When you're a kid, everything seems huge. Teachers tower over you; playgrounds stretch on to infinity. Now, researchers have found a way to make grownups feel the same way. By placing volunteers in virtual reality, scientists are helping adults see the world through the eyes of a child.
Virtual reality is more than an illusion. To enter, people put on full-body suits that track their movements and goggles that display an artificial world in which they have a virtual body. If their virtual and real movements sync up, their computer-generated bodies start to seem real.
Previous research has shown that subjects begin to feel like their body has changed into the simulated figure, even if it is different from their own body; volunteers placed into the body of a teenage girl,real time Location system, “felt it” when her mother slapped her computer-generated representation.
But scientists did not know how this virtual body “ownership” affected people's perception of the world around them and whether this could help people relate with others unlike themselves.
To find out, computer scientist Mel Slater of the University of Barcelona in Spain and colleagues placed adult volunteers into a virtual outdoor scene in which they did not have a computer-generated body. They were asked to estimate the sizes of six different cubes within the scene and were told whether their guesses were too big, too small, or correct. Later, they reentered the scene and repeated the exercise with three cubes, without feedback from the researchers. Their size estimates without a virtual body were noted.
After this training exercise, the researchers placed the subjects in two different avatars, virtual characters controlled by participants. One was a four-year-old child of the same gender as the participant. The other was an adult who was the same height as the child. While standing in a virtual living room, the participants again gauged the size of the cubes without feedback.
Adults stated that they felt the two virtual bodies were equally real, and they misjudged object size in both avatars. But those in the child avatar rated the cubes about twice as large, rtls, as did those in the adult bodies, Slater's team reported online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In a test after the simulation, participants who had been in the virtual child body were quicker to mischaracterise themselves with childlike traits than their actual ones. For example, someone who had embodied the virtual four-year-old was more likely to identify themselves as attending primary school than someone who had embodied the scaled-down adult.
When movements of the virtual and real bodies did not match, participants no longer felt their avatars were real. They still overestimated the size of the cubes, but there were no differences between the adult and child avatars. The researchers conclude that the type of avatar can affect how people see their virtual environment only if they feel connected with their virtual body.
Slater notes that the experimental setup in this study could be used to help people empathise with others who are unlike themselves, for example by putting criminal offenders in the virtual body of the victim at the crime scene to help them see the event from the other perspective.
The study demonstrates that we may need to think harder about the implications of spending time in a digital world, says cognitive psychologist Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford University. He describes a hypothetical danger of Google Glass, a pair of glasses that gives users hands-free access to the Internet.
The Big Vanilla originally opened in Arnold in 1977 as a tennis and racquetball club. Since its inception, Big Vanilla has transformed into a multi-purpose, family-focused, sports, wellness and recreational club.
The Y will continue to provide high-quality programs and membership experiences while maintaining a commitment to the community and dedication to promoting a health-centered lifestyle, which Big Vanilla and the Y share as common values.
There will be several changes made to align the center with the Y’s quality standards (in effect in all Family Center Ys across the region) and to reflect the Y’s core mission. The changes include special member discounts on youth development programs, scholarships for those who can otherwise not afford Y services, opportunities for volunteerism, access to the entire network of Family Center Ys throughout Central Maryland and many free programs, services, special events and activities.
The Y currently operates four summer camps and eight before and after school enrichment program sites in Anne Arundel County. With the addition of the Greater Annapolis Family Center Y, the Y will now have a hub from which to fully deliver Y programs and services that support its charitable mission and provide full access to Y services for the surrounding community.
As part of the transition process, current staff of the Arnold location will be offered the opportunity to become Y employees and it is the Y’s desire that they will decide to stay on and join the Y team.
“The Y and Big Vanilla share many of the same values. This was a great opportunity to join forces with an organization that is community-centric and will continue to support families in the area,” said Larry Ray, owner of Big Vanilla Athletic Clubs in Arnold and Pasadena in a release. “As someone who has been in the health and wellness business for a very long time, I have a great deal of respect for the Y and I know that I am leaving the business I built in the hands of an organization that will do good for the community.”
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/!
2013年8月19日星期一
2013年8月7日星期三
The report estimates that under the Pay
It Forward plan, an average student who obtains a bachelor’s degree would pay $39,653 into the Pay It Forward fund, which would cover the value of their tuition and fees, plus another $7,000 or more. In some ways, the plan would function like social insurance, socializing the costs of education and cutting down on the risks for students. If you happen to strike it rich, you will pay much more than your tuition might have cost, but if you’re unemployed (or stuck in a low-wage job), you pay next to nothing. The plan would lower most graduates’ monthly payments, but not eliminate individual responsibility to pay.
This policy seems aimed squarely at students who come from modest means, who are looking at a college degree as their path up the socioeconomic ladder — in other words, students who look at college as an investment in their future, but who know that in today’s economic climate, even a college degree isn’t a clear path to stability and comfort.
However, Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of education policy studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, sounds a warning note on the Century Foundation’s website. For most students, Hands free access, tuition and fees are not the largest part of college expenses. At the University of Oregon, for instance, tuition and fees run about $9,800 per year, while room and board costs more than $10,000 and books and other expenses another $3000-plus. Many students, she writes, would still wind up having to borrow to cover costs without having to work while in school — unless they receive federal Pell Grants or Oregon maintains its Opportunity Grant program for lower-income students.
Goldrick-Rab, additionally, says in a blog post that the system could be improved by creating more incentives for lower-income people to attend college, by making community colleges free for the first year, and by imposing some form of graduated repayment rather than a flat rate, so that students who go to community colleges pay back a smaller percentage of their income than those who go to four-year universities, and those who go on to make above the 80th income percentile would pay a premium.
Alloy and Rackham agree that that maintaining some level of need-based aid for the lowest-income students is important in addition to this plan. “We’ve been working closely with advocates, including the state treasurer, to implement this in a way that would be complementary to need-based aid, to open doors to students in the most accessible way possible,” Alloy says. “We don’t want students who would otherwise get their education for free to be accountable to pay into a fund for 24 years.”
A less-discussed aspect of Pay It Forward is that it would take the profit motive out of state-level student lending. Instead of private lenders (or the federal government, which pays private lenders to administer its direct loans) making money off of the often-steep interest on student loans, students would pay their money directly back to the state, in a process more akin to paying taxes than paying back a loan. Pay It Forward would thus remove the fat interest payments for private lenders and perhaps most importantly, put that money back into the hands of the state to reinvest in the university system.
“We see this as an issue [of] how we prioritize investing in our future,” Alloy says. “Are we funneling money out of the local economy straight to the financial sector or are we putting it into students?”
The current debate on the federal level, she notes, has been limited to renegotiating interest rates or allowing income-based repayment, at least since the Obama administration’s 2010 move to end direct subsidies to private lenders by moving from the Federal Family Education Loan Program to direct lending. But big lenders like Sallie Mae continue to benefit in either of those cases, Alloy notes. To take advantage of income-based repayment and loan forgiveness, you transfer your loan to the real time Location system — which means the government buys out your lender, and the government, not the lender, takes the loss. Tressie McMillan Cottom, a sociologist who studies inequality in higher education, points out that the devil will be in the details when it comes to getting the banks out of the business. Financial institutions and student lenders are big spenders on lobbying, and will no doubt fight hard against anything that would cut into their profits.
The Working Families Party has made fighting Wall Street a central part of its agenda nationally, and Alloy says that cutting the financial sector out of the process is especially important to them as the plan moves toward implementation.
The ultimate question is whether Pay It Forward will solve the problems with the current system. “This is an admirable political mobilization around this issue, but the plan is very porous in its current state,” says Cottom. “There are a lot of holes, and we should be really explicit about what those are. Whenever you have implicit assumptions, that’s where inequality tends to manifest itself.”
Students who expect to make a lot of money after college — or whose families already have enough to pay for school up-front — may see Pay It Forward as yet another incentive to go to a private university or leave the state entirely. “Higher-income students are never shopping for colleges locally. For them, the college shopping process is a national process, so a state-based focus doesn’t address them at all,” Cottom says. The students who stay in state are the ones who are less likely to see exponential returns from their college degree, she points out. “Knowing what we know about their likelihood of social mobility, I don’t know how taxing those students on their income is sustainable. If you don’t have wealthy people paying into the system I don’t know how it works.”
Those from lower-income families or those who look at the bleak job market and see little to inspire them may still not want to pay 3 percent of their income in an economy where low-wage service jobs are the fastest-growing fields. They may still see the cost of college as too high.
A recent Pew survey found that student debt was nearly a quarter of the household income of the lowest fifth of households by annual income; it is only 2 cents of each dollar that the richest 10 percent make. Pay It Forward would represent a slight increase for the wealthiest, while it would be a major break for the poorest.
In the 1970s, Yale tried a somewhat similar “equity finance” plan for its attendees, who would pay into a fund based on their incomes. While the Yale plan was substantially different from Pay It Forward, it’s worth noting that graduates who wound up well off (as Yale graduates are wont to do) complained about having to pay more than other graduates. Timothy Noah wrote about this at Slate in 1999, noting: “[T]he only significant way the program seems really to have gone awry is in misjudging the gratitude of those who would benefit from it.”
There were also problems with collection, which is also a concern for the Oregon program — particularly figuring out ways to collect payments from former students who then leave the state.
Another problem, pointed out by the American Federation of Teachers in a white paper on Pay It Forward, is that to ensure funding for the program, institutions will have an incentive to admit students who are likely to make more money after graduation. Cottom agrees, pointing out, “An unintended consequence of this is judging how successful the program is based on graduates’ income levels.” One of the biggest questions that the pilot program will have to address is that of start-up funding. If upfront costs are eliminated, schools will face a funding gap until the Pay It Forward fund generates enough money to be self-sustaining. The student report suggests bonds, which would then have to be paid back.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
This policy seems aimed squarely at students who come from modest means, who are looking at a college degree as their path up the socioeconomic ladder — in other words, students who look at college as an investment in their future, but who know that in today’s economic climate, even a college degree isn’t a clear path to stability and comfort.
However, Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of education policy studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, sounds a warning note on the Century Foundation’s website. For most students, Hands free access, tuition and fees are not the largest part of college expenses. At the University of Oregon, for instance, tuition and fees run about $9,800 per year, while room and board costs more than $10,000 and books and other expenses another $3000-plus. Many students, she writes, would still wind up having to borrow to cover costs without having to work while in school — unless they receive federal Pell Grants or Oregon maintains its Opportunity Grant program for lower-income students.
Goldrick-Rab, additionally, says in a blog post that the system could be improved by creating more incentives for lower-income people to attend college, by making community colleges free for the first year, and by imposing some form of graduated repayment rather than a flat rate, so that students who go to community colleges pay back a smaller percentage of their income than those who go to four-year universities, and those who go on to make above the 80th income percentile would pay a premium.
Alloy and Rackham agree that that maintaining some level of need-based aid for the lowest-income students is important in addition to this plan. “We’ve been working closely with advocates, including the state treasurer, to implement this in a way that would be complementary to need-based aid, to open doors to students in the most accessible way possible,” Alloy says. “We don’t want students who would otherwise get their education for free to be accountable to pay into a fund for 24 years.”
A less-discussed aspect of Pay It Forward is that it would take the profit motive out of state-level student lending. Instead of private lenders (or the federal government, which pays private lenders to administer its direct loans) making money off of the often-steep interest on student loans, students would pay their money directly back to the state, in a process more akin to paying taxes than paying back a loan. Pay It Forward would thus remove the fat interest payments for private lenders and perhaps most importantly, put that money back into the hands of the state to reinvest in the university system.
“We see this as an issue [of] how we prioritize investing in our future,” Alloy says. “Are we funneling money out of the local economy straight to the financial sector or are we putting it into students?”
The current debate on the federal level, she notes, has been limited to renegotiating interest rates or allowing income-based repayment, at least since the Obama administration’s 2010 move to end direct subsidies to private lenders by moving from the Federal Family Education Loan Program to direct lending. But big lenders like Sallie Mae continue to benefit in either of those cases, Alloy notes. To take advantage of income-based repayment and loan forgiveness, you transfer your loan to the real time Location system — which means the government buys out your lender, and the government, not the lender, takes the loss. Tressie McMillan Cottom, a sociologist who studies inequality in higher education, points out that the devil will be in the details when it comes to getting the banks out of the business. Financial institutions and student lenders are big spenders on lobbying, and will no doubt fight hard against anything that would cut into their profits.
The Working Families Party has made fighting Wall Street a central part of its agenda nationally, and Alloy says that cutting the financial sector out of the process is especially important to them as the plan moves toward implementation.
The ultimate question is whether Pay It Forward will solve the problems with the current system. “This is an admirable political mobilization around this issue, but the plan is very porous in its current state,” says Cottom. “There are a lot of holes, and we should be really explicit about what those are. Whenever you have implicit assumptions, that’s where inequality tends to manifest itself.”
Students who expect to make a lot of money after college — or whose families already have enough to pay for school up-front — may see Pay It Forward as yet another incentive to go to a private university or leave the state entirely. “Higher-income students are never shopping for colleges locally. For them, the college shopping process is a national process, so a state-based focus doesn’t address them at all,” Cottom says. The students who stay in state are the ones who are less likely to see exponential returns from their college degree, she points out. “Knowing what we know about their likelihood of social mobility, I don’t know how taxing those students on their income is sustainable. If you don’t have wealthy people paying into the system I don’t know how it works.”
Those from lower-income families or those who look at the bleak job market and see little to inspire them may still not want to pay 3 percent of their income in an economy where low-wage service jobs are the fastest-growing fields. They may still see the cost of college as too high.
A recent Pew survey found that student debt was nearly a quarter of the household income of the lowest fifth of households by annual income; it is only 2 cents of each dollar that the richest 10 percent make. Pay It Forward would represent a slight increase for the wealthiest, while it would be a major break for the poorest.
In the 1970s, Yale tried a somewhat similar “equity finance” plan for its attendees, who would pay into a fund based on their incomes. While the Yale plan was substantially different from Pay It Forward, it’s worth noting that graduates who wound up well off (as Yale graduates are wont to do) complained about having to pay more than other graduates. Timothy Noah wrote about this at Slate in 1999, noting: “[T]he only significant way the program seems really to have gone awry is in misjudging the gratitude of those who would benefit from it.”
There were also problems with collection, which is also a concern for the Oregon program — particularly figuring out ways to collect payments from former students who then leave the state.
Another problem, pointed out by the American Federation of Teachers in a white paper on Pay It Forward, is that to ensure funding for the program, institutions will have an incentive to admit students who are likely to make more money after graduation. Cottom agrees, pointing out, “An unintended consequence of this is judging how successful the program is based on graduates’ income levels.” One of the biggest questions that the pilot program will have to address is that of start-up funding. If upfront costs are eliminated, schools will face a funding gap until the Pay It Forward fund generates enough money to be self-sustaining. The student report suggests bonds, which would then have to be paid back.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
2013年7月31日星期三
Lairds warn Holyrood
The Duke of Roxburghe and other representatives of the nobility have taken the rare step of putting their heads above their parapets to express reservations about government moves to help individuals and communities buy land that has been in their hands for generations.
They say private ownership has led to real economic benefits for local communities, providing employment and investment. Some of the submissions highlight the benefit of private ownership to endangered species, while others say absolute right-to-buy proposals have “no place in any democratic system”.
The fact that around half of Scotland is owned by just 500 people has long been a matter for fierce political debate, with land-reform campaigners arguing for a redistribution of countryside ownership.A Land Reform Review Group (LRRG) has been set up by the Scottish Government to examine ways of increasing community ownership of the land, with an interim report suggesting earlier this year that a Land Agency could be set up to help negotiate land purchases.
In a separate move, rtls, Richard Lochhead, has said that a forthcoming review of the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act will look at granting an absolute right-to-buy for tenant farmers. That would give them the right to buy-out landowners, even if they are unwilling to sell.But now a host of Scottish aristocratic families have made their views known in a series of documents published this week, defending their role as custodians of their estates.
In his submission to the Scottish Government, the Duke of Roxburghe said he was “disappointed” that the Land Reform Group appeared to concentrate on community ownership, when private ownership delivered “social, economic and environmental benefits”.The duke owns the Roxburghe Estate, an enterprise with a ￡10.1 million turnover with Floors Castle, near Kelso, at its heart. The estate employs 164 people and includes the Roxburghe Hotel and a championship golf course.
Referring to an absolute right-to-buy which would increase the number of owner-occupier farms, the duke added: “Radical proposals that threaten private property rights and which impact adversely on private enterprise, investment and development or which deprive young aspiring farmers the opportunity to get a firm foothold on the farming ladder would be immensely damaging in our view and act against the interests of the communities involved.”
Roxburghe Estates emphasised that it had created employment which benefited the community, through its sporting estates, golf course, hotel and other enterprises. That theme was taken up by other lairds, who argued that breaking up estates would do little for employment prospects or investment in the countryside.
In its submission, Seafield and Strathspey Estates, which has the Earl of Seafield at its head, warned against the “fragmentation” of the land.“Flora and fauna live in a habitat not bounded by ownership issues and the larger footprint of estate management allows government policy – including programmes for the benefit of endangered species and habitats, such as capercaillie, black grouse, native woodland, moorland etc – to be implemented more easily and cost-effectively than would be the case in fragmented ownership,” the estate’s submission said.
On the absolute right-to-buy, James Carnegy-Arbuthnot, director a family company that owns the 3,250-acre Balnamoon Estate, near Brechin, described it as a “highly vexatious proposal in the eyes of landowners”.He added: “This amounts to the dispossession of land from one person to the advantage of another and has no place in any democratic system. Remove this threat and discussion on other land reform issues will become easier.”
Atholl Estates, which oversees 145,000 acres in Highland Perthshire, was critical of increasing community ownership as a means of redistributing land, saying: “It certainly should not be used as a tool to politically engineer property ownership away from one group of people to another as this fundamentally undermines Scotland’s credibility as a nation that respects the private sector, free markets and the protection of property rights as a cornerstone of human rights and financial security.”
Other lairds were keen to shed the pariah status that some critics have conferred on the landed classes, emphasising the benefits brought to the community through responsible land management.A document prepared by the Douglas and Angus Estates, which are owned by the family of the former Tory prime minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home and currently under the stewardship of David, the 15th Earl of Home, remarked that the LRRG would be a “positive step, if it can help to dispel many of the popular misconceptions that landowners are villains and estates contribute little of benefit to life of rural Scotland”.
Douglas and Angus Estates argued an absolute right-to-buy would be “disastrous” for rural communities and the current ownership arrangement put the estates at the heart of community life.Kinnordy Estates, Kirriemuir, owned by Lord Lyell, the former Tory minister, noted in a submission that it provided housing for the local letting market and land for the local golf course.
But other responses underlined the controversial nature of the lairds’ position. A submission by land-reform campaigner Andy Wightman said: “I want to live in a land where class distinctions are no longer legitimised by the recognition of aristocratic titles and where the principle of equality underpins access to land rights… I want to live in a country that ?nally puts an end to the centuries of landed power and returns the land to the people of Scotland – both men and women.”
The Scottish Government’s LRRG was established to build on the work carried out by the Labour-led Scottish Executive, which passed a Land Reform Act around ten years ago enshrining a community right- to-buy. The Review Group is looking at strengthening those measures.A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Scottish ministers previously announced that a review of agricultural holdings legislation would be undertaken within 18 months of the Agricultural Holdings Act 2012 coming into force. The timetable for that review will be announced soon after the summer.”“The review, once undertaken, will consider recommendations made by the Tenant Farming Forum, which is expected in the autumn.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
They say private ownership has led to real economic benefits for local communities, providing employment and investment. Some of the submissions highlight the benefit of private ownership to endangered species, while others say absolute right-to-buy proposals have “no place in any democratic system”.
The fact that around half of Scotland is owned by just 500 people has long been a matter for fierce political debate, with land-reform campaigners arguing for a redistribution of countryside ownership.A Land Reform Review Group (LRRG) has been set up by the Scottish Government to examine ways of increasing community ownership of the land, with an interim report suggesting earlier this year that a Land Agency could be set up to help negotiate land purchases.
In a separate move, rtls, Richard Lochhead, has said that a forthcoming review of the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act will look at granting an absolute right-to-buy for tenant farmers. That would give them the right to buy-out landowners, even if they are unwilling to sell.But now a host of Scottish aristocratic families have made their views known in a series of documents published this week, defending their role as custodians of their estates.
In his submission to the Scottish Government, the Duke of Roxburghe said he was “disappointed” that the Land Reform Group appeared to concentrate on community ownership, when private ownership delivered “social, economic and environmental benefits”.The duke owns the Roxburghe Estate, an enterprise with a ￡10.1 million turnover with Floors Castle, near Kelso, at its heart. The estate employs 164 people and includes the Roxburghe Hotel and a championship golf course.
Referring to an absolute right-to-buy which would increase the number of owner-occupier farms, the duke added: “Radical proposals that threaten private property rights and which impact adversely on private enterprise, investment and development or which deprive young aspiring farmers the opportunity to get a firm foothold on the farming ladder would be immensely damaging in our view and act against the interests of the communities involved.”
Roxburghe Estates emphasised that it had created employment which benefited the community, through its sporting estates, golf course, hotel and other enterprises. That theme was taken up by other lairds, who argued that breaking up estates would do little for employment prospects or investment in the countryside.
In its submission, Seafield and Strathspey Estates, which has the Earl of Seafield at its head, warned against the “fragmentation” of the land.“Flora and fauna live in a habitat not bounded by ownership issues and the larger footprint of estate management allows government policy – including programmes for the benefit of endangered species and habitats, such as capercaillie, black grouse, native woodland, moorland etc – to be implemented more easily and cost-effectively than would be the case in fragmented ownership,” the estate’s submission said.
On the absolute right-to-buy, James Carnegy-Arbuthnot, director a family company that owns the 3,250-acre Balnamoon Estate, near Brechin, described it as a “highly vexatious proposal in the eyes of landowners”.He added: “This amounts to the dispossession of land from one person to the advantage of another and has no place in any democratic system. Remove this threat and discussion on other land reform issues will become easier.”
Atholl Estates, which oversees 145,000 acres in Highland Perthshire, was critical of increasing community ownership as a means of redistributing land, saying: “It certainly should not be used as a tool to politically engineer property ownership away from one group of people to another as this fundamentally undermines Scotland’s credibility as a nation that respects the private sector, free markets and the protection of property rights as a cornerstone of human rights and financial security.”
Other lairds were keen to shed the pariah status that some critics have conferred on the landed classes, emphasising the benefits brought to the community through responsible land management.A document prepared by the Douglas and Angus Estates, which are owned by the family of the former Tory prime minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home and currently under the stewardship of David, the 15th Earl of Home, remarked that the LRRG would be a “positive step, if it can help to dispel many of the popular misconceptions that landowners are villains and estates contribute little of benefit to life of rural Scotland”.
Douglas and Angus Estates argued an absolute right-to-buy would be “disastrous” for rural communities and the current ownership arrangement put the estates at the heart of community life.Kinnordy Estates, Kirriemuir, owned by Lord Lyell, the former Tory minister, noted in a submission that it provided housing for the local letting market and land for the local golf course.
But other responses underlined the controversial nature of the lairds’ position. A submission by land-reform campaigner Andy Wightman said: “I want to live in a land where class distinctions are no longer legitimised by the recognition of aristocratic titles and where the principle of equality underpins access to land rights… I want to live in a country that ?nally puts an end to the centuries of landed power and returns the land to the people of Scotland – both men and women.”
The Scottish Government’s LRRG was established to build on the work carried out by the Labour-led Scottish Executive, which passed a Land Reform Act around ten years ago enshrining a community right- to-buy. The Review Group is looking at strengthening those measures.A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Scottish ministers previously announced that a review of agricultural holdings legislation would be undertaken within 18 months of the Agricultural Holdings Act 2012 coming into force. The timetable for that review will be announced soon after the summer.”“The review, once undertaken, will consider recommendations made by the Tenant Farming Forum, which is expected in the autumn.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
2012年9月18日星期二
Researchers tag great white sharks off Cape Cod
The scientists and fishermen on board the Ocearch, a repurposed crabbing vessel, received word that their scouting boat had hooked a great white shark, sparking a flurry of activity.
They were about to get up close and personal with the animal, more than 2,000 pounds and nearly 15 feet long.
"I'm nervous," said state shark expert Greg Skomal, who has tagged great whites, but never like this, never this close.
The Ocearch crew tags great white sharks in an unorthodox way. Unlike Skomal's team, which has tagged a dozen great whites off the Massachusetts coast with harpoons, Chris Fischer's Ocearch crew baits the fish and leads them onto a large platform that lifts them out of the water for tagging and collecting blood, tissue and semen samples.
Ocearch, a nonprofit research organization named for a combination of "ocean" and "research," is crewed mainly by sport fishermen. It is funded by sponsors and donors, and a South Africa expedition was the subject of History channel's "Shark Wranglers."
Now, Ocearch has come to Cape Cod for a few weeks, minus the reality show and plus local scientists, to help shed light on the sharks' migration patterns, protect breeding and birthing sites, improve public safety and raise awareness about the threatened species that is a rising presence in the area.
"We have massive knowledge gaps about how to protect their future," said Fischer, Ocearch's expedition leader.
Ocearch's real-time satellite tags last five years. Each time sharks' dorsal fins breaks the surface, the tags ping a satellite and mark an online map, accessible to researchers and the public.
The work is dangerous for both man and fish. One shark died on the lift in South Africa. The crew tries to return sharks to the water within 15 minutes.
"I used to be nervous of what they'd do to me," co-captain Jody Whitworth said. "Now I worry that we'll hurt them."
The Cape Cod expedition faces another challenge: finding the fish.
While great white sightings have risen near Cape Cod, they are much more common off South Africa or Australia.
Skomal estimates 30 great whites roam the Cape Cod coast on any given day. The Ocearch crew hopes to tag five.
Protecting these sharks is key, researchers say.
"These predators keep the next lower level in check," said Bob Hueter, of Mote Marine Laboratory, one of the research organizations working with the Cape Cod expedition. "It's a system of checks and balances."
The great white is the "lion of the ocean," keeping seal, squid and fish populations in check, Fischer said. But it's also the shark that people are most interested in, making it a gateway for ocean conservation and advocacy, he said.
Catching a shark starts with chum, drawing sharks to the boat by placing whale blubber and other shark favorites in the water a mile out from the ship.
Fischer says the crew doesn't draw sharks, as critics have claimed, but merely leads nearby sharks to the boat.
Most of Fischer's crew spends each day on a boat barely bigger than the great whites, traveling among chum locations and looking for sharks.
Just after dusk on Sept. 13, they spotted a great white and hooked it. Then, the small boat's crew slowly led the shark four miles to the 126-foot Ocearch.
Ocearch Capt. Brett McBride guided the shark onto the wooden platform with metal sides. Barefoot, he jumped in too. The lift slowly rose out of the water, level with Ocearch's deck.
The shark thrashed and bared her teeth as the water receded, curving her head and tail into the air.
McBride threw a wet towel over her eyes and removed the two-foot hook from her mouth. He pumped water over her gills with two large hoses.
The crew jumped onto the lift in their jeans and long-sleeve shirts, and the clock began.
They measured the fish — 14 feet, 8 inches and 2,292 pounds — and screwed the satellite tag, an accelerometer and an acoustic tag onto her dorsal fin with a power drill. Researchers collected blood and tissue samples.
McBride named the female shark Genie after renowned shark researcher Eugenie Clark.
After nearly 15 minutes, everybody scrambled off as the lift was lowered back into the water.
McBride grabbed Genie's tail and slowly guided her back into the ocean. They were done in 16 minutes flat. Genie drifted down into the dark water. The crew clinked beer cans and soda cups.
"That one shark alone was worth the trip," McBride said, noting she might lead researchers to breeding and birthing sites. "Any time we tag a great white shark it adds tremendous information to what we already know, which is very little."
They were about to get up close and personal with the animal, more than 2,000 pounds and nearly 15 feet long.
"I'm nervous," said state shark expert Greg Skomal, who has tagged great whites, but never like this, never this close.
The Ocearch crew tags great white sharks in an unorthodox way. Unlike Skomal's team, which has tagged a dozen great whites off the Massachusetts coast with harpoons, Chris Fischer's Ocearch crew baits the fish and leads them onto a large platform that lifts them out of the water for tagging and collecting blood, tissue and semen samples.
Ocearch, a nonprofit research organization named for a combination of "ocean" and "research," is crewed mainly by sport fishermen. It is funded by sponsors and donors, and a South Africa expedition was the subject of History channel's "Shark Wranglers."
Now, Ocearch has come to Cape Cod for a few weeks, minus the reality show and plus local scientists, to help shed light on the sharks' migration patterns, protect breeding and birthing sites, improve public safety and raise awareness about the threatened species that is a rising presence in the area.
"We have massive knowledge gaps about how to protect their future," said Fischer, Ocearch's expedition leader.
Ocearch's real-time satellite tags last five years. Each time sharks' dorsal fins breaks the surface, the tags ping a satellite and mark an online map, accessible to researchers and the public.
The work is dangerous for both man and fish. One shark died on the lift in South Africa. The crew tries to return sharks to the water within 15 minutes.
"I used to be nervous of what they'd do to me," co-captain Jody Whitworth said. "Now I worry that we'll hurt them."
The Cape Cod expedition faces another challenge: finding the fish.
While great white sightings have risen near Cape Cod, they are much more common off South Africa or Australia.
Skomal estimates 30 great whites roam the Cape Cod coast on any given day. The Ocearch crew hopes to tag five.
Protecting these sharks is key, researchers say.
"These predators keep the next lower level in check," said Bob Hueter, of Mote Marine Laboratory, one of the research organizations working with the Cape Cod expedition. "It's a system of checks and balances."
The great white is the "lion of the ocean," keeping seal, squid and fish populations in check, Fischer said. But it's also the shark that people are most interested in, making it a gateway for ocean conservation and advocacy, he said.
Catching a shark starts with chum, drawing sharks to the boat by placing whale blubber and other shark favorites in the water a mile out from the ship.
Fischer says the crew doesn't draw sharks, as critics have claimed, but merely leads nearby sharks to the boat.
Most of Fischer's crew spends each day on a boat barely bigger than the great whites, traveling among chum locations and looking for sharks.
Just after dusk on Sept. 13, they spotted a great white and hooked it. Then, the small boat's crew slowly led the shark four miles to the 126-foot Ocearch.
Ocearch Capt. Brett McBride guided the shark onto the wooden platform with metal sides. Barefoot, he jumped in too. The lift slowly rose out of the water, level with Ocearch's deck.
The shark thrashed and bared her teeth as the water receded, curving her head and tail into the air.
McBride threw a wet towel over her eyes and removed the two-foot hook from her mouth. He pumped water over her gills with two large hoses.
The crew jumped onto the lift in their jeans and long-sleeve shirts, and the clock began.
They measured the fish — 14 feet, 8 inches and 2,292 pounds — and screwed the satellite tag, an accelerometer and an acoustic tag onto her dorsal fin with a power drill. Researchers collected blood and tissue samples.
McBride named the female shark Genie after renowned shark researcher Eugenie Clark.
After nearly 15 minutes, everybody scrambled off as the lift was lowered back into the water.
McBride grabbed Genie's tail and slowly guided her back into the ocean. They were done in 16 minutes flat. Genie drifted down into the dark water. The crew clinked beer cans and soda cups.
"That one shark alone was worth the trip," McBride said, noting she might lead researchers to breeding and birthing sites. "Any time we tag a great white shark it adds tremendous information to what we already know, which is very little."
2012年9月17日星期一
Ascend Right Now That You Couldn't Do a Month Ago
Ascend remains one of our favorite free-to-play shooters, in part because of the fast-and-furious pace that Hi-Rez is making tweaks and adding new stuff. The last two updates made major changes that have jolted players out of their comfort zones with disruptive new gear and modes, giving us a ton of new tactics to make use of and counter. Here are some of the best game-changing things I've seen and done in Tribes that just weren't possible before.
Blitz mode isn't complex on the surface: every time your flag is captured by the enemy team, it respawns at a new location -- often times one that's easier to defend (and consequently harder for enemies to grab). This simple mechanic changes nearly every tactic, from where to place a defensive turret to the routes you take to get speed for a quick flag grab. On the Drydock map, one flag location is set up in the middle of the main bunker, or as I call it, the meat grinder. This bottleneck funnels enemy flag carriers into a tight spot which is perfect for my sadistic need for spamming Juggernaut mortar shells and Brute fractal grenades. I racked up a ton of explosive kills quickly while my team turned a zero-to-four score into an exciting five-to-four comeback.
Playing the Technician can feel like you're juggling 10 things at once. You have to defend the generator, repair base turrets, replace your own deployable turrets as they're destroyed, repair the base radar dish, all while avoiding and killing every piece of enemy shazbot flying your way. The new repair kit -- a belt item that will automatically repair any base structure near where it's deployed -- allows me to be in two places at once. I plop down the little machine next to a turret and attend to other repairs or the defense of our generator while it does the busywork. Likewise, I've found that placing a repair kit next to my deployable light turret helps give it a little extra time to put the hurt on the enemy -- it won't save the turret from a direct Spinfusor hit, but every little bit helps.
An alternative to the deployable light turret, the new EXR rocket turret is a great mechanism of destruction for the second or third Technician on the battlefield. The advantage of an EXR becomes obvious in the halls of a generator room when combined with other Tech's light turrets. Tight corridors make the rockets' splash damage more effective, and each rocket has enough knockback to disorient unprepared invaders. I try and place these turrets in tight corners that are harder for the enemy to quickly check on their way to the generator. They may not be terribly lethal on their own, but a few rockets to the backside will give you and the light turrets some extra time to frag the intruder.
This is by far my favorite primary Technician weapon: the TC24 fires short-ranged explosive rounds, and carries four shots per magazine. The damage is lighter than the fan-favorite Thumper, but the high fire rate (due to a lack of reloading after every shot) makes it an excellent choice when I'm stuck in a tight spot against jerks trying to blow up my generator. The TC24 has great splash damage, and the sheer size of the projectile size makes it easier to score Air Mail accolades against those annoying players hovering in the sky, and those hits give just enough knockback to keep the enemy on their toes while trying to return fire. The best aspect of this weapon is that it allows you to use the air to your advantage, much like the TCN4 SMG does. My favorite position is directly above the enemy, raining down one explosive clip after another.
Yes, Permafrost and Dangerous Crossing are old maps to the Tribes universe, but now you can play them in Tribes: Ascend quick-play rotation. Dangerous Crossing is my new (old) favorite -- steep rolling hills make it easy for heavy and light classes to move quickly to the enemy base, which is quite possibly the simplest base design in any Tribes: Ascend map. The base only allows for side-to-side flag capture routes, there is no generator, and only a solitary base turret. This means more people are defending an already easy-to-defend flag, and the result is a spectacular game of CTF.
Sentinel was my favorite class early on -- I loved the power of sniping down attempted enemy flag carriers just before they could get their hands on my precious piece of cloth. Unfortunately, my micro-aiming skills aren't the best, so I need a gun that makes every hit count. This is where the new SAP20 sniper rifle comes in handy: it's a modified version of the older Phase Rifle that uses more energy per shot and has a smaller clip size, but the tradeoff is a whopping 575 maximum damage per shot -- if you connect, they'll really feel it. The only real downside to this beauty was the constant whining of players I shot right out of the sky.
When the enemies get close, nothing helps defend your favorite camping spot better than a powerful shotgun. The aptly named Accurized Shotgun is a satisfying alternative to the Sentinel's Nova Pistols and Falcon SMG. It has better accuracy than any other shotgun, still and packs a nice punch. I love using this gun on bulkier, easier-to-hit heavy classes after I weaken them down with my SAP20 -- a well placed shot can land a total of 560 damage, just enough to put some doubt into anyone looking for a revenge kill.
Blitz mode isn't complex on the surface: every time your flag is captured by the enemy team, it respawns at a new location -- often times one that's easier to defend (and consequently harder for enemies to grab). This simple mechanic changes nearly every tactic, from where to place a defensive turret to the routes you take to get speed for a quick flag grab. On the Drydock map, one flag location is set up in the middle of the main bunker, or as I call it, the meat grinder. This bottleneck funnels enemy flag carriers into a tight spot which is perfect for my sadistic need for spamming Juggernaut mortar shells and Brute fractal grenades. I racked up a ton of explosive kills quickly while my team turned a zero-to-four score into an exciting five-to-four comeback.
Playing the Technician can feel like you're juggling 10 things at once. You have to defend the generator, repair base turrets, replace your own deployable turrets as they're destroyed, repair the base radar dish, all while avoiding and killing every piece of enemy shazbot flying your way. The new repair kit -- a belt item that will automatically repair any base structure near where it's deployed -- allows me to be in two places at once. I plop down the little machine next to a turret and attend to other repairs or the defense of our generator while it does the busywork. Likewise, I've found that placing a repair kit next to my deployable light turret helps give it a little extra time to put the hurt on the enemy -- it won't save the turret from a direct Spinfusor hit, but every little bit helps.
An alternative to the deployable light turret, the new EXR rocket turret is a great mechanism of destruction for the second or third Technician on the battlefield. The advantage of an EXR becomes obvious in the halls of a generator room when combined with other Tech's light turrets. Tight corridors make the rockets' splash damage more effective, and each rocket has enough knockback to disorient unprepared invaders. I try and place these turrets in tight corners that are harder for the enemy to quickly check on their way to the generator. They may not be terribly lethal on their own, but a few rockets to the backside will give you and the light turrets some extra time to frag the intruder.
This is by far my favorite primary Technician weapon: the TC24 fires short-ranged explosive rounds, and carries four shots per magazine. The damage is lighter than the fan-favorite Thumper, but the high fire rate (due to a lack of reloading after every shot) makes it an excellent choice when I'm stuck in a tight spot against jerks trying to blow up my generator. The TC24 has great splash damage, and the sheer size of the projectile size makes it easier to score Air Mail accolades against those annoying players hovering in the sky, and those hits give just enough knockback to keep the enemy on their toes while trying to return fire. The best aspect of this weapon is that it allows you to use the air to your advantage, much like the TCN4 SMG does. My favorite position is directly above the enemy, raining down one explosive clip after another.
Yes, Permafrost and Dangerous Crossing are old maps to the Tribes universe, but now you can play them in Tribes: Ascend quick-play rotation. Dangerous Crossing is my new (old) favorite -- steep rolling hills make it easy for heavy and light classes to move quickly to the enemy base, which is quite possibly the simplest base design in any Tribes: Ascend map. The base only allows for side-to-side flag capture routes, there is no generator, and only a solitary base turret. This means more people are defending an already easy-to-defend flag, and the result is a spectacular game of CTF.
Sentinel was my favorite class early on -- I loved the power of sniping down attempted enemy flag carriers just before they could get their hands on my precious piece of cloth. Unfortunately, my micro-aiming skills aren't the best, so I need a gun that makes every hit count. This is where the new SAP20 sniper rifle comes in handy: it's a modified version of the older Phase Rifle that uses more energy per shot and has a smaller clip size, but the tradeoff is a whopping 575 maximum damage per shot -- if you connect, they'll really feel it. The only real downside to this beauty was the constant whining of players I shot right out of the sky.
When the enemies get close, nothing helps defend your favorite camping spot better than a powerful shotgun. The aptly named Accurized Shotgun is a satisfying alternative to the Sentinel's Nova Pistols and Falcon SMG. It has better accuracy than any other shotgun, still and packs a nice punch. I love using this gun on bulkier, easier-to-hit heavy classes after I weaken them down with my SAP20 -- a well placed shot can land a total of 560 damage, just enough to put some doubt into anyone looking for a revenge kill.
2012年8月21日星期二
Bucks guild ends its lengthy drought of craft shows
A door at the Asa Packer Mansion Museum in Jim Thorpe opened for Lara Ginzburg — and she happily walked through.
This was no ordinary passage. Ginzburg eyed the filigreed wrought iron, which seemed to flow into heart shapes, and thought how well the forms would work as jewelry. She snapped a photo.
Back in the upstairs studio of her Lower Makefield home, Ginzburg sketched elements based on the center of the door into a pendant. The border lent itself to two earring designs: one dangling, one button-shaped.
She is debating how to execute her idea. Wire work is a possibility, as is enamel on metal. “I’m not sure yet,” says Ginzburg, an accomplished jewelry maker and metalsmith who, except for two recent classes, is self-educated.
Gathering inspiration and laboriously bringing it to life by hand, tool and eye is the craftsman’s calling. Ginzburg is among a group maintaining a lively craft tradition in the Delaware Valley.
More than 100 belong to the Bucks County Guild of Craftsmen, which, after a hiatus of about seven years, is holding a juried show Saturday and Sunday at the New Hope Winery.
The group suspended exhibits and sales because “everybody and their brother was having craft shows, and it was becoming difficult for people to differentiate between the good and the bad,” says guild president Cynthia Prediger of Kintnersville.
In previous years, the Bucks County guild held shows at Delaware Valley College and the Middle Bucks Institute of Technology. Members also exhibited their work at shows organized by the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, of which the Bucks County group is a chapter, and at local craft events in Doylestown and New Hope.
The Bucks County guild’s new venue is in the air-conditioned surroundings of the winery’s events hall, which features its own lineup of wine tastings and food.
Craftspeople are scheduled to exhibit pottery, textiles, metalwork, cabinetry, paintings, folk art, photography and fine woodwork. All follow an inner mandate to refine and perfect form and function in handmade objects.
Ginzburg, a structural engineer by training who had an early inclination to art, began her explorations in jewelry design with beading a few years ago. A memorable early acquisition was a large strand of red coral her husband, Eugene, bought her at the Golden Nugget Flea Market in Lambertville.
Some of her works are made of silver clay, an amalgam that is shaped, dried, fired in a kiln and then polished; other pieces are made by piercing sheet metal. Some of her jewelry is enameled.
“I’m getting ideas faster than I can make them,” she says.
Ginzburg has an eye for the dramatic possibilities of pendants, two of which came from a trip to Israel earlier this year.
For one, she took a tiny print of a photo she made of an ancient mosaic known as “the Mona Lisa of the Galilee” and built a square silver frame to surround it.
In the other, an open, oval-shaped box holds a tiny piece of an old glass vessel, which she found lying on the ground at her feet on an archaeological site in the Israeli desert.
“I wasn’t digging for it,” she says. “If (excavators) left it around, they left it for me.”
Other work incorporates beads, semiprecious stones, geodes glittering with rock crystal or pearls. She sells the results on Etsy, an online site for handiwork, but sometimes doesn’t have to post pictures of her jewelry.
“People on the street will approach me and ask (to buy my work),” she says.
This was the fate of some of her plentiful supply of red coral, from which she made herself a necklace.
This was no ordinary passage. Ginzburg eyed the filigreed wrought iron, which seemed to flow into heart shapes, and thought how well the forms would work as jewelry. She snapped a photo.
Back in the upstairs studio of her Lower Makefield home, Ginzburg sketched elements based on the center of the door into a pendant. The border lent itself to two earring designs: one dangling, one button-shaped.
She is debating how to execute her idea. Wire work is a possibility, as is enamel on metal. “I’m not sure yet,” says Ginzburg, an accomplished jewelry maker and metalsmith who, except for two recent classes, is self-educated.
Gathering inspiration and laboriously bringing it to life by hand, tool and eye is the craftsman’s calling. Ginzburg is among a group maintaining a lively craft tradition in the Delaware Valley.
More than 100 belong to the Bucks County Guild of Craftsmen, which, after a hiatus of about seven years, is holding a juried show Saturday and Sunday at the New Hope Winery.
The group suspended exhibits and sales because “everybody and their brother was having craft shows, and it was becoming difficult for people to differentiate between the good and the bad,” says guild president Cynthia Prediger of Kintnersville.
In previous years, the Bucks County guild held shows at Delaware Valley College and the Middle Bucks Institute of Technology. Members also exhibited their work at shows organized by the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, of which the Bucks County group is a chapter, and at local craft events in Doylestown and New Hope.
The Bucks County guild’s new venue is in the air-conditioned surroundings of the winery’s events hall, which features its own lineup of wine tastings and food.
Craftspeople are scheduled to exhibit pottery, textiles, metalwork, cabinetry, paintings, folk art, photography and fine woodwork. All follow an inner mandate to refine and perfect form and function in handmade objects.
Ginzburg, a structural engineer by training who had an early inclination to art, began her explorations in jewelry design with beading a few years ago. A memorable early acquisition was a large strand of red coral her husband, Eugene, bought her at the Golden Nugget Flea Market in Lambertville.
Some of her works are made of silver clay, an amalgam that is shaped, dried, fired in a kiln and then polished; other pieces are made by piercing sheet metal. Some of her jewelry is enameled.
“I’m getting ideas faster than I can make them,” she says.
Ginzburg has an eye for the dramatic possibilities of pendants, two of which came from a trip to Israel earlier this year.
For one, she took a tiny print of a photo she made of an ancient mosaic known as “the Mona Lisa of the Galilee” and built a square silver frame to surround it.
In the other, an open, oval-shaped box holds a tiny piece of an old glass vessel, which she found lying on the ground at her feet on an archaeological site in the Israeli desert.
“I wasn’t digging for it,” she says. “If (excavators) left it around, they left it for me.”
Other work incorporates beads, semiprecious stones, geodes glittering with rock crystal or pearls. She sells the results on Etsy, an online site for handiwork, but sometimes doesn’t have to post pictures of her jewelry.
“People on the street will approach me and ask (to buy my work),” she says.
This was the fate of some of her plentiful supply of red coral, from which she made herself a necklace.
2012年8月7日星期二
Stone sculptures alter abhorred visitor
An abhorred company centre on Scotland’s 10th accomplished abundance has been removed and replaced with accessories declared as ‘more in befitting with the abundance landscape’.
The Civic Assurance for Scotland has aswell confused the car esplanade at Ben Lawers to a beneath arresting website in woodland.
The NTS, which owns the acreage including the 1,214m Perthshire munro, said the website has been reinstated to moorland. New unmanned alfresco estimation has aswell been created to acquaint the belief of the civic attributes reserve.
“The architecture of these new analytic structures takes afflatus from broke shielings – baby barrio breadth farmers lived if their livestock were agriculture in the hills,” a agent said.
“Traces of these dwellings can be begin broadcast beyond the Ben Lawers reserve.
“Built application locally reclaimed stone, these enclosures abode sculptural installations created by Edinburgh based artisan Tim Chalk.
“The sculptures, which highlight cogent aspects of the mountain’s flora, archaeology and the trust’s attention work, abide of several ample carvings, a rock circuitous that apprehension through the shieling and a melancholia sundial.”
Property administrator Helen Cole said: “Ben Lawers is one of Scotland’s a lot of accepted walking destinations, with seven munros, aces angle over Loch Tay and a huge assortment of bulb and beastly life.
“The new estimation will advice add to the faculty of place, of this important abundance mural whilst apropos its history and the acceptation of its accustomed history.
“We achievement these new accessories will accredit the assurance to accommodated its key aims of auspicious anybody to analyze their accustomed heritage, while ensuring that we assure Scotland’s mural for approaching generations.”
New paths accept aswell been created from the car esplanade to the low- and high-level walks on the reserve. A self-guiding album to the attributes aisle on the lower slopes of Beinn Ghlas has aswell been adapted and can be bought on the website from a dispenser.
The attention at Ben Lawers aswell includes plan to restore threatened bulb communities, aisle plan and an anniversary programme of guided walks and educational work.
Ben Lawers NNR has been in the affliction of the Civic Assurance for Scotland back 1950. It is a website of appropriate accurate absorption and a appropriate breadth of attention beneath the European Habitats Directive for the aberrant examples of a amount of habitats, attenuate on a European scale.
The assets is broadly accepted for its outstanding ambit and assortment of arctic-alpine breed and frondescence types.
It is important for the actual ample amount of nationally attenuate or deficient montane bulb breed that it supports, including vascular plants, lichens, and bryophytes. It aswell has an outstanding assortment of invertebrates with abounding nationally attenuate or notable species.
The Civic Assurance for Scotland has aswell confused the car esplanade at Ben Lawers to a beneath arresting website in woodland.
The NTS, which owns the acreage including the 1,214m Perthshire munro, said the website has been reinstated to moorland. New unmanned alfresco estimation has aswell been created to acquaint the belief of the civic attributes reserve.
“The architecture of these new analytic structures takes afflatus from broke shielings – baby barrio breadth farmers lived if their livestock were agriculture in the hills,” a agent said.
“Traces of these dwellings can be begin broadcast beyond the Ben Lawers reserve.
“Built application locally reclaimed stone, these enclosures abode sculptural installations created by Edinburgh based artisan Tim Chalk.
“The sculptures, which highlight cogent aspects of the mountain’s flora, archaeology and the trust’s attention work, abide of several ample carvings, a rock circuitous that apprehension through the shieling and a melancholia sundial.”
Property administrator Helen Cole said: “Ben Lawers is one of Scotland’s a lot of accepted walking destinations, with seven munros, aces angle over Loch Tay and a huge assortment of bulb and beastly life.
“The new estimation will advice add to the faculty of place, of this important abundance mural whilst apropos its history and the acceptation of its accustomed history.
“We achievement these new accessories will accredit the assurance to accommodated its key aims of auspicious anybody to analyze their accustomed heritage, while ensuring that we assure Scotland’s mural for approaching generations.”
New paths accept aswell been created from the car esplanade to the low- and high-level walks on the reserve. A self-guiding album to the attributes aisle on the lower slopes of Beinn Ghlas has aswell been adapted and can be bought on the website from a dispenser.
The attention at Ben Lawers aswell includes plan to restore threatened bulb communities, aisle plan and an anniversary programme of guided walks and educational work.
Ben Lawers NNR has been in the affliction of the Civic Assurance for Scotland back 1950. It is a website of appropriate accurate absorption and a appropriate breadth of attention beneath the European Habitats Directive for the aberrant examples of a amount of habitats, attenuate on a European scale.
The assets is broadly accepted for its outstanding ambit and assortment of arctic-alpine breed and frondescence types.
It is important for the actual ample amount of nationally attenuate or deficient montane bulb breed that it supports, including vascular plants, lichens, and bryophytes. It aswell has an outstanding assortment of invertebrates with abounding nationally attenuate or notable species.
2012年5月27日星期日
Brit trick is an insult to the system
In recent days John McTernan, the director of communications for the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has indulged a taste for insult. Here are some samples of his writings via the medium of Twitter:
''You're happy to call me a revolting thug but so self-righteous when I call you a buffoon. Diddums.''
''Ah, so now we're clear, you're just a graceless buffoon.''
''What a surprise. Abuse from a moron.''
''Interesting that you back off your smears quickly but then try to smear me. Hmm.''
''Wow. Omniscient as well as obnoxious. Some combination.''
McTernan's scorn was directed at several people, all nonentities. He also indulged his thin skin when he called a radio presenter, 2GB's Ross Greenwood, to launch into what Greenwood later described as an ''absolute tirade'' laced with incessant use of the ''F bomb''.
None of this is edifying from someone who holds a conspicuous position for the Prime Minister. It is perhaps no coincidence that Australian politics, as practised by Gillard and her government, has become more unedifying since McTernan arrived from Britain late last year as the government's chief spin doctor.
There was a time, a year ago, when Gillard was seen as robotic but likeable, weighed down by the stress and misfortune of having to manage a minority government. Gillard no longer enjoys that benefit of the doubt, and she has lost it because of a long sequence of missteps.
The first came last November with her appointment of the unctuous and danger-prone Peter Slipper as Speaker of the House, replacing the respected Harry Jenkins. Slipper was recruited just as the Liberal Party was finally getting rid of him and his excess baggage.
In December, Gillard delivered an address to the Labor Party national conference which fell flat and was seen as petty for airbrushing Kevin Rudd out of existence.
In January came the distasteful action by a Gillard press secretary who orchestrated a mini-riot against the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, by hotheads gathered at the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra.
In February came Gillard's decision to retain the services of the insult machine, Anthony Albanese, as leader of government business in the House, even after he had voted to oust his own Prime Minister during Rudd's deluded bid for the leadership.
In March the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, launched personal attacks on mining magnates and tarred the opposition as puppets of billionaires and mining companies who had used their wealth to influence politics. As if the unions had not spent multimillions of dollars bankrolling Labor's 2007 and 2010 election campaigns and shaping the public debate.
April saw a ramping up of the rhetoric of class warfare, a divisive tactic at the best of times, which appeared orchestrated from the Prime Minister's office.
In May, the rhetoric turned into action when the 2012-13 budget delivered a multibillion-dollar swing from wealth creators to wealth consumers as Labor directed subsidies to its electoral base, while Swan portrayed the Liberals as the party of the rich.
In keeping with this message, Gillard let fly with her sneer that Abbott should ''get off Sydney's north shore and go and talk to some real families and get himself in the real world''. Naked class politics.
The most grotesque irony came last Monday when Craig Thomson, in concluding a statement to Parliament in his own defence, a statement blighted by more than 30 claims that were either untrue, misleading or deliberate misdirections, turned towards Abbott and said: ''You have damaged democracy and you continue to damage democracy, and you should hang your head in shame for that. What it shows of the Leader of the Opposition, that man, is that not only is he unfit to be a prime minister, in my view he is unfit to be an MP.''
More of the same came on Friday when Albanese said Abbott's call for Thomson to step down from Parliament for his own sake was a breach of section 28 of the Crimes Act, which covers extortion: ''It shows yet again his complete disregard for the rule of law … I think he needs to have a good look at himself. The opposition need to consider the damage that is being done to the political fabric of this country by the nature and the tone of the debate that is going on.''
Albanese played a crucial role in putting Slipper into the speaker's chair. He has orchestrated the protection of Thomson in Parliament. He has led the politics of personal attacks. He has made a mantra of saying that Abbott, but not Thomson, is unfit for public office.
In 20 years of covering politics, I've never seen anything like the conduct of Albanese and Thomson in the Parliament this year. They have made the gutter their permanent address.
''You're happy to call me a revolting thug but so self-righteous when I call you a buffoon. Diddums.''
''Ah, so now we're clear, you're just a graceless buffoon.''
''What a surprise. Abuse from a moron.''
''Interesting that you back off your smears quickly but then try to smear me. Hmm.''
''Wow. Omniscient as well as obnoxious. Some combination.''
McTernan's scorn was directed at several people, all nonentities. He also indulged his thin skin when he called a radio presenter, 2GB's Ross Greenwood, to launch into what Greenwood later described as an ''absolute tirade'' laced with incessant use of the ''F bomb''.
None of this is edifying from someone who holds a conspicuous position for the Prime Minister. It is perhaps no coincidence that Australian politics, as practised by Gillard and her government, has become more unedifying since McTernan arrived from Britain late last year as the government's chief spin doctor.
There was a time, a year ago, when Gillard was seen as robotic but likeable, weighed down by the stress and misfortune of having to manage a minority government. Gillard no longer enjoys that benefit of the doubt, and she has lost it because of a long sequence of missteps.
The first came last November with her appointment of the unctuous and danger-prone Peter Slipper as Speaker of the House, replacing the respected Harry Jenkins. Slipper was recruited just as the Liberal Party was finally getting rid of him and his excess baggage.
In December, Gillard delivered an address to the Labor Party national conference which fell flat and was seen as petty for airbrushing Kevin Rudd out of existence.
In January came the distasteful action by a Gillard press secretary who orchestrated a mini-riot against the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, by hotheads gathered at the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra.
In February came Gillard's decision to retain the services of the insult machine, Anthony Albanese, as leader of government business in the House, even after he had voted to oust his own Prime Minister during Rudd's deluded bid for the leadership.
In March the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, launched personal attacks on mining magnates and tarred the opposition as puppets of billionaires and mining companies who had used their wealth to influence politics. As if the unions had not spent multimillions of dollars bankrolling Labor's 2007 and 2010 election campaigns and shaping the public debate.
April saw a ramping up of the rhetoric of class warfare, a divisive tactic at the best of times, which appeared orchestrated from the Prime Minister's office.
In May, the rhetoric turned into action when the 2012-13 budget delivered a multibillion-dollar swing from wealth creators to wealth consumers as Labor directed subsidies to its electoral base, while Swan portrayed the Liberals as the party of the rich.
In keeping with this message, Gillard let fly with her sneer that Abbott should ''get off Sydney's north shore and go and talk to some real families and get himself in the real world''. Naked class politics.
The most grotesque irony came last Monday when Craig Thomson, in concluding a statement to Parliament in his own defence, a statement blighted by more than 30 claims that were either untrue, misleading or deliberate misdirections, turned towards Abbott and said: ''You have damaged democracy and you continue to damage democracy, and you should hang your head in shame for that. What it shows of the Leader of the Opposition, that man, is that not only is he unfit to be a prime minister, in my view he is unfit to be an MP.''
More of the same came on Friday when Albanese said Abbott's call for Thomson to step down from Parliament for his own sake was a breach of section 28 of the Crimes Act, which covers extortion: ''It shows yet again his complete disregard for the rule of law … I think he needs to have a good look at himself. The opposition need to consider the damage that is being done to the political fabric of this country by the nature and the tone of the debate that is going on.''
Albanese played a crucial role in putting Slipper into the speaker's chair. He has orchestrated the protection of Thomson in Parliament. He has led the politics of personal attacks. He has made a mantra of saying that Abbott, but not Thomson, is unfit for public office.
In 20 years of covering politics, I've never seen anything like the conduct of Albanese and Thomson in the Parliament this year. They have made the gutter their permanent address.
2012年4月11日星期三
Girls Around Me App Is a Wake-Up Call
As far as I can tell, the app "Girls Around Me" wasn't violating any laws. But it was high on the creepy scale when, according to reports, women's identity, photographs and location were being revealed to strangers, even though the women never opted into the service. Although the developer, Moscow-based I-Free, hardly deserves any awards, the app's a good wake-up call for people to use the privacy settings of legitimate social networking and location services.
The app mashed together information people posted about themselves publicly on Foursquare and Facebook and created a map showing the location and photographs of nearby women. On its website, the company brags that the app can be used to "Browse photos of lovely local ladies and tap their thumbnail to find out more about them." It's offered for those "In the mood for love, or just after a one-night stand." An image that resembles a radar screen with a silhouette of an apparently naked woman adorns the home page.
Late last month Foursquare cut off access to the app so that it can no longer collect the company's publicly accessible data. In a statement, Foursquare said "This is a violation of our API (application programming interface)." Apple subsequently removed the app from its app store.
Foursquare is a location service typically used to share information about restaurants and other places people visit. It's common for people to use Foursquare to "check-in" to a location and share that information with their friends. Restaurant-goers often use it to recommend specific meals; and it's possible to use the service to let friends locate you in real-time, perhaps to stop by to say hello or share a drink or a meal.
Foursquare users can connect their account to Facebook and, when they do, they are asked to specify who can see their information. When I checked, it was set to "Friends." But you can also set it to Public, which means anyone can see it, or "only me," which hides it from everyone but yourself. It's also possible to link Foursquare with Twitter. Although it's possible to limit who can see your tweets, the default setting -- which very few Twitter users change -- is for tweets to be public.
The fracas behind the Girls Around Me app is a reminder that we all have a responsibility to protect our own privacy. I'm not condoning their tasteless and tacky service, but from everything I can tell, the company didn't hack into any servers or tap into anyone's private information. Everything it did was based on information people posted for public consumption.
Let this be yet another reminder for people to think about over-sharing. To me, it's obvious that connecting your Foursquare account with Twitter is tantamount to broadcasting your whereabouts. I've done that, but I did so knowingly. But it never hurts to remind people to put thought into whether they really want to publicly share where they are and, by implication, where they're not. And parents, this is yet another good opportunity to share a bit of digital literacy with your kids. "What's important in the 'Girls Around Me' story for parents and kids to consider together is that an app was using people's publicly available information without their knowledge," wrote my ConnectSafely.org co-director Anne Collier at NetFamilyNews. And, considering the number of mobile apps being created all the time, "this is not the last time that will happen," she added.
Aside from safety and privacy concerns, location can also be embarrassing, as I realized a few years ago when I went to a particular holiday party instead of another party that some people thought I "should" have gone to. Without thinking, I used Facebook to "check-in" to the party and then realized that my would-be hosts from the other party might see it. To save face, I quickly jumped in my car and drove 35 miles to put in an appearance at the other party.
The app mashed together information people posted about themselves publicly on Foursquare and Facebook and created a map showing the location and photographs of nearby women. On its website, the company brags that the app can be used to "Browse photos of lovely local ladies and tap their thumbnail to find out more about them." It's offered for those "In the mood for love, or just after a one-night stand." An image that resembles a radar screen with a silhouette of an apparently naked woman adorns the home page.
Late last month Foursquare cut off access to the app so that it can no longer collect the company's publicly accessible data. In a statement, Foursquare said "This is a violation of our API (application programming interface)." Apple subsequently removed the app from its app store.
Foursquare is a location service typically used to share information about restaurants and other places people visit. It's common for people to use Foursquare to "check-in" to a location and share that information with their friends. Restaurant-goers often use it to recommend specific meals; and it's possible to use the service to let friends locate you in real-time, perhaps to stop by to say hello or share a drink or a meal.
Foursquare users can connect their account to Facebook and, when they do, they are asked to specify who can see their information. When I checked, it was set to "Friends." But you can also set it to Public, which means anyone can see it, or "only me," which hides it from everyone but yourself. It's also possible to link Foursquare with Twitter. Although it's possible to limit who can see your tweets, the default setting -- which very few Twitter users change -- is for tweets to be public.
The fracas behind the Girls Around Me app is a reminder that we all have a responsibility to protect our own privacy. I'm not condoning their tasteless and tacky service, but from everything I can tell, the company didn't hack into any servers or tap into anyone's private information. Everything it did was based on information people posted for public consumption.
Let this be yet another reminder for people to think about over-sharing. To me, it's obvious that connecting your Foursquare account with Twitter is tantamount to broadcasting your whereabouts. I've done that, but I did so knowingly. But it never hurts to remind people to put thought into whether they really want to publicly share where they are and, by implication, where they're not. And parents, this is yet another good opportunity to share a bit of digital literacy with your kids. "What's important in the 'Girls Around Me' story for parents and kids to consider together is that an app was using people's publicly available information without their knowledge," wrote my ConnectSafely.org co-director Anne Collier at NetFamilyNews. And, considering the number of mobile apps being created all the time, "this is not the last time that will happen," she added.
Aside from safety and privacy concerns, location can also be embarrassing, as I realized a few years ago when I went to a particular holiday party instead of another party that some people thought I "should" have gone to. Without thinking, I used Facebook to "check-in" to the party and then realized that my would-be hosts from the other party might see it. To save face, I quickly jumped in my car and drove 35 miles to put in an appearance at the other party.
2011年10月30日星期日
Sleep Lessons
When Tad's mother found she no longer needed sleep, they left town. It was full, she said, of dirty old men and devil worshipers. She drove north, away from the Mason-Dixon Line. Tad wasn't scared. He rode in the back, between the blue fold-down seats, on a blanket that smelled like Sarah the Doberman. The radio played "Coward of the County" and Blondie. Tad slept.
Tad had a little globe inside a cube of clear plastic, like magic. The oceans were blue, America was red, other countries were other colors. His dinosaur book said they were once one big country. Tad woke up in Rolla. They were going to a fortune teller, to have their palms read. The old gypsy woman lifted his hand, tracing his lifeline carefully with her finger. Soon they would see the Arch, dark silver over the sunset.
At Dixie Truckers Home, Tad woke up in the pickup alone, by the gas pumps, island of light in the vibrating night. He looked out the window, played with the clicking knobs that made the CB needles jump. Bearded men walked to their semis. When his mom came back, they shared an apple and a Snickers bar. Then they drove again. In the dark of the supercab, he remembered he was missing school. Nathan Watson was bringing his turtle to class tomorrow. The two Jennifers, like sun and moon, always smiling in the front row.
Dawn in the Land of Lincoln. They bought ears of corn from a farmer on the roadside. Illinois gravel was different, full of smooth, round pebbles. Tad's globe was gone, left at the fortune teller's. Now he had a rubber band and a few oval pebbles, fingers for a slingshot. A rainbow faded over Peoria.
Some things were good: scrambled eggs made with butter, Scandinavian names, Michigan, dogs that protect their owners. Others bad: gypsies, cars called Cutlass or LeSabre, even numbers, parts of Chicago. Tad's mother loved her dad, who died but was reincarnated in Tad, because good people come back when you need them. She drove on. Her dad died because he plastered ceilings for so many years, and the heart doctor was busy golfing.
Now they had to hurry — people were after them. Tad woke up cold in Michigan, climbed into the front to lie near the warmth of the engine. They saw Indiana, but found no one home at Grandma's, only shriveled tomatoes on the porch rail. While Tad slept, his mom found her way back to Barney's, her old horse-trader boyfriend who used to hit her. Barney still had their parakeet. He let her take it, cage and all.
They drove past the house she always wanted to live in as a girl. They drove past the dentist's office where she met Tad's father. Mr. Holly's farm — he gave gold watches to all his "nieces." In the fog by the lake, she saw a white fox. When they got back to Missouri, God would punish the wicked. They would shelter in a Mormon church. Mormons had big freezers, for storing a year's worth of food.
The parakeet ruffled and shivered in its cage. By Missouri, it was dead. Home smelled funny. Sarah the Doberman had chewed into Tad's mattress and had her puppies there, in a nest of torn foam. She licked and licked those puppies. They could nurse while sleeping, their eyes like chocolate crinkles. Tad could take his mother's bed until she learned to sleep again, letting go the chiming illucid dream smoldering all around her.
Tad had a little globe inside a cube of clear plastic, like magic. The oceans were blue, America was red, other countries were other colors. His dinosaur book said they were once one big country. Tad woke up in Rolla. They were going to a fortune teller, to have their palms read. The old gypsy woman lifted his hand, tracing his lifeline carefully with her finger. Soon they would see the Arch, dark silver over the sunset.
At Dixie Truckers Home, Tad woke up in the pickup alone, by the gas pumps, island of light in the vibrating night. He looked out the window, played with the clicking knobs that made the CB needles jump. Bearded men walked to their semis. When his mom came back, they shared an apple and a Snickers bar. Then they drove again. In the dark of the supercab, he remembered he was missing school. Nathan Watson was bringing his turtle to class tomorrow. The two Jennifers, like sun and moon, always smiling in the front row.
Dawn in the Land of Lincoln. They bought ears of corn from a farmer on the roadside. Illinois gravel was different, full of smooth, round pebbles. Tad's globe was gone, left at the fortune teller's. Now he had a rubber band and a few oval pebbles, fingers for a slingshot. A rainbow faded over Peoria.
Some things were good: scrambled eggs made with butter, Scandinavian names, Michigan, dogs that protect their owners. Others bad: gypsies, cars called Cutlass or LeSabre, even numbers, parts of Chicago. Tad's mother loved her dad, who died but was reincarnated in Tad, because good people come back when you need them. She drove on. Her dad died because he plastered ceilings for so many years, and the heart doctor was busy golfing.
Now they had to hurry — people were after them. Tad woke up cold in Michigan, climbed into the front to lie near the warmth of the engine. They saw Indiana, but found no one home at Grandma's, only shriveled tomatoes on the porch rail. While Tad slept, his mom found her way back to Barney's, her old horse-trader boyfriend who used to hit her. Barney still had their parakeet. He let her take it, cage and all.
They drove past the house she always wanted to live in as a girl. They drove past the dentist's office where she met Tad's father. Mr. Holly's farm — he gave gold watches to all his "nieces." In the fog by the lake, she saw a white fox. When they got back to Missouri, God would punish the wicked. They would shelter in a Mormon church. Mormons had big freezers, for storing a year's worth of food.
The parakeet ruffled and shivered in its cage. By Missouri, it was dead. Home smelled funny. Sarah the Doberman had chewed into Tad's mattress and had her puppies there, in a nest of torn foam. She licked and licked those puppies. They could nurse while sleeping, their eyes like chocolate crinkles. Tad could take his mother's bed until she learned to sleep again, letting go the chiming illucid dream smoldering all around her.
2011年9月28日星期三
Happy Magic Waterpark – Klaustrophobie im größten Wasserpark der Welt
Das in China neue Freizeitparks im Wochentakt angekündigt werden ist beileibe nichts Neues, aber nun will die Volksrepublik der westlichen Welt anscheinend auch noch in Sachen Wasserrutschen zeigen wo der Hammer hängt. Im Pekinger Stadtbezirk Fengtai, wo bis Mitte der 1980er Jahre nur Schweine und Ziegen die ländliche Landschaft prägten, ragen seit wenigen Wochen sieben Türme mit insgesamt 35 Wasserrutschen in den Himmel. Der Beijing Happy Magic Waterpark gilt seit seiner Eröffnung als der größte Wasserpark der Welt und bietet Platz für bis zu 35.000 Besucher. Ob das baden in diesem Gewusel noch Spaß macht, sei einmal dahin gestellt – Wir tippen eher auf Panikattacken, in Folge einer spontan auftretenden Klaustrophobie.
Aber auch wenn uns China in Superlativen um Lichtjahre voraus ist, scheint es im Land des Lächelns noch am benötigten Know-How für einen Weltklasse Wasserpark zu fehlen. Und so verwundert es kaum, dass alle Attraktionen des Beijing Happy Magic Waterpark von dem renommierten kanadischen Unternehmen Pro Slide Technology stammen. Kein anderer Hersteller von Wasserrutschen konnte in den letzten Jahren mit mehr Innovationen und Weltrekorden aufwarten. Eine Erfolgswelle, die sich in Peking fortsetzt: Bei der weltweit ersten Auslieferung des TornadoWAVE stürzen bis zu vier Personen durch eine dunkle Röhre in die Tiefe, nur um im Anschluss eine fast senkrechte Wand zu erklimmen und einen Moment der Schwerelosigkeit zu genießen.
Auch ProSlides kultigste und 2003 mit dem Golden Ticket Award ausgezeichnete Wasserrutsche, der Tornado, wird in Peking noch eine wenig extremer. Mit einer Höhe von über 20 Metern stellt er nicht nur die restlichen Attraktionen des Happy Magic Waterpark in den Schatten, sondern auch alle bisher ausgelieferten Modelle. Und während Eltern ihren Adrenalin-Kick auf den gigantischen Wasserrutschen bekommen, vergnügt sich deren Nachwuchs im größtem RideHouse der Welt, einem Wasserspielplatz mit 12 Rutschen, duzenden von Wasser-Kanonen und einem gigantischen Eimer, der in kurzen Abständen 1.800 Liter Wasser auf die spielenden Kinder herab regnen lässt.
Alles in allem ist der riesige Beijing Happy Magic Waterpark, mit seinen 35 Wasserrutschen und einem der weltweit größten Wellenbecken, einer der beeindruckendsten Wasserparks der Welt. Nur wer auf eine exzessive Thematisierung besteht, ist in den Wasserparks der Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate weiterhin besser aufgehoben. Denn zumindest in diesem Bereich benötigt China noch einiges an Nachhilfe.
Aber auch wenn uns China in Superlativen um Lichtjahre voraus ist, scheint es im Land des Lächelns noch am benötigten Know-How für einen Weltklasse Wasserpark zu fehlen. Und so verwundert es kaum, dass alle Attraktionen des Beijing Happy Magic Waterpark von dem renommierten kanadischen Unternehmen Pro Slide Technology stammen. Kein anderer Hersteller von Wasserrutschen konnte in den letzten Jahren mit mehr Innovationen und Weltrekorden aufwarten. Eine Erfolgswelle, die sich in Peking fortsetzt: Bei der weltweit ersten Auslieferung des TornadoWAVE stürzen bis zu vier Personen durch eine dunkle Röhre in die Tiefe, nur um im Anschluss eine fast senkrechte Wand zu erklimmen und einen Moment der Schwerelosigkeit zu genießen.
Auch ProSlides kultigste und 2003 mit dem Golden Ticket Award ausgezeichnete Wasserrutsche, der Tornado, wird in Peking noch eine wenig extremer. Mit einer Höhe von über 20 Metern stellt er nicht nur die restlichen Attraktionen des Happy Magic Waterpark in den Schatten, sondern auch alle bisher ausgelieferten Modelle. Und während Eltern ihren Adrenalin-Kick auf den gigantischen Wasserrutschen bekommen, vergnügt sich deren Nachwuchs im größtem RideHouse der Welt, einem Wasserspielplatz mit 12 Rutschen, duzenden von Wasser-Kanonen und einem gigantischen Eimer, der in kurzen Abständen 1.800 Liter Wasser auf die spielenden Kinder herab regnen lässt.
Alles in allem ist der riesige Beijing Happy Magic Waterpark, mit seinen 35 Wasserrutschen und einem der weltweit größten Wellenbecken, einer der beeindruckendsten Wasserparks der Welt. Nur wer auf eine exzessive Thematisierung besteht, ist in den Wasserparks der Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate weiterhin besser aufgehoben. Denn zumindest in diesem Bereich benötigt China noch einiges an Nachhilfe.
2011年9月1日星期四
The gospel, according to Steve Jobs
If there has ever been a Zen Master of marketing in our times, it is undoubtedly Steve Jobs, who stepped down last week as CEO of Apple. (He will remain Chairman on the company's Board.) In virtually every discussion or seminar centred on new product innovation, brand building, shaping consumer lifestyles or marketing strategy, Jobs and the brand he has created, Apple, repeatedly emerge as constant benchmarks to be studied, admired and emulated. A living saint who is worshipped by legions of believers, he has unveiled amazing new frontiers which have virtually defined a new gospel for students of marketing. Here is our version of the marketing gospel according to Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs has taught us that to win big time, an unbeatable formula is the creation of dazzling new products and services which capture the imagination of consumers and transform their markets. In 1998, he launched Apple's iMac, which brought vivid colours and a remarkably simple graphic user interface into the boring grey-and-black world of personal computers. The iBook followed in 1999, setting the pace for a new generation of notebook computers. Then, he launched the iPod in 2001 and iTunes in 2003, transforming the music industry forever. He didn't stop there. A few years later, the iPhone stormed mobile telephony. In 2010, the iPad made its appearance, and is perhaps the most sought after popular technology device in the world today. Steve Jobs dedicated most of his time at the helm of Apple thinking about and leading the creation of these dazzling products. A simple but powerful lesson for all marketers who aspire to stardom and success.
Jobs did not create hundreds of new products or designs at Apple, he focused on a few big bets. In the past decade, Apple launched just five new products: the iPod, the iTunes phone, the iPhone, Apple TV and the iPad. Each of these products also flaunted essentially the same minimalist design. On an average, therefore, he launched a new product only once in two years. By focusing his team's ample resources on just a few big projects, he ensured brilliant products with highly appealing features, thereby maximising their probability of success. Charles Golvin of Forrester, a global research firm, is quoted in The Economist as saying that one of Jobs' greatest skills has been to decide which projects Apple should not undertake. He made these choices very well, and this is clearly a discipline and a well honed art of great marketers.
Take risks, be open to failures
We are in awe of hugely successful Apple products such as the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. In the same breath, we should also reflect on the fact that, over 20 years, Steve Jobs also launched seven products which failed completely, either commercially or functionally. They include the Apple III computer, a computer called Lisa, the NeXT computer, the Puck Mouse used on the iMac, the Cube, the iTunes phone and, most recently, Apple TV. He took risks and went ahead with these products, primarily because his conviction in them was strong. Even as he did so, he remained equally open to failure, and not once did he permit these damp squibs to disrupt his vision for shaping new markets of the future.
If Apple is such a cool brand today, it is because its products combine the best of design and technology. Steve Jobs once explained that great products are a triumph of taste, and in the product categories he addressed, taste was always a delightful combination of art and functionality. Look at any of the products he developed and marketed — the iPod or iPhone, for instance — and you will always admire the sleek Zen-like designs as much as you will enjoy using their mind-blowing features. In the apt words of Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google: “Steve Jobs uniquely combined an artist's touch and an engineer's vision.” This combination of right and left brains, of art and science, is an essential quality that all marketers should attempt to develop.
A key consumer insight that Jobs used in developing his offerings was that people seek rich and full experiences, not products alone. He therefore carefully integrated his products with a diverse range of software and value-added services, and these ecosystems engaged consumers superbly, offering them a delectable range of wares. The iTunes online content store, combined with the iPod, is one such ecosystem which I have used extensively, and it has enriched my experience of music most wonderfully. The iPod without the iTunes, or vice versa, would have been a good but somewhat dreary product; together, they create magic, and they also provide excellent continuing business to Apple. As good marketers, we should search hard for relevant and involving ecosystems we can build in our respective product categories.
When a journalist once asked Steve Jobs what market research went into the iPad, Jobs famously replied - “None. It's not the consumers' job to know what they want.” On the other hand, his own decisions, whether they concerned product features or design, were shaped by his own deep study and understanding of two very different worlds: popular culture and technology. Popular culture gave him hints and glimpses of unmet consumer needs which he could possibly fulfil, and his grasp over existing and unfolding technology told him what solutions were on offer to meet these needs. These, then, were the strong foundations on which his marketers' intuition was perched. His lesson to marketers: don't use market research as a crutch, because it primarily reveals what is already in consumers' minds. If you wish to shape markets of the future, study consumers' lives and societies for insights, and then try to imagine what they may actually want.
Finally, Jobs has taught us that good marketing is the victory of passion, focus, persistence and intellect coming together in a beautiful waltz. Like he has always done over the past three decades, a marketer has to radiate conviction about his offerings, champion them, and evangelise them. He has to follow his heart and instinct, “stay hungry and stay foolish”. Thus spoke Steve Jobs. Amen.
Steve Jobs has taught us that to win big time, an unbeatable formula is the creation of dazzling new products and services which capture the imagination of consumers and transform their markets. In 1998, he launched Apple's iMac, which brought vivid colours and a remarkably simple graphic user interface into the boring grey-and-black world of personal computers. The iBook followed in 1999, setting the pace for a new generation of notebook computers. Then, he launched the iPod in 2001 and iTunes in 2003, transforming the music industry forever. He didn't stop there. A few years later, the iPhone stormed mobile telephony. In 2010, the iPad made its appearance, and is perhaps the most sought after popular technology device in the world today. Steve Jobs dedicated most of his time at the helm of Apple thinking about and leading the creation of these dazzling products. A simple but powerful lesson for all marketers who aspire to stardom and success.
Jobs did not create hundreds of new products or designs at Apple, he focused on a few big bets. In the past decade, Apple launched just five new products: the iPod, the iTunes phone, the iPhone, Apple TV and the iPad. Each of these products also flaunted essentially the same minimalist design. On an average, therefore, he launched a new product only once in two years. By focusing his team's ample resources on just a few big projects, he ensured brilliant products with highly appealing features, thereby maximising their probability of success. Charles Golvin of Forrester, a global research firm, is quoted in The Economist as saying that one of Jobs' greatest skills has been to decide which projects Apple should not undertake. He made these choices very well, and this is clearly a discipline and a well honed art of great marketers.
Take risks, be open to failures
We are in awe of hugely successful Apple products such as the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. In the same breath, we should also reflect on the fact that, over 20 years, Steve Jobs also launched seven products which failed completely, either commercially or functionally. They include the Apple III computer, a computer called Lisa, the NeXT computer, the Puck Mouse used on the iMac, the Cube, the iTunes phone and, most recently, Apple TV. He took risks and went ahead with these products, primarily because his conviction in them was strong. Even as he did so, he remained equally open to failure, and not once did he permit these damp squibs to disrupt his vision for shaping new markets of the future.
If Apple is such a cool brand today, it is because its products combine the best of design and technology. Steve Jobs once explained that great products are a triumph of taste, and in the product categories he addressed, taste was always a delightful combination of art and functionality. Look at any of the products he developed and marketed — the iPod or iPhone, for instance — and you will always admire the sleek Zen-like designs as much as you will enjoy using their mind-blowing features. In the apt words of Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google: “Steve Jobs uniquely combined an artist's touch and an engineer's vision.” This combination of right and left brains, of art and science, is an essential quality that all marketers should attempt to develop.
A key consumer insight that Jobs used in developing his offerings was that people seek rich and full experiences, not products alone. He therefore carefully integrated his products with a diverse range of software and value-added services, and these ecosystems engaged consumers superbly, offering them a delectable range of wares. The iTunes online content store, combined with the iPod, is one such ecosystem which I have used extensively, and it has enriched my experience of music most wonderfully. The iPod without the iTunes, or vice versa, would have been a good but somewhat dreary product; together, they create magic, and they also provide excellent continuing business to Apple. As good marketers, we should search hard for relevant and involving ecosystems we can build in our respective product categories.
When a journalist once asked Steve Jobs what market research went into the iPad, Jobs famously replied - “None. It's not the consumers' job to know what they want.” On the other hand, his own decisions, whether they concerned product features or design, were shaped by his own deep study and understanding of two very different worlds: popular culture and technology. Popular culture gave him hints and glimpses of unmet consumer needs which he could possibly fulfil, and his grasp over existing and unfolding technology told him what solutions were on offer to meet these needs. These, then, were the strong foundations on which his marketers' intuition was perched. His lesson to marketers: don't use market research as a crutch, because it primarily reveals what is already in consumers' minds. If you wish to shape markets of the future, study consumers' lives and societies for insights, and then try to imagine what they may actually want.
Finally, Jobs has taught us that good marketing is the victory of passion, focus, persistence and intellect coming together in a beautiful waltz. Like he has always done over the past three decades, a marketer has to radiate conviction about his offerings, champion them, and evangelise them. He has to follow his heart and instinct, “stay hungry and stay foolish”. Thus spoke Steve Jobs. Amen.
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