From beauty queen to law enforcement

By admin, 5 August, 2010, No Comment

A former beauty queen who trained as a broadcast journalist is trading a microphone for a gun and badge.

MacKenzie Clark, who was 2008 Miss Central Florida, starts at the Hillsborough County sheriff’s training academy in September. She will be a deputy.

"I’ve always had a burning desire to protect people; to serve in some way to benefit the safety and well-being of others," the 23-year-old said. "I wanted to make an impact within the community in some way. I was searching for an answer."

Clark,Tiffany rings, who is 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighs 145 pounds, has already started preparing for the career transition.

"I have been doing physical training, exercising, running and lifting (weights) for a few months. Things can get pretty physical doing police work," Clark said. "Coming out of the academy, I need to be ready for anything."

Clark,Tiffany Watches, daughter of Hollie and Robert Clark, said she considered serving in the military to fulfill her desire to protect the public but decided on law enforcement.

Clark, a Lakeland native, was named to the Florida Strawberry Festival queen’s court in 2007 while she was attending Hillsborough Community College and the University of South Florida. She competed as Miss Central Florida in the Miss Florida pageant the following year.

She said it was natural for her to compete in pageants; her mother has owned cosmetics and beauty salons for years. Hollie Clark owns the Merle Norman Cosmetic Studio on South Alexander Street in Plant City.

"Styling and makeovers are kind of in my blood. But I was never overwhelmed by competing for titles. They just kind of happened," she said.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism in 2009 from USF. Clark works part time for Focus TV online and has written for Focus magazine, both based in Plant City.

Before she graduated, Clark was in New York for four months, working as an intern with "The View," an ABC production, when she came to realize she didn’t want a career in broadcasting.

"I really enjoyed Manhattan,Tiffany necklaces, working in a major market and meeting so many amazing people," she said. "I had an opportunity to take a job as a producer’s assistant. But I knew after being there that I wanted something more in my life."

While she was in New York, Clark met a law enforcement officer who suggested a career as a crime fighter might suit her passion to serve.

"I spoke with people at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, and it wasn’t long before my application was approved and I was hired," Clark said.

Sheriff’s Maj. Tom Feeney said it takes 36 weeks for a new recruit to go through the academy and other phases of training before he or she is issued a star as a deputy and is placed on the street. Then the new deputy works for the next four months riding with a senior deputy,Tiffany earrings, he said.

Reporter George H. Newman can be reached at (813) 731-8161.

Expanded Men’s Fashion and Lifestyle Category

By admin, 4 August, 2010, No Comment

Leading online private sale site HauteLook will launch Men.HauteLook.com today at 11:00 a.m. EDT/8:00 a.m. PDT. This dedicated men’s page within the site will feature an expanded roster of sale events in the men’s category with top brands including Tommy Hilfiger, Puma, Penguin, Diesel, Splendid, Joseph Abboud, Donald Pliner and Ben Sherman, among others.

Men can bookmark the page to find discounts of 50 to 75 percent off sportswear, denim and suits as well as a growing number of options that fit with their broader lifestyle from luxury watches and cufflinks to grooming products.

"HauteLook is dedicated to feeding and inspiring our male members’ polished style," says Adam Bernhard,Tiffany key rings, CEO, HauteLook. "We’re excited to deliver what our guys have been asking for — a destination for men to shop for their favorite brands while discovering new, up-and-coming brands."

"Our goal is to customize the shopping experience for our male members,Tiffany necklaces," said Tim Davis, Director of Men’s Merchandising, HauteLook. "On HauteLook, men will find everything they need to live a stylish life: modern suits, ties, dress shirts and watches for the workweek,Tiffany cuff links, and a variety of denim, casual shirts, cashmere, and swimwear for the weekends, all at great prices."

The inaugural week of Men.HauteLook.com will include sale events with:

Monday,Tiffany bracelets, August 2: A great mix of denim brands including 7 For All Mankind, Dylan George and William Rast

Tuesday, August 3: Tommy Hilfiger (suits, dress shirts and ties), and Tateossian of London (sterling silver jewelry and accessories)

Wednesday, August 4: Wet Cement

Thursday, August 5: French Connection (sportswear) and Just Another Cheap Shirt (casual shirting)

Friday, August 6: Report Collection (sportswear and underwear)

About HauteLook

A leader in online retail, HauteLook brings the thrill back to shopping through 48-hour sale events with the world’s top apparel, accessories, beauty, kids’, home, food and wine brands. Every day, HauteLook offers discounts of 50 to 75 percent off retail prices to 2.8 million members in the U.S. and Canada. Membership is free and open to everyone. HauteLook is headquartered in Los Angeles. Visit www.hautelook.com to learn more.

SOURCE HauteLook

Visual Search for Fashion Items, Enters Beta Testi

By admin, 4 August, 2010, No Comment

Hitachi America, Ltd., announced that their newly developed visual search site for fashion items, GazoPa Style, is entering beta testing. GazoPa Style allows users to easily search for similar fashion items. With the tremendous number of products available on the Internet, it’s not always easy to quickly browse and compare these products. GazoPa’s similar image search technology is integrated into GazoPa Style,Tiffany rings, allowing users to look for similar products by using color and shape.

GazoPa Style allows users to upload images from their own personal computers and to use images on other sites found by uploading image URL or by their plug-in tool for searching similar products.

Currently women’s clothing shown on eBay, Amazon and Etsy are also searchable at GazoPa Style. Hitachi plans to add more products from other popular e-commerce sites to GazoPa Style in the future.

GazoPa Style helps users to browse products visually, and it makes shopping on the web more convenient and fun.

For detailed information about GazoPa Style, please visit its website http://style.gazopa.com. About GazoPa Style GazoPa Style is a visual product search site that enables users to browse and search for similar fashion items easily. The application enables users to upload images from their own computers as well as using images on other sites to search for similar products. The application can be used by consumers to search e-commerce sites and is aimed at improving a consumers’ experience in navigating e-commerce sites. GazoPa’s similar image search engine that uses color and shape are integrated into GazoPa Style. For more information on GazoPa Style, please visit: http://style.gazopa.com. ABOUT GazoPa GazoPa is a web image search engine service released by Hitachi that uses features from an image to search for and identify similar images. In addition to images found using keyword searches, GazoPa enables the use of users’ own photos and drawings, and images found on the web, as search keys to locate similar images from our database. In addition to supporting photos, GazoPa also supports the search of video thumbnails. For more information, please visit http://www.gazopa.com. ABOUT HITACHI Hitachi America, Ltd., headquartered in Tarrytown, New York,Tiffany necklaces, a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., and its subsidiary companies offer a broad range of electronics, power and industrial equipment and services, automotive products and consumer electronics with operations throughout the Americas. For more information, visit www.hitachi-america.us. For information on other Hitachi Group companies in the United States, please visit www.hitachi.us.

Hitachi, Ltd.,Tiffany pendants, (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 360.000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2009 (ended March 21, 2010) consolidated revenues totaled 8,968 billion yen ($96.4 billion). Hitachi will focus more than ever on the Social Innovation Business,Tiffany key rings, which includes information and telecommunication systems, power systems, environmental, industrial and transportation systems, and social and urban systems, as well as the sophisticated materials and key devices that support them. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company’s website at www.hitachi.com.

Prime Outlets Hosts Foursquare Stalk the Stylist &

By admin, 4 August, 2010, No Comment

In an industry-defining effort to engage and communicate with shoppers via social media channels, Prime Outlets, a portfolio of outlet shopping destinations across the U.S.,Tiffany Sets, will host an innovative Foursquare Fashion Dash event at 19 of its centers Saturday, Aug. 14.

The one-day-only event will reward shoppers who check-in via Foursquare at participating stores with exclusive discounts and additional savings up to 20 percent off purchases beyond the up to 65 percent off regular retail prices Prime Outlets’ stores offer every day. Participating merchants include Michael Kors, kate spade, Juicy Couture, Zegna, Kenneth Cole,Tiffany bangles, Cole Haan, Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH, among many more.

In addition to its Foursquare Fashion Dash, Prime Outlets – San Marcos, Prime Outlets – St. Augustine and Prime Outlets – Williamsburg will also host Stalk the Stylist, a hide-and-go-chic game secretly positioning a celebrity fashion expert inside four stores. Shoppers in "haute pursuit" can locate the stylist to win fashion giveaways by checking in to Prime Outlets and viewing the posted tips for a schedule of stylist locations between 11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Prime Outlets’ team of celebrity fashion experts include:

Prime Outlets – Williamsburg: James Aguiar,Tiffany earrings, fashion expert and host of "Full Frontal Fashion," "Where D’Ya Get That?" and "Style Court."

Prime Outlets – San Marcos: Mark-Alan Harmon, known for dressing Hollywood elite and regular appearances on the Style Network.

Prime Outlets – St. Augustine: Lilliana Vasquez, prominent stylist known for hosting "Style Check," "AMC Date Night," and "That’s So New York."

According to Prime Retail’s Senior Vice President of Marketing Karen E. Fluharty, Prime Outlets decided to host Fashion Dash and Stalk the Stylist to engage and reward shoppers.

"We know that savvy, fashion-forward shoppers tend to be tech-savvy as well, using both the Internet and social media tools to learn the latest in fashion news as well as information about savings opportunities from their favorite designers and name-brands," said Prime Outlets Senior Vice President of Marketing Karen E. Fluharty. "Our Fashion Dash and Stalk the Stylist events are designed to reward our loyal, ‘in-the-know’ customers with exclusive discounts using an exciting and innovative medium."

Visit www.primeoutlets.com to find the nearest participating center and a list of exclusive store discounts and savings.

About Prime Outlets

Headquartered in Baltimore, Md., Prime Outlets owns and operates 21 outlet shopping centers in the U.S. Spanning more than 8 million square feet throughout major United States markets, Prime Outlets is home to more than 400 leading designer and name-brands such as Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Burberry, kate spade, Michael Kors, St. John, Juicy Couture, Stuart Weitzman, Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH and Neiman Marcus Last Call. The company’s retail outlets serve major markets including Orlando, Pittsburgh,Tiffany cuff links, Washington, D.C., Austin/San Antonio, Texas, Jacksonville/St. Augustine, Fla. and Williamsburg, Va., among many more. The company currently has two new ground-up projects in development: Prime Outlets – Grand Prairie, serving the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area, and Prime Outlets – Livermore Valley, serving the San Francisco Bay region. For more information, please visit www.primeoutlets.com. On December 8, 2009, the company entered into a definitive agreement with Simon Property Group to acquire its portfolio of outlet center properties.

One-day event offers the latest in foot fashion

By admin, 4 August, 2010, No Comment

Nary a penny loafer or flip-flop was in sight at the H-Town Sneaker Summit on Sunday at the Meridian. Sporting their best in footwear, hundreds of sneaker lovers from across Texas turned out for the one-day event, hoping to leave with a new pair for their collection or to meet their favorite designer.

Clutching a pink Nike shoe box, Umair Qureshi eyed a table stacked with colorful sneakers.

But the 20-year-old wasn’t looking to buy anything. Instead,tiffany, he was patiently waiting on designer Nick Diamond to make an appearance.

"It’s my favorite clothes brand and shoes," he said, pointing to his Nick Diamond black T-shirt and shoes. "I’ve been looking forward to it. I brought the box for him to sign."

Nearly two hours after the summit began outside downtown, the line to the entrance snaked around the building as visitors braved the heat to gain access to more than 25,000 square feet of shoes.

"It’s feeding the frenzy," said Eric Robertson, a representative from Active Athlete. "This has been an explosive subculture since 1999 when Nike started their retro collection."

Hip-hop music blaring, guests weaved in and out of each room, admiring vendor collections, as well as those of other footwear fans.

"Sorry, man," one visitor said, stepping on another visitor’s foot. "Oh, nice shoes," he added.

Robertson said a shoe’s appearance is critical when selecting a new pair.

"You’re looking for explosiveness that no one else has," he said.

Sloane Teagle tagged along with her older brother to the event.

"He drove in from Austin to meet me here for this,Tiffany cuff links," the 17-year-old said. "I’m not so much into names as he is, but I think this is pretty cool.

"I only have like 50 to 60 pairs," she added, looking at her lime green sneakers.

Christopher "Sleepy" Dixon,Tiffany pendants, who owns House of Shoes in Sugar Land,Tiffany earrings, brought several pairs along with him for his vendor table, showcasing shoes ranging from $100 to $1,500.

"You want something that nobody else has," he said, describing the buying process. "You’re looking at quality and whether it’s a good price."

And although he already has 200 pairs of shoes in his closet, Dixon said he still would check out the other vendors.

"Maybe I’ll find something for myself," he said, grinning.

amanda.casanova@chron.com

Online fashion seller ModCloth finds social commer

By admin, 4 August, 2010, No Comment

On a recent Wednesday, a collection of young writers gathers on couches in the corner of an office in the Strip District. It’s a meeting that brings them together every morning at 10:30.

A daschund dozes off on one writer’s lap as 31-year-old blogger Richard Brown, a lover of all things "Star Trek" and Western wear, leads the discussion.

Wearing a black and teal bolo, he holds up clothes, jewelry and other knickknacks as if he’s playing show and tell. His colleagues throw out catchy names for the items to post on the company’s website.

"Grape Expectations" for a "stylishly novel" purple dress, "Strike a Rose" for a floral top and "Truffle Shuffle" for a pair of mushroom salt and pepper shakers.

It’s another brainstorming session for one of the fastest growing fashion start-ups in the region — ModCloth.

This online retailer, begun in 2002 by high school sweethearts Eric and Susan Gregg Koger, has become something of a Cinderella story.

It started the summer before Eric and Susan, living in Florida at the time, entered college at Carnegie Mellon University. Susan, now 25, who loved "thrifting," often bought more clothes than she could wear, so Eric, now 26, suggested selling the excess online. After graduating from CMU in 2006, the young couple decided to expand their small, dorm-room business into a full-time enterprise, offering women all over the world vintage-inspired clothing from independent designers.

Blossoming into a successful business — with an office in the Strip District and distribution center on the South Side near Station Square — ModCloth became profitable in 2009 and now employs more than 150 people.

Last year, Mr. Koger told Bloomberg Businessweek that ModCloth earned around $1 million a month in sales and more than 1.25 million people visit the website monthly.

The Kogers, now married and living in Friendship, announced plans to again expand their operations after raising $19.8 million in funding from Accel Partners. The company moved its new headquarters to San Francisco in May and opened a supply chain operation in Los Angeles.

The Pittsburgh offices will continue to serve as the hub for customer support and distribution.

ModCloth has five buyers traveling all over America to search for inventory that suits the company’s style. Eighteen percent of its revenue comes from international customers and about 70 percent of the inventory comes from California, which is one of the main reasons why ModCloth moved its headquarters there.

Its top four designers are Coral & Jade Apparel, BB Dakota,tiffany, Tulle and Ryu.

When it started, ModCloth sold exclusively vintage products. Since 2006, the company has added vintage-inspired clothing. The company posts between 10 and 55 vintage-inspired products and one or two vintage items on the website daily.

"The vintage items sell quickly because they’re one of a kind, more special. We don’t have as many vintage items anymore," said ModCloth’s merchandising manager Ashley Guge. "But at the heart, we’re still vintage."

Modcloth employees take great care in how they present their products on the website.

Its products arrive at the Strip District office on Smallman Street from the distribution center. Workers steam the clothes, prep them and put them on mannequins to be photographed.

The photographers shoot through the computer and the images are transferred to image specialists who edit the pictures. Since customers don’t see the actual product before they buy it, one difficult part of this process is making sure that the picture looks like the product. After this process is finished, the product goes onto the website.

There are no desks or cubicles in ModCloth’s Strip District office — just oddly shaped tables with flat-screen computer monitors and an assortment of dogs that come to the office as often as the employees do. A Pomeranian, a Jack Russell terrier,Tiffany bangles, a Yorkie and several pugs roam the office or sit obediently next to their owners’ sides. Susan Koger’s pug, Winston, is the company’s mascot.

At the brainstorming session,Tiffany Watches, the writers discuss and manage the company’s newsletters, stylebook and blog.

Each of the writers’ projects varies throughout the week. They blog three to five posts a day about fashion, food, music, books and more.

Aside from interacting with customers on Facebook and Twitter, ModCloth has a popular feature on its website called "Be the Buyer," in which customers can choose which clothes they like. The products that get the most votes become part of ModCloth’s inventory. Shoppers can vote on items they want to see in stock, help name and describe products and suggest styling tips.

"We’re trying to democratize fashion so a lot of the features like ‘Be the Buyer’ allow our customers to choose items that wouldn’t have gone into production otherwise," said Alicia Barnes, 25, ModCloth’s public relations manager. "We want to continue with features like that and make the site more of a community and more of a social shopping experience for customers."

Last November, Modcloth added ModStylists to its staff to act as personal shopping assistants and to answer shopping and style questions. The ModStylists guide customers and give advice from how to accessorize to what to wear to an event.

"Our department offers style advice to our customers and they can chat, e-mail or call us … live chats are our most popular medium," said Nicole Czapinski, 26, a ModStylist, wearing a bird-shaped, plastic pin in her hair.

Sharon Vaknin, a blogger for CNET News, wrote that it’s rare for a company to have such an interactive relationship with its customers.

"Without the customer-company separation, ModCloth is more like a best friend who gives you fashion advice, shares her favorite recipes,Tiffany earrings, and joins your book club," she wrote in March. "Wait, we’re still talking about a clothing store, right?"

Mrs. Koger said the interaction has been effective.

"We have genuine conversations with our customers and listen to their opinions through social networking, our blog and ideas like ‘Be the Buyer,’ " she said.

"ModCloth is my life’s work and what I’m passionate about, so I hope that we’re able to continue to grow and do new, innovative things."

Sonya Chun: schun@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1944.

Banker’s deflation talk should ring alarms for the

By admin, 3 August, 2010, No Comment

James Bullard has discussed deflation before, but he got more attention than usual when he brought up the subject last week.

Maybe the reaction reflects the strong language that Bullard,Tiffany cuff links, president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, used to describe the risk of a sustained drop in the price level. Or maybe the sluggish economy has made Americans hypersensitive to such danger.

Friday’s report on the gross domestic product certainly did nothing to dispel the fears. The Commerce Department said GDP growth slowed noticeably in the second quarter, and it revised some earlier figures downward. In short, the recession was worse than we thought, and we’re coming out of it more slowly than everyone had expected.

Bullard, in an academic-type paper published Thursday, discussed the risk that the U.S. will wind up like Japan, which has been battling deflation for more than a decade. He says we are "closer to a Japanese-style outcome today than at any time in recent history."

He also thinks the Federal Reserve should be trying to prevent that outcome. He suggests that the Fed stop talking about an "extended period" of low interest rates and instead consider reviving its quantitative easing program.

That’s the program through which the central bank, after pushing short-term interest rates to zero, bought more than $1 trillion of long-term bonds in 2009 and early 2010. Most economists give the effort high marks, saying it helped keep the recession from turning into a depression.

Core inflation, however, is currently running at less than 1 percent a year. That’s dangerously close to zero — and to negative territory. If consumers expect prices to decline over time, they hoard money and delay purchases for as long as they can.

Such deflationary psychology is hard to reverse once it gets started. Therefore, Bullard and others argue, we should do everything possible to keep it at bay.

Scott Colbert,Tiffany bracelets, head of fixed-income investments at Commerce Trust Co. in Clayton, thinks Bullard is right to worry about deflation. Debt-laden consumers, he says, will be tightening their belts for years or even decades.

"It (deflation) has a higher probability than the new inflationary spiral that other people are talking about," Colbert says. "There’s no one right answer, but it is probably going to take some more monetary stimulus and more nontraditional measures to convince people that the Fed is not going to allow asset prices to fall."

Among economy watchers, there’s a wide range of opinion on how ominous the deflation threat is. Most,Tiffany earrings, though, are glad to see a central banker raising the alarm.

"We think the economy is just going through a normal slowdown after a first year of recovery,Tiffany rings," says Gary Thayer, chief macro strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors. "We don’t think deflation is the most likely scenario, and we think the Federal Reserve still has policy options to prevent it."

"Anytime you have debt going bump in the night, deflation is a threat," says Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at New York investment firm BlackRock. "It looms, the Fed needs to know what to do if we go there, but I don’t think we are going there yet."

One thing’s for sure: We don’t want to end up like Japan, which has been unable to shake the deflation that set in after its stock-market and real-estate bubbles burst in the 1990s. If Bullard, who has spent his career building a reputation as an inflation fighter, is worried about deflation, the rest of us should worry, too.

Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited Files Patent Appli

By admin, 3 August, 2010, No Comment

Karan Singh, G Ram and S Pathak of Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited, New Delhi, India have filed patent application for a device with clamping and indexing arrangement and a method for the same for vertical drilling operation on taper surfaces or core press ring of all types of turbo generators.

Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited filed the patent application on Jan. 15, 2009. The patent application number is 84/KOL/2009 A. The international classification number is B23D45/06.

According to the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks, "A device with clamping and indexing arrangement for vertical drilling operation on taper surface of core press ring of all types of turbo generators consists of a T-shape steel plates fabricated base having three threaded holes near each end of three arms of the base on which three rollers are fixed. Three rollers are assembled with each other through universal joints. A gear assembly of three gears is attached to the roller assembly for transmitting the motion of the roller assembly to other rollers. A handle is provided for moving the roller assembly manually. A centering device having three arms and three adjustable bolts holds the ring at its inner diameter and sets it concentric with the device. Three jack screws are provided in the threaded holes for setting the taper of the core ring surface perpendicular to machine spindle axis."

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is an engineering and manufacturing company in the energy-related and infrastructure sector. The Company caters to sectors, including to the power generation and transmission, industry, transportation, renewable energy and defense. It has a network of 14 manufacturing divisions, four power sector regional centers,Tiffany key rings, eight service centers and 15 regional offices, one subsidiary co. joint ventures and a number of project sites spread all over India. BHEL manufactures a range of products and systems for thermal, nuclear, gas and hydro-based utility power plants.

Elke Henschel, Milan Schmahl and Martin Stapper of Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, Munchen, Germany have filed patent application for support ring for heat shield elements of a flame tube and a combustion chamber arrangement with such a support ring.

Siemens Aktiengesellschaft filed the patent application on April 19, 2010. The patent application number is 1367/KOLNP/2010 A. The international classification numbers are F23R 3/00,F23R.

3/60

According to the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks, "A supporting ring for heat shield elements of a flame tube is disclosed,Tiffany Money Clips, wherein at least one groove on the outer side of the support ring The groove has a groove wall running at an angel with relation to the radial direction of the support ring. a combustion chamber arrangement with said support is also disclosed."

Siemens AG (Siemens) is a Germany-based multinational company with a business portfolio of activities in the field of electronics and electrical engineering. The Company has seven business areas: Information and Communications, which consisted of three businesses (devices, enterprise networks and carrier networks); Automation and Control,tiffany, which includes three groups: Automation and Drives, Industrial Solutions and Services, and Siemens Building Technologies; Power, which includes two groups: Power Generation, and Power Transmission and Distribution; Transportation, which includes two groups: Transportation Systems and Siemens VDO Automotive; Medical,Tiffany earrings, which includes the Medical Solutions group; Lighting, which includes the Osram group, and Financing and Real Estate, which includes Siemens Financial Services and Siemens Real Estate. During the fiscal year ended September 30, 2006, the Company acquired Diagnostic Products Corporation. In November 2006, it acquired Kuehnle, Kopp & Kausch.

AACR to Ring Opening Bell at NASDAQ Stock Market

By admin, 3 August, 2010, No Comment

The American Association for Cancer Research issued the following news release:

The American Association for Cancer Research’s Chief Executive Officer, Margaret Foti,Tiffany bangles, Ph.D., M.D. (h.c.), along with other AACR representatives, will ring the opening bell at the NASDAQ Stock Market on Tuesday, August 3, signaling the start of the day’s trading. The ceremony will be broadcast live on a seven-story video tower in New York City’s Times Square, and will stream live on the Internet.

"We are delighted to have this extraordinary opportunity to ring the opening bell of the NASDAQ Stock Market and thereby raise the public’s awareness about the vital role that research plays in saving lives from cancer," said Foti.

"This is an exciting time for cancer research. The pace of cutting-edge breakthroughs in the cancer field is very impressive, but more work needs to be done to bring these discoveries to patients everywhere.

Scientific research is critical to treating and preventing the more than 200 diseases we call cancer, and it is thrilling that we are able to share this important message with the financial community and the public."

NASDAQ is the world’s largest stock exchange company, listing more than 3,600 companies around the globe.

Tune in approximately 9:15 a.m. ET on Tuesday to watch the online stream of the bell ceremony.

Contact: Michele Leiberman,Tiffany rings, 267/646-0622, michele.leiberman@aacr.org

Michele Leiberman,Tiffany Watches, 267/646-0622,tiffany, michele.leiberman@aacr.org

Men’s Engagement Rings Proclaim

By admin, 3 August, 2010, No Comment

WHEN, on a snowy February midnight in Central Park, Bennett Konesni, a farmer and musician on Shelter Island, N.Y., proposed to Edith Gawler, a fiddler and architecture student from Maine, he presented her with two gifts.

The first was what he called an Edophone, a Seussian instrument he’d made from an exhaust vent from a clothes dryer and a hanging flowerpot. When a crank was turned, it played a Swedish wedding melody.

The second was a box containing several rings. Among them, simple copper and more ornate brass bands — two for her and two for him. He had asked Ms. Gawler’s father, a metal millworker, for her hand, and then enlisted his help in making the rings. "I didn’t really know that guys weren’t supposed to have rings," Mr. Konesni, 28, admitted of his decision, however inadvertent, to buck tradition and wear an engagement ring himself.

"In this day and age, we have an equal partnership in this relationship — we’re in it together," he said. "It seemed weird to have an imbalance, to say to Edith, ‘You have to wear a ring to keep those guys away, but I get to go around as if I’ve not made a major life commitment.’ "

Ms. Gawler, 22, who also wears a diamond passed down through Mr. Konesni’s family, thought her fiance’s decision to announce his unavailability along with hers was marvelous.

"I love wearing matching rings," she said. "This way everyone knows we’re a duo."

The number of "mengagements," in which men are symbolically declaring themselves off-limits at the same time as their fiancees, is so small, no one seems to be counting. But it bears noting that some men, whether heterosexual or gay, are proudly displaying ring fingers wrapped in plain and engraved bands, gemstones and even diamonds.

A handful of jewelers, eager to promote any marketable niche, have begun trading on this trend. In early 2009, H. Samuel, the British jeweler, unveiled a line of rings called Tioro. One of them, a titanium and diamond model, starts at about $156 and is billed as "an engagement ring for men, allowing women to propose to their man."

Novori, based in Washington State, offers men’s engagement rings ranging from $405, for a braided white gold band, to $2,895 for a diamond-edged sparkler.

"If you’re planning to propose to your boyfriend, try to find out ahead of time if he’d like a men’s engagement ring," the company’s Web site suggests. "But don’t think for a minute that men’s engagement rings are boring or feminine."

For several days, Katherina K. Y. Hauner carried around a custom-designed band of white gold, inlaid with material from a meteorite, from Metamorphosis Design in California, to place on the finger of her fiance, Joel Voss.

One evening in April, 2009, while they vacationed in the Czech Republic, Ms. Hauner, 32, and Mr. Voss, 30, each pulled rings out of their pockets and proposed simultaneously in Prague.

"We didn’t discuss it beforehand in a lot of details," said Ms. Hauner, who, like Mr. Voss, is a postdoctoral neuroscience researcher in the Chicago area. "There was just this idea that when we got engaged, we both wanted to ask one another and tell each other why we wanted to do this. We wanted to participate in the event equally."

That he, too, would wear a ring seemed only natural to Mr. Voss.

"Why would one person wear a ring and the other not?" he said. "It may seem novel now, but I would hope it’s becoming more normal."

While the arrival of men’s engagement rings may not be the next step in gender equality, it is another sign that male infidelity is becoming less and less acceptable, said Stephanie Coontz, a history professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., and the author of "Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage."

"It’s a logical extension of our increasing rejection of the double standard of sexuality," she said. "We talk a lot about infidelity, but actually infidelity was much more highly approved of among men in the past than it is today. The double standard was so extreme that in the late 18th century we have letters from men bragging to their wife’s brother about activities outside the marriage."

Leading up to her first marriage, in 1974, Barbara Risman didn’t wear an engagement ring.

"I was a very serious second-wave feminist, and at that moment in history any marital tradition that seemed gender-specific seemed prima facie oppressive," said Ms. Risman, 54, who is the head of the sociology department at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

That was then.

Ms. Risman,Tiffany Watches, who was divorced in 1998,Tiffany Sets, is set to marry Randall Liss, 56,Tiffany earrings, an options trader, next spring. Not only does she want to wear an engagement ring, she expects her fiance to wear one, too. The couple have chosen rings from Classic Jewelry in Chicago — hers is a diamond clasped in a tension setting; his is a hammered matte white gold band,Tiffany pendants, inlaid with sapphire — and are awaiting their arrival.

"We both made this commitment, and to be quite frank, it’s just fair," Mr. Liss said. "And it makes me feel good."

In Ms. Risman’s eyes, men’s engagement rings are a signifier of an important convergence that’s happening in marriage and heterosexual relationships: the notion that symbols and roles are about being partners, and that what is done for one should be done for the other.

"The feminist movement and I have matured," she said. "Now there’s a sense that we should look carefully at what the traditions are and reinvent them so that we keep the good part of it and share it."

And, she said, "to me an engagement ring says out loud, in a culturally symbolic way, ‘I found a life partner, I’m happy and I’m connected to another human being.’ And that’s a pretty cool thing to proclaim."

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