Jewellery (jewelry)

No one does hats like the British. Hats are on heads everywhere, from royalty to everyday folk to walking down the catwalk at major fashion shows. A few are “sensible,” but most of the hats in these collections are just plain fun.

1. Outrageous “Hats” at Paris Fashion Week

Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty ImagesTitled “Everything And the Kitchen Sink,” the catwalk at this Alexander McQueen show was littered with once-used props, like pieces from a merry-go-round, car parts, broken glass, tubing — and of course the kitchen sink. British milliner Philip Treacy designed the theme-matching hats.

2. Hats at London Fashion Week

Photo by Tim Whitby/Getty ImagesThere were plenty of hats around London Fashion Week in February, 2009, on the models and in the audience. Hepburnish My Fair Lady looks mingled with bowlers and lampshades — and other hats that defy description.

3. A Love Affair with Hats

Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty ImagesA look at whimsical hats on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Ladies at Great Britain’s Royal Ascot, at the Kentucky Derby in the United States, and a few celebrities who decided to get into the hat act for movie premieres and product introductions (can you guess who?).

PRWEB
) May 1, 2009 — Having earned a reputation as one of the best in the business, JT, more commonly known as the Asian Playboy has helped men all over the world to master the art of the pick up and gain the inner confidence they need to meet the women of their dreams. Now men can learn tips from the world's most renowned Asian pick up artist on his new website, the ABCsofAttraction.com. The new interactive website is filled with everything men need to make their dating dreams come true including proven strategies, videos, message boards, unique educational products and more.

ABCs of Attraction: : The Holistic Path to Success with Women!

The ABCs of Attraction is an innovative program developed by the Asian Playboy, voted the World's Greatest Asian Pick Up Artist for the last two years. The program offers a wide range of tools and techniques specifically designed to help men woo, court, date and seduce women. From developing and improving game to changing one's manner of dressing to convey sexuality, the ABCs of Attraction delivers full proof methods to help men of all ethnicities improve their love lives. Asian Playboy also wrote a ground breaking new mini-ebook entitled "Enter the PUA" that is free download to all newsletter subscribers which includes practical advice on projecting confidence, body language, and going in for a kiss.

"We've been overwhelmed with the response that we've received since the launch of the website," said JT. "An increasing number of men are becoming more interested in the art of the pick up and how they can learn it. Our site gives them a glimpse into the seduction community and provides them with the resources and information they need to take the next step and begin learning how to meet and attract the women they most desire."

The ABCsofAttraction.com is a crash course in social and dating education created for men who want help developing social, flirting and sexual skills. The website is beneficial for men at any level who are prepared to step out of their comfort zone, adopt a disciplined approach, absorb the information provided, and make a commitment to success. In addition to the program overview, event calendar, and store, the website also features a series of informative articles on a variety of topics including "How To Attract a Woman", "Sticking Points Asian Men Have with Interracial Dating", "Top 10 Qualities of a Good Wingman", and "The 8 Keys to a Successful Date."

"The forums are also a big part of our website, and we encourage web visitors to join and introduce themselves to other members of our community that are successfully using the tips that are outlined in our program," said Tran. "There's also tons of helpful information and testimonials in the forums that visitors to the site will definitely find useful no matter what stage they're at in the program."

For more information, call toll-free at 1-888-689-GAME (4263) or visit The ABCs of Attraction today. Sign up for the site's free newsletter, join the ABCs brotherhood and reserve a seat in an upcoming boot camp. Tickets are currently available for upcoming boot camps in New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver, San Francisco, Sydney and Melbourne.

Hallee Hirsh (21) is coming off a very busy year. She finished filming two lead roles in independent features, including starring opposite the legendary Brad Dourif in Brian Metcalf’s Fading of the Cries (a sneak peak was featured at the Fangoria convention last week) and Make the Yuletide Gay, both due out next year; attended the premiere of her first starring role feature, Becky Smith’s 16 to Life which won the Audience Award at the 2009 MethodFest Film Festival; and had a great big, pivotal role in ER’s final episode which was seen by more than 17 million people and still counting. Next up, a trip to Beijing, China in May to promote 16 to Life.

Through all this, she still made the time for her studies as a straight A student at Glendale Community College in Glendale, CA. She is majoring in Anthropology and will be participating in the Honors Program while attending UCLA. She is very excited about the rigor of course work she will likely encounter at UCLA, a top tier university ranked #3 of all public universities in the U.S. News and World Report 2009 rankings. “This is a public Ivy League school with the distinction of receiving the highest number of applications for any university in the country - over 55,000. I feel very honored.”

Asked how she is able to juggle a busy acting career and still succeed as a full time student, Hallee said, “It is a matter of really wanting both and doing what it takes to succeed at both.” When schedules conflict, and they regularly do, she works it out with her professors. Having established herself as a serious student, her professors have mostly been accommodating as long as she makes up all of the work. “It may not always work out and when that happens, I will have to choose. But right now I am very determined to get my degree and even go on to graduate school.” Hallee sees anthropology as a great major for actors. “As a discipline that focuses on the nature of man, it helps one understand the underlying motivations of people from all cultures. It helps me to know where characters may be coming from and to imbue those characters [which I may be playing] with the depth of that knowledge.”

She is also eager to explore where anthropology and the film industry can come together and plans to learn how to produce and direct documentary films.

(Booth 10-318), LDRA, provider of the most complete automated software testing technology with tools covering the most critical phases of the software development lifecycle, announces TBreq v3.0, which provides next-generation management and complete automation of requirements traceability with software testing and verification. For industries such as avionics, medical, defence, and nuclear where requirements traceability consumes a significant portion of project budget, TBreq v3.0 automates the management of software requirements, enabling developers to reduce software errors, project costs and resource constraints.

In business-, safety-, and security-critical industries where poor requirements management results in 60-70 percent of software errors, requirements management is essential. Requirements are an essential building block of a project, and managing changes to the verification of requirements is critical. With an easy-to-use and configurable interface, TBreq allocates requirements and verification artifacts, making them visible across a network of user workspaces. All informal changes and test results are recorded, and any requirements impacted by these changes are highlighted so that all team members can identify data which might be suspect.

Fundamental to managing software requirement changes is a requirements traceability matrix (RTM). The challenge for most companies in managing requirements comes in constructing and maintaining the RTM. The RTM typically includes project-level, customer-defined requirements that specify how the end-product should operate as well as low-level design constraints. Without an RTM, a team cannot ensure that all requirements are implemented and that all system components trace to specific requirements.

“With up to 70 percent of project defects attributed to poor requirements’ administration, it’s obvious that the easiest way to improve systems quality comes from learning how to manage requirements,” noted Bill StClair, LDRA’s Technical Evangelist. “TBreq graphically displays the links between the requirements and all other aspects of development. It becomes very easy to visually see where breakdowns have occurred, saving hours of time that would traditionally have been used debugging software and manually sorting through requirement lists.”

LDRA eases requirements’ administration by automatically creating the RTM with single-view, end-to-end, graphical traceability reports. Analysts and project managers get a complete picture of traceability from requirements to design, code, test specifications and test results. All reports can be exported to Microsoft Office documents and easily customized to meet project needs.

The latest release of TBreq v3.0 significantly improves ease of use by giving the user mouse-over controls at the requirement level. Intuitive project views not only provide requirement hierarchy and associated verification task visibility, but also the ability to assign users, verification groups, test case identifiers and to indicate that a requirement has been properly verified with a single mouse click.

TBreq 3.0 also makes a quantum leap in its ability to manage complex, many-to-many relationships among requirements in multiple levels in a requirements hierarchy. These complex relationships frequently occur when requirements are defined from multiple, sometimes heterogeneous, sources while still needing to be traceable through a single verification matrix. With TBreq v3.0, this matrix can be readily adapted by developers and testers so verification tasks can be performed and verification results automatically linked back to enterprise-level reports and a centralized requirements repository.

Building on technology that manually tests source code written to implement and verify requirements, the software requirements management technology integrates and automates the requirements traceability and testing/verification tasks of a distributed software development project. Having a uniform user interface helps manage highly complex and technical software development projects.

TBreq, through its integration with the LDRA tool suite, is a unique solution that can help your team overcome the challenges of allocating requirements to team members, mapping requirements to design and source code, linking test cases to requirements and generating verification reports. Activity results, including defect reports, are automatically returned to the requirements management tool and/or defect tracking tool via TBreq to provide round-trip requirements’ verification.

Attendees at Embedded World can view a demonstration of TBreq v3.0 at the LDRA pavilion in Hall 10, Booth 318.

Reelcraft Industries now offers a new type of exhaust reel that is designed for use in maintenance facilities that service ground support vehicles. The new Series V exhaust reels conveniently store lengths of large diameter exhaust hose. Designed to divert hazardous carbon monoxide gasses, these industrious reels are spring retractable and feature a latching mechanism that maintains the desired working length of hose. A proper installation eliminates hazardous carbon monoxide gasses. The robust, large frame reel features two high quality industrial strength carbon drive springs to ensure that hose retracts every time. Each component is individually powder coated, providing excellent resistance against the environment. For additional information, visit www.reelcraft.com/aviation or call 1-800-444-3134.

Headquartered in Columbia City, Ind., Reelcraft Industries is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high quality industrial and specialty reels. Founded in 1971, the company produces more than 2,500 models of reels under the Reelcraft and Nordic brand names. Reelcraft’s worldwide customer base is diverse, including representatives of the automotive, marine, chemical, rental, welding, L.P. gas, food processing, petroleum, aviation, agricultural and electrical markets.

I’m not sure what it is about dragonflies, but they’re very popular. We see them on home furnishings, clothing, shoes, as motifs on sunglasses and all sorts of accessories — we see dragonflies everywhere. Jewelry is no exception and you’ll find all sorts of dragonfly pieces when you shop. I’ve found a few pretty examples to get you started, but once you begin to search for dragonfly jewelry you’ll run into it wherever you go.

_{Photo © ShopNBC}

Staying fluid and able to react to the fast-changing dynamics of the Internet is key to WSI’s success. With more than 1,500 franchisees in 87 countries around the world, it must continually stay a step ahead of its competition to ensure that its network of Internet Marketing Consultants is not only making their clients’ businesses more profitable, but also achieving their own personal and financial goals.

Sometimes tough decisions have to be made, just ask WSI president Ron McArthur. In 2008, WSI lost 350 franchisees – 18 percent of the WSI network at the time – as a result of a major shift WSI made in 2006 to focus on consulting and education: educating companies on how to leverage the Internet and profit from it. The value that WSI had previously delivered to clients through web site building had diminished as technology improved. Businesses had a new need – Internet marketing solutions – and WSI was poised to deliver.

“The Internet moves so fast. Over the years, WSI has had 19 major franchised competitors and only two remain,” McArthur said. “The reason is because the industry changes so fast.”

A certification program was offered to all WSI franchisees when the transition was made. Twenty-five to 30 percent took advantage at the onset and more have followed suit, but for many of the “tech-oriented” franchisees that WSI had attracted in its earlier years – those who were entrenched in web site building – the transition was a difficult one. As their five-year franchise agreements expired, they were left with a difficult decision.

“They fast realized the value they were bringing to end clients was diminishing,” said McArthur of those who chose not to renew their agreements. “Those that didn’t make the shift saw their revenues decline substantially.”

While the departures were substantial, WSI quickly absorbed the loss, awarding 174 and 175 franchises in 2007 and 2008, respectively. WSI expects to add another 225 franchisees in 2009, many with strong general business and sales and marketing backgrounds.

Through its Internet Consultant Advisory Council (ICAC), area representatives and many other avenues, WSI has proven extremely successful in leveraging the intellectual capital and experience of its franchisees in the field to make decisions that best serve the entire franchise network, and in turn, WSI’s end clients.

“Franchisors typically have very rigid standards about what a franchisee can and can’t do,” McArthur said. “We realized if we put those rigid standards on our business, it might actually constrain our ability to adapt. We see our franchisees as on ongoing learning laboratory.”

While some WSI franchisees were not willing to change, it was a majority of their peers who recognized the need to change and backed systemwide adoption of WSI’s new focus on Internet marketing.

“Those who had become very profitable as a result of the transition wanted continuity across the network,” McArthur said. “You can’t have some franchisees focusing on different things. When companies like Google or Yahoo approach us to form partnerships, they want to know we’re committed to the continuity of the network. They don’t want to train some of our franchisees who may or may not be willing to promote Internet marketing.”

While such a loss of franchisees might have hobbled other companies, WSI overcame it with little disruption and this year is projecting its systemwide revenues to increase 12 to 15 percent.

“The numbers of franchisees diminished, but we have continued to experience outstanding growth,” McArthur said. “Some of the franchisees had lost interest. What they had really purchased in a franchise didn’t exist any longer because the franchise had evolved so dramatically. They elected to say ‘no’ and moved on.

“There was very little, if any animosity from those who left. We work very closely with our franchise network to develop and enhance relationships. By and large, our franchise community is very pleased with what we’re doing. Our business model changes regularly. We have to be on top of changing trends and technology and I think we do a decent job of it. But a few years ago when the market shifted so dramatically along with the needs of our clients, some of our older franchisees simply said it wasn’t their game anymore.”

Electronics.ca Publications, the electronics industry market research and knowledge network, announces the availability of a new report entitled "The World Market for In-Vehicle Audio Systems".

Car audio is important, but what’s important in car audio? The rush of vehicle manufacturers to accommodate the changing preferences of audio consumers proves that car makers, at least, view audio features as a key differentiator.

Is it sound quality consumers look for? A car is not the ideal acoustic environment for a concert experience, and for many years factory-fitted car audio was kept inexpensive and basic. Eventually, prestigious audio brands such as Harman, Bose, and Bang & Olufsen were brought in to work closely with vehicle manufacturers to design systems that addressed such challenges as overcoming road noise and creating a sound stage to serve the relative positions of drivers and passengers.

However, despite lots of attention, a new report available at Electronics.ca Publications shows that this type of premium sound system is still a relatively small market found only in 7.9% of all light vehicles produced in 2008.

So what is the focus of consumer demand? A potential buyer today is more likely to look at what types of connectivity the audio system is offering; USB connection, SD card slot, Bluetooth slots etc. Basically, what is interesting is what types of portable music devices you can bring into the car (without having to upgrade the audio system). Radio and music can be listen to and stored in so many ways: mobile phones; iPods; thumb drives and SD cards. So what a growing category of people is looking for in a car audio system is the possibility to bring that versatility into the car basically to take your life with you into the car.

Helena Perslow, the author of the above mentioned report, agrees: "It’s not uncommon nowadays for people to be drawn to a particular car for one reason alone: the type of portable device connectivity offered, for example iPod connection. The deciding factor is not necessarily fuel consumption or CO2 emission but often something as simple as a car audio feature."

Car manufacturers have acknowledged this, and car models aimed at a younger generation are competing by offering portable device connectivity as standard equipment, whereas many luxurious cars such as BMW and Cadillac only offer them as optional extras.

Details of the new report, table of contents and ordering information can be found on Electronics.ca Publications’ web site. View the report: http://www.electronics.ca/publications/products/The-World-Market-for-In%252dVehicle-Audio-Systems.html

Billie Redmond, CEO of Coldwell Banker Commercial TradeMark Properties (www.cbctmp.com), has received the 2009 Triangle Commercial Real Estate Women (Triangle CREW) Impact Award. Redmond is the first woman to receive this award, which is presented annually to individuals that make significant contributions to the Triangle’s commercial real estate industry. The award was presented to Redmond at the 11th annual Triangle CREW Champion Awards event held on April 23 at the Raleigh Convention Center.

Past winners of the Triangle CREW Impact Award include:

Greg Sanchez, Tri Properties (2008)
Jim Goodmon, Capitol Broadcasting. (2007)
Greg Hatem, Empire Properties (2006)
Ron Gibson, Highwoods Properties (2005)
John Kane, Kane Realty Corporation (2004)
Craig Davis, Craig Davis Properties (2003)

Under Redmond’s leadership, Coldwell Banker Commercial TradeMark Properties has grown into the Triangle area’s largest commercial real estate firm and one of its top women-owned businesses, according to the Triangle Business Journal. In 2008, the firm received national recognition with the Commercial Elite Status, the highest honor presented to affiliates of the Coldwell Banker Commercial network. The firm was ranked in 2008 as the sixth largest revenue earner among all affiliates in the Coldwell Banker Commercial network, which to date includes more than 250 commercial real estate companies and 4,000 sales associates worldwide.

Redmond has received a number of individual accolades, including the Triangle Commercial Association of Realtors (TCAR) 2007 Realtor of the Year Award, the Triangle Business Journal’s Women in Business Award, the News & Observer’s Tarheel of the Week Award and Business Leader Magazine’s Women Extraordinaire Award, among others. She has been inducted into the YWCA Academy of Women and featured on the past covers of Woman’s Edge Magazine, Business Leader Magazine, City Insight Magazine and Builder and Broker Journal, as well as quoted by countless media outlets and industry trade publications across the nation.

“I am extremely grateful to have been awarded the 2009 Triangle CREW Impact Award,” said Redmond. “As the first woman to receive this honor, I feel privileged to assist Triangle CREW in its efforts to carve a path for other women to be recognized in the Triangle Real Estate community.”

About Coldwell Banker Commercial TradeMark Properties:
Coldwell Banker Commercial TradeMark Properties offers a full range of real estate and investment advisory services. From acquisition evaluation and due diligence tasks, through value enhancement and disposition strategies, TradeMark guides its clients through every phase of real estate investment opportunities. Partnering with strategic alliances, TradeMark offers coordination of services such as equity development, financing, credit management, architectural and engineering services, development or project management oversight and relocation services.

TradeMark is organized around advisory services — sales and leasing, asset management including facility management services and maintenance services — performed by in-house personnel. Its advisors are market experts in their areas of industry specialization, which include commercial, residential, retail, forestry and investment property sales. The executive management team of Coldwell Banker Commercial TradeMark Properties has more than 200 years of combined real estate experience. The Triangle Business Journal named the firm Best Place to Work in 2004 and for the past three years the publication has ranked the firm as the No.1 Commercial Real Estate Company in the Triangle. TradeMark is also recognized as one of the Top 25 Women Owned Businesses in North Carolina. For more information, please call (919) 782-5552 or visit www.cbctmp.com.

About TCREW:
Triangle Commercial Real Estate Women (Triangle CREW) was formed in 1996 to provide a forum for meeting and building relationships in the Triangle market through effective member networking, committee work and mentoring. Triangle CREW also provides up-to-date information on commercial real estate through a high quality program of guest speakers, panels and forums and is focused on promoting business, providing educational opportunities, and sharing information among members at local, regional, national and international levels. For more information, visit www.tcrew.org.

Patty Briguglio
MMI Associates, Inc.
(919) 233-6600
patty@mmimarketing.com
PR Firms Raleigh, NC

“One of the most extraordinary solo artists I’ve ever witnessed onstage. Brilliant and painfully funny. Awesome.” – Ann Randolph

“Funny…terrific”– SF Bay Times

The Marsh is pleased to present Kenny Yun’s new one-man show, “Lettucetown Lies,” a story about his tumultuous coming of age as the only gay and Asian teenager in Salinas in the eighties. Adolescence in Lettucetown! It’s fun, it’s lies, it’s blowing up a field of lettuce, it’s dancing to Donna Summer records and sneaking to the high school bathroom to buy drugs (and those “elicit” Donna Summer records).

The show plays Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm from June 5 – June 27, 2009 (press opening June 13), in The Marsh Studio Theater, 1074 Valencia Street in San Francisco. For tickets, the public may call Brown Paper Tickets at 800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org.

Yun moved from Pacific Grove to an all-white section of Salinas when he was ten years old and felt as if he had been banished from the Garden of Eden. His parents wanted him to be a doctor but he was no good at math preferring art, literature and pictures of the Greek gods. His reading fed a rich fantasy life - he loved to project himself into myth, sublimating the ups and downs of his teenage years by fantasizing about Lucifer or, in better moments, Perseus, his hero. In one memorable scene, and with the aid of a pink shawl, he turns himself into a female shaman, swept out to sea after falling tragically in love with the king’s son.

Through his friends, Yun discovered that he was not the only one with secrets. If he had to conceal the fact that he was attracted to the same boy as his best friend, Michelle, she, in turn, was privately conflicted about how promiscuous she really wanted to be, especially with the boy Yun fancied. And the boy had a dilemma of his own to hide. Even so, secrets or not, they were each other’s life line, talking to each other for hours every day.

Yun is a whimsical and exotic performer, whose singular style reflects the unique nature of both his upbringing and his story. As would be expected from an award-winning stand-up comic, parts of the play are very funny. But others are heartrending. There is a dangerous poignancy to living a lie at the best of times, but perhaps most especially in high school. Yun learns to fend off all sorts of racial and gender expectations from both his peers and his family, and to understand his friends’ similar need to navigate through their own web of half truths. Ironically enough, it is at a summer camp in Korea that he experiences for the first time the delicious and platonic peace of just being himself.

“Lettucetown Lies,” developed in collaboration with David Ford, is Kenny Yun’s first solo-show. Previously, he has appeared in film shorts and plays, including local productions of Twelfth Night, The Cherry Orchard, and The Tempest. He also performs standup comedy all over the Bay Area, and was a winner of the Russian River Comedy Competition. Yun studied acting at Studio ACT and the Berkeley Repertory Theater and has a degree in English Literature from UC Berkeley.

For more information, visit http://www.facebook.com/people/Kenny-Yun/729717795 or http://www.kennyyun.com

For Calendar Editors

When: June 5 – June 27, 2009
Press Opening: June 13

Showtimes: Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm

Where: The Marsh Studio Theater
1074, Valencia Street (between 21st and 22nd Streets), San Francisco

Tickets: $15 - $50 Sliding Scale
For tickets, call 800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org

For more information, call 415-826-5750 or visit The Marsh website at www.themarsh.org