset now. It makes the restaurant feel like a secret getaway. An escape down the rabbit hole.

‘Gourmet pizza' sounds so pretentious you'll want to kick its face in, so we'll avoid the term. Let's just say there are no paper napkins or plastic spoons. The food, like the venue, confidently finds its own niche: Italian flavours with strong traditional roots, but enough flexibility to embrace local ingredients and tastes.

We begin with chilled Ajo Blanco soup, grainy with almonds and scattered with juicy braised grapes. It's tasty but no match for the rest of the starters, a march of small,Excel Mould is a Custom Plastic Injection Moulding Manufacturer. fastidiously arranged plates. Speck melon salad, with sweet melon scoops the colour of sunset. They're set against the saltiness of speck, and a cluster of peppery green leaves. Carpaccio,Heat recovery ventilators including domestic home Ventilation system. delicately balancing the flavours of thinly sliced meat and its bed of mustard mayonnaise. It's topped by shards of Parmesan reggiano and the same peppery leaves. “Paruppu keerai,” Sandesh chuckles.

He goes on to tell us about their ‘Veg Gathering' pizza, with makhani, pickled vegetables, baby corn and mozzarella. It's the closest thing to navaratan kurma with cheese garlic naan!” Irreverence is always interesting. Fresca thrives on surprise. Sometimes this works. Sometimes it doesn't. Our three cheese ravioli with wine butter has luscious handmade pasta, but its sauce,Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network. punctuated by sharp pickled cucumbers, veers on overwhelming.

However, this willingness to experiment isn't a bad thing. Especially when the kitchen gets it right. Our pizza is a jigsaw of flavours, colours and textures. The hand-stretched dough is light and delectably uneven, with browned crisp edges and a molten centre soppy with rich béchamel sauce. It's topped with crunchy stewed figs and slices of thick cut Belgian bacon.

Dessert includes Nutella tiramisu, drenched in Tia Maria and dark rum with a strong espresso backbone. Wobbly pannacotta, speckled with vanilla. And Bocca Negra, a molten, dark, pure chocolate hit.

Fresca pays attention to detail, essential with so many elements on each plate. Recipes may be simple, but they're also unforgiving. With very small room for error, which could make this tough food to execute on busy days. Sandesh is a fan of the sassy new-age chefs like New York's David Chang, and his influences come from around the world. The food reflects this. It's ambitious, indulgent and specific. He basically cooks what he likes to eat. If that works for you, you'll luxuriate in Fresca.

Filming in Ireland Focus - South Dublin County Locations

Recent high-profile productions in an around the South Dublin region have included the Sean Penn-starring ‘This Must Be The Place;’ gritty gangland series ‘Love/Hate’ (the most watched series on Irish TV in 2011), and John Ridley’s much-anticipated Jimi Hendrix-biopic ‘All Is By My Side.’

Located on the fringes of a bustling capital city, South Dublin also boasts a dedicated infrastructure to support film crews of all sizes, as well as offering Ireland’s usual 28 per cent tax incentive through Section 481 to TV and film productions, making the region as attractive from a business sense as it is from a filmmaking one.

Of particular interest for international producers,Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network. however, is the region controlled by South Dublin County Council. Bounded by the Dublin Mountains to the south, this 222.74sq/km region stretches from the River Liffey at Lucan through Palmerstown, Clondalkin, south to Rathcoole and Saggart. It also includes Tallaght and stretches east to Templeogue and Rathfarnham.

Gail McGibbon, managing director of South Dublin CountyOffers China ceramic tile. Tourism, describes South Dublin County as “a country experience on the edge of the city”. It’s hard to disagree. The nearby Dublin Mountains offer lush, scenic locations including the Glenasmole Valley, which boasts breathtaking views and was recently used during the filming of director Thaddeus O'Sullivan’s ‘Stella Days’ starring Martin Sheen.

Located in a hollow just 12km from Dublin and at the foot of Kiltipper Mountains, the picturesque valley is a patchwork of small fields and hedgerows, open heath and wet grassland. There are two lakes on the valley’s floor, one of which - Bohernabreena Reservoir- was also used in ‘Stella Days.’ For filming purposes, it offers panoramic views down into the valley and up into the surrounding hills and is devoid, for the most part, of modern infrastructure meaning it sits well in rural period pieces.

“You could be anywhere at any time,” says location manager Dermot Cleary who used a farm house on the valley to double for 1960s rural Co Tipperary. “Bohernabreena could easily double for say, 1960s Co Donegal. It’s just nestled in the valley and it feels like it’s anywhere. There are loads of little pockets of great rural locations in South Dublin like that. It’s hard to imagine that you are only a couple of minutes from Dublin.”

However, only a couple of minutes from Dublin city centre you are, and McGibbon deepens that sense of a rural region on the outskirts of the city in pointing to a number of heritage spots that would sit well in rural and period productions. These include the old stone architecture of the Pearse Museum in St. Enda's Park with its riverside walk, waterfall and walled garden, to the grandeur of Rathfarnham Castle, first built in 1587. Both could double for just about anywhere at any period of time, particularly Britain or Ireland.

When it comes, however, to acting as a period town or city from another country, few regions in Dublin can top Dun Laoghaire, which falls under the control of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. The coastal town is currently mirroring swinging sixties London for director John Ridley’s Jimi Hendrix-biopic ‘All Is By My Side,’ a city it is often re-imagined as by talented set designers.TBC help you confidently buy mosaic from factories in China.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?

“I’ve used the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown area for various productions,” says location manager Eoin Holohan, who is currently working on ‘All Is By My Side.’ “We used a house on Clarinda Park as our primary location on the BBC drama, ‘The Silence,’ which was set in Bristol. The terraced houses in Clarinda were an ideal match for Bristol. In general the houses in Crossthwaite Park, Belgrave Square, Clarinda Park are great for any drama that is set in residential London / Bristol. The style of these terraces is very similar to what you would find in the UK.

“It’s also worth noting,” Holohan adds, “that Cabinteely House and Marlay House belong to Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. I’ve used Cabinteely House on productions as varied as ‘The Clinic’ and ‘Honeymoon For One’. It’s particularly suited to period films, and the staff there are great to deal with.”

If such locations in the region are key to its attractiveness to filmmakers, Holohan’s fellow location manager Dermot Cleary points to the proximity of locations in the South Dublin region to Dublin city centre and the savings in production budgets that this brings.

“All the crew are usually based in Dublin and Wicklow,” he says, “So by getting locations in that area, you don’t have to pay for travel for the crew to get there. So we would always try and get as many of our locations as possible around Dublin or Wicklow.This is a really pretty round china glass mosaic votive that has been covered with vintage china . In terms of that rural 1960s look in ‘Stella Days,’ places like Bohernabreena and Glenasmole worked a treat. It just has this lovely rural feel to it, but it’s just 10 minutes from the M50.”

Suu Kyi presses for migrants' rights in Thailand

Long a fighter against oppression inside Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi has used her first foreign trip in 24 years to fight for her countrymen suffering abroad — millions of economic migrants unable to work at home but vulnerable to exploitation elsewhere.

On Thursday, she pressed her concerns about the millions of Myanmar migrants living in Thailand in a meeting with the country's deputy prime minister.Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. And for a second straight day, she addressed throngs of migrants in Mahachai, a town southwest of Bangkok that hosts more migrants from Myanmar than any other place in Thailand.TBC help you confidently buy mosaic from factories in China.

"She can't force the Thai government to do anything, but she can speak on our behalf better than anybody else,Omega Plastics are a leading rapid tooling and plastic injection mould company based in the UK." said Win Aung, who lost his hand in an accident at a Thai-run shoe factory and is still fighting to obtain employer compensation for it a year and a half later.

"She's the best hope we have for things to change," the 31-year-old said.

Myanmar's sputtering economy, in ruins after half a century of military rule and years of harsh Western sanctions, has forced millions of people to seek jobs abroad. Many crossed the borders illegally to work low-skilled jobs for long hours at pay below their Thai counterparts. They typically lack health and social security benefits, too, and complain of not being paid on public holidays.

Still, many make more than they would back home, and despite the hardships are keen to be employed. Jobs are severely lacking in Myanmar, which lags far behind the rest of bustling Asia.

Thailand alone hosts around 2.5 million migrant workers from Myanmar, and they are believed to make up between 5 and 10 percent of the Thai work force. Most of whom work in industries like fisheries or construction, or in garment factories or as domestic servants. Up to a million of them lack work permits.

Win Aung said he came to Thailand illegally,Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network. hoping he'd earn enough money to send proceeds to his family. But after six years, part of it spent at a shrimp processing plant, he has sent barely any.

And now, after his hand got crushed in a machine that molds rubber shoes, his prospects are exceptionally bleak.

"Nobody will hire you if you are disabled," he said, adding that he had no idea what he'd do next. "It isn't much better back home."

A local migrant workers rights group is now helping Win Aung win financial compensation from his Thai employer — $3,300 dollars. The employer has paid half and promised the rest in six months.

On Thursday, Suu Kyi called on Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubumrung to ensure that Thai businessmen do not exploit her countrymen. She recounted familiar stories of abuse, saying employers confiscate passports and other documents illegally to prevent workers from quitting for better-paid jobs. She also complained of the inadequate treatment they receive when injured at work.

Chalerm acknowledged those problems exist, but said "those who are registered to work legally will receive good welfare, like the universal health care scheme, and taken care of."

Andy Hall, a staunch migrant advocate and researcher at the Institute for Population and Social Research at Thailand's Mahidol University, said far more needed to be done to stop exploitation.

"Policy is one thing, but reality is different," he said. "The reality is that migrants are discriminated against and exploited. They're treated as second-class citizens with no status. It needs to change."

In theory, every child has the right to go to school in Thailand — even the children of migrants, Hall said. But there is little or no budget for them, the schools are full, and "the law is not enforced."

Those without proper Thai papers faced shakedowns from Thai authorities, and even the legal process of obtaining a Myanmar passport in Thailand is clouded by mass corruption.

Thailand used to have an almost ad hoc system of registration which allowed abuses but also a certain amount of flexibility.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? But two years ago, it implemented a new policy to formalize the legal status of migrant workers, forcing them to have their identities verified by their home countries and be issued temporary passports under a so-called Nationality Verification process.

2012年5月28日星期一

Inclusiveness and income inequality

Income inequality -- the tome explains -- results from extractive institutions: those that take from the many to render to the few. Income inequality is also the pet idea of two April 2011 IMF reports: "Asia and Pacific: Managing the Next Phase of Reform" and "Inequality and Unsustainable Growth" by Berg and Ostry. The first suggests that while the Asian region has learned the secret of wealth creation, it still has to learn to share its bounty. Especially highlighted is the rapidly increasing income inequality in the rampaging People’s Republic of China (PRC). The second claims that with past experience as guide rising income inequality puts growth sustainability at risk. The still ongoing turmoil labeled the "Arab Spring" seems a confirming evidence for this view.

Acemoglu and Robinson raised the ante further by predicting -- based on their admittedly very impressive reading of macro history -- that the People’s Republic of China, despite its jaw-dropping strides in reducing poverty incidence, is actually headed for a fall without further institutional reform, i.e., more inclusive western style politics. Nice,Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. but wicked problems await those who want to apply them: (1) At what stage in the growth trajectory has efficiency and inclusion become complementary rather than substitutes? (2) What does inclusion mean at the micro level of policy making? (3) Are there policy packages that exhibit efficient inclusion, serving both growth and equity? (4) How do inclusive institutions, if we know them, get engendered? These are critical questions for which macro narratives offer few answers. This piece will dwell only on the first two and leave the next two for later.

Marx and Lenin’s "scientific socialism" argued that income equality should be served ab initio, which meant the abolition of the source of inequity, private property and, in practice, of the incorrigible property-owning classes.Features useful information about glass mosaic tiles. Mao Zedong took scientific socialism seriously and unleashed upon China the "Great Leap Forward" which killed upwards of 40 million thick-headed and capitalism-tending peasants. Pol Pot -- in slavish concordance -- created the "killing fields" which sent Khampuchea into the bowels of darkness for decades. Myanmar, formerly Burma, went into a half-century eclipse after a 1962 coup d’etat ushered in the "Burmese Way to Socialism." Burma, as some will remember, was one of the countries (the Philippines was another!) predicted by Nobel Memorial prize co-winner Gunnar Myrdal, author of the ambitious three-volume opus The Asian Drama, to inherit the mantle of rapid growth in the Asian region. South Korea, in contrast, failed to make Myrdal’s list. Overall, he was pessimistic about the Asian prospect. These strong social predictions unmade Myrdal’s claim to lasting glory just as similar braggadocio did in Das Kapital’s.

Deng Xiaoping labeled the Maoist interpretation of socialism "leftist revisionism" which spawned the redistribution of poverty. Deng’s own "revisionist" policies-based on the belief that equity can wait until there is actual bounty to redistribute-by contrast, pushed 500-million people out of poverty.This video shows the results of a Indoor Positioning System. The price was a historically unprecedented spike in income inequality about which the IMF now crows.If you have a fondness for china mosaic brimming with romantic roses If you ask the 500-million Chinese graduates of poverty, this is a singularly fair exchange! Is it time for PRC to change tack as western observers counsel (translation: let the yuan go and embrace western style political inclusiveness)? China argues that this means turning its back on the upwards of 100 million still under the poverty line. Deng’s achievement suggests that there such thing as efficient inclusion. I agree.

Indeed, a widely discredited framework called "the trickle down" says that income equity will eventually be served by rapid economic growth regardless of state incomes policy. Rapid economic growth creates a strong demand for labor services,We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. the only asset that poor households have in abundance. When in the mid-1970s, after a decade of rapid growth in the Asian tiger economies, labor scarcity sets in, real wages started to traject upwards and income inequality trajected downwards. That was when income growth and income equality stopped being substitutes for each other. The 39% rise in wages since 2010 in the Chinese equipment maker Foxconn follows this trajectory (China consciously follows a low wage policy and independent labor unions are outlawed).

The inclusion principle is unhelpful at the micro level on the question of wages. Every May in the Philippines, the question of how much to raise the minimum wage hogs the airwaves. One side argues that inclusion demands that the minimum wage be raised substantially. The other side argues that it will make the Philippines less competitive and, thus, more unemployed. At this stage in our economic growth, is efficient inclusion served by favoring the employed with formal sector jobs or the unemployed whose prospects dim with higher wages? Macro narratives don’t provide easy guidance.

Ramon Sessions Hopes to Return to Lakers

It didn’t take long for Ramon Sessions to realize that playing for the Los Angeles Lakers is different than playing for small-market teams like the Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves and Cleveland Cavaliers. Within two weeks of joining the Lakers, Sessions was being recognized all over Los Angeles, followed by paparazzi and chased by fans.

“I was staying in a hotel right by the practice facility at first and I would see some fans waiting out back when I left,” Sessions said. “One time, I parked in the front of the hotel and started walking down the hallway. The next thing I know, there are five fans running after me in the hallway. It was crazy. They came out of nowhere and they were coming at me.We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. I was just thinking, ‘What is going on?’”

“Nobody knows what its like,” Sessions said with a laugh. “People may think they know, but they don’t have any idea how much different it is to be a Laker. No disrespect to the other places that I’ve been, but it’s totally different out here. Even just walking around, it’s crazy. It’s the Lakers. You’re on T.V. every night and everyone knows who you are. I had paparazzi follow me. That’s a first, for sure. It’s wild out here. The Lakers are the show that everyone watches around here.”

Sessions’ stint with the Lakers was successful, but chaotic.Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions.If you have a fondness for china mosaic brimming with romantic roses The point guard averaged 12.7 points and 6.2 assists during the regular season, despite joining the team in March and having to learn everything on the fly with limited practice time. During this condensed season, it was very difficult for traded players to adjust to their new surroundings and Sessions admits that the transition wasn’t easy.

“It was definitely challenging,” Sessions said. “The shortened season was already tough. Then, to be traded to a team like the Lakers with a different system was even tougher. There aren’t as many pick-and-rolls as you would normally run in a typical NBA system and there are all kinds of different calls. To be honest, I’ve been for here 50 or 60 days and I only had one legit practice where we really got in and got some actual work done. That’s just how this season was. I was learning everything on the go. I was really learning through games. I was still learning stuff at the end of the season that you would normally learn during training camp. I was picking those things up right before the playoffs.”

Not only was Sessions trying to adjust to a new city, new team, new coaching staff, new system and new role as a starter, he was also getting used to his new teammates. There is a lot of pressure that comes with being the Lakers’ newly acquired floor general, and it’s not easy being the new guy who has to distribute the ball to Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol and others. While having so many weapons can make a point guard’s job easy, it can also make things frustrating when everyone wants the ball in their hands.

“It was difficult to come in being the new guy and also the young guy when you have Kobe, Bynum, Pau and Metta, guys who want the ball, and it’s your job to get them the ball,” Sessions said. “You have to know where they want it, know all of the plays, know where everyone is supposed to be at all times and also try to get your own. It was definitely a challenge, but it’ll definitely make me a better player next year. I learned a lot from this whole transition.”

Sessions had some big shoes to fill when he arrived in Los Angeles. Derek Fisher had been the Lakers’ point guard for 13 seasons, won five championships with the team and hit a number of big shots over the years. Then, just like that, he was traded and replaced on the same day. When Sessions first learned that he was being traded to the Lakers, he didn’t know that Los Angeles had dealt Fisher in a separate trade. In fact, he was preparing to serve as Fisher’s back-up until he learned of the Lakers’ second trade.

“When I found out about the trade, I didn’t know who was involved, but I knew that Fish wasn’t in the trade,Features useful information about glass mosaic tiles.” Sessions said. “I was thinking they were going to bring me in to back-up Fish. Then, when they traded him, I was just thinking, ‘Man, they’re opening the door for me to run the show.’ It was a dream come true. It really didn’t hit me until I flew to L.A. the next day, saw my jersey in the locker and took the floor with those guys.”

“It’s hard to replace a guy who is legendary around here,” Sessions added. “He’s done so much for the organization. I just tried to come in and play my game. The fans were great. In my first game, I got a standing ovation when I came in. It’s been all positive from the fans. They seemed excited to have me around. I just wish things would have worked out differently and we would’ve gone further.”

The Lakers were eliminated by Fisher’s new team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, in the Conference Semifinals round of the 2012 postseason. Looking back, Sessions feels that Los Angeles let several games get away from them, which was the difference maker in the series.

“We just weren’t finishing the games,” Sessions said.This video shows the results of a Indoor Positioning System. “We played a great 43 or 44 minutes. In Game 2, we had a seven point lead with two minutes left. In Game 4, we were in a similar situation at home. In the playoffs, you have to execute throughout the whole game and we had some lapses toward the end of the game here and there. Oklahoma City played well, but we definitely let a couple of games slip away. That’s the playoffs. Now, we live and we learn and move on.”

With the offseason underway, Sessions has a difficult decision to make. He has a player option for next season and he has yet to decide what the future holds. He can opt-out of the final year of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent or he can opt-in and make $4,551,626 next season. Over the next few weeks, Sessions will weigh his options and make a decision.

Tile It Like It Is

How can a brand with such a solid reputation and strong recall in the Philippines stay competitive in today’s times? A pioneer in the Philippine ceramic tile industry,Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. Mariwasa was established by the brothers Emerson and Edison Co Seteng 40 years ago, and has since been known for its excellent wall and floor tiles made with excellent Filipino craftsmanship. The company has not only managed to stay relevant, it has maintained its market leadership and continues to help build the country with the business infused with the dynamism and stability of one of the ASEAN region’s biggest industry leaders, Thailand’s longest established and largest industrial conglomerate, Siam Cement Group (SCG).

SCG, according to the MSCI corporate history, was founded in 1913 following a Royal Decree of His Majesty King Rama VI to produce cement, eliminate reliance on imports of cement, as well as maximize the use of natural resources available in Thailand. Since then, it has continued to conduct its business in accordance with the concept of Corporate Governance. It has in place an effective oversee system to ensure transparency, disclosure and verification for mutual interests of all stakeholders and for sustainable growth.

Through this partnership formed in 1993, Mariwasa, now called Mariwasa Siam Ceramics, Inc. (MSCI), has continued to deliver its mission and maintain its hold in the local market as a highly dependable brand,This video shows the results of a Indoor Positioning System.We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. even as many other imported and local brands have been introduced to compete as the favored choice for tiles.

In spite of this challenge, newly appointed MSCI President Anukul Kongrit, who met with the local media recently, shares, “We still see the opportunity in the Philippine market. We believe that Filipino craftsmanship is world-class.Chinese Plastic mould manufacturer in southeast of China.”

“We are actively banking on different company policies and initiatives to set us apart from our competitors,” he continues. To increase their competitive advantage over other imported tiles, they invest in continuous research and development programs to offer world-class ceramic tiles with uncompromising quality, “built to last and [can] stand the test of time. We value our customers and we want to offer them products that will give more value to their money.”

At the foundation of their edge is the winning combination of SCG’s advanced technology transfer and Mariwasa’s local market knowledge. Asked to further detail their plans to stay on top, Kongrit shares, “Instead of increasing the prices of products, we will focus on developing product innovations, thereby giving more benefits to consumers. We will offer these innovations without any additional cost.”

Presented under the Innovative Solutions theme, Kongrit helped demonstrate the merits of 39 new designs, all techno-enhanced and eco-driven designs, boasting of safety (anti-slip and easy to clean) and scratch-free features. The group’s product and marketing officers also introduced Cotto, a leading ceramic tile and sanitary ware brand in Thailand, which they now carry.Excel Mould is a Custom Plastic Injection Moulding Manufacturer.

Builders, designers, homeowners and developers can also look forward to more pioneering tile innovations MSCI will be introducing in the coming months, which will cater more to the market’s discriminating tastes in aesthetics, like high definition tiles, which have sharper and more vivid designs, and water- and stain-resistant, and therefore, more hygienic celadon tiles, and finally (at least for this year), new sizes for tiles, including the 20x40 wall tile and the much thinner and lighter slim 5.5mm slim tiles, which are ideal for renovations and which will reduce work time and increase cost savings.

It’s hard to put a price on a lifetime of memories

Hidden in the deep recesses of our hearts is the desire to hang onto everything we acquire in our lives. Perhaps it is an evolutionary trait that we inherited from our remote biological past.

We keep stuff we have no use for, because someday we might need it. More often than not, that day never comes and we keep adding to the clutter around us.

When my late wife, Dottie,Build a "Floor tiles" by dragging the corners of a quadrilateral. and I dropped anchor in Toledo in the 1970s, we had moved nine times in the previous eight years and had tried to get rid of nonessential stuff before each move. Living in one place for 37 years is a different story.

Dottie and I traveled often to different corners of the world. We seldom bought antiques or expensive artwork,Excel Mould is a Custom Plastic Injection moulds Maker. but we would buy mementos of our visits to those faraway places, to trigger the pleasant memories of the people we met and the sites we saw.

There were trips to China, Germany, Austria, Italy, the Caribbean, and score of other places. And there were annual visits to Pakistan, where friends and family would bring gifts for us, which we dutifully carried back to Toledo.

For a while, these curios were displayed in the house. But with each succeeding visit, older items made their way to the attic to make room for new arrivals.

Occasionally, I would go to the attic to look for something. Sidetracked by the scattered artifacts of our past, I would pick up a piece and bring it down with me, forgetting the reason for going to the attic in the first place.This video shows the results of a Indoor Positioning System.

In due course, we ran out of walls on which to hang pictures and artwork. They are not the kind that hang in a museum. But they all tell a story, not only of what they depict, but also of the market or souk where they were bought.Shop for oil painting and oil paintings for sale included.

Attics also have limited capacity. My daughter Tasha told me that I needed to unclutter my home. After years of resistance, I relented. She decided to have a garage sale.

Garage sales evoke an image of a front yard where a few rows of tables display unwanted or redundant items flanked by a few racks of clothes. Passing cars stop, their drivers walk around the merchandise, and then they drive away. Add a bunch of kids and a dog running around, and you have a picture that Norman Rockwell could have painted.

Going through the accumulated clutter of 37 years was not easy. What to keep and what to part with? And how to determine the selling price?

How much should I ask for a pair of miniature paintings — old but not antiques — that I bought after the customary haggling in India 30 years ago and had framed? Or the intricate village scene done in a mosaic of colored wood chips given to me by an old friend? Even if you set aside the sentimental value, how do you determine a fair price?

What is the value of a Chinese abacus made from animal bone or brass plates with decorative designs? What price should I put on a faceless ceramic doll that I bought in Puerto Rico or a vividly colored parrot from Costa Rica that reminded me of the peaceful forests of that country?

We put much of the so-called clutter, along with a part of our history, up for sale. It would have been a challenging job for a cultural archaeologist to piece together our lives through the prisms of these disparate items.

My eternally optimistic son-in-law, Kevin Black, thought we would sell most of the stuff. We did not. People came looking for bargains. We had plenty, but they apparently were of the wrong kind.

We made a few hundred dollars, and that was good enough. We had the opportunity to talk with some interesting people.Can't afford a third party merchant account right now?

2012年5月23日星期三

Making over a North Van house into a modern, family-friendly paradise

As we so often find, here is a family who loves their North Shore neighbourhood but the house, approximately 50 years old with one partial renovation in the 1990s, was tired.If you have a fondness for china mosaic brimming with romantic roses

Enter Kennedy Crawford Design of North Vancouver who designed the project — specifically Catherine Brown, who worked with the family very closely during both the design and building process. David Adair of Blackfish Homes and Construction,TRT (UK) has been investigating and producing solutions for indoor Tracking since 2000. also based in North Vancouver, was brought into the project to do the actual build.Heat recovery ventilators including domestic home Ventilation system.

“This is a family of four who enjoyed their home but the whole main floor needed a major renovation to bring it up to today’s standards,” says Adair. “We virtually pulled apart the whole main floor. The original main floor consisted of much the same rooms in the same place. They had a pretty big garage with a small flex space; they weren’t really using this space so we took over a section of the garage and extended it to make a mudroom entry. In the family room we pushed the back wall, the TV wall, back right to the exterior wall to create the space we needed.”

The original flooring was a mixture of tile, vinyl and carpet; this was unified throughout most of the rooms with hardwood, which made a huge difference. Vinyl tile was used in the new powder room and mudroom.

“In the formal living room the floor was leveled to match of the rest of the area. The fireplace is original but the hearth and pedestal had to be adjusted to the new level of the floor,” Adair says. “The rest of it was just freshening up with new wall colour, addition of wallpaper, new ceiling fan and lighting. The dining room had a french door from the hallway so we opened everything up to make the flow better. We brought the new flooring through and again just freshened everything up with new wall colour, wallpaper, lighting.”

The powder room is a good size, but it was gutted and the flooring once again brought through. The new modern vanity and toilet match the new style; there are no jarring accents just a smooth flow to all the rooms including this one.

The kitchen and family room is perfect for this family. This is definitely the heart of the home where everyone spends their time.

“We really enjoyed this whole project. The family was excellent to work with,” Brown says. “Our client had a very good handle on what she wanted to achieve, particularly regarding the kitchen. She knew very clearly how she wanted to function in that space and how she wanted it to work for her family, then left it to us to bring it to life, giving feedback as the project proceeded.”

This kitchen is one of Brown’s favourites.

“This is a very large space. You can make spaces look too modern so we like to bring in pieces to soften them, give them more warmth; the barn door was part of bringing in interest,” Brown says. “We really like to find unique pieces; the island is an example of this. We had the design in our mind then had to go and find

the right piece with a little bit of the traditional about it.We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. The beautiful stone on the island is a real stand out with the distinctive lines. The funny thing is we had that exact pattern in our original drawings so it was great to find the exact match. We used Caesarstone on the surrounding counters and the backsplash above the stove is a mosaic white marble which adds a bit of an interesting accent. The stove is Fisher & Pykel, the jewel of the kitchen.”

Brown says the client was good about communicating her master plan for the kitchen and how she wanted to use the space, which made her job easier.Argo Mold limited specialize in Plastic Injection mold manufacture.

“Every bit of the kitchen and family room, from the wall of storage cupboards with so much detail in the cabinetry, to the fabric chosen, to the colour of the stone, it all had to work together. We have an eye for detail right down to the hardware on the barn door to the faucets, the tile, every single detail is gone through so there are no jarring notes and everything flows,” she says.

I must say I love the barn door in the kitchen. I’ve seen them used before but often the room just can’t carry the size and heft but in this instance, with such a large space, it makes sense and looks spectacular.

Rich vein of opportunity for First Nations

Mining is the backbone of the Saskatchewan economy and its prospects are enormous. The province is internationally recognized as a leader in mining, a sector stimulating economic growth, job creation and spin-off activity in urban centres, rural areas and First Nations communities across the province.

One feature of globalization is an international appetite for Saskatchewan minerals. From gold to sand, coal to potash, and salt to uranium, mining is a major force propelling Saskatchewan prosperity and creating new opportunities for successful First Nations entrepreneurship.

Most non-First Nations Saskatchewan residents live in urban areas and have for some time. By contrast, reserve-based First Nations in the province live in environments often defined by minerals, literally under their feet. The paradox is that First Nations have been historically, and still are, largely excluded from development of these resources.

To speak of First Nations as being on the sidelines of mineral development (as well as agriculture, forestry, oil, gas, hydro, fishing and wind development) is accurate only in the sense that they are not participating in or benefiting proportionately from this activity. The irony is that in a booming provincial economy that is begging for workers - to the extent of actively recruiting and importing them - the reservoir of First Nations labour and skills still goes mostly untapped.

Matters, however,We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. are starting to change. For the first time, there is a wealth of economic possibilities for First Nations in areas where previously they have been excluded and marginalized. Across the province, events are moving fast for First Nations entrepreneurs who are capitalizing on the continuing strength of the mining sector by taking control of their economic futures.

Nowhere in the province is this transition more evident than in the north, an economic pole attracting national and international business to traditional First Nations lands. Although uranium in northern Saskatchewan has been mined for more than half a century, over the past decade the industry has undergone unparalleled growth. Saskatchewan's Ministry of Energy and Resources indicates that the province currently accounts for 20 per cent of global uranium production.

The uranium export deal concluded by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his February 2012 visit to China will only contribute to this growth. No group stands to benefit more from this deal than the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, which has been engaged in providing services to the uranium sector through its Kitsaki Development Corporation for decades.

In the southern part of the province, there is also a flurry of mining activity in the potash sector. Saskatchewan accounts for more than 30 per cent of world potash production and 45 per cent of the world potash trade. The three major players in the province (PotashCorp., Mosaic and Agrium) have over $100 billion in market assets and almost $10 billion annually in revenue.. Each,Accept all major credit cards using the top rated third party payment gateway. on paper,This page contains information about molds. has committed to increasing First Nations engagement and procurement in their operations.If you have a fondness for china mosaic brimming with romantic roses

In potash, Saskatchewan First Nations not only participate in goods and service delivery, but have begun to assume an equity stake in the development of the resource, as indicated by the partnership agreement reached by the Kawacatoose First Nation and Native American Resource Partners (NARP) in early 2012. At the same time, the Muskowekwan First Nation agreed to sign an historic deal with Encanto Potash.

With this recent economic activity in mind, the potential reward from the mining pie for First Nations cannot be underestimated.TRT (UK) has been investigating and producing solutions for indoor Tracking since 2000. The scale of the mining sector, its proven returns to date, in both revenue and employment, and the possibility for agreements with well-established industry partners are attractive features for First Nations.

First Nations investing in the future are doing so through a process that recognizes the value of their asset; the need for study, planning and exploring development options; the primacy of consensus building; and the opportunity that comes from entering into partnerships.

Lovers of jelly confections giving it their best shot

If Amy Sirois and Tracy Palm ever offer you one of their Key Lime Coladas, definitely say yes. But don't expect to be actually drinking anything.

Their version of a pina colada is a solid little green pyramid with a white top that feels funny in your hand and squishes in your mouth.

That's because it's made out of gelatin.

Sirois and Palm are artistes of the jelly shot genre. The two Maine women are among the legions of foodies nationwide who have elevated a college bar pastime into an obsession that combines a touch of science with a little bit of art -- and lots of imagination.

Jelly shots (so called to avoid trademark issues) are a playful brew of gelatin and mixers, alcoholic or non-alcoholic, that are heated, molded, refrigerated, admired for a moment, and then -- depending on the recipe -- slurped down the gullet with the glee of a 6-year-old at a birthday party or a sorority sister on Saturday night.

These fun little gourmet confections have captured the attention of the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe and Martha Stewart Weddings ("Can a Jell-O Shot Be Classy?"). Jeffrey Steingarten wrote about them in Vogue, complete with a photo of a pasty-looking model wearing a gelatin mold on her noggin like a Parisian chapeau.

Caterers are now calling jelly shots "edible cocktails" and serving them at weddings. Corporations are having their logos put on signature jelly shots that are scarfed down by employees at company soirees.

Bloggers are developing sophisticated recipes that take hours, using techniques like layering and embedding, and featuring ingredients such as salted caramel, Earl Grey tea, sake and srirachas.

"These aren't your frat brothers' Jell-O shots," said Matthew Micari, a biologist from the Boston area who now works in his "gelaboratory" making things like tiny mugs of root beer gelatin garnished with pretzel handles.

With Memorial Day and the Fourth of July just around the corner, we asked Sirois and Palm to create some jelly shots for us based on summertime cocktails. The results were part molecular gastronomy, part "Let's party!"

Their Key Lime Colada has two layers, and contains coconut rum and Pinnacle's Key Lime Whipped Vodka.This page contains information about molds. Presented on a plate sprinkled with graham cracker crumbs, it's reminiscent of a slice of key lime pie. (This one was my favorite. You'll find the recipe accompanying this story.)

The Blood Orange Margarita contains tequila,TRT (UK) has been investigating and producing solutions for indoor Tracking since 2000. and is sprinkled with a bit of salt and garnished with a snip of sage. The Raspberry Cosmo is made with raspberry vodka and topped with a fresh raspberry and a touch of lime zest.

And,First American Plastic molding is a custom injection molding facility that manufactures a variety of thermoplastic products. to add a bit of whimsy, Sirois and Palm made a jelly shot they call the "Blue Hawaiian," formed in a tiki head mold and garnished with bits of pineapple and cherry that would be great for a backyard party this summer.

For the kids, they made a tray of cut-out stars that were red, white and blue, non-alcoholic, and perfect for a Memorial Day get-together.

A shot they call "Cherries" is ostensibly for children, but adults love them too.Visit TE online for all of your Application plastic injection mold including tools. A maraschino cherry is enrobed in gelatin, the stem sticking out the top of the shot.We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. Grab it by the stem to eat it. (At Halloween, they used the same mold to make jelly shot eyeballs.)

Partners in business and in life, Sirois and Palm both fled the hustle and bustle a while back. They sold their house in Scarborough and traveled the country in an RV for a few months, sometimes making jelly shots for people they met along the way.

Now that they are back in Maine, they are looking for ways to turn jelly shots and other mini-foods into a career.

"We had been looking for an opportunity to kind of get out of corporate America and do our own thing," Palm said. "This was just an outlet for us to be creative.

"We started making (jelly shots) and bringing them to parties, and they kind of turned into friends and family saying, 'Those are awesome. I want them for a birthday party,' and 'Can you bring them over to my house for a party?' "

The couple had a friend who was going to a New York-themed New Year's Eve party where guests were supposed to bring a New York-inspired cocktail. Most people brought martinis; their friend brought their jelly shots with names like NYPD Blueberry (with a real blueberry embedded in the middle), Sex and the City Cosmo and Big Apple Martini (molded into the shape of an apple).

The Solar Trade Balance in the Tariff Debate

After the United States Commerce Department last week announced preliminary tariffs of more than 31 percent against solar panel manufacturers in China for dumping their products on American shores, the debate over the benefits and costs of the move for U.S. industries and the fight against global warming has been heating up more than the noon sun. Clearing up one debating point could help those on both side of the issue assess the impact of the decision: the U.S. solar trade balance (or lack thereof) with China.

As background,Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. Commerce already levied a preliminary, much smaller tariff against China in March for subsidizing its solar industry to the competitive disadvantage of U.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile.S. solar manufacturers. The dumping charge is related in that Chinese companies were found to be selling panels at well below actual cost, imperiling U.S. companies' ability to sell panels. Those in favor of the tariffs say that imposing them will assure that the U.S., which once was a world leader in solar panel production, will have a foothold in what is sure to be an important industry in the future. Also, if China is allowed to dominate the market, they could suddenly raise prices after driving out competitors. Those against the tariffs recognize the need for more widespread use of solar to mitigate global warming and acknowledge that cheap panels help this happen. They also herald the $8 billion solar installation industry.

Some opponents of the tariffs cite a 2011 study that found the U.S. solar trade balance is positive. According to research by the Solar Energy Industries Association, the U.S. was found to have a $1.88 billion surplus in solar goods in 2010. The U.S. was a net exporter to China by $240 million. While China may supply most of the panels, the argument goes, the U.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?S. supplies most of the polysilicon needed for the photovoltaic (PV) cells for the panels. So we shouldn't be worrying about the Chinese subsidizing panel-makers or those companies selling at unrealistic prices.

In an interview on Tuesday with the impeccable Tom Ashbrook on NPR's On Point, Ned Harvey of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit foundation for sustainability, and Clyde Prestowitz, the founder and president of the Economic Strategy Institute, danced around -- or perhaps tripped over -- this argument.

Recently the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing came out with a report showing that in 2011 the nearly $2 billion solar trade surplus turned into a deficit.Can't afford a third party merchant account right now? Specifically, the trade balance with China went from a $240 million surplus to a $1.6 billion deficit.

While one should always be skeptical of an analysis by a trade group that could be negatively impacted by continued cheap solar panels from China, the concerns echoed remarks by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden. Major environmental blog sites accept the findings.

Without getting into the trenches of the debate, the existence of the solar trade deficit would seem to support those who fret about China's dominance of the solar industry, for the U.S. is playing an increasingly smaller role in producing the parts for panels. All of this could change, however, if Chinese companies move plants to the U.TRT (UK) has been investigating and producing solutions for indoor Tracking since 2000.S. or other countries to manufacture panels to avoid tariffs. And all of that could be a moot point if panel costs rise too much to entice Americans to retrofit their homes, as those against the tariffs claim. Let the debate blaze on, but know that the real winners in solar in the U.S. are the installers, not the supply chain or manufacturers.

The Solar Trade Balance in the Tariff Debate

After the United States Commerce Department last week announced preliminary tariffs of more than 31 percent against solar panel manufacturers in China for dumping their products on American shores, the debate over the benefits and costs of the move for U.S. industries and the fight against global warming has been heating up more than the noon sun. Clearing up one debating point could help those on both side of the issue assess the impact of the decision: the U.S. solar trade balance (or lack thereof) with China.

As background,Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. Commerce already levied a preliminary, much smaller tariff against China in March for subsidizing its solar industry to the competitive disadvantage of U.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile.S. solar manufacturers. The dumping charge is related in that Chinese companies were found to be selling panels at well below actual cost, imperiling U.S. companies' ability to sell panels. Those in favor of the tariffs say that imposing them will assure that the U.S., which once was a world leader in solar panel production, will have a foothold in what is sure to be an important industry in the future. Also, if China is allowed to dominate the market, they could suddenly raise prices after driving out competitors. Those against the tariffs recognize the need for more widespread use of solar to mitigate global warming and acknowledge that cheap panels help this happen. They also herald the $8 billion solar installation industry.

Some opponents of the tariffs cite a 2011 study that found the U.S. solar trade balance is positive. According to research by the Solar Energy Industries Association, the U.S. was found to have a $1.88 billion surplus in solar goods in 2010. The U.S. was a net exporter to China by $240 million. While China may supply most of the panels, the argument goes, the U.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?S. supplies most of the polysilicon needed for the photovoltaic (PV) cells for the panels. So we shouldn't be worrying about the Chinese subsidizing panel-makers or those companies selling at unrealistic prices.

In an interview on Tuesday with the impeccable Tom Ashbrook on NPR's On Point, Ned Harvey of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit foundation for sustainability, and Clyde Prestowitz, the founder and president of the Economic Strategy Institute, danced around -- or perhaps tripped over -- this argument.

Recently the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing came out with a report showing that in 2011 the nearly $2 billion solar trade surplus turned into a deficit.Can't afford a third party merchant account right now? Specifically, the trade balance with China went from a $240 million surplus to a $1.6 billion deficit.

While one should always be skeptical of an analysis by a trade group that could be negatively impacted by continued cheap solar panels from China, the concerns echoed remarks by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden. Major environmental blog sites accept the findings.

Without getting into the trenches of the debate, the existence of the solar trade deficit would seem to support those who fret about China's dominance of the solar industry, for the U.S. is playing an increasingly smaller role in producing the parts for panels. All of this could change, however, if Chinese companies move plants to the U.TRT (UK) has been investigating and producing solutions for indoor Tracking since 2000.S. or other countries to manufacture panels to avoid tariffs. And all of that could be a moot point if panel costs rise too much to entice Americans to retrofit their homes, as those against the tariffs claim. Let the debate blaze on, but know that the real winners in solar in the U.S. are the installers, not the supply chain or manufacturers.

2012年5月20日星期日

The nation's fascination with Mah Jongg

Jan Esquith is new to mah-jongg but not unfamiliar with the Chinese game of chance that in its American form is similar to the card game gin rummy.

"When I was growing up in Burbank, I remembered my mom used to play `mahj' in my home," says Esquith, a retiree from Northridge now carrying on the tradition with her late mother's game set - though on this particular day she was clacking down tiles in pursuit of assembling a winning hand at the center of the Skirball Cultural Center's new "Project Mah Jongg."

On view through Sept. 2, this traveling exhibition that originated at New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust celebrates the history of the game and its influence on Jewish popular culture.

It features vintage objects and photographs, mah-jongg-inspired artwork and game tables - lots of game tables - for visitors available on the terrace adjacent to the gallery.

Back inside, display cases house imported mah-jongg sets with decorative tiles made of bone and bamboo and stored in wooden cases, as well as domestically produced sets with the addition of tile racks. There are novelty items such as the pigtailed "Mah Jongg Kid" doll, aprons and Jell-O molds that marketers produced in response to what was a national obsession.

Mah-jongg was imported to the U.S. in 1922 by Joseph P. Babcock, an enterprising businessman who saw there was a potential for the game to take off based on its popularity among Western expatriates in China - and he was right.Argo Mold limited specialize in Plastic Injection Mold manufacture.

By 1923, the game was all the rage.

"Mah-jongg is less about competition and more about camaraderie," says Erin Clancey, managing curator of the exhibition.Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network. "Any gathering became a fun and lively event - a ritual event.Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter.Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions. Mah-jongg players got together once a week and magazines and newspapers would advertise to hostesses that they should have all sorts of mah-jongg-related food and clothing.

"This was how women got through the war, how they bonded over a game and made their lives a little easier," she says.

The game's imagery was a big part of its appeal in its heyday, during the Roaring '20s, when people were adopting exotic cultures and exploring all things foreign.

But mah-jongg had both positive and negative connotations.

While the exhibition shows no derogatory imagery, there was that element, Clancey explains, based on the "complicated relationship" going back to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that limited the number of Chinese immigrants into the U.S.

By 1925, the mah-jongg fad had waned but it continued to be played by German Jewish women, in particular, who could identify with the Chinese immigrants' outsider status.

One such group of women came together in 1937 to form the National Mah Jongg League - today more than 300,000 members strong - to standardize the rules for playing the American version of the game,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? which was always changing.

Early rulebooks distributed by the league can be found in the exhibition cases alongside scoring devices and tile racks introduced by American manufacturers to make the game user-friendly.

There are also cards showing the different winning hands.

"If you know how to play mah-jongg you know you need to create specific hands, and to keep the game fresh the Mah Jongg League each year publishes a new set of winning hands," Clancey says. "They sold these cards and with the proceeds they would donate to worthy Jewish causes and non-Jewish causes.

"So what was maybe considered a trivial pursuit became an expression of benevolence and community and social bonding," she says. "It was a game that brought people together."

And it continues to bring people together through mah-jongg tournaments worldwide and now the exhibition.

Artist Howard Ben Tré is a favorite son of Providence

Many Bostonians are familiar with the work of Howard Ben Tré. Stroll through Post Office Square, enter the Mary Baker Eddy Library, or visit the new Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts and you cannot help but be enamored by his glass sculptures, often layered with bronze, brass, lead, or gold leaf.Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network.

His vessels can take the shapes of ancient urns and basins, reach heights of Native American totem poles, and are frequently illuminated at night, particularly in his public art projects. The textures can be as smooth and sensual as any Constantin Brancusi work or have the rough unfinished veneer of a Beverly Pepper piece.

Ben Tré’s highly original sculptures are a result of casting glass through an industrial process that was once reserved for more functional objects such as manufacturing windows, doors, or tabletops. He pours the molten glass into sand molds, allowing the glass to cool before sand blasting and polishing. This differs greatly from the artists of his generation who made their names through glass blowing.

“He’s really one of the first artists to experiment with the sculptural potential of cast glass. He’s thinking how can I adapt commercial techniques and create my own aesthetic,” says Emily Zilber, curator of contemporary decorative arts at the MFA.

While his work is included in the collections of the MFA,Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile. Metropolitan Museum of Art, and 85 other museums, it is his adopted hometown of Providence that has benefited most from his artistry. Ben Tré enrolled at Rhode Island School of Design, working under the tutelage of renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly, and received his MFA in 1980. Four years later, he set up shop in a nondescript two-story red building in neighboring Pawtucket, where he still works. And he still lives in Providence, on the bottom floor of a circa-1854 townhouse that is walking distance to RISD and Brown University.

I caught up with Ben Tré last month as he was preparing to ship a dozen or so translucent, ethereal glass pieces to a Traverse City, Mich., gallery for an upcoming show. In many ways, the youthful-looking 63-year-old is a lot like the objects he creates, a tough Brooklyn,Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. N.Y.-born base that has not gotten brittle with a softened exterior that has seen success. His passion continues to burn brightly, especially when discussing his art or the city he cherishes.

He drove me to the first of three public art projects he has created in Providence. In 1998, BankBoston hired Ben Tré to redesign a large plaza in front of its building in the city’s financial core, now called One Financial Plaza. At the heart of the space is the artist’s signature vessel, a human-scale cast bronze and glass urn that emits a greenish glow,Omega Plastics are a leading rapid tooling and plastic injection mould company based in the UK. especially when lighted at night. The sculpture sits in the center of a circular fountain, surrounded by a granite and bronze inlaid sitting area. Two additional benches branch off from the fountain in a sinuous bend of concrete.

“I imagined the vessel to be like a stone thrown in a pond and the undulating concrete to be the rippling waves,” says Ben Tré.

The artist took into account every square foot of the plaza, from the sconces on the far wall, also aglow at night, to the textural quality of the birch trees that sit in the terraced garden above the benches. Street names were inscribed on granite on the curb, while gold medallions symbolizing the contribution of Rhode Island’s workforce, from fishermen to jewelry makers, lead to the entrance of the building. Unfortunately, since the sale of BankBoston, the plaza has been poorly maintained. Grout is falling out of the granite floor and the planters, where once 6,000 bulbs were introduced, are now full of weeds.

“It’s the downside of public art. Architects understand it better than artists do. You put your heart into the work and have to move on,” says a disappointed Ben Tré.

A few blocks away is a site-specific sculpture the artist created outside the Rhode Island Convention Center in 1996.This page contains information about molds. Part of his Bearing Figure series, the cast glass and bronze object has a white exterior, which, when illuminated, allows viewers to peer in at the internal gold leaf. It’s the artist’s version of fertility, or as he notes, “the soul of the piece.”

If an Afghan solution was this easy

The article identifies the threats to Pakistan’s security as emanating from: (i) terrorism sponsored by Al-Qaeda and its affiliates, particularly the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA); (ii) India’s massive defence spending; (iii) undermining of Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities; and (iv) the US/Nato presence in Afghanistan, and the turmoil in that country.

Of these the writer believes that the threat from Al-Qaeda can be neutralised through focused Pakistan-US cooperation, but far more formidable is the danger from the TTP the BLA. He claims that “there is compelling evidence” that both outfits are being supported by Indian and Afghan intelligence, and perhaps even by the US and some unspecified Western countries. Similar views have been expressed time and again by Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who also described the terrorists who attacked the PNS Mehran base in Karachi last year as resembling characters from Star Wars.

The allocation to defence in the Indian budget which was presented to parliament in mid-March by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is undoubtedly alarming. Military spending has been increased by 17 percent, or $38.6 billion. A huge $17.5 billion have been earmarked for capital expenditure for the acquisition of state-of-the art equipment. India, which already has a nuclear triad, is upgrading 51 Mirage fighter jets, finalising a $20 billion accord with France for buying 126 Rafale multirole combat aircraft and is negotiating with the US for purchasing 145 ultra-light howitzers and has bought 49 new warships for its navy.

The spirited writer of the article recommends that Pakistan should “acquire conventional capabilities to neutralise the Indian build-up at a much lower cost” from China, secure the latest technologies “by any means,” acquire a second-strike capability and nuclear submarines. But Pakistan does not have the money to pay for such acquisitions unless, of course,Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network. Merlin waves his magic wand to generate the finances from the comatose and haemorrhaging economy which, according to a recent World Bank estimate, is losing a whopping Rs400 billion annually from power outages alone.

On Afghanistan the article is emphatic that there must be a complete withdrawal of US troops as even a token American military presence will prolong the conflict and dangerously polarise the country along north-south ethnic fault-lines. The writer assumes that Pakistan still has sufficient influence in Afghanistan “to bring about the orderly, honourable but full withdrawal of US-Nato forces.”

The proposal is probably embedded in the unrealistic assumption that the 350,000-strong Afghan National Army, which is disproportionately dominated by the Tajik ethnic minority, will be able to withstand the anticipated Taliban onslaught against the corrupt and discredited regime in Kabul after the withdrawal of US/Nato forces in 2014. The chaos will have disastrous consequences for Pakistan and is likely to spur the inflow of around two million refugees into the country, which it cannot sustain.

The possibility of a post-2014 Afghan ethnic conflict, unparalleled in its intensity, cannot be brushed aside. But President Hamid Karzai seems to be dwelling in an ethereal world of illusions. On Sunday he triumphantly announced the commencement of the third phase in the transfer of security control from Nato to the Afghan army. His spokesman, Aimal Faizi, told journalists at a hastily convened media briefing: “Eleven provinces will be transitioned in the handover, including Kapisa,This page contains information about molds. Uruzgan and Parvan. Seventy-five percent of the population will come under the control of local security.” Currently French troops are stationed in Kapisa and their Australian counterparts are based in Uruzgan.

Within hours of the announcement a key negotiator in Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, Maulvi Arasala Rehmani, was assassinated in Kabul. Rehmani, a former foreign minister in the Taliban regime, was also a close associate of the Afghan president. Earlier this month, the Taliban had threatened to target members of the Peace Council but its spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahed, denied any involvement in the killing.

Earlier,Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile.Here's a complete list of oil painting supplies for the beginning oil painter. the Karzai regime had claimed that with the completion of the first two phases in the transfer of operational control from Nato troops to its forces,Visit TE online for all of your Application plastic injection mold including tools. 50 percent of the population, including Kabul, were being effectively provided security by the Afghan army. This was belied by the multiple Taliban attacks on April 15 on Western embassies, Nato headquarters and the parliament building in Kabul. These were synchronised with assaults in Jalalabad and Logar and Paktia provinces, as well as with the storming of the central jail in Bannu by the TTP. This should leave little doubt that the Afghan Taliban and their Pakistani equivalent are two sides of the same coin.

Workers lacking skills hinder more U.S. factory gains

Paul Bonin has no problem getting enough orders to keep his factory busy. What he can't find are enough qualified employees to work on the assembly lines.

"The biggest challenge we face is a skilled labor force," said Bonin, president of Bertrand Products in South Bend, Ind., which makes transmission parts for helicopters. He sees opportunities to fill more orders, "but I can't take the work because I can't find the work force."

The inability to locate employees with the right abilities is holding back manufacturing, the industry that led the United States out of the worst recession since the 1930s, just as the economy shows signs of cooling. The number of factory jobs waiting to be filled climbed to 326,000 in March, the most since November 2007, according to data from the Labor Department.

"The manufacturing sector is clearly showing signs of a skills mismatch," said Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays in New York. "It is likely to weigh on manufacturing growth."

Manufacturing was the only one of the seven seasonally adjusted major industry categories tracked by the government with as many openings in March as in the months before the recession started in December 2007. Openings at factories had been as low as 93,000 in May 2009, the fewest in records going back to 2000.

At the same time, the hiring rate, which is the number of people added to factory payrolls as a share of total employment, was 2.2 percent in March compared with 2.9 percent in November 2007, according to the Labor Department.

"There's a sharp divergence on what's happening on the opening side and what's happening on the hiring side," underscoring the skills mismatch, said Maki.

Economists like Heidi Shierholz are among those who disagree with the premise that a lack of skills is restraining factory hiring.

"There is always some degree of skills mismatch," said Shierholz, a labor-market economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, which gets some of its funding from labor unions. "That's one of the reasons why even in boom times we have 4 percent unemployment. The vast majority of the increase in unemployment is just due to weak demand."

European industrial production unexpectedly declined in March, capping a quarter that probably saw the economy slip into its second recession in as many years. Production in the 17- nation euro area slipped 0.3 percent in March from a month earlier, the European Union's statistics office in Luxembourg said last week. In the first quarter, output fell 0.5 percent.Alfa plast mould is Plastic moulds Manufacturer.

The Manufacturing Institute, which is affiliated with the National Association of Manufacturers, said in a 2011 report that in the United States, "shortages in skilled production jobs — machinists, operators, craft workers,Accept all major credit cards using the top rated third party payment gateway. distributors,Ekahau rtls is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network. technicians, and more — are taking their toll on manufacturers' ability to expand operations, drive innovation and improve productivity."

The Washington-based group said 74 percent of its survey respondents "indicated that workforce shortages or skills deficiencies in skilled production roles are having a significant impact on their ability to expand operations or improve productivity."

"We're turning down some business because we can only take in so much with the staff we have," said Ahaus, president of Ahaus Tool & Engineering in Richmond, Ind. The company now has 90 employees after taking in 10 more in the past six months. "We could hire five more today" if the right people are found, he said.

A survey by the National Federation of Independent Business showed a net 17 percent of owners said job openings were hard to fill in April, up 2 points from March and close to the almost four-year high reached in January.

Auto-parts supplier Jody Fledderman said his company faces a similar situation.

"We fight the same thing,Husky Injection Molding Systems designs." said Fledderman, president and chief executive officer of Batesville Tool & Die Inc., a Batesville, Ind.-based firm that supplies both foreign and domestic automakers with brackets, oil pans and suspension parts. "There are very few younger people starting to go into the industry."

Bonin, Ahaus and Fledderman are members of the Precision Metalforming Association and the National Tooling and Machining Association. They were in Washington last week with about 100 other small-business owners to meet with lawmakers and discuss the hurdles faced by manufacturers.Online store for ceramic tiles by e-Ceramica group.

Bonin said many job seekers he meets, particularly younger applicants, do not have a mechanical background, the machinery skills or the math and science aptitude to operate the company's equipment. Instead, "all I'm doing is stealing from the other shops now."

One reason for the skills mismatch is that "the manufacturing sector over time has become much more technology-intensive," said Barclays' Maki. The computer comprehension needed to work the equipment "is making it harder to fill more positions."

Manufacturing, which accounts for about 12 percent of the economy, grew in April at the fastest pace in almost a year, as a pickup in orders signaled factories will remain a source of strength for the expansion. The Institute for Supply Management's factory index climbed to 54.8 last month, the best reading since June, the Tempe, Ariz.-based group said May 1. Readings greater than 50 signal growth.

Factory employment has helped drive the U.S. expansion. Manufacturing payrolls have climbed 4.2 percent since December 2009, compared with a 2.8 percent increase in total hiring.

2012年5月15日星期二

OBAMA HAWKS GAY MARRIAGE ON THE VIEW

Heroes! Some define a hero as those brave men and women who are willing to run toward dangerous situations from which the rest of us would run away. Some heroes are those among us who are willing to lay down their lives for what they believe or to protect the lives of others. Surely Barack Obama must now be added to the role of heroes for having the courage to take his newly evolved position on gay marriage to the masses via the inhospitable platform known as The View.

I suspect there is no truth to the rumor that the hosts of The View wrapped the President in a warm blanket to make him feel even more secure as they welcomed him to The View to push gay marriage, which in case you haven’t heard is the most important issue now facing our country. However, I do suspect that the Preezy of the United Steezy did feel right at home wallowing in the glow of fellow gay marriage supporters Whoopie, Joy and Barbara.

This is enlightenment in action!

Somehow, like any hero, and managing to push on despite the glare from the shining smiles of The View hosts, Obama tackled the hard issues head on.

First, the issue of Joe Biden thrusting gay marriage to the forefront. Forget the news reports that Obama took Biden to the woodshed for sticking his foot in his mouth on national television. Aw shucks folks, The Barackness Monster says it just ain’t so.

"When you get to know Joe Biden, he is the most honest, straightforward guy," Obama said.Secured handsfree building and door access solutions with Hands free access by Nedap AVI. "He's warm; he tells you what he thinks. We talked about it and what I said was I'm never going to blame anybody for telling what they believe."

The exceptions there, of course, would be the GOP, all Republican-leaning individuals, conservatives, Christians, Muslims, Jews, and anyone anywhere who disagree with Obama WILL get blamed for “telling what they believe.”

Heroic to a fault Barack Obama declined to tell The View hosts if he would now work to repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Instead the man with the rainbow halo said, "Congress is clearly on notice that I think it's a bad idea. This is going to be a big contrast in the campaign because you've got Governor [Mitt] Romney saying we should actually have a constitutional amendment installing the notion that you can't have same-sex marriages."

That mean old Romney must have been studying his Bible or taking biology classes or something to come up with that idea.

No blame, however. Obama is just saying it’s not really his place to do anything about repealing the Defense of Marriage Act. That’s up to Congress. You know like stopping the rising deficit, taxing evil millionaires, and coming up with a budget.

The President also heroically talked about how Michelle gets embarrassed if he sings too much in public. So cute!

Just in case stuff like the cost of gasoline, the cost of groceries, waiting around for your home to be foreclosed, or looking for work has you down, the President cheered everyone up by relating a story about his 50th Birthday party:

"Malia and Sasha and a bunch of my friends and Michelle had sort of like a roast,Build a "Floor tiles" by dragging the corners of a quadrilateral. a little private roast,If you are looking for offshore merchant account. each one of them read something and Malia and Sasha had written out why I am such a wonderful dad. And they had this list, it was so sweet and one of the items on Malia's list was you are just the right amount of embarrassing," Obama said as the audience peppered him with approving laughter.

Makes you forget all about trying to find an overpass to live under, doesn’t it?

The President had even more in store for the people however on The View. You’ll never believe it, but Barack Obama proved to everyone that when it comes to pop culture, he’s all over it.

ABC News reports:

“Obama correctly knew that Kim was the Kardashian sister who made headlines this year for her 72-day marriage to pro basketball player Kris Humphries. No, the president is not a loyal follower of reality TV. Obama, an avid basketball fan,Argo Mold limited specialize in Plastic Injection Mold manufacture. said, ‘he was a ball player. I know from watching basketball.’"

I don’t know about you, but I feel better about America’s future already. I’ll bet Mitt Romney couldn’t tell one Kardashian from the other.We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail.

We can only hope that The President is finally going to tackle “Income Inequality” next.

What? You never heard of that? Income Inequality is the practice (no doubt invented by Republicans, conservatives and Christians) that says those among us who are more educated, have professions, and work really, really hard are somehow allowed to make more money than those among us who don’t.

Can you imagine such an awful thing happening every day in a democracy with an economy based on capitalistic ideals?

In the blink of an eye

Barry Weatherall has tremendous energy. At 50 years old, the transplanted Englishman spends hours walking Owen, his four-year-old German shepherd, near their home in Red Deer, Alta. He's an avid swimmer and rock climber and a regular at the gym. He’s big on travelling, rock concerts and going to the movies with friends. Weatherall recently took up whitewater rafting and in June he will be competing in his third triathlon.

Weatherall accomplishes all this despite the fact that he's blind.

Fourteen years ago, he was working as a plumber and hot water engineer. When business was slow,Visit TE online for all of your Application Tooling Solutions including tools. the firm he worked for manufactured copper manifold headers that required silver soldering. They had to be cleaned using sulphuric acid, and Weatherall made a point of contacting a chemical company for instructions when it needed to be cleaned and neutralized.

One day Weatherall donned his protective gear and poured caustic soda beads into the sulphuric acid, expecting it to neutralize in a few minutes just as he was told it would. He walked away, wrote up a work procedure, and removed all of his protective gear except for a paper dust mask. When he returned to check on the acid, it exploded in his face. He suffered third-degree burns and was left permanently blind.

Weatherall spent seven weeks recovering in the burn unit of University of Alberta Hospital. He says he was in pain, angry at the world, and he couldn’t fathom getting through life without sight.

To help him cope, the Workers Compensation Board of Alberta put him in touch with a representative from CNIB, a registered charity that delivers practical and emotional rehabilitation services to Canadians who are blind or partially sighted from coast to coast. But Weatherall sent him away.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile.

“The biggest thing was being afraid and uncertain of everything in life: uncertain of who I was, where I was going, what I was going to do being blind,” he recalls.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? “I couldn’t do the job that I’d always done that I enjoyed. [I didn’t know] who I was because of the blindness.”

Six months later, Weatherall was ready to move forward. He called CNIB to help him learn to use a white cane so he could get around on his own again.

Once each week, a CNIB mobility specialist came to the house and taught Weatherall how to hold a cane, detect sounds and smells, manoeuvre through his neighbourhood, and go up and down stairs and around buildings. He learned how to clean the house, cook, and do laundry, grocery shopping and other daily chores without his sight.

“That’s when it started to come together for me,” he says. “Once I achieved something and I did something, it’s like, ‘Oh, I can do that, I can do something else.’”

Day by day, Weatherall started taking control of his life again.We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail.

He travelled to a guide dog school in Ohio for a three-week training course with his new furry pal. He says the most difficult part was putting his trust in the animal, especially when crossing the street. Today, he counts on his guide dog and a global positioning system (GPS) to navigate Red Deer’s streets and transit system.

He has a talking computer, a digital tape recorder for messages and a book reader, and he has mastered braille. He says he’s quite independent now, only calling on the dog and his devoted friends when absolutely necessary.

It’s been a long road to recovery. Weatherall’s marriage fell apart after the accident. He has had three eye surgeries and 18 skin grafts. But he’s not letting anything interfere with his progress or his pursuits.

For the last three years, Weatherall has been visiting oilpatch and construction companies as a representative of CNIB’s Eye Safety Program, which educates organizations and their workers about eye safety in the workplace and reducing the associated costs of workplace eye injury.

After sharing his story and citing workplace eye injury statistics and safety procedures, he reinforces the message by blindfolding participants and then getting them to tackle everyday tasks such as putting toothpaste on a toothbrush and counting money.Secured handsfree building and door access solutions with Hands free access by Nedap AVI. Weatherall says the workshops are very well received.

Overall, Weatherall says, he’s adjusting “brilliantly” to his vision loss. Asked what kind of advice he would give someone else facing the loss of their sight, he says everybody has to go through their own personal journey but he would urge them to never give up. In his opinion, there’s nothing a person can’t do. It’s just how you do it.

TAU students commemorate Palestinian Nakba

A crowd of a few hundred amassed in front of Tel Aviv University to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the Palestinian “Nakba,” or disaster, which refers to certain consequences of the establishment of the State of Israel: the destruction of an estimated 622 villages and the exodus of roughly 700,000 Palestinians who became permanent refugees.

A mosaic crowd of progressive and left-wing students—both Jews and Arabs—listened to activists announce the names of destroyed villages, recite the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? and deliver speeches about the urgent need for reconciliation,Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile. equality, and social justice.

The commemoration was not without opposition: a rabble of right-wing protesters,Excel Mould is a Custom Plastic Injection Moulding Manufacturer. most of which belong to the rabid organization Im Tirtzu, counter protested. Im Tirtzu, known for having accepted vast amounts of funding from Evangelical Christian-Zionist organizations based in the United States, strives to “strengthen and advance the values of Zionism in Israel.”

Flimsy barriers and a handful of police officers stood separated the Nakba commemorators from the Im Tirtzu crowd, who were waving Israeli flags, singing national songs, chanting, and wielding placards.

A large poster board hovering of the heads of the counter-protesters read, “Hebron is ours!” Hebron is the largest city in the occupied West Bank, home to 165,000 Palestinians who live under the coerced tutelage of the Israeli Defense Force. Roughly 3,000 soldiers are stationed in and around Hebron for the sole purpose of protecting no more than 500 Israeli settlers, most of whom are American immigrants armed with a particularly violent, messianic strand of Zionist ideology.

“I killed four people bigger than you,” one Im Tirtzu demonstrator said to Mohammad, a 20 year-old Palestinian student of American Culture and Archeology.

“You’re a national hero,” he calmly responded.

“Death to Arabs!” a faction of the Im Tirtzu crowd later chanted.

One man slipped past the barriers and attempted to tear a large sign from the activists who were holding it. “Nakba 1948,” the sign read in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. He lunged at a commemorator and a small scuffle ensued before the security officers apprehended him.

“Listen, it’s not like we are asking Jews to leave—there are Jews demonstrating here with us,” one of the organizers of the commemoration told me. “We want to recognize the loss of our villages and the displacement of our families who came from there.”

A graduate student named Mohammed, who is studying towards a Masters of Business Administration, echoed similar themes. “We want a secular, democratic state for everyone, with equality for Jews, Christians, and Muslims.” Such a state, he told me,We offer over 600 landscape oil paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. must include the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The Nakba commemoration and counter-protest are a microcosm of the broader struggle taking place within Israeli-Palestinian society. A steadily growing Israeli right-wing movement is attempting to command a monopoly on historical narrative. Their opponents, an Israeli-Palestinian left that many had announced dead and buried long ago, continue to executing a joint struggle,Secured handsfree building and door access solutions with Hands free access by Nedap AVI. despite the inattention of the international media.

The Israeli state and its staunchest supporters decry each demand for equality as an assault on its very existence. Peace activists are persecuted and often physically assaulted by state security forces. Meanwhile, West Bank settlers—citing a religious-colonial ideology as the warrant for the continued theft of Palestinian land—generally enjoy legal immunity.

The Second Intifada is often referred to as a setback for the left-wing movements in Israeli and Palestinian societies. The high frequency of violence and the religious undertones led many to brand the Israeli-Palestinian peace camp as naive at best, or a fifth column at worst.

Discontent with the state, however, is stirring again, and the left is seizing the opportunity.

Palestinians living inside the Green Line—along with many Israeli Jews, for that matter—reject the government’s classification of Arabs as second class citizens. To expect the over one million Palestinians citizens of Israel to endorse an exclusively Jewish state that renders them mere footnotes is nothing short of absurd.

Their demands are not inherently violent or destructive, as their detractors say. Rather, the overwhelming majority are calling for a secular and democratic state that does not treat its citizens preferentially according to religion or ethnicity.