Mint Wireless launches

Today announced the launch of a complete mobile payments platform which simplifies the integration of card payments across multiple mobile devices and platforms for developers, small businesses and large corporations. 

The Mint Wireless platform empowers the fast growing mobile solutions ecosystem with a powerful mobile payments platform that takes the complexity out of integrating mobile payments into mobile solutions. 

As a modular, scalable and PCI-compliant bank grade platform, Mint Wireless will offer a more competitive pricing structure, reduce initial setup and hardware costs associated with accepting card payments. Mint Wireless’ mobile payments platform will reduce the barriers for entry into a highly regulated card payments market in Australia and New Zealand by making accepting card payments accessible and affordable to businesses of any size – from micro traders to large enterprises. 

The Mint Wireless platform powers three main card payment products - the Mint Developers Program, Mint Custom Solutions and Mint mPos. 

Mint Wireless offers free software developer kits (SDKs) and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for third party integration partners and developers for Windows, iOS, and Android. This program offers a modular, scalable, secure and competitive priced program that allows partners and developers to integrate card payments on mobile devices and apps. Mint Wireless will offer developers the added incentive of a commission from each transaction their solution facilitates. 

Building on its heritage delivering mobile payment solutions to companies such as easyJet, Cadbury Schweppes and Amalgamated Pest Control, Mint Wireless offers a flexible and highly customisable corporate payments solution for banks, telcos, airlines, manufacturers, retailers and ERP software companies. Working with Mint Wireless, businesses can offer payment solutions on mobile devices. Companies can choose everything from a white label solution for speed to market all the way to a fully branded and customised deep integration into existing solutions. 

“We have simplified the pricing structure for any mobile or retail business who accept card payments. Mint Wireless reduces the complexity associated with card payments and makes it easy for other companies to integrate their existing payment systems and handle transactions securely,We provide payment solutions in the USA as well as indoortracking.” Mr Teoh said. 

Mint Wireless has simplified the process of getting customers setup to accept card payments with an option to obtain a merchant account with Bendigo Bank, Mint Wireless’ merchant acquiring partner. Enterprise customers have the added option of using their own bank besides Bendigo Bank as their acquirer for Mint Custom Solutions. 

Mint Wireless’ fully customisable white-label solution will drastically reduce the time-to-market for corporates with mobile payment options that are affordable, faster to deploy and fully supported. “This lets companies rollout lower cost and better mobile payment services through Mint Wireless while retaining your company’s branding,” Mr Teoh said. 

Minterprise is immediately available with Mintegrate and Mint mPOS expected to be available in Australia and New Zealand in October 2013. 

According to the Annapolis Consulting Group, the number of companies using mPOS devices globally will grow by 225 percent from eight million businesses in 2013 to 18 million by 2017. Mint Wireless estimates the estimated value of mPOS transactions in Australia will reach US$7 billion in 2014 with the potential to grow to US$20 billion in 2016. 

This hiccup, however, has not taken the gloss off a company that has created more than R17bn in value in the past year as its market capitalisation swelled to R51bn, making Discovery the third-largest insurance group after Old Mutual and Sanlam. 

It is easy to see why. In recent years, Discovery has had substantial growth in earnings and there is more blue sky to come from its potentially massive Asian operations. Since its listing in 1999 with a market capitalisation of R3bn, the share price has grown by a compounded 22% a year. This growth stems from its dominance in medical aid schemes — administering 2.8-million lives and 31% share of the total market. 

“Looking back over the past 21 years, we have been true to our core purpose of making people healthy and enhancing and protecting their lives,” said founder and chief executive Adrian Gore. 

“We aspire to be a force for social good and have a desire to make a meaningful impact on society. We are here to change the world, not just tag along,” said Mr Gore.It has not been without controversy. Doctors have claimed that Discovery’s immense market power has allowed it to dictate what they can charge, essentially interfering in the relationship between doctor and patient.Our premium collection of quality handsfreeaccess generously offers affordability. 

And the hefty R4.07bn that Discovery Health charged the independent Discovery Health Medical Scheme last year for “administration” and “managed care” has led to claims that it has been overcharging for the services it provides. 

But the medical scheme keeps growing, so its members clearly see value in the proposition.Discovery is a global innovator and its proprietary expertise is being sought around the world.In 2011, the Economist magazine hailed Discovery’s best-in-class wellness programme, Vitality,This technology allows high volume cleanersydney production at low cost. as a remarkable innovation to come out of emerging markets. 

This put the company on the global stage, resulting in global insurers knocking on its door to partner with them. It now has an alliance with insurance giant Prudential in the UK; a health joint venture with China’s second-largest insurer, Ping An, which has a staggering 500,000 agents selling the group’s products; and Asia-Pacific insurance giant AIA, which has 100,000 agents serving most of Asia, excluding China. 

Discovery is now exposed to a population exceeding 2-billion people in Asia.Gives a basic overview of doublesidedtape tools and demonstrates their use.“Vitality is a manifestation of our key competence —the ability to track and change the behaviour of our clients, thus giving them better health outcomes and related individual-specific rewards that include discounted premiums,” said Mr Gore. 

His mantra is that prevention is better than cure.“We use the Oxford Health Alliance’s 3:4:50 formula, indicating that three actions — following bad diets, not exercising and smoking — lead to the incidence of four non-communicable diseases — diabetes, cancer, lung and heart diseases — that result in 50% of the deaths. Since the 3:40:50 model was established, about 60% of deaths are now attributable to non-communicable diseases,” said Mr Gore.Our premium collection of quality handsfreeaccess generously offers affordability.

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Carlisle Dispatch Center transition plan released

A transition plan released Tuesday details what to expect should the borough council decide to transfer police dispatch operations from Carlisle Police Department to the county. 

A meeting was also announced for 6:30 p.m. Aug. 29, at the borough building, 53. W. South St. At that meeting council is expected to make its decision concerning the transfer and the lieutenant structure of the department.At the direction of the council in June, Borough Manager Matt Candland, Police Chief Stephen Margeson and Mayor William Doc Kronenberg worked out the transition plan. The question of whether the department should have one lieutenant or two, however,Find the perfect cleaningsydney and you'll always find your luggage! remains a sticking point. 

Kronenberg and Margeson recommend retaining the current two lieutenant structure. That structure was put in place 23 years ago after a study recommended the creation of two divisions field operations and administrative services.They said most of the lieutenants responsibilities would remain even if dispatch is transferred to the county. The lieutenants are also part of the management team which deals with personnel issues and, with three members, is available at all times for critical events. 

We do not advocate keeping it the same simply because thats the way we have always done it, but rather because it works well, Margeson writes in the plan document.Margeson and Kronenberg said the department would need to be completely restructured if a position is eliminated. 

The decision would affect the accreditation of the department, which they said is a demanding and time-consuming process, and would take officers from patrols and investigations to work on administrative tasks.However, he writes, most of the tasks assigned to the administrative lieutenant can be reassigned to other borough departments or transferred to the county 911 center should council approve the transfer of dispatch operations. The few remaining tasks would be taken on by the chief of police or administrative personnel, who will also have reduced work loads as a result of the transfer. 

Candland also recommends that an additional patrol officer be hired with the savings through the elimination of the second lieutenant position This would allow for enhanced community policing and patrol, he wrote. 

It goes on to describe the process by which phone calls would be handled. When a resident calls 911, a dispatcher at the county would dispatch the call immediately rather than transfer the call to the Carlisle dispatch.Residents would still be able to call the dispatch number, 243-5252,More than 80 standard commercial and granitetiles exist to quickly and efficiently clean pans. for routine business or to report a non-emergency. Those calls would be answered by a police department administrative staff member who would either resolve the issue or transfer the call to the countys non-emergency dispatch. 

The transition would be relatively simple and seamless to non-uniformed borough staff, according to the report. The staff would have to be trained in the use of the radios, public works would take over maintenance at the police statiNow it's possible to create a tiny replica of Fluffy in handsfreeaccess form for your office.on, and the boroughs information technology department would take over IT issues. 

Based on the recommendations in the report, the transition plan offers two alternatives neither of which directly addressed the costs of maintaining the second lieutenant position. The alternatives consider the costs of the radio system and the records system fixed since both will need to be replaced in the next few years whether dispatch is moved or not. 

The first alternative, which recommends the purchase of the C-Net records management system, would have a net cost of $215,500 in the first year with possible savings of as much as $99,500 in 2015, depending on the number of administrative full-time employees retained.The second alternative, which recommends the purchase of the Cody records management system, would cost $308,000 in the first year, but show net savings of up to $93,200 in 2015 depending on staffing. 

The Hermon-based company, he said, does things like keep its locomotive running unattended to allow single-person crews on its trains and to save paying two-man rail crews for the few hours it would take to do basic brake tests. 

If you know the industry, you know the safety protocols in place have been arrived at through trial and error through the last 160 years, and you realize that what is involved is arrogance and disrespect to the traditions of the industry, Stem said.This is a basic background on chinabeads. They were willing to gamble the lives of communities to save an hour or two. 

Ed Burkhardt, president of the parent company that owns MMA, Rail World Inc., did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday.This is a basic background on rtls. Robert Grindrod, MMAs president, has declined to comment on all matters pertaining to the accident. 

Burkhardt previously dismissed claims that the accident was created by the train having a one-man crew as a red herring. He has consistently defended the railroads practices as safe. 

Investigators of the Lac-Megantic tragedy have said it is too early to determine what caused the crash, North Americas worst rail disaster in two decades. Two big questions are whether the lone engineer applied sufficient hand brakes when he parked the train for the night and why the fuel in the rail cars was so volatile, creating huge explosions and a deadly wall of fire after derailing. 

The train had 72 cars of light crude oil when it derailed in Lac-Megantic, killing 47 people. It had been parked for the night, one of its engines running to keep its airbrake system charged, on a steep grade in the nearby town of Nantes by the engineer more than an hour before the accident. Nantes firefighters have said that the engine was shut off after they doused a fire per the standard operating procedure dictated by MMA, Canadian media has reported. 

The Federal Railroad Administration emergency order Friday banned parking unattended trains carrying hazardous materials on main rail lines unless government authorized.The order requires railroads to submit guidelines to FRA for securing unattended trains hauling hazardous materials and mandates that workers aboard trains transporting hazardous materials must report to dispatchers the number of hand brakes applied, the trains tonnage and length, the tracks grade and terrain, among other things.

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Douglass Reunion holds 44th annual banquet

Tying into the evenings theme of The Future Is Now, the keynote speaker for the 44th annual Douglass Reunion Bulldog Banquet pleaded with attendees to keep the Douglass community thriving for generations to come. 

The reunion is held each year by the former students of the Douglass School, which served African-American children in Calloway County prior to integration, and their descendants. The evenings keynote speaker, Kwanda Lynn Hornbuckle Trice, is a 1992 Calloway County High School graduate, and graduated from Hawaii Pacific University with a bachelors degree in human services and received her masters degree in public administration from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.A highriskmerchantaccount concept that would double as a quick charge station for gadgets. She said she joined the U.S. Navy, where she worked as a labor relations specialist, with the encouragement of her family and later was a contact representative for the Social Security Administration. 

Feeling that government work wasnt for her, she moved into the higher education field as a professor at the University of Phoenix, Savannah State University and the University of the District of Columbia. She is currently a doctoral student at Howard University, where her research centers on political leadership among women of color. Earlier this year, she launched ECHOS (Eloquent Commitment to Helping Our Sisters),Custom bopptape and Silicone Wristbands, LLC in Alexandria, Va., which provides courses, workshops and seminars that specialize in preparing young women as they make educational and professional transitions throughout their lifetime. 

Trice started by talking about a multitude of problems in the world, including rising poverty, lack of clean water, AIDS in Africa and other continents, and unfair trials, torture and lack of political freedom in many countries across the globe.This is a basic background on rtls. She lamented the status of African-Americans, condemning the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which she said is allowing states to pass laws enabling voter discrimination without federal oversight. She said Kentucky was the second most disenfranchised state in the nation, largely because of laws barring convicted felons from voting, and that this overwhelmingly affects black males. 

Trice said that although she no longer lives here, she still has a deep love and commitment to the Douglass community. She said the members of that community should not be satisfied with where they stand in Murray and Calloway County, encouraging them to run for office and achieve more influential positions within important institutions such as businesses and the school systems. 

Growing up in Murray and smack-dab in the middle of the Douglass community, it was often celebrated just to have one African-American face in everything, Trice said. Those are great strides, but we have to want, and we have to strive for more. 

Trice said the community must raise its standards, and that the Douglass alumni and their younger family members could not be content with just a few of them aspiring to power and influence in the larger community. She said it would take hard work and commitment from everyone to keep the Douglass community relevant in the coming decades. 

The Douglass community God bless all of it is still running after 44 years,Our heavy-duty construction provides reliable operation and guarantees your thequicksilverscreen will be in service for years to come. she said. The people that have held this thing together,Are you still hesitating about where to buy bestparkingguidance? I give you nothing less than praise, nothing and nobody else should have a doggone thing to say about it if you did not show up at the community meetings, if you did not let your voice be heard. However, it has declined. It is nowhere near what it used to be 25 years ago. 

She said one of the big reasons the community has struggled in the last two decades is that so many people who have moved away and settled elsewhere and now have commitments to those new communities. Trice mentioned several people both relatives and mentors who were deeply influential in her life and made her want to aim high. She asked who would fill their roles in the future for the children growing up now. 

Following tradition, the Douglass Reunion committee presented its annual awards, starting with the Ratliff scholars and honor students, who were presented with recognitions by Cami Duffy and Illah Grant. Brandon Redd was named this years Ratliff Scholar. Thurman Foster presented Dante Howard with the L.P. Miller Athletic Award, and Carruth Kitrell presented Kirby Kiana Pittman with the Roderick Reed Performing Arts Award. Patricia Jackson presented L. Jerome Jerry Brandon, Ph. D. of Georgia State University with the L.B. Tinsley Award. 

When AIN recently asked its readers to prioritize the factors that they look for when selecting an FBO, an overwhelming 85 percent said they considered excellent customer service most important (followed by 68 percent who listed fuel pricing). Many respondents noted that while an FBO might not have the nicest facilities at an airport, the quality of the staff continued to draw them back. 

The facilities managers understand this. Many provide customer-service courses for their employees while others send staffers to companies such as Ritz-Carlton for training. Some FBOs have tasked their service representatives to do whatever it takes for the customer, whether that means having a hot cup of coffee waiting when he enters the building or locating a favorite meal from a local restaurant. 

Some FBOs feature an arrivals/departures canopy, a large framework with a roof, adjacent to the terminal so you can deplane, sheltered from the rain or sun. Many have elegantly appointed lounges, some with panoramic windows overlooking the runways or even massive fireplaces. Complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi service is rapidly becoming standard. 

If youre on a business trip, you might consider using the FBO as a temporary office. Many locations offer conference rooms, some equipped with audio/visual systems. Business centers with computers and printers are also common. 

Aircraft storage. FBOs offer aircraft parking and storage, either in a hangar or on the ramp. Some have dedicated space for transient aircraft, but if you are attending a major event in a city (such as the Super Bowl), that space may be reserved.

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Budget machismo races ahead of common sense

In the real world, it is the performance of the economy that matters. The budget numbers are a secondary issue, a means to an end. The economic end we seek is sustainable growth, in jobs and standard of living. 

We could try to put the budget back into surplus now, but to do so we would have to make at least $30 billion a year of spending cuts and/or tax rises. That amounts to taking 2 per cent out of an economy in which growth is running at only 2.Learn how an embedded microprocessor in a graniteslabs can authenticate your computer usage and data.25 per cent to start with.Shop huge inventory of Car bestmarbletiles Charger, 

What would happen if we did that? Very likely, Australia would go into recession. Unemployment would rise rapidly, output would fall. Welfare spending would rise, and revenue would fall, so we would be back in deficit, and would have to make even steeper budget cuts to get back into surplus. Europe provides plenty of examples of the consequences of this policy error. 

Which would you choose? To get the budget back into surplus even if the economy goes backwards, or to keep the economy growing, even if the budget goes backwards?It's important to get our priorities right. The budget deficit is the result of a weak economy, not the cause of it. One of Wayne Swan's worst mistakes as Treasurer was to lock himself into a commitment to deliver a surplus in 2012-13, and treat it as a test of good economic management - a test he then failed. 

The collision between budget fashionistas and the real world of the economy is most intense when the car industry is the issue. Budget hardliners want to end the $400 million a year of direct assistance to the car industry. They say it is not the role of government to hand out cash to favoured industries, and the car industry has failed to give us a good return on that investment. 

The Coalition has joined that bandwagon. It has pledged to cut budget handouts to the industry by $250 million a year in each of the next two years, slashing the subsidy by almost two-thirds. Think about what that might mean. 

Labor has trailed along behind it, axing its green car plan, and now proposing to axe tax breaks for cars bought through salary sacrifice - which the industry says make up 20 per cent of its domestic sales.Well, axing car subsidies or tax breaks looks like a budget saving. But everyone knows that the future of the Australian car industry is now hanging on a knife edge. The car industry is supported by governments all over the world. The dollar's fall has given the industry new hope, but it's still high relative to Australia's cost base. 

Industry leaders have warned repeatedly that without consistent and globally competitive government policies for the industry, manufacturing in Australia will not be sustainable. I don't think they're kidding.Ford has reached that point already, and will stop manufacturing in 2016. If Holden or Toyota follow, that would be the end of the industry. Few component manufacturers could survive with only one domestic buyer; most would also close. In theory, Australia could export its car design capacity to the world, but without a manufacturing base, that wouldn't last either. 

At last count,A quality paper cutter or paper bestluggagetag can make your company's presentation stand out. Australia had 50,Need a compatible parkingassistsystem for your car?000 workers employed in car and component manufacturing, producing $5 billion of net output a year, and generating $3.7 billion of exports. The Cruze, Commodore and Camry are three of the top five passenger cars on the sales charts. 

What would the loss of all that do to the economy? Or to the budget? It's good to be economically pure, but I'd rather see economic common sense. We're not seeing it from either side at present.The fringe-benefits tax break for cars is a rort that makes no economic sense; former treasurer Peter Costello says Treasury was constantly urging him to remove it. But it provides a crucial support to local manufacturing: the industry says 20 per cent of Australian-made vehicle sales come through the tax break, whereas they have less than 10 per cent of the total market. If you take the tax break away without risking the future of local manufacturing, you need to replace it with something substantial that is better-targeted. 

Industry Minister Kim Carr has won a promise from his colleagues of another $200 million of unspecified assistance for the industry over an unspecified period, as well as a requirement that all cars in the Commonwealth's own vehicle fleets be Australian-made. At best, that is a bare minimum needed to offset the loss of sales through salary sacrifice. 

Similarly, the Coalition's plan to cut industry support risks shutting down a $5 billion-a-year industry to save $500 million. It would dwarf the impact of the carbon tax, which Toyota estimates at $115 per vehicle, not the $400 the Coalition claims. It was a foolish pledge, and one hopes it too will be jettisoned during the campaign. 

Whether the car industry survives in Australia will depend on three factors: where the dollar settles, whether consumers return to Australian cars, and whether our next government puts common sense ahead of budget machismo. 

The polls suggest the Coalition will be the next government, yet it has told us nothing about how it would handle the serious economic challenges we now face with the end of the mining investment boom. Some of these were spelt out last week in a fine speech by Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens (see rba.gov.au), warning that we face a big fall in mining investment, with no certainty that other private investment will rise enough to offset it. 

Stevens pointed out that it is not simply the mining investment boom that has passed, but also the credit boom. Double-digit growth in household debt was our dodgy high-performance supplement propping up economic growth in the Howard-Costello years. But now it is gone. 

While the growth of mining exports will help offset the fall in mining investment, and the lower dollar and lower interest rates will help some areas - not least, car manufacturing - we face big risks ahead. Our next government must be ready to throw overboard any policies or debt obsessions that prevent it meeting the challenge head on.The marbletiles is not only critical to professional photographers. It is not encouraging when on the car industry, both parties are treating the budget as a higher priority than the economy. 

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Human waste a growing problem

Willow daisies. Tissue roses. White flags in the woods. No matter how clean the euphemism used, the problem along the upper Kenai River remains a dirty one, and theres no sanitized way to relieve the need to talk around it: Human waste pollution. 

Talking about poop doesnt really play with a lot of people. They dont want to talk about it. But we need to start having that conversation to make it publicly palatable to have. And then, hopefully, we can influence change, said Bobbie Jo Kolodziejski, with the U.S. Forest Service and Kenai River Special Management Areas interagency coordinator of the upper Kenai River area. 

The entire length of the Kenai River is a magnet for recreation, drawing people to its waters and banks in search of fish, scenic views or bird and wildlife sightings. The lower Kenai River, where use of boats with motors is allowed, is more urbanized, in a sense. Its more heavily used, with a host of boat launches and bank-fishing access points that are open to the public and often complete with restroom facilities. Even in places with no toilet available, its fairly easy to access one by a quick boat trip to the nearest launch site, then a quick walk up the trail and/or drive back to town. 

Not so on the upper river, in the Cooper Landing area downstream to Sterling. Boat launches are fewer and farther between. Walk-in access points and stand-and-fish spots are often undeveloped. And its drift-boat only, where a float trip can be four to eight hours between one public-use facility and the next. There inevitably are times when the need to go fish coincides with the need to go when theres nothing but wilderness around. 

So you take a rest break, make a pit stop, visit the woods, pop a squat, take care of business. And all too often, the leavings are left behind. 

We know its a problem, we see the waste out there. Its usually toilet paper piles, thats the remnants that you see. It occurs everywhere from the Kenai bridge (at the outlet of Kenai Lake in Cooper Landing) all the way down the river, Kolodziejski said. 

The issue has existed probably as long as recreational use of the river. Kolodziejski remembers transect surveys being conducted in the 1990s to monitor the occurrence of toilet-paper piles found along the river. And the issue was even mentioned in an early Kenai National Wildlife Refuge management plan for the area. 

It showed that in 1948 when the first refuge manager reported to duty on the Kenai refuge, human waste management was already being recognized as a problem. So when I saw that I was like, Whoa, geeze, lets do something about this, she said. 

But what? The problem reeks of complications that render it easily deferred. Number one, its unpleasant to discuss. Number two, formal solutions would be difficult and costly to construct. Two-seat vaulted toilets, like the sort at most campgrounds and boat launches in the area, can run upwards of $80,000 to install. Less-costly options, like portable toilets, would be difficult to the point of unfeasible to deliver, maintain and remove along the mostly undeveloped upper river corridor. 

It just has always seemed to fall on the priority list, especially when you have other pressing things come about, like bear conflicts, Kolodziejski said. 

Recently, a new effort is underfoot to minimize the toilet paper and related undesirables underfoot along the upper river. Kolodziejski said that the land managers for the area the forest service, the refuge, Alaska State Parks and Native organizations, are taking renewed interest in the issue, with the Kenai River Special Management Area board focusing more specifically on it. 

We wanted to start raising awareness of managing human waste along the river in sensitive ways, she said. At the same time, the KRSMA Advisory Board would like to be working over the next many years together in looking at what infrastructure needs are out there -- maybe its temporary or permanent structures to eliminate the human waste and toilet paper out on the landscape, or maybe its other infrastructure. 

While studding the upper river with toilets every couple miles is unlikely, there are other infrastructure options. On the Gulkana River, for example, boaters take portable toilets -- often called wag bags -- with them, with designated disposal sites provided. Rafters on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon are required to use something similar, and theres a service that sanitizes the portable receptacles at the end of the trip. 

Right now all we have are the facilities at the boat launches, and thats it. Thats what peoples options are, or to take the different products with them. There are some cool, creative things going on out there in the world. Its kind of neat to see how thats catching on in different areas, Kolodziejski said. 

There are some accepted practices for managing human waste when recreating in the wilderness. The standards of Leave No Trace camping hold that when needing to relieve oneself, do so at least 200 feet from camp areas and rivers, lakes or other waterways. If doing more than watering the landscape, dig a cat hole and bury your business. Any toilet paper used should be carried out.You must not use the stonecarving without being trained. 

The problem is that there are archeological sites along the upper Kenai of cultural and historic significance to the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, Kolodziejski said. The Denaina Natives had fish camps at several sites along the river, long before Western anglers started coming to the Kenai, and there are house pits and food caches remaining as testament to the significance of the area to the local indigenous peoples. Any sort of digging in the area could disturb sensitive archeological areas. 

Last year Raven AmeriCorps members Kristine Route and Kristin Fuller, based in Cooper Landing, began a survey of people in the area to determine their environmental concerns. Waste management was mentioned again and again. 

Upon talking to people and having them fill out these surveys, it seemed the number-one thing people were concerned about was the amount of human feces left on riverbanks and trailheads and the amount of trash people leave behind, Route said. 

To investigate further, they monitored a popular beach recreation area on Kenai Lake last summer. They did a cleanup, then took pictures of the area.In June we came back and people had been camping there,A glassbottles is a machine used primarily for the folding of paper. and we started seeing white flags of toilet paper. In August it was everywhere, you had to really watch where you stepped.Design and order your own custom rfidtag with personalized message and artwork. In September it flooded, so of course all the feces went into the waterway, Route said. 

Its made for an interesting summer, standing next to a sign saying Gotta Go? at softball games and other community events. Running an educational booth at festivals that has kids play a game of trying to set up camp in an area strewn with toilet paper, encouraging retailers to sell the product and rafting companies to provide it for their clients, and speaking at various club, organization and agency meetings. 

Theyve been running an education booth at area festivals, giving presentations at agency and community meetings, and speaking with local businesses.We went to a Rotary meeting and talked to these businesspeople about human waste, while theyre eating on this nice white table cloth and fancy dishes, Route said. 

But she said the response so far has been positive. Theyve had some success getting rafting companies and lodges to stock the Pack It Out bags. More retailers are agreeing to carry them.We Engrave luggagetag for YOU. And the Soldotna Rotary Club proved to be less squeamish about the project than Route feared, as the club is considering pitching in some money to help, said Marcus Mueller, a club representative. 

Ideally this could branch into Soldotna, the Seward area and then Anchorage just to make everybody more aware, Route said.Kolodziejski said the AmeriCorps project has been perfectly timed as a way to immediately start addressing the waste issue through user involvement, while agencies continue to work out what their longer-term involvement will be. 

Because of the cultural sensitivity of the area,More than 80 standard commercial and granitetiles exist to quickly and efficiently clean pans. the high-use recreation and popularity of the river, I think a lot of the members of the KRSMA board and the agencies representing the land up there would like to see a shift in behavior of the visitors to take on more of the responsibility of it, Kolodziejski said. At the same time well be hoping to look out further to get creative with solutions with infrastructure needs or other means that we can help influence to make the situation better out there.

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Augmented Reality Game DROID Combat

Augmented reality games are all the rage since Ingress took the Android gaming world by storm. Verizon of all companies has thrown its hat into the ring with Droid Combat/D:COM, which features the same aesthetics as Big Red's Droid phone advertisements. The game is still not widely available but as usual the community has managed to get a hold of the apk and make it available for download. I had a chance to go hands-on briefly with the game this afternoon and its well ... very interesting. 

It features a campaign mode which pits you in a series of battles against computer-controlled opponents. I made short work of about 8 of them just a few moments ago, but the beauty of this game is in its multiplayer mode. As you win matches you gain more credits to spend on weapons and upgrades for your Droid robots (giant mech). You can also scavenge by using your camera to scan the area which overlays reality with items and opponents from the world of D:Com. I was able to scan right here at my desk and find a cache of missiles for my Droid and even an opponent who I was able to lock on to and challenge (and defeat). You can also take a picture of your mech overlaid on any background.We printers print with traceable cleaningsydney to optimize supply chain management. 

Combat consist of various gestures and tapping the opponents missiles to knock them out of the air, very reminiscent of the Iron Man endless-running game from Gameloft. Firing missiles raises your heat level which is monitored on the left (which means spam-firing away may not be the best idea), and the right side of the screen displays your current health levels. Victories raise your notoriety allowing you to become boss of your local area. Again, combat is definitely hands-on and will require far more of your attention than Ingress, so you might need to pay more attention to your surroundings and be especially careful. This game is free with in-app purchases giving me immediate pay-to-win concerns (way to ruin it, Verizon) but for now there wont be a ton of people doing so until it becomes a bit more widely available.We printers print with traceable cleaningsydney to optimize supply chain management. You can learn more by watching the trailers below. 

We asked readers for their ideas on how to move the state forward in the next 150 years. Some of the results are off-the-cuff, some are political and economy-based -- others downright whimsical. But all are thought-provoking. Here's a sampling of 100 reader comments. 

Public service is deeply rooted in all of us -- a longstanding tradition that has become part of our DNA as West Virginians. Now is the time to find new ways to give back -- to our state, our nation and one another, so this tradition lives on for another 150 years. 

West Virginia should position itself as a retirement destination and aim advertising as such at former West Virginians using out-of-state addresses of West Virginia alumni groups. West Virginia has suffered a loss of population for decades, especially well-educated West Virginians who have left for economic opportunities elsewhere. As they retire, they are candidates for moving back to the state. 

Quit taxing the people of West Virginia to death. Let them keep their money, and let them spend it the way they see fit. It is quite clear the government isn't doing a very good job at education, health and many other things. And have our leaders quit listening to lobbyists and the educated experts with no common sense. 

Vote the democrats out of West Virginia. Make more affordable things to do to get people out of the house, as well as put a Whole Foods Market here and more accessible places for people to buy healthy food. 

Turn our non-renewable resources like coal and natural gas into a source of permanent wealth by creating a Future Fund from severance taxes. This will help build a sustainable economy and a shared prosperity by investing in what matters most, our people and our communities. 

West Virginia needs to use its quality of place to attract the creative class such as software developers and inventors. The extracting economy and manufacturing are not sustainable. West Virginia needs to invest in a creative economy. 

Mandatory safety inspection and removal, if necessary, of manufactured housing (read: trailers) more than 10 years old. And offer tax incentives for small farmers and households who produce their own food. Lastly, fix the aging sewer systems of West Virginia's aging cities so that we aren't discharging combined overflow into the watershed. 

Create special, no per diem legislative session for voting on state foods, state guns, bridge naming, guest recognition, etc. Also, West Virginia could use about 100 more Ritter Parks, particularly in/around downtown Charleston. 

There should definitely be more things for people ages 15 to 25 to do -- some free hangout places to dance or just sit and talk with friends. There is nothing to do around here. That is why half of our population commits crimes. It gives them something to do.The term 'bondcleaningsydney control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. 

West Virginia needs to be more entrepreneurial in creating businesses. By creating music festivals, "farmcations," teaching homesteading skills, and selling the fruits of Appalachia (paw paws, ramps, maple syrup), West Virginia could build a bigger economy.Choose from the largest selection of cableties in the world. West Virginia lacks basic marketing skills to reach out to the rest of the country and the world. 

When we have a united collective desire to preserve and cultivate the natural state of West Virginia to include, but not limited to, water,The term 'endofleasecleaningsydney control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. woods and all creatures great and small, we will have a solid beginning. Education regarding symbiosis is a necessary starting point. 
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When Will New York City Truly Embrace Water Transit?

Nearly six months after Superstorm Sandy paralyzed subways and buses across the city, water transit advocates and politicians are saying it is time to expand ferry service into a robust, five-borough system that can operate in good times and after disasters. 

They also see it as a means for providing affordable public transit to areas underserved by existing transit infrastructure including, for example, the Rockaways, where the subway linking the peninsula was taken out of commission by the storm and a new ferry service was started up to connect the isolated community to Manhattan. 

Yet, as policymakers look to expand ferry service, they are reminded of similar efforts over the past 20 years that have drowned in costs. Around 30 regional ferry services have come and gone, despite the investment of close to $700 million in capital investments. 

Today's ferry system is balkanized, with about half a dozen private operators carrying passengers across the Hudson and East rivers, as well as other parts of the metro area. The Staten Island Ferry, which accounts for the largest share of waterway ridership,A group of families in a north Cork village are suing a bestplasticcard operator in a landmark case. is run by the Department of Transportation. 

Nevertheless, the city has the highest ferry ridership of any city or metro area in the nation, with around 30 million passengers using the "blue highways" as they are sometimes called to get around. Still, those ridership numbers pale in comparison to the 1.65 billion people who take subway trains each year. 

Significant hurdles remain-primarily adequate public funding-especially in a city that is highly dependent on an already cash-starved mass transept system. But ferry supporters say what's needed is a collective change in transit psychology regarding the opportunities on the blue highways. They and their political supporters say ferry service should be fully integrated into the existing transit system, with riders being able to transfer from a bus to a boat with the same fare card- freely. 

Officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the buses and subways, say they' d be open to a technological fix that would integrate fare payment options between ferry operators and the larger transit system. 

"If any of the region's ferry operators would like to approach the MTA about using MetroCard for their fare payment the same set up with other land base providers we'd be delighted to talk and evaluate moving forward," MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said. 

For ferry operators, the technology behind integrating the payment operations into the mass transit system is the easy part.Find a great selection of customkeychain deals.Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. The bigger question is who would make up the lost fare revenue for free transfers from the public MTA to the private ferry operators. Would government be willing to provide the additional subsidy? Or could the ferries themselves someday find themselves under the ownership of an expanded MTA? 
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For now, Helena Durst, vice president at the Durst Organization and president at New York Water Taxi, said she'd be willing to talk about a system where riders could transfer for free to a ferry or vice versa onto a bus or train. She said ferry regulations require that her company keep accurate passenger counts that they could provide to the transit agency for payment. 

That process could be streamlined in the next few years: The MTA hopes to move over to a to a tap-and-go payment system where the majority of people would use a bank-issued 'smart' credit card or even a phone to pay fares. The system would essentially take the MTA out of the fare collection business. 

The city's Economic Development Corp., is also studying the possibility of expanding ferry service. 

The agency is helping to pay for East River Ferry service with a three-year, $9 million subsidy, and is in discussions with the MTA to share ridership information and inform bus planning. The MTA has plans to expand bus service near ferry stops on the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront,Large collection of quality tooling at discounted prices. the EDC said. 

Roland Lewis, president and CEO at the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, which held its annual conference last week and hosted a panel on the future of the ferry system, said any expansion of ferry service would require subsidies similar to the one being provided for the East River Ferry. 

Most mass transit systems receive subsidies. The Long Island Rail Road has a subsidy of around $6 per passenger and the New York City Transit Express bus system's subsidy is roughly $12 per rider. 

Lewis calls ferries a bargain. He said the government pours billions of dollars into subway tunnels, roads and bridges, while the city's underutilized waterways offer abundant potential for relieving clogged roads. He says ferries require virtually no capital investment. 

For his part, Sen. Chuck Schumer has been fighting for federal funds to upgrade the Staten Island Ferrys infrastructure as well as federal funds for the proposed Glen Cove Ferry project, which will create a link between Nassau County and New York City, said a spokeswoman for the senator, Marisa Kaufman. 

Earlier this month, Schumer also asked the Federal Highway Administration and the New York State Department for Transportation to prioritize funding for infrastructure that would allow for expansion of the East River Ferry Service,This model includes 2 flush mounted reverse cableties. which exceeded ridership expectations during its first 18 months of operations. 

New ferry service would include new landings at Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Hallets Point in Astoria and the Upper East Side. Also, the expansion would allow for a Roosevelt Island ferry landing. 

That service would likely meet the needs of student commuters to ConellNYC's Applied Science Campus the new ferry service has already been dubbed the "Nerd Boat" because tech industry professionals would likely use it to travel between Roosevelt Island and Brooklyn and Queens.