miniddy11的部落格

安徽省合肥曹姓夫婦上周一下午於路上檢到一部智能手機，聯絡到女機主並相約翌日歸還。女機主討回手機後竟指夫婦是賊，並帶來多名同事圍毆夫婦，妻子被打至血流披面。夫婦不忿被屈報警求助，最後終還清白，而打人的女機主僅賠償三百元人民幣了事。（綜合報道）迷你倉尖沙咀

【香港商報訊】記者葉佩瑜報道：一年一度、為期24日的第48屆工展會，迷你倉西貢昨天正式於維多利亞公園揭開序幕。一如以往抗通脹「1元筍貨」，成為入場人士爭奪的目標，大部分「1元筍貨」均在開幕後5分鐘內售罄，部分攤位前隊伍一條又一條，「打蛇餅」情況十分墟�。有個別商號因安排不周，導致有市民及員工跌倒受傷，在場人士一度鼓譟，情況頗為混亂。有商家強調會汲取教訓，今日會有新方案維持秩序。近千客排隊靜候開幕搶筍貨 備受矚目的「掃貨」聖地———工展會終於在昨早11時正式開鑼。記者現場所見，有近千名市民在開幕前便集結於銅鑼灣或天后入口處準備，靜待開幕後即刻衝向目標攤位。 首日推出限定10個「1元超值海味福袋」，及每日限定50個「1元時令湯包」的南北行參茸藥材有限公司成為入場人士必爭之地。會場甫開放，即有近百名入場人士從銅鑼灣入口奔往該公司攤位，有人先到但被擠出隊伍、有人有籌卻無貨、有人「甩頭甩髻跌爛袋」、有人希望拿籌卻被亂指往錯誤方向，更有多名長者及員工被推撞倒地，情況墟�、場面混亂。 多名長者員工遭推撞倒地 成功買到「1元超值海味福袋」，排頭位的紀先生表示，每年均會到工展會搶購「1元產品」，是次特意提早半小時排隊，雖然最終成功買到福袋，但心情十分矛盾，一方面為「執到平貨」感到好高興，但另一方面卻認為情況很危險。他透露一度被撞至心臟位置疼痛，又批評該公司安排差，指示不清晰，有幾條隊伍，建議該公司下次安排員工協助排隊，從而維持安全秩序。 迷你倉將軍澳功買到「1元時令湯包」的黃婆婆透露，是次特意與友人從屯門來維園「掃貨」，雖然最終未能買到福袋，但「『執到』1元優惠」已很開心，主要「意思、意思」。 穗一家四口專程入場掃貨 南北行參茸藥材有限公司助理市務經理崔家權認為，攤位場面熱烈，代表該公司的宣傳方向正確，但承認排隊安排有不足之處，為導致場面失控而致歉。他透露，已安排補送貨品予有籌無貨的人士，另外亦沒有收取任何「1元產品」費用，強調會汲取教訓，未來必定會做好安全工作。 雖有商號混亂，但另一邊廂，推出首50名免費試食「鮑撈起」的安記海味則暢順得多。首名排隊人士是由廣州來的徐婆婆稱，「鮑撈起」味道酸酸甜甜，十分惹味，能夠免費品嘗十分開心，是次一家四口特意來「掃貨」，主力買海味，覺得會場氣氛熱烈，明年有機會會再來。 谷宣傳吸引陸客組團入場 推出首10名「1元罐頭鮑魚」的香港鴻星食品銷情理想，其市務部經理顏弘岳透露，所有「1元罐頭鮑魚」已在幾分鐘內售罄，期間秩序良好，沒有發生推撞，他對首日會場人流及該公司的宣傳反應好滿意。他稱，由於是次展期較貼近農曆新年，故該公司增加了海味零售貨品，希望「吸客」，預料總銷售額會穩步上升。 廠商展覽服務有限公司主席吳永嘉表示，今屆工展會，廠商會與內地旅行社合作，由內地旅行社組團來工展會購物，他們還特別加大在內地宣傳力度，宣傳費按年增加一成。他舉例說，工展會在深圳口岸以「包柱」的形式，首次大規模賣廣告，希望吸引更多內地客來工展會購物。迷你倉尖沙咀

記錄二戰風雲、隨阿波羅號登上月球、第一時間拍攝美國總統肯尼迪遇刺事件，mini storage在過去的100多年的時間�，柯達膠片一直是歷史的見證者和記錄者。直到今天，柯達依然是膠片的代名詞。然而數碼時代的轉型失敗，使柯達陷入了絕境。不過柯達並沒有一蹶不振，經過自救，曾經的黃色巨人變身為圖文印刷小巨人，而擁有大量的老柯達專利也為柯達未來提供巨大的想像空間，同時柯達的興衰也映射了很多巨頭企業的命運，只是柯達並沒有像大多數倒下的企業那樣徹底死去，柯達「復活」了，柯達的故事還將繼續下去。 綜述/記者林越今年11月11日，走出18個月破產保護期的柯達公司，重返紐交所上市，股票交易代碼由原來的EKOD改為KODK，一度倒下的黃色巨人捲土重來。「新晉」的老柯達但現在的柯達已經不再是人們記憶中那個外包裝黃顏色膠卷的柯達，而是一家主營改為提供圖文印刷技術和服務的公司。公司年營業收入也從巔峰時期的160億美元，縮減為26億美元。這一切都是柯達「瘦身」轉型的結果。今年5月，柯達最大的債權人柯達退休基金接手了柯達的個性化影像和文檔影像業務，把柯達從破產邊緣拉了回來。此前柯達退休基金曾向柯達公司索賠28億美元，但最終他們不僅免除了柯達25億的退休金義務，還提供了6.5億美元的現金。9月3日，柯達退休基金接手後的新公司成立，為了與柯達區分，新公司被命名為KodakAlaris。 Kodak Alaris的新公司繼承了老柯達的個性化影像和文檔影像業務，柯達公司則繼承了老柯達的商業印刷業務。值得注意的是，KodakAlaris個性化影像業務的總裁Dennis Olbrich和文檔影像業務的總裁Dolores Kruchten都是原柯達的高管，有柯達員工表示，實際上掏出真金白銀的柯達退休基金並未干涉過多管理業務。儘管法律角度上兩家公司已無關聯，但柯達退休基金對柯達的配合程度遠超正常公司，一個被忽略的事實是，直到今天，超過7000項的專利仍保留在柯達手�， 而非新成立的KodakAlaris。「復活」的結在何處其實轉向圖文印刷正是柯達起死回生的轉折點。柯達現任CEO 安東尼奧•佩雷茲（AntonioPerez）2003年之前是惠普的噴墨打印機業務的負責人，2003年他臨危受命帶領柯達轉型，收購加拿大克里奧公司只是安東尼奧帶領柯達轉型數字圖文印刷的開始，這宗交易柯達出資高達9億多美元。此外，安東尼奧還相繼完成了對Bobst 公司、Unipixel公司、Timsons公司以及全球最大的印刷板材生產商柯達寶麗光等五六家公司與印刷油墨、板材、軟件等相關公司的收購和整合，構建起數字印刷領域完整的產業鏈。柯達印刷業務在中國市場開荒拓土，業績不俗，柯達大中華區總裁王兵說，目前年營業收入10億元，佔整個大中華區市場的15%，但佔高端產品50%以上的市場份額，其中柔性印刷版的銷售每年以30%以上的速度遞增。能在中國取得如此良好的業績，柯達手中的利器是他們能給印刷廠商提供高速印刷所需要的噴墨頭和噴碼技術。因為高速印刷的核心技術在於噴墨頭設備，而中國企業目前還不具備生產噴墨頭的核心技術。此外，柯達的這項高速打印技術還被廣泛應用到需求量急劇增長的快遞單上。柯達中國公司市場部顧經理稱， 國內快遞公司百分之八九十的快遞單採用的是柯達印刷技術。一份快遞單5聯，5張單子都印有條形碼。全國每天有數億張快遞單使用，採用高速打印的印刷生產方式，條形碼印刷不容出錯，否則物流無法進行，包裹送不出去。按照王兵的儲存法，柯達下一步重點推廣的印刷技術能夠做到按需印刷，用戶需要印多少就印多少。若果真如此，將引起一場印刷業的技術革命。柯達今年全球的銷售收入在26億美元左右，稅前利潤約1.6億美元。預計5年後，銷售收入增長到45億美元，利潤4億多美元。而公開市場數據顯示，全球包裝市場規模到2015年預計為3,000億美元，功能印刷的市場規模達到500億美元。 「這是我們現在給財務分析師、給投資者講的故事，並用多種方式向他們證明這個故事是可信的。」王兵補充說。重新上市的柯達新股東包括私募投資公司黑石集團、對沖基金藍山資本，美國證監會文件顯示，這兩家股東在新柯達的持股都超過20%。從專利控到「專利獸」如果說轉向圖文印刷領域使得柯達起死回生，獲得喘一口氣的時間，那麼擁有老柯達數量龐大的專利則為柯達的未來發展提供了巨大的想像空間。事實上，柯達能在圖文印刷領域打出一片天地，也與啃老柯達的「老」有關。印刷是材料科學和影像科學的最佳結合，柯達做了100多年膠片，同時擁有色彩和精細化工的經驗和技術。轉型到圖文印刷領域，柯達正是在此基礎上，通過接連買下四五家印刷行業技術前沿的不同產品公司，與柯達原來一家印刷相關公司以及保留下來的專利技術，重新整合資源，共同完成了柯達圖文印刷部門的組建。而且通過對外授權柯達的數字成像專利，並發起專利訴訟，也很早就成為柯達創收的方式之一， 2008至2010年間，這一戰略為柯達帶來了19億美元的收入。而今年2月，柯達出售大約1,100項專利，總交易價達5.27億美元，那些專利的買家包括蘋果和谷歌在內的各種公司。柯達從發展初期便開始積累與膠片和塗層技術相關的專利，柯達的專利總數超過1.1萬項，很多新專利都集中在圖片預覽等數字領域，雖然已有一部分專利被出售，但剩下的專利數量依然龐大，而這些數量龐大的專利為柯達提供了巨大的「啃老」資本，而柯達的未來也會因為擁有這些專利而有可能。品牌老大的宿命由輝煌走向衰落，柯達曾經走過的道路，是不少知名企業都走過的，這彷彿成為一些品牌老大們的宿命。做「百年老店」，讓基業長青，是所有企業夢寐以求的目標，但是，今天的企業面臨的已經是一個快速變化的市場，在技術革命高度發達以後，全球性的技術創新已經呈現出爆炸式的發展，傳統企業那種以「一招鮮」來「吃遍天」的經營模式不可能保證永遠立於市場的高位，一個一成不變的基業再也不可能「常青」，只有不斷地追逐具有領先水平的科技生產技術，並且不斷向消費者提供高新技術產品，企業才有可能在殘酷的市場競爭中立於不敗之地。其實，在柯達之前已經有很多全球性的知名企業為我們提供了現成的例子，比如曾經在手機市場上處於領先地位的諾基亞和摩托羅拉，在平板電腦市場上曾經風光一時的惠普，都是由於在技 術創新上落後一截，如今受盡市場的冷遇，甚至基本退出了市場。看一看今天的消費者對蘋果公司連續推出的iPhone和iPad產品的追逐，就不難想像諾基亞、摩托羅拉和惠普的落寞。柯達沒有像大多數企業那樣在倒下之後一蹶不振，柯達又站了起來。柯達大中華區總裁王兵曾說：「恐龍很大，有一天一顆彗星掉了下來，大的恐龍都死了，只有從恐龍進化來的一隻飛向藍天的小鳥活了下來。是不是巨大的恐龍一直要活下去才叫成功？我認為柯達從恐龍進化為一隻鳥，變成一隻鳳凰，也是成功。」曾經的黃色巨人由恐龍進化為了一隻鳥，現在的柯達能由一隻鳥「浴火重生」變成一隻鳳凰嗎，一切還未知，但我們知道的是，柯達並沒有真正倒下，柯達的故事還將繼續。迷你倉

（適耕莊13日訊）沙白縣議會日前於順聯花園展開大掃除，迷你倉以推行防蚊醒覺運動。行動黨適耕莊州議員黃瑞林指出，目前仍是雨季，多個地區出現積水，加上空置單位內的積水不獲處理，黑斑蚊只需在5毫升積水即可產卵，相等於一小湯匙的水，7天即可長成蚊。他說，雪州政府、雪州房屋局及12個地方政府從11月始，每星期召開一次會議探討，包括大掃除及監督蚊症黑區，大臣及州自存倉政議員在黑區也分階段有效推行大掃除活動。“地方政府衛生小組也在潛在的蚊症黑區推廣防範蚊蟲衛生活動。”黃瑞林目前也在適耕莊提倡“垃圾不落地，環保靠大家”的運動，鼓勵村民、商家及小販不要亂丟垃圾。他說，適耕莊如今已是一個旅遊景點，也有許多來自國內外的遊客來到，若溝渠及路上堆滿垃圾，不只影響市容，讓遊客留下不好的印象，也導致溝渠出現阻塞和滋生孑孓問題。;迷你倉

It's too hard to be like Mandela, but we can search for the better parts of our natureIn a university in Liverpool, some distance from Little India, two Singaporeans take a stance and make a point.mini storage Mr Tai Wang and Mr Kyle Sim are 24. One studies architecture, the other law, both share a common humanity.They have started a fund that, among other things, will assist the family of the Indian national whose death in a traffic accident sparked last Sunday's riot. They have raised US$1,180 (S$1,480) and it is not the sum that is relevant but the quality of their act.Perhaps it is the Bangladeshi workers that Mr Wang has met in Singapore, or the coffee shop in England where he works part-time, but there is a clarity to his conscience. "This is not the time for inaction," he says. He believes his generation must have a voice and they must speak for the underprivileged.He has received hate mail already - "why are you helping those people" - yet responds with calmness about his critics. "I must get these people on my side," he says.It is an appealing moment for two young men have revealed themselves as compassionate. Yet in a city where workers are often second-class people and many maids are simply objects of use, are we?In the aftermath of a startling riot in a placid city there will be rightful punishment and justified condemnation of thuggish behaviour. Mobs we don't want. But in a practical nation there must not only be accusation but also reflection on the nature of compassion.There is a quote attributed to Plato which has an elegant simplicity: "Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle." To lacerate an entire tribe of workers from diverse nations who toil 10 hours a day or more for a modest wage is too easy. To offer them dignity is invariably harder.In the week in which Mr Nelson Mandela died, this would be appropriate. The South African was convenient to admire for he gave us nobility and appeared to single- handedly compensate for a planet's callousness. But to only laud Mr Mandela is lazy. The idea of example is to learn and if we cannot be him, we can at least try to be a lesser, diluted version of him.It means before we have a national conversation on divisiveness and classism, we first must have a conversation with ourselves.Am I compassionate enough? Do I wonder enough about the workers' families left behind in distant homelands, of a year passed without a hand to hold and a face to kiss? Do I consider enough this tyranny of distance where so much of life is led in isolation?Do I think enough about the truth that, but for an act of chance, that could be me? Do I ponder enough about the loneliness of crowded dormitories, a mother's missed birthday and about people who are as foreign to us as they become to their children whom they live apart from? Do I even take 10 minutes, on enough days, to ask my maid how her day has been?No, I don't. Not enough. And yet if we ask ourselves, are we good people, we will instinctively say yes.So maybe this riot offers itself as an opportune time to search for the better parts of our nature. For those parts are there. In a 2004 paper, Professor Dacher Keltner, the founder of the Greater Good Science Centre at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote that "it has long been assumed that selfishness, greed and competitiveness lie at the core of human behaviour". Ye迷你倉, he adds, "recent scientific findings forcefully challenge this view of human nature. We see that compassion is deeply rooted in our brains, our bodies".Yet he tags a warning onto this: "Realising this is not enough; we must also make room for our compassionate impulses to flourish."Goodness must have a chance to work. But reflection requires time and Singapore, like most urban sprawls, is a hectic, blinkered city whose pace can be told by the furious click of heels on marble floor. We may not mean to ignore the world around us, but we sometimes do; we don't always choose to be rude, but we can be. The average tourist, like my blissful parents, will speak constantly of Singaporean kindness, but there is another barometer. It is what we are to the disadvantaged and how we look at the deprived that reveal us.Mr Mandela's virtue lay in his ability to unite. Division, after all, is a simpler business and our planet - and this includes Singapore - has become adept at it. In casual remarks, in careless tweets, in callous online postings, we segregate ourselves into "us" and "them", washed and unwashed, poor and rich, executive and worker. The more we divide, the more we retreat into mental ghettoes, the less we learn, the colder we are.Singapore treats its maids with more civility than some nations I know and is less xenophobic than other lands I have lived in. But we cannot be reassured by nations "worse" than us. We must instead confront our worst selves. We embrace those polls that state this is a liveable city, a clean city, an honest city. But surely the most evolved cities are not just those with green parks and swept roads, but also with strong conscience.Some of it is already evident in the letters to this newspaper which are armed with caring. We need these fine, reasonable voices because a truly enlightened citizenry is not just one that pays better, or imposes law and order, but also one that honestly negotiates its own moral landscape. If we celebrate our rise by 50 places to 64th in the 2013 World Giving Index - more are donating to charity and volunteering - then we must question why, when it comes to Helping a Stranger, we are 134th. Or second last.The unparalleled power of compassion starts by agreeing to share a city and its space with the maids. By acknowledging not just the skyscraper but also the man who builds it. When they return to their lands, it should not just be with money to feed a family but with a dignity intact. This we can do. It will not always come instinctively, but we must fight to find it. For when found, it is something.A colleague, a Singaporean who is of Indian stock, tells a tale from years ago. Of a day when he tugged on his shorts, grabbed his shears and wandered off to trim his hedge. Beyond his bushes on one side, in a condo, a worker was also gardening. On spying my colleague and believing he might have found a fellow foreigner, the worker asked with a smile: "You Bangladeshi, you Bangladeshi?"My colleague's first instinct was to dismiss him and point out he was no worker but the owner of the property. But he did not. Instead, he smiled back and softly said: "No, me Indian, me Indian." The Bangladeshi grinned, a connection had been made, a humanity established. And then both men, local and foreigner, advantaged man and disadvantaged one, returned to their gardening.rohitb@sph.com.sg文件倉

Source: The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.儲存C.Dec. 14--Whether sitting in his golf cart before practice or if it's 3 a.m. and he can't sleep, Southwest assistant coach David McLeod is constantly studying the Stallions' next foe, shuffling through piles of 8 x 11 sheets of paper with X's and O's or hitting the buttons on his computer.While all Southwest's coaches study film, the white-bearded McLeod dissects film like a dozen Hollywood critics looking for the tiniest flaw. But McLeod isn't looking for a reason to dish out a thumb's down review.He's looking for any edge he can give the Stallions, who today face Shelby for the NCHSAA 2-A state championship at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill."He loves looking at film and he does a great job breaking it down," SWO coach Phil Padgett said. "He's top-notch with that. He's an X's and O's kind of guy. ... All the coaches look at film, OK?"But he breaks it down more than the other coaches because that's kind of what he wanted to do. He's kind of taken over that role of breaking it down. ... He's the one that really studies it 24-7."Sometimes that's more literal than even McLeod might like. Asked if he might end up studying film at 3 a.m. this morning -- three hours before the Stallions were scheduled to leave for Chapel Hill -- McLeod answered in the affirmative."If I can't sleep, I'm watching film," he said. "My children know how to break down film, and they'll tell you that. My oldest son is a coach and he's already called me this week and told me all the tendencies Shelby has."McLeod said he charts every play from the film he receives from each opponent by formation, player and down and distance."All of the above," he said. "It's much easier than the old days when you had to do cut-ups (with film). I had to do those cut-ups when I was a G.A. (graduate assistant) at East Carolina. By putting everything in a computer, it just makes it so much simpler."And while he enjoys doing it, he also said it's part of the job and not some intellectual chess match on the gridiron."If you're going to coach defense the way it should be, then you want no stone unturned," he said. "You want to look at everything they do, watch every player; you study every play, you're looking for tendencies, you're trying to be in the right spot, those kind of things."McLeod is usually in the press box and communicates down to the field to defensive coordinator Tommy Barnes while also helping out on offense along with Eric Kliewer, who is the offense's eyes in the press box.How complex is Shelby, which runs a spread offense?"They've got a lot of formations," McLeod said. "In the playoffs, most of these teams have got a lot of different formations. But it doesn't take but one player to move to another position to make it another formation. They do a lot."Bracket bulliesIt's no surprise that Southwest and Shelby are in the state 2-A championship game. Between them, they have nine state titles since 1986.And while coaches will tell you they take it one game at a time, Shelby coach Lance Ware goes against that when the playoff brackets are first announced."When the brackets come out you see where the traditional power are," he said. "I think when both us are here playing in this title game nobody's surprised, including our own people. I think that's the expectation to be playing in December."So you want your kids to be there and expect to win, but they also need to enjoy this moment because there's a lot of people who'd trade places with them."13 years agoAmong the six previous trips to the finals -- Southwest is 4-2 all-time in the title game -- it was the Stallions'迷你倉2000 appearance that reminds Padgett of this year's team.Southwest won its first state title that season."The 2000 team I would say (is similar to the 2013 team) because we were a seventh seed that year and we are a sixth seed this year," Padgett said. "We also didn't win the conference in 2000 and then we ended up playing three home games in the playoffs when we thought we'd be on the road the whole time. We were then away for the East finals."Tough stretchesShelby opened the season with a win over Polk County before losing to A.C. Reynolds and South Points. The Golden Lions then lost two of their final three regular season games, dropping contests to Burns and Crest.Despite those two tough stretches, Ware said his team showed signs of progression."I thought we played well against South Point and against A.C. Reynolds we were in that game, we just didn't finish," he said. "We didn't finish against South Point, but I knew what kind of talent South Point had and I was pleased with how our defense played."And our defense has really gotten better here in the playoffs. We preached to them that if they wanted to play in December that they had to play great defense, they had to be able to run the ball and we needed to cause some turnovers and take it one game at a time."They bought into that and that's what we've done."No underdog hereWhile Ware did say his team was the underdog against Southwest, he said his team didn't think of itself being in the same role going into the playoffs, despite the Golden Lions sporting four losses and being the sixth seed in the West Regional."Those kids expect to win," he said. "But we relished the role of being on the road. They heard how good North Rowan was and so they wanted to make a statement and they did that, and they probably played their best game all year."Then they heard about Reidsville and they knew about their great tradition. We played well last week. My hope is that they come out with the same intensity and the same passion on Saturday."Thoughts on QBWare only had good things to say about junior quarterback R.J. George, who has thrown for 3,071 yards and 31 touchdowns in his first season being Shelby's signal-caller."For the most part he's made good decisions and the guys look to him for leadership," Ware said. "To do what he's done this year, he's over 3,000 yards when our school record was 2,100 yards. He's had a great year and his receivers have, too."The keyPadgett couldn't help but originally offer one of his many quips when asked what made Shelby hard to beat."Besides them being bigger, stronger, faster and better coached?" he asked jokingly.What's in the name?Southwest running back/defensive back Aurellio Ottey is known better by his teammates, friends and coaches as 'Shake 'Em,' although the junior doesn't know exactly how the nickname came to be."I've just had the name since I was a little kid," he said.Wake-up callPadgett can point to the moment that led his players to look at themselves and discover they weren't all that happy with how they were playing. It was the Stallions 30-25 loss at Northside on Oct. 25."I think our kids really decided, 'Dadgone it, (that isn't good enough),'" he said. "It kind of woke them up."NumbersIn case you're wondering, Shelby has more than 100 students more than Southwest. Shelby has 793 students, according to the 2013 average daily membership used by the NCHSAA to set the playoffs this year. Southwest has 676 students.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Daily News (Jacksonville, N.C.) Visit The Daily News (Jacksonville, N.C.) at .jdnews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存倉

Source: The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionDec.迷你倉 14--It was cold and rainy in Selma the morning of Feb. 15, 1965, as C.T. Vivian rose early and carefully selected his wardrobe for the day: a dark suit and collared shirt.Instead of a tie, he wrapped a scarf around his neck. He slipped on a pair of freshly shined shoes and his tweed overcoat. He decided against a hat -- even though that was the custom in the 1960s. In a time of conflict, Vivian knew, hats got lost.Respectability was woven into the nonviolence doctrine that Martin Luther King Jr. preached, and few practiced nonviolence as efficiently as the handsome, tall, slender and well-versed Vivian. That hadn't always been the case. Growing up as one of only a few blacks in a small Midwestern town, Vivian brawled almost every day in the schoolyard.Now both a minister and a leader in nonviolent protest, Vivian was about to face the biggest test of his religious and political beliefs.On this day, he walked to Brown Chapel AME Church, a Romanesque Revival red brick church with two steeples that had become a safe haven for civil rights workers to sing, gather and pray.If Alabama was the front line of American segregation, Selma, where 28,000 blacks were not registered to vote, was ground zero. Southern to the core, Selma enforced a strict form of oppression.And the chief enforcer was Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound bruiser known for a short temper, a fondness for cattle prods and wearing a George Patton-inspired World War II helmet.Two weeks earlier, the local Selma paper ran a front page photo -- carried nationally -- of Clark beating Annie Lee Cooper, a 54-year-old black woman, on the sidewalk outside of the courthouse as she tried to register to vote.Clark had initially poked Cooper in the back of the neck with his cattle prod, so Cooper turned and punched Clark in the face. Deputies dragged her to the ground as Clark savagely beat her with the prod. Vivian himself had a confrontation with Clark 10 days earlier."He was a mean, vicious, sick man," recalled John Lewis.At the church, Vivian greeted the crowd by asking if they remembered to be nonviolent -- no weapons or fighting -- even if they were beaten. They quietly nodded yes.Vivian smiled and pulled the collar of his overcoat over his freezing ears and led them through the heart of downtown. They made a left on Lauderdale Street and arrived at the steps of the Dallas County Courthouse. Sheriff Clark was waiting.2. Learning nonviolenceIn grade school pictures, Vivian is the only black boy in a sea of overall-clad white kids. He lived with his grandmother in the small town of Macomb in western Illinois. His grandmother, Annie Woods Tindell, chose the place because it was home to Western Illinois University, and she wanted her grandson to go to college, a privilege no one in the family had ever had.Vivian's mother and father divorced when he was a youngster growing up in Missouri, and Annie took a keen interest in her grandson's education.She often read to him passages from Williams Wells Brown's "The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements," which was published in 1863 -- two years before the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in America.As outlined in Wells' introduction, the book traced the lives of men who had, through "genius, capacity, and intellectual development, surmounted the many obstacles which slavery and prejudice have thrown in their way," and "raised themselves to positions of honor and influence."The first time Annie showed Vivian the book, his jaw dropped."She said, 'These are Race Men. Men of mark.' They had made their mark in life in spite of racism and poverty," Vivian said. "This book has always been a part of my life. She didn't say, 'You gonna do this,' and I didn't say anything back to her. She said it and moved on."But I knew."Pampered at home as the only child he was, Vivivan dressed well and was good looking. While popular in Macomb, he was not always socially accepted. "Racism was always there on the edge," he said.He would hear about parties, then be told by his white friends that their parents wouldn't let them invite him. He lost the lead in a school performance because, he was told, it was a family play. Instead, he had to paint sets."That is a long way from the lead," Vivian said. "But that gave me an understanding of the difference in how I thought things were, and what they actually were."Some slights he could not forgive, so he settled them with his fists. He was an easy target. He wore nice clothes and was black. But Vivian said most of the fights were just Depression kids acting out the only way they knew how."All we did was fight each other," Vivian said. "It was not because we were black or white, because we were all poor. We just fought."Sometimes, he was the victim. Once a group of boys chased him to the back of a lumber yard. Cornered and figuring he couldn't beat them all, he challenged the leader, Theodore, to a fight. Theodore refused and they all backed down.Vivian never ran again.Sometimes, he was the aggressor. Like the time he grew tired of a bully beating up weaker kids, so Vivian beat him up."We fought each other up and down that alley until we got tired," Vivian said.He was never bullied again.Finally, he became the bigger person.In the fourth grade, a white boy gave him a racist Valentine's Day card featuring a stereotypical black image. Furious, Vivian followed him to the lumber yard."I pushed him. I hit him. But he wouldn't fight me," Vivian said. "If he wasn't going to fight me, I couldn't fight him. I wanted to fight, but I couldn't. That is when I first learned nonviolence."3. Leading a movementVivian left Illinois in 1955 and moved to Nashville to study religion at the historically black American Baptist College. After high school, he fulfilled his grandmother's wishes and enrolled in Western Illinois, majoring in English. But he was barred from joining the prestigious English Club by the adviser and quickly became disillusioned with the university.By the time he reached Nashville, Vivian was already a husband, father and experienced civil rights advocate. He participated in his first sit-in in Peoria, Ill., in 1947, nearly a decade before the Montgomery bus boycotts and well before King burst upon the stage.A local restaurant was refusing to serve blacks. The sit-in ended the discriminatory policy."I knew then that we would always be working to end segregation and racism," he said.Nashville in the late 1950s became the training ground for non-violent protest, thanks to a Methodist minister and Ghandi follower named Jim Lawson.Along with Kelly Miller Smith, Lawson and Vivian formed the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference, the first affiliate of King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference.Like Atlanta, Nashville was teeming with black colleges such as American Baptist, Fisk, Meharry and Tennessee State, which produced a class of civil rights leaders that included John Lewis, Diane Nash, James Bevel and Bernard Lafayette.With the students on board, Lawson began a series of weekly workshops in black churches to discuss ways to desegregate Nashville through direct action, which would include sit-ins, picketing, economic boycotts and the possibility of jail.Older than most of the others, Vivian was a student of Lawson, but also a key mentor to younger students because of his age, experience and unique intellectual interpretation of nonviolence.Vivian became so committed to nonviolence that he wouldn't even allow his children to watch "The Three Stooges," according to his daughter.Vivian drew others to him another way: He was a skilled and gifted orator. Indeed, King himself later called Vivian the "greatest preacher that ever lived."In 1961, as they continued to train, the Nashville group watched closely as a group of civil rights workers from the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE), started Freedom Rides, to challenge interstate transportation laws. When they abandoned the rides after a series of vicious attacks in Alabama, the Nashville group, including Vivian, continued through the treacherous Deep South.Those rides, which led to Vivian being arrested and shipped to Mississippi's notorious Parchman Prison, marked the beginning of his major national movement work.Andrew Young said because Vivian was from the Midwest and had grown up with whites -- unlike most of the Southern leaders -- he brought a different perspective to SCLC."He was always free of any ego or any attempt to self-serve. He was totally unselfish in a movement that had a bunch of big egos," Young said. "He was comfortable working with and being around white people. He was not intimidated."Vivian was also strongly influenced by events in his personal life. His first son and third child, Cordy Jr., was born in 1955 with cerebral palsy.Doctors initially refused to place the prematurely-born Cordy in an incubator, because they didn't have one for black babies."Daddy always believed that that contributed to Cordy's condition," said Denise Morse, Vivian's daughter.Cordy had limited use of his arms and legs his whole life. Until he was able to walk on his own, his parents literally carried him to school.Cordy had a rocking horse that he played on until he fell asleep.It was when Cordy was asleep that the pain was the most intense -- for everyone. Doctors fitted his leg with a steel brace in an effort to straighten it. At night, Vivian often walked into the darkness of his son's room and saw him squirming and crying in pain.His trademark smile disappears and his eyes fill with tears when he recalls those moments."I just wanted to snatch that thing off him and stop the pain," Vivian said. "But I knew if he grew up not being ablmini storage to walk, he would know that I should have allowed the suffering."Vivian turned Cordy's ordeal into a parable for the civil rights movement."C.T. would tell us that story about how painful that was for him," Young said. "If the South is gonna rise and walk again, we had to keep the pressure on, because racism was a sickness only we can heal. It was the perfect analogy of what we did in the South to keep the pressure on."4. Selma, 1965Vivian and his 40 marchers arrived at the Selma courthouse and found Clark standing at the top of the steps, surrounded by a phalanx of deputies. TV news crews waited to capture the tense moment.It was Vivian, the SCLC's national director of affiliates, who had convinced the group that Selma's black community was savvy enough to start a major campaign, said Pulitzer Prize-winner David Garrow, author of "Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference."Several different groups -- teachers, housekeepers, students -- had made unsuccessful attempts to register to vote. That cold February day in 1965 was not Vivian's first time confronting Clark. On Feb. 5, he made an earlier trip, where he was greeted by a helmeted Clark, who allowed him to pray before arresting him.This time, Vivian walked up the steps, telling his familiar adversary the marchers had come to register to vote. Clark refused to let them pass, saying the courthouse was closed, and forced them to stand in the rain."Whenever anyone does not have the right to vote, then every man is hurt," Vivian told Clark, adding that the only reason he remained an elected sheriff was because he refused to allow blacks to vote. "You don't want them to register because you would no longer be able to use your brutality on them."Clark turned his back on Vivian, who was quick to use the slight to his advantage."You can turn your back on me, but you cannot turn your back on the idea of justice. You can turn your back now and you can keep the club in your hand, but you cannot beat down justice," Vivian said.By now, a crowd of whites started to heckle Vivian, calling him, of all things, a screwball."I'm a screwball for the rights of people to vote and if this is the kind of screwball I am, this is the kind of screwball America needs," he told them. "The kind of screwball that can get rid of Sheriff Clark, who beats people on the streets and keeps people from registering to vote."The growing crowd mocked Vivian, who continued to lecture them."You're laughing because you don't know what else to do. There was a day when you would beat me instead of laugh, wouldn't you?" Vivian said, before turning back to Clark."There was a day when you would arrest everybody and say, 'Well, we took care of that.' But the day of your criminal activity is just about over, gentleman, and you're going to have to survive by the means of law and order."Clark got madder, but didn't say a word. So Vivian talked around him and addressed the deputies."We want you to know, gentlemen, that every one of you, we know your badge numbers, we know your names," Vivian told the deputies, comparing their actions to Nazi Germany.Clark finally spoke, asking Vivian if he lived in Dallas County. Vivian said no, but he represented county residents who could not vote. Vivian turned and faced the crowd, taking them to church with a call and response."Is what I am saying true?" he yelled."Yeah!" the crowd responded."Is it what you think and what you believe?" Vivian asked."Yeah!" they shouted.Clark finally snapped.He ordered the TV cameramen to turn off their cameras."If you don't turn that light out I'm gonna shoot it out," Clark barked.The deputies started pushing the marchers down the stairs, as Vivian pleaded to them not to beat them.Clark then punched Vivian square in the face with a vicious left jab, sending him sprawling down the courthouse steps.As he tumbled down the stairs, a million things were going through his head -- school fights, sit-ins, Parchman Prison, Cordy, the chance he might be killed. The marchers who had come with him screamed and began to scatter. Some started to run back to Brown Chapel. Vivian lay dazed for a moment, his head throbbing and blood streaming down his face.The smartest thing, Vivian knew, was to stay on the ground. But he knew he had to get up."I had to show that I wasn't afraid."Vivian got up, but he didn't know what to say. Yet he never stopped talking. His voice now higher and more urgent."If you gonna arrest us, arrest us. But you don't have to beat us. If we are wrong, why don't you arrest us? We're willing to be beaten for democracy. And you misuse democracy in the street. You beat people bloody in order that they don't have the privilege to vote. You beat me in the side and then hide your blows," shouted Vivian, before quoting Winston Churchill. "What kind of people do they think we are? What kind of people are you? We are willing to die for democracy!"Because it was carried on television, historians have called Clark's attack on Vivian one of the defining moments of the civil rights movement."He knew it was gonna advance the movement the instant it happened," said Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of several histories of the civil rights movement.Bruised and wet, Vivian said he was never tempted to fight back. Nonviolence had to mean something, he said."It was not about me," Vivian said. "It was about, does it give us a chance to get rid of an evil system and evil people that run it. You have to confront the evils that are destroying people. And stop it."Clark later said he didn't realize that he had punched Vivian until his doctor told him he had a fractured finger.He would be voted out of office a year later and eventually serve time in prison for drug smuggling. Vivian left SCLC a year later as well, focusing on other projects -- including starting the Upward Bound college prep program -- before coming back in 2012 to become the organization's president."The thing about it is he didn't have to do it," Young said. "There had been people going down there every day and getting turned back by Jim Clark who just walked away. No one gave C.T. any instructions to do that. It took a lot of courage to get in Jim Clark's face. But if he had not taken that blow in Selma, we would not have had the Voting Rights Act."5. At the White House, 2013C.T. Vivian woke up early on the morning of Nov. 20.It was cold, but sunny in Washington, D.C., as the 89-year-old dressed.He slipped on a pair of freshly shined black wing tips. He wore a red tie, a crisp white shirt with cuff links and a dark blue suit. He put on his overcoat, but no hat.Vivian's hair is gray now, but aside from a few wrinkles, he looks almost exactly as he did that cold morning in Selma 48 years ago.When Vivian gets excited and wrapped up in a joke or one of his long stories, his voice gets so high and fast that you can barely piece together what he is saying. The punch line almost always comes with him slapping his thigh and calling his listener "Doc."His daughter, said "Doc" actually comes from her father not being able to remember names in the spur of the moment -- even those of his seven children, all of whom he called "little stuff."A town car took him on a journey to the White House, where the country's first black President, Barack Obama, was waiting to give him and 15 others the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor.Each recipient got five tickets for guests, but Vivian was able to score a sixth for his children.There were two notable absences: his wife, Octavia, and Cordy.Cordy died on Jan. 30, 2010, of heart failure. He had studied three years at Clark College and worked for a while at Emory University, but never seemed fulfilled."After Cordy's funeral, mom and dad sat in their bedroom and sobbed together," Morse said. "They went through so much with him."A year later, after 58 years of marriage, Octavia died."She was sick and he said, 'I am not ready,' Morse said. "Up to the end, he couldn't let go.""I wish my wife was there with me," Vivian said later. "But life didn't read that way for us."In the White House's ornate East Room, Vivian sat on Obama's left, while the president commanded the podium. To Vivian's left was Patricia McGowan Wald, the first woman appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. To her left was Oprah Winfrey.Also on stage were former President Bill Clinton, feminist Gloria Steinem, Mr. Chicago Cub Ernie Banks, musician Arturo Sandoval and country singer Loretta Lynn, among others."Time and again, Rev. Vivian was among the first to be in the action," Obama said. "And at 89 years old, Rev. Vivian is still out there, still in the action, pushing us closer to our founding ideals."When it was time for him to get his medal, a military aide read Vivian's bio. He stood nervously with his right hand resting across his stomach and his left hand touching his face.Obama, who was 3 years old when the events at Selma happened, walked behind Vivian and placed the medal around his neck.Vivian smiled. Then he laughed. Then he hugged Obama, remembering to call him Mr. President, instead of Doc."Did we win? Did we change the law? Did we open institutions? Did we help somebody?" Vivian said later. "There wasn't an institution in America that wasn't changed by what we did. But the victory isn't completely won yet. We still have to save America. Black people have to save America. It can't save itself. Four hundred years of slavery has proven that."------Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, Ga.) Visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, Ga.) at .ajc.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存

New attractions are popping up in the now safer Brazilian city which will host the World Cup next year and the 2016 OlympicsThis is Brazil's moment.迷你倉最平 I see a festive country all dressed up, waiting to play flamboyant hostess to the world at a pair of mega events.Next June, the World Cup finals will play in 12 cities across soccer-mad Brazil, where football is lovingly christened The Beautiful Game.Then Rio de Janeiro will welcome the 2016 Olympics, the first Games to be staged in South America, belatedly.Rio, as the main show, is revamping itself. It is safer and ritzier now, good news for any traveller stepping into a country of contradictions - First World economic star, much Third World rawness around the edges.Police are now significantly present in gang- scourged favelas or hillside slums in Rio. New attractions are popping up on its waterfront - a new Museum of Tomorrow will portray a green future.A city of blues and greens, Rio's vistas of curvaceous beaches and mountains are popular, and dreamier than I imagine.Embedded in the metropolis are less-explored enclaves that tell a more textured story beyond Rio's carnivalesque reputation.So earlier this month, I take in some classic sights first, and try to wander off the map here and there.On the peak of Corcovado, the statue of Christ the Redeemer, arms outstretched over Rio below, forms an Art Deco crucifix that is visible from afar and known globally. At night, the 38m statue is illuminated.I take a 20-minute tram ride over forested slopes to get up close to the icon (admission: 48 reals or S$26). It is a blazing day, but fog shrouds the statue, creating a moment of mystery and intimacy in a big city.On the way down, samba musicians from a favela step into the tram and play joyously. I am content to video their quick footwork on my iPhone but the lead singer ushers me to try the samba, which ends with a twirl, a kiss on the hand and a few reals in the hat.I love the towering perspective of high places and next seek Sugarloaf Mountain (admission: 63 reals), which I ascend by cable car on a sunnier day. This time, resplendent views of Rio lie at my feet.In a single panorama, I see the Atlantic Ocean and pinnacles, skyscrapers and slums. I see Guanabara Bay, which Portuguese explorers somehow mistook for a "rio" or river when they arrived on Jan 1, 1502. So the city is stuck with the mellifluous misnomer Rio de Janeiro - or River of January.Sugarloaf is hot and crowded, but I can retreat to whispery bamboo-clad corridors, where I drift into a "saudade" state of mind. The Portuguese word, nearly impossible to translate, evokes an emotion of loss or remembrance, with a sense of wistful pleasure. It is how I feel about Brazil (or a wonderful person I'll never meet again), which at that moment is captivating me even as I know my eight-day journey here is transient.My trip also includes business powerhouse Sao Paulo and the Iguazu Falls.An adorable palm-sized sagui monkey, cheeky like Brazil itself, breaks my reverie and I am ready to explore Rio again.It has 85km of curving coastline, and I walk long stretches of Copacabana Beach, first alone, then at night with two new friends.I admire beautiful Brazilian faces framed by luxuriant curls. On the sand, young footballers kick around till 10.30pm. At kiosks, I relax with coconut juice and a caipirinha, a sugary rum cocktail with lime wedges.On Rio's beaches, there is a great mixing of loners and lovers, favela dwellers and the middle class, which is burgeoning in this nation that forms the B in BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and more recently South Africa, a new constellation of vigorous economies.Brazil is the world's seventh biggest economy and seeks a "555" status - to be known as the country with the world's fifth biggest land area, population and economy.Moving further inland, I join a four-hour tour of the Tijuca National Park, an urban rainforest that amazingly resides in the heart of Rio.Tour operators run variants of this open-jeep excursion, which in my case starts with a 30-minute stroll in an exotic garden, Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro. I like the national Pau-Brasil tree - a valuable, versatile reddish wood that is fashioned into delicate violin bows or used in naval construction.Mainly, we drive on long, winding, shaded roads and stop for splendid views of waterfalls and the city.For a couple of days, I have a private tour guide who is determined to whisk me off the tourist map, beginning with Tijuca. Mr Franco Montefinese, 54, from the Viveterra agency, wants to show me a private museum in the same Tijuca wilderness.The lush grounds of Museu do Acude (free admission; Estrada do ccude, 764 Alto da Boa Vista) are dotted with whimsical installations in blasts of colour.I am walking in an enchanted forest, an Alice in Wonderland. I peer at trees merrily encrusted with painted crockery.I step onto a bridge built close to the tree canopy. And I run into actor Harvey Keitel, barely recognisable in shabby singlet. The Museu, apparently, is a location for a Spike Lee movie.Mr Montefinese enthusiastically shows me more and more, frequently stopping his car. I see traditional and modern churches, paragliders, eclectic Santa Teresa which is a magnet for artsy Brazilians, city views from the more tranquil Dona Marta and Vista Chinesa lookout points, a Japanese stone lantern, a nursery, exceedingly more.He also introduces me to a book-loving associate, Mr Edoardo Mannu, 43, an Italian film location manager from Sardinia who moved to Rio two years ago and wed a Brazilian.Mr Mannu takes a long evening walk around old Rio with me, guided by the GPS in his smartphone.A trio of hyper-local places linger in my mind. The Hanging Garden of Valonga is a hidden sliver of a park built above street level in 1906.Its greenery and stones softly eulogise the African slave heritage in Brazil, the last land in the Americas to abolish slavery in 1888. The garden, part of Rio's port revitalisation, is suffused with the last light of the day as I rest on a park bench, pleased that Rio is beautifying itself for the world.But I also think about the Brazilian protests against the overspending, and purported corruption, in raising the mighty infrastructure for the Games.I also like the Pedra do Sal (Rock of Salt), a tiny square where slaves unloaded salt. It is the birthplace of samba and every Monday evening, samba lovers gather here.The evening I am there, Dec 2, is National Samba Day. A little girl dances her heart out to live music, her feet a non-stop whirr. In the sultry air, dignified grandmothers in white lace and young body-conscious Brazilians mingle, quaffing beer. It is pulsating, spontaneous, and I try to picture Rio's showy Carnival originating in this no-frills enclave.I am also struck by the favela of迷你倉Pavao, linked by a gleaming new 20-storey elevator to sleek Ipanema below. Rio has seven million people, and one in five residents, probably more, live in these hillside slums with fantastical views.Football superstars and drug lords alike have sprung from these communities. Indeed I see football pitches, but no nefarious deeds as I trek the narrow streets.I enjoy the sight of children walking home after school with little Christmas trees, constructed from paper in their personal styles.Residents walk around with headphones. There are tourist hostels, cafes, credit card machines and a sense of normal life.Mr Mannu, who has lived in a favela, says: "Everyone works." Some may be waiters in my hotel, he surmises. "A favela is not a slum," he adds, airing a somewhat contrarian view. "It's not an open sewer. It is like an Italian hill village. It's an alternative way to live. People don't care about aesthetics. They live on top of the rich people."Certainly, favelas have names brimming with beauty and hope. Pavao means "peacock". Famously, there is the City of God (Cidade de Deus), immortalised in a hit movie of the same name a decade ago, and visited by US President Barack Obama.Often abutting oases of wealth, favelas reveal Rio as a city of extremes. This is heart-stoppingly true when I walk to the far edge of the favela, behind a school, and relish a kingly view of Rio. A serene, curved lagoon with an ostentatious floating Christmas tree lies far below, encircled by mountains and prime properties.There is a keen sense of Brazil as a blessed country, blighted in places, but perpetually seeking its place in the sun, and never more than now.siewhua@sph.com.sgWaterfalls in two countriesMy approach to the Iguazu Falls begins so gently on a 1.1km walkway over a somnolent river, where turtles snooze on rocks, that I am blissfully unprepared for the forceful magnificence of the waterfalls.It is only when the catwalk ends that I face the Devil's Throat - a gargantuan crescent of water falling endlessly and misting the air. The cluster of cataracts here, rising 80m, look like white cathedrals.Chillingly named, the Devil's Throat (Garganta del Diablo) is really the most angelic point of the complex of 275 waterfalls separating Brazil and Argentina.I spend one day each walking the trails and catwalks on both sides, beginning with Argentina (admission: 170 pesos or S$34; .iguazuargentina.com) which offers close, almost touchable views of the Devil's Throat and other waterfalls.The Brazilian side presents panoramas from further away and higher up.From a third frontier, Paraguay, a sliver of waterfalls is also visible. But the appeal is modest by comparison.Argentina contains most of the falls, so I traipse all over. The Upper Circuit, a short, easy walk, skirts the upper rim of the falls for sparkling views.My Brazilian guide Jose Paes tells me about the Jesuits who set up missions to "civilise" the Guarani Indians here in the 1600s.I picture Jeremy Irons in the 1986 epic movie, The Mission, replaying the scene where he climbs up the unforgiving falls.The Lower Circuit takes me to the base tiers of beauties such as Salto Bossetti. I walk downhill in the fiery summer heat of late November, till I reach the cool banks of the Iguazu River.Here, I hop onto a boat, for about US$50 (S$63). The expert boatman takes us thrillingly close to the feathery, roiling edge of the falls. It is all spray and vapour for a few moments.Rainbows arch in front of our boat, glowing intensely, then fading. I have pulled on a poncho, but I still get soaking wet. My camera is preserved in a "dry bag" that the operator provides, however.The next morning, I trek down a verdant, shaded trail full of butterflies on the Brazilian side (admission: 48 reals or S$26; .cataratasdoiguacu.com.br).It is just as fascinating as the Argentinian side. The vistas are grand, and at one point, I can almost see the beginning and the end of the Iguazu Falls, which stretch 2.7km.Waterfalls, much like skyscrapers, invite comparisons. Iguazu dwarfs Niagara in North America.The Victoria Falls between Zambia and Zimbabwe is higher than Iguazu, however, though not as wide.In Brazil, I love the elevated catwalk that takes me, poncho-clad again, right in front of waterfalls. I can feel the crashing power of the mightier falls, and also like the delicacy of the smaller cascades.I see leaping water, and also glassy, individual drops. Tiny swifts flit fearlessly through gaps in the curtain of water, nesting behind the falls.The Iguazu Falls perfectly fuse torrential power and ethereal beauty, and are sublime from any angle.Lee Siew HuaFootball kicks off in a museumFootball is in the blood of Brazilians. The Museu do Futebol (Football Museum) in Sao Paulo is a vivid portrayal of soccer culture in Brazil, which has dominated the game with five World Cup conquests.The museum (admission: 6 real or S$6.20; .museudofutebol.org.br) is a shrine to the Brazilian brand of creative, fast-paced soccer. Text and audio are provided in English.All the soccer superstars are feted here, beginning with Pele. In a holographic room, the stylish moves of Baroque Angels such as Ronaldo and Vava are highlighted.I love a massive, raw replica of soccer stands, where scenes of euphoria play on a screen.The images of Brazilians chanting, dancing, holding giant flags aloft convey the passion of the game.I pick up a bit of history, how soccer started as a white game here. European spectators wore top hats; players donned silk jerseys.The game now unifies the nation, and the excitement will peak when the Fifa World Cup finals roll around in 12 Brazilian cities next June.Sao Paulo will host the opening ceremony. The Brazilian business capital is known for gastronomy, museums, street art and Japantown.Other venues include Salvador (African drumming and beaches), Belo Horizonte (contemporary art) and Recife (Olinda, cradle of Brazilian culture and a World Heritage Site).Football touches the lives of Brazilians at many levels, and may be a ticket out of obscurity for gifted players in the multitude of favelas, or slums.For boys in poor families, it is one way to stay out of trouble.For a decade, Mr Franco Montefinese, 54, has volunteered to source footballs and uniforms for boys aged eight to 12 in the favela of Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro."Football is in the atmosphere. It's how you grow up in Brazil. This is discipline and friendship," he says.When his charges win matches, he loads them with their beloved cheeseburgers and Coke. If they lose, it is sparkling mineral water.I ask to see the children play, but there is no match or practice during my time in Rio.I do the next best thing. Balls roll down the slopes of the favela all the time, or wear out. I invest US$20 (S$25) to chip in one more ball.Lee Siew Huamini storage

Number of online customers growing fast, with widespread use of mobile devicesOnline users enjoy exclusive perksNot so long ago, Internet banking was a novelty, embraced by only a few tech-minded types.self storageNow, spurred by the burgeoning use of mobile devices, online banking is exploding despite some nagging concerns about security.And it is not just far more convenient - banking with the click of a mouse or the touch of an app can help you save money in some transactions too.For instance, many Internet banks do not charge a fee for buying a cashier's order online, but the same transaction may cost about $5 when you buy one at a branch.Rates charged for the transfer of funds are frequently cheaper online than for walk-in customers.Promotions held by banks offer online users higher interest rates for their fixed deposits.Rival online banks are also scrambling to offer more and more add-on services to online banking, such as reminders that bills need to be paid.The motivation for offering more appealing features is plain, going by the fast-growing numbers of customers doing online banking.At DBS Bank, the number of Internet banking users more than trebled from 550,000 in 2004 to 1.8 million last year, while its mobile banking app has more than 800,000 users now.OCBC's active Internet banking customer base grew by more than 50 per cent this year from 2011.At Standard Chartered, the number of customers using Internet banking rose by more than 50 per cent in the past two years, with the number of mobile banking users more than doubling.At Citibank, two out of every three customers use its online banking channel.This is expected to continue apace as customers increasingly turn to mobile devices to do their Internet banking while on the go.Seizing on the technological advances, some banks have come up with specially tailored mobile banking apps for smartphones.Such applications make the Internet banking process on smartphones smoother.For example, they use more icons to send commands instead of keying in the requests.Some offer new services. United Overseas Bank (UOB) was the first bank to offer cardless ATM cash withdrawals through a mobile app in 2011."The app put a 'branch in the hand' of our customers and, now, close to an average of 1.2 million transactions per month are made using the app," said UOB head of Internet channels Gilbert Chuah.It is no wonder that a poll of about 1,800 people conducted by IT security firm Trend Micro in March found that 85 per cent of consumers in Singapore who were surveyed make financial transactions online, and 40 per cent use their mobile devices to do so.Banks told The Sunday Times that more and more of their customers are going online.Tech-savvy clients fuel growthMuch of the growth in online banking can be attributed to a new generation of customers who are younger and more Internet-savvy.Chef Neo Huai Liang is typical of the many who prefer to go online for their banking needs.The 24-year-old said: "It's very easy for me to transfer money to my friends and I can do it any time. They can also check if the money is credited to them at home."Another enthusiast is IT consultant Viji Sam, 40."It's faster. I can use it any time and can keep track of my existing transaction history, instead of waiting for the monthly bank statements that only reflect what happened last month," she said.Of course, some Singaporeans - notably some older folk - are not as keen. Retiree Chiu Hai Chu, 73, has never thought about going online for banking."I don't understand English, so I can't figure out how to go on the Internet. I also live near the bank and it's quite easy for me to get the teller to help me with my transactions," he said in Mandarin.A check with local lenders found that online banking services are available only in English, as their customers are literate in the language.According to OCBC and StanChart, an Internet banking user is typically between 23 and 49 years of age, tertiary-educated, and holds a job as a professional, manager or executive.Still, DBS head of e-business Louis Foo said: "While more than 60 per cent of our Internet banking users are below 40, we have also observed an increasing trend of seniors using Internet banking. There is a year-on- year increase o迷你倉 25 per cent since 2010."To cater to the changing needs of customers, banks have been constantly revamping their websites.Most recently, Citibank completed the upgrading of its Singapore website last month, so it now has one common online platform that is used globally.StanChart's latest enhancement was done in July, when it used simpler language and made navigation easier so that customers are able to get to what they need with one click of the mouse.StanChart Singapore's head of digital banking Aditya Gupta said: "The purpose of these enhancements was to enhance customers' Web browsing experience on all digital gadgets and create a differentiated Internet banking experience."Special featuresOther than meeting the changing needs of customers, Internet banking also offers customers exclusive services and privileges.Not only are online clients able to enjoy the convenience of avoiding queues and accessing banking functions 24 hours a day, but they also receive preferential rates for certain transactions.Internet banking also has features that consumers can find useful.Alerts can be sent to notify you when bills are due so you will not be as likely to incur late payment fees.OCBC also has a function called Money In$ights, which tracks and analyses your spending, so you can plan ahead and prevent overspending.Its head of e-business Pranav Seth said: "The tool enables customers to easily monitor expenses, set budgets and save towards their goals. Money In$ights also automatically categorises spending."Citibank, meanwhile, has an option allowing its credit card customers to go online to convert their big-ticket purchases into instalment loans, even after the purchases have been made.The head of its e-business in Singapore, Mr Peng Chun-Hsien, said: "As a market leader in the consumer banking space, we are constantly exploring new opportunities, innovative products and services to enhance our customers' banking experience."Security measures crucialNot all are sold on this idea though. Teacher Jennifer Tham, 45, thinks that Internet banking poses too many security threats."You hear about all these hackers out there, stealing passwords, targeting and taking down government websites which are supposed to be secure," she said.Such fears are not without grounds. A report in the third quarter by Trend Micro found that the volume of online banking malicious software or malware surged to 202,000 - the most in a decade.Common Internet banking scams include phishing, which mimics a genuine bank website or e-mail to trick users into giving confidential information.Attackers can also capture your banking information through spyware installed on your computer.Senior technical consultant Bernie Png, from security software firm Fortinet Singapore, said: "Such spyware may have been inadvertently installed on your computer by you previously clicking on some infected links, or plugging in an infected thumb drive. Spyware is also common on public terminals."Banks say they deploy tight security measures on their websites, including the use of encryption to protect customer data.Besides the log-in password, online banking customers usually have to key in an additional one-time password for authentication purposes.Security alerts of possible scams are often posted on the banks' websites to warn customers of potential threats.Trend Micro's senior director for consumer business, Mr Terrence Tang, advises online banking customers against using public or shared computers, as these may not be safe.Even when using your own computer at home, anti-virus software checks should be done regularly."If your system's performance suddenly responds slower than usual, take a moment to scan it with a reliable security application. Cyber criminals may be compromising your banking session, causing the sudden slowdown," Mr Tang said.Other tips: Check for unauthorised or suspicious transactions in your account statements, do not click on links to untrusted sources and bear in mind that banks will not ask you for your banking or account passwords over e-mail, SMS or telephone.If a breach occurs despite all the security measures being followed, banks may refund the money stolen if it is proven that the loss is due to online fraud.feimok@sph.com.sg迷你倉樂器

Source: The Columbus Dispatch, OhioDec.迷你倉 13--Ohio State and Clemson found out Sunday that they are pitted in the 80th Orange Bowl on Jan. 3. But truth is, they've been going head-to-head for a while now, vying for various prospects on the recruiting trail.If you pinned down OSU coach Urban Meyer and Clemson's Dabo Swinney, they might even admit that the Raekwon McMillan Bowl is more important to them long term than the Orange. McMillan is the can't-miss, immediate-impact linebacker prospect from Hinesville, Ga., who will make his college choice known at noon Monday.It's interesting that two of the three major schools pursuing him are the Buckeyes and the Tigers, although Alabama has been coming on strong down the stretch."When you get up to that level of big-time college football, you have to expect to go head-to-head in recruiting with the teams you are competing with in the big games on the field," said Jeremy Birmingham, recruiting analyst for ElevenWarriors.com. "That's how you get to that level, by recruiting those types of players."Clemson gained an early commitment from one of the elite quarterback prospects nationally, DeShaun Watson of Gainesville, Ga., and Ohio State tried to flip him, to no avail.The Tigers also gained a pledge from OSU target Damarre Kitt, a receiver from Tyrone, Ga., for the 2014 class.It's an on-again, off-again recruiting rivalry that goes back years, including 2009, when both schools made major plays for quarterback Tajh Boyd. He picked Clemson, and on Jan.3 he will lead the Tigers against Braxton Miller and the Buckeyes in what is expected to be a high-scoring Orange Bowl."We unfortunately have to recruit against Ohio State for just about everybody," Swinney said with a laugh this week, referring mainly to luring prospects out of the state of Florida.But it's appropriate for the McMillan chase, too."He has arguably been the top prospect on Ohio State's board almost from the beginning of putting together the 2014 class," said Bill Kurelic, analyst for Bucknuts.com and 247Sports. "mini storagee is that good. And obviously he is at a position of need for the Buckeyes."The linebacker corps has been a cause of angst for Meyer and his staff for a couple of seasons now. They signed blue-chippers Mike Mitchell and Trey Johnson in the 2013 class, but Johnson has played sparingly and Mitchell was redshirted.Why do the experts believe McMillan will have any more of an immediate impact than those two?"I've seen him in some camps, and I saw play live this year, and he is absolutely as impressive as any linebacker I have seen in the last two or three years," said Marc Givler, analyst for Rivals.com. "He is already at 235, 240 pounds and has great speed."You could throw him in the linebacker warmup line at an Ohio State game right now and ask somebody to pick out the high-school kid, and they would not pick him."But who is McMillan going to pick on Monday? Alabama coach Nick Saban was scheduled to visit with him in Hinesville on Thursday night. And Meyer and several members of his staff are set to have the last in-home visit with McMillan on Sunday night before he makes his choice known. He had been considered a major lean to OSU in the past."For a while a lot of people thought Clemson might be Ohio State's biggest competition," Givler said. "But lately it looks to be Alabama; Clemson might be third now."Birmingham said, "Raekwon, I think at this point his head might be telling him 'Bama makes more sense (in terms of proximity and production of NFL-caliber linebackers) ... but I think his heart is in Columbus. And most of the time, an 18-year-old kid, that's what you follow."The only thing that gives me pause about that is Raekwon is not your typical emotional 18-year-old kid. He's very mature, he's calculating, and he knows his decision is not just for the next three or four years, but for the rest of his life. He's a different type of kid."Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) Visit The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) at .dispatch.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesself storage