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Source: York Daily Record, Pa.儲存Dec. 14--An organization representing a student suspended internally over an imaginary bow-and-arrow says it was because of a zero-tolerance weapons policy, but the school district's solicitor says it has no zero-tolerance policies.The Rutherford Institute says 10-year-old Johnny Jones received a one-day in-office suspension for pretending to shoot a bow-and-arrow, using just his hands, at another student, who had pretended to shoot Johnny using a folder. The civil rights organization sent a letter to the South Eastern School District Dec. 4, asking that the suspension to be rescinded and removed from Johnny's record.The organization asked the district for a response by Friday. Late that afternoon, spokeswoman Nisha Whitehead said that there was no update. Both she and school district solicitor Brooke Say said that attorneys were talking during the week. Say said the district had been in contact with the parents and Rutherford Institute before the issue became news.The Rutherford Institute says Johnny's suspension resulted from a zero-tolerance weapons policy, saying the boy's mother was told he had made a threat using a "replica or representation of a firearm." Weapons and replicas are prohibited under the district's weapons policy.Say, the district solicitor, said she could not comment on a specific student's situation."I can tell you there is no such thing as a zero-tolerance policy in the South Eastern School District on any disciplinary matter," she said Friday.Last week, South Eastern Supt. Rona Kaufmann, while declining to comment on the specific case because of privacy laws, said in an email that the district adopts a code of conduct to guide administrators' decision-making and that the "unique facts" of each situation are reviewed pursuant to the code and district policies.The student code of conduct is available online. It includes the district's weapons policy as well as several appendices listing levels of disciplinary violations, the procedure for handling the violations and the potential consequences for the various levels of violations.John Whitehead, attorney and founder of the Rutherford Institute, said the district wouldn't have suspended Johnny if there wasn't a zero-tolerance rule."It's very much迷你倉a mindset," he said, saying the organization has handled many similar cases.According to the Rutherford Institute, the other student involved in the situation was suspended, too. Asked for confirmation, Say said the same confidentiality rules apply to all students.Weapons policiesIn 1994, a federal law required every school district in the country to implement policies that said if a student brought a dangerous weapon to school he or she was to be expelled for a year, though superintendents can override that, said Nancy Potter, staff attorney with the Education Law Center. Superintendents do so with varying consistency around Pennsylvania, she said.Pennsylvania's definition of a weapon is broad. Virginia, for example, redefined what constitutes a weapon, narrowing the definition to leave out things like pocketknives or art supplies, she said.The center considers zero tolerance to be the concept that certain types of disciplinary infractions automatically result in school discipline -- expulsion or suspension, Potter said. The idea is that there's a rule, and if a student breaks the rule in any way, the student gets a pre-determined discipline without consideration of the circumstances.But such policies focus on punishing the student, as opposed to other forms of discipline that aim to resolve the underlying issue and make sure it doesn't happen again, she said.Potter said that nationally and in Pennsylvania, many school districts are taking steps to try to address zero tolerance, as a result of activists and organizations and research showing it doesn't work.The Education Law Center has worked with the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia school districts on rewriting their student codes of conduct, Potter said, to eliminate zero tolerance language and include interventions not just punishment. There have also been efforts to increase the number of levels of violations, creating more interventions before something would result in expulsion.Contact Angie Mason at 771-2048.Group says South Eastern student suspended for imaginary bow-and-arrowOur take: Imaginary bow and arrow school suspension raises questionsCopyright: ___ (c)2013 York Daily Record (York, Pa.) Visit York Daily Record (York, Pa.) at .ydr.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存倉

A few months ago, Gary (not his real name) ended up in prison because he could not pay the fines for a series of traffic offences.迷你倉最平Subjected to a blood test while behind bars, the married contractor, 48, found out he had HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes Aids.The father of two children, aged 17 and 10, believes he was infected when he had an affair while going through a rough patch in his marriage a couple of years earlier.The news devastated him. Upon his release from prison, he headed for a housing block in his neighbourhood, took a lift to the 16th floor and climbed onto the parapet, intending to jump to his death."It was disgraceful. How was I going to tell my wife and my children? Financially, how was I going to manage the illness?"Then he saw two children dressed in the uniform of the school his younger child attended."That stopped me. I couldn't bear to leave my children," says Gary, who took nearly two weeks to muster up the courage to tell his wife and seek help at Tan Tock Seng Hospital's Communicable Diseases Centre (CDC).Medical social workers helped him apply for assistance to pay for anti-retroviral (ARV) medication and treatment for complications resulting from his infection.He is grateful, and in return, he has started volunteering at the CDC, visiting patients and encouraging them to take their medication. The self-taught artist contributed three paintings that were auctioned at an Aids benefit dinner recently to raise funds for the CDC and other organisations helping people who live with HIV.What Gary will not do, however, is step forward to talk openly about HIV and Aids. "I can't take the risk. There is too much to lose," he says. "It's not just me. What about my wife and my children? How can I subject them to public shame and humiliation?"Another World Aids Day has come and gone. A lot has changed since HIV first appeared three decades ago, but a lot has also remained the same.Thanks to medical advances, the virus is no longer the death sentence it used to be, but a chronic condition that can be managed. Medication can keep people with HIV living healthy, normal lives, and stop transmission of the virus from mother to child. Early treatment can even reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to sexual partners.Stigma and discrimination, however, are harder to deal with.Thus, UNAids, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids, has set out three goals for governments and civil society: zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero Aids-related deaths by 2015.Progress in arresting the virus in Asia has been good.Indeed, UNAids executive director Michel Sidibe said many countries in Asia have shown that HIV epidemics can be stopped, and that treatment and care can reach those who need it.Medical journal The Lancet this year praised Malaysia for having made great strides in tackling HIV. The number of new HIV cases reported a year has declined steadily, from 6,878 in 2002 to 3,479 in 2011.Thailand, too, has often been held up as a success story in this arena. The number of new HIV infections a year plummeted from 143,000 in 1991 to 10,853 in 2010.The situation, however, remains grim in Singapore. The number of HIV cases rose from 234 in 2002 to 469 last year. In the first 10 months of this year, a further 378 new cases were reported.So what is happening? What are Singapore's neighbours doing right that we are not?To begin with, Malaysia and Thailand have multi-sectoral engagement programmes spearheaded by their government迷你倉.Between 2006 and 2010, the Malaysian government allocated RM500 million (S$194 million) to fund HIV efforts. ARV drugs and treatment are available free to those living with the disease.Although Singapore has made strides in providing access to treatment - patients can now pay for part of their treatment through Medifund - affordability is still an issue for some as HIV drugs are not subsidised.This concern stops many from coming forward to get tested or declare their status.Malaysia's response to the epidemic is led by its Ministry of Health, but includes non-health sectors within government agencies, non-governmental organisations, civil society (including representatives from communities at risk such as drug addicts, sex workers and transgenders) and even religious bodies.Activists here believe there could be a greater show of unity in Singapore.Action for Aids founder Roy Chan, for instance, would like to see more opportunities for health professionals, policymakers and activists to come together to discuss strategies for combating the virus.The involvement of so many diverse groups in Malaysia has resulted in the implementation of several groundbreaking initiatives, including a national harm reduction programme under which drug addicts are provided with clean needles, among other things. The result: The number of HIV infections among injecting drug users has halved since 2006.Multi-sectoral engagement empowers people to speak up and come forward to put a public face to the disease.In Thailand, it is not uncommon for children with HIV to attend normal schools and face no discrimination from teachers or classmates.Such a scenario, sadly, is unlikely in Singapore for a long while yet.There are many structural and institutional barriers that drive people living with the virus into the shadows.Singapore, for example, bans foreigners who declare they are HIV-positive from entering the country, and expels foreigners who are diagnosed with HIV, even those who have been living and working here for years.Professor Chan says such regulations are stigmatising. "People won't declare their status. They are forced into silence."This could have a filter-down effect, encouraging insurance companies and employers to discriminate against those living with HIV.Prof Chan notes that Section 377A of the Penal Code - which criminalises male homosexual behaviour - and the ban on positive portrayals of gay people on TV do not help either. "If the laws discriminate, there will be stigma."It makes tackling infection rates in a very high-risk group that much more difficult. The latest figures from the Ministry of Health show that men who have sex with men (MSM) accounted for 54 per cent of the new HIV cases reported in the first six months of this year.Prof Chan believes more resources should be allocated to high-risk groups such as MSM, sex workers and drug users, saying "that's where the problem is, where the infections are occurring".However, communities at risk also need to rally and help themselves. The MSM community, in particular, needs to stop engaging in behaviour which reinforces the perception that HIV strikes only those who are promiscuous, reckless and careless.Fear, shame and apathy are powerful enemies.Medical social worker Ho Lai Peng puts it this way: "As long as the vision of creating an enabling environment for people with HIV, free from the oppression of stigma and discrimination, is not shared by everyone, we cannot hope to gain ground in this fight."kimhoh@sph.com.sgmini storage

不顛覆自己就會被他人顛覆。錯誤的投資、缺少戰略、技術落伍……巨頭隕落的最根本原因還是在新技術浪潮下，迷你倉孤芳自賞，拒絕創新。除了曾經的柯達，還有不少曾經的巨頭公司被新技術顛覆。摩托羅拉被收購後再被「邊緣化」繼去年8月份的裁員風暴後，近日，摩托羅拉又開始了「裁員第二季」。據悉，目前摩托羅拉中國區包括研發、銷售、技術等還有約1,000人左右。第二輪裁員計劃執行後，摩托羅拉移動中國區的員工將保留200人左右。從銷售量上看摩托羅拉手機業務似乎一直在給谷歌拖後腿。被谷歌收購後的摩托羅拉到底怎麼了?然而，在上世紀90年代的模擬通信轉向數字通信的大潮中，「傲慢」的摩托羅拉因為在模擬時代的巨大優勢而導致其過於自信，錯失了全球GSM大發展的機會。2011年初，它剛被分拆為摩托羅拉移動和摩托羅拉解決方案兩家公司。現在，摩托羅拉移動又被董事會以125億美元的價格賣給谷歌。但種種�象表明，谷歌收購摩托羅拉重點是看重其擁有數量龐大的專利而非品牌。被收購後的摩托羅拉在谷歌內部逐漸的被「邊緣化」，當谷歌自有品牌的硬件部門逐漸消化了摩托羅拉原有的專利、技術和用戶後，這個老品牌很可能會不復存在。諾基亞孤注一擲難見轉機作為昔日手機王者的諾基亞錯過了智能機發展最好時機。然而孤注一擲的與微軟合作，諾基亞確信自己找到了出路。然而諾基亞一方面承受�WP機銷售情況不佳的尷尬，另一方面，它還要面臨「盟友」微軟對自己的若即若離和對其他競爭對手的扶持。要知道WP並不是諾基亞最輝煌時期的儲存倉機系統。作為手機系統的昔日王者，塞班系統已於今年初停止開發。有媒體分析稱儘管諾基亞孤注一擲的只生產Windows系統智能手機，但其「盟友」微軟至今似乎並未否認過自己製造手機的可能性。日本家電之死：國之大慟現在如果在日本日立公司員工的面前，說「日立電視有多好」、「20年前的日立電視到現在還能用」的話，日立公司的人會有些尷尬，因為他們已經放棄家電產業了。「日本家電」，這個標誌�全球傳統家電產業最高端、最優秀、最有保證的代名詞，正不可遏止地滑向「死亡」。純粹用家電來維持企業，在日本已經愈發艱難。日立、東芝本來就有較長的產業鏈，有所側重是他們共同作出的正確決策，而對於松下、索尼、夏普來說，挑戰重重。英雄末路：英特爾停產電腦主板據國外媒體報道，英特爾宣布稱，它將在第四代酷睿處理器（代號Haswell）推出之後立即關閉其長期存在的零售台式電腦主板業務。停產電腦主板後，英特爾把未來工作重點放在變形本上。近日，英特爾CEO保羅．歐德寧在分析師電話會議上表示，Win8平板以及混合態電腦的發布標誌�消費者不再必須從PC和平板中做一個選擇。但是，英特爾把賭注壓在變形本上的做法並不被業內分析師看好。 RBC資本市場分析師道格．弗里德曼（Doug Freedman）在周五的一份報告中表示：「在PC市場，Windows8和超極本未能掀起太大波瀾，而英特爾正面臨產品更新周期的放緩以及移動設備的挑戰。我們認為，英特爾對計算機生態系統將向變形本發展的看法值得觀望。」迷你倉最平

迷你倉 cqcbepaper.cqnews.net/cqcb/html/2013-12/15/content_1702187.htm...渝利鐵路28日開通，記者提前打探站點 我們與主城更近了…… 渝利鐵路28日就要開通了，從重慶北到長壽、涪陵、豐都、石柱到底需要多少...mini storage

泰國曼谷反政府騷動，迷利倉幾年一閏，已經不再是意料之外，而是結構性有�可尋，除了影響該國非常依賴的旅遊業，對其他經濟重要範疇例如金融業和外來投資也造成沉重打擊。反政府的黃衫軍，成員主要來自曼谷，在自己的家園搞激烈示威，圍堵國會，其實影響自己最深。當總理英祿宣布解散國會舉行大選，甚至建議舉行全民公投來解決政治爭議時，也不能完全平息反對派的民憤。歸根究底，可能有許多人不願意接受這個事實，泰國的城鄉之爭絕對是民主選舉制度觸發的結果。 泰政治動蕩無休無止 日前，本地電視新聞報道�，記者認真地引述英祿，說她願以全民公投來解決政治爭拗，平息衝突，我笑了出來。因為，只要隨便問一個泰國人，大家便會明白，英祿拋出公投方案，根本毫無解決問題的誠意，因為無論國會重選也好，公投也好，只要現行選舉制度不變，重選公投一百次，英祿都是會勝出的，那反對派黃衫軍又怎會收貨？ 相信不少讀者都知道，英祿可以有恃無恐高舉公投，有必勝的把握，是因為她的哥哥前總理他信早已為她打下不敗的根基： 他信執政時期，把大量城市資源補貼農村，理由是靠服務業為主的城市，創造全國大部分財富，但人口只佔少數。他信政府把少數人的財富大量轉移到多數的農民，自然能獲得多數的選票，保證次次贏得大選。事實上，他信2001年首次當選泰國總理，當時他的泰愛泰黨只獲得全國會500個議席的248個，不到半數。經過五年傾斜農村的政策，2005年國會選舉他信已經獲得375個議席，全面壓倒反對黨民主黨。代表城市人口的民主黨知道在現行制度下執政無望，往往和支持者(黃衫軍)以激進方式反政府，導致泰國政治不穩，皇室和軍方相繼介入，促使2006年他信在政變迷你倉下台，流亡海外。軍方委任的繼任總理，一來沒有認受性，二來當他改變他信傾斜農村的政策後，自然刺激農村選民上街示威，組成紅衫軍，要求結束軍人干政，解散國會，全面重選，結果又是一如所料由他信的黨羽勝出，泰國的政治動蕩於是無休無止。 少數服從多數未必可取 泰國現任總理英祿是他信的妹妹，就是靠秉承傾斜農村的經濟政綱贏得2011年的大選。泰國稻米的補貼政策是最好例子，證明靠農民選票上台的英祿政府是如何令城市人口不忿。2011年下旬，泰國政府宣布大米收購計劃，國家會動用納稅人的金錢以國際市價的1.5倍收購農民大米，農民自然樂得把自家種的大米都賣給國家，甚至有人從國際市場輸入大米賣給國家獲取五成的利潤。然而，面對國際如越南、緬甸等產米國的競爭，泰國政府高價購入的大米，蝕本出售於國際市場，但政府不能接受把虧蝕變現，唯有把大米囤積，期望國際價格回升再賣出。然而米價越跌越有，囤積的大米變壞了仍是賣不出，白白浪費國家資源。有指該計劃令泰國損失超過5000到7000億泰銖(1300到1800億港元)，這些損失根本無須發生，只不過有政客利用民主政治的漏洞以保權力所致。 泰國的例子說明，把民主簡單化，純粹以少數服從多數，獲得50%加一票便獨攬大權的民主制度絕不可取。我個人認為，美國的參議院和香港的功能組別制度(如改為政府提案都須分組點票)，限制執政者為所欲為，更是解決泰國政治衝突的長遠方案。說到底，從政治制度的發展史看，無論是君主立憲、議會政治，目的都是為限制政府權力、保護公民自由。民主和自由並非相等，許多時候，民主甚至損害個人自由，討論任何政治改革，實在不宜見樹不見林。 獅子山學會行政總監王弼自存倉

Source: Kennebec Journal, Augusta, MaineDec.迷你倉 11--AUGUSTA -- Officials proposing a new Maine Army National Guard headquarters building will have to stand down for now, because the state does not yet own the property that officials plan to use to gain access to the site.The Maine Army National Guard proposed to build a new 100,000-square-foot headquarters between Civic Center Drive and Maine Veterans' Memorial Cemetery. The proposed office building is subject to Planning Board approval. Board members reviewed the proposal Tuesday, but Development Director Matt Nazar advised against voting because the Guard does not hold title or rights to a parcel of land needed to build a planned access road that would lead both to the new building and the existing veterans' cemetery.Nazar said the state Department of Transportation is negotiating with a private landowner for the land, but those negotiations have not resulted in a deal."The board should not make a decision until that discussion is finalized" said Nazar, noting DOT officials anticipate they will be successful soon in acquiring the land, which is just south of the existing cemetery access road. "I don't think it will be too much of a stumbling block, but I wouldn't do any voting on this application tonight."John Kenney, a civil engineer with WBRC Architects and Engineers, a firm hired by the Guard to work on the project, said the Guard still hopes to get approval from the board."We had anticipated looking for approval tonight, but we understand that may not be possible," Kenney said.The proposed new entrance to the headquarters would be across Civic Center Drive from Darin Drive. Darin Drive is the access road to the Augusta Business Park.The entrance to the Maine Veterans' Memorial Cemetery would be moved so the cemetery and headquarters building would share a single entrance at a traffic signal that would be installed at Darin Drive, according to Lt. Col. Normand Michaud.Patricia Paul, of Winslow, in an email A. Delaine Nye, a board member, read a portion of aloud Tuesday, said her father was in the Guard for 10 years and served in the South Pacific during World War II. She said her father helped develop the cemetery and was proud of it, and both her mother and father are buried there. She said the cemetery, and especially its entrance road, which she said is beautiful and meaningful, should remain as they are."The men and women who lay buried in those hallowed grounds of the (Maine Veterans' Memorial Cemetery) sacrificed more than we will ever know,迷你倉樂器and they paid for that land with their blood, sweat, and tears," Paul said in her email. "Please let them rest in peace and with dignity."Kenney said officials agree the tree-lined access road to the cemetery is special, and they plan to try to re-create that feeling with the new entrance location."We understand the importance of this entrance to the cemetery," Kenney said. "We're trying to use trees, to create the same feel, as you drive into the cemetery."The building would serve as the Guard's new joint forces headquarters, replacing multiple buildings at Camp Keyes on Winthrop Street and Airport Road, next to Augusta State Airport. It would include offices for about 190 full-time guard employees, most of whom are at Camp Keyes now.Camp Keyes would continue to be the site for vehicle maintenance and the other nonadministrative, more industrial uses after the headquarters offices move to the proposed new site.The new Army and Air Guard headquarters, according to Diane Morabito, a traffic engineer with Maine Traffic Resources, would put an additional 208 vehicles on Civic Center Drive during the peak morning weekday commuting hour when it is fully built out, and 200 during the evening peak weekday commute.Nazar said the state DOT will not allow the project to be built without a traffic signal being installed on Civic Center Drive at the proposed new intersection.Construction could start in 2015 and be complete in 2017.The federally funded project is expected to cost about $30 million and to be built on about 43 wooded and undeveloped acres of the 165-acre cemetery property.Officials said the building and the cemetery will be separate from each other, with woods and a brook dividing the two parcels.The site is in the city's Planned Development District, where government services are a conditional use, subject to a major development review by the Planning Board.Neighbor Shirley Ezzy, who previously had expressed concern about noise from a helicopter landing site planned as part of the project, said she had been assured by Guard officials they would land a helicopter there only in an emergency.Board members voted to table the proposal until their Jan. 14 meeting, in anticipation of the project having the needed land to provide access to it from Civic Center Drive in state hands by then.Keith Edwards -- 621-5647 kedwards@centralmaine.comCopyright: ___ (c)2013 Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Maine) Visit the Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Maine) at .kjonline.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉西貢

印度富豪在尖沙咀重慶大廈遺失價值二十萬的威圖（Vertu）手機，迷你倉警方追查下昨午在同一大廈內拘捕一名外籍男子。　　失手機事件發生於上周三下午，來港旅遊的印度遊客Singh（三十三歲），在重慶大廈地下一間找換店兌換鈔票，將Vertu手機放在櫃�後忘記取回，半小時後折返手機已不知去向。　　警方事後調查，發現一名似是馬來自存倉亞男子曾站在事主身後，似是輪候兌換外幣，因而懷疑是該男子將手機取走，而且疑人可能經常在重慶大廈出沒，經連日監視，昨午五時二十分在大廈發現疑人蹤影，將他截住，經調查懷疑與手機盜竊有關拘捕助查。該名男子剛來港數天，故可能在重慶大廈暫住。案中事主失去的Vertu手機，全球限量發行及專門供應全球富豪，客戶需要預約才能買到。迷你倉

迷你倉 （美國 加州12日訊）為迎接即將來臨的聖誕節，美國加州一家酒店用真的薑餅、糖霜和糖果製作了一間巨型薑餅屋，吸引成千上萬遊客參觀，大人小朋友也瘋狂！坐落於三藩市費爾蒙特酒店的巨型薑餅屋，由7千500塊薑餅、1千600磅糖霜和近兩磅糖果製作，工作人員花600小時攪拌、烘烤和冷卻薑餅和糖果，再花上額外500小時、用118個擠花袋及弄斷9把刮刀，才砌好闊7米、高6米的兩層高薑餅屋。屋旁邊還設置一棵7米高的聖誕樹，以及用90磅薑餅製造而成的“狗屋”。這間巨型薑餅屋將展示至明年元旦。;文件倉

Source: Philadelphia Daily NewsDec.文件倉 13--GIFT SHOPPING on a budget this year? Try Gizmo Guy's affordable stocking stuffers for gadget and electronic entertainment lovers.VIDEO GAMES: When new game systems (PS4, Xbox One) are introduced, prices invariably drop on older-format consoles and software. Nab classic PS3 and Xbox 360 titles in the "Grand Theft Auto," "Batman Arkham City," "Madden NFL" and "Call of Duty" franchises in "Greatest Hits" editions that list for $20 to $25 and discount as low as $15!Alongside its relatively new, sophisticated Wii U system, Nintendo is courting younger gamers with stripped-down hardware that works with old-school games. We're talking a downsized Wii Mini console that's just $99 and the sturdy, two-screen Nintendo 2DS portable game system for $129.99. Heritage game titles are reduced as "Nintendo Selects" in 2-for-$20 bundles spotted at Walmart.com.ELMOPALOOZA: Earlier animatronic versions of the fuzzy red monster don't wrap arms around you or make snoozing sounds like 2013's hit, "Big Hugs Elmo" ($59.95). But there's lots of fun left in Playskool/Sesame Street's earlier "Let's Rock Elmo," seen online for as little as $32.99.STREAMING DREAMS: The Wi-Fi Internet-connected Google Chromecast dongle that plugs into flat-panel TVs to stream Netflix, YouTube and more has earned love with its $35 price tag. Also consider latest-edition streaming video devices from Roku, starting存倉at $49.95 (with remote control!) and delivering hundreds of more choices, many free, to your connected TV.NO COMPETITION: Beats by Dr. Dre headphones are not worth feuding over. Better-sounding, more comfortable and reasonably priced headphones from Audio-Technica, Grado, Sony and Panasonic make a smarter gift and more discrete statement. GG's partial to the Sony MDR-10R, finely crafted and discounted 25 percent to $149 at store.sony.com.FEELING BLUISH: Stuff a stocking with one of this year's mighty-mite Bluetooth wireless portable speakers. The palm-sized Divoom Bluetune-Bean ($29.99, divoomusa.com) is super cute, sonically sweet and comes in colors. A UE Mini Boom ($78-$100) cranks well and pairs up for stereo. Bose SoundLink Mini ($199.95) earns the "best of breed" ribbon.OLD PHONES, NEW DEALS: An 8GB iPhone 4S was a super phone at $199 in 2011. Now it's even better, for free, with a two-year contract from AT&T, Sprint or Verizon. Gizmo Guy's also spotted deals on new, lower-profile smartphones like the Nokia Lumia 925, $49 at AT&T with contract. Boasts a very fine Zeiss lens camera and the Windows Mobile operating system -- surprisingly fun and useful. Microsoft aims to buy your love with this bargain. Let it.Blog: philly.com/GizmoGuyOnline: ph.ly/TechCopyright: ___ (c)2013 the Philadelphia Daily News Visit the Philadelphia Daily News at .philly.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存

Source: Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.迷你倉Dec. 13--Treasure hunter Greg Brooks has burned through at least $8 million of investor money in his hunt for a supposed fortune in platinum, gold and jewels on a sunken World War II freighter 50 miles northeast of Provincetown.But now he is considering ending his hunt and selling off expedition assets, including the main salvage vessel.According to his own records and status reports filed with the court, Brooks spent less than 80 days at sea in his first five years attempting to salvage treasure from the S.S. Port Nicholson, which sank after being torpedoed by a German submarine. He gained wide publicity but now appears to be quietly giving up, despite insisting there are billions on board the ship, according to documents filed in a court case contesting ownership of the freighter's contents.Brooks did not respond to phone messages requesting an interview but sent an email that pending litigation prohibited him from answering any questions, and designating his chief engineer, Brian Ryder, as company spokesman.In a phone interview Thursday from the company's main salvage ship Sea Hunter, docked in East Boston, Ryder said Brooks has secured more funds and would be headed back out to the Port Nicholson when the weather improves.In trip reports and interviews over the past two years, Brooks has said that his company, Sea Hunters, is literally one trip away from recovering a portion or all of the $3 billion in treasure from the freighter -- although his estimates in media reports have soared as high as $6 billion.Meanwhile, representatives of the British government, which insists it owns the vessel and whatever it contains, continue to say official documents show nothing on board beyond rusted automobile parts, military supplies and ballast.Their dispute with Brooks is now in U.S. District Court in Portland, Maine. Another lawsuit against the company has been filed in a Maine court by a company that supplied one of the remotely operated vehicles, seeking payment for the equipment rental and technicians, Ryder said.On Friday, Brooks' company filed an inventory in U.S. District Court in Portland of items that have been retrieved from the Nicholson. The objects -- including a waterlogged compass, a busted compass housing, a brass fire extinguisher and a brick -- are so low in value they are not worth haggling over, attorneys for the British government said. "It's a pitiful take," said Michael Kaplan, a Portland attorney for the United Kingdom's secretary of state for transport."They left a few things off the list, like the jewels, gold, platinum and silver," he added dryly.Brooks raised more than $10 million from investors for the Nicholson project, according to his own statements and documents filed with the court. But in a May 13 letter to investors included with court filings, he told investors that he needs another $3 million to finish the job. He went on to say the company is out of money and will use any leftover cash to sell the 221-foot Sea Hunter and equipment, and "wrap things up.""We will try to hold on to the arrest (exclusive salvaging rights) of the wreck until proper funding is realized, but may lose it because of this shut down but we have little choice," he wrote.Ryder contends that scenario has changed. The company's vessels are for sale, but they plan to buy others to replace them, he said.At least one investor is convinced Brooks is a cheat.Denny Denham of Portland, Maine, said he invested six figures in an earlier Brooks project: the 2002 search for Notre Dame de la Deliverance, a 166-foot French vessel that allegedly sank off Florida in the 18th century. Brooks and his staff historian Edward Michaud claimed the ship contained $2 billion to $4 billion in gold.Brooks quietly abandoned that project a couple of years later because he said the Spanish government would ultimately lay claim to the vessel and gold. Denham's investment was then rolled over into the Nicholson project."I don't think he's a few dollars shy of a big break. I don't think there's anything out there," Denham said about the Nicholson project. At one point, he went down to Florida to check up on the Notre Dame expedition progress and thought the effort seemed OK. One thing did bother him."There was always some reason they couldn't go out. Bad weather ...," he said. "... They gradually drifted away from it (the Notre Dame project) and then it was out-of-sight, out-of-mind."Like other investors in the Notre Dame, Denham's share was converted into a stake in the Port Nicholson."I wouldn't put two nickels into it. I wouldn't even put two nickels together to take him to court because nothing from nothing gets nothing," Denham said.At times, Brooks has bordered on the grandiose, claiming in an interview with the Portland Press Herald that not another Maine child would ever go hungry again if he found the treasure. He also offered to build a museum and aquarium in Portland to house what he found on the Nicholson.In February 2012, Brookself storage told the Times that his video of the Nicholson shipwreck site showed as many as 30 crates filled with platinum ingots scattered on the ocean floor."Once I have the (platinum ingots) on deck, all the naysayers, everybody, will sing a different tune," he said then."There's no doubt that on the next trip, he is going to come back with something," Michaud told the Times in 2012.But the attorneys representing the British -- Kaplan and Tampa attorney Timothy Shusta -- said their researchers have not found the archived documents that Michaud claims prove platinum and gold was on board the Nicholson. When they couldn't find one of the key documents in an archive box, Michaud told them that someone else had actually discovered it and given it to him, Shusta said.Michaud continues to contend he's right."They can say what they say. I know what I know," he said about this week.Paul Lawton, an attorney and military history researcher -- who is a longtime critic of Brooks -- questions why the treasure hunter appears so willing to walk away from the Port Nicholson and billions of dollars -- by far the richest shipwreck ever. Why not hire real salvagers with the experience and the equipment to do the job and take a percentage cut? He believes Brooks' source of income is investor dollars, which will dry up once the wreck has been found to have no treasure.Brooks is just following an established pattern, Lawton said, in raising millions from investors and then abandoning projects like the Notre Dame or the Nicholson. Despite Brooks' claims that he would have lost the Notre Dame's treasure to the Spanish government, admiralty law usually awards a finder a substantial portion of any treasure, Lawton said.n nAt least one investor seems to still believe that there is treasure on board the Port Nicholson.Daniel Stochel, a New York investment fund manager, who gave Brooks $600,000, recently formed his own treasure-hunting corporation, hired a Norwegian salvage company and asked a judge to initiate the steps for his company to supplant Sea Hunters as the sole salvor of the site. Stochel did not respond to calls to his home and office, but in court documents he said he planned on raising $7 million to continue the search and recover the treasure.Brooks did not work hard enough to retrieve the Nicholson's treasure, Stochel argues.He blamed Brooks' lack of deep-sea salvage experience, his old and underpowered equipment and his unwillingness to take the advice of third parties who know the salvage business. The Nicholson is in relatively shallow water, about 600 to 800 feet below, and a day's trip from shore."The actions of Sea Hunters and their affiliates have been more akin to building a long-term operating company with perpetual capital raises rather than accomplishing a single project," Stochel wrote in his Sept. 30 court filing asking the court to name him and his company, Mission Recovery, as the salvor of the wreck.In his own court filings, Brooks says the project failed because of lack of funding, that he knew he could never raise the $50 million he felt he needed to do a first-rate job on the Nicholson. In a May 3, 2013, letter and email to investors, provided to the court by Stochel, Brooks admits his company had no experience working on sunken ships in deep offshore waters."We are trying to recover the richest shipwreck in the world for pennies," he complained to investors in the letter. "Yes it would be great if it could be done for pennies, but we are finding out that it cannot."Brooks' search-and-recovery vessel, Sea Hunter, was built in 1978 for work in support of Gulf of Mexico oil rigs, according to court documents. It has none of the essential equipment of modern salvage vessels, such as bow and stern thrusters linked to satellite positioning systems, known as dynamic positioning, that keep the ship over the site. And Brooks' initial remotely operated vehicle couldn't lift anything heavy or cut through the hull.Ryder agreed the Sea Hunter was not up to the task. If Sea Hunters sells the vessel, he said, Brooks plans on buying one with dynamic positioning, which he said might cost $20 million. They are also in the process of equipping it with more robust ROVs, Ryder said.Stochel claims to have contracted with a Norwegian salvager experienced with deep-sea projects and with WWII vessels. He told the court the firm estimated a 60- to 90-day recovery time for the Port Nicholson.Denham believes this is the end for Brooks. While Brooks was able to quietly slip away from the Notre Dame project, there has been too much attention paid to the Port Nicholson to just drop it without repercussions."It appears the guy has really been on a long run and when he goes to bed at night he thinks, 'I really can't believe I convinced so many people for so long that there was treasure out there,'" Denham said.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, Mass.) Visit the Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, Mass.) at .capecodonline.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷利倉