Can photography and fine art hang together?

A photograph of the British countryside has been placed among the oil paintings in the National Gallery – causing people idling past to do double-takes. You can see them wondering: "Is that a painting? It's so smooth, so shiny, so flat." The picture shows bright fields and skies,Tile porcelain, Kanton ceramics and Tilee's Ceramics. seen through a dark thicket: the sensation of looking out from a hidden nook makes it an introspective, hesitant work. Perhaps that's why it hangs so well alongside a great landscape painting by the quiet and contemplative master of the genre, John Constable.

Richard Billingham's shot has invaded the holy sanctum of high art that is the National's permanent collection as part of Seduced By Art, an exhibition of past and present photography.An area-wide parking guidance system was introduced by private parking lot operators in 1997. The gallery is a temple to oil on canvas. What happens when you allow photographs among the daubs?

Billingham strikes up a sombre, sensitive conversation with Constable's The Cornfield: the result is a comparison of the English countryside in the early 1800s and early 2000s, proving, as the show claims, that photography can have a meaningful relationship with great painting.Excellent range of ceramic wall tiles in various finishes, That's just as well, because the two other pairings in the main galleries are disastrous. Seeing Richard Learoyd's photograph Jasmijn in Mary Quant next to Ingres's 19th-century beauty Madame Moitessier does nothing for either. As for a Craigie Horsfield photographic nude, shown between two sensual paintings by Degas, it's an elephant among elegance.

Yet Degas, as it happens, was fascinated by photography. The great 19th-century painter of modern life took photographs and brooded on the relationship between the brush and the camera.Gerresheimer Werkzeugbau Wackersdorf GmbH manufactures special lines and machines. Elsewhere in the National hangs his portrait of Princess Pauline de Metternich. Based on a photograph, the work gives the princess the slightly cadaverous look of some Victorian snaps, almost as if he'd copied a 19th-century deathbed photo. It's a shame the show did not place some of Degas's own photographs among his paintings, instead of Horsfield's grimly ponderous black-and-white nude; this life-size work was surely inspired by After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself, the Degas work it partners (and thus, in turn, inspired by Degas's own source, a drawing by Michelangelo). But arty quotation does not make art more powerful.

Is photography art? Clearly, some photography is, along with millions of camera-made images – from passport pictures to surveillance stills to my own snapshots – that are not. The trouble with Seduced By Art is that it has selected photographs that clearly aspire to be Art with a capital A. But why not put a passport photograph next to Giovanni Bellini's Renaissance portrait of Doge Lorenzo Loredan? It is, after all, an exact depiction of someone's facial features. Or what about a holiday snap next to something by the great 17th-century landscapist Claude Lorrain? That might say more, suggest more, matter more.

Somehow, the conversation here is too polite. Yes, photography can be art,Smooth-On is your source for Mold Making and casting materials including silicone rubber. but photography that is not art can, paradoxically, be of more artistic interest – as Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol understood when they used police mugshots or photo-booth portraits in their work. Seduced By Art misses that risk, that danger. It celebrates the more civilised side of photography, and the result is a cultural cringe before fine art.

Seduced By Art also features a detailed survey, in the Sainsbury wing basement, comparing 19th-century photographs that quote and emulate oil paintings with modern photographs that do pretty much the same, only more knowingly. The brilliant Victorian photographer Roger Fenton photographed Crimean battlefields with a chilling rawness that had little to do with high art: he showed cannonballs littering the ground in the aftermath of the charge of the Light Brigade. His pictures are among the very first war photographs and contrast eerily with the glorious face of war evident in a 19th-century painting of a Napoleonic battle by Horace Vernet. But when Fenton wanted to be taken seriously as an artist, he set up and photographed a richly symbolic still life with black grapes, white funereal lilies and a statuette. It is a grand curiosity and yet, somehow, vulgar and kitsch: it caricatures the still life tradition just as simplistically as, in the same room, Sam Taylor-Wood's speeded-up video of a still life decaying before your eyes.

These two still lifes, made more than a century apart, clearly regard such paintings as symbols of mortality – and ape or heighten that aspect photographically. But still life painting is not that simple. It is not always about death. It might be about sex. Or it might be about … apples. That is why the best work in the still life section is the least self-conscious, the least arty. Nan Goldin's photographs are rough slices of life. Her picture of her hotel bed in Paris has a diary-like immediacy. The grapes and oranges in paper bags lying on the bed are not immediately readable as symbols of any kind – they just vaguely suggest desire, life, love, and add to a feeling of sensual romance. They do not proclaim any artistic significance beyond being part of Goldin's day. We believe they are her food, bought to be eaten, not photographed. Goldin's still life matters precisely because it is not trying to be art.

As this exhibition shows, right from the start of photography, its practitioners have responded to high art's call. Julia Margaret Cameron posed a woman and child as the Madonna and Jesus she saw in a Renaissance painting. Gustave le Gray shot and manipulated seascapes to emulate works by Turner. And today, Ori Gersht takes photographs of exploding still-life arrangements in order to recapture, he says, the deep, rich sense of time that a painting possesses.

Biomimetic aircraft snatch power aloft

Solar powered aircraft are old news. From Solar Impulse supporting one person day and night with nothing but photovoltaics on the wings to the high altitude unmanned aircraft being developed by Boeing to stay aloft in the upper atmosphere for five years on nothing but sunshine, it is all very exciting. However, if we benchmark what is happening with other electric vehicles such as Autonomous Underwater Vehicles AUV, then multiple energy harvesting should be the order of the day, even with aircraft. Indeed, some Electroflyer electric aircraft already work the motor backwards in thermals to charge the battery.Chances are, you've never setup a real time Location system. This idea should be developed further and combined with the familiar solar power to improve the continuity of energy supply and the amount, even exporting energy to earth. After all, humble electric buses are about to add regenerative shock absorbers to the regenerative braking and the occasional solar panel in their energy harvesting toolkit.

Enter IFO-Energy Unlimited in Hungary, creators of an untethered, autonomous flying wind power plant, who describe it as follows.Tile porcelain, Kanton ceramics and Tilee's Ceramics. There are at least three well known problems of conventional wind energy production, firstly there are fluctuations and the unsteady nature of surface winds and these fluctuations in wWhat Is Skirtting tile?ind energy production put stress on the power system so capacity reserves (surplus power plants) are necessary to ensure system reliability.

The company points out that another problem of wind power plants is their low efficiency. A wind turbine will generate around 20-30% of its maximum rated capacity depending on the location of the plant, which means that if we want to utilize wind power in large volumes we have to build wind power plants as far as the eye can see.

The third common problem is that wind power suffers from a lack of energy density, that is, not only large numbers of wind generators (and thus large land areas) are required to produce useful amounts of electricity but huge dimensions too. Therefore, the idea of harnessing high altitude winds blowing at 10,Find detailed product information for Glazed rustic tile and other products.000 meters altitude seems to be promising.

Wind towers or tethered floating devices are not the only way to harvest energy from the atmosphere. Untethered flying units are also capable of harvesting wind energy. In order to do away with tethering, the device would need to use the updrafts and 'dynamic soaring' using the energy in wind gradients commonly used by soaring birds.

The storage of energy would need to be considered and according to one of the possibilities, an air liquefaction machine is set in motion letting the produced liquid air would be the energy storing medium. IFO-Energy believes that there is no need to forward the liquid air to the ground continuously, e.g. by means of a pipeline. It can be done in distinct doses, in so called "quanta", by means of GPS-guided parafoils. Another way is applying molten salt energy storage systems, utilizing heat of fusion. Research is going on all over the world to find even larger heat effects for energy storing, e.g.Welcome to the china kung fu school. heat of formation of chemical substances instead of heat of fusion. These investigations are very promising also for IFO's project.

In the simplest case an untethered autonomous flying energy-harvesting unit as well as a receiver ground-station are integral parts of the complete system. These two physically detached parts constitute a logistic unit, and their collaboration according to a fixed timetable ensures the realization of the invention. A ground-station could support several flying units.

The IFO-Energy Unlimited invention is based on several well-known technical solutions, but the result of their synthesis and unique application yield new routes and so far unutilized possibilities in wind energy production. Some of these benefits and possibilities include greater intensity with smaller equipment and because the storing of energy as liquid air is the central idea of the invention that there could always be great reserves of liquid air available at the ground-station. The "warm" heat sink of this thermal power plant is the ambient air, so it does not need a heat up period prior to start. It is always ready to run and can function as a peak-load power plant.

By warming up the liquid air and expanding it we get work at the expense of ambient heat. When this work finally degrades into heat, the thermal balance of the local system is zero. The machines are running, but no waste heat is produced at the point where the energy is used.

Will Pop-Up Stores Help?

As part of its Windows 8 kickoff, Microsoft has opened more than 30 "pop-up" stores across the United States. Eschewing walls and confined spaces, these would-be retail hotspots are essentially mall kiosks on steroids. They're situated in the open, just like the fingernail accessory vendors and carts full of cellphone accessories or novelty license plate frames. But, with a large series of tabletops showing off the long-awaited Surface tablet, a team of attentive staffers engaging customers and a tower emblazoned with the company's logo, the Microsoft installations, to say the least, stand out from the crowd.

The stores, which are scheduled to remain open throughout the holidays, include a location at the San Francisco Centre in California. InformationWeek visited the store Friday, Oct. 26, during its first day of business. The experience was both predictably familiar and pleasantly surprising.

The traces of deja vu stemmed from the fact that Microsoft had already been cultivating a retail presence in the Bay Area prior to the new store's opening. Silicon Valley boasts full-fledged, rather than pop-up, sites in Palo Alto and Santa Clara, and a Corte Madera location -- in Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco -- will open on November 3, complete with not only Surface and Windows 8 but also a performance by Kelly Clarkson.

The older stores' design cues, as others have pointed out, borrow heavily from Apple's successful model, and the San Francisco pop-up store, to a certain extent, follows suit. Each employee wears a bright, monochromatic t-shirt and a long lanyard with a simple name tag on the end, for example. An abundance of illuminated, semi-translucent signage is arranged in minimalist fashion. Devices are lined up without fuss in neat rows, enticing passersby to stop and pick them up.

But thanks to the kiosk-style setup, the new San Francisco location also gives off a fresh vibe. Spend some time people-watching at a mall and you'll likely see many shoppers who quicken their pace at the sight of a temporary mall vendor, their gazes fixed forward so as to avoid making eye contact with a beckoning salesperson. Microsoft's store is different; it manages to exude a sense of spectacle without compromising its elegant design. Attractive, prominently displayed gadgetry -- rather than unsolicited summons -- provoke interest from passing foot traffic. Interested shoppers are greeted by employees who are (or, at least, were on opening day) enthusiastic but not overbearing. It gives the impression of an event, not an obstacle.

Is it worth your time to check out one of Microsoft's pop-up stores? Will they help the Redmond,Directory of china glass mosaic Tile Manufacturers, Wash.-based giant infiltrate the consumer space with Surface, or bring Windows 8 to both homes and businesses? Read on to learn for yourself.High quality stone mosaic tiles.

Microsoft's first attempt at building its own hardware is unquestionably an impressive device. Though, with the tablet market getting more and more crowded, only time will tell if it's impressive enough to sway consumers in large numbers.Buy Crystal tile online, Nevertheless, Surface inspires confidence. It's not just the magnesium alloy construction that impresses but also the overall balance. Nothing feels cheap or -- at least on first blush -- out of place.

Harm Diaconesu was part of the Microsoft retail team at the San Francisco store's opening day, and Surface's build quality was a big part of his pitch. He mentioned that enormous attention had been paid to small details, such as the device's kickstand, which he said had undergone upward of 70 revisions before the design was finalized. He also expressed tangible enthusiasm for the Touch Cover and Type Cover keyboard accessories,Faultline stone & glass mosaic tile in gatlinburg fault line. which magnetically connect to the tablet with ease.

"It's one of the most satisfying things you can do with technology," he said, clicking a Surface cover into place and touting the "nice luxury sound." Such comments would be expected of a retail employee, of course, but Diaconesu's earnest effusiveness was persuasive -- as was the fact that the tablet's quality seemed to fulfill his descriptions.

The keyboards have attracted skepticism, notably from HP CEO Meg Whitman. The relatively flat layout of the Touch Cover might prove difficult for power users, though Diaconesu said most people were comfortable after only a few minutes of use.Trade platform for China crystal mosaic manufacturers The Type Cover, however, which features larger keys that more closely resemble those of a typical keyboard, appeared serviceable for heavier needs.

Sandy’s death toll reaches 12

More than 200 patients were being evacuated from two Manhattan hospitals late Monday after backup power systems failed in the wake of Sandy, a massive storm that roared ashore in New Jersey, swamping New York, killing at least 12 people and wreaking havoc across a huge swath of the Northeast.

The backup generator failed at NYU Langone Medical Center, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said. Nearly 50 of the patients were described as “critical” and were being taken to the Mount Sinai Medical Center. A second New York facility, Bellevue Hospital Center, had a similar problem and had to evacuate, the New York Fire Department said.

In the evacuated Breezy Point area of Queens, a fire devoured 15 homes, authorities said.

Chaos pervaded a wide area of the East. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission declared an alert at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey after floodwater rose 6 feet above sea level. The plant powers more than half a million homes but was already out of service for a previously scheduled refueling. The water was expected to recede, and the alert was the second-lowest of the NRC’s four “action levels.”

According to official accounts and media reports, falling trees killed an 8-year-old boy in Franklin Township, Penn., and a 62-year-old man in Boytertown, Penn. Authorities said a firefighter in Easton, Conn.Buy Crystal tile online,, was killed in the line of duty, but they did not release details.

Falling trees also killed people in the New York borough of Queens; in the community of Roslyn on Long Island; in Mendham Township and Hawthorne, N.J.; and in Mansfield, Conn. A woman died in a storm-related car crash in Maryland, and in Toronto, a woman was killed by a falling sign.

Earlier Monday in North Carolina, a replica of an iconic British transport vessel sank in churning seas, killing at least one crew member. The HMS Bounty, built for the 1962 Marlon Brando film “Mutiny on the Bounty,” was featured in several other films and welcomed by large crowds at numerous ports. It was en route to St. Petersburg, Fla., when it began to take on water southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C.

One crew member’s body was recovered and 15 others were rescued by Coast Guard helicopters. The 63-year-old captain was still missing.

The storm’s center crashed ashore a little after 8 p.m.High quality stone mosaic tiles. EDT, delivering a powerful blow to the most populous region of the United States, paralyzing epicenters of power and commerce and plunging smaller coastal communities into crisis. More than 3 million homes and businesses, including the lower third of Manhattan, were without power.

Shortly before midnight, Sandy was near Philadelphia, moving northwest at 18 mph and carrying sustained winds of 75 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

Turbulent days lay ahead: In New Jersey, the Hudson River had invaded Hoboken. In West Virginia and Maryland, a blizzard was under way. In New York, water poured into subway tunnels and the World Trade Center site; exploding transformers lighted up the dreary sky and 300 calls to 911 flooded in each minute. Bloomberg said downed power lines had sparked numerous fires.

“These are not games,” Bloomberg said. “Things have gotten tough. But we’re going to get through this together.”

Sandy’s center passed over land just south of Atlantic City, N.J., but the precise landfall site didn’t matter. Sandy was a freak event _ a late-season hurricane hemmed in by weather bands, gobbling up the energy of the Gulf Stream while growing into a ragged, 1,000-mile-wide storm.

By the time it came ashore, authorities had changed Sandy’s formal description from a hurricane to a “post-tropical cyclone,” a non-tropical weather event. The scientific distinctions seemed lost on the storm. As Sandy grew, so did its power to push a wall of sea water onto shore _ with such force that some rivers were expected to run backward.

The result was a plodding ogre of a storm, powerful more because of its scope than its sheer strength. The metropolitan areas of Philadelphia,Faultline stone & glass mosaic tile in gatlinburg fault line. Baltimore and New York were most immediately in the cross hairs,Trade platform for China crystal mosaic manufacturers but Sandy cast tropical-storm-strength winds from the Carolinas to Maine.Directory of china glass mosaic Tile Manufacturers, Hurricane-force winds stretched from Virginia to Massachusetts.

Because of its size, Sandy was more than a coastal event. Officials predicted 33-foot waves in Lake Michigan and high winds in Indiana. In Ohio, high winds were predicted to generate 20-foot waves on Lake Erie, posing a flood risk. There were formal government warnings of one variety or another in 23 states, and 60 million people _ nearly 1 in 5 Americans _ could weather the storm before the end of the week.

The storm’s impact was so varied and widespread that Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley called his state “America’s weather in miniature.” Maryland was being pounded on both ends of the state. There were blizzard warnings to the west, with some areas expected to receive as much as 2 feet of snow, and flood warnings for the area around Chesapeake Bay, with storm surges as high as 4 feet forecast for Tuesday.

Armyman arrested for raping Delhi Police constable

A 28-year-old Army personnel has been arrested on charges of raping and harassing a Delhi Police constable, who he had met during a train journey.

Anil Kumar Yadav, posted in Punjab, was arrested from the woman’s house, where he had come to threaten her, police said.

In a statement to police, the woman said she met Yadav a year ago when she was on her way to Rohtak in the Janata Express train. She said Yadav offered her a seat and cared for her through the journey as she was unwell. They exchanged phone numbers and Yadav started to visit her.

The woman told police that Yadav promised to marry her and raped her several times.

“He forced me to have a physical relationship. He told me that he would marry me, so I did not make any official complaint,” she said in her complaint.

She said she was not aware that Yadav was already married and was father to a child.

Later, the two married in a temple in Ghaziabad and also got it registered.It is commonly present in stainless steel earring or the ones bought for cheap prices. Yadav took all her jewellery later, claiming “it was not safe to keep it in the house”, the woman told police.

“He asked me to give him my jewellery worth Rs 3 lakh. I trusted him so I gave him all the jewellery. The next day he left home saying that he was going for work, and did not return,” the woman said.

After the woman insisted, Yadav gave her a cheque of Rs 2 lakh in return of the jewellery. The woman claimed that the cheque bounced.

She alleged that Yadav would threaten against registering a complaint. “He used to abuse me. He told me that he will kill me if I go to police. He also told me that he would shoot me if I ever went to meet him. I found out that he already had a family,Heavy Duty stainless steel bracelet.” she said.

On October 6,Find the largest selection of dkny womens stainless steel bangle watch on sale. Yadav visited the woman “to settle the matter with her”.

“He told me that he would end the matter by killing me. I started shouting for help, but he shut the door and raped me. I managed to escape and made a PCR call,ratings and reviews for a Inset Mother of Pearl stainless steel cufflink. after which he was arrested,” she told police.

A case has been registered, police said.

Hyderabad cops crack gold robbery case

Police arrested a six-member gang, including a jeweller, involved in the two-kg gold robbery at Jubilee Bus Station. They recovered 1.8 kg (180 tolas) of the stolen booty from their possession and produced them in court on Monday.ratings and reviews for a Inset Mother of Pearl stainless steel cufflink.

On October 15, the gang had abducted Rajeswar, an employee of Om jewellery shop in Nirmal, at Jubilee Bus Station while he was returning to his native place after purchasing two kg gold from Chanda Anjaiah Parameshwar (CAP) jewellery store in Secunderabad and robbed him. After a detailed probe, Task Force sleuths nabbed V Bhikshapati, 28, owner of Sri Venkateswara Jewellery Mart, Hanamkonda, P Praveen, 28, saleFind the largest selection of dkny womens stainless steel bangle watch on sale.sperson at Laxmi Sai Jewellers in Hanamkonda, K Gowtam, 25, a driver from Hanamkonda,Heavy Duty stainless steel bracelet. D Sampath, 32,It is commonly present in stainless steel earring or the ones bought for cheap prices. a history-sheeter of Atmakur police station in Warangal, Ch Satyanarayana, 24 , a driver from Ameerpet in Hyderabad, and R Srinivas, a driver from Warangal, from various places in the state. Among the accused, Sampath, Satyanarayana and Srinivas were involved in a murder, an attempt to murder and a kidnapping case in Warangal district. Addressing the media on Monday, Hyderabad police commissioner Anurag Sharma said the robbery was planned by Bhikshapati along with his relative Praveen. "Bhikshapati and Praveen were facing financial problems and to get over their woes they hatched the robbery plan," the commissioner said. Praveen, who also used to visit CAP jewellery shop, had suggested to Bhikshapati that they should rob gold from Rajeswar, who used to visit the store three to four times a week for purchasing huge quantities of the yellow metal. Then, the duo sought help from others, whom they know personally and a plan was hatched.

As per their plan, the gang waited for Rajeswar at the jewellery store on October 13, but he did not turn up that day. Again on October 15, Praveen went to the store and waited for Rajeshwar, as soon as he saw the target arriving at the shop, Praveen alerted the other gang members. After Rajeswar left the shop, Bhikshapati trailed his auto on a bike and informed the other gang members, who were waiting in an Innova, about the movement of their target. As soon as he disembarked from the auto at JBS, the gang abducted him, relieved him of the gold and dumped him on the road at Yousufguda.

Police got the first crucial lead from CCTV footage at the jewellery shop. "We found Praveen monitoring Rajeswar at the shop and with the assistance of the jewellery store owners and the victim we nabbed him from Warangal. Based on his confession, other culprits were also picked up," the city police chief said.

Task Force sleuths managed to recover 1,809 grams of the stolen booty from the culprits along with an Innova car, a bike and six cell phones. They are yet to recover 191 grams of the stolen gold, which the culprits had already sold. "We are trying to find out if they were involved in any other offences," the commissioner said.

Mistaken for Mumbai gang-rape victim

In an apparent case of mistaken identity, a 17-year-old girl from Gilad village in Valsad, Gujarat, recently became the subject of taunts after a year-old MMS clip of a Mumbai-based woman being raped started circulating locally.ratings and reviews for a Inset Mother of Pearl stainless steel cufflink. The girl’s jewellery resembled the victim’s, leading many in her village to think that she was the victim. Traumatised, the girl allegedly even attempted suicide twice over the past month.It is commonly present in stainless steel earring or the ones bought for cheap prices.

The girl told the police that she was not the woman filmed in the video and she had never been raped. The Valsad police registered an offence under the Information Technology Act against unidentified persons. On investigation, the Valsad police learnt that the MMS clip had been circulated from Mumbai a year ago. The clip was of a 20-year-old woman being gang-raped in Malad (East).

When the Valsad police team made inquiries in Mumbai around 10 days ago, they were told that the rape victim was someone else. Valsad police then sought help from officers at Kurar police station in Malad (East) to ascertain the identity of the woman in the clip, so that action in the IT Act case registered by them could be decided.

Valsad police learnt that the Kurar police had arrested Suraj Nepali and three others in July 2011 for allegedly raping a 20-year-old girl two months earlier. The offence had come to light when an MMS clip of the rape was found circulating in the neighbourhood. While Nepali allegedly raped the girl, the others had pinned her down and shot the video.

Subhash Dafle, senior inspector, Kurar police station said the Valsad police studied the MMS clip which had been circulated in Mumbai and compared it with the one being investigated by them and confirmed that the victim was someone else. “The gang-rape victim was in Mumbai when the Valsad police officers came here. They recorded her statement to clarify that the victim in the video was not the Valsad girl,” said Dafle.

In May 2011,Heavy Duty stainless steel bracelet. a 20-year-old woman was returning from a temple along with her friends, when they were drugged by a group of boys who then took turns in raping her on a hillock at Kurar. The incident was captured on cellphone by an accused. Police got hold of the video through news channels and registered a case suo motu.

Police identified the accused and the victim and arrested four men 15 days after the case was registered. The video was grainy,Find the largest selection of dkny womens stainless steel bangle watch on sale. but the police were able to build a strong case as it clearly showed the faces of the accused. In the absence of a medical test, the clip is the primary evidence.

Ornate jewel box adds to legend

An addition to the fascinating story of Taranaki's Highwayman has been revealed.

Bev Talbot, the great niece of New Plymouth's most famous villain, Robert Wallath, gifted a jewellery box made by her uncle to Puke Ariki yesterday.Heavy Duty stainless steel bracelet.

Although its origins are hazy, it is thought the box was made during his time in prison, and then gifted to his sister, Annie Wellington, nee Wallath, as a wedding gift.

Mrs Talbot said when her grandmother died in 1967 she left the jewellery box to her mother, Kathleen Pittams, and when she died in 2007, it ended up in her hands.

"The main reason of bringing it here is once our generation is gone, where would it go next?

"We didn't want the story or the box to be lost."

Although many of the generation below Mrs Talbot were interested in the box, she said it was too hard to single one of them out.

"If it's here,ratings and reviews for a Inset Mother of Pearl stainless steel cufflink.It is commonly present in stainless steel earring or the ones bought for cheap prices. they can all come and see it," she said.

Wallath lived a double life that jumped between criminal and honest citizen.

He wore a mask, military uniform and a long sword at his side, and was known for his armed holdups around the region.

The Highwayman's acts were never malicious, and he stole only from the rich, which led the people of New Plymouth to see him in a Robin Hood-type light.

He was eventually captured by Harold Thomson during a bungled robbery of the Criterion Hotel in 1893 and sentenced to eight years in jail.

The people of New Plymouth objected and he was released after 4 years.

The Puke Ariki collection already holds some of Wallath's marquetry work, which is of a similar style to the designs on the jewellery box.

Puke Ariki social history curator Andrew Moffat said it baffled him that Wallath was able to create these works which seemed to require such patience.

"He was quite a reckless youth, but the fact the same man could sit down and do this kind of work, it really gets me."

Although it had not been accepted into the collection yet, Mr Moffat said it was highly likely.

"Given all its links to the collection, and its story, it's got a good chance of going in," he said.Find the largest selection of dkny womens stainless steel bangle watch on sale.

Mr Moffat described Wallath as being a real folk hero, who never failed to capture the imagination.

"This box will change the story again, it really gives it a different twist or turn."

The next piece Mr Moffat has his sights set on is the gold watch that was gifted to Harold Thomson for capturing the Highwayman.

Family tell of holiday hell after returning home to burnt out shell

Inside, they found the kitchen on fire and smoke in the rest of the house, in Peveril Crescent, Long Eaton.

It took firefighters from Ilkeston and Highfields around half-an-hour to put the blaze out.

And to add to the couple's woes, they then discovered they had been burgled while they were away.

While cleaning up the mess they found that jewellery was missing.

Mrs Pearson,Origin Laser is an Australian business bringing a new class of affordable and quality Laser engraver and laser cutting machine. 39, said: "I was horrified. I could see the smoke and soot in the front window and thought 'oh no'.

"The inside was a mess. The firefighters came quickly and police came too. They have been brilliant."

She added: "It was clear someone had broken in. A window was open at the back. Drawers had been tipped out. They've taken jewellery belonging to dead relatives.

"How could someone do such a thing? They've taken sentimental things which can't be replaced. And,Australian store selling a sensational range of affordable tungsten jewelry, as if that's not enough, our house has been on fire."

Police are investigating the burglary and the blaze, along with the fire service.

A spokesman for Derbyshire Police said they were treating the fire as suspicious.

The couple had been on holiday for a week in Devon with their children, Gracie, four, and Joe, two.

Mrs Pearson said: "We'd had such a wonderful week. Then we have had to come home to this."

The family have had to move in with a relative.tungsten ring store offers the finest selection of fashion tungsten rings, A representative from their insurance firm was expected to assess the damage today.

Yesterday, Mr and Mrs Pearson returned to their home to begin clearing up.

The kitchen was badly damaged from the flames, while the rest of the house was covered in soot.

Clothes which were in drawers upstairs had black stains on them. The entire house smelt of smoke.

Mrs Pearson, a teacher, added: "We're trying to see what, if anything, can be salvaged.Jewelry Limited supply wholesale jewelry stainless steel jewelry supplies,

"We had planned to have a Hallowe'en party when we returned and had put bunting up before we went away. That's all ruined now.

"The children are very upset. We all are. It is awful to have to come home to find this."

Mr Pearson, 39, said: "It's a mess inside. We are trying to save some of our belongings but it is very difficult."

Lakeshore inspires area artists

A half-formed moist lump of clay whirled on the potter’s wheel in Dave Martin’s Manitowoc studio. He invited me to sit in his chair, then pointed to the view just outside his window.

“That’s what I was talking about,” he said. “See that?”

Across Memorial Drive, Lake Michigan glittered, the intensity of the water’s sparkle a silver glare in the midday sun. The beauty inspires – and sometimes distracts – Martin, who also keeps small jars of beach sand to incorporate into some of his pieces.

Martin’s owned this shop for the last four years, but his fascination with clay goes back 40 years – it’s been a part of his life in one form or another, taking shape in hundreds and hundreds of bowls, vases and mugs.

“Making pots is like a musical instrument. I sit at the wheel and it’s like sitting at the piano – here’s my song,” Martin said, indicating shelves of cobalt-ringed pots in his studio.

The melody that arises is rich in variety – Martin’s “Shoreline” series features gracefully bending grasses painted on vases; other plates have delicate, spidery veins of deep azure and jade, and one small marbleware pot has thin brown sugar bands swirling up into sky-blue stripes, a gentle windstorm on clay.

There’s also some science involved, with Martin mixing up his own glazes in 50,000-gram batches in plastic garbage cans, all the better to control quality and chemical balance. Once fired, the glaze turns molten on the clay’s surface – what begins as a barely-noticeable application of glaze turns to rich, sparkling undertones after a stint in the 2,300-degree kiln.

One small pot – a deep blue under the glare of the workshop lights – radiated when Martin let sunlight fall on its surface.

It’s the different minerals in the glaze,” he said by way of explaining the dancing flecks of green and purple undertones. “It’s a black temmoku glaze that does that.”

Martin dots the walls of his workshop with scraps of paper bearing uplifting messages, and those vibes find their way into his pottery. Themes are revisited years later, tweaked to reflect his current outlook, and new variations – updated agateware with bands of porcelain and clay a fresh perspective.

Blind tennis players keep their ears on the ball

Learning how to play tennis is hard enough. Now try it when you can't see.

That's what students are doing at the California School for the Blind. They're learning a form of tennis adapted for the visually impaired -- and expanding the boundaries of what the blind can do.

The state-supported campus in Fremont is one of three American schools for the blind that recently began teaching adapted tennis, which was invented in Japan in the 1980s. A nonprofit group called Tennis Serves is working to promote the sport throughout the U.S.

"I didn't know someone with no vision could play tennis until I came to this school," said a 16-year-old student from Modesto named Jonathan. The school declined to provide his last name, citing a state law that protects the privacy of students with disabilities.

Blind tennis features a smaller court, lower net and junior tennis rackets with bigger heads and shorter handles. String is taped to the floor so players can feel the boundaries with their feet.

Players use a foam ball filled with metal beads that rattle on impact, allowing them to locate the ball when it hits the ground or racket. Once served, they have to return the ball before it bounces three times.

"The most difficult thing to teach is timing their stroke," said Sejal Vallabh, the 17-year-old founder of Tennis Serves. "Being able to listen to the ball, locate it using their sense of hearing and swing at the precise moment the ball goes by is really difficult to teach."

While experienced players can keep the ball in bounds and stage extended rallies, just hitting the ball over the net can be a challenge for beginners. During a recent visit to the California School for the Blind, students mostly swatted balls into the ground, the net and toward the ceiling and walls. Few balls were returned, but teachers say some are developing that capability.

Blind tennis was created in 1984 by Miyoshi Takei, a blind Japanese high school student who designed the adapted ball and helped the sport gain popularity in Japan and other Asian countries. He dominated blind tennis competitions until he was killed in a train accident last year at age 42.

Vallahb, an avid tennis player who is now a high school senior in Newton, Mass., first encountered blind tennis two years while doing a summer internship in Japan, where her grandmother lives.

"After I saw it there, I knew that I wanted to recreate the sport that I had seen back in the U.S.," she said, so she started Tennis Serves.

Vallabh first began teaching at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Mass. with help from her high school tennis teammates. She then helped start similar programs at Lighthouse International in New York City and the California School for the Blind.

Vallabh is working with engineering students at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Calif. to design a ball that continuously beeps to make it easier for blind players to track it.

At the California School for the Blind, staff members said they were skeptical when Vallabh first approached them about teaching the adapted sport.

"We were thinking, 'How are we going to teach tennis?" said Mary Alice Ross, who teaches adapted physical education. "My colleague said, 'Tennis is like teaching football. It's not something we really do.'"

The California School for the Blind, which has about 90 students ages 5 to 22, offers many adapted sports activities and sports, including bowling, boating, swimming, hiking, ice-skating and goal-ball.

Tennis is one of the most difficult sports for the visually impaired, but it brings unique rewards, teachers say.

"When it comes to being able to play a sport which is commonly only played by people with good vision, it's a big self-esteem boost." said John Healy, a dorm counselor who teaches adapted tennis.

A 12-year-old student named Sebastian said he was surprised when he first heard about the adapted sport.

"Tennis? How could blind people play tennis?" he said. "But then I was like, blind people can do anything they want. If you set your mind to it, then you can do it."

Shares in jewellery manufacturer may still have some sparkle

Early last month, I had decided to take a close look at upmarket jeweller Theo Fennell, shares then 10.5p. However, that was put on hold as the shares duly spiked up on the company’s revelation of a possible bid approach from private equity group EME Capital. But, despite the shares surging to 17p, they have recently lost their lustre and have now fallen back to a current 11.5p.

One could be forgiven for assuming that the intended bid had been withdrawn, thus putting the stock back to where it was prior to the excitement.

In reality, what has actually happened here is that EME has been granted an extension to the date by which it needs to make a formal offer, or walk away. Given that the Theo Fennell board had earlier stated that there can be no certainty of an offer being forthcoming, then it would appear that market watchers are anticipating EME’s withdrawal.

However, from an investment perspective, I feel the shares may be worth a speculative punt from two angles, with the first being a firm offer actually being made. It must surely be the case here that with a last stated net asset value of 25p per share, any offer acceptance from shareholders would be at a decent premium to the current share price.

The other side of the coin is that Theo Fennell soldiers on alone and the investment case is one of recovery.

Based in the City of London, the company is probably best described as a designer and manufacturer of upmarket jewellery.

This includes the likes of watches, silver giftware, along with hand crafted 18ct gold rings and other unique offerings. While that sounds all well and good, it is fair to say that Theo Fennell has for the best part of recent times failed to shine. In fact the shares, which around 18 months ago were trading at 65p, had been bumping along at 10p for quite a while prior to the recent news. With a market cap of just ￡2.6m, it is perhaps surprising to find what is a pretty impressive shareholder list here.

Apart from Theo Fennell himself, who incidentally holds 16% of the company, Henderson Global sits on 6.7% followed by Rupert and JO Hambro, who collectively hold around 12%. Additionally, there are other shrewd and respected players holding shares bought at higher levels which suggests they are worthy of a look in their own right.

As for the business, sales, like the share price, have endured something of a rough ride, falling from ￡28m four years back to the most recently reported ￡12.3m.

Likewise, profits over the same period have been equally disappointing, dropping from a pre-tax figure of ￡1.4m to a current loss of ￡1.7m.

Little wonder then that the shares have been unloved.

But, there are reasons why someone may wish to acquire the business, not least the potentially hidden value. And with the business serving the upper end of the market, there are already signs of recovery.

The number of Internet users in the country

Jewellery and accessories shopping website run by Bangalore-based Voylla Retail Pvt. Ltd, has raised an undisclosed sum from an angel investor.
Voylla declined to reveal the deal terms, only saying it had raised a seven-digit figure in rupee terms and that the investor was a Bangalore-based serial entrepreneur who recently sold his company.

An angel investor is typically a wealthy individual who funds start-ups with money from his personal wealth.
Voylla said it will use the money to expand its operations team as well as for marketing the shopping portal.sells semi-precious, precious metal and gem stone jewellery as well as accessories for women.
“When we started we were offering both apparel and jewellery but we later found that demand for jewellery and accessories was very high. We have now completely pivoted from apparel,” said Vishwas Shringi, chief executive and co-founder.

About 70% of the company’s revenues are generated from jewellery and 30% from accessories. The average order ticket at Voylla is Rs. 1,100, Shringi said.
Earlier this year, another online jewellery portal raised $5 million from venture capital firm Accel Partners and serial entrepreneur Meena Ganesh, chief executive and managing director of Pearson Education Services. Last year, Chennai-based Caratlane Trading Pvt. Ltd, which runs diamond and jewellery portal, raised $6 million from Tiger Global Management Llc.

The number of Internet users in the country have crossed 100 million and this includes 17 million people who shop online, according to Internet and Mobile Association of India. The trade body estimates that the number of Internet users in India will triple by 2015, as will the number of online shoppers.

Experts say that with more customers buying even expensive products online, jewellery can emerge as a scalable category, particularly as more designs are made available at a wide price range.
“Even is traditional jewellery shopping, buyers’ end up trusting what the goldsmith says. In the case of online jewellery portals, the ornaments come with a guarantee card,” said Anil Joshi, vice president at Mumbai Angels, a grouping on angel investors.
Voylla’s diamond range is certified by Diamond Trade India and starts at Rs. 820.
Joshi added that the top online jewellery stores could consider selling their shares to the public while the smaller ones could seek to be bought by larger ecommerce companies.

On the overall ecommerce investment market, Deepak Srinath, director at Bangalore-based boutique investment bank Viedea Capital Advisors (P) Ltd, said companies in the sector are finding it difficult to raise more funds.
“Companies are burning cash, brand loyalty by customers does not exist. It’s gloom and doom in ecommerce right now and funding activity is almost zero,” said Srinath.

In the first six months of this year, India’s ecommerce sector saw 27 deals valued at $103.6 million while in the same period last year there were 18 deals valued at $177.83 million. The entire 2011 calendar year saw 38 deals worth $392 million in the sector, according to VCCEdge, which tracks PE and VC activity.

Place also admitted giving a false statement to police

A WOMAN has been sentenced to a community order after admitting stealing jewellery. Jade Fanning, 20, of Waterloo Promenade, Radford, pleaded guilty to three charges of stealing jewellery belonging to other women. She admitted taking a silver chain and cross pendant, a gold chain, and a gold ring in Hyson Green on April 25. Fanning also admitted stealing a gold T-bar pendant, a gold bear pendant, and a gold baby ring in Bulwell on July 16, and to stealing two gold baby bracelets in Bulwell on August 13.

She was also re-sentenced for two charges of fraud which related to her pawning a gold chain belonging to another woman, for which she had been given a conditional discharge. Fanning was sentenced to a community order and to pay ￡40 prosecution costs.

JANINE Hines, 33, of Harwill Crescent, Aspley, admitted stealing a ￡40 handbag from River Island, in Nottingham city centre, on August 25. She was handed an 18-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay ￡85 prosecution costs.

LORRAINE Leach, 33, of Helm Close, Snapewood, pleaded guilty to stealing ￡109.95 of clothes from Sports Direct, in Nottingham, on June 7. She was handed a 24-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay ￡85 prosecution costs. Leach also admitted committing the offence while subject to an 18-month conditional discharge for a previous theft offence. No action was taken on the breach of the order.

RICARDO Williams, 22, of Thorold Close, Clifton, admitted causing criminal damage to a door of a house in Clifton on July 28. He was handed a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay ￡85 prosecution costs. Williams also pleaded guilty to failing to surrender to custody on October 5, having been bailed, but faced no separate penalty.

KERRY McCarron, 32, of Walker Street, Sneinton, pleaded guilty to using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour in Wilford Crescent East, The Meadows, on June 14. She was fined ￡36 and ordered to pay ￡85 prosecution costs and a ￡15 victim surcharge.

Imitation jewellery business flourishes in Gurgaon

"The local imitation jewellery market has seen almost a 50 percent rise in the past five years and is set to grow while the exports must have seen a rise of 20 percent ," said Gurgaon-based Sonia Walia, owner of Zara Hues which exports imitation jewellery to US, Moscow, Canada and Hongkong.

The use of imitation jewellery has been prevalent from much before in the West but its acceptance is finally catching up in India since the past decade or so. Walia entered the imitation jewelllery market 10 years back seeing the huge demand and necessity for semi precious jewellery. "In India, the trend is recent as compared to western countries especially in affluent families. They wear it as a fashion statement but now due increasing prices of precious metal, more and more people are settling for imitation jewellery," she added.

Walia says the domestic market holds a huge potential but to realise that the players need to be innovative. As per Gurgaon-based Chaitanya Aggarwal, founder and CEO, Juvalia & You India, the Indian jewellery market is pegged at Rs 1.40 lakh crore with imitation jewellery market pegged at approximately Rs 7,000 crore and significantly growing at the CAGR of 15 to 20 percent year-on-year.

Juvalia & You is a Europe-based imitation jewellery player that aims to encash the huge potential the Indian imitation jewellery market holds and is betting big on NCR. "Our major customer base is in Delhi-NCR which is growing double fold. Juvalia & You India innovative jewellery designs fulfill the needs of the middle class segment in NCR which desires to own beautiful but affordable jewellery and admire heirloom pieces," said Aggarwal.

"Our major customer base belongs to this region so all in all there is still a lot of scope in this market. Juvalia & You India intends to be India's largest fashion accessories brand and direct selling business in the near future by catering to the unfulfilled consumer need to purchase fashion accessories of international quality at affordable prices in the market. There is no single known brand that operates in this category and we are very much here to address that gap," he added.

The main reasons that the players attribute to the increase in the demand for imitation jewellery include volatile gold prices which have jumped four times in the past one decade, easy to carry, imitation jewellery being comparatively cheaper to worry in case lost or stolen and humongous variety that it has.

However, some players say that the rising gold prices is not the only reason for the rise in demand for fashion jewellery. "Considering the high disposable incomes in cities like Gurgaon, everyone can afford to buy gold or diamond if they want to. The rise in imitation jewellery demand is all about fashion. Accessories have become an important part of dressing up and looking good in India. With so much international exposure fashion has become important," said a city-based player in the imitation jewellery market who did not want to be quoted.

can soon carry more gold jewellery to India

The Indian government could soon ease the limit on personal gold jewellery worn by incoming expatriate Indians.
A senior Indian official in Dubai told Emirates24|7 that the government is actively considering the decision and an announcement could be made very soon.

According to the current regulations a male traveller is allowed to carry 50 per cent less gold in comparison to a female traveller.

Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) have especially been demanding the government ease restrictions on gold worn or carried as personal jewellery. India’s Customs and Central Excise Rules 1967 stipulates that a man travelling to India can bring gold ornaments worth Rs10,000 (approximately Dh750) while a woman is allowed to bring gold worth a maximum of Rs20,000.

With the oncoming marriage season in India, many expatriates travel to India to attend family and friends' weddings. It becomes embarrassing if one is wearing a tiny gold chain and a ring, given that these two could alone cover the total permissible import limit with the current high price of gold," said S Kumar.

Indian airports have been conducting stringent checks on most travellers and asking them to shell out duty for any gold ornaments over the stipulated amount.

NRIs had even submitted an online petition to the government with this regard.

“The decision has almost been made to ease the customs duty. We could see it announced very soon,” the Indian official said.

India is witnessing a serious drop in gold imports this year. According to latest estimates, this year’s gold imports is expected to drop by almost 25 per cent compared to last year and 32 per cent compared to 2010.


World Gold Council statistics reveal that India imported 933.4 tonnes of gold in 2011 compared to 1,006.3 tonnes in 2010. This year gold imports into India is only expected to reach about 650 to 700 tonnes.


“Gold has been hit in every way. There is a liquidity crisis because of high interest rates and the monsoon was not very good in some states (so purchasing power will be low),” Prithviraj Kothari, a member of Bombay Bullion Association said Speaking to Mint – a business newspaper published from India.

The retailer also hired former Holt Renfrew executive

Canada's oldest company, Hudson's Bay Co. will soon be in public hands again after the storied retailer said Wednesday it is going to make a return to the stock market following an upscale makeover.

The owner of the Bay, Home Outfitters and U.S. retailer Lord and Taylor filed a preliminary prospectus for an initial public offering of its shares Wednesday after years of hinting that it is in the works.

HBC last traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2006 before it was taken private by U.S. businessman Jerry Zucker, who later died unexpectedly. New York-based NRDC Equity Partners acquired the company in 2008 for $1.1 billion from Zucker's widow.

Since then, the company has been working to transform stores that were "tired and in need of renovation" as well as revamp its image after losing "its fashion credibility," the company said in its filings.

The company, which plans to use the proceeds of the offering to repay debt, said it has improved sales productivity and earnings growth, partially through a capital investment of more than $420 million since 2009, but added it has more work to do.

The price and number of shares to be sold were not disclosed. However, HBC did say it plans to pay a quarterly dividend with a target payout ratio of 20 to 25 per cent of expected net earnings.

Jennifer Radman, a portfolio manager at Caldwell Investment Management, said a rare Canadian retail asset like HBC could fetch "huge demand" from investors, though stock markets are still volatile.

"A lot of investors, they buy stocks based on what they know, so I think from that standpoint there will be a lot of demand, regardless of the valuations that are placed on the stock," she said.

In terms of an initial valuation, Radman looked at where some of its U.S. peers are trading, like Macy's, which trades at 13.5 times earnings and TJX Group - owner of T.J. Maxx, Winners and Marshall's stores - which trades at 18 times earnings.

She estimated HBC could get away with pricing itself at between 12.5 and 17 times earnings.

HBC had profitable years in 2011 and 2010 following a loss in 2009, according to financial statements included in the prospectus, accessed through DisclosureNet.

However, for the first 26 weeks of its 2012 financial year, which doesn't include the important back-to-school, Christmas and New Year shopping periods, the company posted a total net loss of $147.8 million including $53.6 million from continuing operations.

In the similar 26-week period a year before, the company had a $13.3-million net profit, although its continuing operations had a $34.4 million net loss.

Retail sales have grown seven per cent year-over-year for the first 26 weeks of this year, with $1.76 billion in sales until July 28, compared to $1.65 billion for the period ended July 30, 2011, according to the filings.

The company has seen nine per cent sales growth at Hudson's Bay stores and 20 per cent growth at Lord & Taylor from 2009 to 2011, higher than the 5.2 per cent average reported at its North American peers. However, sales per square footage still lag, with $133 per square foot at the Bay stores and US$210 at Lord & Taylor's, compared with US$240 at its peers.

HBC said it wants to grow those sales to between $170 to $180 per square foot at Bay stores and US$250 at Lord & Taylor's in the next three to five years as it continues to improve sales productivity.

It plans to focus on high-growth sales categories such as women's clothing, men's wear, handbags, jewellery, accessories, footwear and cosmetics by dedicating more floor space to those items, adding new brands and ramping up its own private label brands such as its HBC signature line - known for the iconic Hudson's Bay stripes.

The company has sold leasing rights last year on more than 200 Zellers locations to U.S. retailer Target in a $1.8-billion deal that was seen by some as a prelude to an initial public offering.

HBC has made efforts to revitalize its Bay stores with the introduction of The Room boutique - a sleek space dedicated to luxury brands - at downtown stores, as well as obtaining the rights to produce uniforms and merchandise for Canada's Olympic athletes.

The retailer also hired former Holt Renfrew executive Bonnie Brooks as president and chief spokeswoman for the Bay. She was in Vancouver on Wednesday for the launch of a Topshop boutique within a downtown Bay store.

Brooks - who was recently a guest judge on Project Runway - has overseen the transformation of the Bay into a shopping destination for high profile designers from Rachel Roy to Proenza Schouler.

Its aim is to position itself in between the low-end and high-end of the market, a segment that had largely been ignored in Canada, she said in an interview from the Vancouver store.

"We really are running the gamut from opening price point to really, underneath luxury I would say," she said.

The initial public offering comes as HBC gets set to face increased competition, not only from Target next year, but also chic U.S. retailer Nordstrom, which is opening of its first four Canadian stores in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver starting in 2014.

Brooks said she is not worried the Bay will be squeezed out by the arrival of low-end rival Target or upscale Nordstrom, which she said don't have very much overlap with the Bay's offerings.

Aside from plans to open more Topshops and The Room boutiques in urban locations like Montreal and Calgary, Hudson's Bay has 16 million square feet of retail space and is looking to renovate much more of that square footage.

"While we have created a lot of buzz around what we're doing, we've only just begun. We have traction which is terrific but we've got runway ahead of us that is staggering," she said.

"We had a lot to do to get the company to a new level of standard so we're now in a position to bring a new level of presentation and new products now to a lot more of our stores."

Brooks would not comment on whether money raised in the IPO would help fund its growth plans.

The move by HBC back to the public markets follows the success of a pair of other Canadian retailers.

Both athletic clothing retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc. (TSX:LLL) and discount retailer Dollarama Inc. (TSX:DOL) have seen the value of their shares take off since becoming publicly traded companies in recent years.

Gold rates not to affect sales

The Navratras rings in with in the festive season, also considered an auspicious time for making purchases. The shopping list for most people begins with buying the precious metals and despite the sky-rocketing prices this festive season, the jewellers in the city expect booming business.

"Buying gold and diamonds is something that makes everybody happy and for the affluent classes, the rates do not matter. They understand the fact that the prices would be much higher than they are today; for those who buy gold as an investments, this is the right time to make purchases,'' said Nawal Agarwal, Birdhichand Ghanshyamdas Jewellers.

With the wedding season ahead, even the middle-class families are expected to buy the gold and silver this festive season. Sandeep Chhbara of Motisons said that in recent times the gold rates have increased 15 to 20 per cent on an average every year and that will not have an adverse effect on the markets. There are various choices available for the buyers to suit their range and choices,'' he said.

However, given the fact that the most are looking for value-for-money, several jewellers in the city have come with special schemes. Most jewellers in the city have developed jewellery using precious and semi precious stones, ensuring minimum use of gold to restrict the prices from being to high. According to dealers, the demand for such jewellery is increasing along with the demand for jewellery pieces which can be work in multiple ways.

From discounts on labour charges to better designs in light-weight jewellery, the market has lots to offer for to those who would be reluctant to buy heavy jewellery. The light-weight jewellery is not just for the middle class families but also for those who want to buy jewellery pieces for gift purposes, a common trend during the festival season.

"We have specially designed the 'Saugat' collection which offers jewellery pieces in a range of Rs 2,500 to Rs 50,000 and these are quite popular for those who buy in bulk to gift," said Sanjay Kala of Kalajee Jewellers.

Those dealing in precious gifts too have developed special collections for their clients. With gold at an all time high, many are preferring gold-platted silver stuff and the Jaipur jewellers have developed stuff to match their requirements, said Rishabh Baid of Arham Jewellers, who added that a discount of making charges of the gift items will also be offered to the buyers.

The Fama attracted faithful from far off places

The road to Colva on the second Monday in October is paved with good intentions. Locals will tell you that the traditional Fama of Infant Jesus is a bigger affair than the feast itself and was celebrated at the Our Lady of Merces Church with religious fervour on Monday.

The Eucharistic celebration began with a solemn mass at 5.30am and on the occasion, the image of Infant Jesus was covered with regal robes and jewellery, taken down from a bulletproof vault and then in a solemn procession around the church, in the presence of hundreds of devotees. It was then kept for public veneration, and a crowd queued up to the altar to kiss the statue. Masses were also held at regular intervals throughout the day.

"Infant Jesus is considered miraculous by the people and this day heralds the beginning of the novenas and culminate in the feast on October 25," said Camilo Rodrigues, president of the confraria committee of the Colva church.

The Fama attracted faithful from far off places with people from neighbouring states also making a beeline to thank Infant Jesus for favours received. Childless parents who were bestowed with a child, to fulfill the vow made by them, bring the baby for the Fama and place the child on the altar during the revered umanv.

"I've come to seek blessings and to offer thanksgiving," said Irene Gomes from Varca, who was holding her newborn son, while standing in a long queue for well over an hour. Keith Fernandes from Cuncolim, standing behind Irene, has vowed to attend the Fama every year as his wife was cured from her illness.

Offerings in the form of wax shaped into different body parts like arms, legs, eyes, ears and stomachs were made in return for a pledge already made or to plead freedom from ailments.

"Devotees also take back cords as souvenirs after they touch them to the statute they consider miraculous and tie them around their wrist or hand them around their neck as they consider them to be a symbol of protection and good luck," said Nicole Mascarenhas, a parishioner .

The traffic police made elaborate arrangements for the smooth flow of traffic.

This is starting to get really creepy

I am referring to the mysterious brown envelopes that have been secretly deposited in my mailbox in each of the last 10 months.

Inside each is an alarming photograph of a member of our family who was kidnapped in January, along with a menacing note detailing what cruel activities the "hostage" has been forced to take part in.

Before you call 911, let me give you a little background. Last January, I wrote a heartbreaking column in which I revealed "Creepy Santa," a three-foot-tall stuffed Santa doll I've immortalized in recent years, had been stolen from our front porch.

Regular readers will recall he was nicknamed Creepy Santa by my daughter because his pale, plastic face has a malevolent, open-mouthed glare. He looks like former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, only more lifelike.

I can't imagine what Christmas at our place would be like without Creepy Santa. It would probably be wonderful. Our only real Christmas tradition involves my wife and kids hiding this scowling plush gnome in random locations, then waiting for their victim to stumble on him and scream in holiday horror.

Blood is still leaking out of my ears from the shrieks my son emitted a few Christmases back when he staggered out of bed, climbed into the shower, turned on the water ... and found Creepy Santa staring back at him from a dark, damp corner.

But the point is, he's gone. Shortly after last Christmas, Creepy Santa was pinched from the porch, where he normally sits to scare away neighbourhood children who want to shovel our driveway.

A typical Canadian family, we didn't even realize he was gone until days later when the first brown envelope arrived and inside was a photo of the creepy little dude sporting a tiny Jets T-shirt. There was also a slip of paper bearing this grisly post-holiday message: "GO JETS GO!"

Since then, every month, usually on the day of some special occasion, another mysterious brown envelope arrives from the heartless kidnappers. For instance, several months ago, along with the envelope, we discovered our porch and every tree in the front yard had been festooned with full-colour photos of Creepy Santa wishing my wife a Happy Birthday.

In the middle of the Summer Olympic Games in London, the envelope contained a photo of the tiny terror clutching a Canadian flag and marching proudly at the front of the Canadian team into the opening ceremony. "Go Canada go!!!" the accompanying note shrieked. "So glad I made the trip over the pond. Had a jolly good time at the Opening Ceremonies."

In the middle of our heat wave, his ninja-like captors taunted us by sending a photo of the rosy-cheeked rascal lounging on a floating chair in the middle of the giant inflatable pool in our very own backyard. Yes, the cruelty is unimaginable.

What's more, readers have become fascinated by the ongoing saga of Creepy Santa's abduction. Routinely, as I stand in line at the grocery or liquor store, a stranger will eyeball me and ask: "So, have you tracked down the kidnappers yet?"

One reader sent me a small gift-wrapped box, inside of which I found (prepare to be a little bit creeped out) a severed plastic Santa's head. Ha ha ha. Nothing creepy about that! Did I mention I sleep with a loaded shotgun under my pillow?

Anyway, none of the envelopes has contained what you would call a ransom note, and we really don't have a clue who took him or why. On Thanksgiving, we sat at a table surrounded by family and friends, all of whom we accused of being the kidnappers. As we checked their faces for signs of guilt, each, in turn, denied any knowledge of the crime. "Ha ha ha," is what they said, averting their eyes.

Then, a couple of days ago, the latest envelope appeared. It contained a photo of Creepy Santa in a Halloween-style pirate's cap with a skull and crossbones, an eyepatch, a gold earring, a striped scurvy dog's T-shirt and a swarthy pirate sword.

"Shiver me timbers!" the note chortled. "Talkin' like a pirate be more fun than deliverin' toys!"

So I fear the worst is about to happen. It appears Creepy Santa is slowly working his way home for the holidays. If that comes true, expect to hear a joyful noise in the air over my home.

who explodes the forms of line

The 2012 Biennial exhibition at Center for Maine Contemporary Art collects seventeen artists: ten by submission, seven invited. Selected by director Suzette McAvoy and Daphne Anderson Deeds, an independent curator of esteem in the art business world, those exhibiting are among the most recognizable and talented in the state, yet the show itself sometimes feels like a prudent collection of medium representation, like how a Greatest Hits CD of a musical artist cautiously delineates their back catalog while omitting your favorite songs.

Perhaps one problem is that many of the artists collected here have created exhibits that so exceed the sum of their parts that when the work is shown in sample quantities, it feels out of place. This is unfortunately the case for Lauren Fensterstock, whose black masses of cut paper overwhelm in the aggregate yet seem muted here, where two glassed-in beds ("Colorless Field") awkwardly line the third floor like a mislain shag carpet. It's also true of Grace DeGennaro, whose kaleidoscopically celestial paintings of geometric abstractions have the capacity to immerse an entire gallery in a palatial, introspective glow. Here, two massive, majestic oils do their best, but can't help ceding their gravity to the other busy conversations in the room.

Another concern with a biennial this size is its tendency to frame perfectly distinguished artists as token selections. This applies to realist art photographer David Stess, whose series of black and white photos is given too small a contextual window to leap through (the show's other photography artist, the mesmerizing and obsessive Luc Demers, shoots staged domestic intersections of darkness and light so stylized you forget the medium entirely). It's also partially true of Cassie Jones, who explodes the forms of line drawing and painting into colorful, low-relief sculptures of felt and acrylic. Her work is fantastically unique — childlike mutations of drawing, painting, and sculpture — but I couldn't help imagining them displayed more effectively than they are here, where they're anxiously clustered on the wall like shields in some cartoon armory, often too high up for close inspection. And poor Robin Mandel: by the time you might check the tiny room where his "Motion Studies" video lives (inexplicably his lone entry), its repetitive soundtrack has already abrasively bored its way into your subconscious.

Many who show multiple pieces are in terrific form. The work of James B. Marshall — a rather conceptual sculptor and painter with a fine and unique aesthetic — rests on plinths throughout the main room. They're graphite-layered paper bags lacquered in PVA and arranged in contorted, almost figurative postures, and they supply the exhibit with a graceful appreciation of structure and craft. Upstairs, the surprisingly fascinating geological studies of Jonathan Mess provide a similar rhythm, bridging the exhibit's more refractory works with numerous recycled clay sculptures in brilliant expressionistic patterns.

I found myself enamored of the encaustic and oil panels of Lynda Litchfield. Her playful, groundless line figurations are an unexpected highlight, particularly the "Narcissus" series containing horizontal lines of lyrically intersecting yellow paint. A rhythm too busy for melody animates Kate Russo's graph paper works upstairs, yet they dazzle all the same: barely perceptible colored pencil marks in dense agglomerations which reveal distinct, wallpaper-y macropatterns. Tom Butler, who transforms the faces of those depicted in 19th-century cabinet cards with monstrous and nightmarish features, lends the show a compelling motif of cultural subversion, while Aaron Stephan's "Girl With Pearl Earring" and "Splat" series deal in art-historical irony.

most ubiquitous sharpening solution is diamond impregnated metal plates

No matter how sharp your knife was when you bought it, all knife blades get dull with regular use. When you’re out in the middle of nowhere, it’s good to have a means to address that issue.

For the time being, we’ll be sticking to the basics: a few field-tested items that are relatively simple, direct and packable.

Smith’s Pocket Pal has its limitations. But the pull-through 600- grit ceramic honing slot — used in conjunction with the 400-grit fold-out tapered diamond rod for freehand honing — can work wonders in a pinch for smaller to moderate blades. The carbide slot should be reserved for edges so dull the primary angle needs to be reset. The diamond rod is a plus for honing serrations.

Freehand sharpening techniques are worth the trouble of learning for any serious hunter, angler, hiker or tool-using primate. Traditional mineral whetstones are elegant and can last a lifetime. But the bench versions — even the palm-sized ones — are on the heavy side for pack or pocket use.

The most ubiquitous sharpening solution is diamond impregnated metal plates, usually laminated to a plastic or polymer backing. They are still commonly called stones, but they are much, much lighter.

The Smith’s two-sided diamond sharpening stone (around $20) is a general-purpose example. This sharpener, which can be sheathed in its hollow handle, is about 8 inches long when fully deployed and weighs about 6 ounces. Some blade steels seem to like this sharpener better than others, but on the whole it is useful for most midgrade knives and hatchets.

Even lighter and more compact is the Diafold double-sided sharpener by DMT. The two piece handle, which protects the sharpening surface in storage, folds open like a butterfly knife. The Diafold weighs about 4 ounces and comes in several color coded combinations from extra coarse all the way up to extra fine.

A DMT Diafold can be nearly double the price of the larger Smith’s model. This likely reflects the density of the diamond grit material with which the metal sharpening surface has been impregnated. In my experience, these things sharpen like a son of a gun, putting hair-popping edges on both carbon and stainless steels. They can be used dry but a film of plain water is ideal. Other honing lubricants can be used but aren’t recommended. The double-sided blue/red version is a great all-around model. The red/green model is great for those who obsessively touch up edges.

More suited to slip into the piggyback sheath pouches provided with many large utility knives are the single-sided DMT Mini Sharp plates. They fold up so thin you could fit two in most sheath pouches and still have room for a multitool and possibly even a small fire steel. The Mini Sharp come in four color-coded grits, extra coarse to extra fine. Each comes with a steel key ring handily attached.

Moving up in size, weight and complexity are various portable systems that mechanically maintain a consistent sharpening angle. Smith’s and Lanskys are two companies that offer systems based on a jig that is clamped to the blade to be sharpened. Guide rods are fastened to compact “stones” of varying grit. The sharpening angle is selected by placing the end of the guide rod into one of several graduated holes or sockets in the jig.

The Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker ($50 and up) is a guided sharpening system that, while consisting of a number of components that need to be kept up with, offers greater simplicity and flexibility than clamp-on-jig systems.

The Sharpmaker is basically a refined “crock stick” system: a steady base with two 7-inch long ceramic sharpening rods (called tri-stones) opposed to one another in pre-calibrated V angles. The blade is sharpened with a vertical hand stroke inside the V, alternating between the rods stroke for stroke.

The basic kit consists of a two-piece ABS base (which also comprises a box for the components), two medium ceramic rods, two fine ceramic rods and two brass safety rods to protect the off hand that steadies the base during sharpening. No lubricants, water or oil, are used with this sharpener. After the stones invariably load up with tiny steel particles, they can be dry-scrubbed with scouring powder and non-scratch pads.

Mastering this Sharpmaker requires decent hand-eye coordination, care, patience and practice. Spyderco thoughtfully includes an instructional manual and extremely informative DVD — which is recommended viewing. The system is elegantly simple and remarkably versatile, capable of imparting precise sharpness to a startling variety of edged and pointed tools.

The whole kit weights about 12 ounces. The downside? The tri-stones require a lot of TLC. They are as fragile as glass and can easily be broken if dropped on a hard surface. Fortunately, the self-contained ABS case provides excellent protection, especially if secured inside a pack or a vehicle tool bag.

Going To A Nude Beach Made Me Feel A Little Better About Life

I am not a beach person. The way seagulls swoop over your head like rats with wings terrifies me. I hate that feeling of sand caked in every crevice.

But when my friend Thomas invited my husband and I to a nude federal beach in New Jersey, rumored to be filled with spectacularly hung men and tanned, pierced women, I decided it was something worth trying.

“I think we should go,” I told my husband.

Maybe it was because I needed a change. Spring had been of those staying-in-bed-smoking-cigarettes instead of going out seasons. I found myself fighting a constant drowsiness and listening to Jewel. Some days it took an effort to look both ways before crossing the street.

My therapist diagnosed me with mixed anxiety-depressive disorder. Honestly, I am not even sure what this means other than that it feels like there is this giant, black balloon that is always sort of hovering around. Sometimes the balloon gets huge and it covers the whole sky, disconnecting me from the things that matter most. Lately, it was my husband. It was like I couldn’t see him as a separate person anymore. Like he was a part of me. And it was hard to feel tender toward either of us. Internally things felt sharp, like my mind was gripped by tiny teeth.

Jumping in the ocean naked with a lot of strangers wouldn’t fix anything, but it seemed like it might make me feel better momentarily. Like a baptism. But with nudity.

On Saturday morning, we met Thomas and his partner Leigh. Thomas is tall with gray hair and a silver earring. He is also old enough to be my father but cool in a writerly way with lots of great New York anecdotes about people like Debbie Harry and Michael Alig. I liked Leigh instantly. She had an approachable vibe and we had great backseat conversation. Every time there was a lull, I got flashbacks from that episode of “Pete and Pete” when the entire family gets naked in a car.

We parked and began to walk up the trail when I saw it: a blue-green shimmering in front of a sea of bodies. On busy days, the beach can hold 5,000 naked people. I couldn’t believe how packed it was.

“That’s the regular beach?”

“No!” Thomas said, “That is the nude beach.”

We made it down to the sand, coolers banging against our legs, and I smiled at the sunbathers but tried not to stare too long at their glistening genitals or sunscreen-lubed breasts which slid lazily into armpits.

We walked by a co-ed naked volleyball game and stopped for a moment, entranced. One man was peeing, I realized. Hands free. Urine trickling from his penis into the sand while he waited for the ball to be served.

We walked for 15 minutes along the shore. There were couples who had little screens set up for modesty (sex), people with elaborate nude picnics and men sitting alone with binoculars, their legs spread wide, junk flapping in the sand.

Finally, we found a spot. Thomas and Leigh immediately peeled off their clothes. In front of us a group of deeply tanned individuals with lawn chairs made daiquiris in a hand-operated blender. I twisted toward my friends, trying not to make eye contact with their genitals.

Thomas laid out havarti and prosciutto and poured us red wine. I took a sip and with an unconscious nervous tic, pulled my phone from my bag. Scrolling through I wondered what the people I follow on Twitter would advise. What would RuPaul or Courtney Love or Lena Dunham do at a nude beach?

I decided they would go for it. I peeled my swimsuit off and shook my hair over my nipples. I had been nervous about my body because I am human. But naked I realized, no one was judging me. Lose five pounds — or don’t! — no one cares. And besides, I am in my 20s. I should probably spend this entire decade naked. The breeze was silky and cool and the sun was a glorious blanket. My husband pulled off his speedo and we cheered.

Jewellery Show sets stage for robust festive buying

The yellow metal has been on a gradual uptrend since August 1 this year, when the price stood at US$ 1,599, to reach the current level without major wild swings, thus seeing good demand for jewellery as well as bars and coins. Gold reached new all-time highs last week against the euro, Swiss franc and South African rand.

The Emirates NBD is bullish on gold, forecasting that once the yellow metal regains US$1,800, it will rise further and reach $2,000 within 2012 itself. Several exhibitors at the show also supported this projection, saying that the series of festivals that are coming up starting with Eid Al Adha will stoke further demand for gold and drive up prices.

Diamond too had many takers at the show, with the price for a one-carat stone almost doubling in the past decade, rising from $15,000 to $29,000, offering tremendous value for buyers.

The favourite market conditions coupled with the upcoming festive buying season resulted in the MidEast Watch & Jewellery Show attracting 53,539 visitors, higher than the figure of 51,748 registered during the autumn edition of the biannual show last year.

"The positive market sentiment and the excitement surrounding the festival season clearly reflected in the good visitor turnout and sales at the 33rd MidEast Watch & Jewellery Show. Returning consumer confidence was also amply visible, as gems and jewellery with high price tags too had takers in large numbers," said Mr Saif Mohammed Al Midfa, Director-General, Expo Centre Sharjah.

"The success of the show has already set the stage for the spring edition of the show, for which we are already receiving enquiries and bookings for the 34th MidEast Watch & Jewellery Show in the first quarter of next year," Mr Midfa added.

Being the only show in the region that is held twice a year, and one of the most popular and longest running jewellery fairs that is a premier event for the global jewellery industry, booking for the next edition generally starts even before a show ends.

"We need a bigger space and better location for the next edition of the show.. for which we have decided to confirm our participation now itself," said John Chakardemian, Yeprem Jewellery, Lebanon, while expressing his satisfaction in the turnout of quality visitors and overall show management.

Rising tourist arrivals is also a key factor that drives sales at the show. With the UAE expected to receive over 10 million visitors this year, the show is a must-visit event for many tourists for whom the country is synonymous with gold. It is estimated that 90 per cent of tourists buy gold from the UAE.

"Arabs and people from the Indian Subcontinent were our major buyers. Among them, there were a lot of tourists too... and thanks to the onsite money exchange facility during the show, they didn't face any problems with their purchases," said Mr Thappar, of Apple Greend diamonds from Japan.

Exciting prizes on all five days of the show and extensive collections of traditional and trendy gold and diamond jewellery at national pavilions from Hong Kong - China, India, Italy, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore also helped in attracting visitors to the show.

Special timings and a dedicated play area for children ensured that women could focus fully in choosing their favourite jewellery piece from more than 450 stalls spread across all the four halls of Expo Centre Sharjah.