Many modern cash registers and POS terminals also allow payments by electronic funds transfer (EFT), such as a debit card or credit card. In this case, the customer has to use a small machine next to the cash register or POS terminal that reads the data from his or her card. Depending on the type of card being used, he or she and might have to enter a personal identification number (PIN) to confirm the transaction. Many debit and credit cards now have a feature called contactless payment, which allows the user to simply tap his or her card on the reader to pay, making it quicker than other methods such as a chip or magnetic stripe. It uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, which is compatible with near field communication (NFC) that is built into many mobile phones. Companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft have all made NFC-based mobile payment systems for platforms like iOS, Android, and Windows.
In the 2010s, there is a type of POS terminal that is operated by the customer, rather than a cashier. With this self-checkout, the customer scans the items he or she wishes to buy, and then pays by inserting cash or a credit card. These types of checkouts still have someone to look after them, in case any customer needs help.
Besides retail, the hospitality industry also makes use of cash registers and POS systems. Depending on where the system is used, they usually work differently from those in retail. For example, a restaurant cash register has to store information about every order, such as who ordered what from each table, whether the bill should be split or not, and whether a tip is added. Another example is in hotels, where a cash register has to store information about every room, such as who has booked the room, for how long, and what extra services are needed.
2010 United Kingdom general election
The 2010 United Kingdom General Election was an election held on 6 May 2010 to elect 650 members to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The three party leaders are shown below.
The election resulted in a hung parliament, where no political party has an overall majority of seats. This is the first time this has happened since 1974.
The Conservative Party won 307 out of the 650 seats available making them the largest party in the House of Commons. A coalition was then formed between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats who together had enough seats for a majority. This is the first coalition government in the United Kingdom since World War II.
The Leader of the Conservative Party David Cameron became Prime Minister of the United Kigdom on 11 May 2010 and the leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg became the Deputy Prime Minister. Before the election, the Leader of the Labour Party Gordon Brown was the Prime Minister.
This was the first British general election where the leaders of the three main parties took part together in a series of debates for television. The first debate was shown on ITV and was moderated by Alastair Stewart. It was on the subject of domestic affairs and polls taken after the debate showed that most people thought Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg had done the best and the Liberal Democrats then saw a large rise in support in opinion polls, even beating Labour for second place behind the Conservatives.
The second debate, on the subject of Foreign Affairs was shown on Sky News and was moderated by Adam Boulton. Polls after this debate showed that Nick Clegg and David Cameron had done best with Gordon Brown slightly behind. The third and final debate was shown on BBC One and was moderated by David Dimbleby. It was on the subject of the economy and taxes and most opinion polls indicated that David Cameron had performed the best out of the three leaders.
The Conservative Party gained support from the following newspapers: the "Daily Express", the "Daily Mail", the "Sun", the "Daily Telegraph", the "Times", the "Daily Star", the "Evening Standard", the "Financial Times", "Sunday Express", the "Mail on Sunday", the "News of the World", the "Sunday Telegraph" and the "Sunday Times". The Liberal Democrats were supported by: the "Guardian", the "Observer" and the "Independent". Only the "Daily Mirror" and the "Sunday Mirror" supported the Labour Party and the "People" newspaper favoured a coalition.
This election saw the Conservative Party return to government for the first time since 1997 and also saw the Liberal Democrats get their first ever representation in government. Peter Robinson, the First Minister of Northern Ireland and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party unexpectedly lost his seat to the Alliance Party. The Green Party of England and Wales gained its first ever seat in the House of Commons and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland gained its first seat in the House of Commons since 1974. Former Labour Party Home Secretaries Jacqui Smith and Charles Clarke both lost their seats. The Ulster Unionist Party and the Respect Party won seats in the 2005 General Election but lost their seats in the 2010 Election.
The final results of the election were:
The seat of North Down was won by an Independent candidate and the seat of Buckingham was won by the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, who is not considered to be of any political party.
Gabbi Tuft
Gabbi Alon Tuft (born Gabriel Allan Tuft; November 1, 1978 in San Francisco, California) is an American retired professional wrestler who is best known for working for WWE where he competed under the ring name Tyler Reks. He wrestled on their Raw, SmackDown and ECW brands. During his time in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), Tuft was a one-time FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion and a one-time FCW Florida Tag Team Champion with Johnny Curtis.
Tuft debuted on ECW and was also in a pre-show battle royal at WrestleMania XXVI which was won by Yoshi Tatsu. Recently Tuft was on Team SmackDown at the 2010 version of Bragging Rights when they won the trophy for the second time in a row.
He asked to be released from his WWE contract on August 21, 2012 because he wanted to retire from professional wrestling and spend more time with his family.
Assigned male at birth, Gabbi Tuft publicly came out as a trans woman in February 2021.
Blake Griffin
Blake Austin Griffin (born March 16, 1989) is an American basketball player. He is a power forward for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Griffin played college basketball for two years at the University of Oklahoma, then decided to enter the NBA Draft.
In the 2009 NBA Draft, the Clippers chose him with the first pick. However, Griffin broke a kneecap during the preseason and missed the entire 2009-2010 season. He finally played his first regular season NBA game on October 27, 2010. Griffin scored 20 points and had 14 rebounds, although the Clippers lost to the Portland Trail Blazers, 98-88.
Griffin quickly became known as a hard working player and a good dunker. He was chosen to be in the slam dunk contest during the 2011 NBA All-Star Weekend, and was also chosen to play in the 2011 NBA All-Star Game.
Hedge
A hedge or hedgerow is a close-knit row of shrubs and sometimes tree species. They were usually planted and "trained" to form a barrier. They marked the boundary of an area, and so were a sign of possession.
Livestock farmers use them to prevent cattle straying out of fields. Animals which cannot usually be contained in fields (hill sheep for example) need a man and dog to look after them, which is an expense. Hedges were much more common before modern agriculture. Modern crop farming uses machines to gather the crop, and so hedges have all but disappeared in some areas.
When hedges are first laid, they are usually all of one species. But over hundreds of years, the number of species in a hedge gradually increases, and often includes fully-grown trees. There are many hedges in Europe which have been there for 500 or a thousand years.