Best Chance Of Going Worst To First

All eight teams finished with the bottom 11 records in the NFL last season, with the omissions of the New York Jets, the Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raiders. Let's assess the teams with the best chance of going from 'worst to first' which we can determine as making the post-season, as the Indianapolis Colts achieved last season.

With Mike Vick (seemingly) back under centre for the Eagles, they should be primed for a bounce-back season in the wide-open NFC East. With a new coach calling the shots in Philly in the mould of Chip Kelly, his supposed offensive structure should fit the pieces in place. Although plagued by injury, their offensive line, fitted with new offensive tackle Lane Johnson, is the most athletic in the league, and are capable of playing in an up-tempo offense. Wide receivers DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin are elusive characters with speed and agility, ready for a breakout season, along with running backs LeSean McCoy and Brice Brown, they emphasis really is on speed fir the Eagles. Defensively, they continue to add bulk to their defensive line, adding Isaac Sopoaga in free agency, and drafting defensive tackle Bennie Logan give Philly a strong interior presence. Ex-Texan Connor Barwin, Trent Cole and Fletcher Cox should add pressure from the outside, and releasing veteran corner Nnamdi Asomugha and signing Cary Williams, Bradley Fletcher and Patrick Chung will give them a new-look secondary. Presuming the banged-up offensive line can protect assumed starting quarterback Michael Vick, I do expect the Eagles not only to return to competitive play, but be in contention to win their division.

After finishing 2-14 in 2012, the Chiefs enter offseason with little hope. Following the acquisition of quarterback Alex Smith from the San Francisco 49ers, they now have a viable option at the position which has been burdened with Matt Cassel and Brady Quinn. Although having such a dire season, they had six Pro Bowlers, including star running back Jamaal Charles, it's pretty clear they had some talent to work with. One of eight newly placed Head Coaches going into 2013, Andy Reid will bring his prolific offense down to Kansas City to rejuvenate the passing game. They have talented weapons also; Pro Bowl receiver Dwayne Bowe, former first-round pick Jon Baldwin, tight-end Tony Moeaki, draftee's Travis Kelce and Knile Davis, the list goes on. With a competitive quarterback, they have the offensive fire-power to compete in a less-than competitive AFC West. Defensively, the likes of Tamba Hali, Justin Houston and Dontari Poe give the Chiefs high-sack potential and an imposing front-seven. Pro Bowl safety Eric Berry is quickly becoming one of the best at his indoor Tracking, and adding Sean Smith and Dunta Robinson during free agency, in addition to Brandon Flowers give the Chiefs a very-strong secondary. Sleepers for obtaining a Wild-Card spot in a relatively open AFC, Andy Reid should manage to make the Chiefs a stronger team; reaching the .500 mark is a real possibility.

After winning seven of their last nine games in 2011 to give the Cards an 8-8 record, many thought Arizona were dark horses to sneak into the play-offs in 2012. The Cardinals experienced a catastrophic collapse in the latter half of the 2012 season, similar to their remarkable comeback in 2011. Winning just one of their final 12 games, the Cards became a laughing stock. Now, under the watchful eye of Bruce Arians in the Desert, the Cardinals are set for a competitive year in a tough division. Carson Palmer under centre give them a proven quarterback in a system heavily reliant upon a functional passing game. There's talent there, likely Hall-of-Fame wide-out Larry Fitzgerald is among the leagues best, while first-round pick Michael Floyd is set for a bigger role this term. Slot receivers Andre Roberts and Ryan Swope are talented receivers who are elusive underneath, and receiving tight-end Rob Housler is being tipped for a breakout season. Defensively, they had one of the leagues top units under Ray Horton, who has now left the team, but proven play-makers such as Calais Campbell and Darnell Dockett give the Cards one of the strongest three-man fronts in all of football. Pro Bowl players such as linebacker Daryl Washington and corner Patrick Peterson are rapidly emerging as some of the top players at their positions. However, losing Kerry Rhodes and Adrian Wilson leave them inexperienced at safety. The NFC is very strong in all divisions, most notably the West. The Cardinals face a tough ask if they wish to return to the post season.

Of all the teams mentioned, the Lions are the one team to have a steady quarterback in place in Matthew Stafford. Throwing for over 10,000 yards over the past two seasons, one of the leagues top young quarterbacks has become a proven commodity among his peers, and it doesn't hurt to be throwing to the wide-receiver the league has to offer in Calvin Johnson. Maintaining the same coaching structure, unlike the three teams mentioned previously, the Lions are poised to challenge in the NFC North. Their main issue was stopping teams defensively. A fearsome defensive front including Ndamukong Suh, Nick Fairley and rookie Ezekiel Ansah should provide ample pressure up front. Stephen Tulloch at linebacker is a rising star across the league, and signing safety Chris Houston and drafting Darius Slay should make their secondary much improved. Offensively, apart from Calvin, there wasn't much production on a consistent basis, but young receivers Ryan Broyles and Mike Thomas, in addition to Nate Burleson, should see increased production. The key addition of Reggie Bush should aid their flagging run-game, where Mikel Leshoure and Joique Bell should flourish in a supporting role. The real issue is the offensive line, where solid left tackle Jeff Backus retired this offseason. Drafting guard Larry Warford should provide some assistance, but there is still a gaping hole on the left side. Stafford and Johnson will give the Lions a chance to win most games and will compete in the North, but keeping Stafford upright is the key to their success.

With the aide of Everlink's EMV expertise and solutions, Cambrian will be issuing dual interface debit cards over the next 5 years with the launch of the new card product scheduled for the end of 2013.

"Canada has become a global leader in contactless card issuance and it is in no small part due to forward thinking financial institutions such as Cambrian Credit Union," says Mark Ripplinger, President and CEO of Everlink. "As this trend becomes more and more prevalent, Everlink will continue to develop the innovative card issuance solutions needed to satisfy the demands of future members and customers."

"Cambrian is very excited to be working with Everlink, especially during this rapidly changing payments landscape in Canada" says Connie Clarke, Vice-President Systems and Administration. "We are confident Everlink will best position Cambrian in offering the most innovative and secure payment systems to our members."

The Everlink CCI solution enables financial institutions to reliably and cost-effectively produce EMV Chip debit cards from a secure central facility, offering distribution options to send the cards directly to the member/customer or to the branch.

CCI leverages relationships Everlink has with card production suppliers who operate facilities certified by VISA Inc., MasterCard Worldwide and Interac , offering complementary, end-to-end solutions with proven, tried and true, in-production technology. CCI aligns perfectly with the needs of today's payment card issuers looking to maximize quality and reduce cost-per-card.

Clear the festive hurdle

The Christmas spending splurge can lead to a credit-card headache at this time of year. A good New Year's resolution is not to let debt get out of hand in the first place. But the reality is that many people struggle to pay off their card debt, in full, by the due date. More than 70 per cent of the debt on credit cards is accruing interest.

What many people do not appreciate is that if the debt is not paid off in full by the due date each month, the interest applies to the debt going back to the purchase date, rather than from the end of the interest-free period. With a cash advance, the interest rate applies from day one. Interest rates on credit card purchases are generally between 14 per cent to 20 per cent a year, but can be higher. The only way to avoid paying interest is to pay off the credit-card debt in full by the due date and avoid making a cash advance. Note that the interest rate on cash advances is usually higher than the purchase interest rate.

Some people even have debts on their credit card or cards that were racked up over Christmas 2011. It is not a smart way to go. People could take advantage of ''balance transfer'' offers, where the credit-card debt is transferred to a zero- or low-interest-rate card. That is not a solution, but it buys time without having to pay interest, or not much interest, while working on reducing the debt. These cards have a zero or low interest rate that applies for a limited time, typically six months or so, after which they revert to the purchase rate or the higher cash-advance rate. The zero or low rate usually only applies to the balance that has been transferred from the old card, not to new purchases.

Once the credit-card debt is cleared, the better way to go is to use a debit card for everyday spending, with the credit card clear for emergencies. With a debit card, you are using your own money in the transaction account that is linked to the debit card, rather than borrowing at very high interest rates.

Only enough money to cover everyday spending should be in the transaction account, because the accounts pay very little interest. Longer-term savings would be better held in an online saver account or a term deposit that pays higher rates of interest.

Justin Bieber recently made the leap into the financial-services world, endorsing a prepaid debit card. Now the question is whether "The Biebs" will succeed where others have failed—making prepaid cards cool among the teen set.

Financial firms have placed plenty of emphasis on prepaid debit in recent years, touting the payment method as a tool for parents to keep Junior's spending in check—and perhaps teach him a lesson in money management. In 2010, American Express introduced its prepaid PASS program and joined with with iVillage, the popular women's website, to get the word out about "the talk"—as in speaking to kids about personal finance.

More recently, MyPlash, a teen-oriented, MasterCard -affiliated prepaid program, sponsored a supercross team to spread the message that "financial responsibility is always a winning proposition."

And then there is the Bieber-approved SpendSmart card, which comes courtesy of BillMyParents, a San Diego, Calif., card issuer. The company said it hopes to leverage the audience of a pop star who has sold 15 million albums and boasts 30 million Twitter followers.

These programs all speak to the same idea: Teens spend more than $200 billion annually, according to researcher EPM Communications, but most parents want to place curbs on all that buying. A prepaid card can help since purchases are limited to whatever dollar amount parents choose to put on the plastic. Plus, as compared with cash, cards give parents a better view of where the money goes.

Financial institutions have their own reasons for pushing prepaid, including recent federal legislation that limits in some cases what fees they can earn from traditional debit cards—but not from prepaid ones.

Still, prepaid debit cards targeted at teens haven't broadly caught on, says Tim Sloane, a vice president with Mercator Advisory Group, which researches the prepaid market.

Part of the reason, Mr. Sloane believes: Kids may not like mom and dad seeing exactly how they spend their allowance. And parents may balk at the expenses associated with prepaid cards, from monthly maintenance charges (as high as $10) to ATM fees (up to $2.50). "A prepaid product that requires simultaneous adoption by parents and teens may raise the bar too high," Mr. Sloane says.

Financial pros say parents can accomplish similar financial goals with a cheaper option, such as a low-fee or no-fee credit card with a modest spending limit. Parents can open a joint account with a child or add the child as an authorized user to an existing account. The card may not have a pop star's name attached to it, but it also won't carry as many fees. And the lesson in using credit the right way can be just as invaluable in the long run, says Larry Rosenthal of Rosenthal Wealth Management in Northern Virginia.

Zhongtian explores US market at NPE

Taizhou Zhongtian Plastics Co. Ltd.’s small booth at NPE2012 is filled with large, hollow plastic items – pet houses and wheeled garbage totes of different sizes. The first time NPE exhibitor hopes to open up the U.S. market with its injection molded and blown molded products, backed up by ongoing expansions of two new factories in China.

Even with rising production costs in China, strengthening yuan and shipping cost of large hollow items, the company still is optimistic to give the U.S. market a try, said Susan Zhang, an export manger.

Exports already makes up 40 percent of its business, with Australia being the largest export destination.

“Some U.S. customers are already using our products,” she said, through Zhongtian’s contract production for U.S. manufacturers. But the company is hoping to sell directly into the market.

Part of the rationale behind the effort to expand U.S. sales is to compensate for the decline of export in other markets since the second part of 2011. “Our traditional markets are sort of saturated.”

Its investment on overseas expansion is backed up by fast-paced growth in China’s domestic market, esp. through government bids and contracts. Zhongtian’s total sales are around 300 million yuan (about $48 million). Zhang said its domestic sales are expected to grow 10 to 20 percent in 2012, while export is most likely to stay flat.

To add to its production capacity at its headquarters in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, Zhongtian is launching its second factory, located in Liaoning province in Northeast China. Zhang said the plant is built on a campus of 120 mu (about 20 acres).

Zhongtian is also building a third factory, on about 15 acres of land, in Taizhou, Zhang added. The new plant is scheduled to commerce production in 2013.

The privately owned company is investing 150 million yuan ($24 million) this year to build about 624,307 square feet of new manufacturing space, according to a report on its web site.

Zhongtian has about 50 injection molding presses, plus blow molding machines, welders and other equipment.

Its workforce of 300 is expected to grow about 20 percent with the new factories, but Zhang stressed that the company is increasingly adapting automation technologies and upgrading its existing machinery to increase efficiency.

'I killed Vinnie Jones - in front of my kids' says Jamelia

POP star Jamelia has revealed how she murdered Vinnie Jones – in front of her children.

The Birmingham singer is making her acting debut in a movie starring tough guys Vinnie and Celebrity Big Brother star Michael Madsen.

But it was unfortunate timing when she had to gun down Vinnie, just as her daughters arrived on the Hungarian film set of Magic Boys.

Jamelia, who is single and mum to six-year-old Tiani and Teja, 10, said: “It was quite a harrowing day.

“My kids had just flown over with my mom and wanted to see me at work. What they saw was me as a murderer.

“I had to explain to them what was happening and show them that the fake blood was just syrup, and nothing to be scared of.

“It’s quite a claim to fame, to say ‘I’ve killed Vinnie Jones!’

“He was fantastic, though, and really helped me in my first acting role. I was playing an air hostess avenging her father’s murder.

“The shoot lasted for three months in Hungary and I got to do lots of different things, including a couple of kissing scenes which I hated! It was with a Hungarian actor who couldn’t speak English, a complete stranger who I didn’t fancy.

“They say you get used to doing those intimate scenes but I never did. I’d like to try more acting, though.

“Michael Madsen was really funny but I was very surprised to see him in Celebrity Big Brother. It’s not the sort of thing I thought he’d do.”

Jamelia turned 31 last week and celebrated with a pamper day at Birmingham’s swankiest new spa, The Club and Spa at The Cube development in the city centre.

Brought up in a council house in inner city Hockley, Jamelia has never left the Midlands and now lives in the smart village of Barnt Green.

A year ago she made the Channel 4 documentary The House That Made Me, in which she had an emotional reunion with the father who walked out on her as a child.

She hadn’t seen convicted armed robber Donald Williams for seven years but wanted to tell him what a traumatic effect his absence has had on her life and that of her brothers, two of whom are in prison after gang-related shootings.

Now she plans to make another TV documentary on the subject of absent fathers.

“I want to show them the effect it has on the children and what the women they leave behind have to go through,” explains Jamelia, who has also been asked to make a documentary about mothers in prison.

“I could never leave my children so I don’t understand how men can. I think some just don’t understand the consequences of their actions. My father was genuinely surprised when I told him how much pain he’d caused me.

“I have spoken to him since we met again but not seen him. I feel like I’ve got closure and it’s a relationship I don’t need to have now.”

Jamelia’s hit Superstar was one of the most played songs of the Noughties, and she is currently recording her first album in four years.

“I hope to release a single in the next couple of months and an album in September,” she adds.

“I’m working with people who have produced Rihanna and Mary J Blige. It’s the longest album I’ve taken to make, and the longer it takes, the more I worry about whether it’s right.”

Transcript for UCStrategies Experts Discuss SBCs

Hi, everyone, this is Russell Bennett from UCStrategies. Today I’m hosting a podcast on the session border control market, which is under fairly significant transformation. This is a very large and complex topic and we can probably talk for hours on this, each of us. However, the piece of news that’s brought this to the forefront this week is the announcement that Avaya is acquiring Sipera, which is a security and SBC company. So what this actually means is that now all the leaders of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for UC have their own SBC technology: Microsoft, Cisco, Siemens, Avaya and Alcatel-Lucent. And some of the kind of secondary and tertiary players also have a security element.

So clearly, this is an admission that session border control or network edge security is critical for UC, and this raises just a host of points that we’re going to try and cover today. I’d like to call first on Marty Parker.

Thanks, Russell. I first want to express that it’s just disappointing that we need session border controllers at all. The internet really is a disappointingly wild place from the view of security and behavior, so having said that bit of indignation, I’ll just go on to say therefore they are necessary. Session border controllers are certainly necessary for the interface of any session, and usually that applies to a SIP-type session, to the internet. Now in our telephony world, not so much in the UC world, Unified Communication, but over in the telephony world they’re primarily applied as the interface for session initiation protocol trunks, or SIP trunks. And again, it’s a puzzle that the carriers, who have been trusted to provide secure T1 / B1 transmission for so many years really are no longer trusted by most enterprises to provide the sole interface to the network for SIP trunking. So most enterprises are finding, and recommendations from their IP telephony providers, that they should install a session border controller. It’s seen really as part of the network infrastructure.  The application, the IP PBX is delivering voice and media and signaling into the network, in through switches, in through routers, and then if it wants to go out through the edge it will use a session border controller for that interface – products like the Cisco Unified Border Element, the Cube and products like that are well known. As Russell said, everybody in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for UC has them. Also, the leaders in the corporate telephony magic quadrant all have it.

Since we have them, the big question is how is that market going to evolve? And clearly what’s happening is that SBC functionality, the denial of service protections, the man-in-the-middle protections, the hidden protocol protections, all of those sorts of things are being done by very fast software. And they will over time be built into other products, whether it’s routers or it’s PBX gateway products, we’re going to see those built in. And then over time we’ll see another shift because in the end a SIP session or a connection to the internet should be part of, and most enterprises want it to be part of their integrated threat management. Because every enterprise of any size has some version of a threat management program for everything I’ve said about real time communications as well as all the non-real time communications. It’s likely that those providers, Radware would be an example, who has already added SBC functionality into their threat management portfolio, will suggest to the IT infrastructure manager that there’s no need for a separate product, “You can use our integrated threat management solution to manage this.”

It’s going to be a very rapidly developing world, I think, because software has that tendency. Certainly product releases will be the gating pace, but you can see the end from the beginning, that over time we will see SBC functionality built into integrated threat management tools and built into network infrastructure; not seen as a separate functionality of IP telephony. So I’ll pass it back to you, Russell, thanks.

Arcam rCube review

Apple’s Steve Jobs always had a thing about cubes (G4, NeXT), and a love of music. Arcam’s very Apple-like rCube speaker system looks and sounds so good Steve would have been happy to have stuck the company logo on it.

Apple’s one venture into own-branded speakers was the quickly forgotten Apple iPod Hi-Fi – a great, big slab that looked like a single speaker had toppled onto its side.

(I’m ignoring the translucent SoundSticks, iSub and Cube speakers as they were a joint venture with Harman Kardon.)

The Arcam rCube combines the cool, minimalist looks of an Apple product with top-quality audio performance.

It’s not just minimalist in its clean glossy black or white lines. It measures just 200mm cubed. And at 5kg it’s half the weight of other supposedly portable speakers like B&W’s Zeppelin.

You wouldn’t want to carry the rCube all day but it’s easy to move around the house or office with its nifty hidden handle.

And it’s not just smart in looks and sound. The rCube is more sophisticated than other premium speaker systems.

It’s wireless in more ways than one. Using the rWave USB dongle you can losslessly and wirelessly stream music from your PC or Mac at up to 50m. Better than that you can connect up to eight rCubes to create your very own whole-home audio network.

The rWand+, meanwhile, lets you wirelessly stream at the same lossless quality from your iPhone or iPod or iPad, at a distance of 10m.

With the rWand+ you can control what’s playing without having to leave the garden or kitchen. And parties can get even more interactive by passing the rWand+ round so that friends can have their turn DJing using their own iPods, etc.

Both rWave and rWand+ use clever Kleer wireless technology that’s superior to standard Bluetooth.

These extra don’t come cheap, however. The rWave costs £79, and the rWand just a tenner less. Neither comes packed with the base rCube unit.

The rCube’s integral Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery is a trooper, lasting up to eight hours, which should be long enough for most parties or days out in the garden.

And while it’s resting it will charge your iPod or iPhone.

The touch controls on the top of the rCube are also minimal, and there’s a slimish remote offering the usual volume and track functions.

And here’s my only negative about Arcam’s rCube. Despite being a cube you have to aim the remote at a reasonably strict angle to get results – usually above or to the front of the unit.

At the back you get a rear panel row of ports and sockets (AUX, Composite and Component Video, a USB connector for firmware upgrades, DC In, and a power switch).

There’s also a switch to reduce bass output when the unit is placed in a corner. When the rCube’s sitting in the middle of the room or at least away from bass-reinforcing walls you can activate the Bass Boost to compensate.

Unlike many similar better-sound-at-the-push-of-a-button magic switches on rival speakers Arcam’s Bass Boost button really does make a difference.

It’s hard to put into words just how good the Arcam rCube sounds – with pretty much any genre of music. It’s a cliché to say the sound has to be heard to be believed but I was not expecting the level of acoustic fidelity even though I’d read plenty of eulogising rCube reviews.

What HiFi praised its “unbreakably cohesive delivery … subtlety and sufficient punch”. Other reviews point out the rCube’s power and clarity, and state that “its acoustic performance is unmatched” and “gorgeously complete”.

What’s not to like about the rCube? Well, at £500 it was a luxury purchase – worth the money but out of many people’s price range. So the recent price drop to £350 makes this a superb and affordable premium Apple device speaker system.

The Find: Coffee Tomo

The tagline for Coffee Tomo, a cafe that opened a few weeks ago off the main drag of Sawtelle Boulevard's mini Japan Town, might be: coffee specialists and slightly manic pretzel innovators. Think fresh-baked, intricately structured pretzels stuffed with red beans and cheese.

The walls of the brand new, immaculate shop are clean white and dark brown wood — "the color of coffee," explains owner Kibum Sung. Sung is a former landscape architect who designed every element of the shop. "I wanted to make it warm, wanted people to walk in and smell the coffee and feel comfortable."

Sung is Korean-born and Japan-educated. Everything here bears Sung's very conscious design aesthetic, from the spare, careful arrangements of coffee paraphernalia on dark wooden shelves to the painstakingly ordered row of jars, showing coffee beans at each stage of roast. The kendo swords high on the shelves are Sung's too; he's a second-dan black belt. But then there's his food: his version of pretzels stuffed with the post-Western Asian-pop madness.

The best thing here might be the pretzel stuffed with sweet potato and cheese: crispy on the outside, utterly soft on the inside, strands of stretchy mozzarella folded around sweet, molten sweet potato puree. It's a deliriously joyous creation.

Sung hand-makes every pretzel to order, rolling it into a baroque arrangement of whorls and folds and curlicues, and bringing it to your table straight from the oven. Where else can you get a pretzel made with this level of devotion?

More adventurous palates should try Sung's favorite: a pretzel stuffed with red bean and cheese, the most lunatic of the stuffed pretzel fillings. The flavors barely cohere, but they make a weird sort of uneven magic, chunky bits of slightly sweetened Asian red bean clinging to strands of mozzarella. The experience is balanced right on the slightly bewildering, charming knife's edge between a sweet and a savory snack — an Asian dessert that wandered into a calzone.

Sung made up these combinations himself, based loosely on stuffed pretzels he'd seen in South Korea. "I have confidence in my pretzels," Sung says.

But for the coffee arts, he turns to Tommy Kim, head barista and master of the roast. Kim roasts all their beans in the large red Diedrich roaster right in front. Kim is also cheerful and completely coffee-obsessed, and he runs at high speed around the shop, chatting with customers about the details of their drink and his former life as an opera singer.

Kim makes the dripped coffee with light-roasted beans, for maximum varietal detail. But for the espresso, he uses his own peculiar mix: one bean varietal, at three stages of roast. "The light roast gives it the sour, the medium gives it the full body and the sweet, and the dark roasting gives it that dark chocolate flavor. I wanted all the flavors, so I mix," Kim says. It's nontraditional, but it makes for a beautiful pull: a high-toned, piercing, slightly schizophrenic but very happy shot of espresso.

Kim makes excellent Italian-style drinks, but he can be talked into making a cappuccino in a style he learned in Japan: espresso with a little foam, a little raw sugar and a cinnamon stick. "It gives it the aroma of cinnamon but not the flavor," Kim says. This is very important to him. He hands you your cappuccino and demands that you stir it up vigorously with the cinnamon stick. "Faster! Faster!" Kim says. "Change the color! More brown! More!"

But for the most ludicrously fun experience of all, order a honey butter bread. This is a very large hunk of white bread, sliced into nine perfect cubes, every face toasted to a crusty golden brown, then re-assembled into a square and topped with a huge pile of fresh whipped cream. It's like some sort of Modern art, negative-space version of a Belgian waffle — obviously the work of a landscape architect set loose in the kitchen.

The result is somehow utterly refined and gleeful at once. It's like the most delicate cinnamon toast imaginable, eggy and spongy and crisp. You spear each cube with your fork, carefully roll it in whipped cream and, slowly, cube by perfect cube, demolish the whole thing. It will delight your inner child and your inner geometer at the same time.