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Tuesday, February 12, 2013
The Rise of the Consumer Electronics Prosumer
The smartphone processor with its in-built camera chip is driving a resurgence of interest in the art of photography. Just look at the Instagram app user numbers -- about 80 million at last count, according to publisher Burbn's blurb in iTunes. There's a problem, though. Today, the smartphone can't provide the image quality of a dedicated camera.
Daily Chronicle | DeKalb mayoral candidates talk business ...
DeKALB ? In the past five years, nine new businesses have been developed in downtown DeKalb.
Eighteen new businesses have been developed along Sycamore Road, along with nine along Lincoln Highway and five along Annie Glidden Road. During the same time, the city?s overall equalized assessed property value has dipped about 10 percent from $645 million to $582 million.
Meanwhile, the city increased its general fund savings from $21,869 in 2010 to a projected $5 million, or about 17 percent of annual expenses in 2013. Overall, city staff was reduced from 237 full-time equivalent positions in 2009 to 211 this year.
These were some of the data and accomplishments City Manager Mark Biernacki recently presented city leaders to give a broad perspective of city government over the past five years. The four candidates seeking to lead DeKalb for the next four years applauded those accomplishments ? but they think more work is needed.
Both Mike Verbic, DeKalb school board member, and David Jacobson, First Ward alderman, voiced concerned about the number of empty storefronts in downtown DeKalb and elsewhere.
Verbic and Jacobson are facing former Re:New DeKalb executive director Jennifer Groce and Re:New DeKalb secretary John Rey in the April election. Mayor Kris Povlsen is not seeking re-election.
The progress report lists only one new business development along South Fourth Street ? Dollar General. City officials and candidates have talked about the need for economic development in the area, including a new tax increment financing district. The city has two of the special property tax district, and leaders are exploring adding two more.
?We need to engage the public with these public projects like TIF,? Verbic said.
Jacobson said while the city has made progress, he is worried about the falling property tax revenues. With the city?s current tax increment financing districts both expiring by 2020, Jacobson said the city needs to find a way to re-develop without them.
Rey wants to improve the city?s ISO rating, which reflects the city?s fire protection capabilities and affects area insurance premiums. On a scale from zero to 10, with zero being the highest, DeKalb has a four.
?That could mean savings to homeowners in the form of fire insurance expenses,? Rey said, adding that this would have to be weighed against other priorities.
Biernacki?s report also noted that the city has saved $108,777 by outsourcing services, including economic development, inspections and engineering.
Verbic praised the work of City Attorney Dean Frieders of Frieders Law, LLC. Groce said she wants to explore other areas where the city can work with other governments, including the local school and park districts and even neighboring communities, to reduce duplication of services.
?What else can we do with local government to save residents money?? Groce said.
There are 22 hours, 19 minutes remaining to comment on this story.
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Monday, February 11, 2013
Police: 4 wounded in Bourbon Street shooting
NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? New Orleans police have released a bystanders' video of what they say is an argument involving some people in a Bourbon Street crowd celebrating ahead of Mardi Gras when shots ring out, followed by screams.
Police spokesman Frank B. Robertson says the shooting in the crowded French Quarter just days before Fat Tuesday left four people wounded, including a male victim shot in the abdomen, thigh and pelvic area. He says two other male victims also were wounded and one female.
The footage showed many partying in costumes before what police described as an argument between the most seriously injured male and two other men. Four rapid shots are heard, then screams.
Authorities have not said if they have made any arrests, saying they sought the public's help.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-4-wounded-bourbon-street-shooting-081910314.html
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Maker's Mark cutting alcohol volume in its bourbon
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) ? The producer of Maker's Mark bourbon is cutting ? likely permanently ? the amount of alcohol in each bottle to stretch every drop of the famous Kentucky whiskey. The alcohol volume is being lowered from its historic level of 45 percent to 42 percent ? or 90 proof to 84 proof.
The brand known for its square bottles sealed in red wax has struggled to keep up with demand that more than doubled the past seven years. Distribution has been squeezed and the popular premium brand has had to curtail shipments to some overseas markets.
"Over the last 100-plus days, there are many, many instances across lot of different cities where bars, restaurants, package stores have run low, run out," Rob Samuels, chief operating officer for Maker's Mark and grandson of the brand's founder, said Monday.
"Given the surge in demand outstripping supply, what we've decided to do very carefully is to slightly reduce the alcohol volume."
The recipe and production process will stay the same, except "a touch more water" will be added when the whiskey comes out of the barrel for bottling, Samuels said. The brand's bourbon is made at its distillery near the small town of Loretto, 45 miles south of Louisville.
Water is typically added before whiskey goes into the barrel for aging and after bourbon comes out for bottling, he said.
It's the first time the bourbon brand, more than a half-century old, has altered its proof or alcohol volume.
The lower alcohol volume is seen as permanent and will increase available volume by about 6 percent, Samuels said.
The change was done only after extensive testing showed it didn't alter the taste of Maker's Mark, he said.
"Paramount in our decision was ensuring the taste standard is exactly the same," Samuels said.
His father, Bill Samuels Jr., chairman emeritus of the brand started by his parents, said he thought his father would approve.
"He never really was wed to 90 proof anyway," the elder Samuels said. "It's just that he had to pick something, and he knew that anything over 90, the alcohol smothered the taste of whiskey and he was a little nervous about going too much lower."
Chuck Cowdery, an American whiskey writer and author of "Bourbon, Straight," said "time will tell" how the change sits with the brand's legions of devoted fans in an industry that clings tightly to tradition.
"They're banking that this won't be a deal-breaker with their consumers, that there will be a hew and cry for a few days, but sales won't miss a beat," he said in an email. "Are they right? Maker's is in many ways unique, so it's hard to say."
Maker's Mark is owned by spirits company Beam Inc., based in Deerfield, Ill. Its other brands include Jim Beam bourbon.
The supply shortage at Maker's Mark comes amid an ongoing expansion of its operations that has cost tens of millions of dollars.
A distillery expansion completed last year boosted production capacity by 45 percent, Rob Samuels said. Maker's last year added warehouse space for 100,000 more barrels of aging bourbon, and it expects that expansion pace to continue for at least another five years.
Maker's bourbon ages in barrels for at least six summers and no longer than seven years before bottling.
One shortcut the bourbon maker refuses to accept, Rob Samuels said, is trimming the aging process, which would increase market supplies. It also won't buy surplus whiskey from other distilleries, he said.
The supply shortage at Maker's comes amid growing demand for Kentucky bourbons in general.
Combined Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey sales from producers or suppliers to wholesalers rose 5.2 percent to 16.9 million cases last year, according to the Distilled Spirits Council, a national trade association that released figures last week. Revenue shot up 7.3 percent to $2.2 billion, it said. Premium brands, generally made in smaller batches with heftier prices, led sales and revenue gains.
Kentucky produces 95 percent of the world's bourbon supply, according to the Kentucky Distillers' Association. There are 4.9 million bourbon barrels aging in Kentucky, which outnumbers the state's population.
In the last year, Kentucky distilleries invested nearly $230 million in new and expanded production facilities, warehouses, visitor's centers, bottling lines and more, according to Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky distillers' group. It's the largest expansion since Prohibition, he said.
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From prisoner of war to pontiff: Timeline of pope's life
Top Talkers: Pope Benedict XVI is to resign on February 28, the Vatican said Monday. The Morning Joe panel -- including Mike Barnicle, Time's Mark Halperin and New York Magazine's John Heilemann -- discusses.
The life of Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI
April 20: NBC's Keith Miller reports on how Pope Benedict XVI came to be Pope John Paul II's successor.
- April 16, 1927: Joseph Ratzinger born in Marktl Inn, Bavaria.
- 1939: Enters the minor seminary in Traunstein, Germany.
- 1943: At the age of 16, he and members of his seminary class are drafted into the German anti-aircraft corps.
- 1945: Deserts the army and returns to Traunstein. He is briefly held by American forces in a prisoner of war camp. After his release, he re-enters the seminary.
- 1951: Ordained into the priesthood by Cardinal Faulhaber of Munich.
- 1953: Receives his doctorate in theology from the University of Munich with a thesis entitled "The People and House of God in St. Augistine's Doctrine of the Church."
- 1959: Begins lecturing as a professor of fundamental theology at the University of Bonn.
- 1962-1965: Participates in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council as theological adviser to Cardinal Joseph Frings of Cologne, Germany.
- 1972: Becomes one of the co-founders of Catholic theology journal Communio.
- 1977: Named Archbishop of Munich and Freising in March and elevated to Cardinal of Munich in June by Pope Paul VI.
- 1981: Named Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Pope John Paul II.
- 1998: Named Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals.
- 2002: Elected Dean of the College of Cardinals.
- April 19, 2005: Cardinal Ratzinger elected as the 265th pope and chooses the name Pope Benedict XVI.
Source: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. Look back at his life from childhood through his papacy.
Related:
Pope Benedict XVI to resign on Feb. 28, Vatican says
The path to an American pope? Cardinal's elevation gives US power at Vatican
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Sunday, February 10, 2013
Fat Bike Summit ? Good News for Fat-Bikes | FAT-BIKE.COM
IMBA Lends Support for Advocacy Efforts
?We hit one out of the park,? said Gary Sjoquist, QBP advocacy director. ?Our Friday session was attended by about 40 land managers and included folks from Yellowstone and various U.S. Forest units. They all got to ride fat bikes and learned how minimal their impacts are to groomed Nordic ski and snowmobile trails.?
Conference-goers also learned about private and state recreation areas that have successfully integrated fat bikes. Grand Targhee Resort in Wyoming now allows limited fat biking along its 15-kilometer Nordic trail system. The key, says Resort Manager Andy Williams, is establishing standards of trail etiquette, and actively managing when and under what conditions fat bikers can ride the trails.
In Washington, the Methow Valley Sports Trail Association (MVSTA) adopted similar practices for fat bike corridors along some of its 120 miles of groomed trails. Fears among Nordic skiers have dissipated as they realize fat bike tires cause little disruption. And Methow Valley land managers are beginning to see an economic opportunity.
?This year, the MVSTA is hosting more fat bike events than Nordic because fat bikes draw more racers,? said Sjoquist. Methow Valley organizers note that ski ticket sales have increased because fat bike cyclists purchase trail passes, too, Sjoquist added.
And while the Summit?s most visible focus was creating partnerships beyond the bike community, it also strengthened alliances within. Before coming to Island Park, Anna Laxague, IMBA regional director for the Pacific Northwest, had never ridden a fat bike. Her presence in Idaho sent a strong signal that the influential national advocacy group takes the emerging sport very seriously. Laxague, who reportedly loved her first fat bike experience, said IMBA will support advocacy efforts to build industry and grassroots support; unite diverse trail users through common goals; and help communities use fat biking to boost their recreation economies.
?There are 10,000 fat bikes in existence today, and it?s estimated that number will double by next year,? Sjoquist observed. ?That will put a lot more demand for access to national parks and state forests. Land managers will need a strategy for how to will handle it all. It opens tremendous possibilities, and challenges, too.?
Notable attendees included employees from Idaho Parks and Recreation, Bureau of Land Management, Yellowstone National Park with U.S. Forest Service administrators and rangers from Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. Staff members from Senator Mike Crapo?s office and Congressman Mike Simpson were joined by local business representatives.
Co-hosted by QBP and Fitzgerald?s Bicycles in Victor, ID, the Fat Bike Summit and Festival was supported by presenting sponsors Surly and Salsa Cycles. Other sponsors included IMBA, Fat-Bike.com, Q-Outdoor, Adventure Cycling, BicyclArt, 45NRTH, 9:ZERO:7, BikeFlights, Revelate, Grand Targhee Resort and Snake River Brewing. Photos and race results from the Fat Bike Summit and Festival are available on www.fatbikesummit.com.
Source: http://fat-bike.com/2013/02/fat-bike-summit-advocacy-report/
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Largest-ever Mardi Gras float has a little hiccup
NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? In a city known for overindulgence, maybe the largest-ever Mardi Gras float was a little too much.
The 330-foot long super float built by the Krewe of Endymion had to be separated in half to make a turn during its parade Saturday. New Orleans Police Officer Shelton Carr says the float was separated and then re-attached so it could continue to roll.
The turn was only a minor hiccup. The parade actually finished its route ahead of schedule.
The float ended its journey at the Superdome, where thousands of revelers were decked out in black tie attire. It was the first major event at the venue since the Super Bowl power blackout.
The multimillion-dollar float holds more than 200 riders. The parade's celebrity grand marshal was Kelly Clarkson.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/largest-ever-mardi-gras-float-little-hiccup-030225467.html
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