Busted by the Crafts Cops

Etsy Inc. has tapped into the consumer craze for all things local, artisanal and authentic since its founding six years ago. The online crafts fair, where anyone can set up shop and sell handmade or vintage goods, has grown to 15 million members, up from 3.8 million in 2009, according to Etsy.

Yet a problem is hitting the site, which promises shoppers handmade items: Factory-made goods lurk on the site amid the hand-knit cupcake pin cushions, purses constructed of birch bark, and floral cotton iPad covers.

To try to keep its offerings true to its mission, Etsy is increasing the number of young detectives the company uses to police its website, sort of a CSI: Etsy team. (Etsy's CSI-related products include a "Future CSI" baby bib for $7.The CenTrak rtls platform can address today's healthcare challenges and be used for future applications beyond asset tracking.) The company calls the investigators the Marketplace Integrity and Trust & Safety teams. They spend their days scouring Etsy's site to uphold its rules: No factory-made goods, items that violate copyright, or offensive material. They shut down sellers' shops that break its rules. Newly developed software is also used to police the site.Painless Processing provides high risk merchant account solutions.

Tania Ginoza says she shops for items like vintage glassware, jewelry, art and letter press stationery about once a month from Etsy. "It's a really good feeling to support someone who may just be starting out with crafting and jewelry making," says the 43-year-old financial comptroller in Maui, Hawaii. "When you correspond with a seller a lot of times you are talking directly to an artist,My advice on what to consider before you buy oil painting supplies so your money is well spent." she says. "That's pretty cool because you can develop a relationship with an artist."

About 230 employees work in the company's Brooklyn, N.Y., headquarters, which features a 10-foot-tall cardboard owl in its entryway, a huge bicycle parking area and colorful murals on the walls. A small section of the exposed duct work is wrapped with a sort of decorative duct tea cozy knit by an artist who sells on the site.

As Etsy grows, policing the site becomes more important, says Chad Dickerson, who replaced one of Etsy's co-founders as chief executive last summer. Consumers want "a sense of authenticity and buying from people who they know," he says.

Without the handmade shopping experience, "Etsy loses its core," says Mr. Dickerson.

Online sales of "handicrafts" like sewing, woodworking and making jewelry are expected to reach $2.2 billion in 2016, up from $1.4 billion in 2011, growing faster than the approximately $30 billion handicraft industry overall, says a report on Etsy by GreenCrest Capital Management LLC, a firm that analyzes private companies.

Etsy seller Jaime Core says the company sent her an email with a "long" survey asking about her items, specifically a soy strawberry candle. The survey requested the names and ages of anyone working with her in her candle-making business and for step-by-step photos of her production process. "I was flipping out," says Ms. Core, 26, from Orlando, Fla. About two hours after she sent in the photos and answers, Etsy responded by email: "Thanks for being part of the Etsy community," she says. It didn't close her shop. She says she doesn't know why her candles were flagged. Julian Wong, a manager of the Etsy integrity and safety teams, says, "We open up dialogues with sellers and most instances (well over 80%) result in outcomes like Jaime's."

Enforcing the rules is "sort of a crazy part of our business," says Dan Christofferson, marketing director of Etsy rival Big Cartel, a website in Salt Lake City, Utah., that helps artists and crafters create online shops.

Some cases are clear-cut. A shop of Nazi-themed T-shirts will be taken down instantly, says Mr. Christofferson. But when employees found a seller listing "molds of their naked body," company employees debated if the shop should be closed, says Mr. Christofferson.VulcanMold is a plastic molds and Injection Molding manufacturer in china. They decided it wasn't "real pornography," which violates the site's rules, he says.

In the last year, Etsy, by far the largest global online crafts retailer, almost doubled the size of its policing staff to 16 people. Most of its hires are experts in a specific area—say, handbag making or vintage goods—so they can "help us ask the right questions,If you have a fondness for china mosaic brimming with romantic roses." of potential problem sellers, says Kruti Patel Goyal, director of Etsy's policing groups.

"Our team is now reviewing seven times more accounts overall each week" versus the same week last year, said Ms. Patel Goyal, in a February blog post on Etsy's company blog. Etsy declined to specify the number of accounts.

Pike's electrical system had 'design flaws'

Pike River coalmine's electric system would have lit up ''like a Christmas tree'' when power to water pumps were switched on seconds before it exploded, the inquiry into the tragedy has heard.

Australian mining consultant Tony Reczek, who has expertise in electrical systems in coalmines, this morning began giving evidence at the royal commission into the deaths of 29 men.China yiri mould is a professional manufacturer which integrates Plastic Mould design and manufacture and plastic product development.

Reczek, one of a panel of five experts investigating the explosion's cause for the Labour Department, said the explosion occurred seconds after power to the mine's underground water pumps were turned on by control room officer Daniel Duggan.

Last week, the inquiry heard that the fatal explosion was blamed on a roof collapse in the hydro-mining area, which expelled methane around the mine that was ignited by a electric spark after the water pumps were switched on.

Reczek said Pike River's electric system used many variable speed drives (VSD), devices that controlled the start-up and speed of motors.

Those devices could create ''harmonic currents'', which could cause arcing and sparking in the mine's electric system.

The mine had problems with the devices in the weeks prior to the explosion and had contacted the manufacturers for advice,Shop at Lowe's for garage Ceramic tile, he said.

When the water pumps were switched on, he believed harmonic currents could have caused sparking or arcing at all the mine's electric terminals, lighting ''the entire electric system like a Christmas tree''.

Reczek said the white flash seen by survivor Daniel Rockhouse when the blast occurred was likely to be the explosion rather than the spark or arcing which ignited it.

He doubted the spark or arcing would be visible.

The harmonic currents could have caused sparking or arcing at every mechanical connection throughout the mine, he said.

Pike River coalmine had problems with its water pump power supply and its electrical plant in the weeks leading up to the explosion, including overheating of certain electrical plant, which also could have caused the explosion or made it more likely, he said.A mold or molds is a hollowed-out block that is filled with a liquid like plastic,

Remedial activities were undertaken to improve the plant in the weeks prior to the explosion.Offering high risk and offshore merchant account with credit card processing services.

He believed Pike River's electrical system had design flaws, which could have caused its problems.

Reczek criticised the mine's main ventilation fan, which he believed could have ignited the explosion.

It was not protected against methane despite being in a high hazard area, he said.

Instead, the mine relied on methane detectors to alert whether the explosive gas was near the fan, which should be only a back-up measure.

He said methane was easily ignited and gassy mines, such as Pike River, needed measures to control ignition risk.

As a result,Overview description of rapid Tooling processes. Reczek said coalmines needed sufficient ventilation to dilute methane and all electrical apparatus levels should be enclosed in flameproof enclosures in areas where methane could occur in explosive levels.

The inquiry heard last week no other coalmine worldwide was known to have such a fan underground.

FBI arrests 7 Amish on hate crimes charges

The leader of a breakaway Amish group allowed the beatings of those who disobeyed him,Your source for re-usable Plastic moulds of strong latex rubber. made some members sleep in a chicken coop and had sexual relations with married women to "cleanse them," federal authorities said as they charged him and six others with hate crimes in hair-cutting attacks against other Amish.

Authorities raided the group's compound in eastern Ohio on Wednesday morning and arrested seven men, including group leader Sam Mullet and three of his sons.

Several members of the group carried out the attacks in September and October by forcefully cutting the beards and hair of Amish men and women, authorities said. Cutting the hair is a highly offensive act to the Amish, who believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards and stop shaving once they marry.

The attacks struck at the core of the Amish identity and tested their principles. They strongly believe that they must be forgiving in order for God to forgive them, which often means handing out their own punishment and not reporting crimes to law enforcement.

The attacks had terrorized Amish communities,Enecsys Limited, supplier of reliable solar Air purifier systems, Sheriff Fred Abdalla said at a news conference Wednesday.

"You've got Amish all over the state of Ohio and Pennsylvania and IThis will leave your shoulders free to rotate in their Floor tiles .ndiana that are concerned. We've received hundreds and hundreds of calls from people living in fear,Unlike traditional high risk merchant account ," he said. "They are buying Mace, some are sitting with shotguns, getting locks on their doors because of Sam Mullet."

The sheriff added, "Sam Mullet is evil."Mullet told The Associated Press in October that he didn't order the hair-cutting but didn't stop his sons and others from carrying it out. He said the goal was to send a message to other Amish that they should be ashamed of themselves for the way they were treating Mullet and his community.

"They changed the rulings of our church here, and they're trying to force their way down our throat, make us do like they want us to do, and we're not going to do that," Mullet said.

U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said Wednesday that religious differences should be a matter of theological debate, not disputes "resolved by late night visits to people's homes with weapons and violent attacks." He said he did not know how often hate crimes involve intradenominational disputes.

The seven men were in custody and expected to be arraigned Wednesday in Youngstown. They include Mullet; his sons Johnny,ceramic magic cube for the medical, Lester and Daniel; Levi Miller; Eli Miller; and Emanuel Schrock. The charges carry a penalty of up 10 years in prison.

Prosecutor Steve Knowling, who filed state charges against five of the same defendants last month, said he would dismiss those counts and let federal prosecutors take the lead in the case.

In the state case, an Amish bishop and his son said they were held down while men used scissors and a clipper to cut their beards. Similar attacks were under investigation in Amish communities in eastern and northeastern Ohio.

A defense attorney in the state case, Andy Hyde, said Sam Mullet would fight the federal charges. Hyde said he didn't know if he would represent Mullet in federal court.

The seven men were sleeping when the FBI and local police showed up at their homes before dawn Wednesday, Abdalla said. Three men initially refused to come out of their rooms, but all seven were arrested without incident, he said.

The attacks came amid long-simmering tension between Amish bishops and Mullet's group, which he established in 1995.

An FBI affidavit said Johnny, Lester and Daniel Mullet and Levi and Eli Miller all confessed in early October to taking part in at least a couple of the attacks.

Johnny Mullet told detectives that it was his idea to cut the hair and beards and that he discussed the idea with his father, who gave him the addresses of two victims, the affidavit said.

Lester Mullet told detectives that after two attacks in late September, the men went home and told Sam Mullet what happened. He said his father laughed and called them nuts, the court document said.

Abdalla, the sheriff, said he didn't know the specifics of the religious disagreements that prompted Mullet to form his own community in 1995.

But the heart of his recent dispute with Amish bishops stemmed from his desire to excommunicate several members, the FBI said. Other bishops concluded the excommunications weren't consistent with Amish teachings and scripture and decided not to recognize the penalties, the FBI said.

One of Mullet's daughters-in-law and a former brother-in-law told investigators that Mullet controls everything that happens within the community outside Bergholz and that he allowed others to beat members of the group who disobeyed him, according to an affidavit filed in federal court Wednesday.

Mullet punished some by making them sleep in a chicken coop for days and was sexually intimate with married women in the community so that he could "cleanse them of the devil," the two said in the affidavit.

To Survive, Netflix 'Must Adapt'

When Netflix,The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations, Inc. announced news of a fee hike for users of both its online streaming and snail mail video rental, many customers decided to pull their ties with the movie giant, including Starz channel on cable and satellite providers. The reasoning was simple. Too much money was being spent by too many people on a service that was not utilized nearly enough to consider the service a deal.

This past Thursday, Netflix made the announcement of plans to integrate its video sharing capabilities with social media hub Facebook. The addition allows site users to watch videos on either website as well as view what friends are looking at. Sounds great, right? Well, maybe if you are in any of the other Netflix markets—but not here in the United States.

The hurdle in Netflix's track match is an old piece of legislation,we supply all kinds of polished tiles, the 1998 Video Privacy Protection Act law that puts the brakes on the disclosure of video sales or rental records. In other words, rental services cannot give out information about what movie someone watches, even if it is your best friend (or a complete stranger you've "friended" on the ever-changing Facebook site).

So, what does this mean for the very sharing culture we reside in today? Will laws change to mold the world we live in?

The change does not necessarily lie in Washington; it lies in Netflix. The company is doing what they should be doing—lobbying Congress. They have been doing that all year in order to pass some form of legislation that would revise the act established in1998 or create an entirely new act for this technology age.

As an important driver of Internet traffic, Netflix must adapt to the changing landscape that is the Internet movie service.

To be fair, it seems some of Netflix's decisions are justified. They are justified in the fact that such happenings are only inevitable if Netflix is in the business of surviving in the end. It is hard to pull a profit by clumping together both movies-by-mail and Internet Instant Streaming, only because it is a too-good-to-last concept.Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. Making these services two separate things was a step in the right direction, even though consumers have the right to be mad about it. The future of video lies in the Internet.

Look at your favorite television shows. A few years ago, you could count on one hand which ones were available to watch for free on the web. Now, just about every show from every hour on every network is at the click of your mouse. Online is quick, reliable and just an overall convenient service.

Movie rental stores are for the most part feeling the punch.It's hard to beat the versatility of zentai suits on a production line. However, box rental locations—such as Redbox—who can benefit as their own services, are a close second to Netflix. The only downside is a tank of gas for some and 24-hour rental times (or a surcharge).

Netflix can't just sit back and relax, though. Some work must be done, and it should not come in the form of unexpected price increases (oh, too late). Streaming gives the more creative crowd more flexibility in sampling films before purchase. However, when it comes to the big moviegoers, the money is lost. Theatres will win. Perhaps grabbing a hold of those films quicker than competitors is an option. Maybe even premiere some movies of lesser demand on Netflix before they make it to the big screen.

Of course, there is also the problem of privacy and those free sites, such as Mega Video. However, the good thing is they often limit playback hours, only offering you a sample of a work. That competition might be lacking in the field of competitiveness.These girls have never had a oil painting supplies in their lives!

Michael Halloran to return to 91X-FM

Michael Halloran,we supply all kinds of polished tiles, a major force at various San Diego alternative-rock-music radio stations since the mid-1980s, is returning to 91X-FM this week. As program director for the station in the first half of the 1990s, he played a key role in propelling such San Diego talents as Jewel and blink-182 to local and national prominence.

Beginning Sunday at 7 p.m., Halloran will be the new host of the weekly two-hour show "Loudspeaker," which previously aired at 8 p.m.. The show was launched in 1986, the same year his first stint at 91X began. The opportunity for him to host "Loudspeaker" open up after the show's most recent host, Andrew Rowley, stepped down.

In addition to "Loudspeaker," a showcase for music by San Diego artists, Halloran will also host the new "FTW," a weekly Sunday night show that will air for on 91X for one hour immediately after "Loudspeaker." With "FTW," he will be free to play any music he wants, even by artists otherwise not heard on 91X.

"Mike has a long tenure here in San Diego, a true passion for music, great ties within the local music community and a wealth of on-air experience," said 91X program director Garrett Capone.The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations, "In my mind, these traits make him the ideal host for both of these programs."

If all goes according to plan, Halloran will also begin hosting a new bi-weekly San Diego music cable TV series by the end of the year. To be called "SD Sound System," the show will be one component of the new web site sdsoundsystem.com,It's hard to beat the versatility of zentai suits on a production line. which Halloran recently helped launch as part of multi-media platform to showcase notable music from here and across the nation.

Halloran’s most recent San Diego radio job, which stretched from 2003 to early 2010, was as the music director and weekday afternoon host for FM 94/9, 91X’s biggest local rivals.

"91X and I were in competition before,Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. and I don’t take my competition lightly," said Halloran,Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. whose comment appeared directed at 94/9.

"I have a reputation in this town and not everyone wants to hire me. Capone is a lot more attentive. He doesn't say: 'You're damaged goods, you get fired all the time and you say bad things about corporate radio.' By hiring me, he wants to acknowledge that 91X has a massive history and that the station is way bigger than any one person."

PNM's 'Prosperity'project a first for solar energy storage

The name conjures up visions of a New Age musical group,Great Rubber offers high risk merchant account keychains, but the project has a serious aim: to provide grid-connected solar power and energy storage that lets us use electricity generated by the sun … even after dark.

Public Service Company of New Mexico — PNM, for short — has just brought online the US's first grid-tied solar energy storage facility. The installation of high-tech batteries, part of PNM's "Prosperity Energy Storage Project," can provide up to 500 kilowatts of sun-generated electricity into the grid whenever it's needed, day or night.

Located south of the Albuquerque International Sunport near Mesa Del Sol, the facility is the first of 16 smart-grid projects partially funded by federal stimulus funds to be fully operational.

"While PNM has three solar facilities online and two more in the works, the batteries and technology supporting this project create a reliable solar energy resource and can produce power when the sun isn't shining,'said Pat Vincent-Collawn, PNM president and CEO. "Without an energy storage component, renewable energy is a limited resource that needs to be backed up by traditional generation facilities. Although this technology is in its early integration stage and additional research and development is needed, the PNM Prosperity Energy Storage Project is a significant first step toward making renewable energy reliable energy."

The project is set for a public dedication ceremony this Saturday.

PNM and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) first began a smart-grid technology demonstration project in 2008.there's a lovely winter polished tiles by William Zorach.where he teaches porcelain tiles in the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The two organizations revised their plans after stimulus funds for smart-grid projects became available in 2009, and later that year became one of the US utilities to win federal financing.

"This project is part of a nationwide effort to help the economy, develop reliable renewable energy and research battery-storage technology," said Vincent-Collawn. "Every major component was either manufactured in the United States or installed by a US-based company."

Using 2,158 solar panels, 1,280 advanced lead-acid batteries, smart-grid technology and sophisticated metering and monitoring technology, the storage system can automatically smooth the output of the solar panels, making the renewable power more dependable. For example,he believes the fire started after the lift's RUBBER SHEET blew, when a cloud casts a shadow on the solar array, energy output is immediately reduced. The battery and smart-grid system work in tandem to instantaneously dispatch energy to fill the gap created by the cloud. In addition,100 oil paintings for sale was used to link the lamps together. the system can store solar power — or energy produced by other facilities connected to the PNM grid — when demand is low. During times of peak customer use, the system then can dispatch the power back into the grid to support demand.

"Our goal is to identify, test and demonstrate the numerous benefits derived from this storage system," said Steve Willard, a PNM engineer and the project's manager. "While construction of the project is completed, our research has just begun. During the next two years, we'll constantly collect data and share our findings with the industry worldwide to help advance energy storage technology."